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Factors influencing ERP implementation in retail sector: an empirical study from India
|
[
"Enterprise resource planning (ERP)",
"Retail",
"Cause-and-effect diagrams"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: Enterprise resource planning (ERP) has become a key business driver in today's world. An ERP system is a software architecture that connects information among the different functions of an enterprise, when implemented successfully. The different organizational silos (which often function separately irrespective of dependencies) are then able to use the flow of seamless integration of information and utilize it to present an enterprise-wide \"big picture\" to the decision makers. This enables the decision-making process to be timely, consistent and reliable across organizational units and geographical locations. The hallmark of a successful ERP implementation lies in the long-term efficiencies (increased productivity and speed of execution) that are gained due to information integration underpinned by elimination of redundant information and resulting cost savings. Over the past few years, firms around the world have implemented ERP systems since the use of ERP has been considered as a major determinant to gain competitive advantage. ERP is a suite of application modules that can link back-office operations to front-office operations as well as internal and external supply chains (Yang and Su, 2009). Considering the benefits mentioned previously, it is easy to see why ERP systems are accepted to be one of the most significant developments in the world and also the most accepted standard business software of the last decade (Muscatello and Chen, 2008). For effective business communication with their customers, vendors and suppliers they need to adopt to the data formats that the global organizations use. Also, they need to meet the compliance requirement of their customers' countries. This is possible if there is a seamless flow of information across the organization (Soja, 2006). It has been observed that the effective implementation of such a system in retail segment can bring about many benefits. The most generalized ones being, cost reduction, productivity and quality improvement, better resource management, improved decision-making and planning, and organizational empowerment (Federici, 2009; Kamhawi, 2008).\n2. Theoretical background and literature review: In retail-based business, integration of the various business functions is an essential prerequisite. A numbers of retail chains in India have already invested in ERP system to improve their businesses. Retail chain in India heavily rely on ERP to track the supply chain, financial process, inventory, sales and distribution, overall visibility of the consumer across every channel and take customer centricity to a new level. However, many retailers in India are still using various islands of automation which are not integrated with each other to manage their core business functions. This strategy can results in somewhat lower levels of effectiveness and efficiency. Implementation of ERP systems is a highly complex process which is influenced not only by technical, but also by many other factors. Hence, in order to safeguard the success of ERP implementation it becomes imperative for the retailers to get a deeper insight into the factors which influence the ERP implementation.\n3. Research model and hypothesis: According to the purpose of this study and factors identified from cause-and-effect diagram (Figure 1), the following theoretical research framework and hypotheses was developed and shown in Figure 2.\n4. Research methodology: This investigation is a theory-building exploratory study to identify and validate the relationship between factors that influence ERP implementation and the success of ERP implementation in Indian retail sector. The study used survey technique in order to understand the influencing factors of ERP implementation in this sector. This study was based on empirical data collected through a survey from practitioner like project sponsors, project managers, implementation consultants and team members who were involved in ERP implementation in retail sector. To facilitate the distribution of the questionnaire, a small web application was developed to make the questionnaire available and to capture responses. The key reasons for using a web-based system were the fact that it was the easiest way for both surveyors (us) to engage experts and the experts to respond quickly. The other reason was it was low cost technique. The questionnaire URL and a letter on sampled subjects were e-mailed. The experts were asked to respond via e-mail or fax within two weeks. An auto generated reminder e-mail was sent to the non-respondents two weeks after the questionnaires were e-mailed. After constant reminder, 215 questionnaires were received. The filled questionnaires were reviewed and 40 questionnaires were omitted due to incomplete details. Therefore 175 questionnaires were used for analysis. Before the distribution of the questionnaire, pilot study was conducted to ensure its reliability. The data were tested using the SPSS software 17.0.\n5. Data analysis and results: 5.1 Instrument development and validation\n6. Result, discussion and recommendations: The findings from this study shows that the four factors, namely Strategic, Technological, People and Project management together explained 79.7 percent of the variance in the ERP implementation success in Indian retail sector.\n7. Conclusion, limitations and further direction of research: This study has succeeded to examine the influence of factors (identified from cause-and-effect diagram) on the ERP implementation success. This research presents several interesting findings. First of all, this study has contributed to academic research by producing the empirical evidence to support the theories of influencing factor and ERP implementation success. The research has empirically verified that Strategic, Technological, People and Project management factors are positively influencing ERP implementation success. Second, the results are largely consistent with prior studies conducted in other developed countries. Despite the useful findings of this empirical study, it has some limitations that need to be highlighted:\n",
"role": "user"
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{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to explore the factors influencing the enterprise resource planning (ERP) implementation success in Indian retail sector. Additionally, the study also addresses the relationship between factors that influence ERP implementation and the success of ERP implementation empirically. Strategic, Technological, People and Project management are the examined factors.\nDesign/methodology/approach: Empirical data were collected through survey questionnaire from practitioner like project sponsors, project managers, implementation consultants and team members who were involved in ERP implementation in retail sector.\nFindings: The results of the study has empirically verified that Strategic, Technological, People and Project management factors are positively influencing ERP implementation success. All four hypotheses were supported by results of the study.\nPractical implications: This study will provide valuable insights to researchers, practicing managers and those who are planning to implement ERP in retail organization.\nOriginality/value: Very few empirical studies have been performed to investigate the influencing factor of ERP implementation and types of relationships between factors that influence ERP implementation and the success of ERP implementation in Indian retail sector. This study examines how Strategic, Technological, People, and Project management factors are influencing ERP implementation success in retail sector of India. Therefore, the research can make a useful contribution.\n",
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] |
Effect of long-term orientation on voluntary security actions
|
[
"Hofstede",
"Information security",
"Planned behavior",
"Long term orientation",
"Account access management",
"Password managers"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: The password remains one of the primary defense mechanisms used to protect our digital data. For a variety of reasons, however, individuals often use poor password management practices such as reusing passwords across multiple websites or using generally weak passwords (CSID, 2012; Ofcom, 2015). Furthermore, cybercriminals specifically target individual passwords to gain access to both personal and corporate information resources, which amplifies the detrimental impact of poor password management practices (Beardsley et al., 2016). In organizations, corporate IT departments often mandate the use of strong passwords and require frequent password modifications on internal systems, but individuals have accounts on many other websites (i.e. banks, personal email accounts and social media accounts) outside the organization's control. At these other websites, individuals often do not change their relatively weak passwords for extended periods of time (if ever) (Florencio and Herley, 2007; Liu et al., 2018). As a result, many individuals have a single password for multiple websites, which is highly problematic, especially if the password is relatively weak (Choong and Theofanos, 2015; Stobert and Biddle, 2014).\n2. Theoretical foundations: The existing research has relied on a number of theories such as psychological capital, general deterrence theory (GDT), the theory of planned behavior (TPB), protection motivation theory (PMT) and rational choice theory to explain the variability in information security-related behaviors (Aurigemma, 2013; Crossler et al., 2013). There are pros and cons associated with each one of these theoretical approaches. Therefore, under a given set of circumstances we can make a valid argument to use each one of them. Furthermore, there is no consensus among behavioral information security researchers as to which theory is the most appropriate to use for a specific situation, sample, and security-related action. For instance, the GDT may be more appropriate for mandatory information security actions whereas the TPB or PMT may be more appropriate for voluntary security actions. In this paper, the TPB is used because it is a parsimonious theory where the core paths are typically statistically significant with an average to above average amount of explained variance in a variety of information security contexts (Aurigemma and Mattson, 2017; Bulgurcu et al., 2010; Dinev and Hu, 2007; Guo et al., 2011; Ifinedo, 2014; Siponen et al., 2014).\n3. Research model: The LTO cultural dimension was developed specifically to address cross-cultural differences in decision-making (Hofstede, 2001), which makes it a logical extension to the decision oriented TPB. The core idea behind this cultural dimension is that groups of people are socialized to have differing desires in terms of sacrificing time, money and effort today for potential future success (Cannon et al., 2010). Cultures that have a longer term orientation value persistence more than immediate results, while cultures that have a shorter term orientation value immediate results and relatively instant gratification (Hofstede, 2001). Previous literature has demonstrated that longer term orientation is positively correlated with being innovative and proactive and negatively correlated with risk taking (Cannon et al., 2010; Vitell et al., 2015; Vitell et al., 1993).\n4. Research design and method: To empirically test the potential impact of an individual's LTO on taking a voluntary information security action (adopting a password manager) in the context of the TPB, a sequential two-part study of the voluntary adoption (or non-adoption) of a password manager application (LastPass) was conducted. The LastPass password manager application was used because it is a free[1] and well-respected password management application that uses industry-accepted encryption techniques to protect users' account credentials. All of the data in LastPass are secured with AES-256 bit encryption, salted SHA-256 hashing and PBKDF2 key stretching whereby even LastPass employees cannot view a user's login credentials. Part 1 of the study consisted of presenting all of the subjects with a generic video message about password managers (what they are, what problem they solve, and why they are important) followed by a survey that captured self-reported perceptions of the core TPB constructs including each subject's self-reported behavioral intention to adopt (voluntarily) the LastPass password manager. At this stage of the study, Hofstede's LTO dimension of national culture for each one of our survey participants was also measured. The content and video format of the message was developed and refined through a series of three pilot studies conducted with 16 management information systems (MIS) students in an introductory information security course. The participants in the pilot studies were a mix of 50 per cent American and 50 per cent international students of which only three had prior working knowledge of password managers.\n5. Results: CBSEM analysis consists of two parts:\n6. Discussion and conclusion: The prior behavioral information security literature has discovered many important factors such as fear, self-efficacy, attitudes, habits and norms that influence an individual's propensity to adopt voluntary information security controls (Anderson and Agarwal, 2010; Boss et al., 2015; Johnston and Warkentin, 2010). In general, many of the papers in this stream of literature make the implicit or explicit assumption that their theorized relationships will be broadly generalizable (Johnston and Warkentin, 2010; Siponen and Tsohou, 2018). That is, much of the prior literature speculates or assumes that their reported findings will be robust to individuals across different cultures, genders, socio-economic backgrounds and educational levels.\n",
"role": "user"
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{
"content": "Purpose: This paper aims to examine the impact an individual's long-term orientation (a cultural dimension) has on their attitude, behavioral intention and actual voluntary security actions taken in the context of the dangers related to poor account access management.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The paper relied upon survey data and actual usage information from a culturally diverse sample of 227 individuals who were introduced to the specific security problem and the accepted solution of using a password manager application.\nFindings: The paper provides empirical evidence that the effect of positive attitudes increased when individuals were more long-term oriented, but the effect was reversed for average/negative attitudes toward the voluntary security behavior. Furthermore, participants with high long-term orientation and strong positive attitudes toward the security action actually adopted password manager applications 57 per cent more than the average adoption rate across the sample.\nResearch limitations/implications: Due to the research approach (survey data), security context and sample population, the research results may lack generalizability.\nPractical implications: The findings suggest that security awareness messaging and training should account for differences in long-term orientation of the target audience and integrate the distinctly different types of messages that have been shown to improve an individual's participation in voluntary security actions.\nOriginality/value: The paper addresses previous research calls for examining possible cultural differences that impact security behaviors and is the only study that has focused on the impact of long-term orientation, specifically on voluntary security actions.\n",
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] |
Shadow credit in the middle market: the decade after the financial collapse
|
[
"Credit",
"Collateral",
"Underwriting",
"Risk",
"Shadow banking",
"Financial innovation"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: 1.1 Shadow banking system and shadow credit market\n2. Shadow credit market growth and segmental features: We first chart the growth in the entire SBS in recent years. Concurrent with rapid developments in financial innovation and technology in the USA, as well as a favorable financing environment, the global shadow banking system (the \"GSBS\") experienced substantial expansion in the 2002-2014 period, increasing in size from $30.0tn in 2002 to $79.8tn in 2014. According to the Financial Stability Board (the \"FSB\"), shadow banking tends to take off, in particular, when strict banking regulations are in place, when real interest rates and yield spreads are low and investors search for higher returns and when there is a large institutional demand for assets, for example from insurance companies and pension funds. Hence, the current environment in advanced economies seems conducive to further growth of shadow banking.\n3. Nature of shadow credit innovation: So what is really driving the SBS growth outlined in Section 2? As has been postulated and shown, regulatory arbitrage is often a great driver of innovation in finance, and we have seen the influence of regulatory arbitrage increasingly in the post crisis SBS. Knoll (2004, p. 49) stated, \"There is a strong incentive to innovate around prohibited or disadvantaged transactions. Such innovations are commonly referred to as regulatory arbitrage.\" Since the 2007-2008 credit crisis, we have seen innovation in the capital markets, and in particular in the shadow banking sector, driven by a desire by innovative financiers to work around or \"arbitrage\" the excess regulatory burden on the depositary institutions. Some of these regulatory burdens are just the sheer volume of rules and paperwork imposed on depositaries that wish to lend to areas outside of the most conventional forms of conforming, prime mortgages. But, interestingly, it is not only simple regulatory arbitrage at work. The arbitrage often involves specific forms of capital constraints imposed on the depositary institutions since the credit crisis.\n4. Recent case studies: We consider now some additional examples of the very latest financial models that have been empirically observed in the middle market shadow credit area. These examples complement those shown in our previous research on the SBS in the USA (Zabala and Josse, 2014).\n5. The aftermath of the post-crisis private, shadow banking sector: Various issues in shadow banking pre-2007 have been addressed by post-crisis regulation as well as greater market discipline. Collateralized debt obligations (\"CDOs\") today have been greatly simplified with better quality and without overly complex cohorts of underlying collateral, the credit rating agencies are no longer \"in the pocket\" of the issuers/originators, and tranching structures of new issues have been simplified. Likewise, the issue of counterparty failure with credit default swaps (\"CDS\"), as we saw in the AIG case, is being addressed by establishing centralized clearing organizations for all CDS products. These events were forewarned (Partnoy, 2009, 2003/2009; Skeel and Partnoy, 2007).\n6. Regulatory initiatives and concerns: The important role of regulatory oversight has been discussed in many places (Mayntz, 2012; Zabala, 2013; Zabala and Josse, 2014; Kastner, 2016). See Barth and Miller (2017) for an excellent analysis of bank regulation, capital adequacy standards and the Basel Capital Accords. Barth and Wihlborg (2017) discussed the importance of separating traditional investment banking from commercial banking as well as other organizational restrictions to reduce complexity and increase transparency. The FSB has adopted a two-pronged strategy to deal with SBS risk. First, it has created a system-wide monitoring framework to track developments in the SBS with a view to identifying the build-up of systemic risks and initiating corrective actions. Second, the FSB is coordinating and contributing to the development of policy measures in five areas where oversight and regulation may be required to reduce the excessive build-up of leverage, as well as maturity and liquidity mismatching: mitigating risks in banks' interactions with shadow banking entities, reducing the susceptibility of MMFs to \"runs\" (Cipriani et al., 2013), improving transparency and aligning incentives in securitization, dampening pro-cyclicality and other financial stability risks in securities financing transactions such as repurchase agreements and securities lending and assessing and mitigating financial stability risks posed by shadow banking entities and activities.\n7. New horizons for research: The SCM will require further research into areas examined by Barth and Miller (2017) and Barth and Wihlborg (2017). We are investigating an analytical model that more accurately describes the size and growth patterns of the shadow lending market. The model is based on the central assumption of this paper that as banks become increasingly regulated, they have an increasing disincentive to lend, and, thus, the SCM grows. We are estimating a database of a large numbers of banks that shows how high capital ratios, high liquidity ratios and low nonperforming loan ratios result in constrained lending. Less lending by depository institutions may be self-imposed following shocks in the banking system, or a result of more aggressive bank regulation and higher capital charges imposed on banking activity. Broadly speaking, both factors (self-imposed caution and regulation) depress lending since the 2008 credit crisis and lead to SCM growth to fill the lending demand in the economy. This may be a fruitful line of inquiry for our next paper.\n8. Summary: This research provides further evidence that regulatory and financial market changes over the past 20-plus years, especially since 2007, have created a significant supply-demand imbalance in the availability of capital for US middle market companies, particularly those with revenues and market capitalizations under $250m (the lower quadrant). A continuous process of expansion, product extension and underwriting criteria in credit products characterizes the development of the SBS. The market has continued its expansion in the past year and a half.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to review the continued development of the \"shadow banking\" market in the USA, namely, lending to the private middle market, defined as financings of $5-100m to non-public, unrated operating entities or pools of assets with not more than $50m in earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The analysis includes a continued review of an innovative segment of the financial markets and primary evidence from direct participation in four actual cases of private, non-bank lending between 2013 and 2015 and theoretical observations around that data.\nFindings: Although there have been considerable challenges, historically, in providing credit for small and mid-sized businesses in the USA, the authors show further evidence that private middle market capital is growing (post credit crisis) at a dramatic pace, in part because of excessive constraints placed on the regulated depositary institutions. The authors also explain the nature of the shadow banking innovation and how it is intrinsically linked to \"arbitraging\" often excessively restrictive banking regulation. The growing US shadow banking market, while providing an important service to middle market companies, may pose a new systemic risk post 2007-2008 credit crisis in the USA.\nResearch limitations/implications: Any generalization is limited because of the difficulty in extrapolating from a small number of specific case studies and the absence of adequate survey data for the US capital markets and the limited examples examined.\nPractical implications: This research calls for additional case studies, including participant observation research that offers a unique close-up view of financial behavior that is often beyond the view of regulators and the public. Data obtained may be useful in providing a deeper, more timely understanding of credit market behavior and contribute to efforts at formal financial modeling as well as the development of practical regulatory regimes.\nSocial implications: The shadow credit market is a key source of funding for the global financial system, thus contributing to job creation and economic growth. The authors demonstrate the value of financial innovations and show that shadow credit fills a void left by depository financial institutions, shifting much of the risk from the public to investors. This research increases transparency in the operation of this market, which is extremely important for the industry, the government and the public. The authors offer a modest attempt at understanding credit behavior to avoid a repeat of the 2007/2008 financial crisis.\nOriginality/value: Direct participation is unique to the firms studied. Value is in developing a general framework to analyze an emerging credit market in advanced economies.\n",
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The role of accounting in mediating empathic care for the "other"
|
[
"Empathy",
"Emotion",
"Social accounting",
"Proximity",
"Care-ethics"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: The power of accounting to tell a story of organisational activities lies in its ability to trace and assemble transactions through time and space, to produce periodic corporate public financial reports. By representing activities and events in financial terms, accounting creates images about people, places, organisations and events which enter people's consciousness, then thought about and acted upon. For example, managers use accounting information to allocate organisational resources, in turn, used by investors and other interested parties to render managers accountable for their decisions. The characteristics of accounting that include neutrality, relevance and reliability, imply representational accuracy in measuring the economic reality of organisational transactions. Representational accuracy is assumed because accounting is conceived as a process embedded in financial economics, premised on rules and procedures performing technical tasks for the objective determination of economic facts (Williams, 2002). When accounting is seen as a verifiable procedural technology, the numerical view of accounting is equated with objectivity analogous to instruments for scientific measurement such as a thermometer (Morgan, 1988; Williams, 2002; Power, 2004). The accounting profession reinforces the perception of precision with protocols derived from conceptual frameworks of financial reporting endorsed by standard setting agencies professed to act in the public interest. One unfortunate side-effect of accounting as a procedural technology is its capacity to deny the social aspects of business activities when accounting processes are separated from its social framework. Importantly, accounting as a procedural technology diminishes a manager's ethical ideal by disconnecting managers from the effects of organisational practice when accounting dwells predominantly on technical matters and organisational performance rather than organisational impacts. The discussion in this paper will highlight how conventional accounting fails to alert managers to the detriment created by organisational practice when the calculative practices of accounting alter the capacity of managers to feel or express empathy for people, places and consequences.\n2. Objectification and the dehumanised other: Objectification in everyday language is a pejorative term used to depict how people express criticism or scepticism on socially objectionable issues (Nussbaum, 1995). On a human level, objectification occurs when people are denied their autonomy and treated as objects or tools to serve the purposes of others. When controllers treat their objects as a means to an end, the object becomes interchangeable with other objects and used for personal gain like something that is owned and consumed. At its core, objectification treats people as inanimate objects devoid of human or spiritual values that question the morality of their instrumental treatment (Nussbaum, 1995). Accounting plays a role in objectification when people and places are depicted in quantitative terms diminishing one's capacity to ethically evaluate or empathise with the persons depicted in accounting. For example, at the level of the organisation, workers are objectified when they are measured and valued according to their labour power as a production input. When this occurs, workers lose their intrinsic value and are seen by executives as possessing only a contingent value measured in economic terms. A worker's worth as a human being, becomes associated with the amount of wealth they can produce for the firm (Chwastiak, 1999). Consider the classic case of a business decision to relocate a plant to a low labour-cost jurisdiction. Such decisions are evaluated based on the efficacy of the decision to enhance the economic efficiency and productivity of the business, ultimately measured as changes in shareholder value. The identity of the worker dismissed or displaced when a plant is closed is recast as a production input, evaluated in terms of an economic efficiency ratio and classified as excess capacity (Dillard and Ruchala, 2005). Even where concern could be expressed by re-training or redeploying employees, these initiatives are invariably susceptible to budgetary constraints or management discretion (Roslender and Stevenson, 2009). As stated by Williams (2002), financial accounting captures the impacts on providers of capital but not the consequences for the managed.\n3. A call to empathic care: The examples highlighted above represent the harsh reality of real-world instances showing how objectification and dehumanisation facilitated by accounting and bureaucratic protocols reduces peoples' capacity to experience empathy for the distressed. Accounting processes allow little scope for emotion, particularly when accounting separates managers from the consequences of their decisions. Feelings are mentioned only to the extent that emotions are refuted because they defy the properties of objectivity and rationality. Presently the notions of care, empathy and emotion are deemphasised in the traditions of accounting that stress objectivity and arm's length relationships. The regulatory response in dealing with corporate indiscretions only reinforces moral indifference by extending spatial distance between key actors. For example, when familiarity is seen as complicit in large and unexpected corporate failures, the principle of objectivity is brought to the fore with changes to rules, laws and codes of ethics to enhance and reinforce \"independence\", particularly in auditor and director relationships. The problem with independence, in the context of this paper, is that it extends the psychological distance between key agents reducing the capacity for managers and accountants to reason with empathy and demonstrate care. Independence is intended to alleviate decision makers from influences that challenge objective judgement, however, Reiter (1996), in her affirmation of care-ethics in accounting, argued that the rules of independence downgrade care relationships creating ambivalence between key stakeholders. The discussion below combines the literatures of care-ethics, empathy and proximity to give prominence in the way executives may relate to their stakeholders and the way accounting may express the plight of the other.\n4. Connected accounting: The call for care and empathy with accounting playing an intermediary role is not totally new, it is historically present in various and diverse forms of accounting captured under the broader umbrella of the social accounting project where stakeholder concerns are prevalent. At the heart of the social accounting is to create new disciplinary spaces by searching for \"alternative\" ways of reporting of which Gray (2002) refers to as \"new accountings\" (e.g. social responsibility accounting, social audits, reporting community activities and environmental reporting). One of the most systematically developed areas of social accounting is environmental accounting disclosures. This research is driven by questions of accountability and whether reporting of this nature can affect a transition towards a sustainable future. However, consistent with the themes of this paper, the amoralization of environmental concerns renders managers unable to connect to the environment in moral or emotional ways because their moral sensibilities are narrowed and blocked from making an emotional connection (Crane, 2000; Baker, 2010). Connected accounting builds on the principles of the social accounting project in which stakeholders matter, however, rather than promote stakeholder engagement or accountability in the development of alternative accountings, connected accounting is concerned with making a cognitive empathic connection between managers and latent stakeholders when harm and consequences are accounted for and reported. Connected accounting attempts to enhance individual consciousness and transform managers to care when they are induced to feel empathy towards stakeholders affected by decisions led by and disclosed in accounting reports. To the extent that connected accounting engenders emotions, it can alter cognitive processes by shaping perceptions, memories and judgements to address the emotion-eliciting event (Ahmed, 2015). When combined with the cognitive awareness of culpability for that person's distress, the emotional response is likely to be one of heightened guilt (Cohen, 2010).\n5. Conclusion: The allure of care-ethics and empathy in business is that it promises moral recognition conferred on executives by providing the foundations to develop socially responsible organisations. As suggested by Baker (2010), divorcing social and responsible organisational behaviour from the demands of profitability and the pervasive effects of financial accountability towards shareholders is difficult. Thus, empathy is considered in this paper an essential quality in the development of connectedness between organisations and their stakeholders. Connected accounting in turn offers a new form of communication relying on compassion and concern for stakeholders, principles underling care-ethics. The task of connected accounting is to respond to individuals through proximity with whom managers have a valuable and close relationship. In the plight of displaced workers, connected accounting gives merit to the phrase \"people are our greatest asset\" providing an opportunity to account for people using indicators shaped by their needs and impacts rather than some form of financial accounting measure. In sum, this paper explores the implications of accounting operating at polar ends of a continuum where at one end is decontextualised accounting powered by conventional accounting technology and at the other end is connected accounting where organisational activities are reported in its context. This paper is both theoretical and normative in that it challenges the conventional wisdom underlying current financial reporting practices to embrace care and empathy so that latent stakeholders come to the fore in organisational reporting.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: This paper hypothesizes that a system of accounting underpinned by attributions of harm has the capacity, more than conventional accounting, to elicit empathic concern among managers, by becoming the mediating link between organisational responsibility and concern for the \"other\".\nDesign/methodology/approach: The literature-inspired reflections presented in this paper stem from the theoretical perspective of care-ethics supported by the notions of empathy and proximity to highlight how the propensity to empathise is mediated by attributions of harm and responsibility.\nFindings: The proposed \"new\" accounting, coined \"connected accounting\" is proposed because of its potential to make visible the neglected and marginalised segments of society that presently lie hidden in conventional accounting. Accounting for the effects of organisational practice on people and society is expected to strengthen the care-ethic relationship between key actors - managers, accountants and stakeholders.\nResearch limitations/implications: The paper is limited by the assumptions that underpin the conceptualised notion of \"Connected Accounting\".\nOriginality/value: This essay introduces to the accounting ethics literature the role of emotion and empathic care in accounting, including sociological aspects of accounting reflecting the ongoing quest for understanding the processes and consequences of accounting as a social practice.\n",
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Validation of organizational innovation as a creative learning process
|
[
"Innovation",
"Change agent",
"Legitimacy",
"Validation of management innovation"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: There is no shortage of research into the antecedents, processes and outcomes of various forms of creativity and innovation, such as technological innovation (Henderson and Clark, 1990; Utterback, 1994), service innovation (Gallouj and Weinstein, 1997; Natti et al., 2014), strategic innovation (Hamel, 1998; Markides, 1997) and management innovation (Birkinshaw et al., 2008; Mol and Birkinshaw, 2009; Volberda et al., 2013; Damanpour and Aravind, 2012). Underlying most of these research studies is the assumption that innovation refers to the processes and products that result from the intentional efforts of individuals, teams or organizations to develop and introduce new and improved ways of doing things (Anderson et al., 2014; Bledow et al., 2009). For some researchers, this process of developing and introducing new procedures, practices and products is understood as consisting of two stages: the creativity stage of novel and useful ideas, and the subsequent stage relating to the activities required to implement these ideas (Amabile, 1996; Shalley et al., 2004; Anderson et al., 2014; Damanpour and Aravind, 2012; Rasmussen and Hall, 2016). The conceptual separation between idea generation and implementation is based on the premise that both activities require different types of psychological features, dispositions and organizational resources. This sequential thinking that once an idea is created, its implementation is regarded as execution that lacks creativity, has been a moot point. Researchers argue that the process of innovation \"does not always proceed as a linear sequence of activities from motivation through to theorization and labeling\", but rather that it is an iterative process (Birkinshaw et al., 2008, p. 839). It begins with a problematic situation that causes dissatisfaction with the status quo (typically inside the organization) and the search for inspiration from others (typically outside the company). Then, it proceeds to the invention phase (the creation of the idea), which is then followed by a process of validation both inside and outside the company. And finally, diffusion of the innovation to other units in the organization or other organizations takes place (Birkinshaw et al., 2008). Two salient sets of activities seem to emerge from this model: the first set involves intra-individual, cognitive processes (dissatisfaction with the status quo and the search for inspiration) and the second pertains to inter-individual, social processes (Anderson et al., 2014), concerning validation and diffusion. The two types of activities are intertwined and mutually dependent, and the dynamics of their interaction yield superior performance and higher customer satisfaction (Bledow et al., 2009; Gilson et al., 2005). Because much research has focused on the assumingly creative stage, our knowledge of the validation, adoption and implementation stage has remained limited (Damanpour and Schneider, 2006; Peeters et al., 2014; Rasmussen and Hall, 2016). Thus, the present paper aims to submit the idea that validation, in particular, is a creative process that has the potential to define the degree of novelty of the innovation as a whole. We focus on the validation process as the main element out of the others (such as adoption and implementation) because innovation involves some degree of risk, therefore in need of legitimacy, internally (by employees and management) and or externally (by customers and other stakeholders). Such activities are geared toward marshalling demonstrable evidence of the benefits of the innovation, eliminating potential concerns and reducing skepticism that the recipients of the innovation may have. We seek to contribute to the limited knowledge in this area by showing how the validation process is primarily an exploratory learning process as it requires efforts from credibility worthy champions (we call them change agents) to change the beliefs of sceptics and achieve legitimacy, and drive the change ensuing from an invention. In the validation process, agents are engaged in a search for new knowledge internally and/or externally - knowledge they will use to gain acceptance and pragmatic, cognitive and cultural legitimacy (Suchman, 1995). To illustrate and substantiate these claims, we use material elicited from three companies that have successfully introduced innovations with varying degree of novelty. The empirical material is analyzed in the light of our theoretical assumptions, which are developed in the next section. Before that, an outline of the paper is in order. In Section 2, we present a preliminary theoretical framework, rooted in the literature of innovation and knowledge management. Then in Section 3, we provide an account of the research method used in this study. In Section 4, we present our findings, followed by the analysis and discussion in Section 5. Finally, in Section 6, we conclude with a discussion of the theoretical and practical implications and offer some suggestions for future research directions.\n2. Theoretical background: One of the pervasive themes in research on organizational innovation is the premise that innovation is characterized by challenges, paradoxes, tensions and contradictions (Bledow et al., 2009). In this regard, innovation is a goal-oriented activity intended to redress tension encountered by employees and managers in their everyday activities. Birkinshaw and Mol (2006) and Hamel (2006) exemplify \"tension\" as dissatisfaction with the status quo, emanating from an organizational problem. The cause of dissatisfaction includes issues ranging from impending strategic to nagging operational tensions that employees or managers encounter. Dissatisfaction can be understood in terms of a future threat, a current problem or a means to avoid crisis. When managers or employees are challenged to resolve an emergent problem, they often tend to look for inspiration inside or in other organizations that are viewed more successful. A significant source of inspiration involves consultants, academic researchers and external partners (Birkinshaw et al., 2008). The search for a solution can lead to what Hamel (2006) refers to as the \"Eureka\" moment, when the inventor conceives an invention or the solution to a problem. But this new solution needs to be validated before it is actually adopted and commercialized. To the extent that innovation implies a measure of risk, there is always the need to validate it and justify its benefits - a process that is designed to reducing resistance and increasing its acceptance and adoption. Validation is thus a critical stage and can be perceived as an inter-individual, social process in specific organizational contexts (Rank et al., 2004). Validation can be regarded as a stamp of approval, some form of legitimacy, from internal (management and employees) and/or external, assumingly objective observers (such as customers, academic, consultancy, media organization and other stakeholders). The main purpose of the validation process is not only to generate new knowledge that resolves the difficulties encountered by managers in the commercialization of the created idea, but also to increase the realness of the benefits ensuing from the created idea. In conceptualizing the validation process, we invoke Suchman's (1995) three forms of legitimacy: pragmatic, moral (or cultural) and cognitive. Researchers have treated organizational legitimacy as acceptance of an organization and its actions by its environment, arguing that it is something vital for the organization's survival and success (Singh et al., 1986; Kostova and Zaheer, 1999). However, from our perspective, legitimacy is not only important for the organizations' action in and with regard to the external environmental context, but it is also relevant inside the organization (Kostova and Zaheer, 199, p. 72). Managers and employees inside the organization also require earning legitimacy for introducing new ideas in their organization.\n3. Research method: This study uses case study material collected from three business firms, namely, IndusFMCG, PublicBank and CellularTech. To ensure confidentiality of the case firms under consideration, we have used fictive names. A case study method offers a potentially rich and valuable source of data (Eisenhardt, 1989; Bansal and Corley, 2012), which is believed to be suitable for exploratory studies such as the present one as it allows us to examine closely how the validation of management innovation unfolds (Benbasat et al., 1987; Rasmussen and Hall, 2016). The cases were selected based on the following criteria: first, they offered the possibility to identify and select relevant management innovations, and second, they offered the possibility to deeply understand the interaction between the agent and the organizational setting in relation to the validation of innovation. As it was not possible to monitor validation in real-time, we had to look into the cases retrospectively by enquiring with relevant people. One of the authors of this paper had previously worked at PublicBank, which helped in getting a deep understanding of the case. To allow for generalization, we chose three very different companies. This is consistent with earlier studies on management innovation applying a case study technique (Peeters et al., 2014; Scarbrough et al., 2015; Rasmussen and Hall, 2016). For instance, in PublicBank, activities are highly routinized and stable as it meticulously follows banking compliance standards. This makes management innovations, especially when they emerge, stand out in comparison to such routinized activities. The second case operates in a highly competitive FMCG market - a context that is assumed to be a fostering ground for innovation and improvisation. The third is a start-up in the technology sector, which being a small and new firm, is expected to be dynamic and innovative. This is also consistent with the theoretical sampling technique, in which cases are selected for theory development and not for statistical significance (Eisenhardt, 1989).\n4. Three cases of management innovation: 4.1 Emergence and adoption of management innovation in IndusFMCG\n5. Discussion: The three narratives above depict three ways of validation of the created ideas. In consonance with existing knowledge (Birkinshaw and Mol, 2006; Hamel, 2006), the triggers of innovation stem from a sense of dissatisfaction with, a questioning of the status quo, or a disharmony between the individual, the group or the organization and the task to be performed or implemented. The findings suggest that the process of validation and the implementation of innovative ideas necessarily involve a creative search for new knowledge that not only enables and facilitates its realization, but also shapes the extent to which the innovation is radical or incremental. The findings also reveal that validation of new knowledge is determined by the structural, cognitive and cultural features underlying the relationship between the agent and the source of knowledge, as amplified in the following.\n6. Conclusions and implications: The starting point for this article was that validation of an innovation is an important and creative process. To these ends, we developed a tentative theoretical framework, which we used to analyze three cases in which the validation and implementation (including commercialization) required a creative search for knowledge inside and outside the organization. This study reveals that the inflow of knowledge requires different types of legitimization depending on its source, and the degree of novelty. This study suggests that structurally, cognitively and culturally distant insourced knowledge is likely to be more effective in convincing and validating the created idea. For instance, mobilizing cultural norms (not on a commercial basis) has proven to be effective in validating the use of ash as dishwashing soap. Involving an external testing firm has resulted in a cognitive change in initially doubtful users. A top manager's architectural perspective was instrumental in adding a new pragmatic touch to the usefulness of a suggested new practice.\n",
"role": "user"
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"content": "Purpose: Previous studies on innovation tend to view innovation as consisting of a creative phase of novel and useful ideas, and a non-creative, or at least a less creative phase, as this considered to be the mere implementation and validation of the initially created ideas. In contrast, this paper aims to stress on the significance of the process of validating a new idea as being a creative, learning, exploratory process that shapes the degree of novelty of the innovation as a whole.\nDesign/methodology/approach: In driving this argument, this study deductively builds on a theoretical pre-understanding derived from extant literature related to management innovation and organizational legitimacy, and inductively draws on information gleaned from three in-depth case studies.\nFindings: The study shows that the validation phase in the innovation process is a creative process, rather than just being a set of activities that relate to the mere execution of the created ideas. Viewing the validation process as an exploratory search for new knowledge, this study establishes a relationship between the form of knowledge mobilized, vertically within an organization or horizontally from outside, and the form of legitimation required. Validation based on internally generated knowledge is effective in terms of achieving pragmatic (efficiency-driven) objectives. Inter-organizational knowledge inflows are associated with cognitive legitimacy - a form of legitimacy that leads to changes in the stakeholders' beliefs about a the product. In contradistinction, horizontal, socio-cultural inflows of knowledge are likely to improve on the product itself, thereby generating more traction for validation.\nResearch limitations/implications: This research is based on data collected from three firms only.\nPractical implications: The idea developed here can provide business organizations a better understanding of the validation process of management innovations. This study suggests that successful innovation often requires managers to be prepared to seek knowledge beyond the confines of their own organizations.\nOriginality/value: This study contributes in three ways: it submits that there is a dynamic interplay between the moments of creation and validation, which is largely shaped by the novelty of the mobilized knowledge, depending on whether it is internal top-down or external horizontal; relatedly, the effectiveness of validation is shaped by the novelty of the knowledge garnered to justify the initial ideas; and the present paper has extended Suchman's (1995) framework by linking the effectiveness of the various forms of legitimacy to the source of knowledge mobilized in the validation process.\n",
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Expanding repertoires of resistance: Teachers cultivating critical English language arts pedagogies through collaborative narrative inquiry
|
[
"Narrative inquiry",
"Urban education",
"Critical pedagogy",
"Teacher narrative",
"Culturally sustaining pedagogy"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n__NO_TITLE__: Critical literacy pedagogies acknowledge socio-political realities, disrupt norms and historicized positioning, interrogate multiple viewpoints and inspire action (Lewison et al., 2002). They can foster spaces in schools to critique oppressive practices like homophobia and heteronormativity (Hartman, 2018), resist normalized curriculum (Caraballo, 2016) and interrupt deficit gazes (Johnson, 2015). Critical pedagogies demand that educators commit to anti-racism, with a \"core interest [...] to sustain, revitalize, and nurture the identities, practices, ingenuity, agency, and humanity of youth of color, on their terms\" (Dominguez, 2017, p. 226).\nTeacher agency: Agency is not a quality that individuals do or do not possess; rather, it is something they accomplish in particular moments and contexts (Biesta and Tedder, 2007). Teachers' agency is dialogically shaped by other educators and administrators, as well as imagined audiences of students (Leander and Osborne, 2008). Our sense of agency and professionalism can be diminished by reform contexts; when teachers feel impotent to change the larger policy contexts, they tend to comply with reform efforts rather than challenge them (Lasky, 2005). However, teachers do not act in singular and uniform ways; we make many choices daily. In their study, following a teacher from her preservice program into her school context, Smagorinsky et al. (2002) identified acquiescence (i.e., acceptance and compliance), accommodation (i.e. making compromises between beliefs and the curricular requirements) and resistance (i.e. challenging the curriculum) as ways to frame teachers' responses to curricular and policy contexts. This points to the dynamic relationship between structural factors and individual actions. Even when we are aware of problematic situations, teachers' abilities to resist may be limited by systems, resulting in complex - and sometimes inconsistent - enactments of agency.\nCritical orientations and teacher agency: Stagg-Peterson (2012), in a study of writing instruction across Canada, found that a skills orientation was aligned with teachers exercising little agency, while a critical, sociopolitical orientation provided more opportunities for teachers to adopt agentive stances. This may be because critical orientations - with their commitment to disrupting systems of oppression - inherently encourage reflection, critique and attempts to respond to problematic situations.\nSupporting critical orientations and agency through narrative inquiry: One tool that supports teacher agency and critical reflection is narrative inquiry (Vinz, 1996), which involves intentionally examining personal experiences and stories. Bruner (1987, p. 691) suggests that our autobiographical narratives - or \"the stories we tell about our lives\" - guide our decisions and actions. In fact, teachers' narratives have been linked to their beliefs and classroom practices (Milner, 2008).\nContext: We are a collective of eight educators interested in cultivating critical, culturally sustaining writing pedagogies in k-16 classrooms (Table I). Our work together evolved over multiple years, beginning with interviews by three of the authors (Rebecca, Andrea and Emily) of k-8 teachers implementing culturally relevant/sustaining ELA pedagogies, including the other authors (Kara, Rick, Paul, Daniel and Evan). Then, all authors collaborated to write a grant and engage in a semester-long educator inquiry group that met bi-monthly from January to June 2017. At our nine meetings, we discussed culturally sustaining pedagogy (CSP) research and theory (Paris and Alim, 2017; Garcia and O'Donnell-Allen, 2015; Waitoller and King Thorius, 2016), created literacy units using CSP, and reflected on our own experiences. We shared a commitment to act as thought partners to realize more equity-oriented practices in our classrooms. Simultaneous to our inquiry, observational case studies were completed in some of the k-8 classrooms.\nMethods: We used both narrative inquiry processes (e.g. collaborative storying and re-storying) and analytic methods (e.g. coding within and across stories, Ezzy, 2002). At our third meeting together, each of us shared three photographs and stories representing formative moments from our lives that compelled us toward critical ELA pedagogies. Because this became a meaningful touchstone moment that we talked about repeatedly, we turned our oral stories into written narratives (Clandinin, 1992). We met together and read the narratives multiple times, asked questions, and made suggestions for revision to increase clarity. For our first round of analysis, we drew from narrative inquiry methods to read across our revised narratives and engage in open coding for themes (Ezzy, 2002), including language ideologies; language difference; educators/educational systems as gatekeepers; confrontation of own privilege; race, class and/or gender; otherness; and healing. In our next round of analysis, we discussed similarities and differences (Ezzy, 2002) in the narratives, identifying how this narrative inquiry process helped us to:\nStorying our journeys toward critical teaching: Disrupting norms of textual representation in Evan's narrative, \"Cactus\"\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: This paper aims to examine how a collaborative narrative inquiry focused on cultivating critical English Language Arts (ELA) pedagogies supported teacher agency, or \"the capacity of actors to critically shape their own responsiveness to problematic situations\" (Emirbayer and Mische, 1998, p. 971).\nDesign/methodology/approach: Situated in a semester-long inquiry group, eight k-16 educators used narrative inquiry processes (Clandinin, 1992) to write and collectively analyze (Ezzy, 2002) stories describing personal experiences that brought them to critical ELA pedagogies. They engaged in three levels of analysis across the eight narratives, including open coding, thematic identification, and identification of how the narrative inquiry impacted their classroom practices.\nFindings: Across the narratives, the authors identify what aspects of the ELA reading, writing and languaging curriculum emerged as problematic; situate themselves in systems of oppression and privilege; and examine how processes of critical narrative inquiry contributed to their capacities to respond to these issues.\nResearch limitations/implications: Collaborative narrative inquiry between teachers and teacher educators (Sjostrom and McCoyne, 2017) can be a powerful method to cultivate critical pedagogies.\nPractical implications: Teachers across grade levels, schools, disciplines and backgrounds can collectively organize to cultivate critical ELA pedagogies.\nOriginality/value: Although coordinated opportunities to engage in critical inquiry work across k-16 contexts are rare, the authors believe that the knowledge, skills and confidence they gained through this professional inquiry sensitized them to oppressive curricular norms and expanded their repertoires of resistance.\n",
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Exploring innovation perceptions and practices among micro and small craft breweries: A three-country study
|
[
"UK",
"Innovation",
"Surveys",
"Italy",
"Spain",
"Survey research",
"Brewing"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Among its many interpretations (O'Dwyer et al., 2009), innovation has been conceptualised as \"an information process\" (Nonaka and Kenney, 1991, p. 67) enabling the generation of new information and demonstrated in the final product. Similarly, innovation is the acceptance, implementation and generation of processes, new ideas, services or products (Kanter, 1983). Moreover, while not all adoptions of new ideas may qualify as innovations (Downs and Mohr, 1979), they can, nevertheless, be associated with processes of bringing any problem-solving, new idea into use (Kanter, 1983). As these definitions suggest, innovation and innovative activities can provide important benefits to many firms, including those small and medium in size (Lee et al., 2010). Indeed, innovation has been found to benefit small firms in terms of competitiveness and profitability (Oksanen and Rilla, 2009).\nLiterature review: Innovation and the theory of innovation\nMethods: This exploratory study contributes to the literature on micro and small businesses, innovation and craft brewing entrepreneurship, investigating 187 craft brewery owners, managers and directors/employees adopting the theory of innovation. The craft brewing industry is chosen for various reasons, including its recent significant growth. In fact, recent figures from Brewers of Europe (2015) document the rising number of breweries in European Union countries, including microbreweries. Such growth is also identified within the three studied countries; whereas in 2009, there were approximately 27 microbreweries in Spain, 240 in Italy and 694 in the UK; by 2014, these figures grew to 314 (Spain), 585 (Italy) and 1,414 (UK).\nResults: RQ1. How participants define innovation\nDiscussion: Various associations were identified between the findings, the literature on innovation and the theory of innovation, highlighting the usefulness of the theory in enhancing the understanding of innovative initiatives and practices among craft brewery operators. Figure 1 proposes a refinement of the theory of innovation in the context of the study's findings. Fundamentally, participants' own definitions of innovation (Table II), particularly with regard to the development of new styles/flavours, new craft beer recipes, new production processes, methods, differentiating, updating or being aware of consumer trends and changes and exploration of new ingredients underline strong links with earlier literature. For example, and in line with Sweezy (1943), while in many cases, the definitions arguably represent a \"wish-list\" among participants, they, nevertheless, suggest an appreciation for the possibilities provided by innovative initiatives and practices.\nConclusions: This exploratory study contributed to the literature on innovation among micro and small firms, as well as to the literature on craft brewing and the theory of innovation. The study adopted a cross-country approach and the theory of innovation to examine participants' definitions of innovation, actual involvement and to contrast this involvement to various demographic groups.\n",
"role": "user"
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"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this study is to examine how micro and small craft brewery operators perceive and operationalise innovation. Moreover, in adopting the theory of innovation, the study addresses two under-researched areas, namely, innovation among micro and small firms and innovation in the context of the emerging craft brewing industry.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The perspectives of 163 craft brewery operators located in Italy, Spain, and the UK were gathered through online questionnaires. In total, 24 face-to-face and telephone interviews with operators from the three nations complemented the data collection process. Thus, in total, 187 operators participated.\nFindings: Development of new craft beer styles, new recipes, exploring with various ingredients, improving quality, or involvement in social media and culinary tourism were predominant forms participants perceived innovation. Various differences regarding innovation adoption were noticed, particularly based on participants' country and on their role at the brewery. Furthermore, associations between the findings and the dimensions of the theory of innovation were confirmed.\nOriginality/value: This study is original, in that it represents a first effort in comparing perceptions of craft brewery operators across various countries. This comparison identifies ways in which craft brewery operators could maximise the potential of their firms. For example, the manifested interest in innovating through new craft beer recipes, or blending gastronomy and craft beer underlines alternative forms of adding value to craft brewing production. Importantly, some of these innovating practices differ based on participants' country; such differences could also be considered by craft brewery operators.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
Standards for Lean Six Sigma certification
|
[
"Lean",
"Six Sigma",
"Certification",
"Lean production",
"Standards"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Lean Six Sigma is a business improvement methodology that aims to maximise shareholders' value by improving quality, speed, customer satisfaction, and costs: it achieves this by merging tools and principles from both Lean and Six Sigma. It has been widely adopted in manufacturing and service industries and its success in some famous organisations (e.g. GE, and Motorola) has created a copycat phenomenon with many organisations across the world willing to replicate the success.This success has also created a vast consultancy and job market for Lean Six Sigma professionals that after being trained in Lean Six Sigma in a company, may decide to change job or start working as independent consultants.However, Lean Six Sigma has no globally accepted standard for certification: the proliferation of schools, organisations and training providers that now offer some level of certification has led to wide variation in assessment criteria, leaving many hiring managers, recruiters and continuous improvement leaders sceptical of external certifications. Some certifications currently existing on the market do not require to prove some technical competence or to show project work: you can indeed pay to attend a small course and get a certificate, without ever actually doing a project.As a consequence, many companies have tried to address those concerns building their own internal certification process, further adding to the confusion.The objective of this paper is to illustrate different certification processes in various companies, highlight the commonalities and propose a standard certification process for Green and Black Belts, that can be widely adopted as industry standard.\nLean Six Sigma and belts: Lean and Six Sigma have followed independent paths since the 1980s, when the terms were first hard coded and defined: first applications of Lean were recorded in the Michigan plants of Ford in 1913, and those were then developed to mastery in Japan (within the Toyota Production System), while Six Sigma saw the light in the US (within the Motorola Research Centre):* Lean is a process improvement methodology used to deliver products and services better, faster, and at a lower cost. Womack and Jones (1996) defined it as \"a way to specify value, line up value-creating actions in the best sequence, conduct those activities without interruption whenever someone requests them, and perform them more and more effectively. In short, lean thinking is lean because it provides a way to do more and more with less and less - less human effort, less human equipment, less time, and less space - while coming closer and closer to providing customers with exactly what they want.\"* Six Sigma is a data driven process improvement methodology used to achieve stable and predictable process results, reducing process variation and defects: Snee (1999) defined it as \"a business strategy that seeks to identify and eliminate causes of errors or defects or failures in business processes by focusing on outputs that are critical to customers\".While both Lean and Six Sigma have been used for many years, they did not get integrated until the late 1990s and early 2000s (George, 2002, 2003), and today Lean Six Sigma is recognised as \"a business strategy and methodology that increases process performance resulting in enhanced customer satisfaction and improved bottom line results\" (Snee, 2010).Lean Six Sigma uses tools from both toolboxes, in order to get the better of the two methodologies, increasing speed while also increasing accuracy.The benefits of Lean Six Sigma in the industrial world (both manufacturing and service) have been widely highlighted in the literature and include (Antony, 2005a,b):* Ensuring services/products conform to what the customer needs (\"voice of the customer\").* Removing non-value adding steps (waste) in critical business processes.* Reducing cost of poor quality.* Reducing the incidence of defective products/transactions.* Shortening the cycle time.* Delivering the correct product/service at the right time in the right place.Examples of real benefits in various sectors are illustrated in Table I from Antony et al. (2007).One of the key aspects differentiating Lean Six Sigma from previous quality initiatives is the organisation and structure of the quality implementation functions. In quality initiatives prior to Lean Six Sigma, the management of quality was largely relegated to the production floor and/or, in larger organisations, to some statisticians in the quality department. Lean Six Sigma, instead, introduce a formal organisational infrastructure for different quality implementations roles, borrowing from the word of martial arts the terminology to define hierarchy and career paths (Snee, 2004; Antony et al., 2005c,d; Pande et al., 2000; Harry and Schroeder, 1999; Adams et al., 2003). Coronado and Antony (2002) showed a first comparison of the various roles according to Air Academy Associates, a Six Sigma training and consulting group, as shown in Table II.Over time, as Six Sigma become more successful and its application more spread, with the proliferation of consultancy and training companies, new terms such as \"Yellow Belt\" and \"White Belt\" got coined: \"The Yellow Belt role was simply created to fill a need for employers who wanted to educate their employees in the Six Sigma implementation strategy that their organisation has chosen, without actually allowing them to be a physical part of it. It was a low-cost, basic overview for the common employee to understand what exactly the company was trying to achieve.\" (Setter, 2010). Some companies went further with the introduction of \"White Belts\" (Harry and Crawford, 2005), a supposedly basic introduction of what Six Sigma is.All these terms (\"Black Belt\", \"Green Belt\", \"Master Black Belt\", \"Yellow Belt\" and \"White Belt\") are in industry being used somehow indiscriminately, without an understanding of the skills and responsibilities, as the training and requirements are mostly tailored to different industries and/or companies.In the literature commonly accepted definitions are:* White Belt: Harry and Crawford (2004) introduced in the literature the concept of white belt: it requires 40 hours training and it has a much narrower focus than the black belt, as it works within a specific work cell, instead than on cross-functional projects. A white belt can complete up to 12 projects a year, with the potential financial return of $25k from each project;* Yellow Belt: similar to the White Belt described from Harry and Crawford (2004), the Yellow Belt is often used in industry to indicate employees that, take up roles in Six Sigma projects, along their other job responsibilities.* Green Belts: are employees that, after receiving approximately 80 hours training, take up roles in Six Sigma projects, along their other job responsibilities. According to Harry and Crawford (2005) they would use many of the same tools as Black Belts, but focus on projects within a single division or location.* Black Belts: individuals who have had at least 160 hours of Six Sigma training and who have mastered relatively sophisticated tools and statistical techniques. Black Belts typically work on large projects, that might take few months to complete, with savings up to $300k (Harry and Crawford, 2005) (;* Master Black Belts: experienced Black Belts, that have exceeded at project execution, and have practiced for a few years, may move forward to the role of Master Black Belt: a full time practitioner in Six Sigma tool and a mentor to successful Green and Black Belts (Ingle and Roe, 2001)Often, however, the use of those Lean Six Sigma terms in business and consultancy is not rooted in a proper definition of the skills and responsibilities of those roles (Hoerl, 2001).\nOverview of current certification practices: While in many other professional fields, certification is obtained through a standard set of education, testing and experience requirements, usually administered from a central authority, in the Lean Six Sigma field the specific requirements for certification vary and there is not a central authority.Accordingly to a survey conducted from the professional magazine iSixSigma (Marx, 2008), that saw 1,160 respondents among Lean Six Sigma professionals registered with iSixSigma, the vast majority of them are certified and more than half of the certified received their certification from the company they were working at the time (Figure 1).Six Sigma Certification Bodies like American Society for Quality, International Quality Federation (n.d.) and the British Quality Foundation (n.d.) accounted for less than 15 per cent of overall certifications, showing the vast majority of professionals rely on their company internal certification process.The criteria to achieve the in-house certification vary as well, with 84 per cent of Black Belts saying their company requires an exam for certification, together with two projects completed, with a minimum saving of $181,563 per project on average.Larger companies are much more likely to have their internal certification process, in comparison to smaller companies (77 per cent of companies with revenue of $1 billion or more have one vs 37 per cent of companies with revenue of less than $50 million).Certification requirements at Motorola, DuPont and Microsoft illustrate the difference in requirements at major companies (Marx, 2008):* Exam: while Motorola and Microsoft require an exam for certification, DuPont does not.* Financial savings: while Motorola and DuPont have specific targets for financial savings at Green/Yellow/Black Belt, Motorola has projects specific targets.* Training required: the number of days of training for the various level of certifications vary considerable across companies.Another example is that of GE, whose Six Sigma program and roles have been exhaustively explained in Hoerl (2001): Black Belts in GE are certified after completing a certain number of financially successful projects, typically in the range 5-15. Accordingly to Ingle and Roe (2001), GE has a more structured approach to training Black Belts than does Motorola: GE candidates are told what projects to work on, the training is shorter, and hence more intensive. Motorola's training, instead, is more flexible, potentially leading to a greater breadth of expertise.\nImplications for Lean Six Sigma Companies: The main consequences of this variety in certification practices are:* Difficulty in comparing the level of preparation of Lean Six Sigma professionals (is a Black Belt certified from Company A the same of a Black Belt certified from Company B?), hence hiring decisions are made more difficult.* Difficulty in comparing effectiveness of Training and Consultancy partners.* The need to build and maintain internal certification process to close the gap due to the lack of standard certification.\nA new Lean Six Sigma Certification Standard: Having reviewed practices in Companies that have answered the iSixSigma survey, the body of knowledge of American Society for Quality (ASQ, 2007), International Quality Federation (IQF) and the British Quality Foundation (BQF), the proposed standard from the Center of Excellence led from Ohio State University - Fisher College of Business (2010), and taken into consideration the effort of the International Academy for Quality (IAQ) we would like to suggest a certification standard composed of three main constituent parts:1. Body of Knowledge (including Exam).2. Body of Experience (including evidence of projects' results).3. Maintaining of certification and re-certification.Although the principles are the same, the requirements for Black Belts and Green Belts are slightly different, to reflect the difference in experience and mastery of tools.Lean Six Sigma Black Belt Certification Standard\nPractical implications and limitations: It is arguable that the certification standards may be slightly different based on the industry sector: after all, the tools used in the Manufacturing field can be different from the ones used in Service. However, we believe the actual set of tools and theories in the background of Lean Six Sigma, which ultimately stems from the Quality Management masters like Deming (1982) and Juran (1998), are the same across industries, hence a common Body of Knowledge. The differences in application of the principles should be reflected in the Body of Experience and the type of projects used for certification.Industry needs a certification that (Hathaway, 2010):* is supported by an independent body;* is inclusive of both theory and practice;* is testable and transferable among industries and geographies;* is enforced by academics, industry and consultancies;and we hope the standard suggested in this paper can be utilised to fill the current void.\nKey findings: Some of the key findings were:* A lack of standard certification is putting at stake the credibility of Six Sigma in industry.* the proliferation of new certifications and trainings (e.g. white belts, blue belts) \"is mostly designed to expand the product line of training providers\" (Setter, 2010).* the Body of Knowledge is founded on the theories and tools developed in decades of progress in the field of Quality Management and, as such, is independent from the industry sector.* the Body of Experience, constituted of evidence of projects work in order to obtain certification, should instead reflect the differences in use of tools among industries, giving the candidate the opportunity to highlight the mastery of the tools achieved on the job.* As in any other discipline, the evolution of the field, and the emphasis on application of the tools is such that only with constant practice can a certified practitioner can retain mastery of the tools: as a result, it is advisable to require practitioners to either re-certify or being involved in professional development activities to retain certification.\nConclusion: It is almost ironic that the field of Lean Six Sigma, where standardisation is a pillar, is lacking a standard for certification: this generates confusion, a parallel industry for certification practices and lack of trust and confidence on the professionals in the field.Throughout the history of Six Sigma first, and now Lean Six Sigma, no one has stepped forward to take the responsibility of setting a standard: currently, there is not a recognised international governing body for Lean Six Sigma, as there is in many other professions (e.g. accountancy, project management, etc ...).Large corporations created their own internal structure to foster the methodology internally, but have always had little interest in sharing it with other companies, particularly potential competitors; at the same time, a myriad of trainers and consultants have come up to make a profit instilling the methodology to their clients.We believe that, after 25 years of practicing Six Sigma, it is now the time to establish a rigorous standard for training and certification: the objective of this paper has been to put forward a suggestion to fill this void, advancing a public standard, that assembles the best components of currently different practices and takes into account the development of both theory and practice.We hope that making it available for public consumption would drive adoption from companies, that can start applying it internally, and bring uniformity to the certification process.With time, once a critical mass has been achieved, it is possible to envisage the setting up of a governing body to administer and maintain it.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: - This paper aims to provide an overview of current Lean Six Sigma certification practices among different industries and organisations and puts forward a public standard.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - Survey results, unstructured interviews and secondary information are used to illustrate the existing variation in certification standards across industries and organisations.\nFindings: - The high variation in Lean Six Sigma certification standards makes it very difficult to judge the actual competence of a certified Belt and to evaluate a Lean Six Sigma program in organisations. As such, the need for a globally accepted certification standard is identified, similar to what is already in place for other professions.\nOriginality/value: - This paper has a highly practical content for industry practitioners, with the intent of suggesting Lean Six Sigma certification standards be used in organisations, drawing on the best practices from major companies.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Co-located supplier clusters: forms, functions and theoretical perspectives
|
[
"Suppliers",
"Automotive industry",
"Sourcing"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1 Introduction: The configuration of supply networks and related sourcing decisions have been widely cited as a source of potential competitive advantage (MacBeth and Ferguson, 1994; Dyer, 1996; Lamming et al., 2000; Takeishi, 2001), with key themes in this debate being the implementation of just-in-time supply (Schonberger and Gilbert, 1983; Waters-Fuller, 1995), the impacts of changes in product architecture and the increasing use of modular supply and outsourcing (Quinn and Hilmer, 1994; Collins et al., 1997), and the impacts of global sourcing (Monczka and Trent, 1992; Bozarth et al., 1998; Ettlie and Sethuraman, 2002). More recently, a further development has been observed: the increasing co-location of highly dedicated supplier clusters next to original equipment manufacturer (OEM) assembly plants. While this trend fits well into the wider development of a reduction in supplier numbers and increasing geographical proximity within supplier networks (Dyer, 1994; Holweg and Pil, 2004), their organisational framework is significantly different, and warrants further investigation.Our research is concerned with the phenomenon of co-located supplier clusters in the automotive industry. These so-called \"supplier parks\" emerged when in 1992 Seat officially labelled a co-located industrial estate adjacent to its assembly plant in Abrera (Spain) a \"supplier park\". Since, then the phenomenon has gained wide-spread popularity with supplier parks opening in Europe (e.g. Bratislava, VW; Cologne, Ford), in various newly industrialised countries, such as Brazil (e.g. Curitiba, Renault), and very recently also in North America (e.g. Chicago, Ford). While there are similarities between such \"supplier parks\" (or other forms of dedicated co-location) and general industrial clusters (Markusen, 1996; Porter, 1998), and the former may at times also be a part of the latter, this investigation will study the phenomenon of dedicated co-location only (i.e. all firms are highly dedicated to the same OEM plant). Such a focussed investigation can be justified on the basis that the process and rationale for their creation are different (Larsson, 2002; Markusen, 1996).While this phenomenon has been widely discussed in automotive industry circles, the definitions used vary and hence there is no agreement over the number of supplier parks that operate worldwide (mainly due to a lack of consistent criteria). This lack of consistent criteria coupled with the sparse academic literature on the supplier park issue makes a strong case for further investigation. While several contributions on the motives for co-location in general, and the establishment of supplier parks in particular have been made, no consistent typology facilitating the proposition of clear definitions and boundary conditions between the various forms of co-location have been reported, although previous contributions have discussed a number of morphological differences between certain supplier clusters (Collins et al., 1997; Larsson, 2002). In addition, few studies have explicitly discussed the theoretical underpinnings of dedicated co-location, a dimension that is important in academic research. Based on these shortcomings we will thus aim to:* develop an initial classification of dedicated co-location scenarios that allows for a categorisation and comparison along their most important operational dimensions and facilitates the proposition of clear definitions; and* examine the general theoretical foundations and implications of dedicated supplier clusters.The development of classification systems has a long tradition in academic research (Hempel, 1965; Eilon, 1974), and previous contributions in operations management have proposed taxonomies for product-process structures (Hayes and Wheelwright, 1979), manufacturing plants (Vereecke et al., 2006), supply networks (Lamming et al., 2000), and industrial clusters (Markusen, 1996). Generally, the aim of such typologies is to provide a theoretical foundation for the study of the respective entities and their morphological differences. In addition, investigating the links between a specific phenomenon and general theories is a key facet of academic studies, as it guides the research process and is a necessary condition for the advancement of knowledge (Hempel, 1965; van de Ven, 1989).In the following, the existing literature on supplier parks and their wider context is reviewed, followed by an explanation of the methodology employed in this study. Subsequently, the findings are presented by first developing and discussing a typology of co-location scenarios and their morphological differences, and secondly, by examining the previously suggested theoretical perspectives on dedicated co-location in the light of our findings, before concluding.\n2 Literature review: The literature review is structured as follows: firstly, the existing terms and definitions are reviewed to provide the terminological foundations for the subsequent sections. Secondly, the rationale for the co-location of suppliers is examined, including a discussion of the potential pitfalls of co-located supplier clusters and their role in global sourcing strategies. Thirdly, the morphological dimensions identified in previous studies are synthesised to form the basis for the development of a consistent typology. Finally, we summarise the previously suggested theoretical perspectives on dedicated co-location.2.1 Key terms and definitions\n3 Methodology: In the light of the diverse debate of the co-location phenomenon, we adopt an exploratory research design, comprising of a multi-method approach of site visits and semi-structured interviews. Such an exploratory research design is particularly suited for understanding phenomena in their specific context (Meredith, 1998), and to understand \"how\" and \"why\" various supplier clusters differ from each other (Yin, 2003). In preparing and conducting the research we followed Yin (2003) and Bryman (2004), and developed a comprehensive interview protocol. To overcome the main weaknesses commonly associated with qualitative research in general and interviewing in particular, we (where possible) interviewed two respondents from different functions within each firm to reduce potential respondent bias, and triangulated the interviews with site visits and contextual performance data supplied in the form of internal management reports. Secondly, the majority of the interviews were conducted by more than one researcher to reduce the single investigator bias. All interviews were recorded and transcribed. Finally, we reported our initial results to a representative group of the interviewees and incorporated their feedback in the findings reported here.The research was part of a wider study on automotive supply chains and was carried out in two stages: May 2000-April 2001 and September 2003-September 2005. To allow for the comparability of findings across the two stages the part of the interview guide required for the investigation of supplier clusters was not altered substantially. The study comprised a total of 25 site-specific and 3 non site-specific semi-structured interviews with OEMs, logistics service providers (LSP) and first-tier suppliers (Table IV). The site-specific interviews covered a total of nine co-located supplier clusters. The choice of clusters analysed (out of the total sample of co-located clusters identified during the background research) was opportunistic and determined by access to the respective facilities. Owing to reasons of data confidentiality the LSPs and suppliers that participated in the site-specific interviews cannot be identified.Our findings were complemented with secondary material collected on a number of clusters, including the Audi logistics centre in Gyor (Hungary), the BMW Wackersdorf Innovation Estate (Germany), the Fiat cluster in Cassino (Italy), the Nissan cluster in Smyrna (USA), the Seat cluster in Abrera (Spain), and the VW modular consortium in Resende (Brazil). This information was obtained through previous academic publications (Salerno and Dias, 2002), articles in the trade press (e.g. Automotive News) and company web sites.The following limitations of this study must be considered: firstly, the sample size, from which conclusions can be drawn, is limited and future research is encouraged to test our findings by applying them to additional supplier clusters. Furthermore, supplier clusters are dynamic, and thus we cannot claim to accurately reflect the current status quo of the individual clusters, although this is not the objective of the study.\n4 Towards a classification of supplier clusters: The literature review identified eight dimensions along which co-located supplier clusters differ. The interviews were used to prioritise these dimensions based on two criteria:1. their operational importance; and2. the extent to which they facilitate the establishment of boundary conditions between different co-location scenarios.Although all of the dimensions were considered relevant for the establishment and/or management of such clusters, three dimensions emerged as most suited for a high-level typology:1. the supplier location in relation to the assembly plant;2. the local value-added content; and3. the existence of dedicated infrastructure.The \"supplier location\" dimension (henceforth referred to as \"spatial integration\") directly determines the logistics costs for transporting the components from the LDU to the point of fit and is also the only dimension that is consistently used in previous contributions to define how supplier parks differ from other forms of supplier clusters. Furthermore, the interviews suggested that the degree of \"local value-added\" is the driving dimension behind a number of further operational decisions and dimensions. Firstly, it directly influences the likelihood of outsourcing activities to third parties (i.e. LSP). For example, the more that the co-located operations feature a low degree of value-added (e.g. sequencing or pre-assembly) the higher are the potential synergies achieved from outsourcing these activities to a single LSP. Secondly, the local value-added directly determines the investments required for setting up co-located facilities. Production operations requiring investments in large machinery are commonly more expensive to set up compared to assembly or late-configuration activities. Furthermore, it determines the space required for the operation in a similar fashion. Finally, the existence of a dedicated infrastructure, being one of the most visible signs of the degree of synchronisation between suppliers and OEMs, should be included. While this dimension in itself has a high impact on the operations of a supplier cluster due to the required investments and associated savings in transport costs, the findings revealed that it is essentially an extension to the \"spatial integration\" dimension, because such infrastructure exists only where suppliers and a vehicle assembly plant are closely integrated. A summary of our findings on all of the eight dimensions can be found in the Appendix, while the subsequent discussion will be restricted to the three dimensions \"spatial integration and infrastructure\" and \"local value-added\".4.1 Spatial integration and infrastructure\n5 Exploring theoretical perspectives on co-located supplier clusters: After developing the typology of co-located supplier clusters and the proposition of boundary conditions between their different forms, this section returns to exploring the theoretical perspectives on such clusters (beyond the development of modular supply, as discussed earlier, based on the interviews conducted. The applicability of the previously mentioned theoretical frameworks is tested, which include the exchange of tacit knowledge and transaction cost economics, before offering alternative theoretical perspectives.5.1 Transfer of tacit knowledge\n6 Conclusion: This paper has reviewed the academic literature on the co-location phenomenon, identified eight dimensions of co-located supplier clusters, and developed a high-level typology based on the most prominent dimensions of \"spatial integration and infrastructure\" and \"local value-added\". The typology was used to propose a structured definition for different types of co-location scenarios that is still amiss in the debate. The existing literature, while highlighting important morphological differences between individual co-located supplier clusters, does not yet provide a consistent typology offering detailed criteria and scales for classifying co-location scenarios, and offers the researcher insufficient guidance when it comes to comparing different clusters.The move towards modular supply has created the need for LDUs, and we find that operational concerns are the main reason for spatial proximity. This conclusion leads to a number of theoretical implications: we conclude that transaction cost economics, even though it has been used to explain the establishment of supplier parks in the past, has only a limited applicability in the study of this phenomenon. Instead we argue that the apparent contingencies between the value chain structure and its spatial configuration suggest the need to consolidate the various contributions related to the spatial dimension of sourcing configurations, including the literature on global sourcing, into a novel theoretical framework. In terms of practical implications, the paper provides guidance to companies that are currently considering the establishment of supplier parks, by giving an assessment of their benefits, in the light of their respective form and functionality. In particular, the findings also suggest that there is no direct link between the short-term flexibility gained through co-location of first-tier suppliers and the more medium-term flexibility required by the end customer. Rather, the flexibility gains achieved through the close proximity between suppliers and vehicle assembly plant serve to counter self-induced flexibility requirements in terms of unreliable production sequences at the vehicle assembly plant. Thus, practitioners may choose to eliminate such self-induced requirements for co-location, as these do not add value for the end customer.Given the exploratory nature of this study, additional research is required to test and refine the proposed typology using a larger sample of clusters. Moreover, the development of a wider theory on the contingencies between value chain structure and spatial layout requires further research. As proposed by Salvador et al. (2002), additional factors, such as the type of product modularity, may have a significant impact on such contingencies and should be considered. Within the automotive industry, additional comparative studies into the regional development of supplier clusters in Europe, Japan and the USA may also yield further informative results. However, with regard to the proposition of a novel theoretical framework, cross-industry studies into the co-location phenomenon will be required to overcome the single-industry bias of the current debate.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: - The purpose of this paper is twofold: first, to develop a typology of co-located supplier clusters, such as logistics centres or supplier parks, and second, to evaluate the theoretical perspectives at hand to investigate the co-location phenomenon.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - The research encompasses 28 semi-structured interviews with key operations executives from vehicle manufacturers, component suppliers and logistics service providers at nine co-located supplier clusters, the findings of which are triangulated with secondary sources.\nFindings: - The investigation yields two main findings: first, a typology is proposed based on two key dimensions \"spatial integration and infrastructure\" and \"local value-added\". From a theoretical perspective, the paper further concludes that transaction cost economics is less suited for studying dedicated co-location, and suggests that future investigations should focus on consolidating the contributions on the spatial dimension of sourcing configurations into a novel theoretical framework.\nResearch limitations/implications: - The study is based on an exploratory research design, investigating a selected number of co-located supplier clusters only. While the research does not claim to provide a comprehensive survey of co-located supplier clusters, it proposes a general categorisation that aims to provide a structure currently lacking further research into this phenomenon.\nOriginality/value: - A structured overview of the phenomenon of co-located supplier clusters is provided, extending the existing morphological debate. Furthermore, the discussion of their theoretical foundations provides novel insights into this phenomenon as well as into the operational implications of value chain modifications in general, with the intention of guiding further research in this area.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Consumers' willingness to pay for organic food: Factors that affect it and variation per organic product type
|
[
"Organic foods",
"Prices",
"Factor analysis",
"Quality",
"Trust",
"Greece"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Environmental and health protection issues have become popular in Europe since the mid-1980s (Greenan et al., 1997), while in the USA such matters had been worrying consumers since the 1960s (Klonsky and Tourte, 1998). Davis et al. (1995) pointed out the \"sudden increase of the interest\" in environmental issues in Europe since 1986, when citizens started mentioning matters of environmental protection in various studies as priority issues for governmental policies. Environmentalism has been quoted as one of the biggest issues facing business and the public in the 1990s, a decade that which has been called \"the decade of environment\" (Pujari and Wright, 1996). Numerous well-documented surveys have found that the environmental challenge is sure to be one of the central issues of the twenty first century (Czinkota and Ronkainen, 1995). Environment and health address the question of \"consumerism\", its influence on human health and on the long-term maintenance of the planet's resources (Silverstone, 1993). According to Browne et al. (2000), the growing interest in \"ethical\" production has been both consumer-driven and trade-driven.In agriculture, the basic question is the link between intensive mass production and its environmental influences (Zilberman et al., 1999). Most of the time, stricter environmental regulations are judged negatively by producers, who complain about cost increases, income reduction and product competitiveness in the new global environment (Kyriakopoulos and Oude Ophuis, 1997; Zilberman et al., 1999). On the other hand, consumers who claim to be environmentally conscious place additional standards on manufacturers, distributors, retailers and policy-makers. Nutrition has social and cultural extensions, since the personal choices that concern it are now influenced more and more by personal values and symbols (Beharrell and Crockett, 1992).One type of environmental and wider quality and health consciousness is the purchase of organic products. Growth in organic farming in the EU has consistently been around 25 percent per year during the 1990s, and similar expansion is reported in the US. As there is no indication of any change in the EU trend, the sector could expand from the 1998 level of 2 percent of the utilizable agricultural area (2.8 million hectares and 113,000 holdings) to 10 percent by 2005 and 30 percent by 2010 (Lampkin, 1999). This level of growth has tremendous implications for the development of certification procedures, the reforming of the whole supply chain and the need for deep organic consumer knowledge. As the retail value of the EU sector should reach EUR25-35bn by 2005, the sector will progress from a niche to the mainstream. A total of 130 countries are now producing certified organic food, of which 90 are developing countries with ideal environmental conditions for the development of satisfactory organic produce.Kafka and Alvensleben (1998; cited in Lumbers et al., 2003) found that Greeks are ranked third in the EU and among 17 developed countries (after Germany and Austria) in terms of their concern about food-related hazards and the risks they incur for their health. Moreover, Lumbers et al. (2003) maintain that Greek consumers are significantly less confident about their food supply and significantly more fearful of pesticide residues compared to the British consumers in their survey. In light of these findings, the present survey examines a number of research hypotheses regarding Greek consumers' willingness to pay (WTP) for organic food products, which reflect consumers' concern about the \"ethical\" production of food in terms of its quality/safety, as well as environmental friendliness. To accomplish this aim, the research was conducted with the use of a structured questionnaire and a sample of consumers who were aware of the term \"organic food\".The paper opens with a detailed discussion of the international literature surrounding the organic consumer and the factors that affect WTP in general and WTP for organic products in particular. The methodological part introduces the reader to the research hypotheses, sample selection criteria and sample description. The analysis and empirical results details the findings of the methodological part hypothesis by hypothesis, while the discussion section comments on the major findings and offers valuable insights for decision-makers. Finally, the concluding part summarises the major points of the study.\nThe organic consumer research internationally: Various studies concerning consumer behaviour vis-a-vis organic products have been conducted in many EU countries and the US (see, for example, Davis et al., 1995; Roddy et al., 1996; Hutchins and Greenhalgh, 1997; Reicks et al., 1997; Latacz-Lohmann and Foster, 1997; Kyriakopoulos and Oude Ophuis, 1997; Thompson, 1998; Thompson and Kidwell, 1998; Michelsen et al., 1999; Worner and Meier-Ploeger, 1999; Santucci et al., 1999; Govindasamy and Italia, 1999; Browne et al., 2000; Zanoli and Naspetti, 2001; Magnusson et al., 2001; Jones and Clarke-Hill, 2001; Wier and Calverley, 2002). Similar studies have also been conducted in Greece (see, for example, Kyriakopoulos, 1996; Papastefanou et al., 1998; Zotos et al., 1999; Tzimitra-Kalogianni et al., 1999; Chryssochoidis, 2000; Chryssochoidis and Fotopoulos, 2000; Fotopoulos and Krystallis, 2001, 2002a, b; Fotopoulos et al., 2003).Most of the studies mentioned above have investigated how consumers perceive the organic concept, the issues related to the demand for organic produce, consumers' attitudes, and the factors that facilitate or hinder the acceptance of these products. They reveal that purchase motives are attributed to environmental and health consciousness, safety and quality concerns and exploratory food buying behaviour, as well as to specific product attributes such as nutritional value, taste, freshness, and price (Tregear et al., 1994; Grunert and Juhl, 1995; Davis et al., 1995; Roddy et al., 1996; Reicks et al., 1997; Zanoli, 1998; Zotos et al., 1999; Worner and Meier-Ploeger, 1999; Chryssochoidis, 2000; Browne et al., 2000; Fotopoulos and Krystallis, 2002a, b). Some studies also reveal a variety of other purchase motives that seem to reflect national interests, such as \"support to organic farmers\" for German consumers (Worner and Meier-Ploeger, 1999) or \"animal welfare\" for British consumers (Meier-Ploeger and Woodward, 1999). On the other hand, the reasons that account for a reversal in favourable attitude towards organic products are price and availability (Silverstone, 1993; Davis et al., 1995; Roddy et al., 1996; Latacz-Lohmann and Foster, 1997; Reicks et al., 1997; Worner and Meier-Ploeger, 1999), lack of some special value in the eyes of consumers (Tregear et al., 1994; Roddy et al., 1996) and doubts about product guarantees, lack of promotion and misunderstanding of organic ways of production (Worner and Meier-Ploeger, 1999).Regarding the socio-demographic profile of organic product buyers, all the above studies agree that they are mainly women, who buy in larger quantities and more frequently than men. The age factor does not seem to play an important role, with younger consumers seeming slightly more willing to buy (more and expensive) due to their greater environmental consciousness. This willingness, however, does not translate into demand due to their lower purchasing power. On the other hand, the presence of children in the family seems to play an important role, positively influencing organic purchase (Reicks et al., 1997; Thompson and Kidwell, 1998), although more attention should be paid to children's age as organic purchase factor. For instance, Magnusson et al. (2001) did not find any difference between families with or without children still living at home regarding the purchase frequency of various organic products. Disposable income seems to affect mainly the quantity of organics bought and not general willingness to buy. However, despite high organic price premiums, higher household incomes do not necessarily indicate a higher likelihood of organic purchases. Overall, although there is conflicting evidence, those who are more likely to buy organic are females with children, in younger age groups, of higher education and income levels (Govindasamy and Italia, 1999).Willingness to pay for environmental protection and food quality and safety\nMethodology: The survey aims to examine a number of research hypotheses regarding Greek consumers' WTP for organic food products, formulated based on the literature presented in the previous section. More specifically, the research hypotheses are:H1. Consumers' stated WTP differs according to the organic product category.\nAnalysis and empirical results: Descriptive analysis\nDiscussion: Based on the consumption frequency of the 16 food categories under examination, it was possible to discriminate between three groups of food products, namely \"basic-highest frequency\", \"basic-average frequency\", and \"non-basic\" (Table III). In the first group, we find foods that are typical of the Greek version of the Mediterranean diet (e.g. fruit, vegetables, bread, feta cheese, white meat, legumes) as it is described in the relevant literature (e.g. Ferro-Luzzi and Sette, 1989; Willet et al., 1995; Gerber and Richardson, 1995). It is worth stressing that the case of olive oil is unique. Although it constitutes the most basic culinary element of the Greek diet, it is not purchased in supermarkets as frequently as other dietary components, due to the fact that one-third of the olive oil produced is distributed in bulk directly from producers (Krystallis and Ness, 2004). At the other extreme are certain processed foods that are perceived as non-basic foodstuffs, possibly for reasons of healthiness (cured meat, tinned foods) and/or high price (cured meat), as well as for the fact that they are snacks not frequently consumed anyway (biscuits).Purchasing of the organic type of the food categories examined also follows the discrimination described above. The most frequently consumed organic products are, again, some basic components of the Greek diet, such as fruit, vegetables, legumes, olive oil and white meat. This conclusion is coupled with the fact that the least purchased processed conventional foods are also the least purchased organic foods. However, an additional factor that can possibly influence the purchasing frequency of organic products is their availability in the Greek market. The most frequently purchased fresh foods and olive oil are at the same time the organic product categories most widely available in the market (and also produced in Greece). Concerning the remaining products in the first group (\"basic-highest frequency\"), their organic type is found very rarely on the shelves of a typical Greek supermarket (e.g. feta cheese) or can be found only in specialty food shops (e.g. milk, pasta, bread). However, this conclusion does not apply in every case. For example, organic cured meats or organic yellow cheeses are relatively available, though not very frequently purchased as compared to fresh organic produce.H1. Consumers' stated WTP differs according to the organic product category.\nConclusion: The survey in the present work, which used a sample of consumers who were aware of the term \"organic\" food, offers proof that Greek consumers' stated WTP differs according to the organic product category. On the other hand, the higher WTP for more frequently purchased organic product categories and the variation in the magnitude of factors that affect WTP for organics in Greece is proved for specific organic foods only. Moreover, among the factors that affect WTP for organic foods in Greece are specific factors described in the international literature, such as food quality and safety, trust in certification, and, for some products, brand name. Organoleptic characteristics, prices and consumers' socio-demographic profiles are not found to constitute powerful determinants of organic purchase.The weakness of socio-demographic variables as WTP predictors is a finding that should be expected, given the structure of the sample (younger female consumers of a higher educational level, who are aware of the term \"organic\"). The socio-demographic profile is that of a consumer who, typically, has the potential to constitute an organic food buyer. Sample variance is limited in terms of other more diverse socio-demographic profiles. Thus, the fact that the socio-demographic variables do not exhibit statistically significant power is the obvious result of the sample's structure.Overall, WTP for organic fruits and vegetables shows that they are perceived differently from other products. Consumers exhibit the lowest percentage of unwillingness to pay more for organic fruits and vegetables and substantial percentages of willingness to pay more at all the increments examined. Fruits and vegetables are among the very few organic products easily found in the Greek market and are the organic products that most Greek organic consumers purchase. Thus, consumers are more familiar with the idea of paying more to buy organic fresh produce, and hence their willingness to play more for these particular products reflects their actual rather than stated behaviour.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: - Seeks to provide answers to two questions: is willingness to pay (WTP) for organic products influenced by the same set of factors that affect purchasing of conventional foods? Does WTP for organic products vary according to different food categories?\nDesign/methodology/approach: - Purchasers were approached during their food shopping in retail chains in Athens in July 2003. Sample inclusion is based on real awareness of the term \"organic\". The questionnaire included in its first part a number of criteria that influence consumers when buying food. In the second part respondents were asked to indicate if any food products they buy were organic and to state how much more they were willing to pay. Information from the first part was analysed with factor analysis. With the help of t-value analysis, it was examined whether there is a statistically significant difference per product category between consumers who are willing to pay and consumers who are unwilling to pay in terms of the factors identified.\nFindings: - Consumers' stated WTP and the type and magnitude of factors that affect it differ according to the organic food category. These factors include food quality and security, trust in the certification, and, for some products, brand name. Organoleptic characteristics, prices and consumers' socio-demographic profiles do not constitute determinants of organic WTP.\nResearch limitations/implications: - Organic types of some fresh as well as processed food products do not exist in the Greek market. Moreover, the large number of t-tests conducted might result in Type I error.\nOriginality/value: - Purchasing of organic food follows \"basic-highest frequency\", \"basic-average frequency\", and \"non-basic\" discrimination. The most frequently consumed organic products are some basic components of the Greek diet. Only the factors \"quality and security\" and \"trust\" play an important role in defining WTP for most organic food categories. Consumers' attitudes towards both organic and PDO/PGI certifications converge towards a perception of high quality food. Approximately 26 percent of the sample exhibited a U-shaped WTP trend for 14 out of 16 organic food categories in increments from 45 to 120 percent. All the above elements of originality are particularly valuable for organic food firms and policy/decision makers.\n",
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] |
Aging and the motivation to stay employable
|
[
"Competences",
"Age groups",
"Older workers",
"Human resource management",
"Motivation",
"Career development"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n__NO_TITLE__: The population ages and people need to stay longer in the workforce (Bal et al., 2015): to sustain national welfare systems, to help organizations thrive, and to pay their own bills. This challenges employees to be able to identify and realize job and career opportunities in the context of innovations - they need to stay employable (Fugate and Kinicki, 2008). While policy makers and human resource managers often rely on chronological age for decisions about, for instance, the offering of part time work schemes or the default retirement age, this measure may not be very meaningful in the work setting (Kooij et al., 2008). After all, we become increasingly different from each other with higher age (Carstensen, 2006). One strand of previous research has focussed on learning activities to explain differences in employability (e.g. Froehlich et al., 2014; Van der Heijden et al., 2009; Van der Klink et al., 2014). But what triggers learning for employability and how does the process change with increasing age? One specific factor that is often suggested to be subject to change during the process of aging is the motivation to learn (Gegenfurtner and Vauras, 2012). Therefore, we investigate the relationship between chronological age and employability using a motivational perspective (Froehlich et al., 2015a). Specifically, we combine the concepts of future time perspective (Carstensen, 2006) and goal orientation (Elliot and McGregor, 2001) with a competence-based view of employability (Van der Heijde and Van der Heijden, 2006) to explain the relationship between age and employability.\nEmployability and chronological age: We define being employable as having a set of competences that enables people to fulfill, acquire, or create work (Van der Heijde and Van der Heijden, 2006). In times of change, such a definition based on individuals' competences, rather than on specific labor market demands, seems warranted. Having the necessary occupational expertise is important, but employability also requires social and adaptive competences (Tolentino et al., 2014). Employees need to proactively screen the environment and prepare themselves for changes in job and career requirements and conditions (anticipation and optimization) and adapt to them (personal flexibility) (Van der Heijde and Van der Heijden, 2006). In agreement with previous studies, we focus on employees' own perceptions of their employability (Dries et al., 2014; Froehlich et al., 2014; Vanhercke et al., 2014). In conclusion, we see employees as employable if they perceive themselves to have adequate technical expertise, to be attentive to trends in their environment, and to adapt to changes imposed on them.\nMotivation to stay employable: future time perspective and goal orientation: Froehlich et al. (2015a) identify two motivational concepts related to aging and competence development: future time perspective (Carstensen, 2006) and goal orientation (Elliot and McGregor, 2001) that may explain the relationship between chronological age and employability. According to socioemotional selectivity theory (Carstensen et al., 1999), future time perspective concerns the available time individuals believe to have left in their future working life. Lang and Carstensen (2002) report that individuals who perceive the future as limited prefer emotional goals and thus relatives and formal partners. Contrarily, individuals who have an expansive perception of the future prefer to interact with acquaintances and knowledgeable or controversial partners to fulfill their desire for growth. This affects employees' motivation to learn and perform (Raemdonck et al., 2015). Zacher and Frese (2009, 2011) adjusted the concept of future time perspective to workplace settings. Specifically, they found two dimensions to be of importance: perceived remaining opportunities and perceived remaining time at work.\nMethods: Sample and procedure\nResults: Correlation analysis\nDiscussion: We set out to investigate the relationship between age and employability. We aimed to identify motivational mediators between chronological age and employability that individuals and organizations may act upon. Five major themes emerged from the analyses. First, the employees' perception of their remaining opportunities and time were strongly and negatively related to their age. Previous studies report similar results (e.g. Lang and Carstensen, 2002). While we did not find employability to relate to age or remaining time, we found a positive relationship with remaining opportunities. This agrees with Zacher and Frese (2009), who state that the perception of remaining opportunities is more strongly influenced by personal and organizational characteristics than remaining time. They argue that the latter is more narrowly constrained by, for example, rather rigidly stipulated ages for retirement. Additionally, it is important to note that we have found these positive effects in a sample of well educated employees. Wittekind et al. (2010) theorize that highly qualified people benefit from being aware of the opportunities around them more than their less qualified colleagues, because higher qualifications improve the chance to put the potential opportunities into effect. Organizations may strive to extend their employees' future time perspective to enhance staff's employability by, for instance, clarifying the instrumentality of any learning activity for future success beforehand (Simons et al., 2004), communicating the role of work-related learning and personal goals (Phalet et al., 2004), or facilitating long-term planning and the use of personal development plans (Beausaert et al., 2011; Gellert et al., 2012).\nLimitations: Three limitations are important to consider when interpreting the results. First, testing for mediation effect assumes causal relationships between the variables. Causality, however, cannot be assessed with the cross-sectional data presented in this research. While we believe that the theoretical model justifies these assumptions, future research may take a longitudinal approach to investigate the model.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The demographic shift and the rapid rate of innovations put age and employability high on policy makers' and human resource managers' agenda. However, the authors do not sufficiently understand the link between these concepts. The authors set out to investigate the relationship between age and employability and aim to identify motivational mediators of this relationship. Therefore, the purpose of this paper is to investigate the roles of future time perspective and goal orientation.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The authors conducted quantitative, cross-sectional survey research (n=282) in three Dutch and Austrian organizations. The authors used structural equation modeling to investigate the relationships between chronological age, future time perspective, goal orientations, and employability.\nFindings: Future time perspective and goal orientation strongly relate to employability. The authors found indirect relationships between age and employability via perceived remaining opportunities.\nResearch limitations/implications: The results question the often simplistic use of chronological age in employability and human resource management research. Therefore, the authors call for more research to investigate the relationship between age and employability more deeply.\nPractical implications: The findings contribute new insights for the career development issues of an increasingly older workforce. This shifts the focus from age, a factor outside our control, to motivation.\nOriginality/value: This study contributes evidence for the relationships of chronological age, future time perspective, and goal orientation with employability. It extends literature by criticizing the prevalent use of chronological age and investigating mediation effects.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Cost consequence of failure in failure mode and effect analysis
|
[
"Monte Carlo simulation",
"Cost consequence of failure",
"Cost of quality (CoQ)",
"Failure mode and effect analysis (FMEA)",
"Risk priority number (RPN)"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nFailure mode and effects analysis: Failure mode and effect analysis (FMEA) is intended to identify areas of potential risk in a design or manufacturing process and to do this early in the product development cycle. A cross functional team examines every component in the design or process and determines what might possibly go wrong with the components in service, what effect each of these failures would have on a customer, and what mechanism(s) could lead to the onset of the failed conditions. For each of the ways the product or process could fail - known as failure modes - the team catalogs the controls that are in place to prevent or detect the cause of the failure. Each failure mode is ranked based on the severity of the effect, the anticipated frequency of occurrence, and the ability to detect the problem in the developmental context. This exercise allows the team to assess the level of risk that each potential failure mode presents. An overall ordering of the failure modes, based on this risk characterization, allows prioritization of the actions to be taken in response to the potential failure modes. This is necessary because time and resource constraints make it impossible to address all of the problems before product launch. As Kmenta and Ishii (2001) have put it \"All problems are not equal [...] companies should give the most attention to the potentially severe and frequent failures\" (pp. 12.1-2).\nRisk ranking: The three dimensions by which FMEA establishes the level of the risk of a failure mode - severity, occurrence, and detection - are all set up on a ten-point ordinal ranking scale. For each, the degree of risk to the end user increases as the ranking score increases from 1 to 10. But to achieve this, differences in the logic applied to the rank scoring of the three areas of consideration must be accepted. As occurrence ranking increases, the likelihood of the event increases. An increase in severity represents increasing seriousness of the consequence of a failure. However, when detection ranking increases, the success of the detection effort decreases (Sofyalioglu and Ozturk, 2012). The rationale here is that the risk that defective material will get to the customer is inversely related to the ability to detect the problem and remove the defective material from the product stream.\nRPN: The precepts of continuous improvement would require that all items on the FMEA be subjected to an improvement activity (e.g. PDCA) in an unending effort to make the product less prone to failure. But the reality is that improvements can only be tackled as time and money allow. As AIAG puts it \"Due to inherent limitations on resources, time, technology, and other factors, [the team] must choose [...] to prioritize [their] efforts\" (Automotive Industry Action Group (AIAG), 2008, p. 57). The RPN is a metric intended to facilitate that process.\nCost consequences of failure: The cost associated with ensuring good quality product is made, or poor quality product is found, fixed, or scrapped is referred to as the \"Cost of Quality\" (CoQ). In essence, CoQ is any cost that would not have been incurred if the quality of the product or service was perfect (Chiadamrong, 2003). CoQ is widely recognized as a cost driver with the potential to significantly affect profitability. CoQ can range from 15-40 percent of total costs (Brust and Gryna, 2002; Plunkett and Dale, 1988; Archambeau, 2004; Waje and Patil, 2012). Improving quality and conformance to requirements therefore lowers the costs of goods sold. A typical company can save more money by halving poor quality than by doubling sales (Weheba and Elshennawy, 2004). For every dollar reduction in failure cost, profit increases by $5.46 (Krishnamoorthi, 1986). Guinot et al. (2016) demonstrated a potential impact on the present worth (PW) of a new product launch when CoQ is considered as a cash flow element.\nCoQ models: Crosby (1979) broke the CoQ down into two components: the cost of conformity and the cost of non-conformity. The former includes all costs that are accrued in an effort to ensure that products conform to requirements. The latter is, of course the cost of failure experienced when non-conforming product is produced. This characterization is accepted by Cokins (2006), Cosmin and Ana-Maria (2013), and the British Standards Institute (1981) (Plunkett and Dale, 1988).\nFMEA adapted to CoQ determination: Rhee and Ishii (2003) adapted FMEA to the determination of the cost consequence of potential failure modes, an approach they termed Life Cost-based FMEA. Expected cost is computed by the following equation:(2)\nAssessment of the cost consequences of failure modes using FMEA: In this study, a means of characterizing risk based on the potential cost of a failure was explored and a scaling instrument was developed that allows the incorporation of cost consequence into an FMEA. The process for developing this scale required relating external failure costs to failure modes ranked at different levels of severity. Monte Carlo simulations were run to determine the cost of external failures that resulted as the cost factors at each severity level and the number of instances at each level of occurrence varied. The results of these simulations allowed the association of a cost rank to each pair of severity and occurrence rank.\nModeling cost of external failure: The cost structure of an electronic control module purchased by a North American automobile manufacturer was taken as the basis of the assumptions pertaining to the cost of external failure. The product is essentially a computer, mounted inside the vehicle passenger compartment that controls a system function in the vehicle. It monitors the vehicle operating conditions and manages the response of the system it controls as conditions require. Figure 1 is a diagram of a control module and the vehicle interfaces involved in controlling the occupant safety systems.\nAn approximation of cost consequence: The cost consequence of a quality concern will be modeled as shown in the following equation:(3)\nProduction invisible quality costs - E(CPIQC): This study used presumptive BOM costs, labor cost per unit, and overhead per unit - factors that the business plan associates with the manufacturing costs of the product - to cover these \"Production Invisible\" costs. Two advantages follow: these factors are easily obtained by an FMEA team and are among the costs that are carefully tracked and considered accurate, and such things as preventative maintenance, engineering support, costs associated with appraisal, inventory carrying costs, and material handling are baked into the overhead element of the product costs.\nSensitivity analysis: cost consequence vs severity and occurrence levels: The dimensions of the risk characterization of a DFMEA assessment were related to the external failure cost that can be expected should the failure mode be experienced. Severity and occurrence rankings established the costliness and the extent of each failure. Characterization of the costs associated with each severity ranking followed Harpster (2005).\nCost consequence scale development: The Monte Carlo simulation produced a set of distributions of the costs that can be expected for each severity level (in the grouping of Safety/Legal, Return/No Buy, and conditional response) at every level of occurrence. Using fuzzy set techniques, a membership function assigned locations on a nine-point ordinal scale (2 to 10) to these costs based on their measure of central tendency (S=1 and O=1 would not lead to a CoQ hit (refer to Tables I and II). These values were therefore not included in the cost consequence rank development). A matrix was developed from this that relates the severity rank value on one axis to the occurrence rank value on another. The cost scale values formed the field of the Cartesian space allowing an FMEA team to determine the cost rank given the severity and occurrence ranks that have been assigned to the failure mode. The matrix is presented in the next section.\nEstablishing cost consequence ranking using Monte Carlo simulations: Using the CoQ parameters described above, Monte Carlo simulations were set-up to establish the cost consequences of failures at the three severity levels conditioned response, Return/No buy, and Safety/Legal. At each severity level, the occurrence value was indexed from O=2 through to O=10. For severity rankings in the Return/No buy and the Safety/Legal portions of the chart, every claim invoked replacement costs, sorting costs, and warranty fees. Every 0 kilometer return led to an NCT (non-conforming ticket) charge and the assessment of FA costs. For severity rankings in the Safety/Legal zone, legal fees were also included. The conditioned response values differed in that no sorting was performed and only 7 percent of the failed product was replaced.\nCost consequence scale development: Fuzzy utility\nCase study: validation of the model of cost consequence of failure mode: Warranty data were obtained for a field issue involving a failure of a component on an electronic module. This module was similar to the hypothetical product developed for the CoQ model described above. Three years of data on this issue showed that the component was failing in service (fusing open) at a frequency that roughly fit an occurrence ranking of \"4\" (i.e. C/1,000=0.099). Each year was evaluated discretely as the model assumes a one year window of service life. The warranty settlement arrived at between the supplier and the OEM for this product established that portion of the costs incurred in responding to the field issues that was to be assumed by the supplier. Those costs covered the cost of replacing the original modules and the labor costs for the replacement operation. For year 1, the total remittance paid by the supplier amounted to 0.037 percent of the sales of the modules. For year 2, the costs came to 0.065 percent of sales and in year 3, the figure was 0.060 percent.\nComparison of the model to the actual costs: The DFMEA ranking of the severity of fusing open at the circuit that carried this component was \"7\". The look-up table for the cost consequence of a failure mode of this severity with occurrence ranked at \"4\" gives the value of \"2\". The \"Crisp\" value assigned to a cost consequence ranking of \"2\" - 0.35 percent of sales - is an order of magnitude greater than the actual annual expenditures for the cost of external quality from the case study. This is not unexpected as the model includes cost considerations other than warranty expenditures alone.\nConcluding remarks: Using FMEA to develop an understanding of the seriousness and the likelihood of a failure of a product or process is well established. Identifying the costs of such a failure would add a new dimension to this understanding. A sense of the pecuniary risk inherent in the product design would then be available to the team to inform the decisions to undertake mitigation actions. This study attempted to develop the ranking scale relating the costs of external failures to the severity and occurrence ranking of a DFMEA.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to investigate the possibility of including the cost consequence of failure in the a priori risk assessment methodology known as failure mode and effect analysis (FMEA).\nDesign/methodology/approach: A model of the standard costs that are incurred when an electronic control module in an automotive application fails in service was developed. These costs were related to the Design FMEA ranking of the level of severity of the failure mode and the probability of its occurrence. Monte Carlo simulations were conducted to establish the average costs expected for each level of severity at each level of occurrence. The results were aggregated using fuzzy utility sets into a nine-point ordinal scale of cost consequence. The criterion validity of this scale was assessed with warranty cost data derived from a case study.\nFindings: It was found that the model slightly underestimated the warranty costs that accrued, but the fit could be improved with adjustments dictated by actual usage conditions.\nResearch limitations/implications: Cost data used in the simulations were derived from government and academic surveys, analyses, and estimates of the manufacturing cost structure; and nominal costs for various quality issues experienced by Tier 2 automotive electronics supplier. Specificity is lacking. The sample size and the type of the failure modes used to validate the model are constrained by the number and type of products which have had demonstrable performance concerns over the past three years, with cost data available to the authors. The power of the validation is limited. The validation is considered a screening assessment.\nPractical implications: This work relates the characterization of risk with its potential cost and develops a scaling instrument to allow the incorporation of cost consequence into an FMEA.\nOriginality/value: A ranking scale was developed that related severity and occurrence rank scores to a cost consequence rank that keys to a cost of quality figure (given as percent of sales) that would accompany a realization of the failure mode.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Quality parameters of freeze-dried peach snack
|
[
"Image",
"Quality",
"Freeze drying",
"Image analysis technique"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: Peaches are a seasonal fruit, usually harvested when they reach maturity. Fruits picked before physiological maturity will not ripe satisfactorily and will be smaller, very firm in texture, with low sugars, reduced flavour and colour, while those harvested at a more mature stage will be softer, higher in sugar and water content (Gupta and Jawandha, 2010; Fernandez-Trujillo et al., 2000). This will lead to a higher perishability and a rapid softening during shelf life affecting quality parameters and consumers acceptance (Crisosto et al., 2004; Crisosto and Neri, 2006; Ferrer et al., 2005).\n2. Material and methods: 2.1 Sampling and freeze-drying process\n3. Results and discussion: 3.1 SEM\n4. Conclusions: In order to increase consumption of peach and to decrease wasting fruit, freeze-drying methods are an excellent option to increase shelf life of peach and to maintain its quality. In order to have good quality in peach snacks, it was necessary to reach an initial approach to the effect of freeze drying on the fruit storing. On the other hand, image analysis was a technique that allowed reaching a quick approach on texture parameters on colour and physicochemical parameters to evaluate quality.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The causes of food waste or loss are numerous and occur at the stages of production, processing, retailing and consumption. Peaches must be processed quickly to maintain their quality because they are seasonal and their shelf life is short. The purpose of this paper is to evaluate the effect of freeze drying on quality parameters of stored peaches in order to increase shelf life, consumption and to decrease waste of fruit.\nDesign/methodology/approach: Samples were ripped on maturity time, stored for 16 days and sampled out and freeze-dried at every four-day interval. Microstructure was carried out by applying scanning electron microscopy, texture and colour parameters by image analysis techniques and physicochemical parameters by conventional analysis.\nFindings: Statistical differences (p<0.05) were obtained of colour and texture (stored and freeze-dried rehydrated samples) and for water activity and porosity (freeze-dried samples). Results revealed that after 12 days of storage/freeze, dried peach snacks showed lower pore size with higher amounts of pore, which affected rehydration process leading to a harder sample. Colour was also affected leading to a darkener fruit.\nOriginality/value: This research incorporates a quick approach to quality applying image analysis techniques and it will benefit to increase shelf life and consumption of fat-free snack peach and to decrease waste of fruit.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
Breaking the triple lock: further education and transformative teaching and learning
|
[
"Critical pedagogy",
"Further education",
"Adult education",
"Digital methodology",
"Transformative teaching and learning"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nThe context of further education in the UK: In this paper, we will present data from the UK Further Education Transforming Lives project (Duckworth and Smith, 2018) to provide a sharp focus to theorise what shapes transformative teaching and learning (hereafter TTL) in further education. After providing an overview of the current further education context in the UK, we will explore a range of data from the project and discuss how TTL can be a powerful and meaningful framework for conceptualising teaching and learning that prioritises the agency, needs and the dignity of students.\nThe current further education context in England: Arguably, further education providers have borne the brunt of the operationalisation of this skills discourse. Further education seems particularly vulnerable to the influence of the global knowledge production and policy-think of international organisations like the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). Through both the Programme for the International Assessment of Adult Competencies and the Programme for International Student Assessment--further education becomes \"measurable\" through what Grek (2008) calls the \"new technology of the governance of the European education space through indicators and benchmarks\" (p. 215). Despite the ideological dominance of this neoliberal skills discourse in further education policy which reifies it as a key part of a national skills \"delivery\" mechanism, there has been a reduction in government funding for colleges in the last decade. This is in large part due to the adoption by the Coalition Government of \"austerity\" measures in the period 2009-2014 and further education's vulnerability to these as a consequence of incorporation (Smith, 2017). During this period, funding for adult courses was reduced by around 35 per cent (University and College Union, 2015) while at the same time there was a redirection of finance towards apprenticeships. What has not changed significantly is a longstanding competitive funding environment (Smith, 2007, p. 43) that has been heavily criticised for leading to \"spoon-feeding\", \"gaming\" and a narrowed curriculum (O'Leary and Smith, 2012; Smith and O'Leary, 2013; Wolf, 2011).\nTheoretical framework: The key conceptual tool we aim to develop in this paper is a contextualised concept of TTL environments. Other literature (see e.g. Hoggan, 2016) discusses the significance of transformative learning theory and the critical debate that the concept has engendered. In this paper, we will outline the key aspects of TTL environments and ground them in the current context of further education as outlined above.\nConnecting critical pedagogy to research methodology: Before moving on to explore some of our data we will first outline the methodological approach we adopted for the study. Drawing on feminist perspectives, we sought to avoid the distinction between \"objective\" and \"subjective\" pointers of human action and challenge the value neutrality stance of positivistic social science. Rather than seeing science and rationality as privileged forms of knowledge, personal experiences and the value of these were essential in redefining the notion of \"objectivity\" to \"strong objectivity\" (see Harding, 1991). A key drive being to provide the environment and tools to facilitate students to celebrate their ways of knowing and doing. To do this we actively drew on a praxis-orientated philosophical stance that involved the participants and the local and wider community in the research process (Habermas, 1987, p. 89). Importantly, praxis is distinctive in that its clear purpose is to empower marginalised people and help them to challenge their oppression. As such our approach grew out of the background of the researchers in critical literacy education (Freire, 1996; Gee, 2004; Breunig, 2005). That informed the care that we took to frame research conversations (we use this phrase in preference to the term \"interviews\") to foster a sense and drive for equality between the participants and the researchers. These research conversations usually took place in the further education setting where participants were studying; however, if family members took part in the conversations we were invited into the learners home. Reciprocity was also important: we shared our own stories to establish openness and informality acknowledging that the research aspect of what we were doing was one part of a broader social encounter.\nThe research conversations provided opportunities to enact and document what Tedder and Biesta refer to as \"narrative learning\": By narrative learning we mean that learning can take place as a result of articulating stories from one's life, through the process of talking about and reflecting on life experiences [...](Tedder and Biesta, 2009, p. 89).In this way, the research conversations were positioned as an extension of the TTL experiences that were the central concern of the project. The project data, a series of rich narratives from students, teachers, employers and students' family members, were shared via a project website. A YouTube channel[1] and Twitter account[2] were further features of a multi-faceted digital platform that, together, interacted to broaden the reach of the project and to house a critical space which garnered further contributions in the form of written accounts, photographs and artefacts from a growing project audience.\nEthics: The use of video and the project website involved important ethical consideration. The project was scrutinised and passed by the Ethics Committees of both researchers' HEIs. We adhered closely to the British Educational Research Association (2011) ethical guidelines throughout the project offering all participants anonymisation at the recruitment stage, but as the focus was on the transformative qualities of their educational experiences, most wanted their real names to be used. Each video was edited and then shared with the participant prior to publication. Re-edits were undertaken at the participant's request. The emphasis throughout was on maintaining their dignity while presenting their stories in their own words. The stories of many were closely connected to particular colleges and even specific teachers. Where these were mentioned, we also sought permission to include these. The publication of videos on YouTube raised the issue of the need to remain aware of public comments and to respond, edit and delete these where appropriate.\nConclusions: The research this paper is based on sees us beginning to theorise TTL as an approach to teaching and learning that foregrounds the students' interests above the interplay of competing forces and contextual considerations in further education. Our research praxis involved a dedication to challenging the status quo and facilitating people from marginalised communities (and others from more privileged positions) to understand and recognise oppression and the impact of the structural inequalities of class, gender and ethnicity on learning and learning journeys. Our claim is not that all teaching and learning in further education colleges can be described as transformative but rather, that despite hegemonic structures and cultures (broadly underpinned by government policy) that incentivize a triple lock of student objectification, TTL is still taking place. It is important that this objectification is not understated. It equates to a compromising and an undermining of human dignity. Indeed, the notion of objectification has further ramifications linked to dehumanisation. In a discussion about the instrumentalisation of people and the implications of \"the use of a person\", Kaufman (2011) makes important points about what this means for their human dignity. If we subscribe to a belief in human dignity, that is, the inherent worth of all individuals (and policy documents that address social justice and equality suggest our current government does) then that must proscribe us from weighing the value of the individual in an algorithm of goods and values. Yet, the triple lock concept suggests that behind the further educational relationship between students and teachers lurks calculation and monetisation and (most importantly) that this has the potential to undermine any educational relationship that is founded on the safeguarding and enhancement of students' human dignity.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to explore data from the University and College Union (UCU) Further Education in England: Transforming Lives and Communities research project and through this the paper develops a distinctive, theorised conceptualisation of transformative teaching and learning (TTL).\nDesign/methodology/approach: The research used an approach grounded in critical pedagogy utilising digital methods, including video interviews, to collect narratives from learners, teachers, family members and their communities from colleges across Britain.\nFindings: Within a context in which there are structural pressures militating in favour of instrumentalising students in further education, TTL offers a way of theorising it as a transformative critical space that restores students' hope and agency. The research provides evidence of how further education offers this \"differential space\" (Lefebvre, 1991) and subverts the prescriptive, linear spaces of compulsory education. While productivist approaches to vocational education and training support ideologies that legitimate prescribed knowledge, reproducing inequality and injustice through the practices employed (Ade-Ojo and Duckworth, 2017; Duckworth and Smith, 2017b), TTL shifts to a more holistic approach, achieving a different level of engagement with students.\nPractical implications: The findings suggest that the TTL lens is a way of focusing on the dignity, needs and agency of further education students. The lens allows us also to identify how the existing structures associated with funding and marketisation can undermine the potential of TTL to activate students' agency through education.\nOriginality/value: Extending on existing literature around transformative learning, and drawing on a range of theoretical frameworks, the paper formulates a new, contextually specific conceptualisation of TTL.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
Consumer-small retailer relationships in Indian retail
|
[
"Service",
"Indian consumers",
"Relationship",
"Patronage behaviour",
"Small retailers",
"Assortment",
"Ambience"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Organized retail formats are making inroads in India. Increasing competition and entry of multinational retailers in organized retailing sector brings forth not only new store formats (Maronick and Stiff, 1985) but also raises the question of survival of traditional small retail (kirana) stores (Sengupta, 2008; Goswami and Mishra, 2009; Gopalakrishnan and Sreenivasa, 2009; Ramkrishnan, 2010). These small stores called \"kirana\" stores comprise of small retail outlets, which constitute a large share of Indian retail market.\nLiterature review: Conceptual framework\nResearch methodology: Research projects grow out of observational methods, as it provides valuable insights about a phenomenon (Hale et al., 2008). Schreiber et al. (1997) state that qualitative research focuses on:\nFindings and discussion: The sample consisted of 195 male respondents (60.7 per cent) and 126 female respondents (39.3 per cent). Table II shows the age break-up of consumer groups.\nManagerial implications: The unorganized retail sector contributes 10 per cent to India's gross domestic product (Ramkrishnan, 2010) and offers potential opportunities to companies in terms of clientele and sales. The findings are in tandem with earlier research which state that social interaction increases loyalty and affects consumer's patronage behaviour (Stinner et al., 1990; Han et al., 1998; Lee et al., 2008; Auh et al., 2008; Adeji et al., 2009). It increases retailers' understanding about consumers and helps in planning promotions and assortment range. The services and assortment would be planned to garner store patronage.\nFuture research directions: The research combined both exploratory and survey techniques. Future research can be undertaken to understand consumers' perception about service, credit facilities and assortment offered by local retailers. Small retailers can be segregated into family-owned stores and kirana stores to explore differences in consumers' perception. Research can be conducted to develop insights about small retail stores operation and marketing initiatives. The research did not consider influence of demographic factors like income, occupation and education on consumers' choice of store and patronage intentions. These factors are of vital importance in shopping behaviour and present different results. Consumers with low incomes may show a preference for small retail outlets due to credit facility and consumers in the high-income brackets may give importance to parking facilities, easy checkout and shopping cart facilities. There can be further research to understand the nature of difference between the age groups of consumers. This can provide interesting reasons as to why older and younger generation consumers' differ in choice of retail formats. The relationship and service dimensions can be examined from perception of different classes of consumers. The service variable could be further segregated into different categories to understand Indian consumers' expectation about it.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of the study was to understand influence of assortment, store facility, service and relationship on Indian consumers' small retailer patronage behaviour. The determinant of small retailer-consumer relationships was studied.\nDesign/methodology/approach: Indian consumers were contacted through retail stores intercept method and requested to participate in the survey (n = 321). The questionnaire was adapted from the research conducted by Lee et al. (2008) and modified (some items on relationship were added). ANOVA and multiple regression tests were used to analyze the data.\nFindings: The Indian consumers' prefer small retailers due to assortment, service, store facility and relationship. The older and younger populations differ in their reasons for preferring small retail stores. The results show that service and assortment influence consumer-small retailer relationships.\nPractical implications: The small retailers' can harness the relationship and social interaction attribute of their service package for defending their turf against organized retail. The fast-moving consumer goods companies can use the competitive strength of small retailers for increasing their distribution in the interiors of the country and understanding market demand.\nOriginality/value: There is limited research in India to understand competitive advantage of small retailers over organized retailing.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
On the importance of service performance and customer satisfaction in third-party logistics selection: An application of Kano model
|
[
"Customer satisfaction",
"Supply chain management",
"Kano model",
"Service performance",
"Third-party logistics (3PL)"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: Trends toward integrated logistics and globalization have changed the global business model (Kumar, 2007). As a central element, logistics have a large impact on the efficiency and overall cost of a supply chain (Shen and Chou, 2010; Chiang et al., 2011; Xu, 2011; Kumar et al., 2011). Aiming to be more competitive and deliver a higher value to customers, it is inevitable for manufacturers to mainly focus on their core competencies and outsource services that can be provided more efficiently or cost-effectively (Hwang et al., 2016; Rezaei Somarin et al., 2018). In other words, given the ever-increasing competition, heightened customer expectations, and supply chain network complexity, logistics outsourcing plays a vital role in the global distribution of products and services (Akbari, 2018; Kumar, 2007). Companies to which logistics activities can be outsourced are referred to as third-party logistics (3PL) providers (Tezuka, 2011).\n2. Literature review: 2.1 Third-party logistics\n3. Methodology: 3.1 Research process\n4. Results: The various studies published in this field show that 3PL selection is a complex and sophisticated process during which variables, based on which the decision will be made, must be selected, and that this choice will depend on the industry involved. In the first step, based on the views of experts plus findings from previous studies (Senthil et al., 2014; Li et al., 2012; Gol and Catay, 2007; Percin, 2009; Kannan, 2009), we produced a list of 24 possible criteria for 3PL selection in the automotive industry (see Table I).\n5. Discussion: The classification of those factors that the experts consider to influence the selection of 3PL companies in the automotive industry shows that they identify factors related to price, financial considerations, asset ownership, optimization capabilities, continuous improvement, technological innovation, investment management and inventory management as core (must-be) features. Of these factors, price (identified by 58 of the 86 respondents), optimization capabilities (49) and inventory management (47) were most frequently identified as important. In other words, these factors are generally seen as critical and needing to be evaluated when selecting 3PL companies. That is, 3PL providers will struggle to find clients if they do not perform well on these criteria.\n6. Conclusions: The aim of this study was to contribute to a better understanding of the importance of service performance and customer satisfaction in the selection of 3PL companies. Providing an empirical validation of contingency theory, we categorized these factors across three dimensions of the Kano model. To this end, 24 factors were extracted from various articles, and experts were asked their opinions as to which of these factors fell within each category.\n7. Limitations and future research directions: This study, as with any research, has its limitations. We undertook a cross-sectional study related to a particular time and place. Moreover, only experts in the automotive industry were surveyed, so caution should be applied when considering generalizing the results to other industries or countries. To widen the applicability, a similar study could be carried out in a broader population. Further, the research population could be expanded and generalized by including customers, employees, transport agents and 3PL companies.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: Developing strategic relationships with third-party logistics (3PL) providers has long been one of the key challenges in automotive supply chains. The purpose of this paper is to propose a new approach for evaluation and indexing 3PL providers using the Kano model.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The statistical population used in this research comprises managers from the Iranian automotive industry. The Kano evaluation approach is used to analyze the data collected and to classify the criteria used in selection of the preferred 3PL providers.\nFindings: The results suggest that the proposed framework, based on the Kano classification, can be a powerful tool for the automotive industry in evaluating 3PL providers. Moreover, the analyses indicate that 3PL providers need to improve their service offering in aspects that are to be found in the Kano model's requirements, namely, must-be, one-dimensional and attractive.\nOriginality/value: This study contributes to the supply chain management literature by being the first to classify selection indices of 3PL providers in the automotive industry using the Kano model.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
Characterization of raw egg and poultry handling practices among minority consumers: Identification of unique practices
|
[
"Consumer behavior",
"Culture",
"Food safety",
"Ethnic groups",
"Consumers risk"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: Foodborne illness remains an economic and public health burden (Scharff, 2012; Batz et al., 2012). Campylobacter spp. and Salmonella spp. are leading causes of foodborne illness in both the USA and the European Union (Anonymous, 2013; European Food Safety Authority and European Center for Disease Prevention and Control, 2015). The incidence of campylobacterosis and salmonellosis are 14.3 and 16.5 illnesses per 100,000 persons, respectively, and in the USA (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 2012) and 64.8 and 20.4 per 100,000 persons, respectively, in the European Union (European Food Safety Authority and European Center for Disease Prevention and Control, 2015). Both pathogens are commonly found on poultry and both Campylobacter-poultry and Salmonella-poultry were found to be among the top 10 pathogen-food combinations with the greatest public health burden (Batz et al., 2012; Painter et al., 2013). Additionally, Salmonella is known to be associated with eggs and Salmonella-eggs is also among the top ten pathogen-food combinations (Batz et al., 2012).\n2. Materials and methods: 2.1. Survey design\n3. Results and discussion: 3.1. Demographics\n4. Limitations and recommendations for future work: Limitations to this study include the fact that while the sampling methodology should have resulted with participant demographics similar to Philadelphia, PA, respondents were more likely to have, completed college or a graduate degree (43.86 percent) when compared to the same educational attainment of Philadelphia County (28.0 percent) (United States Census Bureau, 2011). Additionally, the results represent a relatively small sample size (415) in an urban area in the Northeastern US therefore results reported here may not be generalizable to consumers in other parts of the USA. Our sample size did not allow for analyses by income, education, or gender within ethnicity, so we are not able to rule out other causal relationships. It is possible that income or education could contribute in some way to the significant differences observed in this study. This may be further complicated by unequal distribution of income, education, and gender within ethnicity.\n5. Conclusions: This research demonstrates the importance of qualitative, formative research in identifying unique food handling practices among consumers. It also identifies a number of unique, potentially unsafe food handling practices among minority consumers as well as the common practice of washing raw poultry among consumers of all race/ethnicities. Based on findings presented here as well as other recent reports in the literature, it seems that there is a widespread need to better disseminate the safe food handling message that consumers should not wash raw poultry. There appears to be a misconception that washing poultry is the appropriate practice and there is a need for governmental and health agencies to better disseminate the message to not wash raw poultry. There is also a need to better understand how widespread the unique practices identified in this research are and determine if development of targeted food safety education materials is warranted. There may be a need to develop culturally relevant and targeted food safety education materials that would address the risk of cross-contamination from offals. Similarly, food safety education materials that address the risks for temperature abuse of a turkey that is cooked overnight may benefit those consumers who report this practice. Because these practices appear to be more prevalent among some minority consumers, development of such education materials may benefit from input from those consumers themselves so that messages are culturally relevant and most effective.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: Consumers of minority race/ethnicity in the US experience greater rates of foodborne illness, including Salmonellosis and Campylobacteriosis. Previous focus group research with minority consumers identified food handling and purchasing practices which might increase their risk for foodborne illness. The purpose of this paper is to determine whether practices identified in focus groups were common among a larger sample of the population.\nDesign/methodology/approach: A survey including focus group-derived, culturally themed questions about food handling was developed and administered. Phone surveys were administered in English, Spanish, and Chinese from September-November of 2011 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.\nFindings: Minority consumers were significantly more likely than Caucasian consumers (p\nResearch limitations/implications: This research surveyed consumers in a limited geographic area therefore results may not be generalizable to other geographic areas.\nOriginality/value: The existence of unique unsafe food handling practices among minority consumers highlights the need for researchers to understand food handling practices of minority consumers in their countries. It also highlights the need to develop culturally appropriate safe food handling messages for immigrant and minority consumers. Additionally there is a need to better advise all consumers not to wash raw poultry.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
Offline and online banking - where to draw the line when building trust in e-banking?
|
[
"Trust",
"Customer services quality",
"Electronic commerce",
"Banking"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Online banking, also commonly known as internet banking or e-banking, has experienced phenomenal growth in recent years. In 2006, Pew Internet and American Life Project reported that nearly half of internet users in the United States - 63 million adults - bank online (Fox and Beier, 2006). Nonetheless, the authors note that the growth rate in e-banking has not kept pace with that of internet usage and attribute this gap to the lack of trust among bank customers, particularly among internet users age 65 and older. News headlines about e-mail scams, identity theft, and \"phishing\" that undeservedly distort consumer perceptions may be one of several reasons why such a lack of trust persists (Gerrard et al., 2006).The authors of this study propose that this lack of trust can be overcome with a better understanding of factors that can boost customers' trust for e-banking. It is important for bank managers to understand that trust has to be developed and they can do so with a combination of traditional and online measures. This proposition is particularly pertinent in the current context because e-banking features prominently in the corporate strategy of many retail banks. The long-term savings in operating costs more than offsets the massive start-up cost (investment in technology combined with marketing expenditure).However, banks are increasingly faced with a perceived conundrum: customers may appreciate the convenience of e-banking but as they migrate away from traditional banking, the extent of personal interaction with bank staff decreases as does the switching cost and ultimately long-term customer commitment (Sarel and Mamorstein, 2003). Yet, such a conundrum exists only because bank managers view traditional and online banking as mutually exclusive or substitutable. This view is also evident in the conceptualisation of academic research in this area because many researchers who investigate trust in the e-banking context have limited the scope of their study to constructs that concern only virtual attributes or the internet.The authors of the current study do not adopt such a perspective and concur with Wong et al. (2008) who view traditional and online banking as complementary methods of banking. Heeding their call for further research in this area, the authors of this study will investigate the role of brick-and-mortar and virtual elements in developing trust for e-banking. Three constructs are of particular interest: the attributes of the bank offering e-banking services, the quality of traditional banking service, and the features of the e-banking web site. There are no studies to date accounting for both virtual and non-virtual constructs in a model of e-banking adoption; thus, this study makes such a contribution by examining the interaction of both elements in predicting trust for e-banking.Any valid explanation of how trust for e-banking is developed would be amiss to neglect these virtual and non-virtual constructs because the customer experience is integrated and he/she may not view e-banking in isolation from the entirety of benefits that a bank's service provides. Research findings by Patricio et al. (2003) suggest that satisfaction with the bank's traditional service delivery may lend credence to new or alternative delivery channels. Findings from other studies prompt the authors of this study to also consider the role of the bank's size and reputation in developing customer confidence in its e-banking service (Doney and Cannon, 1997; Jarvenpaa et al., 2000; Chen and Dhillon, 2003). Moreover, there is sufficient evidence for the authors of this study to propose that a customer's impression of an e-banking web site influences his/her trust towards it (Koufaris and Hampton-Sosa, 2004; Hampton-Sosa and Koufaris, 2005; Casalo et al., 2007; Vatanasombut et al., 2008). There is still a lack of knowledge on how these constructs interact in the development of trust for e-banking.It is important for bank managers to understand how trust for e-banking develops. Gan et al. (2006) predict that e-banking is necessary for banks to stay profitable in the future; however, the aforementioned \"trust gap\" is a barrier to growth in the adoption of e-banking services. Vatanasombut et al. (2008) suggest that the formation of trust for e-banking will help convert non-adopters, particularly those for whom fears about using the online service is a key inhibiting factor. Customer retention is also at stake: Morgan and Hunt's (1994) trust-commitment theory purports that trust leads to commitment in relationships. If trust for e-banking is developed over time, then the customer is more likely to adopt it as a complementary service delivery channel. This adoption, in turn, raises defection costs and the customer will become more committed to the bank (Mukherjee and Nath, 2003; Vatanasombut et al., 2008).\nLiterature review and theoretical framework: Trust in e-banking\nMethodology: To test the conceptual model, a cross-sectional survey was administered using an instrument containing 89 items. The 89 items used were adapted from established scales from past studies measuring respondents' expectations, perceptions and attitudes regarding the service quality of their primary bank, perceptions of the size and reputation of their primary bank, perceptions of the bank's e-banking web site attributes, their trust in their primary bank's e-banking web site, and their willingness to it. Great care was taken when adapting the scales to ensure that the original concepts being measured by the scale had theoretical congruence and relevance to this study. Each item is measured on a seven-point Likert scale with \"0\" denoting the low end and \"6\" the high end. The questionnaire was then pre-tested on a convenience sample of university staff. Refinements to the questionnaire were made based on feedback from the pre-test. All items in the final instrument were then reviewed by marketing academics for content validity.Measures\nResults: Factor analysis\nDiscussion and implications: The results of this study suggest that traditional service quality plays a more important role in influencing trust in e-banking than does the size of the bank. This finding adds some depth to the e-banking literature because past studies examining attitudes and behaviours towards online banking have confined their investigation to antecedents and cues emanating from the same medium of service delivery (Alzola and Robaina, 2005). The association between traditional service quality and attitudes and behaviours towards traditional counter service banking has been well established (Zeithaml et al., 1996; Fassnacht and Kose, 2007; Yap and Sweeney, 2007); nonetheless, the customer experience goes beyond traditional counter service and now encompasses alternative media of service delivery. It is timely to consider the influence of traditional service quality on online service offerings and the findings from this study has taken the important first step in this direction.While the proposition of e-banking is to provide banking services at the convenience of the customer's desktop; e-banking is not independent of traditional service. For customers who are new to e-banking, they often rely on bank counter staff to explain the features of e-banking, help set up the e-banking account and password, resolve problems with the e-banking web site, and provide clarification, follow-up, or supplementary services to e-banking transactions. Such services provided at the counter become more salient if a customer lacks the level of knowledge or trust required to adopt e-banking. The finding that traditional service quality has a direct influence on trust in e-banking is consistent with such anecdotal examples. Moreover, this finding is parallel to the work of Semijin et al. (2005), which found that in e-commerce, offline fulfilment was just as important as online service quality.The lack of a significant relationship between bank size and trust in e-banking is a result that whilst not expected does not directly contradict the literature. Past findings regarding size and trust have been with the view of size and its effect on the dimension of interpersonal trust (Doney and Cannon, 1997), and not the institutional trust that is defined in this study. The authors of this study aptly propose that the confidence that customers derive from receiving good service at the bank's branch will outweigh any potential structural assurance that customers infer from dealing with a large bank.Results also show that bank size only comes into play when customers assess the reliability of the service before trusting the e-banking web site. A negative moderating effect on the reliability-trust relationship implies that a larger bank has to work harder to provide a reliable service in order to build sufficient trust in e-banking. It also implies that for smaller banks, service reliability takes on an even greater importance in building customer trust for its e-banking service. The authors of this study propose that if service at the branch is poor, the size of bank cannot be relied upon to build trust. It is plausible that customers have even higher service reliability expectations of a larger bank and if it fails to deliver, customers will tend not to trust its e-banking service. This finding reiterates the notion that size does not matter.Findings on the influence of a bank's reputation are mixed and suggest that there is some hierarchy to which service quality dimensions have a greater influence on trust in e-banking. Wong et al. (2008) reported the expectations ranking of service quality dimensions in the following order: Reliability (highest expectations), Assurance, Responsiveness, Tangibles, and Empathy (lowest expectations). The result of this study point to the possibility that lower-order traditional service quality dimensions, such as empathy and responsiveness, are not applicable in building trust. In these circumstances, bank reputation has a direct influence on trust. Higher-order service quality dimensions such as reliability and assurance then become more salient than the bank's reputation in building trust. It is plausible that customers look for service reliability and assurance cues in particular to provide the structural assurance required to trust e-banking. After all, the customer would like to know that the bank can at least consistently deliver on its promises and can do so dependably.Reliability and assurance cues of service at the branch are most pertinent to e-banking because it is the necessary requirement of an effective e-banking service. As customers migrate to e-banking, the bank can no longer provide the kind of empathetic, responsive, and tangible service that staff at a branch can provide. These cues then become so important in forming structural assurance that the reputation of a bank becomes no longer relevant. The extent to which a bank's reputation provides structural assurance only goes so far as certain expectations of service quality are fulfilled. This finding is consistent with the proposition that traditional service quality is critical in building trust in e-banking, particularly in areas of service reliability and assurance.The examination of the influence of e-banking web site attributes on trust revealed that only the attributes that give customers a sense of confidence are salient. This finding is consistent with the findings relating to service quality. Customers want to be given a sense of security or reliability before trusting this technology, which is a notion supported by Suh and Han (2003). Given that the items which coalesced into the Confidence dimension primarily relate to a consumer's confidence in communicating with the web site, the results imply that banks should ensure that users are given clear indications of the actions of what the web site is doing at all times, with clear indications as to the timing and security of actions performed on the web site, so as to ensure customer confidence with the e-banking web site.Finally, the relationship between trust in e-banking and willingness to adopt it are not surprising as it concurs with findings by Liu et al. (2005). Customers who are willing to trust e-banking can then adopt it with less apprehension about reliability and security concerns that may relate to the web site. Researchers and managers should view trust as a predisposition to behaviour or behavioural intentions towards e-banking and perhaps other technological service offerings.Managerial implications\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: - The purpose of this paper is to examine the role of situation normality cues (online attributes of the e-banking web site) and structural assurance cues (size and reputation of the bank, and quality of traditional service at the branch) in a consumer's evaluation of the trustworthiness of e-banking and subsequent adoption behaviour.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - Data were collected from a survey and a usable sample of 202 was obtained. Hierarchical moderated regression analysis was used to test the model.\nFindings: - Traditional service quality builds customer trust in the e-banking service. The size and reputation of the bank were found to provide structural assurance to the customer but not in the absence of traditional service quality. Web site features that give customers confidence are significant situation normality cues.\nPractical implications: - Bank managers have to realise that good service at the branch is a necessary condition for the promotion of e-banking. They cannot rely on bank size and reputation to \"sell\" e-banking.\nOriginality/value: - This is the first study that examines how traditional service quality and a bank's size and reputation influences trust in e-banking.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Organizational transformation and higher sustainability management education: The case of the MBA Sustainability Management
|
[
"Leadership",
"Sustainability",
"Sustainability management",
"Higher management education",
"Sustainability transformation"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: An increasing body of academic literature emphasizes the urgent need for businesses to become more sustainable. This is supported by calls from international organizations (e.g. the United Nations, see UN Global Compact's Principles for Responsible Management Education) and political institutions (e.g. the EU, see European Union EU/SEC, 2008), as well as by university and business school associations (e.g. EABIS, see Ashridge, 2009), encouraging educators to address the issue of sustainability more seriously in their management programs.\n2. Literature review: 2.1 Sustainability in business and management education\n3. Research methodology: This exploratory study uses a mixed method approach (Wiles et al., 2008, p. 14), with an emphasis on action research to examine the single case study in depth over a long period. In this case analysis, one author was closely involved in the developmental process, whereas the other author, visiting the institution for one and a half years in this time period, observed, took field notes and conducted open interviews with different members of the organization to collaborate and cross-examine the data obtained from the case study. In addition, documents and other published materials such as Web sites, the sustainability report and other external reports documenting the development were analyzed from a leadership perspective. The authors exchanged their observations to increase data reliability.\n4. Steps and actors in the sustainable development process of the university: The case university, founded after the Second World War, is situated at the edge of a small picturesque, medieval town in Germany. After > 50 years of growth, the state government discussed a closure of the university in 2001/2012 as part of the state's university program to restructure higher education, but after some local political resistance, they decided to rather merge it with a University of Applied Sciences in 2003. In 2006, a new presidential team developed a fundamental turnaround strategy to restructure and reposition the organization. Currently, the university has around 10,000 students, four faculties (one on sustainability), 400 academics of which 150 are professors and 150 administrative staff members. In Germany, the university is considered to be medium-sized, and it has won various prizes for its innovative curricula and university strategy and initiatives, as well as is gaining prizes for being a sustainable university (for such a case see Beringer, 2007).\n5. Case analysis: 5.1 Categorization and phases of sustainability transformation\n6. Conclusions: A structured strategic approach to the transformation of higher education institutions toward sustainable development needs bottom-up support and may even first require a basis of bottom-up initiatives. The case study illustrates that leadership through management of internal and external information and people may precede management through action. The case also shows that the establishment and development of business education for sustainability, such as the sustainability MBA program, is possible without the integration of university-level commitment and collaboration, but remains vulnerable when relying on only one chair. The case, furthermore, shows that an innovative development of higher sustainability management education is possible (and maybe even easier) without the involvement of the business school or initiatives by top management. The establishment of fully integrated higher sustainability management education, however, would require a close link between the university and the faculty to co-develop and coordinate the program and to develop the curriculum. Depending on the leadership priorities of top management, however, the operational management environment can also become more difficult, imposing bureaucratic costs and demotivation, rather than creating support.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: This paper aims to investigate the roles of leadership in enabling sustainability transformation of universities and higher sustainability management education. It advocates research into the role of leadership for a university's sustainability transformation by exploring interactions between university members and institutional contexts.\nDesign/methodology/approach: Using a case study approach, this study explores the sustainability transformation of a university and its influence on the MBA Sustainability Management by applying Mintzberg's leadership framework.\nFindings: The findings suggest that leaders can strongly influence a process of change in mindsets, practices and curricula to incorporate sustainability into higher business education institutions. Whereas bottom-up leadership initiatives are crucial, leadership support from top management is seen as important to enable larger, more radical steps of transformation.\nOriginality/value: It is worthy noting that in the medium run strategic leadership to develop good sustainability management education programs requires a consistent institutional commitment for sustainability.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
Funding of university spin-off companies: a conceptual approach to financing challenges
|
[
"Finance",
"Entrepreneurialism",
"Universities",
"Venture capital"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Following US trends, there has during the last decade been an increasing focus on commercialization of knowledge and technology from European universities and research institutions (Lockett and Wright, 2005). Policymakers have tried to shape incentives for universities and research institution in order to increase the commercialization focus, and many countries have implemented legislation similar to the Bayh-Dole Act from the US, transferring ownership of publicly funded research from academics to the university. These incentives have expanded the role of the university and lead to implementation of technology transfer offices (TTOs) at many universities in order to handle intellectual property and commercialization activities. This has proven effectively in enhancing the commercialization activity, especially regarding patenting and licensing schemes (Shane, 2004b).Licensing has traditionally been the dominant route for commercialization of public sector intellectual property (Lockett et al., 2005). This has enabled universities and academics to capitalize on technological inventions without having to commit large amounts of time and resources and being subject to \"commercial\" noise (Lockett and Wright, 2005). However, there has lately been a substantial rise in the creation of university spin-off companies (USOs) (Lambert, 2003). USOs have shown to be important vehicles to commercialize public sector intellectual property that is not easily patented or transacted via a license agreement. In addition, universities increasingly view equity ownership in USOs that create wealth as an attractive alternative compared to licensing in embryonic industries (Siegel et al., 2003). Therefore, ownership of equity in USOs may increase the potential upside for universities (Lockett and Wright, 2005). New technology-based firms are commonly known to be resource constrained, and need to obtain external financing in order to pursue their opportunities (Shane and Cable, 2002). The situation for USOs seems aggravated; TTOs in Europe report their ability to obtain financing as the most dominant factor impeding USO creation (Wright et al., 2006).In this article we claim that financing obstacles for USOs can be explained from the central problems of uncertainty, information asymmetry and opportunism in the form of agency cost. The article presents a conceptual model illustrating financing challenges met by USOs, and provide an explanation why technology transfer offices report obtaining financing as the biggest impediment for creating USOs. Two different theoretical perspectives back this conceptual development:1. Knightian uncertainty; and2. agency theory.The conceptual model is also backed by findings in existing empirical literature focusing on the development of USOs i.e. by looking at characteristics of technologies leading to spin-off creation, implications with universities as a commercialization partner, and a study of venture capitalists attitudes towards USOs. This main aim with this article is to contribute to academics' and stakeholders' understanding of the underlying mechanisms hindering creation and development of USOs. By understanding this, more efficient public policy programs to improve the situation for USOs could be designed.This paper is organized as follows. First, we present our conceptual model for the financing situation for USOs. Second, we define the term university spin-off company before adopting Knightian uncertainty and agency theory as our theoretical framework for this study. We also provide a clear understanding of how certain factors of these perspectives influence investor's willingness to fund new companies. Third, we review literature indicating increased financing challenges for USOs, and fit this into our theoretical framework. Finally, we draw conclusion, and include implications of our results for different stakeholders.\nA conceptual model for funding of USOs: USOs are a subset of entrepreneurial companies. They can be defined as (Callan, 2001; Lockett and Wright, 2005; Wright et al., 2006):* any new company which licenses or otherwise make use of intellectual property from a university or public research institute;* any new company in which a university or national laboratory has made an equity investment; or* any new company directly established by the public research institution.Such companies are usually high-technology companies, with radical inventions forming the basis for their intellectual property (Shane, 2004a). TTOs from European universities report their ability to obtain finance from venture capital firms as the most important (Wright et al., 2006). Access to other types of financing also figures highly, with seven among the ten most important factors. The same study also showed that TTOs generally consider risk capital like venture capital as the most likely source of financing for USOs.Van Osnabrugge and Robinson (2000) provides a model of the main providers of external finance throughout the evolution of an entrepreneurial firm (see Figure 1).The horizontal axis shows the stage of development for the entrepreneurial firm, ranging from seed to established, while the vertical axis shows level of investment risk assumed by investor. As we see, the level of risk reduces as the firm moves into later stages of development. Reduced risk normally means that the problem concerning securing financing reduces.Adopting Van Osnabrugge and Robinson (2000) model, we present a new model of main providers of external finance for USOs (Figure 2).This model is meant to explain why USOs experience such problems in obtaining external financing despite their high-performing nature, and is more suitable for the characteristics of such companies. As we see, this model demonstrates a financing gap, which was not present for in the model of Van Osnabrugge and Robinson's. The gap arise when the characteristics of the company's distinctive character changes from risky to uncertain, and/or the cost of investment increases, forcing the providers of risk capital to slide horizontally into later stages of development to meet their demands for yield on equity investments.The shift from risk to uncertainty arises because of the unique characteristics of technologies leading to USO creation, and how investors perceive such companies. The high level of uncertainty makes it difficult for investors to make rational decisions about the investment proposal. This will most likely lead to rejection of the investment proposal, simply because the investor does not dear to invest in a project with such a level of uncertainty, and the entrepreneur is forced to reduce this uncertainty before facing the investor again.The shift in stage of development is caused by the increased cost of investment for the investor. This change arise either because investors are unfamiliar with USOs, the commercialization of university technology, or having to deal with universities as a commercialization partner. Investors are far from solely liable for this situation, as universities often fail to make their spin-offs investment ready. The consequence for USOs is nonetheless problems obtaining external finance to develop the company further. The cost of investment for the investor will most likely make the investor reject investment proposals in their early stages, simply because the expected return of the project cannot justify the high costs. As a result of this, the USO is not faced with many alternatives. The result is that the extreme levels of uncertainty and cost of investment rises to a point where no financial source is available for the USOs. This increased cost results in a market failure, leading to a collapse in the formation of such companies.\nTheoretical backing: Two different but linked theoretical perspectives back the model presented. The first is the distinction between risk and uncertainty, as introduced by Knight (1921). Knight's work has later developed into a growing agreement that entrepreneurial activity takes place under conditions of uncertainty, while non-entrepreneurial activity takes place under risk (Alvarez and Busenitz, 2001; Loasby, 2002; Alvarez and Barney, 2005; Alvarez, 2007). Second comes agency theory, which has emerged as the dominant theory for explaining entrepreneur-investor relationships (see Amit et al., 1990; Sahlman, 1990; Sapienza and Gupta, 1994). Most research has focused on the contract concerning venture capital and the post-investment involvement of the investor, both in terms of control mechanisms and value-adding activities. In fact, all financial contracts respond to the three central problems of uncertainty, information asymmetry and opportunism in the form of agency cost (Gilson, 2003), which are all central elements of agency theory. This also links agency theory to the concept of uncertainty.Risk vs uncertainty (Knightian uncertainty)\nBacking from empirical studies: We will now examine if USOs really are subject to greater uncertainty and cost of investment, through an examination of previous empirical studies.Unique characteristics of technologies leading to USO creation\nConclusion and implications: Our review of existing literature shows that USOs are subject to very high levels of uncertainty and cost of investment (Table III). This is due to the unique characteristics of technologies leading to the formation of USOs compared to licensing agreements, difficulties with the university as a commercialization partner, and venture capitalists attitudes towards USOs compared to other investment proposals they screen.Our theoretical examination suggests that increasing levels of uncertainty affects the investor's willingness to fund new companies in a negative way. Through our literature review, we also found clear indications for the increased uncertainty USOs are faced with. It is therefore naturally to conclude that investors are more reluctant to invest in USOs because of the level of uncertainty compared to other entrepreneurial companies.The same goes for cost of investment. We argue that increasing cost of investment affects the investor's profitability connected to investing in new companies in a negative way, and also find indications for substantial increase in cost of investment connected to USOs. We have also argued that increasing cost of investment will make investors seek investments over a shorter period of time to get the required rate of return to justify these costs. Hence, as cost of investment increases, investors are driven into later stages of investment.These high levels of uncertainty and cost of investment affect the financing situation for USOs. It makes the supply and demand side of private risk capital slide away from each other, forming a financing gap for USOs. This indicates a finance gap and the result may be market failure, leading to formation of fewer USOs. This market constraint is unfortunate, and has implications for several stakeholders. First, it is unfavorable for governments since valuable inventions based on publicly supported research are left un-commercialized. Legislations enabling the transfer of ownership rights from publicly funded research to the universities have been introduced in many countries to enhance the commercialization activities from these institutions. These legislations has proven effectively in some countries, but are evidently not sufficient to fully obtain the social return publicly funded research is supposed to give (Shane, 2004b). It should therefore be in the public's interest to propose arrangements, which could limit or overcome these market constraints.A conceptual approach, as proposed in this article, will enable policy makers to assess whether incentives shaped to increase the commercialization activities at universities and public research institutions are sufficient in order to stimulate the formation of USOs. The main problem with public initiatives developed to support USOs is that they to a limited extent are based on a holistic understanding of the commercialization process of these companies. Second, universities miss out on valuable inventions that could result in monetary returns. These returns could again result in greater support for later university spin-offs and so on. In the long run, this could potentially make the university less dependent on public support. Knowing the levels of uncertainty USOs are faced with, universities could also somehow develop systems to help these projects overcome this uncertainty in their early stages. Third, regions miss out on valuable extended effects of spin-off activities from the university. These effects could potentially lead to enhance entrepreneurial activity in the region, which again could result in economic diversification and local job creation. Finally, private investors miss out on potentially exceptional high-tech companies, which could result in striking returns for private investors willing to invest in risky markets.\nLimitations and suggestions for further research: This study made a generalization of USOs as a homogenous group of companies, which is an oversimplification. Further research should address how different business models, types of resources and their institutional link affect USOs capital requirements and their problems raising the required capital. It is important that such research are also conducted outside the most visible high-technology clusters such as Boston and Silicon Valley in order to understand how local entrepreneurial environments could possibly be built.The relationship between universities and venture capitalists were also somewhat generalized. From our literature review, it seems clear that how well universities handle the transformation into a commercialization partner is of great importance for the development of USOs. How different commercialization strategies at universities affect the relationship to venture capitalists, and how this affects the financing of such companies should be further investigated. We have not identified any theoretical approach to bridge the financing gap for USOs, only programs built on earlier experiences. Having demonstrated the financing gap from a theoretical point of view, programs to bridge such a gap could also be developed with a theoretical approach. However, we have pointed out that public initiative in order to provide financial capital to USOs must base their operation in the earliest phases of life cycle of the USO. This article also point out that it could be questioned whether private-public partnerships are appropriate to stimulate the formation of USOs. Private sector capital will be tempted to invest at later stages when the degree of uncertainty is lower.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: - During the last decade, there has been an increasing focus on commercialization of knowledge and technology from universities. However, universities report financing as being the main impediment to successful university spin-off companies (USOs) creation, leaving valuable inventions un-commercialized. The purpose of this paper is to develop a conceptual model in order to explain financing challenges experienced by USOs.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - This paper presents a conceptual model illustrating financing challenges met by USOs, and provides an explanation why TTOs report that obtaining financing is their biggest impediment to spin-off creation. Two different theoretical perspectives back this conceptual development: Knightian uncertainty and agency theory.\nFindings: - This theoretical examination suggests that increasing levels of uncertainty affect the investor's willingness to fund new companies in a negative way. Through the literature review, clear indications were also found for the increased uncertainty with which USOs are faced. It is therefore natural to conclude that investors are more reluctant to invest in USOs because of the level of uncertainty compared with other entrepreneurial companies.\nResearch limitations/implications: - This study made a generalization of USOs as a homogeneous group of companies, which is an oversimplification. Further research should address how different business models, types of resources and their institutional link affect USOs' capital requirements and their problems in raising the required capital.\nOriginality/value: - The main contribution from this paper is the combination of theoretical insights from the concepts of Knightian uncertainty and agency theory. These combined with insights from previous empirical studies explain why USOs face specific challenges in order to raise risk capital.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Help me, I can't afford it! Antecedents and consequence of risky indebtedness behaviour
|
[
"Risky indebtedness behaviour",
"Perceived financial preparedness for emergencies",
"Financial services marketing",
"Consumer credit",
"Financial well-being"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Over-indebtedness affects the overall well-being of many individuals and leads entire households into financial difficulties and even bankruptcy in both developed countries (Kamleitner and Kirchler, 2006; Kamleitner et al., 2012) and so-called emerging markets (Flores and Vieira, 2014). Aiming to embrace \"marketing for a better world\", service marketing and transformative research (Anderson and Ostrom, 2015; Anderson et al., 2013) have called for studies investigating the interface among consumers' financial behaviours, financial services marketing and financial well-being. This study is part of a larger project on financial well-being that introduced the newly developed construct of a financial behaviour named \"risky indebtedness behavior\", i.e. the pervasive approach to life in which people repeatedly take on unaffordable debt levels and enter into delinquency, first defined by Abrantes-Braga and Veludo-de-Oliveira (2019) but not yet empirically addressed. In this study, we explore risky indebtedness behaviour in a real context of financial services and discuss its impact on marketing and consumers' financial well-being.\nBrazilian context: Over the past decades, Brazil has experienced a substantial and long-lasting credit expansion (Euromonitor, 2017; Ponchio et al., 2019) that has given more consumers access to credit, including some consumers who received credit for the first time. The experiences of other countries show that periods of fast credit growth are often related to increased fragilities (International Monetary Fund [IMF], 2013). These fragilities include arrears and delinquency because of high debt levels predominately from credit provided by credit cards, which may become more apparent during economic recession. Brazil's economy grew at a meagre pace of 1% annually in 2017 and 2018 and struggled to recover from a two-year recession in 2015 and 2016, in which the economy contracted by 7% (Gallas and Palumbo, 2019).\nBuilding the theoretical model: Our choice of variables constituting the theoretical model prioritized parsimony and assertiveness (Kline, 2005). Over a two-year period, we interviewed several financial experts from financial technology (FinTech) firms, credit card companies and banks, consumers and marketing scholars to understand how the indebtedness phenomenon could damage financial well-being and how it could be impacted by both well-known and understudied variables in the finance services marketing field. The qualitative data were analysed via a constant comparison method (Glaser and Strauss, 1967). Risky indebtedness behaviour was identified as a phenomenon of interest, and ideas intrinsically related to this concept that spontaneously emerged from the data were organized iteratively into categories of variables. The framework of Bruggen et al. (2017) served as the main theoretical guide to endorse the choice of variables that emerged from the qualitative data. This framework is an up-to-date and extremely helpful source for conceptualizing financial well-being and its key elements. This exercise ended with the conception of two new constructs beyond risky indebtedness behaviour (i.e. financial preparedness for emergencies and credit limit misconception) and the confirmation of the relevance of two known constructs (i.e. buying impulsiveness and anxiety towards money). Hence, after an exhaustive and systematic process of refinement supported by the literature, we constructed a five-variable parsimonious model that is reported (and tested) in this study and reveals unique elements presumably related to risky indebtedness behaviour and to each other.\nMethods: Sample and procedures\nResults: Structural equation modelling procedures\nDiscussion of findings: The results of this study will help shape a more coherent theoretical basis for financially destructive behaviours and how they impact marketing. We contribute to the existing literature by establishing links between the concept of risky indebtedness behaviour and relevant constructs that have not been empirically tested (i.e. financial preparedness for emergencies and credit limit misconception) and with extant constructs in the field (i.e. impulsive buying and anxiety towards money).\nImplications for consumers, marketers and financial well-being policy: In addressing the question of how consumers refrain from engaging in suboptimal spending, risky indebtedness behaviour and become prepared for any financial eventualities, several recommendations apply. Consumers have often been offered credit cards without enough instructions from the companies, which is a careless business practice because, for many consumers, the concepts of credit limits, revolving credit and compound interest rates are not easy to understand. With the advent of the age of information, individuals have been encouraged to embrace responsibility and take control of their financial lives (Eckhardt and Dobscha, 2019; Giesler and Veresiu, 2014; Ward and Lynch, 2018). Assuming that informed consumers make better decisions instead of passively relying on the information provided by financial institutions, consumers must actively take responsibility for themselves and search for pertinent information and guidance on how to sensibly use credit. This is an important way to tackle credit limit misconception, among other financial myths. Clearly, certain psychological characteristics render individuals more susceptible to poor financial decision-making. People with trait anxiety ought to be alerted to prevent impulsive buying and thus acquiring excessive levels of debt. This can be done, for instance, by avoiding having more than one credit card or shopping without a specific goal in mind (e.g. a shopping list previously planned; Bellini et al., 2017).\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: This study aims to develop and test a parsimonious theoretical model of risky indebtedness behaviour, a facet of over-indebtedness that refers to the behavioural tendency of often assuming hazardous debt levels.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The authors administered an online survey to credit card owners (n = 1,288) in an emerging economy in which consumer credit is characterized by extremely high interest rates (i.e. Brazil). The authors used covariance-based structural equation modelling to analyse the data and test for mediation effects.\nFindings: Individuals who inadvertently consider their credit limits a part of their current income or are typically anxious about money are prone to engage in impulsive buying and, consequently, risky indebtedness behaviour. By engaging in such indebtedness behaviour, individuals weaken their financial preparedness for emergencies, which potentially jeopardizes their overall financial well-being.\nResearch limitations/implications: As indebtedness is a highly sensitive issue, the self-report measures used may have produced social desirability bias.\nPractical implications: This study discusses the responsibility of financial institutions to support consumers in building awareness on how to adequately use financial services and to provide credit access to high-risk consumers. Policymakers need to ensure that those in the private sector play fairly.\nOriginality/value: This study adds new knowledge about how destructive financial behaviours operate and impact marketing and consumers' financial well-being. It theorizes about indebtedness by critically examining existing and newly developed concepts in the financial services marketing literature.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
The effect of social capital and knowledge sharing to the small medium enterprise's performance and sustainability strategies
|
[
"Performance",
"Knowledge sharing",
"Social capital",
"Small medium enterprise",
"Sustainability strategy"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: The concept of social capital was introduced by Bourdieu in the early 1980s, which means a whole good resources to actual or potential that can be owned by a person thanks to the existence of a network of institutional relations are well maintained. The definition of social capital concept refers to social relationships, institutions, social norms and trust between people or other groups, as well as having a positive effect on the improvement of the life of the community.\n2. Literature review: Drucker (1992) suggests that the key to success for improving the well-being and the quality of individual and group work in organizations is the discovery and deepening the knowledge possessed by each individual user. Perception of knowledge management is varied, but the main goal is to share and gain knowledge. Knowledge involves the collection, structuring, saving and accessing information to build knowledge. Hsien and Chien (2007) state that the creation and transfer of knowledge within an organization has become a very important factor in achieving success and excellence competitiveness of organizations.\n3. Research method: This research was conducted at Riau Province, one of the provinces in Indonesia that shares borders with Singapore and Malaysia. Riau Province is located in the heart of the island of Sumatra with a very strategic layout and is the center of commerce and education. The population in this study are all the perpetrators of the micro-, small- and medium-sized enterprises. Sampling is carried out using purposive sampling, and participants were owner or management-rank people in SMEs engaged in the trade and craft industry. Structural model in used in this research is shown in Figure 1.\n4. Result: The output of the structural model test is shown in Figure 2, and data interpretation from PLS output is shown in Table II.\n5. Discussion: Social capital development is one of the social resources that can be used as an investment to get other new resources. This is because social capital affects the strength of the community and societal basis in solving the problems that arise. Social capital will provide the impetus for the success of many parties because it can encourage self-help societies to achieve the maximum. Bourdieu stressed that social capital consists of two elements, namely, the social weave of allowing each member can be connected directly in the group, as well as the number and quality of resources the group members (Leksono, 2009, p. 38). This is related to the existence of a social network that encourages the emergence of norms of mutual reciprocity between certain members of the community that aim to help every member of the community to achieve personal goals or common purpose (the purpose of the community).\n6. Government policy: With the change in governmental system of centralization to decentralization, which creates regional autonomy, Riau Province Government generated policies to develop SMEs. In line with the regulation, there are several expectations from business owners to the local government. It is particularly about creating a situation and good economic conditions so that they could rapidly increase the development of business activities. Based on the results of a survey on SMEs, the expectations are as follows.\n7. Conclusion: The conclusions are as follows:\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The development of small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in Indonesia is one of the national economic development priorities. SMEs have given benefits for society, especially in creating a fair income distribution and supporting economic growth. This paper aims to examine and analyze the impact of social capital and knowledge sharing on the sustainability strategy and performance of SME and to formulate policies about SMEs in the future.\nDesign/methodology/approach: This research was carried out in Riau Province, which is the closest province to Malaysia and Singapore. The authors collected data from 56 SMEs in trading and craft industries by using the purposive sampling method. The data were analyzed using partial least square technique.\nFindings: The result of data analysis shows that social capital and knowledge sharing significantly affect the sustainability strategy of SMEs. Furthermore, sustainability strategy and knowledge sharing affects SME performance significantly, whereas social capital does not affect its performance.\nOriginality/value: A participatory approach (partial least square) was used, the location of the research was Riau Province, Indonesia and the participants in this study are the perpetrators of the micro-, small- and medium-sized enterprises. This method and location have not been considered in earlier studies.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Financial-services company drives out coaching inefficiencies: Now all suppliers are suited to today's fast-pace, high-change environment
|
[
"Coaching",
"Financial services",
"Value analysis",
"Organizational performance"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n__NO_TITLE__: An international financial-services company that had a scatter-gun approach to coaching began to wonder whether it was getting value from the money it was spending on around 50 coaches in the UK.\nStrategic coaching framework: The external provider worked with the talent-management and development consultant to set up a strategic coaching framework. Their decisions were based on analysis of the financial-services company's coaching processes and business needs, together with best practice from other top companies.The framework set out new standards for coaching at the company, including:* a more rigorous process for selecting and matching coaches;* a priority system to focus coaching where it could make the biggest difference;* tailored coaching competencies;* a commitment to bring line managers into coach contracting and review conversations; and* a system for measuring coaching to ensure it helped to achieve business goals.The framework was well received internally, but the talent-management and development consultant felt that implementing the framework could be more problematical.The most sensitive area was assessing the existing pool of coaches. Many of the financial-services company's UK coaches had long-established relationships with the firm. Both the talent-management and development consultant and the external contractor wanted assessment to be constructive for them.\nAssessment of coaches: The first step was an application process that pruned out coaches who were not committed to the assessment, or who lacked qualifications in a field relevant to coaching. This reduced the pool of coaches to 32. The external contractor then helped to set up a temporary assessment center where six coaches could be assessed each day.Coaches were asked to undertake three tasks at the assessment center:* a half-hour presentation on their coaching approach;* a 25-minute interview with an occupational psychologist; and* an hour-long coaching session that was observed remotely, considered alongside self-assessment from the coach and feedback by the person being coached.The whole assessment was grouped into a tight two-hour block in order to minimize waiting time for the coaches. At the end, coaches were scored on the three tasks by three separate panels made up of HR specialists and coaches. Then the three scores were triangulated to create an overall mark. Each coach was given detailed feedback about strengths and weaknesses. Several coaches who did not pass said that the process had nonetheless been useful to them.\nBetter matching of coaches to employees: Out of 32 coaches, 12 were selected to continue working with the financial-services firm. For the talent-management and development consultant, the day was a resounding success. Although he had been surprised at the varying standards in coaching demonstrated, he now felt confident that the financial-services firm had a pool of highly competent coaches who were suited to its business culture.Elsewhere, the changes brought about by the strategic coaching framework were simple to put in place. Now that the firm had a better picture of each coach, the process of matching coaches to staff became simpler and more effective. The firm was also able to ensure that the most skilled coaches were focused on areas that were most critical to business performance. Likewise, the procurement process became easier, with a simple fee structure based on tiers of coaching skill, and standardized contracts that set out cancellation and postponement charges.For the talent-management and development consultant, the biggest difference that the project made was to the reputation of coaching in the financial-services firm. It had previously been seen as something that happened behind closed doors. Now, all coaching programs have performance goals that are shared with line managers. Metrics record the percentage of goals achieved overall and link them to objective benchmarks.As a result, management no longer raises questions about whether the money the company spends on coaching is effective. Confidence in the firm's coaching is at an all-time high.\nNote: David Pollitt, Human Resource Management International Digest editor, wrote this article.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: - This paper aims to describes how the UK arm of an international financial-services group reformed its coaching to suit today's fast-pace, high-change environment.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - It explains why the coaching function needed to change, the reforms introduced and the results they have achieved.\nFindings: - It details how the number of coaches was reduced from 50 to 12 and how their performance was geared much more tightly to organizational needs.\nPractical implications: - The paper explains that a framework set out new standards for coaching, including: a more rigorous process for selecting and matching coaches; a priority system to focus coaching where it could make the biggest difference; tailored coaching competencies; a commitment to bring line managers into coach contracting and review conversations; and a system for measuring coaching to ensure it helped to achieve business goals.\nSocial implications: - It demonstrates how coaching can be made more effective, to the benefit of individual employees, their employer and, ultimately, society as a whole.\nOriginality/value: - The paper gives the inside story of coaching reform at a major financial-services firm.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Domain-specific market segmentation using a latent class mixture modelling approach and wine-related lifestyle (WRL) algorithm
|
[
"WRL",
"Domain-specific",
"Latent class",
"Lifestyle segmentation",
"Mixture modelling",
"Wine-related lifestyle"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Market segmentation has a longstanding history since Smith (1956) first suggested it as a product differentiating strategy to increase competitiveness, and has been widely acknowledged as a fundamental tool in understanding the behaviour of consumers (i.e. Dolnicar et al., 2016; Grunert et al., 2011; Roberts et al., 2014; Shukla et al., 2013). Identifiable segments provide the tool for better communication of product benefits with the target market. Hence, a marketing-oriented organisation attains its aspirations and objectives through a thorough understanding of customers' needs and wants. It undertakes intelligence gathering about its consumers and then creatively uses that intelligence by feeding the information back down its production chain (Kotler and Keller, 2012).\nConceptual background: Sound market segmentation offers the advantage of dividing the market into smaller, meaningful and relatively homogeneous consumer segments. Segmentation is the first step in the rational approach to segmentation-targeting-positioning (STP) that businesses adopt as a core aspect of their marketing strategy (Kotler and Keller, 2012). Moreover, \"a strategy of targeting specific segments can lead to competitive advantages in the marketplace and, in turn, superior financial performance\" (Hunt and Arnett, 2004, p. 8). The market offerings (4Ps) of a business can then be designed to meet the needs, wants, tastes and preferences of such segments (Dibb et al., 2002; Hunt and Arnett, 2004).\nMethod and data: The data for this study were collected through computer-assisted telephone interviewing (CATI) from a national database using randomly selected households in Sydney, Melbourne and Adelaide, representing Australia's main metropolitan wine markets. Trained interviewers collected the data using a maximum of five call-backs per household. A final sample size of 811 was achieved including refusals to participate, early terminations and no answers, giving a response rate of 11.4 per cent. Household members were first screened to identify the person who was the household's main wine buyer, and had purchased wine in the last three months prior to the interview. In this way, the most appropriate respondent from each household was identified.\nResults and discussion: Given the fact that segmentation by traditional k-means clustering has been found to be less useful (Bhatnagar and Ghose, 2004; Campbell et al., 2014; Dolnicar and Grun, 2008; Kim and Lee, 2011) than the more innovative alternative of mixture regression modelling, we used a latent class mixture modelling approach in this study. The latent class nature of the model allows for interdependence among alternatives across segments (Desarbo et al., 1992) and for lifestyle heterogeneity across segments (Kamakura et al., 1994). The heterogeneity in our sample is captured by assuming that there are k latent segments in the wine market (Bhatnagar and Ghose, 2004).\nConclusion, practical implications, limitations and future research: In this study, we embraced the principles of domain-specific market segmentation and the premise that the quality of a market segmentation strategy depends on the quality of the segmentation solution informing it (Dolnicar and Leisch, 2010; Van Raaij and Verhallen, 1994). Our findings offer empirical evidence for the conceptual meaningfulness and applicability of the WRL algorithm to a country's wine market. From a contribution viewpoint, our study is the first to use a mixture modelling approach using latent class in the wine (product) domain; to conduct discriminant sensitivity analysis on all WRL scale items; and, to test the WRL algorithm on a national basis. It also validates market segments and amends segment descriptions.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: Since the publication of Van Raaij and Verhallen's seminal work in European Journal of Marketing in 1994, identifying the domain-specific market segmentation approach as one of the most feasible for segmenting markets, there has been surprisingly limited development in this field, with the food domain as the only exception. This study aims to develop a methodological approach using latent class mixture modelling as contribution in the domain-specific market segmentation field.\nDesign/methodology/approach: This study captures the AIO lifestyle perspective using a domain-specific 80-item algorithm which has the wine (product) domain as its focus. A sample size of 811 consumers is used from data collected by means of the CATI approach.\nFindings: The authors use four criteria for model selection: comparison of the Bayesian information criterion (BIC) statistic, comparison of classification error, verification of the interpretation of the derived segments and, finally, use of the conditional bootstrap procedure to test whether the selected model provides a significant improvement over the previous model. The five-segment model option yields a minimum BIC, the classification error measure is minimal and is easier to interpret than the other models. Segment descriptions for the five identified lifestyle-based segments are developed.\nResearch limitations/implications: Segmentation by traditional k-means clustering has proven to be less useful than the more innovative alternative of mixture regression modelling; therefore, the authors identify segments in the market on the basis of individuals' domain-specific lifestyle characteristics using a latent class mixture modelling approach.\nPractical implications: Following the attainment of a clear and robust market segmentation structure, the simultaneous analysis of the lifestyles, demographics and behaviours of consumers as nexus of the domain-specific segmentation approach, provides rich and valid information accurately informing the market segment descriptions.\nOriginality/value: The authors make a substantive contribution by developing a methodological approach using latent class mixture modelling; the first of its kind in the area of domain-specific segmentation. Next, they use the discriminant and/or predictive validity of the 80-scale items to predict cluster membership using the WRL algorithm. Finally, the authors describe the identified market segments in detail and outline the practical implications.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
Complex transition and uncertain trajectories: Reflections on recent developments in police professionalism
|
[
"Policing",
"Police reform",
"United Kingdom",
"United States of America",
"Professionalism",
"Crime"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: police professionalism as contested territory: In the various narratives constructed to account for the origins of modern policing, historians have offered very different interpretations of the extent to which \"the birth of blues\" marked the establishment of a new body of police professionals (Reiner, 2010). On the one hand, so-called \"orthodox\" histories of the origins and early development of modern policing in Britain have focused attention on how the establishment of professional policing during the nineteenth century (beginning in 1829 with the establishment of London's Metropolitan Police) viewed this as the replacement of an old system characterised as being uncoordinated and haphazard and relying on private effort and prone to corruption. The new approach was seen to be based on the bureaucratic organisation of professionals, demanding high standards of entry and discipline, rationally administered and directed towards a policy of preventive policing based on patrols to deter crime and disorder. On the other hand, more critical readings of police history suggest that the idea that the \"new\" professional police represented a sharp break with past practices is overstated. Many of the new police were those that had been employed as constables under the previous system and there was still a high turnover for things like drunkenness and corruption in the first decades of the new police. As Reiner (2010, p. 63) concludes, \"There was not as distinct a movement towards a powerful professional system of surveillance\" as is often suggested.Over 150 years later, the developing nature of police professionalism continues to be a source of major debate among both police practitioners and academics. Writing in 2008, Peter Neyroud, a former Chief Constable and Chief Executive of the National Policing Improvement Agency for England and Wales, observed that \"the desire of the police service to be an independent profession working to high ethical standards deploying a recognised body of professional knowledge is an aspiration that remains to be achieved\" (Neyroud, 2008, p. 674). He noted too that viewed against some of the criteria that are normally deployed to define a profession, policing falls short. In the UK there is no code of police ethics, there is not a well-established culture of life-long learning and reaccreditation, and policing is not currently a graduate profession. By 2010, however, Neyroud had been commissioned by the UK government to undertake a major review on police training and leadership which argued for establishing policing as a profession in ways explicitly modelled on the approaches of other professions such as law and medicine. At the centre of his report is the recommendation to establish a new police Professional Body to act as a guardian of professional qualifications, provide ethical leadership and develop strong links to universities to meet the education and research needs of the police service (Neyroud, 2011). Exemplifying Chan's (1997) observation that police professionalism is contested territory which has different meanings for different parts of the organisation, Neyroud's proposals have certainly provoked controversy. The response of some rank-and-file police officers, for example, has been highly critical of the suggestion of raising educational standards for entry into the police service because it is seen as potentially excluding those with relevant practical experience but no formal qualifications.These, then, are interesting times in the debate about the definition and development of police professionalism. On the one hand, policing clearly fits those definitions which emphasise that professions are the \"structural, occupational and institutional arrangements for dealing with work associated with the uncertainties of modern lives in risk societies' (Evetts, 2003, p. 397). From this perspective the police can be viewed like other professionals in fields such as law and medicine, who routinely deal with issues of risk and risk assessment and use expert knowledge to help people deal with uncertainty. On the other hand, measured against definitions of professions which emphasise the importance of a period spent in higher or further education, policing, as Neyroud acknowledges, does not fit this model and nor does it have, like many professions, an established code of ethics. Yet the appeal to professionalism is a strong current in the development of police organisations and is typically based on claims to exclusive ownership of an area of expertise and knowledge. The aim of this paper is to explore the changing nature of this appeal to professionalism in the context of the development of Anglo-American policing. It focuses first on the transition from what Stone and Travis (2011) term an \"old\" professionalism, centred on crime fighting that dominated much of Anglo-American policing in the twentieth century, to a \"new\" professionalism in the late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries focused on issues of accountability, legitimacy and evidence-based practice. Just as with the \"birth of the blues\" in the nineteenth century, however, the extent of this transition is contested with claims that there is still a strong pull within police organisations towards a view of policing as \"professional crime-fighting\" (Sklansky, 2011). This suggests that the development of police professionalism in the future is on an uncertain trajectory. The second part of the paper examines this in the context of the UK government's plans to create a College of Policing the impact of which well may be compromised by other changes the government is making both the governance and delivery of policing in the UK.\nComplex transitions: from \"old\" to \"new\" forms of police professionalism: Within Anglo-American police scholarship there is a strong emphasis on constructing grand narratives to account for the fundamental changes that policing has undergone from its origins in the nineteenth century through to the present day. These changes have been framed in different ways. In his analysis of British policing, Reiner (2010), for example, focuses on the \"construction, deconstruction, and reconstruction\" of police legitimacy over the period from the 1850 s to 2009, examining the complex and changing relationships between the police, the public and government. Greene (2012), with a more North American focus, uses a maritime metaphor to suggest that changes in policing over the last 100 years are entangled with \"eddies and whirlpools\" of police reform in areas like accountability and community engagement, as well as \"riptides and upwellings\" of moral panics about crime and public concerns over police malpractice. Within both these narratives, however, there is recognition that on each side of the Atlantic there have been significant attempts by police organisations to move from an \"old\" police professionalism constructed around the notion of the police as \"professional crime fighters\" and which dominated police departments in the 1960 s and 1970 s, to a \"new\" professionalism centred more on increased accountability and concerns about legitimacy which began to emerge in the late 1990 s and early 2000 s (Stone and Travis, 2011). The nature of this transition has been vividly captured in the UK BBC TV series Life on Mars in which a police detective from the year 2000, Sam Tyler, goes into a coma following a car accident and wakes up in 1973. As Savage (2007, p. 1) observes, \"What Tyler discovers is an alien world of policing far removed from his own\". Senior detectives in the 1970 s appear to Tyler to rely on hunches rather than systematic evidence gathering or intelligence-led policing, and violence and brutality in the treatment of suspects appears common place and stands in stark contrast to Tyler's experience of \"rule-bound treatment of suspects and witnesses, anti-sexist and diversity policies, sophisticated scenes of crime and forensic techniques and open and ethical investigations\" (Savage, 2007, p. 2).Although Life on Mars clearly relies heavily on caricature in contrasting the \"procedural police of today\" with the \"corner-cutting\" cops of the past (Reiner, 2010, p. 201), it neatly captures differences in the meaning of professionalism and this is explored further in the next sections.The \"old\" professionalism: policing as \"professional crime-fighting\"\nUncertain trajectories: police reform and police professionalism in the UK: Sklansky's observations about \"the persistent pull of police professionalism\" towards the crime-fighting model raise important questions about the trajectory of police professionalism into the future. In this section I want to explore further the uncertainties around the future direction of police professionalism by narrowing the focus to the UK (and specifically England and Wales) and examine current plans to develop police professionalism by the coalition Government in the context of its broader agenda of police reform.The Neyroud Report and the College of Policing: embedding the \"new\" police professionalism\nConclusions: The comments about the impact of austerity on the direction of policing underline the uncertain trajectory of police professionalism in the future. Over the last 20 years there have been clear advances in terms of embedding a \"new\" professionalism within policing with its emphasis on legitimacy, accountability, specialised knowledge and evidence-based practice. Much of this has been led by reform minded police executives and \"policy entrepreneurs\" or, more specifically, police entrepreneurs (Savage, 2007) like Neyroud, who have advocated new thinking about police professionalism and then worked to bring those ideas into action. Yet a combination of political and economic influences, as well as elements of the police sub-culture, still appear to be pulling policing in the direction of the \"old\" professionalism in which policing is understood in terms of the narrow demarcation of the police role as one of \"professional crime fighting\". Moreover, this version of police professionalism seems determined to keep citizens at a distance thereby helping secure the power, authority and autonomy of the police. The tensions between these competing meanings of police professionalism will not be resolved easily. Creating institutions, like the College of Policing in England and Wales, are important and necessary steps in developing a \"new\" professional in the police service. Changing the entry requirements to policing would also have a significant impact. The Winsor Report (Winsor, 2012) on police officer remuneration and conditions in England and Wales commissioned by the UK government, for example, clearly regards the present system by which an officer can only join at the lowest rank of constable and then work their way up as unsatisfactory. Winsor recommends creating the opportunity for direct entry to Inspector level for \"the best graduates from the best universities\" (Winsor, 2012, p. 16) and direct entry to Superintendent level for those with skills from other fields, including the military, security services, industry, commerce and \"the professions\". No decision has yet been made about implementing these recommendations but in combination with the College of Policing they have the potential to firmly embed the development of a \"new\" police professionalism in England and Wales. Yet the long-term impact and influence of such initiatives will be strongly influenced by the broader political and economic landscape within which they are located. In England and Wales the introduction of PCCs in 2012 may well see significant conflict between elected politicians and professional police leaders about the nature of local policing, while the greater involvement of the private sector in the delivery of public policing will inevitably re-define the role to be performed by professional police officers on the \"frontline\". Furthermore, debates about \"old\" and \"new\" forms of police professionalism now intersect with wider concerns regarding the competition between organisational and occupational professionalism within contemporary advanced societies (Evetts, 2006). Within policing, as in other professions, there seems to be increasing tension between a commitment to organisational professionalism with its emphasis on hierarchical structures of authority, accountability and target-setting, and a more traditional occupational professionalism, which emphasises discretionary decision-making, codes of ethics, and trust in practitioners. The relative influence of these different forms of professionalism within contemporary policing will provide fertile ground for future research and will ensure that the debate about the nature and meaning police professionalism, which began with the \"birth of the blues\" in the early nineteenth century, will continue well into the twenty-first century.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: - The paper focuses on current debates about police professionalism. It explores the nature and meaning of what has been termed \"old\" professionalism, which focuses on the role of the police as \"professional crime fighters\", and then assesses the extent to which there has been a transition to a \"new\" professionalism centred on enhanced accountability, legitimacy and evidence-based practice. The paper aims to show how the recent attempt to embed this \"new\" professionalism within policing in England and Wales is likely to be compromised by the broader political and economic context of police reform.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - The paper is based on a review of key contributions to the debates about police professionalism in the USA and the UK.\nFindings: - The paper provides important insights into the way in which there are competing and conflicting meanings attached to police professionalism and argues that claims that there have been significant transitions from one form of professionalism to another need to be treated with caution. The paper also emphasises the uncertain trajectory of the development of police professionalism in England and Wales in the future as a result of the complex interplay between the different elements of the coalition government's police reform programme.\nOriginality/value: - The paper demonstrates the multiple meanings of the term \"police professionalism\" and the challenges that surround developing professional policing.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Measuring innovation competencies for integrated services in the communications industry
|
[
"Service industries",
"Innovation",
"Competences",
"Communication technologies",
"Taiwan"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1 Introduction: Innovation has become a major focus of attention for business, industry, government, and academia throughout the world and is recognized as a key factor of a firm's success and long-term growth (Geroski, 1995; Cre'pon et al., 1998; Roper and Love, 2002). Researchers have examined innovation from different perspectives ranging from product, market, technology organization, etc.Prahalad and Hamel (1990) introduced the notion of \"core competencies\", which influenced management theory in the 1990s. Firms have a need to focus on identifying and developing their own competencies, which would play important roles in the firm's future success. By linking the new concept with the innovation theory, Pavitt (1991) asserted that firms could gain innovative advantage through building up their competencies which are costly and difficult for competitors to imitate.In recent years, the economies of developed countries have shifted from production oriented to services dominated (Palmer, 2001). The service industry has been gaining a strong connection to gross domestic product of industrialized countries (Froehle et al., 2000). Integrated services give value to information and communications technology (ICT), in which Taiwan plays a leading role, and contribute to the growth of the global economy.The services market in the communications industry is dominated by fast changes as well. For example, global operators are facing declining revenue generated from traditional telephone service. Those revenue are gradually eroded by emerging voice over internet protocol (IP) services, which is offered through multiple devices (PC, mobile phone, etc.) and multiple networks (internet network and mobile network, etc.), functioning as an integrated service. Apparently, a thorough understanding of innovation competencies for integrated service is necessary and becoming more crucial under this economic change. Furthermore, the implication is that customers need to be physically and virtually present throughout the delivery of integrated services in order to receive the desired benefits of such services.The measurement of innovation competencies for integrated services in the communications industry may bring important theoretical and practical implications, especially when there are very few researchers that have examined this before. Therefore, this paper tries to propose a framework for measuring innovation competencies for integrated services in the communications industry. Based on related literatures on a firm's competencies determining its innovations (Leonard-Barton, 1992; Tidd, 2000; Souitaris, 2002a; Ritter, 2006), we propose a model for measuring the generic innovation competencies for integrated services. According to Boer and During (2001), the definition of innovation is the creation of a new type of product-market-technology-organization-combination (PMTO-combination). The dimensions of our proposed model will include product-related innovation competencies, market-related innovation competencies, technology-related innovation competencies, and organization-related innovation competencies. In addition, our proposed model also includes industry-specific items of innovation competencies for integrated services, which are developed through conducting qualitative in-depth interviews with ten communications industry experts.The main objectives of this paper are:1. To find out suitable ways to develop future integrated services by measuring the perception of innovation-related key figures on innovation competencies.2. To identify the most important innovation competencies by empirically testing the association between innovation activities and the firm's competencies.3. Finally, to develop the measurement instrument and examine the structural model of innovation competencies as an overall assessment of innovation competencies for integrated services.In the following paper, we started discussing various background topics (Section 2). The initial 80-item questionnaire is then formulated to determine the effect of the items on innovation competencies (Section 3). The research methods used are then described and investigated in an empirical study (Section 4). To be later identified is the measurement instrument. The structural model of innovation competencies as an overall assessment is then examined (Section 5). Finally, the conclusions of the study are discussed, including the findings, managerial implications, limitations of the study and suggestions for further researches (Section 6).\n2 Background: 2.1 Classification of innovation\n3 The development of an initial set of items: Our review of related literatures and past researches showed a lack of relevant definitions and empirical studies for integrated services in the communications industry. Based on the definition mentioned above, the determinants of integrated services were proposed. The initial set of items of innovation competencies were developed as two categories covering generic items and industry-specific items. The following two sections present an in-depth discussion on the items of firm's innovation competencies selected for inclusion in our analytical model.3.1 Generic items of innovation competencies for integrated services\n4 Research methods: The framework for the initial 80 items of firm's innovation competencies was settled up and detailed analyzed, as shown in Section 3. The design of a questionnaire was based on the initial 80 items consisting of generic 60 items and industry-specific 20 items. The initial 80 items were transformed into Liker-scales and the respondents were asked to indicate their perceptions of a firm's innovation competencies for integrated services as shown in Appendix 1. A five-point Likert-type scale was used where 1 - strongly disagree and 5 - strongly agree.The survey was first applied to 120 individuals who attended a forum of innovative services. Those individuals worked in communications-related companies in Taiwan and were fully, or partially, responsible for developing innovative services. After the forum, we further asked them to collect more information from innovation-related employees in their organizations and a total of 500 questionnaires were then distributed. After removing invalid questionnaires (missing and invalid answers, uncompleted, and left blank), 377 valid responses were collected, with a valid response rate of 75.4 percent.\n5 Instrument development: 5.1 Sampling profile\n6 Conclusions: In the past, most researches on the innovation of the ICT industry were concentrated on the manufacturing aspect, mostly on technology and product innovations, while very few literatures were focused on integrated services. Therefore, this paper might be the first to identify the innovation competencies for integrated services, through combining literatures, in-depth interviews, surveys, and empirical studies.6.1 Findings\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: - The purpose of this paper is to gain insight into firms' innovation competencies and to develop an instrument to examine the key innovation competencies that contribute to integrated services.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - Data were collected via the initial 80-item questionnaire given to innovation-related key figures within the Taiwanese communications industry (sample size 500; valid response rate 75.4 percent). The initial 80 items of innovation competencies and development procedures of measurement instrument were explored, exploited, and analyzed. The instrument validity of the multi-aspect innovation competencies measure was evaluated through assessing convergent, discriminant, and predictive validity.\nFindings: - Research results indicate that five-dimension and 17-item constructs the measurement instrument of innovation competencies for integrated services. An examination of individual dimensions' effect on \"overall innovation competencies\" shows that industry specific (0.45) is the most important dimension, followed by market related (0.23), technology related (0.14), product related (0.13), and organization related (0.13).\nResearch limitations/implications: - This study is conducted in only one industry (communications) and one country (Taiwan).\nPractical implications: - Integration capabilities of different innovation competencies of a firm is vital for the successful development of integrated services, and out of all the innovation competencies, industry-specific innovation competencies are the most important. A firm should then identify potential markets and trends and fully utilize their human resource capabilities to develop innovative services, along with senior executives' awareness and acceptance of risk.\nOriginality/value: - This paper may be the first to identify the measurement instrument of innovation competencies for integrated services and will expand the scope of service innovation research.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
Integration: work still in progress
|
[
"Integration",
"Evidence base",
"Conceptual confusion",
"Integrated care",
"Integrated management",
"Mixed outcomes",
"Evaluation"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n__NO_TITLE__: Improved integration is at the heart of many UK and international prescriptions for reforming systems of care and support so that they deliver better health and wellbeing outcomes (for example Williams, 2012). Indeed, at the height of the New Labour enthusiasm for partnership working Dowling et al. (2004, p. 309) suggested that \"it is difficult to find a contemporary policy document or set of good practice guidelines that does not have collaboration as the central strategy for the delivery of welfare\". In a cold climate, moreover, the policy imperatives for integration are certainly not undiminished. As in more temperate times, they continues to generate appeals for front line professionals and strategic managers to throw off narrow sectional interests in favour of securing better public value for end users and their communities.\nThis special issue: Our discussion thus far has been no more than a brief introduction to some common themes from various literatures about integration. It is in no sense systematic or comprehensive in its coverage of different approaches to the design and conduct of integration or, indeed, of its study. The articles published in this special issue do, however, extend and develop the themes we have identified above. They were commissioned against the background we described earlier. Integration continues to be a central objective of public service reform, a position which has been reinforced in the UK by policy responses to the new age of financial austerity, but it equally continues to be the case that the weight of evidence suggests its achievements are relatively modest in terms of improving outcomes for individuals and populations. In some respects, as we have also argued above, the roots of this disappointing progress lie in confusion and contention about the meaning of integration and not least the need for service and organisational models to support and not supplant purposes and outcomes as the principal drivers of integration. It is also the case that the weak evidence base on outcomes reflects the tendency of evaluation to mirror the preoccupation with process of different initiatives to strengthen integration. The priorities of research commissioners may help to explain this focus but there are also questions to be asked about the methodologies and measures commonly adopted by evaluators, as some of our contributors make clear.In the light of these contextual factors, we wanted to create an opportunity for the limitations and possibilities of integration to be explored from a wide range of disciplinary perspectives and international settings. In this respect, we hope our readers will acknowledge at least some success. Our call for papers has produced the rich and diverse collection published here, together with other papers which will appear in later issues of the journal. The extent of international interest in securing better outcomes from integration is reflected here in the appearance of contributions from: Australia (Cunningham et al.); Australia and Wales (Sullivan and Williams); Canada (Evans and Baker); Canada (Sylvian and Lamothe); India (Kalita and Mondal); and Sweden (Andersson and Lofstrom).None of the papers, moreover, is a purely descriptive case study written up within its national setting. Where relevant, the contributors have consistently sought to draw on international literatures to contextualise their studies, shape their research questions and reinforce their analyses. For example, Cunningham et al. seek to locate their review of clinical networks in Australasia in a full range of other national experiences. In addition, the Indian and Swedish studies are both concerned to identify the lessons from other settings for their different attempts to create a coordinating organisation distinct from the agencies whose activities are to be coordinated. The English reader pondering the strengths and weaknesses of the new statutory Health and Wellbeing Boards may be especially grateful to the Swedish study for articulating both the distinction between coordinating mechanisms as arenas and actors and also the limitations of both. The Indian study adds further relevant evidence and analysis to closely related issues.Similarly, although the papers from both Sullivan and Williams and from Sylvian and Lamothe are primarily informed by empirical data collected in Wales and Quebec, respectively, they are analysed and interpreted with the aid of conceptual and theoretical frameworks which have been developed and utilised in a wide range of settings. At this point, we should also highlight the range and innovatory nature of the theory on which our authors have drawn, including mental maps (Evans and Baker), object theory (Sullivan and Williams), and sense making (Sylvian and Lamothe). While we do not specifically set out to produce a comprehensive framework for evaluating integration, we are conscious of the scope for strengthening the approaches which have been dominant in the last two or three decades. Here we need to add a further feature to the critique of integration research as emphasising structure and process while neglecting outcomes. Understanding and structuring inter-relationships between structure, process and outcome in the interest of enhancing health and wellbeing can take us only so far.As Sullivan and Williams argue in their contribution below, \"the principal focus (of many studies) on 'what works' implying an instrumental 'means-ends' relationship risks limiting our understanding of what is going on within integration\". Their paper aims to broaden our understanding by offering an approach \"based on the proposition\" that attention to boundary object theory \"offers valuable insights into the dynamics and processes of integration that conventional analysis might overlook\". The papers on sense making and mental maps similarly draw our attention to those dynamics, albeit in different ways. For example, Evans and Baker develop the construct of mental models of integrated care (MMIC) to overcome some of the limitations of the literature's focus on optimising structures and processes.While such literature has strengthened understandings of their role and contribution to integration, it cannot address many other highly relevant questions such as: \"how are integration strategies conceptualised and perceived by clinical and managerial stakeholder groups across the continuum of care, and by patients and their caregivers? Where do knowledge and beliefs about integration converge and diverge among these actors? How do these underlying cognitions influence interactions among various health service providers and between providers and patients?\" To these questions, we might add the reflection that the greater the uncertainty or ambiguity about purpose and outcome in integration, the greater scope for divergence in such underlying cognitions. At the same time, however, these relationships are bi-directional. Just as actors' knowledge and beliefs are influenced by the lack of clarity and multiplicity of meanings associated with integration, so that range of meanings is influenced by the values and interests that help underpin their knowledge and beliefs.\nConclusion: In this editorial, we have sought to provide a context for the diverse range of contributions contained in this special edition. We have highlighted the paradox of a strengthening in the perceived policy imperative for more integration alongside an absence of robust evidence that integration initiatives have delivered better health and wellbeing outcomes. We have also drawn attention to the plurality of meanings associated with integration and its attachments and the scope for ambiguity, contention and confusion to which this characteristic may give rise. Equally, such plurality of perception and response can reflect the influence of the plurality of values and interests among many different stakeholders.The initial concentration on structure and process in studies of integration both reflected and reinforced a neglect of purpose and outcome in integration policy and integration research. It can also be seen as a reflection of an empirical tradition in public policy which generally sought to describe more than to explain. As this focus has been complemented, if not overtaken, by a developing interest in the role of agency, a wide range of theory and methodology has been seen to have a contribution to integration research, as this collection of papers clearly demonstrates in its substance and sources. The ability of agential influences to help us understand what is \"going on\" within integration is a potentially promising development in terms of gaining a fuller picture of how integration might deliver more of what has been expected of it. We cannot improve what we do not understand, except by serendipity. In this sense, the \"success\" of integration initiatives and the strengths of our research methods are co-dependant. Some of the weaknesses of policy and practice reflect the weaknesses of our research and evidence base as well as vice versa.Perhaps these reflections are no more pertinent than in the study of outcomes. As Cameron et al. (2012) and other reviewers point out, evidence is starting to accumulate on the impact of integration on outcomes, including those based on what is important to service users[2] are beginning to be applied. Yet, the evidence hierarchy predominantly employed to review and assess continues to privilege the RCT and quasi-scientific studies. We might pause from time to time to consider how far such the application of such inclusion criteria shapes the findings that there is little or no evidence for the impact of integration on outcomes. At the same time, we might also reflect studies of integration frequently include the recognition that they are entering \"wicked issue\" territory. Rittel and Webber (1973) characterised such issues as complex in terms of causal pathways, difficult to define, with no immediate solution. As a result, and with one wicked issue often being a symptom of another, it was argued that these kinds of issue could not be successfully tackled with traditional linear, analytical approaches. Apparently ritualised nods in this direction at least appear more common than attempts to employ different methods (but see Blackman et al., 2010, on the application of complexity theory to the study of health inequalities). The extent to which there is a mismatch between the characteristics of what we study and the approaches we use for that study should at the very least be factored into the interpretation of our results. Whether we have a good fit between this area of study and the tools we use for their evaluation is not a topic which this collection of papers was designed to address. We will not complain if it prompts more readers to raise such questions; and they just might become the starting point for another special issue.\n",
"role": "user"
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{
"content": "Purpose: - The purpose of this paper is to set the context for this special issue and provide an introduction to the individual contributions.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - This paper uses a literature survey and analysis.\nFindings: - Integration remains both a central goal and a field of limited but possibly developing achievement. Multiple meanings and usages are themselves sources of confusion and contestability that contribute to poor performance, as does an emphasis on process over outcome. This special issue provides an opportunity for the limitations and possibilities of integration to be explored from a wide range of disciplinary perspectives and international settings. Individual papers draw on a wide and innovatory range of theoretical approaches in addressing reasons for limited progress and opportunities for taking it further. Nonetheless, how far we have a good fit between this area of study and the tools we use for its evaluation remains an issue for concern and further exploration.\nResearch limitations/implications: - This editorial is not a systematic review, though it draws on findings from a number of such reviews.\nPractical implications: - The various contributions all have practical implications for the strategies to develop integration and its evaluation.\nOriginality/value: - The special issue as a whole was designed to encourage fresh perspectives and approaches to be brought to bear on understanding, conducting and evaluating integration. This editorial introduces each of these themes.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
Platforms in Sub-Saharan Africa: startup models and the role of business incubation
|
[
"Accelerators",
"Platforms",
"Business incubation",
"Startup models",
"Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA)",
"Technology hubs"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Since its commercialization in the 1990s, the ubiquity of the internet combined with mobile communications technologies has resulted in a digital transformation combined with the creation and adoption of new technologies (Kon et al., 2015). This has made way for a variety of disruptive businesses that alter the way people live, work and interact (Nguyen, 2014). In conjunction with the ascendance of entrepreneurship principles, it has also promoted the development of startups[1] in a manner consistent with entrepreneurial economies, which are gradually superseding managed economy systems.\nPlatform conceptualization: Eisenmann et al. (2006) define platforms as products and services that bring together groups of users in two-sided networks. The existence of two-sided markets is not new; examples range from product-based platforms such as consumer cards, video game terminals (Rochet and Tirole, 2003) and shopping malls to more technological (service) platforms such as marketplaces (Eisenmann et al., 2006). In attempts to categorize platforms, Gawer (2014) advances the platform discourse from two theoretical perspectives vis-a-vis economic and technological design. While the economic perspective sees platforms as double or multi-sided markets, the technological (engineering) perspective sees platforms as technological architectures. Although the economic perspective provides insights into platform competition, the technological (engineering design) perspective focuses on platform innovation. Furthermore, while platforms exist in physical and digital forms across diverse industries, they are different from traditional businesses otherwise known as pipes. Pipes are used to explain traditional value chain business models where goods originate from the supplier and flow sequentially to the consumer (van Alstyne et al., 2016). Platforms, unlike these traditional linear business models, operate differently by facilitating interactions between producers and consumers and are subject to the operational phenomena of network effects.\nStartup business models: To bridge the competitive divide and threat of new technology-based entrants, larger-sized enterprises have since sought avenues to become more entrepreneurial (Weiblen and Chesbrough, 2015). This has resulted in mechanisms like corporate venture capital (VC), internal incubators, strategic alliances and joint ventures (Kemp, 2013). However, the growth and increasing viability of startup firms and their attendant market disruption is creating a new imperative for large companies to develop more agile and rapid means to engage with the startup community (Weiblen and Chesbrough, 2015). In this regard, Dee et al. (2011) suggest that with the proliferation of business incubation over the last 50 years, a diversified use of the terminology has ensued. The subsequent paragraphs present the various models and terminology.\nTheoretical lenses: Few theoretical lenses exist in the literature on platforms, startups and business incubation research, perhaps due to the fact that most available literature majorly focused on industry and trade research with very few on academic research (Kemp, 2013). Another limitation to the application of relevant theories to platform and business incubation research stems from the fact observed by Lish (2012) that several theories originate outside the incubation sector and have been repurposed from studies of entrepreneurs or startup ventures outside the incubation field (Lish, 2012). Tiwana et al. (2010), however, identified four theories that are considered relevant to platform ecosystem research relating to platform architecture, governance and environmental dynamics as well as evolutionary dynamics. These theories include the modular systems theory, the evolutionary selection theory, real options theory and bounded rationality theory. Another important theory that helps in understanding platforms' entrepreneurial evolution is Barney's resource-based view (RBV) of the firm theory. This paper explores the applicability of both the RBV and real options theories in explaining how startups leverage opportunities as well as available resources to remain competitive and economically sustainable.\nConceptualization of research questions: Platform startups form the micro-entrepreneurial units for driving the disruptive innovation in the technology ecosystem (Weiblen and Chesbrough, 2015). Within the last decade, these platforms have increasingly attracted global attention, as they continue to disrupt the global economy on the hinges of the glocalization[2] of technology entrepreneurship - driven by the ever-expanding ubiquity of the internet (Sipola et al., 2016). With the specific focus on the SSA region, and as the \"Africa Rising\" narrative in the global technology order continues to gather steam, there yet remains the crucial need to explain the entrepreneurial dynamics underpinning the evolution of these technology innovations in the region (Osiakwan, 2017).\nMethod: The data sets employed in this paper were built from content reviews of platform and incubator information available in the public domain. The database of African platforms was compiled under the auspices of the Centre for Global Enterprises global platform project, a review of the emerging platform economy with a regional focus on North America and Canada, India, China, Europe and SSA. Data were gathered through an extensive internet search operation through which a list of platforms in Africa was generated and relevant information extracted from their respective websites. Further search was conducted using online databases such as VC4Africa (an online community of entrepreneurs in Africa) and Crunchbase (an online database for industry trends and investment for companies across the globes including startups) to generate additional information which were not available in the platforms' websites. Data generated from these various sources were used to build an African platform database organized around the relevant themes. Descriptive information was collected and classified by platform description, geography, category, ownership, origin and funding. Later revisions of the database added data attributes on the business startup model and incubator (where applicable). Likewise, complimentary incubator data were compiled using related web articles published by GSMA and the World Bank. The data set was subsequently populated with descriptive information - as well as geography and business incubation services offered - acquired through web content analysis.\nFindings and discussion: The results from analysis of the research questions and discussion of findings are presented in subsequent paragraphs.\nConclusion: policy and managerial implications: Africa is fast rising in the digital space and has been reported to leapfrog developed markets in areas such as mobile financial services. While much is yet to be seen in most emerging markets across SSA, South Africa, Nigeria and Kenya continue to lead the platform revolution in Africa. Despite the numerous challenges faced by African economies in terms of poor infrastructure, corruption, unemployment and lack of market-enabling policies, young entrepreneurs across the continent continue to be collaboratively innovative towards solving Africa's myriad of problems and in the process, addressing rising youth unemployment as well as developing home-grown solutions toward solving Africa's peculiar developmental issues.\nLimitations and direction for future research: Data on Africa's tech startup ecosystem is still scant and continues to inhibit a wider scope of research in the startup ecosystem (as usually prevalent in developing economy research). While little empirical data exist prior to this study and previous survey analysis commissioned by the Centre for Global Enterprise (David-West and Evans, 2016; Evans and Gawer, 2016), the study provides insights into some trends in Africa's digital startup ecosystem. There is, however, the need to provide empirical evidence on the effectiveness of these incubator models with parameters that include tenant firms' survival rates, increased profitability indices (OECD, 2010), and the startups' contribution to Africa's GDP as well as the number of direct jobs the industry is providing in the long and short terms. Further, areas of research interests may also include more detailed empirical analysis of the different startup mechanisms with respect to economic profitability and technological sustainability. Future studies may also examine the platforms' competitiveness, growth and ustainability using the RBV and the real options theories from a quantitative and/or a qualitative approach.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to examine the startup models adopted by entrepreneurs in launching platform enterprises, and the effectiveness of business incubators across Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA).\nDesign/methodology/approach: Data reflecting origin, models, services, ownership and other variables were collected on over 600 platforms and 196 incubators, and were analyzed using descriptive and inferential statistics.\nFindings: Market portfolio of the platform startups is dominated by independent models, as incubators and accelerators were found to be inadequate in platform establishment within the region in terms of the services rendered to incubatees. The results also indicate that private ownership still dominates the startup ecosystem with a scant presence of public participation and almost a complete absence of public-private partnerships.\nResearch limitations/implications: This exploratory study is constrained by a limited access to information on the platform ecosystem within the SSA region, curbing the scope of empirical work; but serves as a foundation for further investigations within the domain.\nPractical implications: The paper highlights the imperative for African Governments to make conscious efforts in driving enabling policies that will help bridge the gaps identified in facilitating the development of the region's emergent platform economy.\nOriginality/value: The paper empirically elucidates the limited availability of critical resources necessary in supporting the successful development and growth of platform startups; and helps explain why the platform ecosystem within the region, though very active in the last decade, has not been laden with landmark and scaled innovations.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
You have to be prepared to drink: Students' views about reducing excessive alcohol consumption at university
|
[
"Students",
"Prevention",
"Alcohol",
"Qualitative methods"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: In the UK young adults aged 18-30, and particularly university students, tend to drink at hazardous levels (Craigs et al., 2012; Davoren et al., 2016) and to drink more than young people who do not attend university (Kypri et al., 2005). Students are at risk from a number of harms from drinking including experiencing blackouts and hangovers (Burns et al., 2016). In addition, drinking may impair academic performance (Thombs et al., 2009), which could impact on future success. A recent systematic review of student drinking in the UK and Ireland found that two-third of students could be classified as hazardous drinkers and that reviews estimated that around 20 per cent of students overall had alcohol-related problems (Davoren et al., 2016).\nMethods: Interviews\nResults: We identified three main themes relating to the research question within our analysis. Each theme has related sub-themes (see Table I). The themes and sub-themes are presented below with supporting quotations from the transcripts. Participants' names have been replaced with pseudonyms.\nDiscussion: This research aimed to explore students' and recent graduates' experiences and views about preventing excessive drinking at university. Specifically we sought to explore these views using frameworks that take into account both the individual factors and the factors related to social practice which to contribute to excessive drinking. We identified three themes related to our research aims within interview transcripts with current students and recent graduates. These themes related to the role of alcohol in student life, drinking transitions and prevention challenges, and each is now discussed in relation to materials, meanings, competencies, and individual cognitions.\nConclusions: This study explored the need to reduce excessive alcohol consumption on university campuses with young people who were current students, or had very recent experience of the student drinking culture. Participants appeared to endorse measures relating to social practices as well as individual cognitions as potentially effective intervention avenues. While some aspects of this culture may be resistant to change, these interview findings highlight some new avenues which could be explored in order to reduce alcohol harms in students from a social practice perspective. Targeting students before they commence their course and highlighting aspects of university life that do not involve alcohol may help to reduce the pressure that it often felt during freshers' week. Providing novel, credible alternative socialising options that do not involve alcohol should be explored to determine their acceptability and their potential to reduce levels of consumption in this population.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: Many existing interventions to reduce excessive drinking in university students attempt to target individual cognitions, which ignore the wider contextual features that drive excessive drinking and mark this as an important aspect of university life. The purpose of this paper is to explore students' views about preventing excessive drinking at university, specifically by using frameworks that take into both account individual and social influences.\nDesign/methodology/approach: In all, 23 young adults aged 20-30 (12 females; M age=22.91; SD=2.57; 18 students, five recent graduates) took part in semi-structured interviews to explore their views about drinking and measures to reduce excessive consumption. Transcripts were analysed using thematic analysis.\nFindings: There were three themes identified in the analysis. These themes were named \"the role of alcohol in student life\", drinking transitions', and \"prevention challenges\" and each had related sub-themes.\nPractical implications: Targeting students before they commence their course and highlighting aspects of university life that do not involve alcohol may help to reduce the pressure often felt to drink in social situations. Providing novel, credible alternative socialising options that do not involve alcohol should be explored to determine their acceptability, and their potential to reduce excessive drinking.\nOriginality/value: Few studies explore what students themselves think about reducing alcohol consumption and most interventions focus on changing individual cognitions rather than features of the social environment. This study highlights that changing social practices related to drinking in combination with targeting individuals may be more fruitful avenue to reduce excessive alcohol consumption.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
Periodic performance prediction for real-time business process monitoring
|
[
"Process analysis",
"Business process re‐engineering",
"Business process management system",
"Business activity monitoring",
"Process monitoring",
"Real‐time monitoring",
"Support vector machine",
"Imputation"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1 Introduction: The recently introduced real-time enterprise paradigm, defined by Gartner as the concept of placing the up-to-date information to the right people without latency to respond in real time (Drobik et al., 2002), has been widely embraced by companies to control the growing complexity of business processes (Lam et al., 2009). Such needs promote the introduction of business process management system (BPMS), which has emerged as a critical discipline to enable the integrated management of enterprises (Jeng, 2006). Therefore, BPMS has been an interesting research issue for industrial managers, since it provides an arrangement of business information from all aspect of organizations with the wants and needs of managers (Gulledge, 2007). BPMS is defined as an integrated information system to support design, modeling, execution, monitoring, analysis, evaluation, and re-engineering, of which functions are deployed in BPMS lifecycle (Weske, 2007). A significant aspect of the lifecycle is the continuous monitoring of business performances so as to measure and refine the business achievements, which is mainly implemented by business activity monitoring (BAM) technology (Wetzstein et al., 2009b).A process monitoring system, called BAM, is defined as an information system providing a real-time access to critical indicators in business operations (Buytendijk and Flint, 2002). A business process is defined as a set of activities linked in a logical flow to achieve a common business goal (Davenport and Short, 1990). Each business process enactment, called a process instance, is observed continuously by the monitoring system through a set of relevant attributes or events gathered during process executions. By encompassing business intelligence (BI), the monitoring system has developed from a simple visualization tool of process parameters into a decision support system for industrial managers for extensive process management (McCoy, 2002). BI is defined as the ability to present competitive information to planners and decision makers by analyzing previous operational data (Negash, 2004). Such intelligence usually amounts to the correlations between instance attributes and business results, as defined manually by domain experts, predicted by simulation, or extracted by inductive data mining (IDM) techniques (Beckett et al., 2000).One of the most widely employed techniques in the improved monitoring system is a rule-based approach using IDM. IDM is an analytical technique for inductive learning to generate predictive models automatically by investigating previous data (Ma and Wang, 2009). By applying IDM to historical process instances, relations between attributes and process performance are extracted. Such relations are defined as If-Then rules, and used to monitor current process executions, which is a typical of the rule-based monitoring approach (Bose, 2006). That is, process execution is monitored through occurred attributes as matched with a rule condition: if the specific condition is detected, the corresponding process performance is classified (Grigori et al., 2001, 2004). In this way, the current state of running instances is diagnosed and, accordingly, proper reactions to the state are enabled (Wang and Romagnoli, 2005). Support vector machine (SVM) is another widely used IDM algorithm applied to process monitoring. SVM, easy to use and capable of coping with multi-dimensional data, has potential industrial applications that have been explored in several studies (Widodo and Yang, 2007).However, most existing IDM-based approaches still have limitations with respect to real-time applications, especially sequential process execution monitoring. In real-time monitoring of sequential executions, activities are executed in predefined logical order so that each relevant attribute also is gathered sequentially (Kang et al., 2009b). Because the rule-based approach should identify entire gathered attributes, the ongoing status cannot easily be classified in midcourse, which necessitates that the process of IDM-based classification be delayed until all executions are terminated and all attributes, thereafter, are gathered (Grigori et al., 2004). This makes proactive monitoring almost impossible (Castellanos et al., 2006). Moreover, no comprehensive indicator about the ongoing status can be provided (Grigori et al., 2001). Thus, real-time feedback cannot easily be provided at the needed monitoring time (Rao et al., 2008).Based on these limitations, we derive the motivations of this research as follows. Conventional rule-based approaches should integrate a novel algorithm that can predict the final performance based on the current capability from ongoing status of running instance. Also, such functions should be conducted during entire execution periods in midcourse. In order to predict possible progress and corresponding results before actual termination, it is necessary to provide proactive provision for their eventuality. To realize these motivations, we propose a novel, imputation-based SVM-classification approach to real-time business process monitoring. According to the approach, we formulated an algorithm for periodic process performance prediction integrating the imputation method into the conventional rule-based approach using SVM, which monitoring is conducted at each sequential time in the real-time progress of the ongoing process. Through experiments conducted with a sample monitoring scenario, we examined the proposed approach's application and analyzed the performance of the proactive warning system.The distinct characteristics of our algorithm compared with conventional approaches are differences in when the algorithm can be conducted and what kind of predictors can be measured. Conventional approaches only perform the determination of the final performance for terminated instances so that industrial managers cannot help being reported the already happened result. However, the formulated algorithm can be conducted in midcourse, instead of waiting until termination, and predict the outcome probabilistically.In practical applications to process monitoring system, conventional approaches can provide only the reactive correction to the already occurred outcome, even if the outcome is undesired with the very low performance. However, by the proposed approach offering information on real-time progresses, industrial managers can have a deeper understating about the ongoing instance's capability. Furthermore, such the periodic prediction provides opportunities for proactive preparation of eventualities when the ongoing process will be terminated. As such, it can be used to support the profitable decision-making of industrial managers in midcourse. So, we can anticipate the improvement of the preventive management level of business processes.The rest of this paper is organized as follows. Section 2 discusses the background of our research. In this context, we present related works about process management system, existing IDM-based monitoring approaches including SVM, their limitations and our research motivations. Section 3 provides details on the proposed real-time business process monitoring approach and its periodic prediction algorithm. In Section 4, we discuss and analyze the results of experiments conducted in a hypothetical monitoring scenario using UCI data. Finally, conclusions and future work are summarized in Section 5.\n2 Background: Related work on BPMS and BAM\n3 Proposed real-time business process monitoring: Framework\nDefinition 1: The completed process instance is defined as a set of collected attributes and the corresponding result upon termination. Each completed instance lj is recorded in the form ({x1,j, ... , xn, j}, yj), where xi, j is the ith attribute (i=1, ... , n) of the jth log and yj is the performance of the jth log. When the performance is categorized into target values c1, ... , cm, yj is evaluated as one of them according to the decision of the industrial manager.Upon termination, the monitoring results for the completed instances are archived as historical process logs in a process data warehouse. Then, the relationships between attributes and the result are analyzed to train the SVM classifier.In real-time monitoring of running the process, an ongoing process instance is monitored and reported as a set of occurred attributes up until at each specific monitoring time. The monitoring time and the ongoing process instance at the time are defined as follows.\nDefinition 2: Monitoring time t is defined as the temporal instant at which a new attribute is gathered after previous monitoring time t-1. So, the monitoring time progresses along with an additional observation of run-time data.\nDefinition 3: At t, the ongoing process instance is observed as gathered attributes until t, which is defined as set of gathered attributes s(t). Assuming that the system can gather one additional attribute at each time, s(t) is defined as {x1, ... , xt}, and is updated periodically as the monitoring time continues (t=1, ... ,n).At each t, based on observed partial information s(t), the proposed algorithm performs periodic prediction of process performance. By referring historical logs, probable progresses after t are predicted to generate virtual instances entirely filled with attributes. After classifying results of them using the trained SVM classifier, we can probabilistically predict the final performance of the ongoing instance.With reporting the predicted performance to users, the overall procedure is iterated periodically as t elapses. By observing predicted performances over monitoring times, users can get insights into the real-time progress. Furthermore, a warning is provided if the predicted performance enters into the undesired level.Procedure\n4 Experiments: Experimental design\n5 Conclusions: In this paper, we propose a novel approach to real-time business process monitoring, for which methodology we formulated a periodic performance prediction algorithm. The imputation method was integrated to generate predictions of the probable progress of the ongoing process instance, specifically by substituting similar historical cases for missing attributes not yet gathered. Further, the conventional SVM-based monitoring approach was extended into real-time monitoring using imputation-based SVM classification to overcome the limitations of existing IDM-based methods. To that end, we formulated the periodic performance prediction algorithm and its real-time monitoring application, the proactive warning strategy. In order to visualize the monitoring results, experiments were conducted with a simplified business process monitoring scenario modified from UCI data, and the proactive warning performance was evaluated.One of the main contributions of our research is the novel idea of a real-time monitoring approach for ongoing process instances. Whereas existing IDM-based approaches only focus on classifying the already occurred result of a terminated instance, the proposed approach predicts the possible results from an ongoing instance, which prediction is conducted periodically as monitoring progresses. The probability of each result can be used as a real-time indicator of the real-time progress of an ongoing instance. Overall, the proposed approach is significant for accomplishing this ongoing business process performance prediction with only partial information.A general purpose of process monitoring in BPMS is to observe the course of process executions and to report process parameters, such as run-time data and the outcome, to users and systems. In the monitoring system, several approaches have been introduced to investigate the correlations between the process and the result. Conventional approaches usually have focused on the evaluation and notification of the final result. The evaluation of the result without any help by domain experts is their own advantage. But, they can only notify about what already happens, which simply play a role of triggers causing the management system to perform reactive corrections according to the happened result. In comparison with them, the proposed approach not only evaluates the final result, but also predicts it. Specifically, the proposed real-time monitoring conducts the prediction about what kind of results can occur, before the actual occurrence. Conventional approaches do not provide any indicators until termination, but the proposed approach continually reports the real-time indicators over entire execution periods. Such the distinct characteristic can enhance understandings of how the ongoing process instance is coming along, which feat, significantly, makes possible the real-time support of industrial managers' decision-making. This prediction of the capabilities of the ongoing instance to achieve given business performances can be applied to the proactive warning strategy enabling proactive preparation for eventualities of expected outcomes, as opposed to reactive correction after their actual occurrence.There remains work to complete. First, the proactive warning strategy needs to be improved from the point of the determination of the threshold. It must consider opportunity costs/benefits from error types as well as proactiveness. Additionally, the monitoring policy and the significance of the target process also can have influences. Another issue is the extension of our approach to other IDM algorithms for process monitoring and imputation, the performances of which can be compared.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: - The purpose of this paper is to provide industrial managers with insight into the real-time progress of running processes. The authors formulated a periodic performance prediction algorithm for use in a proposed novel approach to real-time business process monitoring.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - In the course of process executions, the final performance is predicted probabilistically based on partial information. Imputation method is used to generate probable progresses of ongoing process and Support Vector Machine classifies the performances of them. These procedures are periodically iterated along with the real-time progress in order to describe the ongoing status.\nFindings: - The proposed approach can describe the ongoing status as the probability that the process will be executed continually and terminated as the identical result. Furthermore, before the actual occurrence, a proactive warning can be provided for implicit notification of eventualities if the probability of occurrence of the given outcome exceeds the threshold.\nResearch limitations/implications: - The performance of the proactive warning strategy was evaluated only for accuracy and proactiveness. However, the process will be improved by additionally considering opportunity costs and benefits from actual termination types and their warning errors.\nOriginality/value: - Whereas the conventional monitoring approaches only classify the already occurred result of a terminated instance deterministically, the proposed approach predicts the possible results of an ongoing instance probabilistically over entire monitoring periods. As such, the proposed approach can provide the real-time indicator describing the current capability of ongoing process.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
New public management and the rise of public sector performance audit: Evidence from the Australian case
|
[
"Stakeholders",
"New public management",
"Auditor general",
"Audit society",
"Performance audit"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Despite a body of work which has argued that new public management (NPM) is now dead and that we have reached the middle age of new public governance (Dunleavy et al., 2006), Hyndman and Lapsley (2016) mobilise a convincing argument that NPM is far from dead: rather, it has just become normal business. From this perspective, private sector contracting, competition and performance measurement has become taken for granted despite the persistent failure to deliver promised costs reductions and performance enhancements (Hood and Dixon, 2016). Pollitt (2016) phrases this debate about NPM (particularly forms of managerialism) in an interesting way by suggesting that rather than the NPM discourse and practice disappearing, it now represents a more complicated form of incrementalism and path dependency characterised as layering and marbling. As such the NPM paradoxes, contradictions and local differences (Hood and Peters, 2004) require further investigation.\nPrior research on audit focus and influences: PA has been generally seen as a growth industry in public sector audit that has had major impetus in the past from NPM and from the global financial crisis. Hossain (2010) has portrayed it as a story of continuous growth, while Free et al. (2013) have attributed its ongoing development in Canada to NPM and the financial crisis. One of the key aspects of prior work on PA has been an attempt to define the nature and scope of the technical practice; particularly the question of what public sector PAs should focus upon. However, this has proved a challenge from the beginning, for example as Hamburger (1989) suggested that 15 years of PA in the ANAO showed that the issue of what should be audited and by whom was far from resolved. What emerged was a shift away from a focus on auditing expenditure control and legality to a greater interest in budgetary management and outcomes (Skene, 1985; Jacobs, 1998). Internationally the scope of PA work is summarised as reporting on economy, efficiency and effectiveness (Gronlund et al., 2011). In the 1980s many audit jurisdictions (including most of those in Australia) only had a legislative mandate to examine economy and efficiency (Glynn, 1985). However, despite these restrictions many AG Offices exceeded their scope limitations and included references to matters of substantive actual effectiveness in their PA reports (Hatherly and Parker, 1988; Parker and Guthrie, 1991). Hatherly and Parker (1988) found that the national Australian (ANAO) and Victorian state AGs went beyond their publicly declared limits of PA scope, including matters of substantive efficiency and effectiveness in their audit reports. Guthrie and Parker (1999) concluded that despite the de jure limitation of PA scope in AG Office declarations, de facto the ANAO was indeed including effectiveness within its PA scope and by the time the Auditor-General Act was revised in 1997 the capacity to review effectiveness (the extent to which intended outcomes were achieved) was included along with the mandate to review economy (minimising cost), efficiency (maximising the ratio of outputs to inputs), legislative and policy compliance.\nA theoretical perspective: We build upon Guthrie and Parker's (1999) sixteenth and seventeenth century Italian and later Tudor English courtly theatre analogy of PA as a malleable masque and extend it by drawing on Goffman's (1959) metaphor of social life as a drama. As Guthrie and Parker (1999) explain, the masque was a form of spectacle enacted in royal courts where masked performers acted and danced while mingling among the audience. It was an entertainment made notable by its employment of spectacular scenery moved on and off stage by complex machinery, lavish costumes and complex allegorical speech. Guthrie and Parker (1999) employed this analogy to provide insights into what they saw to be the malleability of PA's concepts and presentation. As such they identified various stakeholders such as the AG, the parliament, and the executive of government as taking the roles of masque sponsors, actors and audience who interacted and continually created and revised the dramatic performance of PA. Both actors and audience could influence the shape and content of the masque, at times merging or infusing dramatic performance with perceptions of real life. Thus, as in the masque, PA concepts and intentions can be created, revised, and rewritten through the dialogue and interactions of its stakeholders as a socio-political plot. In the course of this, scenery can be constructed and moved on and off stage in the forms of parliamentary reviews, working parties, legislative changes and more. Allegorical speech can appear in the varying and changing forms of discourse relating to economy, efficiency, effectiveness and related controls. From this perspective, PA can appear not as a universal or intransigent technology but rather as a malleable masque which allows actors to respond to key audiences in the front of stage while relegating more technical questions about the nature and elements of the PA practice to the back to stage. Thus, PA reports, particularly those highlighted in the AG's Annual Report or considered by a PAC, might be considered a central element of the performance and indeed an aspect of the front of stage. We would understand PA as a front or masque deployed by actors so that key elements of NPM would form part of the idealisation or maintenance of expressive control required to maintain legitimacy and remain in character. Therefore, compliance with and adoption of key notions and phrases associated with NPM is an important aspect of negotiating the credibility of PA in the sense described by Funnell and Wade (2012).\nResearch design: This study employed both documentary analysis and interview data collection methods covering AGs in all federal, state and territory jurisdictions of Australia. This broad spectrum of constituencies included AGs for all states and territories of the Commonwealth of Australia plus the ANAO. These have been intentionally selected because: they constitute all the major locales of public sector PA in Australia; they cover a complete cross-section of federal, state and territory PA operations; and they reveal a variety of reporting philosophies and approaches. The project employed qualitative data collection and analysis methodologies to provide more nuanced understandings and insights into the PA orientation and conditioning influences by addressing underlying deep level change, to penetrate the complexities of the political, economic, social and professional context, and to elicit key stakeholders' detailed perceptions and explanations.\nPerformance audits in Australia: Our analysis of the number of PA reports produced across the Australian public sector audit jurisdictions suggest that the story is considerably more complex than one of simple growth or decline. First, it is important to note that the pattern across the different jurisdictions did not reflect a common starting point and did not reflect a consistent pattern. The detail of the number of PA reports published between 2001 and 2012 are shown in Table II. The ANAO had a particularly developed PA programme while the other states (except for SA and QLD) all had ongoing PA work. In terms of analytical comparison, 2001-2002 was somewhat difficult as NT had an unusually high number of reports (20). Therefore, we compared increase or decrease based on a comparison of the two periods at the beginning and end of the study. From this perspective ANAO has a slight increase (13 per cent) in the number of reports, TAS a moderate increase (50 per cent), and VIC reflecting a large increase (222 per cent). While the QLD AG did not produce any PA reports in 2001-2002, a total of seven PAs were conducted in 2011-2012. In contrast, there was a notable drop in the number of reports from ACT (-40 per cent) and NT (-85 per cent). What emerges is that by 2011-2012, all jurisdictions (except SA) have developed the capacity to regularly perform PAs (as now also evidenced by QLD). While there has been some reduction in the number of PAs in the smaller jurisdictions - particularly ACT and NT (reflecting perhaps capacity and resource issues), there is a large commitment at VAGO (29 reports) and ANAO (52 reports) and a substantive commitment in WA (19 reports across the two categories). Therefore, the simple claim that NPM or broader Audit Society have driven a consistent growth in PA across these jurisdictions is not supported by this evidence. However, it is also wrong to claim a significant decline of PA as has been suggested by the post-NPM argument. Across the Australian jurisdictions, while front stage performance frequencies vary, they are nonetheless still maintaining a high although variable profile. Their durability over recent years, suggests AGs' exercise of dramaturgical circumspection as they present an increasingly institutionalised form of audit reporting that appears to be responding in some way to the various agendas of different sectors of the audience.\nDiscussion and conclusions: The \"middle age\" of NPM seems complex and paradoxical, characterised by layers and blends of policy and initiatives rather than clearly defined trends and programs. However, PA has grown to become well established in many jurisdictions in Australia (Barrett, 2011; Guthrie and Parker, 1999). While authors have generally attributed this growth of PA to the output focus and managerialist aspects of performance measurement associated with PA (Glynn, 1985; Free et al., 2013), there have been few examples of analysis of the practice over a significant period of time and across multiple (yet similar) jurisdictions (Pollitt et al., 1999; Pollitt, 2003; Bowerman et al., 2003). This study has involved a comparative analysis of the PA practices across all the Australian federal, state and territory audit jurisdictions.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: In the context of global new public management reform trends and the associated phenomenon of performance auditing (PA), the purpose of this paper is to explore the rise of performance audit in Australia and examines its focus across audit jurisdictions and the role key stakeholders play in driving its practice.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The study adopts a multi-jurisdictional analysis of PA in Australia to explore its scale and focus, drawing on the theoretical tools of Goffman. Documentary analysis and interview methods are employed.\nFindings: Performance audit growth has continued but not always consistently over time and across audit jurisdictions. Despite auditor discourse concerning backstage performance audit intentions being strongly focussed on evaluating programme outcomes, published front stage reports retain a strong control focus. While this appears to reflect Auditors-General (AGs) reluctance to critique government policy, nonetheless there are signs of direct and indirectly recursive relationships emerging between AGs and parliamentarians, the media and the public.\nResearch limitations/implications: PA merits renewed researcher attention as it is now an established process but with ongoing variability in focus and stakeholder influence.\nSocial implications: As an audit technology now well-embedded in the public sector accountability setting, it offers potential insights into matters of local, state and national importance for parliament and the public, but exhibits variable underlying drivers, agendas and styles of presentation that have the capacity to enhance or detract from the public interest.\nOriginality/value: Performance audit emerges as a complex practice deployed as a mask by auditors in managing their relationship with key stakeholders.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
An exploration of happy/sad and liked/disliked music effects on shopping intentions in a women's clothing store service setting
|
[
"Music",
"Service levels",
"Shopping"
] |
[
{
"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.\nIntroduction: Atmospherics, including music, have received considerable attention in the retail/services literature since Kotler (1974) used the term to describe the conscious designing of space in store environments to create certain effects in buyers. Atmospherics consist of elements such as brightness, size, shape, volume, pitch, scent, freshness, softness, smoothness, and temperature. Milliman and Fugate (1993, p. 68) defined an atmospheric variable as \"any component within an individual's perceptual field which stimulates one's senses and thus affects the total experience of being in a given place at a given time\". Morrison and Beverland (2003) consider music to be an important variable in creating in-store experiences and connecting with customers' emotions while North and Hargreaves (1998) believe the role of music in consumer research is of considerable theoretical interest as well.Turley and Milliman (2000) conceptualized atmospheric variables as stimuli leading to some cognitive affect within the individual that, in turn, leads to some behavioral response. Several researchers have indeed reported links between atmospherics and retail patronage or patronage intentions. Baker et al. (1992) found that store patronage is influenced, to some degree, by store environments while Schlosser (1998) reported that intentions to shop in fictional stores was influenced by atmospheric variables. Chebat et al. (2000) discussed a physical environment's ability to influence behaviors in stores much as Bitner (1992) believes that service businesses, including retail stores, can influence behaviors of patrons. Retail patronage intentions have been found to be more highly correlated with consumers' beliefs about physical attractiveness of retail service environments than with merchandise quality, general price level, selection, and six other store/product beliefs (Darden et al., 1983). Milliman and Fugate (1993, p. 72) state that \"buying behavior is encouraged (purchase probability increases) through positive atmospheric outcomes, therefore marketers must carefully plan an appropriate atmosphere\".Some atmospheric factors are more easily controlled by marketers than others. Music is one factor that is ordinarily highly controllable, ranging from loud to soft, fast to slow, vocal to instrumental, heavy metal to hit-oriented rock, or classical to contemporary urban. Yalch and Spangenberg (1993, p. 632) state that \"music is a particularly attractive atmospheric variable because it is relatively inexpensive to provide, is easily changed, and is thought to have predictable appeals to individuals based on their ages and lifestyles\". Music, when matched with the interests of patrons, may add to consumer excitement (Wakefield and Baker, 1998). While Hume et al. (2003) did not find behavioral effects of music on wine purchases in a music congruence (fit) study, many researchers (Milliman, 1982, 1986; Yalch and Spangenberg, 1990; Areni and Kim, 1993; Gulas and Schewe, 1994; Wakefield and Baker, 1998; and Mattila and Wirtz, 2001) have reported that shoppers' behaviors in retail service environments can be affected by the background music played in retail environments. Morrison and Beverland (2003) speculate that if there is not a synergistic match between store type and music, the effects on consumers could be negative or confusing.Retail shoppers themselves have also acknowledged the importance of music as an atmospheric variable. Rubel (1996) discussed a poll conducted by the Gallup Organization in which 91 percent of retail customers surveyed said music had an effect on their shopping behavior. That same poll revealed that 86 percent of these customers said music added to the atmosphere of a store, while music influenced the purchase decisions of 33 percent of respondents. Results such as this add support to the idea that music can be a very important atmospheric variable.Notwithstanding the previous discussion, there is still much to be learned about the effects of music in various marketing settings. Music, while easily controlled by retailers, has many dimensions, some of which we know little about. Since Bruner (1990), in a review of published and some unpublished research, reported that relatively few studies have examined the effects of music in retail stores, there has been considerable published research regarding music's effects in retail environments. However, music is a complex construct and examinations that investigate only one aspect of music may be limited.The purpose of this paper, then, is to explore the relationship between an important atmospheric variable, music, and shopping intentions. More specifically, the effects of two aspects of music, the affective (happy/sad) dimension and subjects' liking/disliking of music, both separately and in combination, on respondents' intentions to shop in a particular retail service environment, a women's fashion clothing store, are examined. This investigation allows for a more thorough and realistic examination of music's effects than many previous studies provide.\nLiterature review: Bruner's (1990) conclusion that more studies involving music and various aspects of marketing were needed is of particular note since music has long been considered to be an efficient and effective means for triggering moods and communicating nonverbally. Research has shown that music can influence consumers' responses to advertising and to retail environments. Findings include changes in emotional states, attitude toward the ad and toward the brand, purchase intention and behavior (Dube et al. 1995).In one such examination of ambient factors of store environments, Baker et al. (1992) operationalized a low ambient store environment as one playing background classical music with soft lighting and a high ambient store environment as one using foreground top-40 music and bright lighting. Music tempo was held constant, as it was in the present research study, and a statistically significant interaction between ambient and social factors was reported. However, the happy/sad component of music was not examined and shopping intentions were not assessed.Subsequently, Herrington and Capella (1996) investigated the effects of the preferential dimension of music, i.e. the degree to which the shopper likes or dislikes background music. Based on a sample of 89 grocery store shoppers, these researchers reported that musical preference can have a positive impact on the amount of time and money shoppers spend in a grocery store. While this finding is of interest to retail managers, assessing effects of the emotional component of music should add to the body of knowledge as well.Happy and sad music\nMethodology: Overview\nResults: The direct effect of happy/sad music on shopping intentions, the direct effect of liked/disliked music on shopping intentions, and the effect of happy/sad music on shopping intentions mediated by individuals' liking/disliking for the music were assessed using LISREL 8.3 (Joreskog and Sorbom, 2000) in a manner similar to Borucki and Burke's (1999) and Bryman and Cramer's (1990) single-item measure analyses. The model shown in Figure 1 was used to test the hypotheses.Table III shows the total effects, direct effects, and indirect effects of hearing happy/sad music on subjects' shopping intentions. Table IV shows the total effects, direct effects, and indirect effects of hearing liked/disliked music on subjects' shopping intentions.These results show that happy/sad music has a significant direct effect on shopping intentions (p=0.000), while the direct effect of liked/disliked music was marginally significant (p=0.057). The indirect effect of happy/sad music was marginally significant at the 0.05 level (p=0.067). Happy/sad music also had a relatively small, but significant, direct effect on like/dislike for the music (p=0.001), indicating that most, but not all subjects liked the happy music more than the sad music. Thus, whether music was happy or sad did influence people's liking for the music.Perhaps even more intriguing than the direct effect of happy/sad music on shopping intentions is the test of the mediating effect of being exposed to liked or disliked happy/sad music. While playing happy music significantly increased subjects' intentions to shop in the stimulus store, shopping intentions were greatest when the music was liked as well. The combination of happy music that is liked by a store's target market is more powerful than either happy music or liked music alone. Perhaps some marketers treat music as a relatively simple construct when, as demonstrated by these results, careful consideration of the interaction of music's dimensions may yield the greatest positive effects on customers' behaviors.\nDiscussion: Happy/sad music and shopping intentions\nConclusions and recommendations: Although the happy/sad music results of this study are inconsistent with Alpert and Alperts (1990) investigation using greeting cards, the significant direct and indirect effects that happy/sad music had on shopping intentions support the notion that researchers and retailers need to concern themselves with this aspect of music perception specifically. According to subjects, this music element does influence their retail patronage intentions. In addition, a number of subjects who mentioned music attributed particular affective words such as \"depressing\" to the music while some even described how the music made them feel regarding their experimental \"shopping\" experiences. Increased knowledge about the effects of the affective component of music is clearly desirable.This examination of liking/disliking for the music supports North and Hargreaves' (1996) results and expands them. North and Hargreaves (1996) reported that individuals are more likely to return to an environment when music they like is played. This study, in addition, suggests that consumers are more likely to visit new service environments that play music they like. Indeed, retail advertisers should be able to use this information to design more appealing advertisements when attempting to attract new shoppers to their stores.Retail managers need to make informed music choices involving their store types and target markets. Herrington and Capella (1994, p. 52) presented the following question and answer, \"How can background music help customers to fulfill purchase needs? By playing the right type of music!\" The results of this study indicate that happy music that is liked by the target market is the \"right\" music and can significantly increase intentions to shop in a retail service environment.Therefore, it is important that retail managers know the music that their target market likes and play happy selections in that genre or by those liked artists. An example would be Gwen Stefani's \"Haul a Back\" song that was on a recent play list at a local retailer with a target market similar to that of the experimental store's in this study. Liking for artists and songs may be something that changes frequently so managers of service environments should also establish specific points during selling seasons when they consider adding new musical selections and deleting others. Conducting focus groups of customers or convening customer panels would allow managers to determine the appropriateness of their musical selections.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: - The purpose of this paper is to determine which two dimensions of music, happy/sad or liked/disliked, have significant effects on shopping intentions, thereby providing guidance for decision-makers in service environments.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - Subjects viewed videotapes of an unfamiliar store in an experimental research design. Subjects were exposed to one of several musical treatments while viewing and were asked to speak their thoughts about the store aloud. Happy/sad musical treatments were determined through pretests while subjects' unprompted comments were used to assess like/dislike for the music. Subjects also reported intentions to shop in the stimulus store. The hypothesized model was then tested.\nFindings: - Happy/sad music had a significant direct effect on shopping intentions while the direct effect of liked/disliked music was marginally significant. However, the combination of the two music dimensions investigated is perhaps most noteworthy. Shopping intentions were greatest when subjects were exposed to happy music that was liked.\nResearch limitations/implications: - Only a women's clothing store service setting with a limited target market was utilized. Care should be taken when generalizing beyond this setting and subject group.\nPractical implications: - Happy music that is liked by the target market can significantly increase intentions to shop in a retail service environment.\nOriginality/value: - Little research has been done investigating the effects of the affective, or happy/sad, component of music in service settings. This study helps fill that gap in the literature. In addition, studies investigating music's effects in retail environments often examine only one dimension of music. The value of assessing effects of multiple dimensions of music is demonstrated.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Factors contributing to the early failure of small new charity start-ups
|
[
"Market research",
"Competition",
"Charity start-ups",
"Internal conflict",
"Small enterprise failure"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Large numbers of new charities are established in Britain each year, but many fail. In 1960 the British Charity Commission initiated a register of approved charities which shows that whilst, since 1960, more than 2,500 new charities were registered annually (Third Sector Foresight, 2012), new registrations within particular years were frequently matched by removals, with many of the removed organisations having existed for just one or two years (see Ball, 2011). In 2010, for example, 6,676 new charities were registered and 6,303 removed consequent to their having shut down. Charity dissolutions soon after formation are equally common in the USA. Yellowbrix (2010) reported that 23 per cent of all the charities that registered with the US authorities in 1995 had failed by 2000, and that a further 24 per cent were \"stagnant\" (p. 3). A survey of 500 recently formed but still operational small British charities completed by Fundraising magazine in 2010 found that around one in six claimed they had nearly closed down because of the recession (Lake, 2010). Typically, a new charity start-up involves a single person who founds the organisation, assisted by perhaps just one or two full time paid assistants and/or unpaid volunteers.\nTheoretical frameworks: A number of theoretical models relate to the present research; notably human capital theory (Becker, 1975; Bruderl et al., 1992; Mellahi and Wilkinson, 2004), organisational ecology (Stinchcombe, 1965; Aldrich, 1979), and the survivor principle (see Mellahi and Wilkinson, 2004; Lien and Klein, 2013).\nFurther considerations: Literature in the new start-up field unconnected with the abovementioned theories indicates the existence of a number of common problems that lead to failure. Writing in the commercial context, Bruno and Leidecker's (1988) review of studies of reasons for the failure of businesses identified the major causes of collapse as involving management, strategic planning, finance, organisation, marketing, and externally induced difficulties. Subsequent literature in the commercial sphere has largely confirmed Bruno and Leidecker's (1988) conclusions. As regards charities, Dickey (2002) suggested that a charity start-up's chances of survival depended largely on the availability of financial resources, on its founder having sufficient time to run the charity, on the person possessing an in-depth knowledge of the cause involved, and on the charity having a workable strategy and \"support from people who can help with the leg work\" (p. 2). Also, Dickey (2002) continued, a new charity should not simply duplicate the work of an existing organisation.\nThe study: The present study covered charity start-ups in the human services \"helping and caring\" domain, thus excluding (e.g.) educational institutions, trade unions, housing associations, and organisations of a semi-commercial nature that register as charities for tax purposes. A single genre of charitable organisation (helping and caring) was examined because a similar set of factors is likely to affect the probability of success or failure within this single category. Newly established human services charities will normally be heavily dependent on public donations, will operate within essentially similar financial environments and will face common types of problems and constraints. Also, consolidated data on helping and caring charities could be accessed under relevant headings through Charity Commission sources (see below).\nResults: At the onset of their operations the removed charities had employed an average of 1.8 full time and 1.5 part time workers and had used 3.1 volunteers. Corresponding figures for the charities that were still operating two years after formation were 2.1, 1.6, and 2.7. Failed charities employed 50 per cent fewer workers immediately prior to their closure, though this might be expected due to failed charities having lost money and thus having not been able to pay for staff. The average amount of financial capital available at the time of donation was around the same for both removed and continuing charities, at PS65,000 and PS68,000, respectively. Table I presents a breakdown of the respondents' characteristics. It can be seen from the table that there were no substantial differences between the profiles of the members of the two groups except in relation to length of managerial work experience within charities prior to the formation of the new charity. Heads of continuing charities had an average of three and a half times more experience of working in other charities than had the ex-heads of removed charities. The sample charities were located in a wide range of sectors and dealt with many causes. There were no patterns in the results relating to type of cause or charity sector. A regression analysis was undertaken to establish which of the categories of difficulty shown in the Appendix significantly affected whether a charity was or was not active two years after its establishment. As each of the items appearing under a specific genre of problem listed in the Appendix represents a unique aspect of that type of problem the analysis was undertaken using the method of partial least squares (PLS); with latent variables formed by the items in relevant sections of the Appendix as regressors and a dependent variable with a value of unity if a charity had been removed from the Charity Commission register within two years of start-up and zero otherwise.\nDiscussion: The finding that a charity established by an individual with substantial experience of working in other charities prior to a start-up appears to have had a much better chance of survival than a charity formed by someone without such experience. Presumably, experience of working for a charity would have familiarised the individual with the norms and nuances of the charity sector, would have enhanced the person's feelings of self-confidence and self-efficacy where charity management was concerned, and would have facilitated the formulation of reasonable expectations and feasible objectives (see Davies, 2009).\nSummary and conclusion: The results demonstrate that respondents in both the removed and the continuing charities held many common perceptions vis-a-vis the kinds of issue that caused major problems when they set up their organisations. Shared perceptions (see the comparative figures in the Appendix) extended to difficulties concerning funding, excessive personal workload, lack of management skills, and inadequacies in initial planning and marketing efforts (cf. Bruno and Leidecker, 1988; Gaskill et al., 1993; Oe and Mitsuhashi, 2013). The issues that differentiated the charities that survived more than two years following establishment from those that ceased to operate related to previous experience of charity management; competition; and failures to undertake background research, deal with conflict, to network effectively, or to attract beneficiaries.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to establish the main causes of early failure of small recently established fundraising charities.\nDesign/methodology/approach: Heads and ex-heads of small recently established British charities that had either shut down within two years of registration with the Charity Commission or had survived for two years following registration were surveyed to determine the sorts of issue they believed were particularly problematic at the time their charities were formed or shortly thereafter. The research combined ideas from human capital theory, organisational ecology, and the survivor principle to investigate the mortality of new charity start-ups. Information was obtained from the ex-heads of 182 charities that had been removed from the Charity Commission's register and from 356 heads of charities that were still in operation.\nFindings: Participants in both groups reported that they had experienced major difficulties relating to funding, the development of plans, lack of marketing and management skills, and personal workload. Differences between the groups emerged with respect to their perceptions of problems involving competition from other charities (both for donations and for clients), internal conflict within their organisations, networking, and the need for background research. Start-ups run by people with prior experience of working in charities had a significantly better chance of survival than start-ups managed by individuals lacking such experience.\nResearch limitations/implications: The data used in the investigation were self-reported and less than a majority of the sampling frame participated in the study.\nPractical implications: Prospective founders of small new charities need to recognise competitive realities and the competencies required for success before commencing operations. Government and nonprofit support organisations should arrange short work experience placements and shadowing activities for individuals contemplating starting a new charity.\nOriginality/value: This was the first research ever to examine reasons for small enterprise collapse within the nonprofit domain.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
Managerial orientation and career success of physicians in hospitals
|
[
"Hospital management",
"Doctors",
"Management skills",
"Career development",
"Germany"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: The problem was that administrators didn't understand that we are here for patients - that it's patients we are looking after, not bags of beans or loaves or things like that.[...] they suggested things like, if you are short of a surgeon, what about using one of the radiologists. Now I see you smiling, but they really suggested that!They forget that our raison d'etre is to look after patients.These statements of English physicians with management responsibilities (Llewellyn, 2001) illustrate the difficulties that arise when health professionals and managers with business education work together in hospitals. The reasons for this problem are multifaceted (Golden et al., 2000). One important reason is certainly the professional status of physicians, which comprises values and norms hardly compatible with the economic goals of hospitals (Abernethy and Stoelwinder, 1995). In addition, the very different specialized knowledge of physicians and business-trained managers complicates communication between these two professions. Shortell (1991) uses in this regard the metaphor of physicians and managers being two different \"tribes\" with different languages, values, cultures, rules, and patterns of thought (Shortell, 1991). Furthermore, physicians are often not interested in business issues or in assuming managerial responsibilities. Therefore, Pollitt et al. characterize physicians as \"reluctant managers\" (Pollitt et al., 1988).The difficulties arising from the collaboration of physicians and managers in hospitals have a long tradition. But in contrast to former times, nowadays they represent a serious threat for hospitals. This is caused by the market-oriented reforms implemented in the hospital sectors of most industrialized economies in the last two decades, in particular by the introduction of DRG-based prospective payment systems. In the competitive environment resulting from these reforms, hospitals will only survive if they use their resources efficiently and avoid persistent financial losses. This requires that physicians as key personnel in the service process of hospitals assume management responsibility, that they take into account financial goals in addition to medical goals, and that they possess management skills, which enable them to lead other personnel effectively and, thereby, to optimize hospital performance (Comerford and Abernethy, 1999). Obviously, physicians that meet these requirements are particularly valuable for hospitals. Thus, such physicians should have better chances for promotion and considerable advantages when negotiating pay rises compared to physicians with a weak managerial orientation.However, in the hospital sector the positive impact of managerial orientation on career success is not as unambiguous as in most other industries. Physicians are trained and socialized according to professional values and norms that are considered to be the antithesis of a managerial orientation (Abernethy and Stoelwinder, 1995). Furthermore, the typical career paths of professionals are different from the careers of other occupational groups (Dalton et al., 1977; Kanter, 1989). Many physicians consider, e.g. publications in leading professional journals or the ability to carry out sophisticated surgery more important for career success than leadership skills. Therefore, the link between managerial orientation and career success of physicians remains obscure. The objective of this study is to investigate this research gap theoretically and empirically.\nPhysicians and hospital management: Traditional role of physicians in hospitals\nMethodology: Data\nResults: Table I gives some descriptive statistics of the variables used in the analysis. We see that one questionnaire did not contain information about the hierarchical status and the gender of the participant and was therefore excluded from further analysis. Furthermore, we see that all three hierarchical levels and both genders are adequately represented. The professional experience of the participating physicians was approximately 11 years and ranges between 1 and 35 years with a standard deviation of nearly nine years. Furthermore, we can see that the correlations between the three metric variables are all very low and not significant.To test the hypothesis that a pronounced managerial orientation has a positive impact on the career success of physicians in hospitals, we carried out a multinomial logistic regression (e.g. Hosmer and Lemeshow, 1989). The hierarchical status was the dependent variable and the two dimensions of managerial orientation were the independent variables. In addition we included professional experience and gender as control variables. The model diagnostics are shown in Table II.The likelihood-ratio test leads to a highly significant result at 0.1 percent level, so that the discriminatory power of the model with respect to the three hierarchical levels has to be characterized as very good. This is also reflected by the markedly high Pseudo-R-square values. Usually, Pseudo-R-square values higher than 0.4 are considered as good, and Nagelkerke-Pseudo-R-square values higher than 0.5 even as very good (Menard, 2002). Thus, we have to assume a good to very good model fit. Since Nagelkerke-Pseudo-R-square can be interpreted similarly to the coefficient of determination R-square in linear regressions, we can state that about 77 percent of the variation of the physicians' hierarchical status is explained by the three independent variables included in our model. The likelihood-quotient tests for the reduced models show highly significant effects at 0.1 percent level of the attitude towards management skills and of professional experience. The relative weight of the economic goals only has a marginally significant effect at 10 percent level, whereas the gender of the participants has no significant effect.Table III contains estimated regression coefficients, standard errors, Wald statistics and significance levels for the pair comparisons of the three hierarchical levels. The higher hierarchical level is used as reference category in each comparison.The comparison of assistant physicians with chief physicians leads to highly significant coefficients at 0.1 percent level with respect to the attitude towards management skills and professional experience. Since the chief physicians serve as reference category, the negative signs of these coefficients indicate that a lot of professional experience and a very positive attitude towards management skills rather belong to chief physicians than to assistant physicians. The coefficients of the relative weight of the economic goals and of the gender are not significant.The comparison of assistant physicians with senior physicians even leads to three significant coefficients: relative weight of the economic goals at 5 percent level, attitude towards management skills at 1 percent level, and professional experience at 0.1 percent level. Since the senior physicians serve as reference category, the negative signs of these coefficients indicate that a lot of professional experience and a pronounced managerial orientation - actually both dimensions - rather can be found with senior physicians than with assistant physicians. The coefficient of gender is again not significant.And finally senior physicians and chief physicians are compared. This comparison leads to only one significant coefficient: professional experience at 5 percent level. Since the chief physicians serve as reference category, the negative sign of this coefficient indicates that a lot of professional experience rather belongs to chief physicians than to senior physicians. The other three coefficients are not significant.\nDiscussion: The objective of this paper was to investigate the impact of managerial orientation on the career success of physicians in hospitals. Our empirical analysis has disclosed several coherences that are important for this topic. The model diagnostics and in particular the very high values of the Pseudo-R-square show that the investigated variables play a major role in explaining the hierarchical status of physicians. With hindsight, the consideration of gender was unnecessary, but professional experience and managerial orientation obviously have a very relevant impact on the career success of physicians in hospitals.The control variable professional experience has definitely the strongest impact on the career success of physicians in hospitals. All empirical results consistently show a significant positive effect. This finding is plausible, because the seniority principle doubtlessly plays a major role in promotions and salary increases. It is undisputed that professional experience - among other human capital related, demographical and organizational factors - is important for career success. This has been shown in numerous studies (e.g. McCall, 2004; Judge et al., 1995; Tharenou, 1997; Wayne et al., 1999). The topic had not been investigated explicitly for physicians in hospitals as yet. The present paper shows that physicians obviously do not represent an exception with respect to the relevance of professional experience for career success.The control variable gender also leads to consistent results. In this case, all empirical analyses do not lead to significant results. Thus, we assume that gender has no major impact on the career success of physicians in hospitals. This finding is rather astonishing, because most studies show that women are disadvantaged compared to men with respect to promotions and salary increases (e.g. Perrewe and Nelson, 2004; Tharenou, 1990; Windsor and Auyeung, 2006). The topic had not been investigated explicitly for female physicians in hospitals as yet. Our data indicate that female physicians - at least in Germany - are not disadvantaged compared to male physicians. However, this unexpected finding should be interpreted very carefully, because gender was used only as a control variable in our model. To make robust statements about the relationship between gender and career success of physicians in hospitals, a more thorough theoretical examination of this topic and a corresponding study design are required.Anyway, the focal point of the present study is the managerial orientation of physicians in hospitals. And here our study leads to mixed results.Our empirical results concerning the attitude towards management skills are quite compelling. The Wald statistics lead to significant regression coefficients for the two comparisons assistant physician vs. senior physician and assistant physician vs. chief physician. These results have to be considered as a clear indication that a pronounced managerial orientation increases the probability of assistant physicians to be promoted to a senior physician and perhaps then even to a chief physician. Consequently, a pronounced managerial orientation has a positive impact on the career success of physicians in hospitals, which confirms the central hypothesis of our study.This underlines the increasing importance of management skills for an occupation as a hospital physician. The traditional role perception of physicians as self-employed, autonomous, clinical generalists exclusively focused on the medical treatment of patients does no longer comply with the regulatory framework and the business conditions in the health care sectors of most industrialized countries (Abernethy and Stoelwinder, 1995). Instead, the functional specialization of health professional is permanently on the increase. As a consequence, patients are increasingly treated by medical treatment teams that consist of several specialists. Furthermore, physicians are increasingly employed by large hospitals, hospital groups or health care conglomerates that are operated according to bureaucratic and business principles. Under these conditions, leadership and management skills as well as the acceptance of the economic goals of the employer are indispensable for a satisfactory and successful occupation as hospital physician. This does not mean that physicians have to be less committed to quality of care and the wellbeing of their patients. They rather have to complement their professional values and norms with business and leadership aspects that are indispensable in contemporary health care (Comerford and Abernethy, 1999).Interestingly, the comparison senior physician vs. chief physician is the only comparison that does not lead to significant results concerning the attitude towards management skills. This suggests that this dimension of managerial orientation is only important for the promotion from a non-leading to a leading position, whereas it is apparently of little importance for the career move from senior physician to chief physician, i.e. from middle management to top management. Regrettably, our study does not provide the factors that play a decisive role in this career move - apart from professional experience. But we suppose that management aspects have to play a very important role, in particular because strategic management and leadership are considered to be very difficult in professional service firms (Mintzberg, 1998). However, we assume that to reach a top management position in a hospital, the actual management skills of physicians are much more relevant than the attitude towards management skills measured in our study.Clearly less compelling than our results concerning the attitude towards management skills, are our empirical results concerning the other dimension of managerial orientation, i.e. the relative weighting of the economic goals of the hospital. Only the comparison assistant physician vs. senior physician leads to a significant positive coefficient, which indicates that physicians that put much weight on the economic goals as compared to the medical goals of the hospital rather belong to the senior physicians than to the assistant physicians. The other two comparisons are not significant. Therefore, we have to conclude that the relative weighting of the economic goals barely contributes to corroborate the hypothesis that a pronounced managerial orientation has a positive impact on career success of physicians in hospitals. Interestingly, it is again the comparison assistant physicians vs. senior physicians that is significant, thus indicating that managerial orientation is a relevant factor when promoting physicians from a non-leading to a leading position in hospital, whereas the promotion to top management depends on other factors.The weak impact of the relative weighting of the economic goals may be attributed to the special characteristics of the medical profession. The fact that the medical goal \"health\" represents the most important social need, and the direct and intensive interaction between physicians and their patients, should entail that physicians feel more committed to the altruistic values and goals of their profession than other professionals, e.g. attorneys (Goode, 1969). Although the image of physicians as unselfish agents of the patient is questionable (Samuel et al., 2005), there will be hardly any physicians who attach more importance to economic goals than to quality of care. This was also shown by the descriptive analysis of our data. Therefore, the relative weight of the economic goals is not particularly suited for the investigation of the impact of managerial orientation on the career success of physicians in hospitals.Obviously, the other dimension of managerial orientation - namely, the attitude towards management skills - is much more appropriate for this purpose. As already mentioned above, the acquisition and enhancement of management skills aims at improving the clinical performance as well as the economic performance of the hospital and does not imply an incompatibility of professional and managerial orientation. Thus, this dimension seems to represent a form of managerial orientation consistent with the basic understanding of physicians concerning their profession. It is against this background that the considerable influence of the attitude towards management skills on the career success of physicians found in this paper becomes plausible.\nConclusion and limitations: Summarizing, we can conclude that our data support the hypothesis investigated in this paper. A pronounced managerial orientation - and in particular a positive attitude towards management skills - have indeed a positive impact on the career success of physicians in hospitals. Furthermore, our data indicate that professional experience has a massive positive impact on career success, whereas gender has no effect at all.However, as with any study, this paper has obvious limitations that should be recognized. A most important limitation is the study design, which is not appropriate for a doubtless and definitive demonstration of a causal effect of managerial orientation on career success. Our hypothesis is quite plausible, but we cannot rule out that the causal connection in fact is the opposite way around. One could argue that it is the assignment of managerial responsibilities resulting from a promotion that causes the more positive attitude towards management skills. Under these circumstances, managerial orientation would not be the cause, but rather the result of career success. To clarify the causal connection between these variables, it would be very useful to analyze longitudinal data. Nevertheless, the present study provides sound indications that the causal connection stated in our hypothesis is correct. In this regard, we would like to mention in particular the very low correlations between professional experience and both dimensions of managerial responsibilities shown in Table I and the consideration of professional experience as control variable in the logistic regression model.Another limitation is the small sample size of only 81 physicians and the fact that they work in only two hospitals. More participants and a higher number of hospitals should improve the generalizability of our results. In addition, more demographic and human capital related factors could have been included as control variables to increase the robustness of our results. These limitations can be mentioned here, but they cannot be corrected in the scope of this study. However, they can serve as suggestions for follow-up studies, which can expand on and improve our results and which should lead to interesting findings in this largely neglected field of research.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: - This article aims to investigate the impact of managerial orientation on the career success of physicians employed in hospitals.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - The authors collected data between August and October 2006 using a written questionnaire that was sent to all 278 physicians employed in two German hospitals. The data was analyzed using a multinomial logistic regression.\nFindings: - The data indicate that a pronounced managerial orientation has indeed a positive impact on the career success of physicians in hospitals. But the results vary with respect to the different dimensions of managerial orientation.\nPractical implications: - Some aspects of managerial orientation are more compatible with physicians' professional values and, consequently, more relevant for career success than others. The acquisition and improvement of management skills seems to be a crucial factor.\nOriginality/value: - The impact of managerial orientation on the career success of physicians has been unclear so far. Physicians are trained and socialized according to professional values and norms that are considered to be the antithesis of a managerial orientation. Furthermore, the typical career paths of professionals are different from careers of other occupational groups. However, this paper shows that physicians employed in hospitals need a certain degree of managerial orientation to have a successful and satisfying professional career.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
What factors determine the choice of public engagement undertaken by health technology assessment decision-making organizations?
|
[
"Decision making",
"Health care",
"Consumers",
"Public engagement",
"Health technology assessment"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Health technology assessment (HTA) is a multi-disciplinary process, used by policy-making bodies, to analyze and summarize information about medical, social, economic and ethical issues related to the use of a health technology (Banta, 2003). Increasingly, public engagement has become an important component of this process. The term \"public,\" once mainly confined in this context to patients and consumer advocacy groups, is now understood to include \"ordinary\" or \"lay\" citizens who have not necessarily had contact with the relevant health services but have a \"stake\" in the decisions made by policy makers by virtue of being members of the community (Mitton et al., 2009). There are a number of organizations worldwide that conduct or commission assessments of health technologies. These organizations (referred to collectively as HTA organizations (HTAOs)) usually conduct some form of public engagement to guide their decisions about health technologies or to guide the recommendations they make to policy makers by whom they have been commissioned (Hailey and Nordwall, 2006). Public engagement is seen as a means to increase the legitimacy of this advice and/or decision making and ensure that decisions made are relevant to stakeholders, transparent and responsive to relevant social values (Facey et al., 2010; Littlejohns et al., 2012; Nilsen et al., 2006).\nMethods: The approach we used was based on interpretative hermeneutic analysis (Smith et al., 2009). This approach allows theory development through an iterative, and interpretive approach, acknowledging the lens of the researcher within the analytic process - as in this case all authors have worked in association with HTAOs and/or on projects relating to HTA decision making.\nExisting frameworks used to guide choice of public engagement type: We identified two main frameworks that are used, referred to and/or adapted by those describing and evaluating public engagement in HTA. The first is the framework by Rowe and Frewer (2005) which describes three broad types of engagement: communication, consultation and participation. In the framework, the three types are differentiated based on the direction of flow of information between participants and the \"sponsor\" (in this case, the HTAO). Subtypes of engagement methods are based on other factors, such as selection of participants, facilitation of participation and framing of responses with techniques for each subtype listed.\nAnalysis of factors: From analysis of the data, we propose that there are four main drivers that influence the choice of public engagement process undertaken by HTAOs (Table II). These relate to both content of the HTA itself; which we refer to as the \"complexity\" and \"impact\" of a topic - external to the organization - as well as other internal factors associated with the HTAO. These internal factors include the time and resources available to the HTAO and the existent organizational culture, structure and processes of the HTAO - labeled \"transparency and opportunity for public involvement in governance.\" These latter factors are rarely made explicit in public engagement frameworks, yet are just as influential in determining when and how engagement in undertaken (Gauvin et al., 2010).\nFactors influencing the choice of public engagement type undertaken by HTAOs: Perceived complexity of the policy-making issue\nDevelopment of a framework: Using the previously described literature on theoretical frameworks of public engagement (IAP2, 1999; Robinson, 2003; Rowe and Frewer, 2005) and the four factors that we have identified that appear to influence the choice of approaches public engagement, we developed a framework to conceptualize potential reasons for the extent and type of public engagement currently undertaken by HTAOs. The framework applies Rowe and Frewer's (2005) broad engagement types (Figure 1). It also borrows the matrix concept developed by Robinson (2003), based on the IAP2 spectrum (IAP2, 1999), that acknowledges the external factors of complexity and impact and adds the internal factors: transparency and opportunities for involvement in governance in the HTA process and time and resource constraints of the HTAO. The framework suggests that each of these factors exists along a spectrum or continuum and varies depending on the question.\nApplication of the framework: The upper quadrants of the framework identify the types of public engagement that might be most appropriate for technologies where the complexity of the decision is relatively low, and where there are already good opportunities for the public to be involved in the HTA decision-making process. Engagement options in these situations vary from information provision to targeted consultation depending upon the time and resources available to the HTAO and the likely impact of the decision. The lower quadrants indicate the types of public engagement that might be appropriate for more complex assessments or ones where there are limited opportunities for public involvement in the HTA process. Similar to the upper quadrants, decisions about public engagement methods would also vary from left to right depending upon time and resources and the perceived impact of the decision. An example of an HTA in the lower quadrants is the 2009 assessment of colorectal cancer screening tests by the OHTAC (Medical Advisory Secretariart, 2009). As previously mentioned, screening is often considered to be complex and of high impact. A public representative was not part of the OHTAC and so the Committee drew upon both an evidence report (Ontario Health Technology Advisory Committee, 2009) and the views expressed by the Citizens Reference Panel of Health Technologies.\nDiscussion: At the moment judgments regarding whom and when to engage, and the method of engagement are dictated by the particular health care organization. There is very little research published identifying the factors that influence HTAOs choice of engagement method, so it is difficult for agencies to place their decisions in a broader context or learn from others. In particular, there is little information on which HTAOs can draw with respect to the ways in which internal pressures such as time and resources or their own organizational culture may influence their choice of public engagement process. According to some authors, public engagement in health care suffers from limited conceptualization and a lack of evidence on the most effective method to engage the public (Christiaens et al., 2013; Litva et al., 2002; Haywood et al., 2014). However these issues are currently receiving greater attention (OHTAC Public Engagement Subcommittee, 2015) with some significant efforts to integrate evaluation into public engagement in HTA decision making (Dipankui et al., 2015) and reflect on potential barriers and enablers.\nConclusions: There is no universal or ideal approach to public engagement into HTA processes. While multiple methods exist, HTAOs have tended to focus on a limited range of approaches. Four main drivers appear to guide the choice of engagement type used by contemporary HTAOs. The dictates of these factors are rarely explicitly acknowledged by HTAOs. Rather, engagement is simply framed as an imperative with little consideration given to whether engagement is desired by the public, which publics should be included, whether the chosen approach is appropriate to achieve the intended outcome, or how engagement should be tailored for particular technologies. This is an unsatisfactory state of affairs, and there is a need for greater understanding of what methods \"work\" best in particular situations, development of new methods of engagement to account for increasing complexity and greater understanding of how the various \"publics\" themselves want to participate in HTA.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: Public engagement in health technology assessment (HTA) is increasingly considered crucial for good decision making. Determining the \"right\" type of engagement activity is key in achieving the appropriate consideration of public values. Little is known about the factors that determine how HTA organizations (HTAOs) decide on their method of public engagement, and there are a number of possible factors that might shape these decisions. The purpose of this paper is to understand the potential drivers of public engagement from an organizational perspective.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The published HTA literature is reviewed alongside existing frameworks of public engagement in order to elucidate key factors influencing the choice of public engagement process undertaken by HTAOs. A conceptual framework is then developed to illustrate the factors identified from the literature that appear to influence public engagement choice.\nFindings: Determining the type of public engagement undertaken in HTA is based on multiple factors, some of which are not always explicitly acknowledged. These factors included the: perceived complexity of the policy-making issue, perceived impact of the decision, transparency and opportunities for public involvement in governance, as well as time and resource constraints. The influences of these factors vary depending on the context, indicating that a one size fits all approach to public engagement may not be effective.\nOriginality/value: Awareness of the various factors that might influence the type of public engagement undertaken would enable decision makers to reflect on their choices and be more accountable and transparent about their choice of engagement process in eliciting public values and preferences in a HTAO.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
The normative evolution of corporate governance in the UK: an empirical analysis (1995-2014)
|
[
"Comparative law",
"Corporate governance evolution",
"Empirical corporate governance",
"Financial market growth",
"Law and financial development",
"Shareholder primacy"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Simplistically, corporate governance concerns the separation of functions between a company's board of directors and the annual general meeting of shareholders or stakeholders. It concerns itself with the balance of power as between the directors at a managerial level, and the shareholders or stakeholders, whose involvement in the company may represent direct or indirect investment through electoral functions. At the most basic level, any division between ownership/investment, and control prompts the risk observed by Smith (1838): \"the directors of such companies [joint stock companies] however being the managers rather of people's money rather than of their own, it cannot be expected that they should watch over it with the same anxious vigilance [as if it were their own]\". The focus of this discussion is to consider how corporate governance has evolved normatively in the UK, benchmarked against the OECD Principles of Corporate Governance 2004, and to provide a quasi-experimental analysis to discuss its impact upon financial market growth.\nReview of literature: Researching effective corporate governance mechanisms[1] and associated developments such as attributable performance parameters in global and domestic financial markets is increasingly at the centre of academic discourse. Controversially, much of the early scholarly debates on corporate governance functionality adopted monistic perspectives. That means, despite corporate governance developments paralleling dynamic, highly complex, systemic changes such as the proliferation of financial market integration and the emergence of legal transnationalism, scholars predominantly adopted and presented singular, generalist viewpoints. Hence, as a result of systematic corporate governance analysis being a relatively \"young\" academic research discipline, existing work can often be characterised as being intra- instead of interdisciplinary, therefore only offering partial, incomplete and static (Kole and Lehn, 1997) insight, which we identify to be a serious contentual deficit in present literature.\nMethodology: The 2004 OECD Principles of Corporate Governance constituted the major piece of international regulation, which gained widespread attention in the early part of this century. Most developing countries fashioned their corporate governance regulations based on these principles. Thus from a comparative law perspective the OECD principles provide a touchstone to measure to what extent a country has adopted the generally recognised uniform corporate governance principles. Another dimension worthy of exploration is the tilt towards shareholder primacy corporate governance, although a lip service is paid to stakeholderism as OECD principles mostly tend to lean towards shareholder primacy corporate governance. Thus, an empirical analysis which studies the evolution of UK corporate governance pegged to the 2004 OECD standard would also reveal the increased or decreased tilt to shareholder primacy corporate governance.\nHistorical context: It is notable that the UK is predominantly a Common Law jurisdiction (although it should be recognised that Scottish Law is a hybrid Civil/Common Law system rooted in Roman law). Principally the impact of the common law is felt in two effects, firstly, legislation may anticipate, and give authority to further detail, provided as secondary legislation, or regulation, and that the courts have an interpretative role where legislation is brought before them; and secondly, that law - the Common Law - is developed through the courts quite separately to the provisions of Parliament. Legislation is by its nature less detailed and all-encompassing than might be the case in Civil law jurisdictions, allowing Parliament to revisit as necessary, without disruption of any wider design. The English courts interpret and apply legislation, but also adjudicate on issues outside of statute in common law developing law through binding precedent or Stare Decisis. This background is useful in providing the context of the development of corporate governance in the UK.\nThe Combined Code 1998: The Combined Code 1998, prompted by the collapse of Barings Bank, etc., incorporated the key elements of the Cadbury (1992), Greenbury (1995), and Hampel (1998) reports, disseminating what should be \"best practice\" in corporate governance (Parkinson and Kelly, 1999). The compliance strategy adopted relied on voluntary disclosure, through the mechanism of \"comply or explain\". The self-regulatory approach might be viewed quizzically by some, but the requirement to \"explain\" supports transparency, and presented something of a challenge to companies with effective self-regulation reducing the need for future statutory control (Gamble and Kelly, 2001).\nThe revised combined codes: The basic template for corporate governance in the UK provided by the original Combined Code has been revisited on several occasions (2003, 2005 and 2006). The first in 2003 responding to, and incorporating the key recommendations of both the Higgs, and the Smith reports, with later updating taking place in 2005 and 2006 before the major revision in 2010 (see below).\nThe UK corporate governance code: In 2010, the Combined Code was revised, in the light of the Davies and Sharman Reports, and re-designated as the UK Corporate Governance Code (with further updates following in 2012 and 2014). The updated code does not represent any distinct change of direction, but does introduce a new focus on \"diversity disclose\" in relation to director mix, and stresses the need to set the right \"tone from the top\". Beyond this development, the significance of the revisions relate largely to the continuing themes of risk management and internal control, remuneration (stressing the need to link to delivery of long-term benefits to the business) and shareholder engagement.\nThe Companies Act 2006: Since its emergence in the Cadbury Report, corporate governance in the UK has largely relied upon a narrow outlook, focussing on profit maximisation through the prioritisation of the shareholder. We have, however, already noted that this is not the only approach that might be adopted, nonetheless although Hampel (para 1.3) suggests that good governance will ensure that stakeholders with an interest in the company will be taken into account, it is difficult to see this as reliable in such a shareholder centric framework. Broader definitions have been mooted (Sheridan and Kendall, 1992), and are more characteristic of some other jurisdictions, and particularly relevant to some other EU jurisdictions, and the process of EU harmonisation. The 1999 Consultation Document (Modern Company Law for a Competitive Economy: The Strategic Framework), reflected upon broader interests which may be served, drawing a distinction between the \"enlightened shareholder value\" approach which would suggest that such interests could be benefited within the present framework, and a \"pluralist\" approach which would facilitate the wider stakeholder interest, but would demand significant changes to company law with, particular impact on directors.\nThe Stewardship Code 2010: Emanating from the Financial Reporting Council, the Stewardship Code attends to the position of institutional investors with voting rights, extending expectations in relation to transparency to their voting, and voting policy. The practical effect of the code is to enhance the engagement of institutional investors, which in turn will pay dividends in relation to the corporate governance of the investee company, and encourage openness and transparency in relation to their own compliance in the investor's home company. The approach encourages transparency in relation to the stewardship function, giving a two-way benefit, maintaining continuity with the \"comply or explain\" model (Figure 2).\nCorporate governance reform: In 1999 the OECD issued their \"Principles of Corporate Governance\" (revised 2004), after wide consultation with national governments, the private sector, International Banks, etc. The OECD Principles represent common characteristics recognised as necessary for good corporate governance and share commonality with our own internal framework over a range of areas. However, the key point of divergence relates to Principle IV, which focuses specifically on the role of stakeholders in corporate governance. The OECD highlights their preference for corporate governance models to recognise the rights of stakeholders, and \"encourage active co-operation between corporations and stakeholders in creating wealth, jobs, and the sustainability of financially sound enterprises\". To a certain extent it might be suggested that s309 Companies Act 1985, and s172 Companies Act 2006 represent significant movement in the direction of stakeholder values, however, as indicated above, the categories of stakeholder indicated in both Acts of Parliament remain secondary considerations for the board, who are only required to consider them to the extent that they \"consider(s), in good faith [...] most likely to promote the success of the company for the benefit of its members as a whole [...]\". In addition, the limited opportunity to challenge directors in relation to s309 (1985) and s172 (2006), may lead us to consider that although stakeholder interests may be advertised in the corporate \"window\", they are not for sale in the corporate \"shop\".\nContextualising corporate governance and financial market development change points: In order to visualise the evolution of normative corporate governance change points against the time specific financial market development change points based on our empirical data the two graphs have been merged as illustrated in the following diagram (Figure 3).\nConclusion: In mapping the normative development of UK corporate governance between the years 1995 and 2014, we have undertaken the first longitudinal empirical study of its kind advancing and refining the conception of UK corporate governance evolution. The specific change points used for this analysis have been contextualised against the background of UK financial market development and financial market growth. However, we found no statistically relevant empirical evidence pertaining to changes in corporate governance and the financial market, and therefore conclude that there is little correlation between the two. Instead, we argue that changes in UK financial market development and financial market growth up until this point can be explained rather by a combination of other factors. However, notable changes, such as reforms in the UK corporate governance framework, relating to a greater interest in the incorporation of stakeholder values might paint a different picture. Thus, interestingly, in 2017, in terms of its corporate governance legal framework, the UK finds itself in a somewhat paradoxical situation. Whilst it is on the cusp of political divergence from its closest trading neighbours (the EU), at the same time it may be closer to the concept of convergence of corporate governance ideas now than it has been at any point in the past.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: This paper aims to analyse normative corporate governance evolution in the UK between 1995 and 2014 against the benchmark of Organisation for Economic Co-Operation and Development (OECD) regulatory principles.\nDesign/methodology/approach: Methodologically, the authors conduct an empirical, longitudinal data set analysis of the formative years of UK normative corporate governance development between 1995 and 2014. We provide a qualitative discussion of the empirical evidence that links the type of UK regulatory corporate governance development to financial market growth thereby adopting a mixed approach based on quantitative and qualitative research methods.\nFindings: The authors find that compared to the OECD model of corporate governance, the UK model is less rigid following a more self-regulatory approach based upon a \"comply or explain\" paradigm. Thus it is scored below corporate governance systems that follow a compulsory implementation model. However, even with such \"low\" tilt towards formal shareholder primacy norms, the UK has the best performing financial market. As a quasi-empirical study, the authors suggest that there are several historical and economic reasons for this, which together with a robust rule of law in the UK contribute to this performance - and the law especially the type or tilt is less relevant.\nOriginality/value: This is the first of its kind empirical, longitudinal data set analysis with qualitative elements that links empirical evidence to regulatory developments in the wider context of UK corporate governance evolution.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
Organizational groupings and performance in project-based organizations: An empirical investigation
|
[
"Social network",
"Knowledge management",
"Organizational performance",
"Knowledge network",
"Community of practice",
"Project team",
"Project-based organizations",
"Community of interest"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: Nowadays, the most advanced high-tech and multinational corporations have been transforming their traditionally hierarchical organizations into flatter, faster, more flexible, and more horizontally integrated structures based on interorganizational groupings such as teams, communities, and networks (Child and Rodrigues, 2003; Palmer et al., 2007). This emerging change in interorganizational grouping forms is more apparent in project-based organizations (PBO) because they are the optimal organizational structures to incorporate knowledge both within and outside the company and to generate innovative business models for new products and services (Pemsel and Muller, 2012; Lindkvist, 2004). While PBOs possess all internal and external resources and individual functions including development, production, and sales, they are structured to execute business as individual projects (Prencipe and Tell, 2001). Recently, the structure of PBOs has come to be applied to a wide range of industries, especially construction (Eriksson, 2013), information, technology, communications (Bigliardi et al., 2010), and professional services (Klimkeit, 2012).\n2. Theoretical background: 2.1 Project-based organizations (PBOs)\n3. Theoretical framework and hypotheses: 3.1 Effects of communities of practice on organizational performance\n4. Research methodology: 4.1 Research model\n5. Conclusions: This paper has drawn conclusions relevant to academics and practitioners. Our research has found that both KNs and CoIs have direct positive and significant impacts on OP. In contrast, CoPs do not have a significant and direct impact on OP. This behavior might be the result of time-bound characteristics of projects in PBOs. In contrast to projects and project teams, CoPs are not defined by time boundaries. Consequently, their output and influence are much more difficult to measure in a limited period of time. Moreover, PTs have a direct and significant negative effect on OP. Although PBOs consist of PTs, the results of this research indicate that relying only on PTs will decrease the overall performance of the PBO. This might be because PTs will not provide the required knowledge, creativity, and flexibility in comparison to other competitors that use KNs and CoIs.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: This study aims to empirically evaluate the impact of interorganizational groupings on corporate performance in project-based organizations.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The study develops and tests a theoretical model whereby groupings include project team, community of practice (CoP), community of interest (CoI), and knowledge network (KN). Organizational performance is supported on financial, process, internal, and cultural aspects. Based on a questionnaire, data was obtained from a sample of 142 companies in North America. The measurement model was tested and confirmed by using structural equation modeling (SEM).\nFindings: The results confirm the positive effects of knowledge networks and communities of interest. However, the impact of project teams turned out to be negative, and communities of practice were not shown to affect corporate performance. Additionally, the results underscore the importance of organizational networks in creating conditions favorable to a firm's success.\nPractical implications: It was verified that knowledge networks and communities of interest affect the measures of organizational performance, including financial, process, internal, and cultural performance. This is useful for researchers and executives looking for appropriate outcomes through the implementation of knowledge management initiatives. Furthermore, this study provides a starting point for further research on the role of inter- and intraorganizational networks in project-based organizations.\nOriginality/value: This study claims that a key to performance for project-based organizations is development and management of organizational networks in the form of knowledge networks and communities of interest.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
Improving professional development relationships that support teacher learning
|
[
"Professional development",
"Facilitation",
"English teaching",
"Literacy teaching"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Based on the assumption that teachers' professional development (PD) leads to improved instruction and student literacy performance on standardized assessments, widespread school improvement mandates have refocused attention on PD (Opfer and Pedder, 2011). Many English teachers facilitate colleagues' PD learning in their work as school, district, or university coaches, department chairs, consultants or curriculum specialists. Existing scholarship affirms that these teacher-facilitator relationships can positively affect instructional change, especially when PD is designed around the elements that consensus deems important (e.g. sustained time, opportunities to collaborate, support in applying their learning) (Desimone, 2009). Nevertheless, understanding why, when and how PD works for English teachers remains unclear and understudied.\nNegotiating framework conflicts: Understanding how teachers and facilitators can use the formative markers to affect change necessitates understanding how frameworks and conflict are commonplace. Frameworks serve as metacategories for frames, which communicate the purpose of interactions and are co-constructed in-the-moment as people define \"what's going on here\" (Goffman, 1974). They offer rationales for action. Teachers employ many frameworks, including, for example, ELA teaching, adolescent learners, school context, and reform mandates. In PD settings, teachers and facilitators draw on potentially different frameworks to make meaning of PD content and interactions.\nTheoretical framework: Viewing the sites of teachers' learning as they negotiate framework conflicts calls for a focus on \"languaging\" (Beach and Bloome, 2019), which brings into view the centrality and complexity of teacher-facilitator relationships. From this perspective, teachers' and facilitators' language serves as the important in-between through which they \"talk relationships into being\" (Beach and Beauchemin, 2019, p. 25) and work to maintain them. Neither teacher nor facilitator arrives as an expert (Gallucci et al., 2010). Instead, each responds to and potentially benefits from the other's ongoing contributions (Bakhtin, 1986). Within these social relationships, teachers and facilitators negotiate what does and does not count as usable knowledge.\nTeacher-facilitator relationship literature: Focusing on relationships emphasizes the importance of PD in building individual and collective capacity to enact system wide change (Mangin and Dunsmore, 2014). Studies that view professional learning as socially constructed processes account for the capacious roles that teachers and facilitators play as they work within complex, relational systems to co-construct learning (Borko et al., 2014) and as they navigate conflicts. Guskey (1986), for instance, argues that teachers need sustained, specific feedback from facilitators about how their implementation efforts affect student learning.\nResearch design: Larger study\nResults: Four discursive moves - flagging, naming, soliciting and processing - emerged from the analysis and offer a needed way of making visible and then acting in response to the framework conflicts that shape teachers' learning experiences and application efforts within systems of power.\nDiscussion: English teachers' efforts to seek facilitators' assistance are complicated by powerful political and contextual forces. These forces can disempower teachers by dictating which kinds of professional learning are best for them and by further threatening already scarce PD funding, time, and space that allow teachers and facilitators to develop effective relationships. This reality intensifies the need for relational tools that help teachers act on PD learning and improve the effectiveness of their ELA instruction. Flagging, naming, soliciting and processing offer needed language for explaining, analyzing and fostering productive relationships that help teachers and facilitators navigate and, when necessary, push back against the forces that seek to undermine the value of their efforts.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: Current top-down literacy reform mandates have reenergized attention to professional development (PD) outcomes. Still, questions remain about why English teachers struggle to apply their learning. Refocusing attention on understanding the complex yet critical relationship between professional development (PD) facilitators and teachers offers one explanation.\nDesign/methodology/approach: Using a telling case from an interactional ethnography, this paper illustrates how through their language-in-use teachers and facilitators can productively resolve conflicts that, if left unaddressed, can prevent teachers from acting on their professional learning.\nFindings: A set of discursive moves - flagging, naming, soliciting and processing - provide a toolkit for surfacing and successfully resolving conflict in PD interactions.\nResearch limitations/implications: These moves offer a way of prioritizing the importance of teacher-facilitator relationships in future research aimed at addressing the longstanding conundrum of how best to support English teachers' ongoing professional learning.\nPractical implications: Teaching facilitators and teachers how to collaboratively address inevitable conflicts offers a needed intervention in supporting both teacher and facilitator learning.\nOriginality/value: Previous research has affirmed that facilitators, like teachers, need support for navigating the complexity of professional learning interactions. This paper offers a language for uncovering why teacher-facilitator interactions can be so challenging for teachers and facilitators as well as ways of responding productively in-the-moment. It contributes to a more capacious understanding of how these relationships shape diverse English teacher learning.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Geographic variation in social media metrics: an analysis of Latin American journal articles
|
[
"Social media",
"Latin America",
"Metrics",
"Altmetrics",
"Scholarly publishing",
"SciELO"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Altmetrics hold the potential to change how research is discovered, disseminated, evaluated, rewarded, and even read. They could become a transformative force in academia, but only if they are shown to actually provide \"indications of impacts on diverse audiences including scholars but also practitioners, clinicians, educators and the general public\" (Piwowar, 2013, p. 9) and to present the opportunity to measure and track additional aspects of impact - aspects ignored by traditional bibliometric approaches. However, to date, altmetrics remain largely understudied and often misunderstood.\nBackground: Altmetrics work by looking for references to scholarly works on the web, including \"traditional\" social media (i.e. Twitter, Facebook, Google+), blogs (i.e. researchblogging.com, ScienceSeeker, Wordpress.com), academic bookmarking services and reference managers (i.e. CiteULike, Mendeley, Connotea), media outlets (i.e. New York Times, The Economist, Wired), and multimedia (i.e. YouTube, podcasts), post-publication peer review sites (i.e. F1000 Prime), and a handful of others. However, there is no official list of what constitutes an alternative metric. Virtually any metric that can be collected over the web, and that is not a citation, can be considered an alternative metric. One of the most complicated aspects of altmetrics is that each of these sources has a different degree of adoption and use around the world and between different online communities. An understanding of this difference in use must necessarily influence the metrics that can be derived from each source.\nData and methods: This study focuses on SciELO for access to both articles and journal metadata. SciELO publishes and indexes full-text articles of over 1,200 journals and over 500,000 full-text articles across 12 national collections from Iberomaerica and the Caribbean[6]. While SciELO is technically a publisher (i.e. it publishes content online which in some cases has not been made available elsewhere), it is not a publisher in the traditional sense (i.e. it is not involved in the operation of the journals, nor does it provide financing, editing, or other oversight of the editorial or production process). It has been described as a both a \"meta-publisher\" (Packer and Meneghini, 2007) and as a hybrid between a repository and a publisher (Guedon, 2008).\nResults: With the data in place, it is possible to measure coverage across the entire corpus, between country, disciplines, and language in two ways: by looking at the total number of social media mentions, and by looking at the proportion of articles that receive mentions. The raw counts give a sense of the scale of activity surrounding the articles (i.e. how many people are engaging with these articles on social media) and the percentage coverage indicates how concentrated or spread out the activity is across all articles (i.e. how many articles solicit engagement).\nDiscussion and conclusions: The differences uncovered by this study point to the need of careful sample selection when making generalizable claims about altmetrics. In particular, it draws attention to the importance of considering and further studying altmetrics in developing and emerging country contexts.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this study is to contribute to the understanding of how the potential of altmetrics varies around the world by measuring the percentage of articles with non-zero metrics (coverage) for articles published from a developing region (Latin America).\nDesign/methodology/approach: This study uses article metadata from a prominent Latin American journal portal, SciELO, and combines it with altmetrics data from Altmetric.com and with data collected by author-written scripts. The study is primarily descriptive, focusing on coverage levels disaggregated by year, country, subject area, and language.\nFindings: Coverage levels for most of the social media sources studied was zero or negligible. Only three metrics had coverage levels above 2 per cent - Mendeley, Twitter, and Facebook. Of these, Twitter showed the most significant differences with previous studies. Mendeley coverage levels reach those found by previous studies, but it takes up to two years longer for articles to be saved in the reference manager. For the most recent year, coverage was less than half than what was found in previous studies. The coverage levels of Facebook appear similar (around 3 per cent) to that of previous studies.\nResearch limitations/implications: The Altmetric.com data used for some of the analyses were collected for a six month period. For other analyses, Altmetric.com data were only available for a single country (Brazil).\nOriginality/value: The results of this study have implications for the altmetrics research community and for any stakeholders interested in using altmetrics for evaluation. It suggests the need of careful sample selection when wishing to make generalizable claims about altmetrics.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
Performance outcomes and success factors of industrial vending solutions
|
[
"Supply chain management",
"Buyer-seller relationships",
"Industrial vending",
"Vendor managed inventory"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: The use of vending machines in industrial settings has become an increasingly important aspect of day-to-day operations for many organizations (Manrique and Manrique, 2015). These computerized systems (commonly referred to as industrial vending, point-of-use vending or line-side vending machines) are used by organizations to stock different items such as maintenance, repair and operations (MRO) items and consumables, safety equipment, tools, as well as controlled substances. The machines keep track of inventory levels, record what is being dispensed and to whom, and generate different reports on how and when items are being used (Melcer, 2000). This information is exchanged between the customer and the vendor, or supplier, who is responsible for replenishment.\nTheoretical background: TCT\nEnablers of perceived industrial vending system success: Information quality impact on perceived success\nOutcome factors of perceived industrial vending success: Claassen et al. (2008) establish that outcomes are the manifestation of perceived success. In the case of industrial vending systems, beneficial outcomes encompass cost reductions, service improvements, and inventory improvements.\nMethodology: Survey development and data collection\nResults: The individual items used in the model along with their corresponding means and standard deviations are presented in Table II. The items in the survey utilized a seven-point Likert type scale ranging from 1 (strongly disagree) to 7 (strongly agree).\nDiscussion: The descriptive statistics provided in Table II indicate that most of the mean values for the constructs are close to 6 (out of a seven-point scale), while the standard deviations are generally consistent across all constructs and items. The construct that measured the quality of information generated by the industrial vending system resulted in a mean response of 5.97 out of 7, indicating that respondents generally agree that the adoption of their vending solution can result in improved information accuracy, adequacy, reliability, and timeliness. Even though Claassen et al. (2008) found that the effect of information quality on the success of VMI initiatives was not significant in practice, the findings in this study show that the quality of the information provided by industrial vending machines has a positive impact on the perceived success of industrial vending systems. This finding is relevant to professionals because it indicates that industrial vending solutions, as a specific form of VMI, can help reduce the costs and risks associated with inadequate or insufficient information.\nConclusions: The purpose of this study was to empirically investigate the relationships between a series of enablers, buyer-perceived system success and different performance outcomes of industrial vending solutions. To accomplish the stated research objective, a survey instrument was developed, data were collected from current users of industrial vending systems, and a structural equation model was developed and tested. While previous research had investigated traditional VMI solutions, the results presented in this study provide support for the specific case of industrial vending systems, an emerging supply chain topic that has been previously ignored by the academic community.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: Industrial vending solutions are unique in that they represent a very specific form of vendor-managed inventory (VMI). The purpose of this paper is to investigate performance outcomes associated with industrial vending implementation, a topic that has been largely ignored by the academic community.\nDesign/methodology/approach: A survey instrument was developed from earlier work on VMI success. Structural equation modeling is used to identify relationships between three enablers (information exchange, information quality, and relationship quality), perceived vending system implementation success, and three outcomes (cost benefits, customer service benefits, and inventory benefits).\nFindings: Statistical outcomes demonstrate support for the benefits arising from successful vending system implementation. This study demonstrates that industrial vending implementation success is strongly tied to the amount and quality of the information shared between the relationship partners.\nPractical implications: Successful industrial vending implementation results in improved inventory control, increased levels of customer service, and tighter cost control. This study provides supply chain managers with current findings, which should aid them in evaluating their current and proposed vending solutions.\nOriginality/value: Although VMI has been studied in the past, little work has been conducted on industrial vending as a specific form of VMI. This is the first study to explore industrial vending from the viewpoint of VMI implementation and performance. Empirically tested study results that are grounded in transaction cost theory confirm a series of performance outcomes of industrial vending from a buyer's perspective as well as a number of enablers for successful industrial vending implementation.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
The barriers of knowledge generation, storage, distribution and application that impede learning in gas and petroleum companies
|
[
"Knowledge sharing",
"Knowledge management",
"Knowledge management processes",
"Organizational learning",
"Gas and petroleum",
"Knowledge management barriers"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: Knowledge management (KM) has received considerable attention in the energy sector, including gas, oil and petroleum sectors (Brown et al., 1997; Phillips and Vollmer, 2000; Behounek and Martinez, 2002; Bargach et al., 2001), because of its impact on their performance (Mesler, 2002; Minyard, 2003; Troxler and Lauche, 2003; Salmador Sanchez and Palacios, 2008). For example, Halliburton (Edwards and Kidd, 2003; Behounek and Martinez, 2002; Ash, 2005), Schlumberger (Smith and Farquhar, 2000; Etkind et al., 2003) and Petroleos de Venezuela (Quintero and Ungredda, 2003) have implemented some KM initiatives such as virtual seminars (Nelson, 1997), communities of practice (CoP) (Edwards and Kidd, 2003), etc., and Iranian oil gas and petroleum companies have welcomed KM initiatives such as developing KM strategy, implementing KM systems, creating knowledge tree and knowledge maps, designing knowledge-based reward systems, documenting experiences, fostering knowledge-sharing culture, building communities of practice (CoPs), measuring KM maturity, etc.\n2. Theoretical background: There are different approaches for the OL concept, which are described in article reviews such as Nicolini and Meznar (1995), Miner and Mezias (1996), Edmondson and Moingeon (1996), Easterby-Smith (1997), Crossan et al. (1999), Pawlowsky (2001), Ortenblad (2002), Kluge and Schilling (2003), Friedman et al. (2005), Lawrence et al. (2005) and Shipton (2006). For example, Shipton (2006) presented a comparative framework to categorize the literature according to its prescriptive/explanatory bias. The prescriptive literature takes the positive relationship between OL and performance as a premise, the explanatory literature \"is concerned with understanding how organizational learning happens, and identifying barriers and inhibiting factors\"; and \"in line with the level of analysis, examining whether there is a focus on the organization as a whole, or instead upon individuals and their work communities\". This theme brings together work examining whether and how individuals can transfer their learning into the organizational domain, along with studies exploring how organizations shape learning activity and knowledge construction (Shipton, 2006). About the level of analysis, it is necessary to point out that some authors argued that learning takes place in three levels: individual, group and OL. They distinguish between learning in a group and learning in an organization (Crossan et al., 1999; Gomez et al., 2005).\n3. Research method: A well-structured literature review can provide an excellent foundation for further research in new or very narrow topics (Seuring and Muller, 2008) and can help in identifying conceptual content and developing theories (Meredith, 1993; Seuring and Muller, 2008). First, by reviewing the literature of KM process models and comparing them, the authors selected Mertin et al.'s KM process model as a framework for categorizing barriers, which influence KM processes. Second, all the barriers mentioned in the previous research works for OL or KM processes were extracted and the initial version of the barriers was made. Third, the authors discussed about the concept of each barrier and removed the repetitive barriers even mentioned by various names. The authors repeated this step in three rounds until the final list of the barriers was achieved. Fourth, the findings were classified into five groups including people-related barriers, technology-related barriers, organization-related barriers, environment-related barriers and knowledge characteristic-related barriers by comparing and combining the various classifications of KM barriers in the existing literature. Fifth, a questionnaire was designed with 44 items for barriers, without any prejudgment about the KM processes that each barrier may affect, and respondents of 26 Iranian gas and petroleum companies were asked about the degree (from 1 to 5) of effect they believe each barrier has on each of the four KM processes. So, there were four columns in front of each barrier and the respondents elected a number from 1 to 5 in each column for the relevant barrier.\n4. Barriers in managing knowledge processes: There exist many barriers along with the processes of KM, which turn the management of knowledge into a very challenging task (Thoben et al., 2002). Although the academic and practitioner literature of barriers relating to both learning processes (such as intuition, interpreting, integration and institution) and KM processes (such as creation and sharing/distribution) is widespread and diverse, there is lack of a holistic perspective at these barriers from the point of view of KM processes. Furthermore, there is a close interrelationship between OL processes and KM processes, for example \"intuition\" process of OL, which deals with recognition of the patterns and/or possibilities inherent in a personal stream of experience (Crossan et al., 1999), is very similar to knowledge-creation process. Therefore, there is a good opportunity to take advantage of the integration of the barriers previously expressed for OL processes and KM processes separately. Some researchers just focused on one KM process, especially on knowledge sharing or distribution (Ardichvili et al., 2003; Yih-Tong Sun and Scott, 2005; Telvin Goh and Hooper, 2009; Zapata Cantu et al., 2009). For example, Zapata Cantu et al. examined the significant variables of generation and transfer of knowledge in information technology-related small and medium enterprises and demonstrated the relationship between knowledge-generation and knowledge-sharing processes (Zapata Cantu et al., 2009).\n5. Data analysis: 5.1 Demographic information\n6. Research results: For each of the four KM processes, the null hypothesis of H0 and the alternative hypothesis of H1 were assumed as follows:\n7. Discussion: According to the results of Tables IV-VII, it can be discovered that:\n8. Conclusion: The barriers of KM processes impede generation, storage, distribution and application of knowledge, which in turn lead to hinder OL. This paper reviewed the current literature of KM barriers and offers a holistic list of them in five categories including people-related barriers, technology-related barriers, organization-related barriers, environment-related barriers and knowledge characteristic-related barriers. Also, it validated and ranked the barriers of knowledge generation, storage, distribution and application in the gas and petroleum sector. Furthermore, this paper found that the importance of knowledge generation and knowledge application barriers was significantly different between gas and petroleum companies. Hence, it disjointedly ranked the aforementioned barriers for gas and petroleum companies. Finally, KM barriers were ranked according to the number of their contribution to KM processes and the average mean of their importance in KM processes. Lack of reward, lack of technical support, lack of formal authority on the part of the innovator and lack of fitness between knowledge and important organizational goals, which hinder learning from previous failure and success, were the most important KM barriers, which affect knowledge generation, storage, distribution and application in gas and petroleum companies. The other influential barriers were ranked and reported too.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: This paper aims to find and rank the barriers of the four knowledge management (KM) processes including generation, storage, distribution and application in the gas and petroleum sector.\nDesign/methodology/approach: Reviewing the literature of KM and organizational learning, this paper extracted all of the barriers which impede KM processes. Then it designed a questionnaire for validating, ranking and categorizing barriers. Totally, 190 completed questionnaires were gathered from 26 gas and petroleum companies in Iran. Some statistical tests such as T, Friedman, Kruskal-Wallis and Mann-Whitney were used for analyzing data.\nFindings: Findings reviewed the current literature of KM barriers, validated and ranked the barriers of knowledge generation, storage, distribution and application separately. The importance of knowledge generation and knowledge application barriers were significantly different between gas and petroleum companies. Hence they were disjointedly ranked for gas and petroleum. Finally, KM barriers were ranked according to their contribution to KM processes and the average mean of their importance in KM processes.\nPractical implications: From the practical point of view, this paper suggests managers of gas and petroleum companies to emphasize solving high-priority barriers according to the KM process which they are focused on. Furthermore, the study provides a checklist that can be used as an assessment tool for evaluating KM processes considering barriers.\nOriginality/value: This paper finds the importance of each barrier for each of the four KM processes and ranks the \"critical barriers\" according to their contribution to four KM processes in the gas and petroleum sector.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
When gambling is healthy: the restorative potential of casinos
|
[
"Transformative service research",
"Macau",
"Attention restoration theory",
"Gambling",
"Servicescapes",
"Socially unacceptable products"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: To date, service researchers have tended to overlook the reasons consumers willingly and, quite often, enthusiastically engage in socially unacceptable services. Davidson (2003) coined the term \"socially unacceptable products\" to denote certain goods (e.g. firearms, cigarettes, alcohol and legalized marijuana) and services (e.g. Internet pornography, sex tourism, strip clubs and gambling) that often confront hostile marketing environments. That is, although socially unacceptable products may be legal, marketers often face challenging cultural stigmatizations and legal regulations regarding the selling of these good and services to consumers.\nLiterature review: Understanding gambling in Chinese culture\nStudy: the restorative potential of Macau's casinos: ART posits that people may remedy symptoms associated with fatigue by spending time in natural environments. Researchers have brought ART into the servicescape paradigm (Rosenbaum, 2009) by showing that many built environments may mimic natural settings and, in doing so, help promote a person's mental health. We build on this research stream, as well as recent gambling studies (Finlay et al., 2006), to theorize that many Chinese tourists from mainland China, Hong Kong and Taiwan increasingly patronize Macau's casinos to experience their restorative environmental qualities, as doing so may facilitate their short-term recovery from symptoms associated with mental fatigue.\nDiscussion: Theoretical implications\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to explore the positive aspects of casinos, and gambling entertainment in particular, by revealing the health potential of these commercial establishments. In doing so, this work helps explain the affinity of Chinese consumers with gambling.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The authors draw on Attention Restoration Theory to put forth a framework on the restorative potential of a casino on human health and its effects on managerial outcomes. The authors use a sample of 605 Chinese tourists in Macau and use both structural equation modeling and moderation analyses.\nFindings: Tourists' ability to sense a casino's restorative potential is positively related to their well-being and their propensity to view Macau as a value, to spend money in Macau and to revisit Macau. Moderation analyses reveal that tourists may still perceive a casino's restorative qualities regardless of whether they plan to engage in gambling or other activities, are winning or losing money or reside outside mainland China.\nResearch limitations/implications: The paper links gaming studies to the transformative research paradigm and considers the possibility that some socially unacceptable services may actually be beneficial to human well-being.\nPractical implications: The results help clarify why Chinese tourists tend to engage in casino patronage and gambling activities throughout the world.\nSocial implications: This work discusses health benefits associated with socially unacceptable products and suggests that many \"sinful services\" may offer consumers transformative benefits.\nOriginality/value: The paper is one of the first to explore positive aspects of gambling and spending time in casino environments, while showing that casinos may be \"healthy places\" for some consumers.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Care living labs' effect on care organization and quality of working life
|
[
"Quality of working life",
"Care innovation",
"Care organization",
"Living labs"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: New research concepts that help stimulate innovation are making an appearance. One is living labs (Stahlbrost and Holst, 2017), which grew from two main ideas: innovations should be tested in real-life situations and co-developed with actual end-users (Almirall et al., 2012; Veeckman et al., 2013). This approach is called open innovation and originates from the idea that successful innovation depends on understanding both existing and emerging user needs (Leminen et al., 2012). Thus, end-users develop new products and services and become innovators, co-designers and co-producers. Promoted by the European Commission, more and more projects use living labs to stimulate innovation. To date, the European Network of Living Labs counts 400 initiatives. Although originally developed to stimulate technological innovation, living labs nowadays exist in multiple fields, including urban, energy and design (European Network of Living Labs, 2006).\nConceptual framework: Drawing on sociotechnical systems theory, we used Van Hootegem's (2000) organizational model to conceptualize care innovation effects on the care organization. The effect on the quality of working life was conceptualized using Karasek's (1979) job demand/control (JD/C) model.\nMethod: Our overall research design is a comparative multiple case study (23 care innovation projects) (Yin, 2003). Three different methods were used to collect data. Initially, a document analysis, based on the original project proposals, contributed to a preliminary assessment of the care innovations' possible effect on care organization and quality of working life. Subsequently, an in-depth interview was conducted with each project coordinator, building on the related project proposal's analysis. The project coordinator had knowledge about the project's initial ambitions and actual implementation. Our topic list for these interviews entailed three parts. The first collected information on the care innovation's implementation process. The second on the way in which the care innovation affected care organization. The third identified which care professionals were affected by the care innovation and how their work packages were altered. By using a semi-structured questionnaire, uniformity was obtained throughout the 23 interviews without losing flexibility to add specific questions depending on the conversation (Saunders et al., 2009). This approach proved useful, as many project implementations deviated from the original project proposals. Finally, after the care living labs program, separate focus group discussions were organized. With all relevant stakeholders present, previous findings, final outcomes and the care innovation's possible future effect were discussed. During focus groups, data interpretations were debated, creating the opportunity to clarify and adjust our interpretations where needed. By combining different data types and comparing different data sources per project, we obtained an improved construct validity and a more comprehensive view of different care innovations (Vereycken et al., 2016; Yin, 2003). Afterwards, the interviews were transcribed and coded.\nResults: Care organization\nDiscussion: Care organization\nConclusion: The Flemish Care Living Labs clearly illustrate that care innovations are likely to affect care organization and care providers' quality of working life, even when not explicitly intended. Future care innovation projects should, therefore, focus on care innovation implications for care recipients as end-user, pay attention to the innovation's organizational consequences, and to the possible effect on care providers' quality of working life.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: There is a growing interest in living labs (a research concept in which innovations are co-created with end-users and tested in practice) as a method to test and develop health and social care innovations. However, little is known about their effect on the care organization and care providers' quality of working life. By using the Flanders Care Living Labs program (Belgium) as a case study, the purpose of this paper is to explore how innovations in a living lab context may affect those issues.\nDesign/methodology/approach: This qualitative study combined data from document analysis, in-depth interviews and focus groups involving 23 care innovation projects. Deductive category application was used for analyzing data.\nFindings: Outcomes indicate that 22/23 care innovation projects resulted in organizational changes, and that 22 affected at least one care provider's quality of working life. Surprisingly, no project deliberately intended to affect the care organization and quality of working life. Future care innovation projects should focus on actual innovation and its implications for specific end-users, and on the broader organizational consequences and the possible effect on the care providers' work.\nOriginality/value: This is the first study that specifically focused on care innovation's effect on the care organization and on the quality of working life within a living labs context.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
Report of the 21st International Learned Journals Seminar, held at The Royal College of Nursing, London, April 2 2005
|
[
"Electronic document supply",
"Libraries",
"Librarians"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n__NO_TITLE__: Probably because I am on the wrong side of 60 this seminar proved a little overwhelming. One or two delegates on the right side of forty were also looking a little dazed so I don't feel too geriatrically challenged. I certainly have sympathy for the organizers - Sally Morris and her staff at Association of Learned and Professional Society Publishers (ALPSP) as well as for the speakers, all of whom tried to cram as much as possible into the all-too-short day.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: - Seeks to provide a review of the 21st International Learned Journals Seminar, held at The Royal College of Nursing, London, April 2 2005.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - Seminar report.\nFindings: - Overall, an excellent and thought-provoking seminar for the well over 100 information professionals present.\nOriginality/value: - Highlights some of the outstanding issues and challenges for the future facing librarians in a digital age.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
An empirical investigation of green initiatives and environmental sustainability for manufacturing SMEs
|
[
"Environmental management",
"Green manufacturing",
"Manufacturing management",
"Small- and medium-sized enterprises"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) are acknowledged as the backbone to any economy as they are significant contributors to employment and economic growth. Generally, SMEs account for the largest proportion of established businesses in most of the developing nations (Saleh and Ndubisi, 2006). Malaysia is one of the developing countries whose economy mainly depends on the SME sector (Tehrani and Manap, 2014). It was reported that SMEs in Malaysia attribute to approximately 97.3 percent of businesses established and 35.9 percent of the country's gross domestic product is contributed by SMEs. SMEs also contribute 21.7 percent to the country's total exports and 67.0 percent to total employment in the country (Department of Statistics Malaysia, 2015). Since 2005, the growth of SMEs has surpassed other industries with an overall added value of 29.3 percent in 2005 to 43.9 in 2016 (Department of Statistics Malaysia, 2017).\n2. Importance of the study in Malaysia and global contexts: According to the declaration made during the UN Climate Change Conference (UNFCCC, 2015), efforts should be made to conserve the environment. Preventive endeavors should not only be limited to the efforts within the manufacturing industry, but also should involve efforts that take into account organizational, social and economic aspects. These days in Malaysia, according to Gill et al. (2018), Masud et al. (2017) and Noh (2016), six identifiable changes are happening, which are as follows: first, the new business models through e-commerce and m-commerce to reach buyers, suppliers and even end customers facilitated by mobile telephony, internet-based support tools and integrated databases-based technologies offering quality products and services; second, the fluctuating demand from domestic customers for a greater variety of products in different packaging formats with high quality, shorter delivery windows, competitive prices and best after-sales services; third, the rapid changes in oil prices resulting recession in financial and capital markets around the world influencing Malaysian markets; fourth, the rapid increase of performance index of Industrial Production Malaysia and sales value in manufacturing sector from 4.3 to 7.3 percent; fifth, rise in the family income and spending potentials of middle-income group fueling growth for luxuries of life; and sixth, enhanced and government supportive focus on \"Good Sales Tax\" through direct investments in infrastructure and residential projects to sustain urban growth such as East Coast Railway, Kuantan Malaysia and China Industrial Park, Alibaba Digital Free Trade Zone Regional Hub and other redevelopment activities in cities.\n3. Environmental sustainability in SMEs: Environmental sustainability is defined as the actions and/or projects done by people that can be accomplished or done continuously or for long periods of time with little or no adverse impact to the environment (Hart, 1995). This is the typical \"mantra\" of various environmental groups all over the world not only to protect resources for the present generation but also to preserve them for future generations. In addition, over the past two decades, it has come to the attention of environmental researchers that SMEs are significant contributors to the overall emissions and releases which are negatively affecting the environment (Parker et al., 2009; Waters, 2010; Yacob et al., 2013). As a result, SMEs are recent subjects of great interest from researchers and government agencies (Gadenne et al., 2009) with the development of policies, tools and programs to assist them in reducing their environmental footprint (Waters, 2010). A study by Tilley (1999) found that there are limited studies that have explored small firms' response to environmental challenges and so far, no literature with any real analytical inquiry is available. Over the years, there are relatively few new papers that have explored the issues, except for those who focused on large corporation. Besides that, there are few that have acknowledged the presence of SME, reported the developments in legislation and illustrated that SMEs are more prone to stakeholders pressure and legislative requirements (Esty and Winston, 2006).\n4. Materials and methods: This study used a survey to collect categorical data that can be used for the statistical testing of the formulated hypotheses. This method is used due to its advantage as it can collect data from large geographical area with reduced costs (Sekaran, 2003). The following sub-sections describe the data collection method and measures of constructs.\n5. Results: The following section is presented in four parts: descriptive analysis, direct relationship analysis, mediation analysis and moderation analysis which tested hypotheses of the study.\n6. Discussion and implication: First, this study examined the dimension of green initiatives within manufacturing SMEs. With regards to the direct effects, the green initiatives forces (energy management, water conservation and waste management) influence manufacturing SMEs to adopt sustainable green practices. Based on the findings, energy management found to be the strongest determining factor of managers' environmental concern followed by waste management and water conservation. This could be attributed to the fact that one's energy saving practices are largely influenced by the SMEs resources availability and it is found that a company's measures of energy management contribute return of investment through governments initiated programs. Relating to waste management initiatives, managers know that the disposition of scheduled wastes is given high priority as penalties for illegal dumping are quite strictly enforced. With regards to water conservation, the findings substantiate the findings of Young et al. (2000) in which SMEs believe that reducing the amount of water used on-site will generally reduce effluent production and associated costs as well as lowering impact on the environment. The positive link shows that managers have positive green initiatives and think that tackling environmental issues needs to be their top priority. Furthermore, managers who possess ecological value, knowledge and skills have the added advantages that will automatically trigger them to embrace green initiatives. The findings are in line with prior research findings of Kannan and Boie (2003) and Thollander and Ottosson (2010), who found that green initiatives are significant in their studies and recognized the economic and environmental benefits that can deliver to SMEs.\n7. Conclusion: Globalization has encouraged the emergence of customers who are environmentally conscious and supportive of sustainable green practices. The results of this study indicate the emergence of a valid and reliable sustainable green practices construct, and the impact of this construct on business performance. The sustainable green practices can be considered as a new, but overlooked capability of operations management. It is considered overlooked because typically little is known about these systems, despite several international standards and environmental systems concerning environmental, health and safety which have been around for some time. The focus of this study is to define and bring about a better understanding of the impacts of green initiatives, owners/managers intention toward green as well as the green technology adoption in manufacturing SMEs.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to study the extent of green initiatives within manufacturing SMEs, as well as the mediating effect of the owners/managers intention toward green and moderating effect of green technology adoption in building environmental sustainability in the context of the Malaysian manufacturing SMEs.\nDesign/methodology/approach: Data were collected through a survey questionnaire responded by 260 Malaysian manufacturing SMEs. The relationships proposed in the developed conceptual framework were represented through three hypotheses: there is a significant relationship between green initiatives and environmental sustainability (H1); intention toward green mediates the relationship between green initiatives and environmental sustainability (H2); and green technology adoption moderates the relationship between intention toward green and environmental sustainability (H3). SEM-AMOS nested model comparisons and mediating and moderating analyses were used to test the hypotheses.\nFindings: This is the first research toward the green initiatives framework for the manufacturing SMEs. Till date, no framework is available which could guide researchers and practitioners of this high impact on the environment industry. The findings revealed that energy management, water conservation and waste management are related to environmental sustainability. On mediation analysis, it confirms that owners/managers intention toward green fully mediates the association of green initiatives and environmental sustainability. Finally, the moderation analysis revealed that green technology adoption does not have an influence on manufacturing SMEs environmental sustainability.\nPractical implications: This study is expected to help both researchers and practitioners in terms of manufacturing and other industries who are serious toward environmental sustainability implementation and are looking for an appropriate mechanism. It offers a generalized environmental sustainability implementation linking SMEs owners/managers, green practices, green technology policy, process management and supply chain management.\nOriginality/value: This study is among the very first environmental sustainability implementation research works conducted in the Malaysian manufacturing sector, particularly, in relation to the green initiatives and \"four pillars\" of green technology policy that manufacturing SMEs in this country need to adopt to make their environmental sustainability a solid competitive vehicle for their development. The results have broader implications for all manufacturing SMEs, particularly in developing economies where the growth of manufacturing and the development of integrated environmental sustainability are key stages in economic development.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Understanding increased productivity through facilities management: So much more than just cleaning offices
|
[
"Outsourcing",
"Co-production",
"Productivity",
"Facilities management"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nReview: One of the most popular management credos of recent times has been the \"aggregation of marginal gains\" - the single-minded pursuit in shaving off efficiencies absolutely everywhere to uncover a competitive advantage over the opposition. This was very much in vogue in the 2000s in sports such as cycling, swimming and Formula 1 racing, with a number of teams putting their approach and success down to this fanatical attention to detail. However, in the 2010s, we do not seem to hear as much about it, which is perhaps down to the fact that once everyone has waxed their legs or stopped shaking hands to prevent infections, there are fewer marginal gains to aggregate to stay ahead of the competition.\nClosed facility?: Often overlooked, one potential area where costs can be cut and efficiencies made to benefit the bottom line is in the area of facilities management. This is not the most thrilling of management spheres, it is true, but is one that is becoming more highly developed and where large firms in particular can make significant gains. It is around this area that Jan Brochner investigated in his article \"Measuring the productivity of facilities management\" (2017), which looks specifically at how productivity gains could be made through better facilities management (FM) and how they might be measured.\nAt the double: To understand the effects of these two concepts, it is probably best to introduce a brief example: imagine a large office facility of 1,000 office workers in a credit card company co-located on four large open plan floors. For the purposes of measuring the effectiveness of all the facilities that has an impact on them, it is suggested not only that customer satisfaction from the firm using the facilities is a key factor in measuring the relative productivity of the workers but also that some satisfaction is co-produced, i.e. dependent on the output of both the worker and the customer themselves. As such, it is argued that the input of these two factors will depend to an extent on how well the office workers are set up to do their job and respond to the environment they are in.\nCollaborative opportunities: Another new angle taken by Brochner is looking at co-production between customers and facilities service providers. These can come in a number of forms, and a good example is opening up the control of the climate inside an office up to office workers. Ultimately, the facility is being provided, but its use is controlled by the customer and workers together, and, as such, each party has buy in and a say in how the climate levels are set. This agreement will involve dialogue, and this is where there has also been little research in terms of assessing how this dialogue increases the knowledge and understanding between customer and provider and thereby increases satisfaction and affects buying decisions.\nComment: The article \"Measuring the productivity of facilities management\" (2017) by Brochner provides deep insight into a world not often studied by those outside the facilities industry or those charged with looking after buildings within organizations. However, the article raises FM to a strategic level, identifying it as a key lever with which to gain increased efficiencies and even competitive advantage if productivity can be increased.\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: One of the most popular management credos of recent times has been the \"aggregation of marginal gains\" - the single-minded pursuit in shaving off efficiencies absolutely everywhere to uncover a competitive advantage over the opposition. This was very much in vogue in the 2000s in sports such as cycling, swimming and Formula 1 racing, with a number of teams putting their approach and success down to this fanatical attention to detail. However, in the 2010s, we do not seem to hear as much about it, which is perhaps down to the fact that once everyone has waxed their legs or stopped shaking hands to prevent infections, there are fewer marginal gains to aggregate to stay ahead of the competition.\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"
}
] |
Loyalty trends 2006: three evolutionary trends to transform your loyalty strategy
|
[
"Customer loyalty",
"Marketing",
"Relationship marketing",
"Customer relations",
"Customer service management"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Sometimes, innovation happens in the blink of an eye. In most cases, however, innovation occurs more as a continual evolution, in which those at the forefront of change push the boundaries out farther - from how we define \"loyalty marketing\" today to how we will define it tomorrow.And while, on the surface at least, it may appear to jaded marketers that the true revolutionary events in loyalty marketing are well in our rear-view mirrors, the truth is that micro-revolutions in loyalty are happening everywhere - in retail, in financial services, in hospitality, and in every developed market around the globe. Taken as a whole, these individual instances of experimentation and innovation amount to a steady evolution of loyalty marketing into a holistic marketing discipline that can transform businesses from make-sell, internally focused enterprises into powerful, customer-focused marketing machines. The broad concepts of customer loyalty are well defined, it is true, but in today's hypercompetitive global marketplace, those concepts are more important than ever before.So when we look at the future of loyalty marketing and the trends that will shape our space, we see boundaries that will continue to expand outward. The very concept of \"loyalty marketing\" will encompass many more ideas, strategies and tactics than it has in the past. We can group these micro revolutions into three macro trends that will affect the evolution of your own customer loyalty strategy. These shifts will allow marketers to unleash new loyalty-marketing strategies and tactics that will power profits and growth well into the twenty-first century.\nThree evolutionary trends for 2006 and beyond: 1. The power of networks. In which customer-focused enterprises leverage virtual environments and tangible events to build niche communities of users united in their advocacy for the brand.2. The power of data. In which data-driven enterprises look beyond loyalty program return-on-investment (ROI) metrics and discover the true value of that data in its ability to fundamentally transform the customer experience.3. The power of convergence. In which the confluence of mega-mergers, new point-of-sale (POS) technologies and the next generation of customer relationship management (CRM) platforms launch the next generation of coalition loyalty programs around the globe.Let's examine each of these trends in detail.\nI. The power of the network: beyond dialogue marketing: Marketers have always understood the power of engaging in dialogue with their customers to better understand their needs, wants and desires. But those marketers pushing the boundaries of customer relationships also understand the power of communities of consumers - communities united in affinity for a brand or bound by geography, life stage or lifestyle. In the future, those companies that win in the marketplace will be those that best leverage the power of these network-building systems. The natural growth of these powerful consumer networks within existing loyalty systems is our first evolutionary trend.In the loyalty game, facilitating the formation of customer groups bound by shared interests is a way to develop a sense of community around your brand. Communities have always evolved organically, without help from marketing - but today, smart marketers are tinkering with the DNA of their customer base to push outward the boundaries of customer loyalty by creating unique soft benefits that allow members to connect with one another to share information, share tips and even swap sales leads.Still, it is presumptuous for marketers to assume they can jump-start communities of engaged consumers without first building active, mature loyalty systems. To understand why, it's first necessary to understand how networked systems evolve.The value of networks\nII. The power of data: beyond ROI: It is true: information is power. However, loyalty operators are finally taking this truism to the next level. For years, the debate has raged, particularly in the retail sector: are we running loyalty programs for the bottom-line return on investment, or are we running them to acquire customer data that drive benefits back into the core business model?The answer to this question is this: the former depends on the latter. Without the data, you cannot get the ROI. Yes, you can do basic loyalty data analysis that translates into the fundamental financial benefits of lift, shift and retain. But that is the least you should be doing with your loyalty data. You should be analyzing all the data from your loyalty program, and translating that analysis into marketing insight to make your program more effective. That is how you increase the ROI. Every operator reading this should do just that. If you have not already boarded the data bus, then you had better get on at the next stop - because basic loyalty ROI is just the starting point.Our next evolutionary trend in loyalty will see companies leveraging loyalty data to enhance their core value proposition through personalization and customer experience management. Particularly in the retail space, loyalty programs will play a pivotal role in the ability to identify customers coming into the stores and harness data to change how they shop, how they experience the store and what benefits you give them while they are in the store.Where have we seen this trend emerging? We have seen evidence that customer data are driving the core business models of a handful of companies that understand that the customer experience drives their success. But perhaps nowhere have we seen more tangible evidence of this philosophy than the actions of a Minneapolis-based retailer of consumer electronics and entertainment that has transformed its entire business model around its key customer segments.Case study: Best Buy\nIII. The power of convergence: beyond coalitions: IBM chairman and CEO Samuel J. Palmisiano recently discussed the idea of technological innovation using the internet-based auctioneer eBay as an example. Palmisiano pointed out that eBay's success did not come just through leveraging the power of the internet. Its success was really due to the convergence of three complementary factors: the development of secure online transaction systems that customers can trust; the rise of reliable overnight delivery services that move items quickly from one customer to another, allowing the instant gratification that comes from winning a bid on an item and receiving it within a few days; and the emergence of virtual communities, enabled by technology, with shared interests and common issues.Thus the concept of convergence, which powers our third evolutionary trend. In mathematics, convergence describes limiting behavior - given an infinite sequence or series of values or events, those values or events will eventually converge toward some limit, which may be itself unknown. In technological terms, convergence occurs when different technologies evolve independently to perform similar tasks. Consider, for example, the convergence of telephones (voice communications), computers (data communications) and video (picture communications) onto a single broadband communications network. Technologies that were created to perform very specific tasks have now converged to share resources and create new efficiencies. We can view the broadband communications platform as the limit to which these technologies have evolved.Which brings us back to loyalty. Could a similar convergence of differing technologies and marketing trends give rise to a new generation of loyalty programs? If so, is the limit knowable, or ultimately unknown?The coalition limit\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: - This paper seeks to examine three evolutionary trends that are pushing the boundaries of loyalty marketing in 2006 and beyond. These trends incorporate the power of networks, the power of data, and the power of convergence.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - The paper thoroughly describes three new trends in loyalty marketing, which the authors believe have the potential to affect the strategies of all existing loyalty programs. Various programs that represent ongoing experimentation and innovation are used as examples of each of the trends.\nFindings: - The paper suggests that by incorporating some of the components of the three trends in loyalty marketing, marketers will see their boundaries expand and their strategies and tactics change. The results will power profits and growth.\nPractical implications: - It may be true that the biggest revolutions in loyalty marketing happened in the past. But micro-revolutions in loyalty marketing are happening everywhere. By examining those programs that are innovative and willing to experiment, marketers can learn strategies that can grow their own programs.\nOriginality/value: - The paper takes a look at evolutionary trends in loyalty marketing, with suggestions on how to incorporate these trends into existing programs.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Problem-based leadership: nurturing managers during turbulent times
|
[
"Problem based learning",
"Learning",
"Leadership development",
"Management development"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n__NO_TITLE__: Managers are confronted by many responsibilities and issues in current turbulent times. The recent financial meltdown has had a tremendous impact on the sustainability of organizational success. The creeping effects of impending change have led many managers to redefine their priorities, shape their expectations and seek new contributions. In facilitating contribution, we examine the way in which an individual applies critical competencies. For instance, if \"relentless pursuit of excellence\" is a core value for an organization, the definition of what it looks like behaviorally is different for an individual contributor versus a manager. Thus, managers need to fundamentally change the way in which they do their work within the context of one such success factor to enhance and sustain contribution.\nA problem-driven approach to developing leaders: In this paper, we propose a methodology to nurture managers in turbulent environments. We recognize that managers can no longer succeed by merely remaining in their comfort zones by performing within their job boundaries; they are being assessed in the way they approach problems, explore solutions and measure the results. More importantly, this ability is facilitated over time by engaging people in assignments or projects that allow and require that they change their behavior. This change is supported by training and coaching, and problem-based leadership is a valuable tool to express and systematize how one constructs such assignments.We use problem-based leadership as a management model based on the principles of problem-based learning (PBL) which is commonly employed as an educational vehicle through which people get to try their roles and skills they require in order to contribute at higher levels. PBL is a process through which individuals identify a problem that is of critical relevance to them, identify learning objectives to tackle this problem and explore different means of understanding and solving the problem through self-directed inquiry and dialogue. There is both an individual and collaborative dimension to this learning methodology that seeks to promote reflective action-taking. When this methodology is to applied job assignments, we can draw a line between, for instance, PBL and 40 years of four stages of growth and related research as well as the documented successes this type of developmental approach has helped to create (Bridges and Hallinger, 1995).\nUnderstanding the learning-oriented mindset of leaders: Given that 80 percent of an organization's valuation is ascribed to intangible assets over which human capital has the lion's share of the control, in order to build and sustain more flexible and innovative cultures, we need to increase the number of people adept at contributing through others whether or not their positions require them to do so. How do we facilitate this? The aim of this paper therefore is to identify the characteristics of problem-based leadership and how managers can develop their skills and competencies such that their contribution will be aligned to the strategic objectives of the organization.We conceptualize problem-based leadership as a management mindset that frames changing circumstances as opportunities for clarifying organizational objectives and values. The mental models with which problem-based leaders operate are built upon their prior and lived-in experience, and the interplay of these mental models creates a dynamic mix of ideas and experiences that allows new meanings and social structures to emerge. Such cognitive participation encourages managers to modify their actions to respond to an immediate need or situation. In actual practice, their skills are developed through meaningful work assignments, allowing their fundamental skills to be enhanced through further training and coaching. Through appropriate coaching, the problem-based leadership methodology will help transform managers to produce mission-relevant results and impacts during and after real-world assignments (Yeo, 2007).\nThe twin-engine of problem-based leadership: We present two critical components of our proposed problem-based leadership methodology: ACTION and LEARN. In the first component, we use the acronym to suggest:* Ask probing questions.* Clarify your doubts.* Test your assumptions.* Inquire about alternatives.* Obtain relevant support.* Nurture your team members.In the second component, we use the acronym to suggest:* Liberate the problem.* Engage in dialogue.* Act upon concrete ideas.* Reflect on the solving process.* Number your lessons learnt.ACTION: the propulsion\nA case of leadership development using PBL approaches: Andrew is a senior manager in Mental Health Service, an organization located in the north of England. As part of a Master's Leadership program, he is completing a problem-based-learning module in strategic learning, completed under the guidance of tutors at Leeds Business School in the UK. The aim of the module is to provide Andrew with the opportunity to use a strategic issue within his organization as the source of analysis, reflection, research and action-taking. By use of an identified strategic issue, which is analyzed reflexively, he is able to set a contract of activities to be undertaken, complete the activities and reflect on the results achieved. Figure 1 shows the stages to be followed.In the process of setting the contract for action, Andrew was able to complete the ACTION component of the methodology suggested. Following agreement with the tutor, he was then able to move towards the LEARN component, beginning with actions to \"liberate the problem\" which includes working in an iterative process of action and reflective/reflexive critique where the latter allows for a challenge to thoughts that are conventionally understood as truth.Andrew was concerned that his service, in developing a vision for change, had failed to pay attention to the consultation process. As a consequence, neither managers nor staff had any ownership of policy and did not subscribe to the vision. He therefore asked his first probing question: how can we create a vision that has the ownership of all managers and staff in the service? To \"clarify doubts\" and \"test assumptions\", Andrew reflectively considered the problem by drawing a Rich Picture, a tool developed as part of Soft Systems Analysis to consider complex and messy situations of human activity. Andrew's picture highlighted the dominance of senior managers in imposing a vision for change on distant stakeholders who, by virtue of their lack of engagement, had no interest or commitment to it. As an alternative, there was talk of Andrew working with his staff as a group that would engender discussion and dialogue. As a result of this analysis, further questions were set:* Will all stakeholders engage?* What steps do I need to take to ensure \"buy in\"?* How can I show leadership in providing a vision for the service?A first step was to convene a learning group that includes service users and staff to analyze current strategy. To add to the dialogue, examples of success and failure from well-known cases of Hewlett Packard and Xerox were brought into play. Lack of trust and support among stakeholders provided insights into why strategies failed. The next step was to work with this group to \"act on concrete ideas\" gained from their discussion by starting a wide-ranging and comprehensive consultation with key stakeholders. A series of workshops allowed a visioning exercise to be implemented, aimed at eliciting debate and discussions around planning, culture, leadership, workforce systems and processes. Rich Pictures added to the need for \"engagement in dialogue\" allowing each person to provide feedback and interrogate varying perspectives. The approach of telling individual stories, putting arguments forward and hearing counter arguments, resulted in alternative ways of thinking and talking to emerge.Andrew encouraged all participants to challenge assumptions and think critically, a step into the unknown and a move out of comfort zones. As a consequence, difficult questions continued to be posed about deficiencies in the service as seen by service users. At the end of the process, lasting six weeks, the most striking achievement was the sense of achievement that raised the morale of all involved. It was clear that strong leadership needed to occur in tandem with the requirement of space for expression and a part to contribute to a shared vision for the service. At any moment, the group could walk away from the process but this did not happen and this inspired a new sense of belief that if people are engaged, the returns are unlimited.In considering the \"lessons learnt\", Andrew came to understand the complexity of vision and strategy formulation. This included the engagement and empowerment of all stakeholders by providing information, consulting and participation. Andrew realized that assumptions are difficult to release and uncomfortable for others to challenge. He had to facilitate and steer the dialogue where he could but be prepared to pose more questions and build rapport. Finally, he could appreciate how his position as a leader required an appreciation of the variety of views that make the big picture. If he could refine that picture and make it visible to others, he could then move forward with confidence and awareness of the need for further discussions and refinement.\nConcluding remarks: Leading through problems is the only way to make sense of the environment during turbulent times. In this paper, we present problem-based leadership as a management development framework through which managers engage in underlying issues and rediscover their greater potential for managing continuous, complex phenomena. When problems begin to undermine organizational processes, managers must have the courage to confront them, live through them and most importantly create growth paths for business operations that outperform them. Understanding that problems, although a potential source of destruction, could be liberated to generate myriad learning opportunities for managers, helps them appreciate turbulent times for the recreation of a much stronger leadership identity. To lead effectively is to face the goliath rather than running away from forces of destruction (Gold et al., 2007).\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: - The paper explores problem-based learning (PBL) as a useful methodology in leadership development during turbulent times. It identifies several pertinent action points for managers to lead through problems while understanding their capacity to empower themselves and others to face challenges at work.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - Broad concepts of PBL are used to distil the characteristics of this methodology and how they might be applicable to leadership development. An actual case of PBL in leadership education and training is employed to illustrate the processes of problem solving and reflective action-taking.\nFindings: - When confronted by problems, managers should adopt a learning-oriented mindset and draw on the strengths of others to generate immediate solutions for experimentation. In doing so, they need to accept failure as a prerequisite for creative tensions to be generated and applied in messy circumstances. Until they think out of the box, they will continue to solve problems in tried-and-tested ways obstructing the emergence of revolutionary solutions.\nPractical implications: - In order for managers to make an impact on organizational process and improvement, they need to focus on the action and learn components of PBL. They should be given the space to listen to their own \"voice\" and internalize the \"voice\" of others through reflection and dialogue. They should also be recognized for their courage and boldness in confronting problems even if more problems are generated in the process. It is facing the goliath that managers truly grow to become real leaders.\nOriginality/value: - Although the concept of PBL has been around for a long while, its applicability to leadership development has not been sufficiently explored in both theory and practice. This paper brings another dimension to the common idea of problem solving where solution seeking is not an end it itself. At best, it is a means to discovering the potential of true leadership in those whose mindset is focused on learning and reflective decision-making.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
On the adaptation of Grounded Theory procedures: insights from the evolution of the 2G method
|
[
"Qualitative methods",
"Information systems",
"Computer software"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: In the information systems area, the value and nature of methods have been the subjects of an ongoing debate (see, for example, Avison and Fitzgerald, 2003). Basically, methods are promoted for their positive influence on actions and thinking, encouraging a more systematic way of working. However, methods are rarely followed prescriptively, because of the situated nature of IS development, and adaptation and tailoring are accepted not as exceptional but as normal practice. Such considerations beg the question of what we mean by a method as opposed to situated work practices. This is potentially a deep question in its own right (see, for example, Fitzgerald et al., 2002; Lundell and Lings, 2004a). We take the view in this paper that a method is a... coherent and systematic approach, based on a particular philosophy [...] which will guide developers on what steps to take, how these steps should be performed and why these steps are important (Fitzgerald et al., 2002, p. 5).In essence, a method must have a clearly articulated way of working and underlying value system, and transparent assumptions about its use. Here we specifically focus on these issues as they developed during the evolution of one method. We have elsewhere looked in more detail at the related issue of prerequisites for successful method transfer into organisational contexts (Lings and Lundell, 2004; Lundell et al., 2004).Our own experience has been with the 2G method (Lundell and Lings, 2003), a qualitative method evolved for use in developing reference frameworks, and in particular evaluation frameworks, for conducting socio-technical evaluations in organisational contexts. Such frameworks represent organisational perceptions of need for tools to support their IS development practices. The development of such frameworks is seen as a core early stage in conducting tool evaluations, and is specifically recognised in the published standard for CASE tool evaluation (ISO, 1995). A perceived lack of method support for this important early stage in an evaluation activity led to the evolution of the 2G method, which is strongly influenced by Grounded Theory (GT)[1] (Glaser and Strauss, 1967). We have ourselves adopted the much-used phrase \"informed by Grounded Theory\".Explication of a method's underlying assumptions is \"seldom\" undertaken (Krogh and Mathiassen, 1998, p. 334), and only occasionally do we find even a \"fragmentary picture of the foundation behind methodology\" (Nilsson, 1995, p. 256). In this paper we reflect on the 2G method as it evolved through case studies on the evaluation of IT products, and in particular CASE tools, and consider how various processes inherent in the 2G method relate to the GT procedures which influenced them. In so doing, we reflect on the wider issue of the interpretation and adaptation of GT procedures when used in the software development domain.\nOn the use of GT procedures in the software development domain: GT is a general method of analysis made popular in the social sciences (Glaser and Strauss, 1967). In the information systems area, it has proven highly effective for analysing and explaining the broader socio-technical issues in software development. As Duvall (1995) observes:We do not yet understand the phenomenon well enough to predict with much certainty the effects of all of the factors that come into play. What appears to be only technical also has social aspects. Also, social issues often contain technical elements (p. 122).It is therefore important for developers to be aware of the advantages offered by qualitative methods such as GT in investigating \"the intersection between the technical and non-technical in software engineering\" (Seaman, 1999, p. 557). For example, Elliott et al. (2002) claim that:... applying a GT approach can enhance HCI research through the development of explanatory, extensible and evolutionary theory to inform [hypermedia authoring tool] design (p. 547).In an application of GT, analysis is said to be grounded in the data of an organisation. That is, no a priori assumptions are made about the eventual content or structure of the findings. This means that any \"theory\" evolves during the collection and interpretation of data. Data is often, though not always, collected using open interview techniques, and interpretation can be the means to a number of ends, for example:... to explore the meanings, definitions, and interpretations made by the subjects of the study regarding their experience in using the [electronic process guide] thus providing deeper insights into the data (Scott et al., 2002, p. 604),and to establish:... how, and when, do software engineers use configuration management systems to try to coordinate their software development activities with each other? (Grinter, 1996, p. 39).A number of researchers have reviewed the use of GT in the IS community (e.g. Howcroft and Hughes, 1999; Hughes and Howcroft, 2000; Urquhart, 2001). More recently, interest in GT has spread within the broader software engineering (SE) community, as evidenced by recent publications in core SE journals (e.g. Brinton Anderson et al., 2002; Duvall, 1995; Kunda and Brooks, 2000; Morisio et al., 2002; Ramesh et al., 2002; Scott et al., 2002; Seaman and Basili, 1997, 1998).It is often the case that GT procedures are not applied in a prescriptive way. Glaser himself has recognised that researchers tend to use GT selectively, adapting it for their own specific purposes:Grounded theory is used in part or in whole by researchers. When used in part it is \"adopt and adapt\" with other qualitative research methods woven in, based on the training and judgment of the researcher involved (Glaser, 1999, p. 1).However, there are potential pitfalls. As noted by Hughes and Howcroft (2000):In a discipline that has only recently begun to embrace interpretivist research, there is a tendency for researchers to either treat a method as rational or adapt it but then lack the confidence to articulate these adaptations (p. 194).Our own motivation for this paper is the corollary to this noted by Hughes and Howcroft (2000), namely that:If the research community is to mature then it would be of far greater benefit to tell the story as it were, and this should include the researcher's perspective, actual use of the method, and a reflective evaluation (p. 194).\nOn using GT in the area of software tool evaluation: During a review of drafts of the international standard for evaluation and selection of CASE-tools, ISO 14102 (ISO, 1995), we identified certain weaknesses and commented on these as part of the ongoing ISO standardisation activities (ITS, 1995; Lundell, 1995; Lundell and Lings, 1997). Specifically, our criticism concerned a lack of method support for the important task of establishing an evaluation framework for use in a specific evaluation activity (Lundell and Lings, 2002).Initial motivation for using GT\nReflections on the interpretations and adaptations of GT procedures: Mathiassen et al. (1997) characterise the process of the evolution of soft systems methodology (SSM) as an action research cycle, comprising method creation, method use and reflection. In this section we give an overview of the circumstances leading to the 2G method, the evolution of which could be characterised as an action research cycle. It evolved whilst conducting research, with associated case studies, into the evaluation of CASE tools as exemplars of complex software tools. The goal of each case study was to produce a reference framework, within the defined organisational context, suitable for use in subsequent product evaluations within that context. Using the 2G method, the concepts that exist in a reference framework are developed as a result of a systematic process involving data collection and analysis. The aim initially is to identify so-called indicators in the data. An indicator is a unit of data which the method user considers will provide support for an emerging concept. Such a unit may be a statement made by a stakeholder during an interview, or extracted from a document directly related to the context. Figure 2 shows an example of a concept and several of its indicators, based on an actual case study[3] (see Rehbinder et al., 2002). Each indicator in this case is a textual extract from interview data.Each concept framework will associate many such concepts with their indicators. From the example it can be seen that a concept can (and often will) be supported by many indicators, but an indicator may also support several concepts. In principle, this is entirely consistent with concept development in GT. However, certain aspects of the overall process are particular to the 2G method, or given a particular interpretation in it.On the development of a core category\nRelated work on adapting GT procedures: Much has been written about methods related to IS and software development. However, there has been only limited documentation of the process of method development, based on experience with specific methods. Notable examples include work on structured analysis (Ward, 1991, 1992), Multiview2 (Avison et al., 1998) and GIST (Hughes, 1998). By making transparent the kinds of adaptations actually made by method developers in practice, such work can contribute to improving method selection by other researchers, and encourage appropriate adaptation.A number of researchers have used GT procedures alongside other procedures when conducting interpretive research in IS. As with the 2G method, others have gone so far as to describe new methods which include adaptations of GT procedures.Hughes (1998) describes the GIST (grounding information systems) method, to clearly distinguish adaptations made to a pure GT study in his action case studies on requirements determination. Three main \"augmentations\" to a GT approach were made. The first was the early establishment of \"seed\" categories in establishing a basis for interviews. The second concerned selective transcription, based on progressive analysis. Together, these were found to be extremely helpful in time-constrained applications of the method. The third concerned a validation of interim and final results of analysis by interviewees. Although developed for requirements determination, Hughes notes that GIST may be more generally applicable for problem formulation.The grounded systems engineering methodology (GSEM; Galal and Paul, 1999; Galal, 2001) is an approach to formulating qualitative scenarios which adapts procedures suggested by the Strauss and Corbin strain of GT (Strauss and Corbin, 1990). They state that:The particular form that our framework takes is that of system-wide scenarios within which requirements-related concepts can be fitted (Galal and Paul, 1999, p. 95),Descriptions of the method focus on the outputs of its applications, but it is clear that the specific adaptations include a conditional matrix adapted from Strauss and Corbin (1990).Baskerville and Pries-Heje (1993, 1999) have used GT as a basis for an improvement on action research, and used their \"grounded action research\" method in studies of methods and tools for software development. In particular, incorporating GT procedures can lead to more rigorous theory development. This potential of GT procedures motivates their suggestion for improving SSM:The addition of grounded theory techniques to SSM might link the \"concept\" unit of analysis with the SSM \"activity.\" Activities could be coded and categorized to develop core categories (i.e., root definitions). A chain of evidence would come into existence in SSM. Root definitions and the ensuing models could then be shown to emerge from the data (Baskerville and Pries-Heje, 1999, p. 19).\nConclusions: It is a common experience of users applying a method in a new context to find the need to interpret or adapt the method. Others have done this before, and we can benefit if they have rigorously analysed and documented such adaptation. The reason is that developments should not be made lightly, but rather carefully described and possible limitations considered in the light of the conceptual foundations of the method being adapted. Method coherence must be maintained.Some of the adaptations of GT procedures underlying the 2G method have been adopted elsewhere; others are new. In all cases, it is necessary to consider them anew, against the contexts in which it is proposed the method should be used, rather than to assume coherence and systematicity consistent with an underlying philosophy. After Hughes and Howcroft (2000), we have therefore attempted a \"reflective evaluation\" of the 2G method.To this end, we have articulated both the interpretations and adaptations of GT made within the 2G method, and the motivations behind them. In essence, we see six of these as being of particular interest. Five relate to method procedures, namely:1. developing a core category;2. coding interview data;3. exposing evolving theories to stakeholders;4. developing multiple concept frameworks; and5. inter-linking concepts.The sixth relates to expectations on method users, and the tension between expertise relating to the phenomenon being analysed, and openness in interpreting the data.Similar to the experience of Mathiassen et al. (1997), the 2G method emerged in what can be characterised as an action research cycle. Method use is central to this cycle, requiring the method to be transferred into a number of real usage situations (Lings and Lundell, 2004; Lundell et al., 2004). Through this, three stages can be identified in the evolution of the method (see Figure 4).The cyclical nature of method development is evident in the continuing evolution of the 2G method, which we are adapting to new application domains and contexts. For example, our most recent studies focus on applying the method to gain an understanding of stakeholder practice with respect to method use in distributed model-driven development environments. Also, we are intending to investigate how applications of the method might contribute to company learning, and facilitate a systematic way of addressing continuous improvement actions. Experiences from such novel application areas can be expected to lead to further method evolution - and further obligations to reflect on any adaptations.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: - To articulate the interpretations and adaptations of Grounded Theory made within the 2G method, and the motivations behind them.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - Literature review and conceptual approach reflecting on the authors' experience of having developed the 2G method.\nFindings: - Identifies six adaptations of Grounded Theory as being of particular interest. Five relate to method procedures, namely: developing a core category; coding interview data; exposing evolving theories to stakeholders; developing multiple concept frameworks; and inter-linking concepts. The sixth relates to expectations on method users, and the tension between expertise relating to the phenomenon being analysed, and openness in interpreting the data.\nResearch limitations/implications: - Shows how Grounded Theory procedures have been adapted and used in IS methods. Specifically, the paper illustrates and makes explicit how a specific method (the 2G method) has evolved.\nPractical implications: - Provides insights for users of Grounded Theory (GT) and developers of IS methods on how GT procedures have been interpreted and adapted in previous and the authors' own research.\nOriginality/value: - Provides insights into how Grounded Theory (GT) procedures have been adapted for use in other IS methods, with insights from the authors' own experience of having developed the 2G method. Reflects on the use of GT procedures in a number of case studies related to tool evaluation. Identifies six areas in which specific interpretations or adaptations of GT were considered necessary in the contexts in which the studies were undertaken, and justifies these six departures from standard interpretations of GT procedures.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
Public sector knowledge management: a structured literature review
|
[
"Public sector",
"Knowledge management",
"Structured literature review"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Knowledge management in the public sector: Within knowledge management (KM), the public sector is an important and specific research context. According to Edge (2005, p. 45), KM \"has the potential to influence greatly and improve the public sector renewal processes\". Indeed, within the public sector, KM \"is a powerful enabler in the current drive for increased efficiency in all areas\" (Mcadam and Reid, 2000, p. 328). However, Edge (2005, p. 45) argues that developing a KM culture within the public sector is more challenging than in the private sector. Amayah (2013, p. 456) supports this argument outlining \"organizational goals in public organizations are typically more difficult to measure and more conflicting than in private organizations, and they are affected differently by political influences\". Additionally, the public sector has specific labor divisions that are a disincentive for knowledge sharing and \"this situation makes knowledge delivery in the public sector more difficult than that in the private sector\" (Gau, 2011, p. 2). Therefore, studying public sector KM requires a separate research agenda.\n2. The structured literature review methodology: According to Petticrew and Roberts (2008, Kindle Edition: Location 98-106) \"literature reviews have many purposes\". Some of them are to examine old theories, to provide a basis for interventions, provide guidance to researchers planning future studies and to provide summaries on a particular issue. The different purposes and growing complexity of literature reviews due to the increasing number of publication and research methods means that there are several approaches to developing literature reviews. According to Arksey and O'Malley (2005, p. 20), the \"rapid growth in undertaking reviews of the literature has resulted in a plethora of terminology to describe approaches that, despite their different names, share certain essential characteristics, namely, collecting, evaluating and presenting the available research evidence\". Some labels in current usage are systematic review, meta-analysis, rapid review, (traditional) literature review, narrative review, research synthesis and structured review. As Arksey and O'Malley (2005, p. 20) state, \"greater clarity regarding the terminology and methods that surround literature reviews will assist researchers in identifying when and how such reviews might be undertaken\". Therefore, this section aims to depict the method used to develop the literature review.\n3. Results: The following sub-sections present results to answer RQ1 \"How is the KM literature within the public sector developing?\" and RQ2 \"What is the focus of the KM literature within the public sector?\"\n4. Discussion: The aim of this section is to discuss the main findings to answer RQ3: \"What is the future of KM research within the public sector?\" In answering this question, the authors develop and address several implications as in the following sub-sections.\n5. Conclusion: To conclude this paper, the authors reflect on the initial motivation to perform this study, based on the argument that the public sector presents a particular research context because of a different level of representativeness, accountability and responsiveness. As such, the authors expected to find a wide variety of research projects spanning many different nations, organizational contexts and, especially, research trying to understand KM practice inside public sector organizations. However, this was not the case. Instead, they found that the public sector KM literature is fragmented, dominated by unrelated research mainly in the education and research sectors, with a distinctly Malaysian and Indian focus, supported by ostensive research methodologies. It appears government policy and research funding supports this particular research focus. However, while Malaysia and India are populous countries, they are hardly leaders in the field, as the majority of research published from this perspective has little scholarly impact. This has important ramifications for the future of KM research, because if the top KM journals continue to accept and publish research with this focus, public sector KM will gain a reputation for low-impact outcomes and be \"uninteresting\" at best.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: This paper aims to review and critique the public sector knowledge management (KM) literature, offers an overview of the state of public sector KM research and outlines a future research agenda.\nDesign/methodology/approach: Articles published in KM journals are analyzed using a structured literature review methodology. The paper analyzes 180 papers published within ten journals specializing in the field of KM.\nFindings: Public sector KM is a research area of growing importance. Findings show that few authors specialize in the field and there are several obstacles to developing a cohesive body of literature. Low levels of international cooperation among authors and international comparisons mean that the literature is fragmented. Some research topics and some geographical areas within the public sector theme are over-analyzed, while others are under-investigated. Additionally, academic researchers should re-think their methodological approach if they wish to make significant contributions to the literature and work toward developing research which impacts practice in conjunction with practitioners.\nOriginality/value: The paper presents a comprehensive structured literature review of the articles published in KM journals. The paper's findings can offer insights into future research needs.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
Conceptualizing negatively valenced influencing behavior: forms and triggers
|
[
"Online reviews",
"TripAdvisor",
"Customer engagement behaviour",
"Influencing behaviour",
"Negatively valenced influencing behaviour"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: In today's markets, the explosive growth of the internet has given customers a dramatic influencing role (Dessart et al., 2016; Kumar et al., 2010). Moving beyond the passive role of receivers of firms' offerings and armed with knowledge, skills, experience, and time (Alexander and Jaakkola, 2016); customers proactively engage online beyond transactions through behavioral manifestations (Lemon and Verhoef, 2016; Libai et al., 2010). Customers rely on each other to get authoritative information (Jaakkola and Alexander, 2014) and are influenced by the choices and opinions of other customers about products and services (Dholakia et al., 2004). In particular, online reviews are a major source of information. Recent market research has revealed that 77 percent of customers read online reviews before making a purchase decision while 35 percent adjust their entire plans based on online reviews (Mathwick and Mosteller, 2017; Phelan et al., 2013; WorldTravelMarket.com, 2014).\nTheoretical background: CEB\nMethodology: As the research aim is exploratory, a qualitative approach was adopted and netnography was selected to guide this inquiry. Netnography is an increasingly popular method used to \"investigate communities and cultures that are emerging through computer-mediated communications\" (Kozinets, 2002, p. 62). As a marketing research technique, netnography uses online, publicly available information to explore and understand the needs and decision influences of relevant online consumer groups (Kozinets, 2010). Multiple authors have advocated the use of netnography when studying online user-generated content (e.g. blogs, microblogs, and reviews) posted by individuals about focal firms, products, and services. Such content is available for a multitude of people to read (e.g. Belz and Baumbach, 2010; Kozinets, 2010; Mkono and Markwell, 2014). Similarly, in service management and CE areas, several studies have used netnography to investigate how different styles of practices influence service systems (Chandler and Chen, 2016); identify the motivators that drive patients' value co-creation activities in online health communities (Zhao et al., 2015), and explore consumers' online discussions to identify their behavioral, cognitive, and emotional patterns (Brodie et al., 2013; Hollebeek and Chen, 2014).\nFindings: Forms of NVIB\nDiscussion: This study advances empirical research on negatively valenced engagement, and represents one of the first studies to explore NVIB, thus responding to recent calls from Van Doorn et al. (2010), Hollebeek and Chen (2014), and Hollebeek et al., (2016). Using a netnographic study within a service-related web community context, this study conceptualizes six forms of NVIB and classifies them into direct and indirect based on the way customers use them in their reviews. Moreover, the study identifies five triggers of NVIB with both cognitive and emotional roots. The research identifies specific relationships between triggers and forms of NVIB.\nLimitations and future research: Despite the contributions and implications indicated above, limitations to this study also offer the potential for future research in this area. Using unobtrusive netnography allowed identification of new forms and triggers of NVIB nevertheless, netnography has inherent limitations that lend itself to inductive rich insights rather than generalization (Kozinets, 2010). However, sampling was intended to be meticulous to ensure diversity of contexts (all traveler's activities on TripAdvisor were sampled), robustness (research was conducted over six consecutive phases to confirm and refine coding), and stability of findings (a range of similar and contrasting categories' was considered) (Miles and Huberman, 1994).\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to show how customers engage in negatively valenced influencing behavior (NVIB) and what triggers customers to use different forms of NVIB in an online context.\nDesign/methodology/approach: A qualitative study is conducted using an unobtrusive netnography. Data collected comprise of 954 negatively valenced online reviews posted on TripAdvisor to hotels, restaurants, and \"things to do\" in 12 different destinations worldwide.\nFindings: Drawing on the recent literature relating to customer engagement behavior (CEB), this paper identifies and conceptualizes the relationship between five cognitive (service failure, overpricing, deception) and emotional (disappointment and insecurity) triggers of six forms of direct (dissuading, warning, and endorsing competitors) and indirect (discrediting, expressing regret, and deriding) NVIB.\nResearch limitations/implications: The unobtrusive netnography has inherent limitations that lend itself to inductive rich insights rather than generalization. The study only focuses on NVIB within a specific online context, namely, TripAdvisor.\nPractical implications: This paper provides managers with knowledge of the specific triggers of NVIB. Additionally, the paper conceptualizes the various forms of NVIB, how customers use them, and what triggers them to use each form. Moreover, the paper offers relevant data-inferred recommendations to service managers on how to manage each form of NVIB.\nOriginality/value: This research is the first to identify the forms and triggers of NVIB, classify direct and indirect forms, and conceptualize the relationships between forms and triggers.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
Primary product network size on complementary product sales: Moderating effects of customer characteristics
|
[
"Consumer behaviour",
"Video games",
"Internet",
"Online video game industry",
"Complementary products retailing",
"Network size",
"Customer characteristics",
"Purchase frequency"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: It is a real challenge for companies to develop appropriate product and service offerings given the ever-changing preferences and demands of consumers. Luckily, for many consumer product categories, such as some hi-tech products, the marketing of complementary products has become an effective means to satisfy today's sophisticated consumers. A complementary product refers to a product that enhances the value of a focal product when the two are used together by end-users. It is not a new concept. Complementary products often assume particular significance because they not only enhance focal products' performance and value, improve customer experience and satisfaction, but also contribute to increased profits and stimulate demand for the primary product (Bhaskaran and Gilbert, 2005; Farrell and Saloner, 1986). To many companies, the marketing of complementary products has become an integral element of their overall marketing strategy. For example, many video game console manufacturers (such as MicroSoft, Nintendo, and Sony) heavily rely on the sales of the complementary video games for their respective consoles (such as Xbox 360, Play Station, and Wii). Another example of complementary relationships is the emerging mobile device application markets (such as Apple's iTunes App Store and Google's Android Market): mobile devices being the primary product, and apps being the complementary product. Owing to the particular importance of marketing complementary products, it is imperative for product managers to better understand what will contribute to the sales of complementary products.However, our search of extant literature revealed that not much research has been done on exploring the influences of a primary product network size (the number of consumers who have adopted the product) on the sales of complementary products. A prior study was conducted on selling and leasing strategies for durable products with complementary products (Bhaskaran and Gilbert, 2005). Therefore, the current study is undertaken to explore the factors that will impact the sales of complementary products. To be more specific, we examine the influences of primary product's network size on complementary product sales across various customer characteristics.Based on data collected from online video game industry, this study intends to contribute to the marketing literature, especially the complementary product literature, in three ways. First, we propose and empirically demonstrate that the primary product's network size should be considered as an important predictor of the sales of complementary products. Second, we answer the call for further research to go beyond the static concept of the interdependence among product categories (Shocker et al., 2004). Our study is among the first few to investigate the dynamic nature of the interdependence among product categories (such as a primary product and its complementary products) and incorporate it into the sales forecasting literature. Third, the current research suggests the inclusion of customer characteristics into the sales forecasting of complementary products. To be more specific, we propose and examine the different impacts the primary product's network size has on complementary product sales across various customer characteristics.The remaining of the paper is organized as follows. We first present a review of the related literature and develop our theoretical framework. We then describe our data collection procedure and discuss the methodology of testing. The empirical results and modeling analysis results are given next. Finally, we conclude with managerial implications, limitations, and suggestions for future research.\nLiterature review: The concept of complementary products has been widely documented in economics and marketing literature (Bhaskaran and Gilbert, 2005; Russell and Bolton, 1988; Shocker et al., 2004). Its importance has also been addressed in various marketing strategies, such as product bundling (Gaeth et al., 1990), companion selling (Polonsky et al., 2000), brand extension (Aaker and Keller, 1990), shopping baskets analysis (Bucklin et al., 1998), new product development (Lee and O'Connor, 2003), and diffusion (Givon et al., 1995). For instance, product-bundling studies have shown that consumers have higher purchase intentions for bundles composed of complements. Consumers' evaluations are positively influenced by the attributes of the complements in the bundle (Gaeth et al., 1990). Furthermore, consumers often appreciate being asked to purchase complementary products, and consider it as higher customer service to satisfy their needs (Polonsky et al., 2000). Owing to the interdependence between the primary and complementary products, it is strategically vital for the product managers to evaluate the impact of the network size of the primary product before they introduce the complements (Gupta et al., 1999). However, Shocker et al. (2004) point out that most of the existing studies on inter-category effects (such as substitutes and complements) are often static in nature. More research studies are needed to enhance the understanding of the interactive and dynamic nature among product categories. Despite the increasing research interest in complementary products, literature on how to accurately predict complementary products' sales is still scarce. In the current study, we attempt to explore the impacts of factors on complementary product sales from two perspectives: primary product network size and customers' characteristics. Next, we briefly review relevant literature on these two topics.Network effects\nTheoretical development: From an economics perspective, products are defined as complementary products if a price reduction of one product results in a demand increase for another (Russell and Bolton, 1988). In other words, the cross-price elasticity between these two products is negative. In our study, we refer to the base product as the primary product (e.g. a specific online video game such as World of Warcraft) and to the value-added products as the complementary products (e.g. the virtual money associated with World of Warcraft).In the current study, we focus on the online video game industry, because it provides a perfect context to study the impact of primary product network size on complementary product transaction sales. Online video games, especially the massively multi-player online role-playing games (MMORPG), are a rapid growing and profitable industry. World of Warcraft by Blizzard Entertainment had more than six million active users and generated $1 billion in subscription revenue in 2006 (Schiesel and Richtel, 2006). To join a virtual world created by millions of other players, a player needs to register an account, create an avatar, and build his avatar's power in the virtual world. To build up their avatars' power, players often trade virtual products actively with other players from the same game. These virtual products include virtual currency, weapons, and accessories. The transactions could go through third-party's platform (e.g. eBay prior to 2007), or use the platform provided by the game publishers (e.g. Sony Station Exchange). Similar to many other interdependent systems, a specific online video game is a system composed of \"the primary product\" (i.e. the game composed of millions of users) and its corresponding \"complementary products\" (i.e. the virtual products compatible with the specific game).In this study, we propose that the importance of the primary product network size and its interaction effect with consumer characteristics should not be ignored in predicting complementary product sales. Specifically, we classify the antecedents of complementary product transaction sales into two categories: customer characteristics (including previous transaction value and customer purchase frequency), product attributes (i.e. primary product network size), and the interaction effects between them. We present our proposed model in Figure 1.Impact of primary product network size on complementary products' sales\nMethodology: Data\nResults and discussion: This section provides our empirical findings and further discussion on the robustness checks.Empirical results\nImplications and limitations: Theoretical implications\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: - The purpose of this paper is to examine the relationship between primary product network size and the sales of complementary products, and to suggest customer characteristics moderating this relationship.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - A panel dataset in the online video game industry was used to verify the proposed theoretical framework. Two-level hierarchical linear modeling is used to test several hypotheses.\nFindings: - The authors' analysis results suggest there is a positive relationship between the primary product network size and the sales of complementary products. Also, two customer characteristics (previous transaction value and customer purchase frequency) were found to positively influence the complementary product sales. The primary product's network size has a stronger impact on complementary product sales for light buyers compared to heavy buyers.\nResearch limitations/implications: - This study only focused on online video industry, and the price differentiation of the products might not be adequately significant. Other relevant factors (such as word-of-mouth (WOM)) or other customer characteristics could also be relevant to complementary product sales. Therefore, future research could use data triangulation to collect data in different contexts, through a longer period of time, to test and verify the proposed relationships.\nPractical implications: - Product managers need to better understand the relationship between the primary product network size and the complementary product sales. They should adjust the marketing strategies toward different customer purchase frequency segments correspondingly. For example, to benefit further from the primary product network size, complementary product retailers can create online forums for all primary product users to influence light complementary product buyers.\nOriginality/value: - This research is one of the first empirical investigations of establishing the relationship between primary product network size and complementary product sales, with customer characteristics as moderators.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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Exploring meat substitutes: consumer experiences and contextual factors
|
[
"Consumer research",
"Food products",
"Focus groups",
"The Netherlands",
"Meat substitutes",
"Novel protein foods",
"Focus group discussions",
"Meal context",
"Appropriateness"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Meat is an important component of the Western diet and its nutritional and hedonic aspects are highly valued (Troy and Kerry, 2010; de Bakker and Dagevos, 2010). In the rest of the world, meat consumption has also become more common. As a result of this, the consumption of animal products (including milk and eggs) in Asia increased 2.7 times from 1956 (28.7 kg/person/year) to 2006 (77.205 kg/person/year) (Nam et al., 2010). The global per capita meat production has increased by over 60 percent between 1960 and 2000, and the environmental burden of meat production has increased accordingly (Tilman et al., 2002). A shift towards production and consumption of meat substitutes could be environmentally more sustainable (Aiking et al., 2006; Helms, 2006; Apaiah, 2006). Meat substitutes (also called \"novel protein foods\") are products, generally based on plant proteins, which are developed to replace meat in the diet. Meat substitutes are produced in the form of vegetarian burgers, pieces, mince, sandwich filling, etc. Fish, cheese and nuts, often used to replace meat in a meal, are not considered as meat substitutes.The oldest food that can be classified as a meat substitute is tofu, a soy product that has been produced in China for about 2,000 years. In Western Europe and the USA, tofu has been known by vegetarians and health food consumers since the 1960s (Shurtleff and Aoyagi, 2007). At the same time, meat analogues, based on textured soy protein and aimed at the vegetarian market were introduced, followed by a product named \"textured vegetable protein\" (TVP) (Johnson et al., 1992; de Kloe et al., 1969). Soy protein was spun into fibers to form products that were aimed to mimic meat. Several attempts, including large marketing campaigns, to make these products known by a larger public have failed. Most consumers did not accept this \"imitation meat\" or \"knitted steaks\" with its poor sensory properties (Richardson, 1982) (http://nl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Textured_vegetable_proteine (accessed July 15, 2011)). The reasons for this failure have never been well researched. It seemed too ambitious to develop substitutes for beef steaks, cutlets, and other large chops of meat. These early meat substitutes appeared to be very uniform in texture, and were high in springiness and dryness. Moreover, the original soy flavor and bitter flavors of soy proteins were considered off-flavors and the flavor binding capacities of soy products were a problem as well. It was suggested that it was mainly the texture of meat substitutes that did not meet sensory expectations of consumers (Richardson, 1982; Sijtsma et al., 1995; de Bruin, 1995). A breakthrough in the meat substitute field came when products that were based on fungi were introduced. These Quorn(r) products were developed in the early 1980s and became increasingly popular with the larger public in the UK, and later also in the rest of Europe and the USA (Quorn web sites: www.quorn.nl and www.quorn.co.uk (accessed July 15, 2011) and http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quorn (accessed July 15, 2011)). Reasons for this may be that the texture of Quorn(r) closely mimics the texture of chicken and that the product was marketed as a mainstream product instead of aiming for the vegetarian niche market (McIlveen et al., 1999).Many new products of different origin and with different applications appeared over recent years. Techniques like extrusion have been improved and made it possible to make meat substitutes that have a texture and moisture content that resemble meat more than the previous TVP products (Pehanich, 2004). The assortment expanded later with products based on peas, wheat, and milk proteins, with some of the dairy-based meat substitutes having fibers that resemble chicken-meat (Newmark, 1980; Davies and Lightowler, 1998; van Roots, 2005). An overview on the history and development of meat substitutes has been described by Sadler (2004).Over 150 different meat substitutes in Dutch supermarkets and health food stores were found during our market exploration. Roughly 46 percent of the meat substitutes were \"separate meal components\" (burgers, steaks, schnitzels, sausages), 31 percent were products that can be used as ingredients in a dish (pieces, mince), 12 percent were sandwich toppings, and 11 percent snacks. However, the distinction between separate meal components, ingredients and snacks was not very clear, because some products have various applications. The Dutch market of meat substitutes has expanded by 76 percent between 1997 and 2001 (Aurelia, 2002), and has grown steadily ever since. In 2007, 36 percent of the Dutch households had tried meat substitutes at least once (Zwijnenburg, 2009).Only a few studies have been published on the acceptance of meat substitutes. One of the older studies suggested that meat substitutes have an overall negative public image and that the acceptance of meat substitutes depends on different interrelated factors, including image, price, convenience, nutritional and sensory factors (Richardson, 1982). Age and (un)familiarity with meat substitutes were also suggested to play a role in the acceptance of tofu products. In a consumer study in which students and residents from an elderly home were served a tofu casserole, this dish was liked more by the students than by the elderly (Bartlett et al., 1998).In many dishes, meat is the most important component of the meal. A feasible option for meat substitutes to be successful seems to be in a dish where the meat substitutes replace smaller and less pronounced pieces of meat (Aiking et al., 2006). Minced meat and chicken breast fillet are both popular meat products in The Netherlands (Productschappen Vee and Vlees en Eieren, 2010). Therefore, this study focused on the replacement of smaller meat components of a dish, such as pieces of chicken, slices of salami, or minced beef. The consequence of the choice for meat substitute ingredients is that other components of the meal have great influence on how the taste and texture of meat substitutes is perceived and therefore on the acceptance of meat substitutes. It is easy to imagine that for example in a spaghetti dish, meat substitute ingredients will be perceived differently than in a soup. The appropriateness of the use of meat substitutes in different dishes will be of influence on the acceptance of the meat substitute. Meal context plays a role in acceptance of foods. Meals provide contexts that can increase a food's appeal relative to items considered alone (Rozin and Tuorila, 1993). The meal can be seen as a way to add complexity and variety in the sensory combinations that we eat (Lawless, 2000). Therefore, we hypothesized that appropriateness in a meal context plays a role in the acceptance of meat substitutes. Although the appropriateness of the use of a food in different situations has been subject of several studies (Cardello and Schutz, 1996; Moskowitz, 2002), the appropriateness of a food in different meals had not been studied before.We performed focus group discussions to get a better understanding of consumers' beliefs, experiences and expectations concerning meat substitutes. We also studied whether the appropriateness of the use of meat substitutes in a dish is of importance to consumers. A focus group discussion is a qualitative technique in which a moderator focuses the attention of a small group of consumers on a predetermined set of topics in order to discuss views and opinions. It is conducted with approximately six to 12 people. Participants of the focus group discussions interact with each other; one comment from a participant can trigger comments by others (Krueger, 1994; van Kleef, 2006). Qualitative research such as focus group discussions is needed to listen to \"the voice of the consumer\". This type of research can be used to gather key consumer insights and direction for the new product development process (Schmidt, 2009).To enable participants to express specific wanted and unwanted sensory characteristics and information on appropriateness, we gradually provided participants with more information. The discussions started with a general part, followed by a part in which photographs with dishes containing meat substitutes were used. According to Hutchings (2003), the sight of food can induce both positive and negative expectations of flavors and textures.The discussions were concluded with a small sensory session in which the participants tasted two dishes with different meat substitutes. Previous research has shown that different types of information can trigger different reactions from consumers (Vriens et al., 1998). We expected that visual information and a sensory test would reveal more (specific) information from consumers than a normal focus group discussion.\nMaterials and methods: Panel\nResults and discussion: This paper reports a qualitative consumer study on the experiences, expectations, beliefs and attitudes regarding meat substitutes.The consumer focus group discussions in this study were extended to three parts in order to find experiences, expectations and (sensory) attributes of consumers towards meat substitutes that are important to consumers.Part 1: general focus group discussion\nConclusions: * The participants mentioned many general and sensory aspects of meat substitutes.* Not all meals were found appropriate for meat substitutes.* The two extra parts of the focus group discussions (the part on appropriateness and the sensory session) seemed useful because some extra sensory attributes were generated and participants liked these parts of the discussion.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: - Meat substitutes can be environmentally more sustainable alternatives to meat. However, the image of these products in The Netherlands is still low. The purpose of this paper is to explore consumers' experiences and sensory expectations of meat substitutes and the appropriateness of the use of meat substitutes in meals.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - In total, 46 consumers took part in seven focus group discussions. These discussions consisted of three steps, starting with a general discussion on meat substitutes, followed by a discussion on the appropriateness of the use of meat substitutes as ingredients (minced, in pieces or slices) by using photographs of six different dishes (soup, pasta, rice, wrap, meal salad, and pizza). The discussions were concluded with a taste session of two dishes with meat substitutes.\nFindings: - Consumers in this study regarded health aspects and easy preparation as positive aspects of meat substitutes. Lack of information on the package, and high price were reported as negative. Sensory aspects such as neutral taste or tastiness, crispiness, chicken-like texture, or granular texture were seen as positive attributes. Negative sensory aspects that were mentioned were uniform taste, compactness, dryness and softness. Most consumers found the use of meat substitutes appropriate in the dishes we presented.\nOriginality/value: - The paper's findings can, together with quantitative consumer and sensory research, be a start towards consumer-oriented product development of environmentally more sustainable meat substitutes. The central role of meal context and appropriateness is an aspect that has not yet received much attention in food science.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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Value creation and destruction in social marketing services: a review and research agenda
|
[
"Value creation",
"Value destruction",
"Social marketing services",
"Social change",
"Systematic literature review",
"Research agenda"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: This paper aims to provide a comprehensive review of the extant research literature on value in social marketing services and present a research agenda for scholarly work in this area. In doing so, our paper seeks to contribute to the development of service thinking in social marketing, the role of value in social marketing and services marketing, and to the increasing focus in service research on health, well-being, and behaviour and social change for social good. For the purposes of this paper, social marketing is defined as an approach that \"seeks to develop and integrate marketing concepts with other approaches to influence behaviours that benefit individuals and communities for the greater social good\" (iSMA, AASM, ESMA, 2013).\nMethods: To identify the relevant literature on value in social marketing services a systematic literature review was conducted. Systematic literature reviews offer a way to provide a comprehensive overview of a field of study or topic that minimises bias by following a rigorous and transparent process for searching, identifying, screening for relevance, and reviewing published and unpublished literature (Gough et al., 2017). Our review followed the PRISMA protocol for conducting and reporting systematic reviews (Moher et al., 2009). The systematic literature review involved searching three leading databases Scopus, Web of Science, and Business Source Complete to identify published articles on value in social marketing services. The following search terms were used to identify academic peer-reviewed articles published in the English language only, from 2000 to 2019 inclusive, using Boolean logic (AND/OR/NOT): \"social marketing\", \"value\", \"value creation\", \"value co-creation\", \"value cocreation\", \"value destruction\", \"value co-destruction\" and \"value codestruction\". The exclusion criteria included literature about personal values, which is distinct from consumer perceived value, as well as literature about the value chain, price-related literature, and where social marketing refers to social media.\nResults: Our search strategy yielded a total of 50 publications. The researchers then read, discussed, analysed and interpreted the key ideas, concepts, arguments, and/or empirical research findings presented in these papers by following an iterative process of discussion, critical reflection, interpretation, and representation. In the following sections, we present a discursive review of the key ideas, themes, and contributions that emerge from the literature. We organise our review of the literature on value in social marketing services according to four key themes:\nValue in social marketing services: a future research agenda: As illustrated in our review of the extant literature, while there have been several useful contributions to the knowledge base regarding value creation and destruction in social marketing services, there remains a lot to be done. Here, we offer some suggestions on a future research agenda with the objective of encouraging researchers to contribute, supplement, and strengthen the stream of critical work in the area and to present some ideas from which they may draw upon to inform their work. We outline our suggested research agenda according to the following themes:\nConclusion: This paper has presented a review of value creation and destruction in social marketing services. In doing so we have offered definitions and clarifications regarding key concepts, and considered what the extant literature has contributed to knowledge and identified gaps that remain to be addressed. A research agenda on value creation and destruction in social marketing services is provided across four themes. Within each of these themes, we offer a number of research questions intended to guide further work in each area. We call on researchers and practitioners to think more broadly about these issues, and consider ways of moving forward in a collaborative manner, given the highly practical nature of social marketing service work. The suggestions in the research agenda are not intended to be definite, but hopefully chart some ideas for scholars to engage with in this important area.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: This paper aims to provide a review of the extant literature on value creation and destruction in social marketing services for social change, for the purposes of developing a research agenda for future research in this area. Creating value in social marketing services is now identified as a key focus for social marketing (Russell-Bennett et al., 2009; Domegan et al., 2013), yet work in this area is nascent and conceptual, methodological, and empirical work is needed to advance the research agenda (Zainuddin et al., 2013; 2016).\nDesign/methodology/approach: To help shape the future of research on value in social marketing services, this paper appraises the contributions of the current research literature, and identifies gaps in the current knowledge. A systematic literature review was conducted, following the PRISMA protocol for conducting and reporting systematic reviews (Moher et al., 2009). The review covers the areas of value creation in social marketing, value destruction in social marketing, dimensions of value in social marketing, and from value-in-exchange, to value-in-use, to value-in-behaviour in social change.\nFindings: A research agenda for further work in this area is provided within the themes of 1. conceptual development, 2. broadening ontological, epistemological, and methodological foundations, 3. research contexts, and 4. measuring and evaluating value in social marketing services. Within each of these themes, a series of research questions are provided to guide further work in the four identified themes.\nOriginality/value: This paper is the first to offer a review of the extant literature on value creation and destruction in social marketing and social marketing services, and offer a research agenda for future work in this area. This paper contributes to services marketing and the development of service thinking as key component of social marketing, and the role that value creation plays in this (Russell-Bennett et al., 2013).\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Distinguishing micro-businesses from SMEs: a systematic review of growth constraints
|
[
"Entrepreneurship",
"Systematic literature review",
"Policy",
"Small and medium enterprises",
"Growth constraints",
"Micro-business"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: The role of small and medium enterprises (SMEs) as engines of economic growth is widely acknowledged, having been a focus of academic research and policy making for decades (Curran, 2000; Blackburn and Kovalainen, 2009; Fuller-Love, 2006; Yu, 2001). Yet the literature on SME growth remains fragmented, with little consensus around the phenomenon (Wiklund et al., 2009). Moreover, despite micro-businesses accounting for around 95.8 per cent of all UK businesses (ONS, 2015), and for 70-95 per cent of all firms in OECD (2013) economies, much less is known about the growth challenges facing this significant sub-set of businesses with fewer than ten employees. Micro-businesses are regarded as engines of growth, but as Perren (1999) asserts there is very little research on the drivers and barriers to micro-business growth or \"scaling-up\" beyond those associated with SMEs. However, the term SME is too homogenous and fails to sufficiently identify the specific growth challenges that micro-businesses face.\nMethod: The review was limited to published academic journal articles (peer reviewed). ABI Proquest, Emerald, Science Direct, and Scopus were selected as appropriate databases. The search was conducted in 2015 and was limited to studies published after 1980, as the 1980s mark the time when academic interest in entrepreneurship and SME research started to grow substantially (Gibb, 2000). The systematic literature review adopts the principles summarised by Thorpe et al. (2005) and, as outlined by Tranfield et al. (2003), comprises three stages (see Figure 1): planning the review, conducting the review, and reporting and dissemination.\nFindings and discussion: Clarifying terms: SME and OME\nConclusions: This systematic literature review identifies the specific characteristics of micro-businesses, as distinct from other SMEs, and emphasises the importance of focussing policy development for micro-businesses on the basis of these specific characteristics. The analysis reveals that research on SME growth focusses on four main areas: business capabilities and practices, OME's characteristics, OME's growth ambition, and the business environment. However, micro-businesses distinguish themselves from larger SMEs in all four areas.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: Micro-businesses account for a large majority of small and medium enterprises (SMEs). However, they remain comparatively under-researched. The purpose of this paper is to take stock of the extant literature on growth challenges and to distinguish growth constraints facing micro-businesses as a specific subset of SMEs from those facing larger SMEs.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The study consists of a systematic review of 59 peer-reviewed articles on SME growth.\nFindings: Micro-businesses distinguish themselves from larger SMEs by being owner-manager entrepreneur (OME) centric and are constrained by a tendency to be growth-averse, underdeveloped capabilities in key business areas, underdeveloped OME capabilities, and often inadequate business support provision.\nResearch limitations/implications: The use of keywords, search strings, and specific databases may have limited the number of papers identified as relevant by the review. However, the findings are valuable for understanding micro-businesses as a subset of SMEs, providing directions for future research and generating implications for policy to support the scaling up of micro-businesses.\nOriginality/value: The review provides a renewed foundation for academic analysis of micro-business growth, highlighting how micro-businesses are distinct from larger SMEs. At present, no literature review on this topic has previously been published and the study develops a number of theoretical and policy implications.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
The effects of goodwill and competence trust on strategic information sharing in buyer-supplier relationships
|
[
"Trust",
"Qualitative research",
"Buyer-supplier relationships"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: \"We feel they have a hidden agenda, and we feel they're not as open as we could hope in this relationship.\" These are the words of a retail buyer from this study when reflecting on a particular supplier. It relates to their concern for a lack of information sharing and perceived trust - both of which receive notable attention in the recent buyer-supplier literature (Dadzie, Dadzie, and Williams, 2018; Lee and Ha, 2018). This literature has long recognized that a firm's ability to compete depends on acquiring and sharing strategic information regarding customer preferences, the competitive market, and channel member activities (Frazier et al., 2009; Myers and Cheung, 2008). Arguably, information sharing is one of the most integral and common elements in the collaboration between firms (Biggemann, 2012; Sezen and Yilmaz, 2007). The information may be sensitive, and while sharing it is beneficial for achieving interfirm collaboration, the risks and their mitigation must be considered by the sharing party (Dyer and Chu, 2003; Vazquez-Casielles et al., 2013). Overall, the choice of what kind of information to share with whom is both a challenge for boundary spanners, and requires further understanding for both theory and practice (Mohr and Sengupta, 2002; Tong and Crosno, 2015).\nThe link between trust and information sharing: Strategic information sharing between buyers and suppliers\nResearch methods: A qualitative embedded single case study (Yin, 2009) of HomeCo, a DIY retail chain, was carried out to explore the trust-information sharing link. Although the literature has provided ample evidence on the trust-information link, the effects of different types of trust specifically on strategic information sharing has received much less attention in research. Our research design also allowed us to identify new variables that affect these causal connections. Furthermore, we investigated information sharing at the individual manager level, unlike the majority of prior studies, which look at these two key constructs at the organizational level (Zaheer et al., 1998). Given that we break relatively new ground with this study, the single case study was deemed a suitable choice. Case studies are also useful for further development of existing theories (Eisenhardt, 1989; Flyvbjerg, 2006). Specifically, the goal was to develop testable propositions from rich empirical data, which is one of the commonly cited strengths of the case study approach (Eisenhardt and Graebner, 2007). The case study was also deemed appropriate because we aimed at uncovering the more detailed nuances of a complex thinking-doing process (Woodside and Wilson, 2003). Trust and information sharing were examined from the perspective of the individual buying manager, as the trustor and sharer of information. The unit of analysis was the exchange between individual HomeCo buying managers and their suppliers represented by sales managers. As a central retail chain within the DIY building sector, HomeCo is an ideal single case setting because it offers optimum opportunity for learning about the constructs of interest (Stake, 2008). Boundary spanning managers, each responsible for a subset of HomeCo's supplier portfolio, must continuously consider both trust levels and the potential sharing of strategic information with their suppliers.\nFindings: Table II displays the number of instances that interview participants directly referred to different types of shared or limited information sharing, and the varying types of trust present. In support of the extant literature, we find that the overall information sharing choices of buying managers are positively related to trust. To improve the understanding of this link, our findings further explore the information sharing choices, which include the choice to share or actively limit the sharing of information. While the consideration of both high and low levels of competence and goodwill trust suggests four potential trust profiles, there were very few instances of information sharing found in cases of low competence trust and high goodwill trust, as also suggested in the literature (Akrout et al., 2016; Ganesan, 1994; Sengun, 2010). Therefore, we focused on cases of high goodwill and competence trust, trust breaches, and high competence trust only.\nDiscussion: The three propositions are summarized in Table III below for discussion, along with the outlined tactics described by the buying managers.\nManagerial implications: The managerial implications of this study can be considered from both the trustor and the trustee perspectives. From the trustee perspective (in this case the supplier's representative), the findings show that strategic information sharing may, to a large extent, be at the individual manager's discretion. Despite high levels of one or the other type of trust, the purchasing manager may share only some types of strategic information, or generally be reluctant to share any type of strategic information due to competitive priorities. Trustees cannot simply associate a trusting relationship with free flowing strategic information from the trustor. Instead, they must have a thorough understanding of the trustor's attitude and priorities to benefit from being a trusted partner. However, with high levels of information sharing autonomy of the trustor manager, the trustee is also presented with valuable opportunities for influencing the trustor into sharing valuable information. Further advice for trustees is to recognize the potential of competence trust. Our findings showed many instances of strategic information sharing in competence trust exchanges. The more demanding and subtle goodwill trust may not be necessary to achieve in many customer relations. Competence trust, which is easier to build and maintain, may be adequate for gaining strategic information from trustors, specifically if they perceive an immediate benefit from such information sharing. Trustees could therefore look for and recognize such interactive situations. However, in these cases, suppliers may also be subject to tactics by the retail buyer that can limit the exchange of information. Therefore suppliers must either be sure to establish goodwill, or be prepared to live with such tactics as accepted actions in the buyer-supplier relationship, and react accordingly. Trustees should also note that if either type of trust is breached, the buyer (trustor) may deliberately limit strategic information sharing. This underlines the need for repairing these breaches of trust.\nConclusion and future research: This research has further developed the link between two key trust types and strategic information sharing. We have investigated this link at the level of individual boundary spanners in a retail purchasing organization relative to suppliers. We also distinguish between sharing information, and the active withholding or limiting of information - a related yet distinct concept. Specifically, findings show that high levels of goodwill and competence trust may not necessarily lead to information sharing. Additionally, buyers may also decide to limit the outflow and inflow of information if only competence is present. We therefore tend to agree with points from Scheer (2012), and Van Zeeland-van Der Holst and Hensler (2018), who perceive trust as a feeling of certainty, as this level of trust may not allow buyers with enough certainty to allow the free flow of information.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to explore how the choice of buying managers to share or limit the sharing of strategic information with their suppliers relates to the presence or absence of goodwill and competence trust in the buyer-supplier relationship.\nDesign/methodology/approach: An interpretive single case study of a mid-sized retailer was used. In total, 17 semi-structured interviews examining information sharing events were conducted with buying managers, along with the analysis of company documents.\nFindings: Goodwill and competence trust have a positive effect on strategic information sharing, yet this study reveals several tactics used by buying managers in the presence of competence trust only. With a lack of established trust, or earlier trust breaches, little to no information sharing occurs.\nResearch limitations/implications: This study featured cross-sectional data of a single case from the buyer's perspective. This limits its generalizability, yet provides opportunities to test the findings through longitudinal studies, potentially gathering data from both buyers and suppliers.\nPractical implications: Relating which types of information being shared for different forms of trust guides managers' expectations on which type of trust they wish to build for each of their buyer-supplier relationships.\nOriginality/value: This study examines the trust and information sharing relationship in more detail, linking different types of trust to categories of strategic information. It also distinguishes between the different concepts of encouraging information sharing and deliberately limiting strategic information sharing.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Detecting violation of business constraints in declarative process execution: a case study
|
[
"Declarative process modelling",
"Business rules"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: Business processes have a critical role to play in improving the efficiency and controlling the operation costs of an organisation. Each business process is considered as a collection of interdependent activities that aims at achieving a specific business goal. The ever increasing number and complexity of business rules pertinent to a business process pose a great challenge to both researchers and practitioners. In the business process management (BPM) arena (Weske, 2012; Lam, 2015c), there are two process modelling paradigms: imperative process modelling and declarative process modelling (Fahland et al., 2009). Imperative process modelling specifies the execution alternatives and order for a workflow model in an explicit manner. Declarative process modelling is an emerging method for constructing business process models where the execution sequence of activities is governed by business rules. Contrary to imperative process modelling, declarative process modelling describes implicitly the execution alternatives and order for a workflow model through the utilisation of business rules. A business process model execution is admissible provided that it is compliant to the business rules. Broadly speaking, business rules are regarded as constraints that capture the relationships between activities.\n2. Preliminaries: This section examines a number of aspects that form the basis for the subsequent sections. The first subsection provides a review of LTL. In the second subsection, an overview of the LWB is given. Finally, the notion of finite execution trace is introduced in the last subsection.\n3. Transforming finite execution traces into LTL formulas: The LTL is based on infinite execution traces where each execution trace contains an infinite number of states. Conversely, the execution of a declarative business model is regarded as a finite execution trace that consists of an ordered list of activities. In order to encode a finite execution trace in LTL, there are two possible approaches as proposed by Bauer and Haslum (2010).\n4. Business rule templates: The previous contributions of van der Aalst and Pesic (2006, 2007) and Pesic (2008) are the major sources of inspiration for the business rule templates introduced in this section. The new business rule templates proposed in the work of (Lam, 2015a) and this section stem from the actual needs for the two case studies in our earlier work (Lam, 2015a) and this paper. Nevertheless, the collection of business rule templates is by no means exhaustive. The collection is expected to increase continuously over time according to the actual demands of various problem domains. The expressive power of these templates is equivalent to LTL.\n5. Discovering business rule violations: The enforcement of business rules is essential to the proper operation of an organisation. A business rule is a constraint that restricts the possible relationships between the activities of a business process model. Formally, a constraint C concerning a finite execution trace S=<A1, ..., An> of a business process model is an LTL formula over SAP such that SAP=\n6. Case study: verifying course requirements: The checking of a complete enrolment history and verification of an academic course plan for a student are two core business processes in the higher education sector. The matching of enrolled courses and intended enrolments with the course requirements of a degree programme is utilised to demonstrate the application of the approach. Tables VIII-X are typical examples of the course requirements for a three-year bachelor's degree.\n7. Related work: Offering solutions to recurring problems via patterns originated with the architecture community. Dwyer et al. (1998, 1999) and Specification patterns (2014) document a set of specification patterns that are regularly used properties for finite-state systems. Each property is formally specified in three different formalisms: CTL, LTL and quantified regular expression. The aim of the specification patterns is to increase the ubiquity of formal methods through the utilisation of a more abstract modelling technique.\n8. Conclusions: In declarative process modelling, the representation of business rules relies on constraint-based specification. Determining whether the execution of a declarative process model conforms to its respective constraint-based specifications is of crucial importance. As a consequence, the need for formal verification techniques for conformance checking remains a challenge to be addressed in the BPM community.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: Declarative process modelling is a constraint-centric approach that treats business rules as first-class citizens in business process models. Augmenting the declarative process modelling technique with capability to detect the constraint violations during business process execution is of crucial importance. The purpose of this paper is to contribute to the modelling of business rules through a repository of pattern-oriented templates.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The semantics of the business rule templates is underpinned by linear temporal logic (LTL). Automated temporal reasoning is then conducted for determining whether process executions adhere to the business rules through the utilisation of the Logics Workbench (LWB). An application of the methodological framework is illustrated by a realistic case study on degree requirements verification.\nFindings: To access the practicality of the approach, the case study of this paper is based on the verification of degree requirements, which is different from the domain area of the case study in the author's prior work. The findings indicated that the temporal framework could be applied to the declarative process modelling in a consistent and efficient manner.\nOriginality/value: This paper is an extended version of the author's earlier study. More details on the LTL and LWB are provided in the current study. The author introduces 17 new business rule templates and illustrates the utilisation of the new templates via a case study that belongs to a different domain area.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Review of research studies on population specific epidemic disasters
|
[
"Epidemics",
"Disaster management",
"Epidemiological modeling",
"Influenza",
"Ebola",
"Plague",
"SARS",
"Anthrax",
"Disasters",
"Diseases"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: Epidemic is defined as \"the occurrence of more cases of a disease than would be expected in a community or region during a given time period\" in Webster's New World Medical Dictionary. In general, epidemic is a sudden severe outbreak of a disease such as severe acute syndrome (SARS). Although epidemics are primarily considered to be biological disasters affecting people and animals, epidemics may also be the consequence of other disasters such as tropical storms, floods, earthquakes and droughts. According to IFRC annual report[1], epidemics and infectious diseases are still major threats causing 14 million deaths every year worldwide. This report also reveals an inequality in health care between developed and developing countries. Between January 2006 and May 2009, more than 41 million people were affected by epidemics and needed help from Red Cross and Red Crescent societies throughout the world (see footnote 1).Epidemic disaster can also occur as result of a biological attack. Since the anthrax attacks in 2001 (McIntyre and Venette, 2006), national defense plans have put more emphasis on the development of effective counter measures against agents of bioterrorism. This has motivated researchers to develop epidemiological models toward disaster management, emergency response and policy making for the control of epidemics. Manuell and Cukor (2011) consider factors affecting public compliance with quarantine during an infectious disease pandemic. Considine and Mitchell (2009) and Rokach et al. (2010) report preparedness and perceptions of emergency staff in the event of a chemical, biological or radiological attack.Compared to earthquakes, floods and other disasters, disaster management studies for epidemics are quite rare. Most of the studies related to epidemics are useful for predicting the impact of an epidemic before it starts. Starting with the smallpox studies in the eighteenth century, many researchers have used mathematics to model and understand the dispersion of infectious diseases among the population (Bernoulli, 1760/1982; Hethcote, 1974, 2009; Kermack and McKendrick, 1991). In general, research work on epidemics can be classified into two groups: theoretical research focussing more on the mathematical relations (Diekman et al, 1990; Raggett, 1982) and empirical research focussing on a particular infectious disease. There are several existing reviews of mathematical models of infectious diseases (Anderson and May, 1979; Dietz and Heesterbeek, 2002; Hethcote, 1974; Wickwire, 1977; Brandeau et al., 2009). Recently, Han et al. (2009) examined the Chinese literature on epidemic modeling for SARS. However, there are few review articles summarizing epidemic studies which focus on disaster management and policy making. Brandeau et al. (2009) review general disaster response modeling studies including responses to both man-made and natural hazards. Their study is built around three well-defined questions that, respectively, address the types of disaster response models developed, the methodologies used by these models, and the best practice among these for disaster response. Nevertheless, there is no special emphasis on epidemic disasters.In this study, we review the literature in order to provide an in-depth analysis of the empirical research articles containing mathematical models for an epidemic caused by specific infectious agents, and also to address the outcomes of these researches on different populations. Thus, this review allows articulating the potential use and limitations of the epidemiological modeling on further planning and decision-making issues in the context of disaster management and medical emergency response. Note that rather than attempting a comprehensive review of both theoretical and empirical models covering all infectious diseases, we focus our attention on articles focussed on six diseases: influenza, smallpox, anthrax, Ebola, SARS and plague. These agents are more likely to cause an epidemic disaster and have more potential to be used in a biological attack.\n2. Boundaries of the study: The search process for the literature review involved utilization of several databases, including ISI's Web of Science, Scopus and Google Scholar. Keywords \"epidemic,\" \"epidemiological models,\" \"mathematical model,\" \"influenza,\" \"anthrax,\" \"smallpox,\" \"plague,\" \"Ebola\" and \"SARS\" were searched in the title and abstract of journal articles published in English. The database search resulted in numerous articles in various journals, due to the interdisciplinary nature of the subject. Among these, we only select studies containing a statistical, mathematical or an empirical model. We also intended to address the applicability of the epidemiological models and their outcomes on different populations. Therefore, we further eliminated articles without specific results with respect to country or population-specific data. For instance, a research article which includes a model for smallpox dispersion among the population of Portland (Barrett et al., 2005) is a valid candidate for our review. In addition to these, we included a few research works (Bravata et al., 2006; Hupert et al., 2009; Tebbens et al., 2010) which propose fundamental results without considering any particular population in the field.After a careful investigation and manual elimination of the non-empirical articles, 74 research articles published between 1971 and 2010 are reviewed. Figure 1 shows the distribution of diseases in selected articles. The time period of the search is limited to 1971-2010 because no study with country-specific real population data was observed prior to this period. Note that this review considers only academic journals and excludes practitioner magazines and books.\n3. Characteristics of articles: Our research resulted in 74 interdisciplinary articles covering the field of physical science, medicine, public health, statistics, operation management and emergency management. Table I lists the distribution of articles from a range of publications including journals in the fields of medicine, statistics, science, mathematics, biology, policy making and management. Table I indicates that country-specific studies for the stated diseases draw primarily the attention of the audience of medicine and biology journals. Based on the number of articles published, it is important to note the lack of interest on the subject from researchers in the area of policy making, operations research and management science. Table II summarizes the research articles with respect to publication date, disease type, study population, control policy (if available) and managerial decisions considered.3.1 Year of publication and disease type\n4. Future research directions: An effective epidemic management requires the combination of managerial decisions such as planning and resource allocation. Epidemiologic modeling provides useful insights for planning and mitigating against a possible disaster. However, the absence of any significant academic contribution to disaster planning and implementation issues for the suggested control policies and intervention strategies remains a major gap in the literature. It is therefore the purpose of this paper to emphasize the importance of logistics decisions at every stage of disaster management. We consider following decisions related to epidemic logistics; capacity planning for treatment or isolation facilities, bed capacities, resource allocation, including workforce and health care service, medical supply planning and corresponding make or buy decisions, the distribution and administration of drugs and vaccines, disaster information and communication management, and finally critical inventory management under turbulent disaster environment, i.e. for deteriorating items such as vaccines.The chemical nature of vaccines and some drugs make their storage challenging. In addition, the handling, location and relocation of large quantities of medical supplies are associated with high costs which might cause inefficiency in overall aftermath effort. On the other hand, it is quite possible that medical resources will be limited at the very beginning of an epidemic. Timely and accurate distribution of medical supplies and health care services is essential in times of disaster. One practical example would be the prioritization of vaccine distribution among the population. This decision addresses cost minimization issues as well as issues that relate to maximizing the effectiveness of control policy. Some research indirectly engages with such logistical considerations whereas other considerations are addressed in more direct ways.Vaccine production is also a critical issue due to its socio-economic importance. Especially for smallpox, vaccine production depends on international agreements and relations. It is also important that vaccine is produced under governmental control to ensure the cost is equal and affordable for the whole population.Increased globalization and a growing number of transportation routes mean that re-emerging infectious diseases could have a serious impact on any country. Therefore, authorities in both developed and developing countries should ensure preparedness for a possible epidemic by promoting academic research. In spite of this need, as pointed out in our review, only a limited number of countries are investing in epidemic disaster surveillance.It is well known that demographic and cultural factors significantly affect dispersion of an epidemic among population. Infection rates for elderly and young are different for many diseases. Countries with a younger, and therefore more socially and economically active population such as Turkey, are more prone to faster epidemic dispersion than, for example, western European countries where the population growth rate is lower and populations are older. Therefore, it is necessary to develop epidemiological models differentiating population by age and immunity level, and to prioritize the population for health care service delivery. Unfortunately, there is no mention of population differentiation in the models of any of the research articles reviewed.\n5. Conclusion: Epidemics have occurred many times in the past and will continue to affect populations in the future. Globalization and greater range of travel modes have created a need for disaster management against possible epidemics in every country. In this study, literature review is conducted to analyze the epidemic modeling applications and policy-making strategies for six different infectious diseases in a number of countries, thus comparing and contrasting research in underdeveloped, developing, and developed countries. It is important to emphasize the need for further research in both developing and developed countries because of the ease of dispersion, which constitutes a universal threat. Since lack of tactical operational and strategic plans against an epidemic could result in chaos, more attention should be given to epidemiological research by researchers in the field of disaster management and operations research.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: - This study aims to analyze the epidemic modeling applications and policy-making strategies for six different infectious diseases in a number of countries, thus comparing and contrasting research in underdeveloped, developing, and developed countries.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - A systematic review has been conducted by identifying relevant studies for six diseases from different sources and selecting 74 publications for inclusion. These selected publications are classified and analyzed based on infectious disease, control policies, theme and objective, methodology, origin of population data, publication year and results.\nFindings: - Review results indicate that disaster preparedness and surveillance plans for epidemics are available mostly for developed countries. There is a need for further research in both developing and developed countries because of the ease of dispersion, which constitutes a universal threat. Analysis of the publications suggests that epidemic disasters are mostly studied by researchers in the field of medicine or biology with the aim of assessing the potential impact of an epidemic. The authors highlight the need for further research in operations research and disaster management fields and propose further research directions in the area of disaster management.\nSocial implications: - This review emphasizes the importance of epidemic disaster modeling for the preparedness stage of disaster management and policy making. Disease and population-specific intervention policies (e.g. vaccination) reported in this review should set an example and help policy makers during their decision making.\nOriginality/value: - Potential use of the epidemiological modeling on further planning and decision-making issues in the context of disaster management is studied for the first time.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
The mediating effect of strategic orientation and innovations on the effect of environmental uncertainties on the performance of business in the Indonesian aviation industry
|
[
"Business performance",
"Innovations",
"Environmental uncertainties"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: The growth of the aviation industry in Indonesia from 2000 to 2008 increased very rapidly with an average growth of more than 20 per cent per annum (Ditjen, 2007). Some aviation business practitioners presume that this phenomenon is because of mismanagement due to inability to adapt to changes in the environment (Airline Business, 2008).\n2. Theoretical review: 2.1 Environmental uncertainties\n3. Research method: The research design was conducted through a survey and the testing form was carried out using \"Relationship Causal Studies\" or a study to analyze the causality among environmental uncertainties, strategic orientation, innovations and performance of branches/stations of airlines in the Indonesian aviation industry. The sample was selected by determining the number of branches/stations of the Indonesian airlines to be selected into the sample; then more than one unit managers were selected as respondents representing their respective branches/stations. The number of the target sample in this study was 250 branches. The sampling technique used was stratified random sampling or taking the sample randomly based on the class or the category of the airport area with a certain proportion. The category of an airport area was determined based on the number of passengers that the airport could accommodate. Meanwhile, determination of the number of the target sample was based on the number of domestic airlines (Indonesian Legal Entities) which operated at every airport.\n4. Results of the data analysis: At the first stage, the goodness-of-fit model was presented. Several suitability indexes and cutoff values were used to examine whether a model can be accepted. Results for the testing of the overall goodness-of-fit model are presented in Table I below.\n5. Conclusions: Findings of this research indicate the positive and significant mediating effect of innovation in the relationship between environmental uncertainties on business performance which can encourage organizations to evolutionarily be more innovative in managing business (Franke, 2007). This is also consistent with the theory of evolutionary economics (Nelson and Winter, 2000) that the old strategy may not suit the changes in the environment, and therefore companies should continue to seek new breakthroughs with persistent improvement and innovations. As a consequence, dynamic and competitive conditions of the industrial environment require organizations to more intensively explore sources (capabilities) of innovations and accelerate generation of the innovations (Franke, 2007; Berry et al., 2006; Dobni, 2006; Davila et al., 2006; Spacapan and Bastic, 2007). Contextually, it appears that the competitive conditions of the aviation industry in either the short term or in the long term require business actors to be more innovative and to survive (Franke, 2007).\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: This study aims to (1) examine the mediating effect of strategic orientation on the effect of environmental uncertainties on business performance, and (2) examine the mediating effect of innovations on the effect of environmental uncertainties on performance of the business in the aviation industry in Indonesia.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The research design was conducted through a survey, and the testing form was carried out using \"Relationship Causal Studies\" or a study to analyze the causality among environmental uncertainties, strategic orientation, innovations and performance of branches/stations of airlines in the Indonesian aviation industry. The sample was selected by determining the number of branches/stations of the Indonesian airlines to be selected into the sample, then more than one unit managers were selected as respondents representing their respective branches/stations. The number of the target sample in this study was 250 branches. Techniques used to address the hypotheses of the present study were Descriptive Analysis and Structural Model Analysis. The inferential statistical analysis focuses on the subject of the analysis and data interpretation to draw conclusions.\nFindings: These research findings provide a contextual overview of the aviation industry in Indonesia that activities to make innovations in airline branches play a vital role in encouraging business performance. Moreover, the analysis shows that the more innovative a branch the better its business performance. This corroborates the finding (Spacapan and Bastic, 2007; Talke, 2007) that being highly innovative can ensure sustainable and long-term business performance.\nResearch limitations/implications: The findings of this research suggest that innovations mediate the effect of environmental uncertainties on business performance. These findings corroborate the results of previous studies that suitability between strategic orientation and innovations of a company in response to environmental uncertainties will affect performance of the company (Li and Gima, 2001; Manu, 1992). These findings also strengthen the view that companies with a higher level of innovations (innovative) have better business performance and competitive advantages (Kessler and Chakrabarty, 1996; Salavou et al., 2004; Spacapan and Bastic, 2007). Furthermore, based on findings, it can be interpreted that management that is able to overcome barriers to innovations, maximize innovation resources and achieve the target of innovations in the form of creation of better products/services will have better performance. The ability of the management to identify and overcome barriers to innovations and maximize the sources of innovation will generate products or services that can be accepted by the customers and eventually these products and services will be able to compete with better business performance (Blumentritt and Danis, 2006).\nPractical implications: Findings of this research indicate the positive and significant mediating effect between environmental uncertainties on business performance, through the mediation of innovations, competitive conditions of the industrial environment which can encourage organizations to evolutionarily be more innovative in managing business to compete in the long term (Franke, 2007). This is also consistent with the theory of evolutionary economics (Nelson and Winter, 2000) that the old strategy may not suit the changes in the environment, and therefore companies should continue to seek new breakthroughs with persistent improvement and innovations.\nSocial implications: Dynamic and competitive conditions of the industrial environment require organizations to more intensively explore sources (capabilities) of innovations and accelerate generation of the innovations (Franke, 2007; Berry et al., 2006; Dobni, 2006; Davila et al., 2006; Spacapan and Bastic, 2007). Contextually, it appears that the competitive conditions of the aviation industry in either the short term or in the long term require business actors to be more innovative and to survive (Franke, 2007).\nOriginality/value: Innovations in business models as a new effort in improvisation specific to the business stage of the basic model (not very valuable) become more advanced business processes to produce products that are more valuable for consumers, at a more efficient cost with better profitability (Chesbrough, 2007b). So far, research on the role of innovations in response to environmental uncertainties and implementation of strategies to improve the performance of the environment-strategy-performance (ESP) model is still done partially so that there is no comprehensive model to describe the role of innovations in this ESP model, or let us say that a gap between theories and opportunities to do further research on the role of innovations in the ESP model exists.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
Delivering warmth by hand: customer responses to different formats of written communication
|
[
"Service",
"Warmth",
"Handwriting",
"Perceived effort",
"Print",
"Psychological closeness"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Imagine receiving a dress you ordered from an online store. When you open the package, you find, along with the order, a handwritten note stating: \"Dear customer: Thank you for shopping with us. We try our best to create beauty and serve our customers\". Similar communication scenarios might include handwritten postcards from previously visited restaurants, personal notes from hotel staff informing guests of the next day's weather and so forth. If you received such a note, how would you feel? Would you feel warmth toward the firm? What if the note were printed rather than handwritten? Would your feelings change? Though seemingly trivial, perceptions of such communication may be crucial in relationship building.\nCommunication format and warmth: Warmth\nPretest: Pretest 1 examined whether people associate handwriting with humans and print with computers, as proposed. Participants in the task were 30 students (50 per cent female, mean age = 21) recruited from a large public university. They were given four sets of word-picture combinations and asked to match the word with the picture in each set. The four sets included \"sly/arrogant-fox/peacock\", \"time/anger-dollar/fire\", \"paper/glass-wood/sand\" and \"printed 'wish you happiness'/handwritten 'wish you happiness'-computer/human\". The purpose of the exercise was to discover whether participants matched \"computer-human\" to different \"wish you happiness\" formats. All participants linked \"sly\" with \"fox\", \"arrogant\" with \"peacock\", \"time\" with \"dollar\", \"angry\" with \"fire\", \"paper\" with \"wood\", \"glass\" with \"sand\" and, most importantly, the printed \"wish you happiness\" with \"computer\" and the handwritten \"wish you happiness\" with \"human\". As the authors expected, the participants associated handwriting with humans and print with machines.\nStudy 1: Study 1 was a field study, testing whether written communication format has an impact in the real world. The study examines whether handwriting elicits stronger feelings of warmth and the downstream effects of warmth on behavioral intentions.\nStudy 2: The field study demonstrated the effect of written communication format. Study 2 aims to replicate the effect in a more controlled setting, and more importantly examine the two mediators (i.e. perceived effort and psychological closeness) that drive the effect of handwriting.\nStudy 3: The goal of Study 3 was to examine further the two mediators that drive the effect of handwriting by comparing the effects of handwriting, script font and print font. The researchers hypothesize that the effect of writing format on the feelings of warmth is through perceived effort and psychological closeness (induced by aesthetic form). While handwriting and print vary on both aspects, different fonts in print format offer an opportunity to disentangle the two mediators. With the availability of more than 200 fonts in English and many more in other languages, computers and word processors can produce fancy-looking styles, many of which closely mimic human handwriting (Aditya, 2001). Henderson et al. (2004) examine hundreds of fonts and characterize them with six dimensions, including naturalness, which describes curved/angular, slanted/straight, active/passive characteristics of the fonts and reflects the \"looks handwritten-looks typed\" nature of them.\nThe moderating role of the quality of core services: Service quality, especially the quality of the core services plays an important role driving customer satisfaction (Bitner et al., 1990). Research in services marketing suggests that services consist of two primary dimensions:\nStudy 4: Design, participants and procedure\nDiscussion: In the service industry, written communication with consumers occurs every day in a variety of formats. With the pervasive use of computers, e-mail and various social media, written communications have migrated from handwriting to print. Although printed messages are fast to produce and can look fancy, something precious may be lost. This research examines the merits of handwriting communication and provides important theoretical and managerial implications.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The effect of different formats of message delivery has received little theoretical and empirical examination. This research focuses on the effect of written relational communication formats used by service providers. This study aims to answer three questions: Do different formats of written communications (i.e. handwriting and print) influence customer perceptions (i.e. feelings of warmth) of service firms? What are the mediators of these influences (i.e. perceived effort and psychological closeness)? And under what conditions do they occur (i.e. what is the contextual factor)?\nDesign/methodology/approach: One field study and three laboratory studies were conducted to provide a comprehensive understanding of the role of format in written communication.\nFindings: Handwritten messages are more effective than print messages in building relationships in a service context because they elicit stronger feelings of warmth because of both the perception of greater effort and feelings of greater psychological closeness to the service provider. However, the presence of handwriting fails to deliver feelings of warmth when the quality of core services is low.\nPractical implications: Service providers can effectively use handwritten communication to signal effort and create psychological closeness for relationship building with their key customers only when the quality of core services meets customer expectations.\nOriginality/value: First, the research differentiates the formats of written relational communication (handwritten vs print), and links communication formats with feelings of warmth, which is an important factor for impression and relationship formation in the practice of services marketing. Second, based on cognitive-experiential self-theory, this research demonstrates the dual mediators underlying the effect of handwriting (vs print) on warmth: perceived effort and psychological closeness. Third, it identifies the quality of core service as a boundary condition for the effect of handwritten communication.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Using multistage competing risks approaches to model web page transitions
|
[
"E-commerce",
"Survival analysis",
"Online retailing",
"Clickstream analysis",
"Competing risks models",
"Dwell-time analysis"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: A major goal for online retailers is to increase their customer conversion rate, which is the rate at which online visitors become buyers (Perdikaki et al., 2012). A recent survey on US online shoppers shows that this rate is quite low for online retail - with only 3.99 percent of \"traditional\" users, 3.46 percent of tablet users and 1.48 percent of smartphone users turning from visitors into shoppers (Statista, 2016). Consequently, such low yield rates contribute to high customer acquisition costs (McDowell et al., 2016).\n2. Background on survival analysis: Starting with Cox's (1972) seminal paper applied to medicine numerous textbooks about survival analysis have been written (e.g. Cox and Oakes, 1984; Kalbfleisch and Prentice, 2002; Collett, 2003; Therneau and Grambsch, 2000). In medicine, the key problem is to analyze the survival time of patients on the basis of various parametric and nonparametric models such as Kaplan-Meier and Life-table estimates, proportional hazards models (PHMs), and accelerated failure-time models. The parametric approaches are based upon specific survival distributions such as the Weibull distribution. Leveraging management science to medicine, more recent medical adaptations have extended beyond patient mortality to innovative applications such as addiction recovery (Dekimpe et al., 1998); modeling duration of patient stay at geriatric hospitals (Marshall et al., 2002); duration of stay for hip-fracture recoveries (Riihimaki et al., 2010), and examining discharge practices of surgeons (Anderson et al., 2011).\n3. Applying survival analysis to predict website clickstream data: Here, we illustrate how to apply survival analysis to capture clickstream dynamics and to test effects of explanatory variables. We therefore focus on \"within-clickstream dynamics\" by means of page dwell times. Dwell times are an important source of information in respect to the relevance of the content for different user groups and the effectiveness of the page in attracting visitors (Danaher et al., 2006; Mair and Hudec, 2008; Grigsby, 2002). This section provides fundamental background on applying survival analysis to website behavior tracking, after which we provide an actual application using real-world data. Research has applied mixtures of PHMs within the context of web usage mining (Mair and Hudec, 2008, 2009). The underlying paradigm is that dwell times of web pages are treated similarly to survival times of patients. That is, the act of leaving a web page corresponds to a patient's death in medical research. Their basic idea is to cluster sessions and/or users based on their page dwell times in a parametric way - using Weibull mixture distributions. They introduce various parameter restrictions that lead to a family of Weibull mixture PHMs. As we will elaborate, PHMs are the starting point for competing risks development. All technical details regarding our modeling approach within the context of survival analysis are given in Online Appendix 1.\n4. Discussion: This research provides several novel contributions to research and practice in modeling web paths from clickstream data and thus contributing to the important research area of web analytics (Phippen et al., 2004). Whereas several studies using Markov-analysis-based approaches have also leveraged clickstream data to predict online consumer behavior, our approach using survival analysis provides several key contributions to our context: importantly, Markov chain approaches assume independence over time (i.e. they are static to a certain degree), do not include the amount of time users spend on individual pages, and do not allow for covariates. In strong contrast, our approach dynamically models users' behavior, focuses on the dwell time of users on specific web pages, and embraces analysis of covariates - specifically allowing us to differentiate between the behavior of buyers and non-buyers.\n5. Limitations and future research: As in every empirical research project, limitations exist in our design that point to interesting future research opportunities. For the web shop data in our example, we do not have any other external covariates other than \"buyer.\" If an online provider has additional knowledge about its customers (e.g. additional demographic variables), competing risks regression will be a powerful tool to study corresponding effects on the dwell time-related transition behavior. In such cases, predicted values of the CIF can be computed straightforwardly. Our survival-based framework will allow the provider to model and predict page transitions in a dynamic way and to improve the usability of critical pages in order to run the web shop more efficiently. One interesting area where this could be further developed is to dynamically consider the effects of real-time personalization in converting internet surfers into buyers and strengthening brand loyalty (e.g. Ho et al., 2001; Wang and Li, 2012).\n6. Conclusion: In this paper, we apply competing risks models - a special application of survival analysis - to the analysis of a website's clickstream. The results are promising and offer insights that cannot be achieved with currently used techniques. These models allow for the inclusion of dwell time as a crucial factor for predicting buying behavior and additional covariates such as buyer vs non-buyer. By using data from an actual web shop, we are able to illustrate how the online behavior of buyers differs from those of non-buyers. This information is helpful for all companies wanting to optimize their customers' overall online experience, because it allows them to better target their pages to their customers' needs. The results are useful not only for practitioners but also for various academic communities that analyze human behavior in a technological environment, such as information systems, various systems sciences, and marketing.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to present competing risks models and show how dwell times can be applied to predict users' online behavior. This information enables real-time personalization of web content.\nDesign/methodology/approach: This paper models transitions between pages based upon the dwell time of the initial state and then analyzes data from a web shop, illustrating how pages that are linked \"compete\" against each other. Relative risks for web page transitions are estimated based on the dwell time within a clickstream and survival analysis is used to predict clickstreams.\nFindings: Using survival analysis and user dwell times allows for a detailed examination of transition behavior over time for different subgroups of internet users. Differences between buyers and non-buyers are shown.\nResearch limitations/implications: As opposed to other academic fields, survival analysis has only infrequently been used in internet-related research. This paper illustrates how a novel application of this method yields interesting insights into internet users' online behavior.\nPractical implications: A key goal of any online retailer is to increase their customer conversation rates. Using survival analysis, this paper shows how dwell-time information, which can be easily extracted from any server log file, can be used to predict user behavior in real time. Companies can apply this information to design websites that dynamically adjust to assumed user behavior.\nOriginality/value: The method shows novel clickstream analysis not previously demonstrated. Importantly, this can support the move from web analytics and \"big data\" from hype to reality.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Revisiting Okun's Law in European Union countries
|
[
"Labour market protection",
"Okun’s Law",
"Transitory and permanent effects"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: After the first empirical testing of the relationship between the output gap and the employment gap by Okun (1962), this relationship has attracted the interest of many economists (Grant, 2002; Moosa, 1997). The empirical relationship that Okun postulated shows that a one-percent decrease in the growth rate of real gross national product (GNP) is associated with a 0.3-percent increase in the unemployment rate. This relationship is used as a rule of thumb among policy-makers because it entails significant macroeconomic policy implications (Moazzami and Dadgostar, 2009; Owyang and Sekhposyan, 2012).\n2. Literature review: Okun's Law appears to be quite robust with regard to alternative specifications. It seems that the relationship between economic growth and unemployment appears to be negative in the vast majority of the relevant studies, while it also serves as a useful tool for policy-makers (Moosa, 1997; Oberst and Oelgemoller, 2013). However, the magnitude of Okun's coefficient is sensitive to the different specifications adopted as well as to the sample under study (Moosa, 1997; Weber, 1995). Different versions of Okun's Law are applied in empirical research (Knotek, 2007).\n3. Data and econometric methodology: The analysis draws quarterly data from the OECD statistics for 13 European Union countries (Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, the Netherlands, Portugal, Spain, Sweden and the UK) from the second quarter of 1993 until the first quarter of 2014. The choice of the sample was made on the basis of obtaining a large sample size after combining available data for an extensive time span and for the largest possible number of European countries. The primary variables of interest used were the quarterly national harmonized unemployment rates and the quarterly growth rate of GDP in natural logarithms (in millions of US dollars, fixed PPPs, OECD reference year, seasonally adjusted).\n4. Results: The descriptive statistics of the variables are presented in Table I. On average, approximately 2.51 percent of GDP is devoted to LMP measures among the countries in the sample. The highest average percentage of GDP devoted to LMP policies is recorded for Denmark (3.64 percent), followed by the Netherlands (3.06 percent) and Belgium (2.93 percent). Conversely, the lowest average LMP expenditures are found in the UK (only 0.61 percent), Italy (1.49 percent) and Portugal (1.85 percent).\n5. Conclusions: The present study re-examines the validity of Okun's Law in 13 European Union countries using recent data while taking into account the labor market policies that may affect the relationship of interest. As in previous studies, Okun's Law is found to be robust with regard to alternative specifications. Still, the size of Okun's coefficient is very sensitive to the sample choice and the estimation method. As Daly et al. (2014a) argue, this simple statistical relationship has performed remarkably well throughout history. The results of the present study provide an estimation of Okun's coefficient at -0.073 for the First-Difference version and at -0.209 for the Gap version. These estimates are quite close to those reported by Jardin and Stephan (2012) in a study with a similar sample choice. The researchers found Okun's coefficients to be -0.11 and -0.21 for the two versions, respectively. As Moosa (1997) argues, increasing employment protection in European labor markets is responsible for the downward trend in Okun's coefficients over time.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to examine Okun's Law in European countries by distinguishing between the transitory and the permanent effects of output changes upon unemployment and by examining the effect of labor market protection policies upon Okun's coefficients.\nDesign/methodology/approach: Quarterly data for 13 European Union countries, from the second quarter of 1993 until the first quarter of 2014, are used. Panel data techniques and Mundlak decomposition models are estimated.\nFindings: Okun's Law is robust to alternative specifications. The effect of output changes to unemployment rates is weaker for countries with increased labor market protection expenditures and it is more persistent for countries with low labor market protection.\nOriginality/value: The paper provides evidence that the permanent effect of output changes upon unemployment rates is quantitatively larger than the transitory impact. In addition, it provides evidence that increased labor market protection mitigates the adverse effects of a decrease in output growth rate upon unemployment.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
The world's largest "ideapreneurshipTM": Putting employees first so the customer never feels second
|
[
"HCL",
"HCL Technologies",
"Ideapreneurship"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n__NO_TITLE__: Fixed Graphic\nThe journey: In 2005, HCL was growing at 30 per cent compound annual growth rate, had over 18,000 employees and had operations in 18 countries, generating US$700 million in revenues.\nEmergence of start-up behavior: Over the years, the four tenets of EFCS - \"Mirror Mirror\", \"Trust, Transparency and Flexibility\", \"Inverting the Pyramid\" and \"Recasting the Role of the CEO\" - became the currency of practice for all managers in the organization. This created a noticeable change in employee behavior.\nCulture as our unique differentiator - Axis 1: The unique culture at HCL is one that is agnostic of nationality, race, gender or country of its origin. In fact, it is one that has its currency as ideas.\nDistinct people practices - Axis 2: A progressive HR organization is distinguished by its ability to design and deploy practices that exponentially impact the benefits of work - by multiplying the value for customers; the workplace - by multiplying the impact of the ways of working and the environment; and the workforce - by multiplying the productivity and performance of our people.\nDifferentiation through practices - Axis 3: We are always on the lookout to create differentiated practices. There are three distinct focus areas for us that stand out in practice: innovation, transitions and engagement.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: This paper aims to describe how HCL Technologies has been recognized as Britain's top employer for nine years consecutively.\nDesign/methodology/approach: It explores the culture change in HCL Technologies and its revolutionary decision to put \"Employees First, Customer Second\".\nFindings: A focus on employee engagement means that leaders engage, enable and empower people and is the key driver to develop and sustain a productive workforce.\nOriginality/value: The paper details the unique culture, distinct people practices and differentiated interventions that give HCL Technologies the flexibility to align our strategy to a concentrated goal - to be simply the best in the market.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
To tell or not to tell? The impact of communicating consumer participation in new product development
|
[
"Generation Y",
"Consumer behaviour",
"Product innovation",
"Consumer empowerment",
"Purchase intention",
"New product development",
"Innovation adoption",
"Product complexity"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Companies have recently begun to realize that including consumers in the innovation process can generate positive outcomes (Chang and Taylor, 2016). In the past few years, several companies (e.g. Lego, Nike and Procter & Gamble) have begun to hand over part of the innovation process to the consumer (Gemser and Perks, 2015). This increasing phenomenon has been aided by the evolution of information technologies and social media, which have facilitated the engagement of consumers in innovation and new product development (NPD) processes. In addition, the results from previous studies suggest consumers' abilities to assist firms in several different areas, including:\nTheoretical background: Today, consumers are highly connected on social networks and within communities of interest, which puts firms in a position of being under a constant process of evaluation (Hewett et al., 2016). Digital communication has evolved significantly in the past few years, which has made people more proactive, informed and connected (Ind et al., 2013) than ever before. The \"new\" consumers not only have special connections with firms, informing companies about the ways in which they want value to be delivered to them (Prahalad and Ramaswamy, 2004), but also are more knowledgeable about their own needs and expect firms to deliver products or services in accordance with their expectations. Companies are thus increasingly likely to consider consumers as partners in their value creation formula (Prahalad and Ramaswamy, 2004), fully integrating consumers' feedback and input in the development of new products. This consumer feedback can be included at different stages of the NPD process, which we describe in the next sections.\nStudies: In line with the earlier research, hypotheses were tested with student samples to better understand the effects of communicating co-creation to the millennials. Several studies have used student samples to investigate marketing strategies, such as Dahl et al.'s study (2014) for t-shirts and cereals; Schreier et al.'s study (2012) for household products, outdoor sport equipment, gardening tools and robotic toys; and Fuchs et al.'s study (2013) for luxury fashion apparel.\nGeneral discussion: The present research analyzes the phenomena of communicating consumer involvement in the ideation and concept development of new products, distinguishing between the intensity of consumer input and the levels of product complexity. Although the importance of customer involvement in the design of new products has been previously outlined (Hoyer et al., 2010; Mahr et al., 2014), less knowledge exists about how the broader market (observer consumers) perceives such participation. This research studies millennials' perceptions of the firms and products that have strong consumer input on the fuzzy front end because this generation is more exposed to the crowd in the form of new sources of innovation, such as in digital brand communities and user-generated content (Lambert-Pandraud and Laurent, 2010, Pew Research Center, 2010; Stephen, 2016).\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: This paper aims to analyze the implications of communicating customer involvement in the ideation and concept stage of new product development (NPD). This paper assesses the extent to which the awareness that a product was co-created jointly by company professional designers and consumers affects observer consumers' attitudes toward the product and the company. While earlier research has mainly emphasized the positive and desirable consequences of consumer participation in NPD, the present set of studies shows that labeling products as having been co-created is not always valuable; rather, it is dependent on the level of perceived complexity of the products.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The hypotheses are tested in four experimental studies using several categories of product complexity (low, medium and high). The data have been collected on young adult samples, measuring the participants' perceptions of a firm's innovation ability and product purchase intentions.\nFindings: The results suggest that there are benefits at the corporate level (higher perceptions of innovation ability) to inform the market about consumer involvement, particularly when consumers and company professionals work together. The findings also indicate that product complexity plays a critical role in translating the perceptions of greater corporate abilities (innovation) in purchase intention, and it is particularly beneficial for low-complexity products.\nOriginality/value: The previous research has mainly focused on the impact of involving consumers in firms and participating consumers; however, it has neglected the role of observer consumers. This study adds to the innovation literature by showing that the value of learning about other consumers' involvement in firm NPD is not universally beneficial and that product complexity is a critical boundary condition.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
An empirical investigation of the Baldrige framework using applicant scoring data
|
[
"Performance measurement",
"Process improvement",
"Structural equations modelling",
"Baldrige Award",
"Path analysis",
"Quality management and systems"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Since its inception in 1988, the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award Criteria for Performance Excellence (CPE) have provided a basis for organizational performance excellence (Evans et al., 2012). The criteria have been conceptualized in three generations of distinct frameworks (Flynn and Saladin, 2001): a first-generation framework (1988-1991) that represented a narrow focus on quality management practices; a second-generation framework (1992-1996) that incorporated broader management processes and results; and a third-generation framework (1997 to the present) that fully integrates all aspects of performance excellence as a system. As shown in Figure 1 (based on the 2013-2014 criteria), the framework proposes six categories of interlinked organizational processes related to leadership, strategy development and implementation, customer focus, information and analysis, workforce focus and operations focus (process management). The six process categories are posited to influence a seventh multidimensional results category. Detailed scholarly reviews of the conceptual CPE framework have appeared on numerous occasions; readers are referred to Evans and Mai (2014) for a recent review. Its broad scope and acceptance among manufacturing, service, and non-profit organizations suggest that the CPE framework is an effective standard for promoting performance excellence among organizations operating in various internal and external contexts (Bemowski and Stratton, 1995; Ettorre, 1996; Flynn and Saladin, 2006; Steeples, 1992).\nLiterature review: Several empirical studies have investigated the validity of the third-generation CPE framework indirectly by examining novel combinations of the categorical constructs (Table I). For example, Curkovic et al. (2000) and Jayamaha et al. (2011) reconfigured the seven categorical constructs into several second-order factor models to evaluate the extent to which the CPE framework reflected theoretical TQM and business excellence constructs. Goldstein and Schweikhart (2002) assessed the predictive validity of the six CPE process categories relative to various outcome dimensions specified by the seventh results category. Jones (2014) used data mining techniques (ANOVA, regression, discriminant analysis, decision tree) to identify the key differencing factors for quality management success in the CPE framework. Although findings from these studies favor the validity of the CPE framework, support for the particular configuration of the seven CPE constructs as proposed by the CPE developers in Figure 1 is limited due to the scopes of the investigations. Confirming the complete arrangement of proposed constructs and relationships, sometimes called a \"nomological network,\" is critical to assessing total validity of a theoretical framework (Cronbach and Meehl, 1955).\nModel and hypotheses: Rather than adding to the model proliferation of past studies, we reviewed the studies in Table I for a previously developed model of the CPE framework that could provide a useful basis for a follow-up empirical test, and selected Flynn and Saladin's (2001) model shown in Figure 2. We found this model attractive for a number of reasons. In addition to being firmly grounded in previous research, Flynn and Saladin's (2001) model is unique in that researchers were careful to conceptually link it to previous generations of CPE frameworks, thereby strengthening the logic of the researchers' causal model as an accurate representation of the nomological network intended by the CPE developers. Although 3 of the 15 hypothesized paths between the seven CPE constructs were found to be non-significant, it is unclear as to whether this was due to possible model misspecification, the possibility of which the authors did not rule out in their discussion of results, or due to methodological limitations. Regardless, Flynn and Saladin's (2001) analysis of overall model fit and strength of measured relationships produced statistical results consistent with standards for well-performing measurement models. Flynn and Saladin's (2001) model is also attractive because it is a prominent one. It is well cited, and is used as a basis for discussion in several subsequent empirical studies listed in Table I. As such, this model provides a solid foundation for a more decisive empirical test of the CPE framework's validity.\nData and method: Data\nModel evaluation and results: Measurement model\nDiscussion and conclusion: Theoretical and research contributions\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to overcome evaluative limitations of previous studies to provide a more decisive test of the causal relationships implied in the Baldrige Criteria for Performance Excellence (CPE) using a unique data source.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The authors employ partial least squares path modeling on blinded scoring data from Baldrige Award applicants. In addition, the authors conduct multi-group analysis to examine whether the hypothesized causal model is universal across different industry sectors.\nFindings: The path analysis provided strong support for the CPE framework in its entirety. However, analysis of sector-specific subsets of the data did not confirm all relationships, suggesting the possibility of industry-dependent performance excellence frameworks and raising new research questions to be explored.\nPractical implications: This research offers several pertinent implications for managers who seek to translate the theoretical CPE framework to actionable quality-improvement efforts.\nOriginality/value: CPE operationalizes many total quality management (TQM) concepts and provides guidelines to TQM programs. This study validates the CPE framework using the most relevant data set to date - the applicant scoring data. The authors are also the first to investigate the cross-industry differences in the relationships between the CPE constructs.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Are small family farms a societal luxury good in wealthy countries?
|
[
"Agricultural economies",
"Social choice",
"Social evolution"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: Over the last 30 years, agricultural economists have devoted much attention to the issue of structural change, concentrating in particular on the shrinking number of family farms (Schmitt, 1989; Beckmann et al., 1994; Baur, 1999; Huffman and Evanson, 2001). Europe has been at the core of this focus, with its historically grown family-farm structure undergoing a decades-long process of intense transformation. The main drivers of change in the form of farm closures have been identified in the research which accompanies this process, and which focusses in fact on the point in time when a farmer retires and must either give up the farm or hand it over to a successor (Mann and Mante, 2009). Whether potential successors decide to go into agriculture or not is influenced by both the income potential of agriculture, and opportunities which exist outside the farming sector. In terms of the latter opportunities, Dietrich (2012) has recently shown for the economy as a whole that economic growth slows down structural change in the short term owing to a lessening of pressure, but that growth leads to an acceleration of structural change in the long run.\n2. Empirical evidence: In family-farm-based agricultural systems, the number of active full-time and part-time farms is quite a useful indicator of structural change in the sector. This figure is available on a yearly basis for the years 2000 (in Germany: 2001) to 2010 for Switzerland, Norway, Austria and Germany, based on agricultural censuses and direct-payment statistics. Given that farms in these four countries rarely comprise more than one business or holding, the total number of farms is a useful starting point. Although the definition of a farm, particularly of its minimum size, varies slightly between countries and data sources, it is still possible to construct consistent time-series data, because there was no change in the threshold for inclusion in the census for any country within the period of observation.\n3. Reasons for differences: The econometric studies cited above have outlined the main potential causes of structural change (and varying rates thereof). Among these are the macroeconomic pull factors mentioned above. Coming back to the differences between the country groups, the slowing rates of structural change could well be due to depressed growth in Norway and Switzerland, and thus to the absence of employment opportunities in other sectors. A glance at the macroeconomic variables set out in Table III, however, which shows growth rates as varying over time, but not differing significantly between the four countries in question, allows us to rule out this explanation, which would be more likely for Austria than for Switzerland.\n4. The preference for small family farms: The structural development of agriculture is always path-dependent, which means that a historical situation strongly shapes the current situation (Balmann, 1999). When searching for a laissez-faire equilibrium, however, much can still be concluded from studying the structures of the New Zealand agricultural sector, which was completely liberalized in the 1980s, since which time the farm structure has been shaped by market forces alone (Johnsen, 2004). Although most farms remain family businesses to a certain extent, they hardly resemble the European image of small-scale family farming. For many reasons, including population density, soil quality and land prices, arable and cattle farms are usually between 100 and 1,000 hectares in size, and also demonstrate how an \"uncoupling of enterprise, household, and property\" (Johnsen, 2004, p. 419) evolves over time.\n5. Conclusions: In the recent debate over the multifunctionality of agriculture, it has repeatedly been claimed that in addition to supplying the market good \"food,\" agriculture provides us with a wide range of public goods such as landscape amenities and biodiversity (Cahill, 2001; Huylenbroek and Durand, 2003; Mann and Wustemann, 2008). Even so, few proponents of multifunctionality have put forward persuasive arguments which suggest that small family farms are a necessary institutional condition for delivering these public goods.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to test the hypothesis that societies, when becoming wealthier, are increasingly less concerned with the efficiency of their farms. It is to show that and why small family farms are a good which citizens aim to preserve.\nDesign/methodology/approach: Structural change between 2000 and 2010 in two rather wealthy European Union (EU)-member countries and two very wealthy European (non-EU) countries is compared and explained by socioeconomic variables.\nFindings: The reason for the difference between Germany and Austria on one side and Norway and Switzerland on the other is strong political support in the latter countries where structural change is slowing down. A framework is outlined for why a preference for small family farms may emerge in a wealthy society.\nOriginality/value: Structural change in this paper is reconstructed as a function of political preferences, being again a function of state of economic development.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
"School banding": Principals' perspectives of teacher professional development in the school-based management context
|
[
"East Asia/Hong Kong",
"Teacher professional development",
"Principal leadership",
"School-based management",
"Student achievement/school banding"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: In its ideal form, school-based management refers to the empowerment of principals with autonomy over fiscal control, curriculum, and professional development (Agasisti et al., 2013). In reality, school-based management takes on a variety of interpretations. Inspired by the decentralized education model of the USA, East Asian education systems are recent adopters of school-based management (Hawkins, 2000; Muta, 2000). State agencies were inspired by economic rationales to decentralize schools for the enhancement of their labor forces. Under the leadership of \"developmental states,\" autonomy is cautiously assigned with the aim of stimulating economic growth, while ensuring centralized control is not curtailed (Lee, 2017). Within this context, the majority of East Asian school-based management is characterized by fiscal decentralization, which prevails over the extremely limited school influence over curriculum matters, such as in China (Hawkins, 2000). In Japan, Muta (2000) reports school influence over the curriculum is restricted to approximately 10 percent. Through the comparison of decentralization efforts in Japan, Hong Kong, and South Korea, Ho (2006) concludes that Hong Kong schools enjoy significant school autonomy. Within this centralized-decentralized East Asian educational context, sustainable school autonomy will depend on the principal's ability to contextualize school-based management reforms. This ability is crucial to effective school improvement, as the agreement of both school leaders and teachers is needed for reforms to impact student learning (Cheung and Wong, 2011). One of the key domains through which this agreement can be forged is through principal instructional leadership of teacher professional development. While schools have much less influence over curriculum matters, principals are given more flexibility over teacher professional development. This paper aims to examine the variety of leadership approaches to teacher professional development in this era of school-based management in the Hong Kong education context.\nMethodology: While the data are principal-centered, an interpretive analysis considers how the prevailing student achievement of the schools (school banding) shapes principals' decisions on what is deemed appropriate professional development for their teachers. Departing from assumptions that leadership attributes are intrinsic to individuals, this paper considers how principals contextualize instructional leadership to the professional development needs of their teachers.\nFindings: Principals' views and approaches to teacher professional development converged under three themes. First, with school-based management, principals have the autonomy to exercise choices in developing the professional capital of the school. However, school principals remain obliged to recognize the power of state-defined examinations in determining the future destiny of not just schools, but also students. Second, the exercise of school autonomy in response to this obligation varies, depending upon the existing professional capital schools have in gaining an upper hand in the school banding system. Ideally, effective school-based management is dependent upon the principal's capacity to facilitate good instructional practices. However, principals are also obliged to adjust leadership practices to school contextual demands. Third, adaptations to contexts results in the varied developments of professional capital in schools, corresponding with the types of principal leadership adopted.\nDiscussion and conclusion: Overall, schools have benefited from the decentralization of school-based management. Although the school curriculum continues to be constrained by state-defined examinations, principals are now empowered to decide how school resources can be deployed to improve achievement outcomes. Band One school principals appeared to leverage school-based management most effectively, adopting facilitating and exploratory approaches to instructional leadership. This in turn enhances teacher commitment to/and student learning (Lee et al., 2012). Band Two principals are the most policy-responsive, being obliged to ensure their schools meet externally imposed accountability standards. Where schools are able to accumulate professional capital while satisfying accountability benchmarks, teachers remain supportive of the instructional leadership of their principals. Among some of the Band Three schools, the establishment of middle leader positions and hiring of teaching assistants with the funding made available by the EDB reform initiatives has helped create career advancement opportunities and free up time for professional development.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to explore how principals' leadership approaches to teacher professional development arise from school banding and may impact upon teacher professional capital and student achievement.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The case study is situated within the context of school-based management, comprising reflective accounts of nine school principals selected by stratified sampling from a sample of 56 Hong Kong schools to represent Bands One, Two, and Three schools. The reflective accounts were triangulated with observations of teachers and analysis of school websites.\nFindings: First, under school-based management, principals remain obliged to recognize the power of state-defined examinations in determining the schools' future priorities. Second, the exercise of school autonomy in response to this obligation varies, depending upon the competitive advantage schools have in the school banding system. Ideally, effective school-based management is dependent upon the principal's capacity to facilitate good instructional practices. However, principals need to adjust their leadership practices to school contextual demands. Third, adaptations to contexts result in the varied developments of teacher capacities in schools, corresponding with the types of principal leadership adopted.\nOriginality/value: While statistical studies have identified attributes of exemplary principal leadership, few studies have examined the qualitative reasons for the exemplification of these attributes, and the influence of the school context in shaping these attributes. Departing from assumptions that leadership attributes are intrinsic to individuals, this paper considers how principals contextualize leadership in teacher professional development to the schools' student academic achievement.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Killing the balanced scorecard to improve internal disclosure
|
[
"Performance measurement",
"Representation",
"Disclosure",
"Balanced scorecard",
"Business models",
"Levels of abstraction"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: In the past decade, numerous new forms of organisation and ways of creating value have appeared. In conjunction with this, new technologies and other forms of intellectual capital have also emerged. Together, these mechanisms of organisation and technology leverage combinatorial innovations (Varian, 2010) by creating new spaces for value creation, new ways of serving customers, and sometimes entire new products. Consider Uber's disruption of the taxi industry, how Airbnb currently challenges the hotel industry, and the way in which Skype set the standards for internet-based phone services over a decade ago. Such disruptions (Christensen and Raynor, 2013) radically alter the IC that creates value in a given industry. Hence, this is also expected to alter the management disclosures and managerial performance measurement information that is relevant for guiding managers' decision making.\n2. Problems relating to current solutions: This section focusses on the problems relating to current management disclosure solutions. First, it discusses problems relating to the applied levels of abstraction, and second, describes problems relating to the existing processes of identifying internal management disclosures.\n3. Solutions that can assist managerial disclosures: This section takes its point of departure in the argued need for greater decision support in identifying managerial disclosures. Thus, it identifies two avenues that would lead to viable solutions. First, it suggests the application of business model configurations. Second, the section outlines how it is to be embedded into a decision-support system to overcome the problems described in the closing remarks of Section 2.\n4. Conclusion - how we can make the BSC obsolete: This essay suggests applying the lens of business model configurations to the design of internal management disclosures. In terms of the present special issue, this essay contributes specifically to our understanding of how to improve the process of deriving relevant IC disclosures around a given company. At the present, designers of IC disclosures are left with little support other than the abstract guidelines in the frameworks they follow. From this critique of the BSC and other frameworks used to generate IC information and indicators, in terms of both the ability to capture distinct value creation and the support they offer to the analytical process, a potential solution that enhances management disclosures was proposed. It suggests that basing internal management disclosures on business model configurations provides a privileged level of abstraction for generating managerial information.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: Two drawbacks to current management information practices are identified. First, the level of abstraction from which internal management disclosures are constructed using current frameworks is too generic; and second, the current process of identifying relevant management disclosures is outdated. The purpose of this paper is, therefore, to discuss whether contemporary conceptions of value creation from the field of business models can improve the currently applied frameworks used for generating internal management disclosures on intellectual capital. Hence, this paper offers a timely critique of the balanced scorecard, and other performance measurement concepts developed over the last 25 years.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The paper reviews contemporary literature on the balanced scorecard, and related concepts, for generating internal management disclosures relating to intellectual capital. Furthermore, the problems that balanced scorecard type frameworks have as vehicles for constructing relevant internal management disclosures are explored.\nFindings: This essay argues that internal management disclosures need more precise underpinnings of value creation than offered by current frameworks. An empirically validated structure that establishes alignment between value creation and internal management disclosures, through the mechanism of business model configurations, is applied to overcome the two identified drawbacks of current practices.\nResearch limitations/implications: This is a conceptual/normative offering.\nPractical implications: Following the critique, this essay prompts a new way forward for identifying internal management disclosures and performance measures, their validation, and subsequent benchmarking by expanding upon the concept of business model configurations. This concept offers a value driver platform with related clusters of KPIs connected to each of the 71 identified business model configurations as a starting point for management's identification of relevant KPIs, and their analysis, benchmarking, and application for performance management.\nOriginality/value: The arguments offered in this essay illustrate how it is possible to enhance the relevance of internal management disclosures by challenging and changing the normative level of abstraction applied.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
Students' viewpoints on using tableaux to analyse short stories
|
[
"Teaching literature",
"English teaching",
"English language arts"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Drama-in-education or process drama as a pedagogy to teach pre-service teachers is growing in appeal as teacher educators explore new ways of teaching across the teacher training curriculum to facilitate embodied learning and multiple ways of seeing and viewing. According to Branscombe and Schneider (2013, p. 96), \"embodiment is the experience of being in the world and being of the world; and it is through the body that we understand the world\". In the drama-in-education process, embodied learning could be actualised through various strategies such as improvisation, role play and tableaux or frozen scenes. Within the context of this study, the value of tableaux, in particular, to teach short stories from the perspectives of pre-service teachers will be examined. According to Toye and Prendiville (2000, p. 117), a tableau may be described as \"a still picture of a key moment frozen in time\". During the creation of the tableau, as highlighted by Branscombe and Schneider (2013), participants use gesture, body position, touch and expression to create frozen scenes. The frozen scenes are embodied, three-dimensional images that can be navigated and interpreted by others.\nTheoretical framework: The theoretical framework that formed a basis for this study was social constructivism which focuses on collaborative learning aimed at integrating participants into a knowledge community. Within the context of this study, the pre-service teachers worked in collaborative groups to gain a thorough understanding of the story and to create their own interpretations of the scenes allocated to them for the creation of tableaus. According to Vygotsky (1978), one of the chief proponents of social constructivism, learning does not merely involve the assimilation and accommodation of new knowledge by learners, but it is a process whereby they are integrated into a knowledge community. He summed up this viewpoint as follows (1978, p. 57):\nResearch methodology: The research methodology used for the purposes of this study was qualitative in nature. According to De Vos et al. (2011, p. 65), qualitative research in its broadest sense refers to \"research that elicits participant accounts of meaning, experience or perceptions\" As it involves producing descriptive data in the participants' own written or spoken words, it focuses on identifying their beliefs and values that underlie the phenomenon. The focus of this qualitative study was, thus, on describing and understanding rather than on explaining and predicting human behaviour which is synonymous with quantitative research. In keeping with the principles of qualitative research, the purpose of the study was to construct detailed descriptions of social reality by \"using the participants' natural language in order to come to a genuine understanding of their world\" (De Vos et al., 2011, p. 66). In this case, the language used to describe their perceptions on the value of tableaux was elicited from the \"rich, thick\" written narratives based on their experiences in classroom settings relating to their exposure to tableau as a strategy to teach a short story. Thus, the research design used for this study was phenomenological in nature as it focused on a description of the \"lived experiences of a phenomenon for several individuals\" (Cresswell, 2007, p. 57). The process began with an understanding of the Lebensvelt or lifeworld of the participants (pre-service teachers in the English Methodology class) and then as pointed out by Hays and Singh (2012), searching for commonalities across participants to establish how lived experiences relate to a phenomenon of interest (in this case the tableau as a teaching strategy to teach short stories).\nFindings: The following themes emerged from an analysis of the \"rich, thick\" (Hays and Singh, 2012, p. 50) written descriptions:\nDiscussion: Although the pre-service teachers were initially hesitant to participate in the tableaux, after presenting their tableaux to the class, they identified immense potential for the implementation of such drama-in-education activities within classroom contexts. Their initial fear could be ascribed to the fact that since their own learning was characterised by an educational structure which focused on a linear curriculum, assigned textbooks and traditional assessments they were straight jacketed to perceiving teaching and learning in traditional ways (Styslinger, 2000). This structure of the curriculum, contrasts sharply with the notion of multiple truths and multiple ways of knowing as espoused by Gardner (1991) and Rose (1989).\nConclusion: The findings emerging from this small-scale study into the use of tableaux to analyse short stories indicate that its application, even within university contexts, is of immense value. The pre-service teachers' first-hand exposure to tableau creation made them aware of its value in terms of being able to gain deeper insights into the characters, themes and storyline. Furthermore, as highlighted in the study, tableau enables participants to enter into the story world and to explore the narrative elements in an interactive and creative way.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of the paper is to provide a detailed account of pre-service teachers' viewpoints on the use of tableaux as pedagogy to analyse short stories in secondary schools based on their exposure to the use of tableaux and their active participation in the process of tableau creation.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The study adopted a qualitative approach and a phenomenological design as it provides a detailed account of PGCE English Methodology pre-service teachers' views on the use of tableaux to teach a short story. The data collection method used was written narratives based on the participants' detailed accounts of their learning during the process of tableau creation and their viewpoints on the use of such an approach in the teaching of literature within secondary school contexts. The \"rich, thick data\" extracted from the written narratives were analysed thematically.\nFindings: The findings indicated that although pre-service teachers were initially sceptical towards the use of tableaux as a strategy to teach a short story, as they grew in their understanding of the practices involved their insights into the themes, motifs and characters' emotional, personal and psychological states of being were enhanced.\nOriginality/value: Research in the use of tableaux as a strategy for pre-service teachers to critically analyse and engage with short stories is a novel approach to teaching and limited research has been conducted in the field.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Strategic typologies in the European telecommunications sector: a rejoinder to Turner
|
[
"Management strategy",
"International business",
"Telecommunications",
"Europe"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: One of the major issues to be addressed in any industrial sector that is undergoing rapid changes such as telecommunications is that of devising a strategic typology that can help to impose some order upon seemingly unrelated events. This is particularly the case when, due to limited opportunities in the home market, companies necessarily become increasingly dependent upon overseas expansion as has been broadly true of the entire telecommunications sector for the better part of a decade. At its simplest, a telecommunications operator (telco) can be said to be either national or international in its outlook. However, it would be surprising to discover that an operator had no overseas assets at all once one takes account of the fact that these could relate either to the provision of fixed-wire voice connections, mobile voice connections, dial-up and broadband access to the internet or the provision of equipment and software to create intra-company connectivity. Unfortunately, to disaggregate operations in this way would be more likely than not to give a false impression of the importance of internationalisation given that some activities generate vastly more revenue than others[1]. It is reasonable to argue that to qualify as truly \"international\", a telco must own part or all of overseas network operators rather than simply to operate as an internet service provider or supplier of corporate equipment, and for this reason this rejoinder concentrates upon the provision of voice and data services, the main revenue generators in the international sphere. However, it is predominantly concerned with mobile connectivity. This is because operators frequently provide both fixed-wire and mobile connectivity in the same overseas countries; fixed-wire is increasingly a business associated with declining prices, subscriber numbers and hence revenues while the reverse is true of mobile; the attractions of buying a fixed-wire network are increasingly associated with gaining access to its mobile subsidiary; and, crucially, structural change is proceeding much more rapidly in the mobile sector.\nThe Turner typology: In his paper, Turner (2005) proposes a typology that involves taking a sample of 16 European incumbents and identifying their international strategies during the period 2000-2003 by allocating these operators to \"nationalist\", \"regionalist\", \"internationalist\" and \"globalist\" categories. However, he divides regionalists into \"sub-regionalists\" and \"pan-regionalists\" and internationalists into \"primary providers\" in overseas countries and \"multi-regionalists\", so there are in fact six separate categories[2]. He then allocates 14 of the incumbents to these categories (TeleDanmark - more correctly TDC - is excluded and Telia/Sonera is treated as a single entity) yielding two nationalists (Belgacom, Eircom), five sub-regionalists (KPN, Swisscom, Telia/Sonera, OTE and Telekom Austria), two pan-regionalists (BT and France Telecom), two multi-regionalists (Telecom Italia, Telenor), two internationalists (Portugal Telecom, Telefonica) and one globalist (Deutsche Telekom).This approach, despite its good intentions, is insufficiently precise for a number of reasons. In the first place, there are currently over 40 countries/principalities/islands, etc. with independently licensed telecommunications networks which can in some way be said to be part of Europe. While it may be argued that many of these are small and entirely domestic in their operations, and hence can reasonably be ignored in any discussion of internationalisation, there are roughly 30 existing and prospective members of the European Union and EFTA so at least some rationale for the choice of the 16 operators in Turner's sample, which makes no mention of the countries in the final stages of accession negotiations during the sample period, might usefully have been forthcoming[3]. Secondly, the failure to make a clear distinction between fixed-wire and mobile means that the sample contains not only many operators that are simultaneously fixed-wire and mobile incumbents but also BT and Eircom, both exclusively fixed-wire incumbents, yet excludes O2 and the former Eircell (now Vodafone Ireland) the corresponding mobile incumbents. Indeed, Vodafone does not get mentioned at all even though it would appear in many respects[4] to satisfy the definition of a \"European incumbent telecommunications operator\" having been the first operator to introduce GSM into the UK[5,6]. Hence, Turner's sample does not properly compare like with like. Finally, it seems a touch optimistic to allocate 14 operators between six categories and on that basis to claim to have found clear-cut allocations with no overlaps.In particular, it is difficult to understand the rationale for claiming that Deutsche Telekom is the only global operator among the sample in the sense that it has \"leveraged key brands into geographically dispersed national/regional markets\", especially since Turner states that \"the primary platform of DT's global strategy is the mobile sector\". The absence of data to back up either this or, indeed, any of the other claims made in the paper is problematic. The only tables provided cover \"fixed-wire incumbent operators' revenue\" (for 2002) and the \"% of revenue from international activities\" in 2002. The latter appears to be incompatible with the text - for example, well over half of the entries reveal a larger percentage than that for Deutsche Telekom (18.4 per cent) yet this is the only global operator to be identified.In what follows, in order to avoid too lengthy a discourse, the like-for-like problem is addressed by concentrating upon the mobile sector which, as noted, is a key sector for European telcos[7]. However, we stick with the parent company (OTE rather than CosmOTE, Telecom Italia rather than TIM, etc.) to facilitate comparisons with the Turner paper. To be included in the analysis, the internationalizing mobile telco must be present in its home country plus at least two other countries[8]. Where the company has multiple investments in the same country, only a single presence is recorded (although the subscribers for all networks are aggregated). All equity stakes, regardless of their size, are recorded as a single presence in a country. However, although each is accorded the same weighting or status when determining the number of countries in which a company is present, the size of the stake is adjusted for when calculating the associated number of subscribers (see below).Determining the exact number of countries in which a company is present is complicated by the use of holding companies in the telecommunications industry. It may be asked whether, where a mobile telco has invested in a holding company, this should be counted as a single investment or whether all of the holding company's overseas investments should also be included. The approach adopted here is to include all of the latter as it gives a better idea of the geographic spread of any operator's interests, whether directly or indirectly held.If terms such as \"sub-\", \"pan-\" or \"multi-\" regional are to have any meaning it is first necessary to divide the world into meaningful regions. In order to achieve this it is possible to draw on the \"triad\" analysis of Rugman (2005) which examined the sales of the largest 500 multinational enterprises and concluded that most multinationals are in fact regional and not globally focused. In recognition of the regulatory and commercial differences that occur across the global mobile telecommunications industry, seven regions can be identified: Western Europe, Eastern Europe, the Middle East, Asia, Central and South America, North America and Africa[9]. The home markets of each of the companies were also identified. Together this enabled the percentage of proportionate[10] subscribers accounted for by the company's home market and each region to be ascertained. It should be noted that we have chosen to update the analysis by one year on the reasonable grounds that any typology should be valid for some time beyond the period on which it is based.Looking across Europe on our broad definition, we end up with the 13 entries in Table I (with Telia/Sonera covering two home markets). This approximates to Turner's sample but O2 and Vodafone replace BT and Eircom, and Belgacom and Swisscom fail to qualify. Certain things are immediately apparent. For example:* France Telecom and Vodafone are present in far more countries than any other European incumbent and account for 35.2 per cent of all countries.* The next five largest operators account for a further 44.4 per cent of all countries.* The remaining six operators account for only 20.4 per cent of all countries.* About 42.6 per cent of all countries fall within Western Europe.* Central and South America is highly important to Telefonica and Telecom Italia.* Eastern Europe is highly important to OTE.* North America is of little significance overall.It is possible to bring the table up-to-date as of the time of writing, but it should be noted that the difficulty with adding in transactions during 2005 is that there are many possible causes for delay between an agreed deal and its closure; for example, the need for regulatory and company board authorisations. Some idea of recent activity is provided in Table II.\nApplying the Turner typology: However, the list of countries does not tell us much about how important each region is to an individual operator. To understand this we need to take account of the number of proportionate subscribers as shown in Table III, where the operators are ranked according to the proportion of subscribers in the home market.Examination of Table III which, bear in mind, only includes subscribers that generate revenue for the operators in question, is extremely revealing. In the first place, it is evident that no operator has a global presence in the sense of having subscribers in every region. The nearest qualifier is France Telecom with 6/7, closely followed by Vodafone and TeliaSonera with 5/7[11]. It may be noted that Deutsche Telekom, Turner's global operator, is present in only 3/7. Secondly, there is tremendous variability in the dependence upon the home market, with Vodafone at 10.0 per cent well below Deutsche Telekom at 34.6 per cent. This latter figure is surely rather high for a truly global operator. Thirdly, Western Europe plays a significant role for most operators, especially the largest, and again it is notable that Deutsche Telekom has over 70 per cent of its proportionate subscribers in Western Europe. Finally, it is uncommon for any operator to be heavily dependent upon any other region in the sense of deriving more than 25 per cent of its subscribers from that region, and the two regions where this occurs more than once are, predictably, Eastern Europe (on account of proximity) and Central and South America (on account of colonialism).We can usefully summarise the above in Table IV.\nRegional issues: Let us now return to Turner's typology. Since we have rejected Deutsche Telekom as conforming to the \"globalist\" category[12], we must re-assign it. At the end of 2004, it was present in six Eastern European countries but had few subscribers there other than in Russia. However, its stake there in MTS (together with the associated indirect stakes in the Ukraine and Uzbekistan) has recently been sold, so it now has far fewer. Perhaps it is \"pan-regional\" or perhaps \"sub-regional\", but no category looks ideal.The clear-cut category is superficially \"international\" where the operator seeks to be the \"primary (frequently incumbent) provider of communications services\" to a single linguistic group. However, this does not work as well as Turner implies. First of all, during the Turner sample period Telecom Italia could be said to have been performing that role for Italian speakers, of whom there were very large numbers in South America, and this is supported by Table II. Secondly, Mexico-based America Movil had 56 million proportionate subscribers in Latin America at the end of 2004 (and has more recently bought networks in Chile, Paraguay and Peru), so even Telefonica cannot strictly be said to be the \"primary provider\" to Spanish speakers in that region.However, Telecom Italia has recently sold assets in both Western Europe and South America, so even if it qualified previously it no longer appears to be \"international\", but equally it is pursuing a curious strategy for a Mediterranean/Latin American (multi-regional) operator as designated by Turner. Indeed, it has stated that it intends to restrict itself to Italy, Brazil and Turkey, a combination that does not sit neatly anywhere within Turner's typology.Aside from Telecom Italia, the sole multi-regionalist designated by Turner is Telenor. Telenor currently operates in 13 countries and these do indeed largely accord with the Nordic/Baltic and South East Asian pattern. But is France Telecom a globalist retreating into regionalism (Turner p. 345)[13], and, if so, what kind of regionalism? At the end of 2004, France Telecom, as it turns out, was present in more regions than any other operator and hence was still (relatively) global (even if absent in North America). Among its total of 27 networks the majority (20) were split evenly between Western Europe and Africa, which smacks of multi-regionalism, but that still leaves seven networks unaccounted for. It remained hugely dependent upon Western Europe for subscribers, although these were widely dispersed so sub-regional presumably does not apply. What is left is pan-regional, but what then to make of the 17 networks outside Europe? It would appear, therefore, that France Telecom has not become materially less global in recent times, and that its retreat into regionalism, such as it is, is hard to pin down.\nConclusions: Turner has done readers of this journal a service by addressing the important issue of strategic typology and by providing an illustration of how this can be applied to a particular industrial sector. However, it is fair to argue, on the basis of the above analysis, that Turner's claim to have refined our thinking in terms of a strategic typology for Europe's teleco runs into difficulties when examined in the context of the most critical sector, that of mobile telecommunications. Since a high proportion of mobile networks in Europe are subsidiaries of fixed-wire parents, the same conclusion can reasonably be drawn for the fixed-wire sector. In any event, fixed-wire operators are generally struggling to maintain customers and revenues, and hence their market value is largely derived through that of their mobile subsidiaries, so any restructuring that is taking place is ultimately about putting together a meaningful array of mobile assets. This is proving to be a highly dynamic process, and it is for this reason that a typology must be sufficiently flexible to accommodate movement within it. This rejoinder does not set out to propose an alternative typology for reasons of space, in part because the typology strictly needs to be applied to a somewhat wider sample in order to overcome some of the issues raised previously. However, in demonstrating the difficulties in applying a strategic typology to this sector, the analysis it contains will hopefully provide some guidance for future researchers.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: - To demonstrate that the strategic typology advanced by Turner in this journal for the European telecommunications sector is in need of further clarification.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - The Turner sample is subjected to a number of tests specifically in the European mobile telecommunications sector.\nFindings: - The Turner typology is found to be imprecise in certain respects.\nOriginality/value: - The paper addresses the issue of how to build appropriate typologies.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Safety performance evaluation models: a review
|
[
"Health and safety",
"Performance measures"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: The campaign for safety is a long tradition (both at local and international levels) and the demand for safety and health improvement was originally prompted by poor conditions such as in lighting, ventilation and sanitation which arose as a result of rapid industrial revolution in eighteenth century (Bannet, 1984). However, it took centuries of experience to perfect discipline of safety which requires the knowledge of management, ergonomics, psychology, industrial aesthetics, engineering to mention a few (Harold and Moriarty, 1990). Safety may be regarded as an attribute of only engineering set up, but, certainly entails more. The current trend in modern technological societies emphasis is safety conscious attitude on the part of employers of labour, individual employee, self employed, designers, importers, exporters, suppliers and landlords to mention a few. Studies demonstrate that between 5 per cent and 15 per cent of accidents are caused by inherent job hazards and 85 per cent to 95 per cent are caused due to what employers do or fail to do (Encarta, 1999; Darby et al., 2005). Also, it was reported that there exists immense correlation between safety and productivity; and cost and suffering (Williams, 1984; Duignan, 2003; Fayad et al., 2003; Inegbenebor and Olalekan, 2002).Several approaches have been employed to safety performance evaluation. These are statistical: expectation function, quality control; system analysis, engineering economic factor, price deflation, systems theory, risk assessment, system dynamics, etc. Also modeling efforts have been reported in literature. These include accident rate model (Van Es, 2001); frequency co-efficent and injury co-efficient (Poltev, 1985); safety programme efficiency index (Charles-Owaba and Adebiyi, 2001); justification model (Fine, 1978) safety sampling model (Aggrawal, 1990); system-theoretic accident model and process (STAMP) (Leveson, 2004)Despite all these efforts, absolute safety for humans and property is still an illusion; unsafe event persists, natural disasters ravage the earth; earthquakes, drought, tornadoes and floods still claim lives. Factory machines and oil exploration facilities are still claiming human lives or limbs. In the USA, about 6,500 American workers die each year because of accidents (Encarta, 1999). Also, National Safety Council (2004) reported that on an average day, 14 people are killed and more than 10,400 people are disabled at work. In the UK, 1.6 million injury accidents and 27 million non-injury accidents are being recorded annually (Phelps, 1999). In Nigeria, NISP (2000) reported that over 11,000 people die from on-the-job accidents each year and a worker is injured every 18 seconds in chemical industries in Nigeria. Buttressing this, Takala (1999) reported that there is higher incidence of fatal work - related injuries in developing countries than in established economy (11-23 versus 5.4 per 100,000 workers respectively). Such injuries produce a major economic and social burden in developed and developing countries (Fayad et al., 2003).Considering the economic impacts of these accidents, Department of Labour Force, (UK) survey estimates that annual costs of accidents to employers is between PS4.5 and PS9.5 billion; to individual PS5 billion and to the society between PS11 and PS16 billion (Phelps, 1999). In USA, the National Safety Council reveals that the death and disabling injuries cost is upward of $ 130 million annually (Harold and Moriarty, 1990). However, NSC (2004) revealed that the cost to the USA economy of the job - related injuries is estimated at more than $27 billion annually. Anibueze (1992) reported that the costs of accidents to employers in petroleum industry in Nigeria are upward of $25 million.\nSafety performance evaluation: The primary purpose of safety evaluation is to determine the true basic cause of accident for the express purpose of taking remedial action to prevent a recurrence and to remedy the weakness in one or more of safety programme activities (Aggrawal, 1990). However, safety analysis is faced with problem of assessing the uncertain future and quantifying safety output. But, the quote from Peters and Waterman reported by Cox and Tait (1991) that \"What gets measured gets done. Putting a measure on something is tantamount to getting it done. It focuses management's attention on that area. Information is simply made available and people respond to it\" thereby puts challenges to safety analyst.\nSafety performance evaluation approaches: Several attempts have been employed to evaluate the performance of a safety programme. No generally agreed model has been reported. The problem is in quantification of safety output. The widely reported approaches are as follows:Statistical approach\nSafety evaluation modeling efforts: Several safety evaluation models have been reported in literature, both qualitative and quantitative. Van Es (2001) employed a maximum likelihood estimator to develop accident rate model to evaluate aircraft accident as: Equation 1 whereRa = accident ratesNa = number of reported accidentsNf = number of flightsPoltev (1985) developed models to evaluate the frequency co-efficient and severity co-efficient of injury accidents in manufacturing industry. The models are given as: Equation 2 whereF = frequency co-efficient.T = number of injury accidents for a given period.P = total number of man-hours of exposure.and Equation 3 S = severity co-efficient.D = time loss.T = number of injury accidents.Charles-Owaba and Adebiyi (2001) employed expectation function to develop a safety programme performance model in terms of efficiency index of the programme. The model is given as: Equation 4 where Equation 5 Equation 6 Given that:Th(yix) = expected number of accidents in period x before safety programme for type i accident.Yiz = observed accident of type i during safety programme period z.Yi1 = number of accident of type i in targeted period.ai1 = unit cost of accident type i.bk1 = the unit value or cost of resource k.Ikz = the amount of resource k expended in safety programme in period z.Ik1 = the amount targeted or budgeted.N = number of identified types of accidents.M = number of resource type expended.Fine (1978) proposed the following justification model: Equation 7 whereC = consequence of accident.E = exposure of hazard.P = probability of occurrence.CF = cost factor.DC = degree of correction.Each factor in Fine model is determined by subjectively choosing an appropriate level of rank.Aggrawal (1990) used probability theory to develop a safety sampling model to determine the expected number of safe work activities in a given plant or department as: Equation 8 where:N = number of observation to be made to achieve a desired accuracy of safety.P = probability of accident occurrence.Y = safety accuracy (mostly taken as 10 per cent).Adebiyi (1998) employed the price deflation with productivity principle to formulate safety performance evaluation model in term of productivity of safety programme: Equation 9 where:P.x = total productivity index in period x relative to the base period.hi1 = unit cost of an accident i prevented at the base period.Ki = maximum number of accident class i before the advert of safety programme.Fi1 = number of accident class I recorded at the base period.Fix = accident class i recorded at the current period x.Rjx = quality of input resources j at the current period x.Rji = quantity of input resources j at the base period.Cji = unit cost of input resources j at the base period.I = number of identified classes of accidents.M = number of input resources type.Leveson (2004) developed system-theoretic accident model and processes (STAMP) based on systems-theory. In the model, systems are viewed as interrelated components that are kept in a state of dynamic equilibrium by feedback loops of information and control. The process leading up to an accident can be described in terms of an adaptive feedback function that fails to maintain safety as performance changes over time to meet a complex set of goals and values. The basic concepts in STAMP are constraints, control loops and levels of control.\nDiscussion: Several safety performance evaluation models have been proposed by researchers employing different approaches. The models can be classified as qualitative and quantitative. The quantitative models are based on evaluating the frequency, severity and economic loss resulting from accidents. The qualitative models are based on evaluation of the potential system of risks and increasing of severity of the hazard. In employing statistical method, Adekoya (1999) and Poltev (1985) used measurement indicators such as frequency and severity of accidents to compare the accidents of a given period and another, and drew inferences for designing safety system. Also, Roelen et al. (2000) and Van Es (2001) used accidents rate to quantify the historical safety performance to assist in the determination of safety target level. Similarly, Ames (2002) employed percentages and relative weight in analyzing accidents from point of view of personnel and materials problems putting into consideration the degree of personnel injuries and amount of damage occurring to materials. The explanation of additional risk assessment techniques has so far placed emphasis on equipment design. They do not usually include the organizational and management flaws. The problem is that these risk assessment techniques are limited by focusing on a failure event and the roles of component failures. However, Rasmussen (1997), has argued that major accidents are often caused not by a coincidence of independent failures but instead reflect a systematic migration of organization behavior of boundaries of safe behavior under pressure toward cost-effectiveness in an aggressive, competitive environment. Also, Leveson (2004) reported that the risk assessment techniques are firmly rooted in probabilistic analysis of a failure events and they have been disappointing in application to management and cognitive complex human control activities. However, the records of case histories of accidents entail more than that. Ives (2002) reported that the failure events usually arise because of poor management control and not because of unexpected failure of equipment.The system analysis is synonymous to risk assessment. It employs the hazard analysis and hazard operability techniques. Here the emphasis is on the work system design with focus on identifying the contribution of causal factors to overall system risk.In employing expectation function approach, the efficiency index developed by Charles-Owaba and Adebiyi (2001) measures the returns yielded by the efforts put in safety programme. This does not address the accident causing actions as well as prevention activities in safety programme. However Harold and Moriarty (1990) and Ames (2002) said that there is need to include causes of accidents in safety analysis as this will quickly point to remedial actions and prevention activities required.Moreover, the safety-sampling model developed by Aggrawal (1990) determines the expected number of safe work activities in a given department. Here the financial implications of safety programme were not addressed to determine the actual gain/loss on such investment. But, Fayad et al. (2003) reported that the economic burden of work related injuries is a useful tool to convince workers and employers of the cost-benefit of work safety and also the effectiveness of preventive interventions.Adebiyi (1998) employed the price deflation approach with productivity principle to formulate safety performance evaluation model for safety programme. Although the model addressed the financial implication however, the dynamic nature of safety system was not taken in consideration.\nConclusion: This study makes a contribution to the understanding of the mechanisms by which safety programme performance is being evaluated. The study highlights the various approaches and modeling efforts to safety performance evaluation content wise, the study findings are not entirely surprising. However, research done would to provide framework for identifying requirement safety evaluation approach for specific situation.In addition, the study will assist in ensuring a correct focus to select the appropriate of the safety performance evaluation models to the safety programme management effort.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: - Managing a safety programme and ensuring that change is in accordance with suitable performance measures requires continuing improvement in the support of analytical power and empirical information. This paper aims to consider different approaches and modeling efforts on safety performance evaluation.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - Review and synthesis of literature.\nFindings: - Ten major safety performance evaluation approaches are identified including expectation function, risk assessment, statistical quality control, price deflation, engineering economic factor, system analysis, artificial intelligence, and systems theory. Based on the approaches, quantitative and qualitative models have been proposed. The quantitative models use measuring indicators such as frequency, severity, percentages, relative weight and economic gains/loss of safety programme. However, qualitative models employ hazard analysis and hazard operability.\nResearch limitations/implications: - Several research questions remain to be answered in order to completely improve and optimize the impact of these provisional safety performance measures.\nOriginality/value: - This study offers a set of interesting lessons for academics, industry and safety practitioners by providing guidelines that will assist in ensuring a correct focus to select an appropriate safety performance evaluation model.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Manager and mommy? A cross-cultural comparison
|
[
"Family",
"Women executives",
"Career development",
"Cross‐cultural studies"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n__NO_TITLE__: Although the number of women in management has doubled over the last 30 years, women are still underrepresented in managerial positions worldwide (Eagly, 2003; Scott and Brown, 2006). The situation can be characterized as follows: the higher the managerial level, the lower the proportion of women. However, there are significant differences in the proportion of women managers between industrialized \"Western\" counties. For example, women hold 37 per cent of all management positions in the USA (US Bureau of Labor Statistics, 2005) but only about 30 per cent in the European Union overall (European Commission, 2005), and only 26 per cent in Germany (German Institute for Research in Economics, 2007). Why is that the case? Numerous studies have investigated barriers to women's career advancement including stereotypes (e.g. Schein, 2001; Scott and Brown, 2006; Heilman and Okimoto, 2007), recruiting practices (e.g. Reskin and McBrier, 2000) or the lack of access to powerful networks (e.g. Ibarra, 1993). One variable that has received increasing attention in the literature on female managers' career advancement in recent years is the ability to balance work and family (e.g. Linehan and Walsh, 2000). Many authors (see Fineman, 2004; Crittenden, 2001) have argued that governmental regulations are suitable to facilitate employees' care for children with less sacrifice to their job opportunities and advancement. This can be viewed as particularly desirable for women pursuing careers. However, our cross-cultural comparison between Germany, which has extensive laws supporting working parents, and the USA where governmental support for families is meagre provided somewhat surprising results.\nResearch on the work-family interface: Various studies have shown that women continue to take responsibility for household tasks and child-rearing, regardless of how many hours they work outside the home (Hochschild, 1989; Lewis and Cooper, 1987; Pleck, 1985; Linehan and Walsh, 2000). As research on work-family conflict (Greenhaus and Beutell, 1985; Barnett, 1998; Greenhaus and Parasuraman, 1999; Ford et al., 2007) shows, the conflict between work and family roles often has negative cross-domain effects and correlates significantly with several dimensions of employee satisfaction and stress (Allen et al., 2000). The resulting decreases in job satisfaction and increases in stress can have negative consequences that prove costly to individuals and the organizations for which they work (Kahn and Byosiere, 1992). Managers are especially likely to experience work-family conflict, since the long work hours and high levels of job involvement characteristic of managerial roles have been found to be key antecedents of work-family conflict (Byron, 2005). As Drew and Murtagh (2005) point out, it is particularly difficult for women managers to combine a successful career with having a family. This is because the very concept of a managerial career, with its hierarchical model of continuous service and regular promotion progress, is gendered (Dex, 1987; Beechey, 1987; Evetts, 1996; Wajcman, 1999). Since managerial culture was originally designed to suit men, it has a negative impact on women managers in a number of ways (see Drew and Murtagh, 2005). First, it tends to ignore women's responsibilities to their family since most men in managerial positions have a wife who takes care of these responsibilities. For example meetings are scheduled early in the morning, late in the evening, on weekends, or other irregular times. All of the above is very problematic for women with families (Sinclair, 1998). Second, women's life-cycle patterns of work and childbearing are diametrically contrary to the classical managerial career trajectory. The career stage when the workload and commitment necessary for advancement are most intensive coincides with peak child-bearing and child-rearing years (Drew and Murtagh, 2005). As a consequence, women are often forced to choose between a managerial career and having children, whereas men are expected to combine both (see Bakker, 2000).Ford et al. (2007) stressed in their meta-analysis, that although cultural values are likely to be important, there \"has been little empirical research that has directly assessed the impact of cultural variability on the work-family interface\" (Ford et al., 2007, p. 73). One notable exception is the study by Spector et al. (2004) who compare the relations between work-family stressors, time spent at work, and well-being for managers in Anglo, Chinese, and Latin American regions. Their results show a stronger relation between number of hours worked and work-family pressure in Anglo regions as compared to Chinese or Latin American regions. This is explained by a difference in cultural values, i.e. individualism (dominant in Anglo regions) and collectivism (dominant in Chinese and Latin American regions). Another study that has applied an international perspective to the study of the work-family interface is the work by Linehan and Walsh (2000). It is particularly relevant to the purpose of this article, since it focused on the experience of work-family conflict by female managers in a European context. The qualitative interviews Linehan and Walsh (2000, p. 49) conducted revealed that \"work-family conflict still prevents many female managers from progressing to senior management\". Although this study provided important insights, it did not add specific evidence on the impact of different societal values and systems on the work-family interface because the sample consisted of female managers from four different European countries and no comparisons between their experiences were made.Another reason why a cross-cultural comparison is particularly useful when studying the work-family interface is because this approach yields conclusions about the effects the legal system has on individuals' chances of combining work and family. This is of particular interest, since the rising number of women in the workforce has generated a call for governmental regulations designed to make jobs easier to combine with family responsibilities (Wax, 2004). The features called for include, among other things, new part-time options, time off for emergencies and child care, guaranteed leave with job security for childbearing and child rearing, child care subsidies and tax breaks (Alstott, 2004; Jacobs and Gerson, 2004). The proponents of an increase in governmental regulations regarding the above mentioned aspects assume that these interventions would facilitate proper care for children with less sacrifice of parents' job opportunities and advancement (Fineman, 2004; Crittenden, 2001; Burggraf, 1997; Wax, 1999a, b; Folbre, 2001) - which should be particularly beneficial for women. Following this argument, one would assume that in a country that indeed introduced regulations to provide all of the above mentioned options to employees it would be easier for women to combine a career with having a family than it would be in a country that did not implement similar regulations.In order to test the validity of these assumptions, we explored the perceptions female managers in the USA and Germany have regarding their chances of combining work and family by means of qualitative interviews. We focused on female managers because it is particularly difficult for this group to combine work and family due to the long hours (see Byron, 2005) and gendered career trajectory (Drew and Murtagh, 2005). Our decision to use the German context as a reference for comparison with the USA was based on the fact that Germany has extensive laws aimed at providing support to people with children (for an overview see Peus, 2005), covering all of the aspects mentioned above. Consequently, our comparison of female managers from the USA and Germany regarding their perceptions of balancing work and family allows for conclusions on how greater societal values and legal systems impacts an individual's chances of combining a successful career with having a family.\nMethod: Participants\nResults: A number of categories emerged from the empirical analysis of the interviews. They were grouped into two themes. The first theme captures the relevance participants attributed to work-family balance for women managers' career advancement. This theme comprises both perceived barriers and benefits associated with balancing work and family. The second broad theme incorporates the strategies female managers use to balance work and family. A comparison of the strategies women managers in the USA and Germany use to cope with their responsibilities from both domains is of interest, because it provides information on how the greater societal context, in particular the dominant values and the legal system impact individuals' experiences of the work-family interface. The strategies women managers mentioned are divided into internal strategies - i.e. behavioral adjustments the female managers have made themselves and external strategies that rely on other people.Perceived relevance of work-family balance for career advancement\nDiscussion: The findings reported in this paper suggest that balancing a managerial career with the demands of a family is still very difficult for women - both in the USA and Germany. This is not only caused by the demands of time and attention associated with having a family, but also by prevalent negative stereotypes female managers who decide to have children are confronted with. However, while American managers reported a variety of strategies to overcome these prejudices and to combine their careers with children, German managers predominantly expressed the view that having children and pursuing a successful managerial career was an either-or choice they had to make. Moreover, none of the German women reported having a superior or working in an organizational environment that supported work-family balance. Furthermore, the study revealed that only a minority of German female managers received substantial support from their husbands in balancing work and family - whereas this was true for about two-thirds of the American managers.Taken together, findings from this study points to the fact that combining a successful career with children is more difficult for women in Germany than it is for women in the USA. This stands in a sharp contrast to the legal support provided to families in these countries. While laws designed to provide support to parents are extensive in Germany, e.g. long times of maternity or parental leave and the right to demand part-time work - American laws are much more restricted (see US Department of Labor, 2007). The finding that balancing work and family is easier for women managers in the USA suggests that social values have an impact on individuals' chances of combining work and family that go beyond that of the legal framework. Furthermore, our study provides evidence contradicting the assumption that laws alone can facilitate having a family without sacrificing job opportunities (see Crittenden, 2001; Fineman, 2004) - at least for women. To the contrary, the results of this study actually provide preliminary evidence that the laws that were originally designed to protect parents, in particular mothers, can actually have negative consequences for women. Thus, they may end up hurting the very persons they were designed to help. This is likely to be due to the fact that the laws that were introduced are not in concordance with societal values. As illustrated by findings from our interviews as well as previous work, in West Germany negative attitudes towards working mothers (see Treas and Widmer, 2000) as well as the belief that childcare harms children and that children should be cared for by close relatives (see Kreyenfeld and Hank, 2000) are quite common. These societal norms became evident in our study in two ways: directly in the form of attitudes expressed by women managers and indirectly in their descriptions of organizational practices. In contrast to the American managers, none of the German women managers in our study articulated that they perceived their organizational cultures or supervisors to be supportive of work and family balance.The findings from our study may also be interpreted as preliminary evidence for the fact that the traditional (gendered) concept of a managerial career, with its hierarchical model of continuous service and regular promotion progress (see Evetts, 1996; Wajcman, 1999) is no longer exclusive in the USA. This assumption receives empirical support by the large number of American managers in our sample (about half) who reported to have made parallel moves in their careers for a certain period of time to accommodate family needs. Many of them mentioned switching firms in order to be able to balance work and family. Thus, many American women managers may be \"on the leading edge of shifting the career paradigm\" (Shapiro et al., 2007, p. 1).For about 25 years scholars have expressed the need for a new career paradigm. This paradigm suggests that individuals should consider themselves as self-employed and to think of their careers as a series of projects (see Peters, 1992; Bridges, 1994). This career model is expected to replace the \"work is primary\" paradigm (Rapoport et al., 2002) in which employees exchange total commitment to their work for life-long employment in their organizations. Since it has been created by and for white, male, middle and upper-middle managers in the 1950s and 1960s, it was founded on two realities of the time. First, men could make work primary because their wives were home taking care of family duties. Second, organizations existed in a fairly stable marketplace. Those realities are no longer existent in the USA, where the percentage of mothers staying at home dropped from 76 per cent to 28 per cent in the last 50 years (US Bureau of Labor Statistics, 2000, cited after Shapiro et al., 2007). In short, the fact that it is harder for women managers in Germany to combine work and having a family than is the case for their American counterparts may be a manifestation of a temporal phenomenon, i.e. a shift in career paradigms that is already evident in the USA but not (yet) in Germany. The fact that employment laws in the USA do not provide job security to the extent that they do in Germany may support a relatively faster shift in career paradigms away from total commitment to work in return for life-long employment (which still seems to be the norm in Germany) towards a more flexible \"self-employed\" paradigm.In short, our study provides important evidence for the fact that societal norms and values can have a more profound impact on an individual's chance of combining work and family than the existing legal framework and that laws designed to support working parents can backfire, if they are not in concordance with cultural values. Applying a cross-cultural perspective to the examination of the work-family interface has thereby added substantially to our understanding of the field of work-family research.\n",
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"content": "Purpose: - This paper aims to investigate the effects that a larger societal context (i.e. values, norms) and the legal framework have on an individual's ability to combine work and family.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - Qualitative interviews were used to examine the perceptions female middle managers have of balancing work and family. A total of 25 female managers from the USA and 23 female managers from Germany were interviewed, representing diverse industries.\nFindings: - The results show that the dominant values in a particular society have a stronger influence on individuals' ability to balance work and family than the legal framework. Most importantly, the study provides empirical evidence for the fact that extensive laws originally designed to make it easier for women to combine work and family can actually have negative consequences for women and thus result in hurting the very persons they were designed to help.\nResearch limitations/implications: - The sample consisted of only a small number of female managers. Thus, it cannot be regarded as fully representative of women in the USA and Germany.\nPractical implications: - When introducing measures designed at increasing opportunities for employees to balance work and family, it is necessary to examine their completeness, relation to societal norms, and anticipated organizational implementation.\nOriginality/value: - This work is one of the rare studies to have used a cross-cultural comparison in research on the work-family interface. It provides evidence for the importance of societal values and for the fact that seemingly supportive laws can have negative consequences for women's ability to combine work and family.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
Capital structure inconclusiveness: evidence from Malaysia, Thailand and Singapore
|
[
"Capital structure",
"Southeast Asia",
"Emerging market",
"Leverage definitions",
"Partial adjustment model",
"Static model"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: The relationship between capital structure and firm value has been widely studied and analyzed theoretically and empirically by researchers past and present, since a firm's financing behavior can affect the firm value. In tackling the issue of capital structure, two main questions have to be addressed: how do firms choose their capital structure to finance their operations and how does the choice of capital structure financing affect the value of the firm?\n2. Overview of capital structure theories: The most prominent theories of capital structure being studied in the literature explaining firms' financing behavior are the trade-off, pecking order, agency and market timing theories. Despites the emergence of different feasible capital structure theories, there is still no conclusive guidance for the corporate managers in deciding between debt and equity in financing their operations (Myers, 1984).\n3. Issues of inconclusiveness in capital structure studies: The issues of inconclusiveness have long been recognized in studies of capital structure. Ever since Myers (1984) refers to capital structure as a puzzle, the puzzle still remains unanswered today (Al-Najjar and Hussainey, 2011). Various issues have been put forward to explain this phenomenon. Among the issues discussed are the various definitions of leverage used in capital structure studies and the different models employed in the studies.\n4. Data and methodology: 4.1 Data and period of study\n5. Findings: 5.1 Different models (same leverage definitions)\n6. Conclusion: Despites years of effort and many published studies, there is still no single answer to the question of what is the optimal leverage ratio for a firm that would maximize firm value. The question of \"how do firms choose their capital structures?\" posed by Myers (1984, p. 575) remains unanswered.\n",
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"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper of this study is to examine the possible factors contributing to the issue of inconclusiveness in capital structure studies. This study also attempts to provide logical explanations to the unresolved issue of inconsistencies in the relationship between factors identified and leverage in capital structure studies. Comparisons are also made between the emerging market and the developed market to see whether the findings are consistent with both market landscapes.\nDesign/methodology/approach: This study employs two models in its methodology which are static and dynamic models to examine the effects of using different models in the study. The fixed effect model and partial adjustment model represent the static and dynamic models, respectively. The dynamic model is estimated using generalized method of moments. This study also uses six definitions of leverage to examine the impact of using different leverage definition in capital structure studies. To test the robustness of the findings comparison were made with past studies done by other researchers on developed markets.\nFindings: This study found that the use of different models (with the same leverage definition) and different leverage definitions (using the same model) give different results including signs. Inconsistencies were more obvious in the different leverage definitions (using the same model) compared to the use of different models (with the same leverage definition). There was also evidence that the findings were consistent with both the emerging and the developed markets as other studies on developed markets also report inconsistent results when using different models and different leverage definitions.\nResearch limitations/implications: The sample chosen focussed only on firms in three emerging markets (Malaysia, Thailand and Singapore) thus it may not be sufficient for generalization.\nOriginality/value: The issue of inconclusive results and findings in capital structure studies keeps recurring but no study has been done to further understand the issue. Using data from the selected countries, this paper attempts to fill this gap in the literature.\n",
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Walmart's international expansion: successes and miscalculations
|
[
"Case studies",
"Culture",
"International expansion",
"Corporate strategy",
"Walmart",
"International strategy"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n__NO_TITLE__: Successful companies often internationalize in stages, with a less committed international entry mode (e.g. exports, joint ventures) and gain knowledge in the process that helps to prepare for an increasingly committed foreign entry mode (e.g. acquisition, greenfield). Knowledge about the culture and political systems in these early forays coupled with significant knowledge about their own business capabilities position firms for success. The ability to identify where their specific skills, capabilities and competencies lie contributes to success.\nThe beginning of international expansion: Founded and thriving on the principle of economies of scale, Walmart began selling for less in small rural towns that were ignored by other large retailers. Walmart offered products at cheaper prices than its competition. Increasing its competitive advantage, Walmart introduced the \"supercenter strategy\" in 1988 to create a \"one-stop shopping\" experience for all of its consumers' needs. During its first 30 years of operation, Walmart grew to 1,928 stores located throughout the USA. In 1992, Walmart began international expansion into Mexico. The firm's 30 years of domestic experience, before it entered Mexico using a cooperative strategy, provided a springboard for success and future expansion. Currently, Walmart operates in 28 countries, with 4,672 stores in the USA and 6,363 stores internationally.\nWalmart in Canada and China: Canada and China are two of Walmart's larger foreign locations, each with about 400 stores. There are vast differences in culture and population, as well as political and economic distinctions. While Canadian shoppers are older and wealthier and located in less densely populated areas, Chinese shoppers are largely urban, with far more shoppers per store.\nFailures in international expansion: Walmart entered Germany in 1997 and South Korea in 1998 and exited both in 2006. It has also struggled in Japan. The lack of understanding about the cultural habits with respect to shopping was a common theme in these failures, along with an ethnocentric approach to management staffing in the host country. These led to Walmart's pullout from Germany and South Korea. The company entered Japan and Brazil later but still has not learned necessary lessons to thrive in those countries.\nStruggles in international expansion: While there are some clear successes and failures in Walmart's international forays, in other countries, there has been a mix of expansion and contraction.\nPotential altered trade agreements - major impact on Walmart: Walmart has convinced people that they are paying lower prices for the same goods that have higher price tags in other big-box retailers, a strategy that has been successful. With recent talk of imposing tariffs and altering long-standing trade agreements between the USA and trading partners, Walmart's operations may be impacted in a negative way, at least in the USA. Currently, Walmart imports $50bn of goods from China each year (Dwyer, 2016). If higher tariffs are imposed in the US, then higher costs will be felt immediately and Walmart's competitive advantage of lower prices may be compromised. Other retailers will face the same tariffs, however, so Walmart will not be the only retailer affected.\nRecommendations for Walmart as it continues to grow internationally: As evidenced by Walmart's expansion into 30 countries throughout the world, the company has been mostly successful. It was initially slow to enter other countries and then went on an internationalization binge in the 1990s and early 2000s. By 2011, Walmart had more international stores than US locations. However, international profits have remained low and have lagged those of domestic net sales (Walmart Store Inc., 1996/2016). The shift in global expansion efforts was altered by the exits from Germany and South Korea in 2006 and the announced reductions in stores in 2016. If Walmart plans to find continued international success, then it must learn to be culturally sensitive and align the domestic Walmart model to each country's values.\n",
"role": "user"
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"content": "Purpose: Walmart achieved extraordinary success and growth in its home country before embarking on a strategy of international expansion. While most of Walmart1s international expansion efforts were successful, the retailer experienced some challenges in Germany and South Korea, exiting both less than ten years after initial entry. In 2016, Walmart announced the closure of 269 stores worldwide. Although most Walmart stores are now outside the USA, the performance of these stores lag their US counterparts. Walmart has not been able to simply export its \"Everyday Low Price\" approach. It is important to understand cultural differences in the way people shop in addition to understanding the market, economy and laws of various regions around the world.\nDesign/methodology/approach: Walmart's successes and missteps in each country are analyzed. The studies looked at each country's culture, shopping habits and discuss what worked and what did not in each country. The authors hope that managers planning international expansion will learn from the successes and failures of this giant retailer.\nFindings: Walmart has a significant presence in Mexico, the UK, Brazil, China and Canada. It has been successful in countries where it has adapted the Walmart model to the local market. International expansion for Walmart, along with other retailers, is now being highly impacted by the growth in online shopping. However, the use of technology for shopping is not a homogenous global experience. The increased demand for online retailers suggests that firms slow down (but not stop) brick and mortar international expansion.\nPractical implications: Considering the projected growth in online shopping, retailers with global aspirations need to have a strong and sustainable competitive advantage (e.g. products, operations, marketing and brand name reputation) in addition to a clear internationalization plan. The same factors critical to brick and mortar expansion are applicable to online growth. Having a successful, long-term presence in selected countries requires a clear understanding of each country's infrastructure, demographics, political and economic systems, in addition to cultural awareness and an understanding of shopping practices.\nSocial implications: The growth of online shopping internationally will also fundamentally alter international expansion for Walmart and other retailers. Interestingly, Chinese shoppers may be leading the trend in online shopping, as nearly 65 percent of Chinese shoppers use their mobile phones for online shopping, are more likely to buy from off-shore online retailers and are more likely to use their mobile phones to compare prices than either Canadian or US shoppers (PWC, 2016). Walmart's recent acquisition of Jet.com is sending a clear signal that brick and mortar shopping is not the only way to expand internationally.\nOriginality/value: This original work about Walmart's growth strategy internationally is unique. This work will be of great value to managers thinking of expanding internationally. The non-embracing of local cultural habits and use of non-local managers is something that can be easily overlooked when thinking of expansion. Serious financial consequences can be easily avoided by being aware of the mistakes that others have made.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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Is there an inverted U-shaped relationship between job demands and work engagement: The moderating role of social support?
|
[
"Australia",
"Employees behaviour",
"Job commitment",
"Engagement",
"Job demands",
"Social support",
"Curvilinear",
"Information technology"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: To survive in a world of rapid economic change and globalization, companies increasingly see the need to engage their employees. The recent focus of modern management is now on managing and engaging human capital to produce more output with less input[1]. Nevertheless, there is a large discrepancy between practitioners' interest in work engagement and the amount of academic research on these issues, research in the area of work engagement is needed.A number of studies provide empirical evidence of the positive outcome of work engagement. For example, Salanova et al. (2005) concluded that work engagement predicted service climate, which in turn predicted employee performance and then customer loyalty among Spanish hospitality employees. Similarly, Xanthopoulou (2009) found that job resources had positive effect on work engagement, which in turn predicted daily financial returns among fast-food employees. Hakanen et al. (2005) also indicated that work engagement was important among Finnish dentists, and job resources were a booster between job demands and job resources on work engagement. Further, work engagement is a vital construct because it can have a spiral effect, i.e. initial individuals' engagement predicts an increase in perceived job resources, which in its turn further increases individuals' engagement (Schaufeli et al., 2009). This current study has two aims: to understand relationships among specific job demands, job resources and work engagement among Australian information technology (IT) professionals and to further investigate a potential curvilinear relationship between job demands and work engagement.\n2. Related literature: 2.1 The relationship between job demands and work engagement\n3. Method: 3.1 Participants and procedures\n4. Results: 4.1 Descriptive analysis\n5. Discussion: This study examines the possibility of an inverted U-shaped relationship between job demands and work engagement, and whether social support moderates this relationship. Overall, results support the applicability of the quadratic effect of job demands on employee engagement (H1). However, the moderated hypothesis is partially not supported (H2). The current study demonstrates that supervisor support, but not colleague support, moderates the relationship between job demands and work engagement. This can be explained: although both supports are related to job demands and work engagement (significant correlation coefficients), supervisor support plays a significant role over colleague support within IT professions. It can be a case that perceived supervisor support is often associated with perceived organizational support, as in Eisenberger's (2002) study. Therefore, individuals may perceive a greater effect of supervisor support than colleague support in relation to their jobs. Further replication of this study is recommended since the studies of social support have been equivocal with regard to the moderating hypothesis. For example, non significant interaction between job demands and social support is also not observed during the foundation research of the previous work engagement study (Demerouti et al., 2001). Schaufeli and Bakker (2004) examines the impact of demands and support (as job resources) on employee engagement. However, these authors do not explicitly test for demands and support interactions.Traditionally, we conceptualize job demands as a stressor having negative influences on outcomes (e.g. Demerouti et al., 2001). For example, employees with high work demands will become physically and mentally exhausted within their jobs and disengage from their work. However the significant quadratic relationship between job demands and work engagement produced by the current research makes some sense in terms of ensuring that work is demanding enough to engage workers. Employees with undemanding work levels are likely to be bored and disengaged.As with any research, this study has some limitations. The study included employees from the IT sector only and it is not clear that the results generalize to other populations. Future research may replicate this study across different industry settings. Furthermore, the job demands scale that was employed was the general job demands measures. Future research can develop a specific demand questions such as work-related technology demands. The current study aimed to examine if social support moderated job demands and work engagement. Future research might attempt to investigate other potential moderators such as work autonomy. Another limitation is the cross-sectional design. Although this design is good to obtain data on attitude and behavior, it is recommended to employ the repeated cross-sectional sampling as well as longitudinal study for future research (Levin, 2006).\n6. Implications: The current study somewhat extends the current JD-R framework. A managerial implication of the pattern of findings is that job assignment should require optimal demands from employees. Too many or too few demands can lower individuals' work motivation, which, in turn, can lower their work engagement. Including employees as a part of job design can assist the HR managers to customize and monitor the level of task requirement at the optimal level for each individual. To increase individuals' thresholds of job demands, organizations should provide relevant support as a coping tool for high demands and positive outcome (e.g. maintaining high motivation, work engagement or job satisfaction).\n",
"role": "user"
},
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"content": "Purpose: - The purpose of this paper is to examine the possibility of an inverted U-shaped relationship between job demands and work engagement, and whether social support moderates this relationship.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - This study uses 307 technical and information technology (IT) managers who responded to an online survey. Multiple regressions are employed to examine linear and curvilinear relationship among variables.\nFindings: - Overall, results support the applicability of the quadratic effect of job demands on employee engagement. However, only supervisor support, not colleague support, moderated the relationship between job demands and work engagement.\nOriginality/value: - The paper is the first to shed light on the quadratic effect of job demands on work engagement. The findings have noteworthy implications for managers to design optimal job demands that increase employee engagement.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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Leadership in the fluid moral economy of conspicuous consumption: Insights from the moralizing tales of Cleopatra and Antony
|
[
"Leadership",
"Gender",
"History",
"Social responsibility",
"Literature",
"Arts"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n__NO_TITLE__: The iconic image of Cleopatra has been fashioned over the centuries through legends of opulent baths, barges and banquets. When Mark Antony[1] enters her world, they live an \"inimitable life\" for the general pleasures it offers, as well as to express their political power at key moments. The latter was grounded in the ancient Greek notion of tryphe,[2] which involved ostentatious luxury intended to impress an audience (Hall, 1989; Tuplin, 1996; Tyldesley, 2008). Yet for Cleopatra and Antony, flaunting wealth does not always evoke the desired reaction. Rome, then still a republic, was the rising predominant power of the Mediterranean. With a moralizing ethos of self-discipline and personal sacrifice for the public good, it frowned upon Cleopatra and Antony's indulgence as a sign of decadence and weakness. Over the following two millennia, they become the subjects of a cautionary tale, told in a pattern that associates the display of wealth with leader degeneracy: loss of an empire, defeat in war and subsequent suicide. This paper draws on the enduring appeal of Cleopatra and Antony to develop a novel perspective on a leadership theme with current social and economic relevance. Crafted in an interdisciplinary vein, it juxtaposes interpretations of Cleopatra and Antony's espousal of tryphe over the centuries with current media accounts to identify insights from these tales for our time. In doing so, it contributes to the leadership literature on ethics, specifically its intersection with power and narrative representation.\nOf barges and banquets: leadership and the twin paradoxes of decadence-discipline and desire-disdain: To various societies, narratives of Cleopatra's public luxuriance are paradoxical: on the one hand, she offers a dream of desire through associations with the excessive and fantastic, wealth and accessories that appear universally transposable (Hughes-Hallet, 1990; Humbert et al., 1994). On the other hand, many moralizing tales have traditionally framed such extravagance as deplorable, and Antony became implicated by association. Critique of Cleopatra's legendary exotic opulence started with the Romans (Hamer, 1993; Kleiner, 2005; Schiff, 2010; Tyldesley, 2008) who associated luxury with the East, and were suspicious of it. They valued a life of hard simplicity and when the republic was established, the farmer embodied the ideal (Jones, 2006a). But under Cleopatra, Egypt's wealth was flaunted and Antony immersed himself in a lifestyle of overt and excessive consumption. To observers, this contrasted notions of decadence with the discipline engrained in warrior leadership. Indeed, the warrior model - as it figures in heroic Roman characters - has been a very influential perspective in leadership (Nice, 1998). The \"warrior\" leader is associated with courage, but also discipline and self-control. These guide loyalty to a cause and vision, to which the warrior leader perseveres single-mindedly (Tallman, 2003) often with austere self-denial. The term \"strategy\", commonly used in management, is derived from the ancient Greek strategos, which harbors the notion of warrior leadership[5]. Yet, this is not the only idea on leadership handed down from the ancients. Whereas the field of leadership studies is a relatively modern phenomenon traced back to the industrial revolution, the notion of leadership - both normative and descriptive - has engaged writers for millennia (Bass, 1990; Lowe and Gardner, 2000). The space between the formal field of study and the ancient texts is reflected in the leadership literature generally, as well as in the field of leadership ethics, a central strand in this paper; yet both are rapidly reclaiming that historical foreground. What follows introduces key ideas that set the scene for examining leadership in this paper.\nThe stuff of legend: the \"deplorably thrilling\" \"inimitable lives\" of Cleopatra and Antony: It is hard to separate history from legend in accounts of Cleopatra and Antony's lives. Current writing on Cleopatra suggests that though she was of goddess status in Egypt, she also worked hard for the country: she inherited debt and political instability and transformed Egypt into a stable and prosperous land. She was intelligent and actively engaged in both administration and war (Riad, 2011). However, she largely attracted attention due to the reputation for excess (in both wealth and passion) developed from her association with two famous Romans of her time (Hughes-Hallet, 1990; Jones, 2006a). The Ptolemies' \"excess in all things\" is difficult to assess since their history has been shaped by ancient authors who reviled self-indulgence through Roman simplicitas (Ager, 2006). While both Caesar and Antony had been attracted to, and participated in, Ptolemaic tryphe, it is Antony who became associated with it. What follows offers an overview of the role of tryphe in the lives of Antony and Cleopatra, and then the various ways in which their extravagant lifestyles were subsequently represented.\nThe moralizing dynamics of leader conspicuous consumption: Whereas the literature on leadership has witnessed a burgeoning interest in ethics, the moral dynamics of the display of wealth in doing power has received considerably less attention.\nConclusion: leadership and the signification of wealth in the age of austerity: This paper has focused on the display of wealth on the part of a leader and its variegated effects in shaping their symbolic moral identity. Whereas leadership is a relational process of influencing others, the specific normative expectations of leaders are subject to change as the moral evaluation of various activities is redefined (Ciulaa, 2004). The position adopted here acknowledges the role of narrative representation in shaping our understanding of leaders and leadership, and the psychological ambivalence with which societies approach their leaders' practices (focus here on desire-disdain and discipline-decadence) (Islam, 2009). Altogether, the paper contributes to the leadership literature on ethics, power and narrative representation. Whereas the literature on leadership ethics has tended to be normative in its orientation and largely focused on the West, this paper has adopted an analytic approach, with an international orientation and an interdisciplinary perspective (Burns, 2004; Eisenbeiss, 2012). It establishes a novel articulation between the literatures on leadership, moral economy and conspicuous consumption and enriches the understanding of the topic at hand in the following ways.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: In the last few years, signs of material excess by organizational and political leaders have often evoked public outcry. The paper aims to argue that there is insight to be gleaned from drawing together strands from the leadership literature with the literatures on moral economy and conspicuous consumption. The premise is that views of leader conspicuous consumption are shaped by their moral economy, the interplay between moral attitudes and economic activities. The paper seeks to juxtapose tales of Cleopatra and Antony's display of wealth with current media accounts to contribute to the leadership literature on ethics, specifically its intersection with power and narrative representation.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The paper adopts an analytic approach, with an international orientation and an interdisciplinary perspective. It acknowledges the role of narrative representation in shaping leadership and the psychological ambivalence with which societies approach their leaders' practices, focus here on desire-disdain and discipline-decadence. Cleopatra and Antony's conspicuous consumption generated a legacy of condemnation for millennia. Drawing from the retellings of their story, four moralizing representations - by Plutarch, Shakespeare, Sarah Fielding and Hollywood - are analyzed and juxtaposed with current media accounts. Altogether, the paper combines the interest in leadership across history with moralizing perspectives on the display of wealth by leaders.\nFindings: The intersection of the literatures on leadership, moral economy and conspicuous consumption draws together several dynamics of relevance to leadership. First, evaluations of the display of wealth on the part of a leader are contextual: they change across time and place. Second, interpretations of conspicuous consumption involve aesthetic judgment and so sit at the nexus of morality and taste. Third, following tragedies, tales of leader conspicuous consumption offer critics another knife to dig into the fallen tragic hero. Fourth, views of conspicuous consumption are gendered. Last, conspicuous consumption by leaders attracts condemnation through support for social responsibility and sustainability.\nOriginality/value: The paper establishes a novel articulation between the literatures on leadership, moral economy and conspicuous consumption.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
Clinical guidelines in severe pre-eclampsia and eclampsia
|
[
"Medical management",
"Diseases",
"Pregnancy",
"Blood pressure"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: NHS clinical effectiveness and clinical governance initiatives aim to promote more uniform standards of high quality, evidence-based care. Clinical practice guidelines produced by nationally recognised bodies and clinical audit represent principal components of such care. In the UK eclampsia and pre-eclampsia continue to be a leading cause of maternal mortality and morbidity (Lewis, 2004; Lewis, 2001).An audit of current practice in 1996 within Mersey and Cheshire revealed variations in the standard of guidelines being used for the management of severe pre-eclampsia/eclampsia (Epidemiology, UOPAP, 1996). In recent years the number of deaths from hypertensive diseases during pregnancy has fallen. This decrease has been accredited in part to the introduction of local and regional guidelines for the management of pre-eclampsia. This followed the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists' (RCOG) publication of such a guideline on the management of severe pre-eclampsia and eclampsia in 1995 (RCOG, 1995). In the Fifth Report of the Confidential Enquiry into Maternal Deaths in the United Kingdom (1997-1999) an updated guideline for the management of severe pre-eclampsia was published (Lewis, 2001). The aim of this study was to assess whether local guidelines for the management of severe pre-eclampsia in use in delivery units in the UK correlate with these recommendations.\nMethods: The audit was designed as a criterion-based survey in which guidelines were assessed against a series of developed statements used to determine the appropriateness of specific healthcare decisions (Shaw, 1992). In September 2003, 227 obstetric units in the UK were contacted by post and a copy of their guideline for management of severe pre-eclampsia/eclampsia requested. In January 2004 we then contacted, by post, those units from which we had no initial response.The Deadliners committee (a group of Obstetrics & Gynaecology specialist registrars in the North West Region set up to undertake research projects) agreed ten audit criteria based on the recommendations of the guideline published in the Fifth Report of the Confidential Enquiries into Maternal Deaths in the UK (1997-1999) (see list below) (Lewis, 2001). Guidelines were then audited to assess concurrence with these criteria. A comprehensive data form was completed by extraction of relevant data from the guidelines. The dataset was then entered into a database and assessed using SPSS version 12.0. Differences between regional and non-regional guidelines were tested for significance by Chi squared and Fisher's exact test. The clinical audit criteria for guidelines covering the management of women with severe PET and eclampsia are:1. Inclusion criteria:* The criteria for inclusion on the protocol should be clearly defined in line with those specified in the guideline published in the Fifth Report of the Confidential Enquiry into Maternal Deaths in the United Kingdom (1997-1999) (Lewis, 2001) (see Table I); and* The consultant obstetrician and consultant anaesthetist responsible for the management of the patient should be informed of her commencement on the protocol2. Essential maternal observations and investigations:* Recorded on a specialised chart;* Blood tests monitored every 12-24 hours;* Fluid restricted to 80-100 ml/hour;* Continuous assessment of fluid input and urine output; and* Deep tendon reflexes monitored hourly if on magnesium sulphate.3. Management of eclampsia and hypertension:* Eclampsia should be treated with magnesium sulphate as the first-line drug of choice;* Hydralazine or labetalol should be the agents of choice for the management of severe hypertension.4. Fetal observation:* Minimum criteria should be specified for assessment of the fetus including growth assessment scan, and continuous fetal monitoring where appropriate.\nResults: Responses to request for guidelines\nDiscussion: Throughout the UK, clinical guidelines are acknowledged as a key element in initiatives aimed at improving the quality and uniformity of clinical care. With the formation of the National Institute for Clinical Excellence (NICE) in England, the continuing work of the Royal Colleges and the work of individual trusts and hospitals the number of guidelines developed and the rigour of the methods applied during development are hopefully continually improving. However, adherence to guidelines is poor in many disciplines including obstetrics (Chauhan et al., 2003; Aliyu et al., 2004; Davis et al., 2002).Whilst this audit is not a truly national audit as responses were not obtained from 120 maternity units (52.9 per cent) it gives an insight into the extent to which guideline recommendations on the management of severe pre-eclampsia and eclampsia have been adopted in the UK. The request for information by post is often met with a poor response. A recent review of published reports showed a mean response rate of 54 per cent, somewhat higher than the 47.1 per cent obtained in this study. With regard to surveys, numerous strategies have been adopted in an attempt to improve response rates including the repeat mailings we used in this study (Myerson, 1993; Hoffman et al., 1998; Asch et al., 1997). The RCOG was unable to provide us with a list of maternity units in the UK. Our maternity unit list was therefore an amalgamation of information obtained at a regional level and via the National Health Service web site http://www.nhs.uk/ (last accessed Jan 2005). It is possible that some of the maternity units we contacted had merged thus reducing our response rate. It is also possible that some degree of bias has been introduced into the audit as one can postulate that units with up to date protocols are most likely to respond.This audit serves to illustrate the wide variation in the standard of guidelines for the management of severe PET and eclampsia, which are life-threatening conditions. Given that these guidelines are designed for use in an obstetric emergency it is somewhat surprising that some run to 26 pages of A4. For a guideline to be useful in the clinical setting it is essential that it is applied to relevant patients, thus inclusion criteria must be clear. Numerous classification systems exist for hypertensive disease in pregnancy, not all appropriate for use in the clinical setting (Brown et al., 2001). The definition of severe pre-eclampsia used in this survey is based on the classification system of Davey and MacGillivray which is widely accepted in the UK and overseas (Davey and MacGillivray, 1988). It is therefore reassuring that the majority of guidelines had criteria for inclusion on the protocol in line with those specified in the guideline published in the Fifth Report of the Confidential Enquiries into Maternal Deaths in the United Kingdom (1997-1999) (see list) (Lewis, 2001).Inadequate consultant involvement in the management of women with severe PET/eclampsia has been highlighted as a potential contributory factor in the mortality of women included in recent Confidential Enquiries into Maternal Mortality in the UK (Lewis, 2001; Lewis, 2004). The single major failing in clinical care in the management of hypertensive diseases in pregnancy in the most recent triennium (2000-2002) was inadequate treatment of hypertension, with subsequent intracranial haemorrhage. In most of these cases it was considered that the involvement of a consultant obstetrician occurred too late. It is therefore unacceptable that almost a quarter of all guidelines lines did not recommend senior obstetric and anaesthetic input once inclusion criteria had been met.There is no single test that can be relied upon to confirm the diagnosis of severe pre-eclampsia or predict the progression of the disease. However, by accurately measuring blood pressure, quantifying proteinuria and serially monitoring haematological and biochemical parameters, disease progression can be assessed and delivery of the fetus, the only proven treatment option, may be better timed. For example, a falling platelet count is generally considered as indicative of severe end-stage disease and is found in the HELLP syndrome variant of pre-eclampsia. Given that severe pre-eclampsia and eclampsia can be rapidly developing conditions it is perhaps predictable that there is wide variation in recommendations regarding the frequency with which blood tests should be carried out (4-24 hourly). However, it is disappointing that given the mortality and morbidity associated with these conditions 21 guidelines (29.2 per cent) fail to recommend carrying out any investigations. Whilst all the guidelines highlight the need for strict fluid balance, variations in the recommendations reflect conflicting literature reports (Engelhardt and MacLennan, 1999).In view of the convincing findings of the MAGPIE trial demonstrating the efficacy of magnesium sulphate in the prevention and treatment of eclampsia, it is reassuring that over 95 per cent of guidelines recommend the use of magnesium sulphate in the treatment of eclampsia (Altman et al., 2002). It is perhaps not surprising that there is variation in the choice of first line anti-hypertensive agent given that no consensus exists in the literature with regard to which agent is clinically proven to be superior. A recent systematic review compared different anti-hypertensive drugs used for treatment of severe hypertension during pregnancy. A total of 20 trials were included (1637 women) and the conclusions were that until better evidence is available, the choice of anti-hypertensive should depend on the experience and familiarity of an individual clinician with a particular drug, and on what is known about adverse maternal and fetal side-effects (Duley and Henderson-Smart, 2002). Another systematic review published by Magee et al. (2003) looked at 21 trials involving hydralazine for the management of severe hypertension in pregnancy and concluded that whilst the results were not robust enough to guide good clinical practice they did not support the use of hydralazine as a first line agent (Magee et al., 2003). In 25 guidelines (34.7 per cent) nifedipine was recommended in the management of severe hypertension. Whilst there is some evidence that concurrent use of calcium channel blockers and magnesium sulphate have the potential for synergistic depression of cardiac function, nifedipine was widely used in the MAGPIE study without any significant reported problems (Neustein et al., 1998; Davis et al., 1997; Altman et al., 2002).Although there has been a steady trend towards fewer deaths in recent Confidential Enquiries, six of the 13 cases assessed in the tri-ennium 2000-2002 (46 per cent) showed clear features of substandard care and may have been avoidable deaths (Lewis, 2004). Intracranial haemorrhage, as the single largest cause of death in this group, indicates a failure of effective anti-hypertensive therapy. This must be the priority for improved clinical care (Lewis, 2004). One can postulate that minimising the number of agents recommended for use in the management of severe hypertension may improve quality of care by reducing the complexity of guidelines and increasing clinician's familiarity with antihypertensive agents. Involvement of consultant anaesthetists at an early stage may also be invaluable in the management of such difficult cases.Severe pre-eclampsia, as a multisystem disorder can also affect the uteroplacental unit, and can be associated with significant intra-uterine growth restriction. Although the maternal condition always takes precedence, it is important that the fetal condition is also assessed. It was therefore reassuring that 67.6 per cent of the units audited recommended that an ultrasound scan to assess fetal growth, liquor volume and umbilical artery Doppler measurement may be appropriate in some cases. However, only half the guidelines commented on fetal monitoring. These babies are at high risk and would therefore require intermittent or continuous monitoring in appropriate circumstances. In pregnancies complicated by pre-eclampsia the fetus is at high risk and therefore requires intermittent or continuous monitoring in appropriate circumstances. In reality this is likely to happen on all units, however it is important that it is stipulated in guidelines.Studies on the development of guidelines have indicated that a national guideline developed by a group of well-recognised experts in the field is generally accepted at local level providing there is the possibility for modification to suit local circumstances (van der Sanden et al., 2004). Guidelines may also be enhanced by implementing measures which quantify the degree of consensus reached by the expert panel and providing an explicit discussion of any issues causing dissent (Rubin et al., 2000). The SHIP audit concluded that a potential area for further improvement in quality of care of women with severe hypertensive illness in pregnancy is the standardising of guidelines (Baldwin et al., 2001; Baldwin et al., 2002). Our study has shown that five regional guidelines have already been developed for the management of severe pre-eclampsia and eclampsia. Although the number of regional guidelines was only small there were significant differences between them and the non-regional guidelines in three of the audit criteria (Table I). Individually, the regional guidelines are used by varying numbers of hospitals. This suggests that a basis exists for the development of a guideline at a national level. With the rotation of junior doctors within hospitals in the same region and nationwide, a national guideline would provide continuity and hopefully a better adherence to a familiar guideline. It is perhaps time that interested parties came together and developed such a guideline thus dispensing with individual peculiarities and scope for error and providing the basis for a nationwide audit of the management of these conditions.\n",
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},
{
"content": "Purpose: - This article aims to assess the standard local recommended management of women with severe pre-eclampsia and eclampsia in relation to recommendations in a national clinical guideline using a criterion-based survey.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - A total of 227 maternity units in the UK were asked to provide a copy of their guideline for the management of severe pre-eclampsia and eclampsia. Responses were obtained from 107 units (47.1 per cent), 37 units were using regional guidelines and 72 guidelines were available for assessment. A total of ten audit criteria were agreed by committee, based on national recommendations. Guidelines were then audited to assess concurrence with these criteria.\nFindings: - The standard of guidelines was highly variable with only four guidelines (4.5 per cent) satisfying all ten key guideline points. The majority of guidelines had clear criteria for inclusion (87.5 per cent) but in almost a quarter of all guidelines no mention was made of informing consultant staff once these criteria were met.\nPractical implications: - The study shows that the standard of local guidelines for management of these potentially fatal conditions is highly variable. Confidential inquiry has repeatedly recommended the use of regional guidelines. Perhaps it is time for the development of a national guideline representing consensus agreement of an evidence-based approach.\nOriginality/value: - In the UK eclampsia and pre-eclampsia continue to be a leading cause of maternal mortality and morbidity. This paper provides a valuable insight into the standard of guidelines used in the management of these conditions.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
Service failure in higher education institutions: A case study in diagnosing students' evaluation of critical incidents
|
[
"Higher education",
"Service failure",
"Critical incidents"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Extant research shows that even the best or top-ranked universities experience service failure and some of the service failure incidents are costly for higher education institutions (Chen, 2015). In the Southern Africa Development Community, higher education is affected by a number of problems that impact on the delivery of quality service to its customers. Some of the problems affecting academic quality are poorly equipped libraries, poor academic and laboratory infrastructure, a high staff: student ratio, demotivated staff, an aging professoriate and overloaded academic staff (Kotecha et al., 2012).\nLiterature review: Service failure\nMethodology: This is a case study that took place in a higher education institution and in particular a university of technology. The critical incident technique (CIT) was used to collect qualitative data by means of a structured questionnaire. The CIT has been properly documented in literature and its usage dates back to the World War II. However, credit is given to Flanagan who conducted a comprehensive study on the CIT as an instrument for collecting incidents (Flanagan, 1954). The CIT is a tool that is used to investigate moments of truth (Edvardsson and Roos, 2001). The proponents of CIT believe that it is the best method for collecting information about specific incidents relating to service encounters (Munteanu et al., 2010). The rationale behind the use of the CIT is to get insights into underlying factors that cause service failure. Several studies have used the CIT to measure service failure (Swanson and Hsu, 2009; Surachartkumtonkun et al., 2015). The CIT questionnaire is ideal because it gives students ample time to think about specific incidents (Chahal and Devi, 2013). Using this approach, data were collected from students who responded to a CIT questionnaire by recalling specific incidents where they experienced service failure. The questions were formulated based on the CIT study by Bitner et al. (1990). Thus, the following specific open ended questions were asked to students:\nResults: Table I reflects the gender distribution of the participants per age group. The Fisher exact tests failed to show significant differences in the gender with respect to age distribution of the participants (p>0.05). For instance, although the male participants (36.7 per cent) were lower when compared against the female (63.3 per cent), not many differences were observed with respect to the age distribution. Overall, most of the participants were below 24 (76.7 per cent), followed by those within the age bracket 25-34 (16.7 per cent) and the lowest representative within the age distribution of 35-54 (3.3 per cent).\nDiscussion and implications: This study evaluated service failure at a university of technology in South Africa. The service sector in general and higher education in particular have a challenge of delivering a service that is free of errors. However, service failure is inevitable. As such, it is important for higher education institutions to identify the different types of service failure incidents. The findings of this study provide valuable information into the nature of service failure incidents students' encounter. The current study showed that the majority of incidents reported were service delivery system failure (Group I). Similarly, in Nigeria, a survey conducted in the higher education sector shows that students complained of service delivery system failure such as cumbersome and slow pace of registration and screening process. Students wake up around 5 a.m. to get in the queue to ensure that they are assisted (Peretomode and Ugbomeh, 2013). Service failure in respect of unfulfilled needs and request category (Group II) accounted for the second largest number of incidents reported in this study. Thus, by analysing service failure incidents, management of higher education institutions can come up with strategies such as training of customer facing employees and academicians to avoid dissatisfactory service encounters and further channel resources towards improving students' experience. Furthermore, institutional managers need to align themselves with changing student demands and ensure that they are able to meet and exceed student expectations (Mohanraj and Baby, 2014). The findings of this study also showed that the smallest number of incidents reported were unprompted and unsolicited employee action (Group III). Generally, the findings of this study are consistent with a similar study conducted in selected universities in Jammu city, North India (Chahal and Devi, 2013). In addition, the findings corroborate other studies conducted in different sectors and environments (Voss et al., 2010; Swanson and Davis, 2000).\nConclusions: This study has identified and classified critical incidents based on students evaluation of service failure at a University of Technology. Furthermore, it has presented ten sub-categories of service failure, namely, teaching, library, computer laboratory, student housing, administration, funding/financial aid, infrastructure, student transport, security and cafeteria. These were later classified based on Bitner et al. (1990) three categories, namely, service delivery system failure, employee response to customer needs and requests, and unprompted and unsolicited employee actions. The results showed that most of the service failure incidents belong to the service delivery system failure category. The following recommendations are provided to assist institutional managers to address service failure incidents:\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: Providing quality service is the goal of many service providers and higher education institutions are not exceptional. However, service failure may occur from time to time which may eventually lead to customer dissatisfaction with the service rendered. The purpose of this paper is to examine service failure incidents in higher education.\nDesign/methodology/approach: In this study, three categories of service failure, namely, employee response to service delivery system failure, employee response to customer needs and requests, and unprompted and unsolicited employee actions were used to categorise 45 critical incidents obtained from 30 students at a university of technology.\nFindings: The results showed that service delivery system failures account for the biggest number (51 per cent) of service failure incidents captured in this study.\nResearch limitations/implications: The critical incident technique which relies on the respondents' memory to recall service failure incidents was used to collect information. The drawback is that memory can be fallible and students may end up exaggerating service failure incidents.\nPractical implications: This study can assist higher education institutional managers to understand the nature of service failure incidents that lead to student dissatisfaction.\nOriginality/value: This study is unique as it presents service failure incidents from the developing world and further provides the basis for creation of service recovery strategies.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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Balanced Scorecard - fostering learning organizations towards achieving strategic results: a case study of an oil PSU in India
|
[
"Balanced Scorecard implementation",
"Strategy",
"Vision",
"Competency building",
"Learning organizations",
"Balanced Scorecard"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n__NO_TITLE__: It is not the strongest of the species who survive, or the most intelligent; rather it is those most responsive to change (Charles Darwin).\nSummary: The transformational process as understood from the in-depth interviews of 12 directors and executive directors, 23 team and function heads and 107 employees from junior and middle management can be summarized in the following steps:1. Co-create organizational vision involving employees across the hierarchy including unions. Develop visions for teams and functions derived from the overall organizational vision.2. Develop an appropriate strategy considering business scenario, resources and other parameters and share it with all employees.3. Develop Balanced Scorecard and cascade it to the last employee. BSC translates the strategy into operational objectives and the BSC template gives specific objectives, measures, targets and initiatives bringing in the required clarity and focus for everyone to know exactly what they need to do.4. Highlight competency gaps with the help of assessment centers. When employees comprehend gaps in their competencies they feel the need to learn and grow personally and professionally.5. Integrate learning endeavors of employees with performance management system and team scorecards. When linked with scorecards, the learning endeavors of the employees are aligned with organizational requirement and the application of learning is immediate.6. Provide learning support through relevant workshops, libraries, online training and learning portals, mentoring and coaching, etc.This transformational journey has been an overwhelming experience for the entire organization. There is a constant buzz about learning and adopting new technology. In the last decade, HPCL has emerged as an information technology savvy organization with automation of all business processes leading to speedy and transparent transactions. Several new initiatives have sprung up - for example, a fully automated vehicle management system and network planning and dynamic pricing tool that aids in better management of the business. The introduction of technologies for better execution and management of projects (undertaken to augment the existing capacity of refineries) has led to substantial reduction in project lead time and better cost management. HPCL refineries have been the first in the country to produce EURO-IV MS (petrol). Not only that, but the capabilities have been enhanced and these efforts have been appreciated and rewarded by various management forums such as the World HRD Congress and the American Society of Training and Development. Recently, at OceanTex 2012, the current Chairman and Managing Director, Mr S Roy Choudhury was awarded for bringing transformation into the culture of the organization and heralding a new era of growth for HPCL.When organizations introduce initiatives that push employees to learn continuously, change and adopt new methods of self-improvement, there is an obvious enhancement in the employees' skill inventory, with added skills and an enhanced level of performance. They develop competencies as called for in the emergent business scenario, thus adding to the competitive edge of the organization. Learning and development is focused on developing competencies needed for strategy implementation. New learning not only helps organizations but also impacts the growth and development of employees in their personal life. Nevertheless, organizations have to be alert and responsive to the dynamics of changing business scenarios and hence, the need to continuously bring in new initiatives to refresh and build on existing good practice. Becoming a learning organization is not an end. It's an ongoing journey.\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: - Organizations compete to succeed in a continuously changing business scenario. It is obvious that as an organization, they need to learn continuously, develop their competencies and adapt to the changes in business environment, thus becoming a learning organization. However, it is important that the individual and collective learning of the organization is such that it contributes to accomplishing strategic business results and the organization's vision. This can be achieved through the Balanced Scorecard as it clearly highlights in the \"Learning & Growth\" perspectives, the competencies and organizational capabilities that need to be built. The Balanced Scorecard thus links the learning endeavors of the organization with its strategy and vision.\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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] |
Postponement: an evolving supply chain concept
|
[
"Supply chain management",
"Uncertainty management",
"Corporate strategy"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Supply chain management strategies and techniques are as varied as the disciplines from which they originate and the customers they are to serve. Though varied in method, the intent of many of these strategies is consistent: reduce uncertainty and cost while satisfying customer needs. The focus of this research effort, postponement, is an attempt to do both. Simply stated, postponement refers to a concept whereby activities in the supply chain are delayed until a demand is realized (Bucklin, 1965; Van Hoek, 2001). Researchers suggest that postponement has the potential to improve responsiveness while reducing inventory, transportation, storage, and obsolescence costs (Yang et al., 2004a).Postponement's potential to create such significant supply chain improvement has not gone unnoticed by practitioners. Postponement has a long history of practical business application dating back to the 1920s (CLM, 1995). Often, referenced examples of postponement include Benetton, Whirlpool, and Hewlett Packard. Benetton used postponement to improve its responsiveness to customer demands. By postponing the dyeing of its garments, Benetton is better positioned to respond to demands for popular colored clothing and reduce excess inventory of less-popular colors (Dapiran, 1992). Postponing the shipment of appliances to Sears until a customer order is received, allowed Whirlpool to realize a significant reduction in inventory and transportation costs (Waller et al., 2000). Hewlett Packard postponed final assembly of its DeskJet printers until the very late stages of the supply chain. This postponement of final assembly, combined with the shift of assembly locations closer to customers, resulted in a more cost-efficient production process while reducing transportation and logistics costs (Feitzinger and Lee, 1997).Postponement has an equally extensive history in academic literature. Postponement literature dates back to 1950 when Alderson argued that overall costs could be reduced by postponing a differentiating stage of production (Alderson, 1950). Bucklin (1965) extended the concept of postponement by viewing it as an opportunity to shift the risk of owning goods from one position in a supply chain to another. Postponement was later described as consisting of five specific types: labeling, packaging, assembly, manufacturing, and time (Zinn and Bowersox, 1988). This perception of postponement continues, in part, to this day.In 2001, Van Hoek presented a review of postponement literature published prior to 1999. In this review, Van Hoek (2001) identified gaps in the existing literature and issued five challenges for future postponement researchers:1. postponement as a supply chain concept;2. integrating related supply chain concepts;3. postponement in the globalizing supply chain;4. postponement in the customized supply chain; and5. methodological upgrading of postponement.The goal of these five challenges was to re-conceptualize postponement, capture its dynamics, and improve the methodological robustness of the concept. Since, Van Hoek's review, the amount of postponement literature has grown significantly.Reasons for the increased interest in postponement vary. Postponement has surfaced in a variety of ways including time and form postponement. While many researchers have focused solely or primarily on either time or form postponement, recent researchers (Rabinovich and Evers, 2003; Tibben-Lembke and Bassok, 2005) have developed models illustrating the potential performance enhancements that can be gained by implementing a hybrid approach using multiple types of postponement or postponement in conjunction with other production enhancements.Growth in postponement is partially reflective of the increased demand for customized products. In order to enhance product offerings, many organizations are altering their supply chains to accommodate mass customization processes (Su et al., 2005). The newly created supply chain structures often involve time postponement or delaying product differentiation points until customer orders have actually been received.The desire to control inventory risks and logistics costs has also led to the adoption of other types of postponement techniques by organizations (Chiou et al., 2002). For example, many organizations are now utilizing form postponement to delay differentiation in the manufacturing process, hoping to reduce inventory obsolescence and other logistics costs (Rabinovich and Evers, 2003). Still other researchers suggest the growth is related to increasing interest in agility and e-business (Yang et al., 2004b). The increased interest in postponement is most likely a combination of many factors including response to growth in competition, more sophisticated consumers, growing product varieties, and shortening product life cycles (Bowersox et al., 1999).This growth provided the impetus for this research effort. We reviewed postponement research and assessed the progression of postponement thought and theory by seeking to determine how recent literature addresses Van Hoek's five challenges as well as identifying new needs. In short, the purpose of this paper is to document the progress of postponement research, identify current gaps, and provide direction for future research efforts.The remainder of this paper is organized as follows. First, we present each of Van Hoek's (2001) challenges. Second, we use postponement literature published from 1999 to 2006 to assess and document the progress towards achieving each of the challenges. Finally, we pose five new challenges for future postponement researchers.\nResearch approach: An effective review creates a firm foundation for advancing knowledge, facilitates theory development, closes areas where a plethora of research exists, and uncovers areas where research is needed (Webster and Watson, 2002). Thus, to document the progress of postponement research, identify current gaps, and provide direction for future research efforts, we reviewed literature published since Van Hoek's (2001) \"rediscovery\" article. We utilized multiple electronic databases to identify relevant research efforts. Since, major contributions are likely to be published in referred journals (Webster and Watson, 2002), we limited our search to scholarly journal articles whose primary focus was postponement. We also limited our search to research published from 1999 to 2006. The beginning date for the review was selected to insure inclusion of postponement related research published during the lag time between the conclusion of Van Hoek's review in 1998 and its publication in 2001. This review does not consider unpublished papers, papers in non-academic journals, or papers presented at conferences.\nChallenges: Table I provides an overview of the progress towards Van Hoek's challenges as well as future extensions of these efforts that may be pursued.Challenge 1: postponement as a supply chain concept\nNew challenges: Thus, far, we have restated Van Hoek's five challenges and reviewed the current progress towards meeting these challenges. As highlighted above, we identified varying degrees of progress on the challenges. We also identified opportunities for researchers to continue the progress in these five areas.In addition to Van Hoek's challenges, we propose additional challenges that we feel, if addressed, could significantly enhance the postponement body of knowledge. We derived these insights from our review of the recent research extensions and expansions of the postponement concept, and the original literature that Van Hoek analyzed. Based on this extensive review of the literature (past and present), we propose five new challenges.New challenge 1: assess application of postponement relative to performance\nLimitations: Our review included 46 postponement research efforts published between 1999 and 2006. While efforts were made to be all-inclusive, relevant research efforts may have inadvertently been omitted. However, we believe this review is an accurate representation of the body of postponement research published during the specified timeframe and therefore feel that confidence may be placed on the resulting assessments.\nClosing remarks: Once viewed as a limited supply chain strategy, postponement is in the midst of a resurgence of interest. Practitioners and researchers alike are now beginning to view postponement as a potential tool for reconfiguring the entire supply chain.The objective of this paper was to use the challenges of past research as a measure of the progress of postponement. Our review revealed a significant increase in the number of postponement research efforts, many of which at least partially addressed past challenges. We identified several opportunities to continue addressing these past challenges and present new challenges for future researchers.When concluding his review, Van Hoek (2001) intentionally omitted the term conclusion. Instead, he opted for closing remarks, suggesting that postponement researchers were not yet in a position to make conclusions. Based on our review, we concur and also opted for closing remarks. Our hope is that our work, like Van Hoek's, will serve as a foundation for and measure of future postponement research efforts.\n",
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},
{
"content": "Purpose: - The purpose of this paper is to assess and document the progress of postponement research, identify current gaps, and provide direction for future research efforts.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - Postponement literature published from 1999 to 2006 was reviewed.\nFindings: - The review revealed a significant increase in the number of postponement research efforts, many of which at least partially addressed past challenges noted in previous research. Several opportunities to continue addressing these past challenges were identified. Future researchers are challenged to validate new postponement concepts and extend postponement research beyond its manufacturing context. Other challenges call for the continued assessment of the relationship between postponement and uncertainty and the investigation into the slow rate of postponement adoption among practitioners.\nResearch limitations/implications: - This effort is not an exhaustive review of all postponement research. This review does not consider unpublished papers, papers in non-academic journals, or papers presented at conferences.\nPractical implications: - This review is a useful resource for supply chain researchers interested in supply chain strategies and the evolution of postponement as a supply chain concept.\nOriginality/value: - This paper uses the challenges of past research as a measure of the progress of postponement thought and theory. The gaps identified and challenges made will serve as a foundation upon which future researchers can build.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
Managing the workplace in a globalized world: The role of national culture in workplace management
|
[
"Decision-making",
"Corporate culture",
"National culture",
"Facilities",
"Corporate real estate management",
"Workplace characteristics"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: As the world globalizes fast and economies become increasingly more interdependent, companies find themselves managing extensive real estate portfolios in foreign countries. Real estate managers are confronted with choices concerning the design and management of the globalized workplace, where different national cultures coexist and interact with the corporate culture (Dewulf et al., 2000). This raises an important question: should a workplace in Asia, South America or Australia be designed in a different way than a workplace in North America or in Europe? Also, what about different countries within the European Union zone? One might expect the answer to be yes because people with different cultural backgrounds are likely to react differently to their working environment.\n2. Theoretical framework: 2.1 National culture\n3. Research methods: The empirical research included interviews with representatives of ten multinationals on how they cope with national and corporate culture in corporate real estate decision-making. In addition, site visits to 2 x 3 offices - two multinationals, one office in The Netherlands, one in Germany and one in Great Britain per company - and walkthroughs made it possible to observe whether workplace characteristics differs in connection to different national contexts.\n4. Results of empirical research: 4.1 National culture and corporate real estate decision-making - findings from interviews and comparison with the literature review\n5. Conclusions and recommendations: 5.1 Workplace management of multinationals\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this study is to provide a better insight into the role of national cultures on the management and design of workplaces of multinationals in different countries.\nDesign/methodology/approach: This explorative study is based on an extensive literature review of dimensions of a national culture in connection to corporate real estate management, interviews with ten representatives of multinationals on corporate real estate strategies and workplace characteristics and a multiple case study of two multinational firms with site visits and observations at offices in The Netherlands, Germany and Great Britain.\nFindings: Whereas all interviewed companies had their real estate portfolio to some extent aligned to the local national culture, none had a strict central policy about this issue. Differences in workplace characteristics were mainly caused by the involvement of local people in workplace design. Using Hofstede's cultural dimensions, the case studies showed relationships between masculinity of a culture and the expression of status and between uncertainty avoidance and openness to innovation; however, no relationships were found related to differences in power distance and short-/long-term orientation.\nResearch limitations/implications: The case studies were conducted in three European Union countries. Due to practical reasons, most interviewees were Dutch. Additional empirical research including more different national cultures is needed to advance more unequivocal conclusions and to develop a clear set of guidelines for decision-making.\nPractical implications: The findings stress the importance of finding a balance between aligning facilities to business purposes and meeting the needs of different (groups of) employees in multinational environments.\nOriginality/value: Although much has been written about national culture, not much research is yet available in connection to facilities management and corporate real estate management.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
Forming cohesion in culturally heterogeneous teams: Differences in Japanese, Pacific Islander and Anglo experiences
|
[
"Team working",
"Cross‐cultural studies",
"Pacific Region",
"Japan",
"North America",
"United Kingdom"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n__NO_TITLE__: As the world attempts to deal with both challenges and opportunities that cross national borders, teams consisting of members from different countries are increasingly the norm in business, non-governmental organisations, and even, government. Diverse teams may give rise to more and better ideas (Adler, 2002; Bantel and Jackson, 1989) and their chosen solutions may also have implementation advantages due to their increased recognition of the local context (Adler, 1991). Such group diversity, however, also increases the complexity of team development, especially in communication, making it difficult for the team to become a cohesive unit and to achieve the performance gains typically associated with increased cohesion (Earley and Mosakowski, 2000; McGrath, 1984).\nCohesion: Cohesion is arguably the most important determinant of success among small groups (Carron and Brawley, 2000). Cohesion refers to the forces that bind members to each other and to their group (Guzzo and Shea, 1992). It can occur as team members are emotionally attracted to one another and build a sense of group identity or togetherness or it may be based on a calculative affinity recognizing that goals and objectives cannot be reached without a collective effort. (Tziner, 1982) terms these different types of cohesion socio-emotional cohesion and instrumental cohesion. This article focuses on the more common definition of cohesion as a socio-emotional connection.Regardless of its source, cohesion typically results in positive outcomes. Research demonstrates that cohesive groups generally seem to outperform non-cohesive groups and results in greater job and personal satisfaction (McGrath, 1984; Stogdill, 1972).Given these positive outcomes, it is important to understand the factors that promote cohesion. Literature based largely on western samples identifies several such factors including degree of interaction, team size, nature of the task, and degree of conflict.Harrison et al. (1998) reported that interaction between group members leads to higher levels of cohesiveness. When diverse teams get together, their members tend to note surface level characteristics of race, ethnicity, gender, and so forth. Noticing such traits emphasises the differences between team members, setting up walls against understanding. Further interaction, however, allows members to move beyond these initial impressions and towards recognition of that which is similar and, even, a valuing of dissimilarities. As a result, time spent together is commonly associated with greater cohesion.Similarly the size of a group may either facilitate or limit the degree of interaction. Larger groups place limits on interactions (Summers et al., 1988), causing an over reliance on biological trait comparisons (Harrison et al., 1998). Early studies found that as the size of teams increases, both interaction and cohesion decrease (Kinsey, 1950; Fisher, 1953; Seashore, 1954). Orpen (1986) indicated that the optimal size for work groups was in the range of five to ten members. Beyond these levels, cohesion decreases.In addition to group size, the type of task a team undertakes may also influence the degree of cohesion experienced. Gully et al. (1995) found that tasks requiring a high level of communication, coordination and mutual performance are associated with high levels of cohesion. The opposite was also found to be true. Tasks that do not require an interdependent effort from group members result in lower levels of cohesion.Finally, conflict is a major factor contributing to the level of cohesion in groups. The nature of the conflict, however, needs to be articulated as some forms of conflict may have a positive effect on performance and cohesion while other types of conflict may result in negative outcomes (Jehn, 1995; Tjosvold, 1991).Jehn (1995) articulates two types of different conflict: relationship conflict and task conflict. Relationship conflict arises when there is animosity between group members. This may be because of different interpersonal incompatibilities or simple annoyance between group members. This is especially relevant to the study of multi-national groups where cultural differences often result in a lack of cohesion among group members. Task conflict relates to differing opinions and ideas about the content of tasks. Jehn found that the type of task group members perform affects whether conflict helps, hinders, or has no significant impact on individual and group performance. However, with respect to relationship conflict, Jehn found that personal problems among group members were detrimental in the long term survival of the group. She concluded that there are beneficial and detrimental roles of conflict in different types of organisational groups.The discussion of factors influencing cohesion is well developed within the domestic literature. One area where less has been done, however, is the influence of culture on cohesion. Group dynamics are influenced by individual perceptions of cohesion and conflict that are grounded in cultural values and backgrounds, and yet, the role of these cultural perceptions is largely unexplored in the existing literature. Because of the continued growth of multinational work teams, a more clear understanding of those dynamics is both appropriate and pressing. The following section, then, articulates the most significant aspects of cultural variables that impact cohesion.\nThe role of culture: Thomas et al. (1994) found that teams composed of culturally diverse members experienced less cohesiveness than did those in culturally homogeneous teams. Such findings make sense in light of similarity theory, which suggests that humans feel a greater attraction to those who are most similar to themselves (Nahemow and Lawton, 1975). In multinational teams, such similarity is most often absent.Similar results were found by Wright and Drewery (2002) in a study of Asian, Pacific island, and Anglo students. They found that levels of socio-emotional cohesion in multicultural teams vary across cultures and may be related to differences in conflict perception and management as well as other factors.One approach to understanding the effect of culture on the predictors of cohesion in cross cultural teams, is to employ Hofstede's (1980) dimension of collectivism and individualism. This dimension addresses how people of different nationalities view themselves. In collectivist cultures people primarily identify themselves as part of a larger group. In exchange for their loyalty and devotion, the group will protect and take care of them. In contrast, members of an individualistic society take care of themselves and emphasise individual achievement. They enjoy time along and place a high value on self-sufficiency. Hofstede's work offers important insights into the challenges that arise as a result of multi-national teams.One might assume, with some caution, that collectivists will be more successful at working together in group settings because collectivists are generally more cooperative and enjoy working in a group. In contrast, individualists in the same setting are more likely to become social loafers (Earley, 1989, 1993). Rather than participate in the group goal, an individualist may take advantage of the group collective effort and pursue their own goals.While people in individualistic cultures such as the United States and Australia may get upset with those who engage in social loafing, they certainly would not be surprised by such behaviour. Those from collectivist cultures such as Japan (Hofstede, 1980) and the Pacific island nations (Crocombe, 1976), might have a much more difficult time understanding how someone could put their own agenda ahead of the team agenda. After all, individuals in such cultures take their identity from knowing and fulfilling their role within a team. As a result, those from collectivist cultures might feel much less socio-emotional affinity towards individuals exhibiting loafing behaviours while such loafing might have a lesser effect on those from individualist cultures. This leads to the first two hypotheses:H1a. Social loafing will have a greater negative impact on cohesion among Japanese respondents than Anglo respondents.H1b. Social loafing will have a greater negative impact on cohesion among Pacific island respondents than Anglo respondents.Other actions perceived to indicate a lack of dedication to the team, would have a similar effect. One such action commonly experienced in university team settings is lack of attendance at team meetings. Again, while individualistic cultures may interpret such actions through a lens of acceptable self-interest, collectivist cultures would be likely to take a much more negative view of absent individuals thus decreasing the affinity of team members toward each other. As both Japanese and Pacific islanders score higher on collectivism scales than do Anglos, we hypothesise the following:H2a. Absence from team meetings will have a greater negative impact on cohesion among Japanese respondents than Anglo respondents.H2b. Absence from team meetings will have a greater negative impact on cohesion among Pacific island respondents than Anglo respondents.A related variable that could be considered in a similar light is whether one comes on time to team meetings. Being late might be considered as placing one's self-interest ahead of group needs. Another important cultural factor, however, comes into play in this situation. This is the concept of monochronic and polychronic time (Hall, 1983). In monochronic cultures, being on-time has a very exacting meaning. If a meeting were scheduled for 3.00, a person from a monochronic culture would expect team members to arrive promptly at the appointed time. A team member from a polychronic culture would be comfortable with someone arriving 15 minutes, 30 minutes, or more late. In one study examining bank clock accuracy, walking speed, and post office service speed, Levine and Bartlett (1984) found Japan to be the most monochromic of six countries followed by the United States and England. Italy, Taiwan and Indonesia leaned more toward a polychronic time orientation. Pacific islanders, according to one author are also known as being more polychronic in their orientation toward time (Crocombe, 1976). This opinion is shared by both of the authors who have observed the Polynesian perceptions of time over many years.In the case of the Japanese, then, being late may be seen as demonstrating lack of concern for the team and a lack of professionalism. This dual effect is hypothesised to create a strong negative impact of tardiness on cohesion among Japanese respondents.In the case of Anglo and Pacific island team members, the results are less clear. On the one hand, Pacific island team members will have a much less constraining definition of tardiness. On the other hand, tardiness beyond these bounds will be seen in a negative light based on norms of collectivism. Anglos, while defining tardiness more strictly, will not hold the same collectivist views about the meaning of such tardiness. In both cases, the opposing cultural values somewhat counteract each other suggesting only the following hypothesis:H3. Team members coming late to team meetings will have a greater negative impact on cohesion among Japanese team members as compared with both Anglo and Pacific island team members.Finally, one additional factor influencing cohesion differently among different cultural groups may be the formation of subgroups. In collectivist cultures, people are used to seeing the world as a series of in-groups and out-groups or, in other words, groups from which I take my identity and those in which my identity is not defined or at stake (McFarlin and Sweeney, 1998). When joining cross-cultural teams, it may take some time for collectivists to feel that this is a group to which their identities are tied. As a result, the formation of subgroups within the team based on gender, culture, or other factors may seem quite normal and result in any animosity.In the more individualistic Anglo cultures, however, subgroup formation may be seen quite differently. While individualistic team members may accept individual motives, they are more likely to be suspicious of people banding together to form a subgroup as such a move can be seen as a competitive threat, a political block that may need to be countermanded in the future. Such sentiments arise out of a heightened sense of competition common among individualists (Beteille, 1977) and are likely to cause anxiety and decrease the level of cohesion experienced within the team. This leads to the final hypothesis.H4a. The formation of subgroups will have a greater negative impact on cohesion among Anglo team members as compared to Japanese team members.H4b. The formation of subgroups will have a greater negative impact on cohesion among Anglo team members as compared to Pacific island team members.\nMethod: Sample\nResults: Correlation results\nDiscussion: Summary and limitations\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: - Aims to create a better understanding those factors that influence group cohesion in culturally heterogeneous teams.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - The hypotheses presented were tested on a sample of 250 students from a small Hawaiian university, comprising 140 Anglo, 28 Japanese and 82 Pacific Islander representatives.\nFindings: - The processes and actions that influence cohesion very significantly. Broadly, the research indicates that individuals from different cultures experience the same behaviours in multicultural teams differently.\nPractical implications: - There needs to be a willingness to examine the group experience from the point of view of the cultural other and then to explore that experience in an open way.\nOriginality/value: - This study helps to fill one gap in the understanding of culturally heterogeneous teams but is also the starting-point for additional investigation into the complex dynamics of such teams.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
Inefficient American corporate governance under the financial crisis and China's reflections
|
[
"Corporate governance",
"Recession",
"United States of America",
"China"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: On September 15, 2008, Lehman Brothers, one of the most prestigious players on Wall Street, filed for bankruptcy protection after a frenzied weekend of negotiations failed to find a way of saving the company. Many people may ask a question that why Lehman Brothers, a perfectly good 158-year-old company can be turned into dust. Among these, Nicholas D. Kristof tried to answer the question in New York Times on September 17, 2008. He stated, \"Mr. Fuld, the longtime chief of Lehman Brothers. He took home nearly half-a-billion dollars in total compensation between 1993 and 2007. Last year, he earned about $45 million, according to the calculations of Equilar, an executive pay research company. That amounts to roughly $17,000 an hour to obliterate a firm. If you're willing to drive a company into the ground for less, apply by calling Lehman Brothers at (212) 526-7000\". \"I'm delighted to announce that Mr. Fuld is the winner of my annual Michael Eisner Award for corporate capacity and poor corporate governance[1]\". In Nicholas D. Kristof's opinion, the CEOs are fiscal terrorists. They make use of the ineffective corporate governance and turn the perfectly good companies into dust. The real failure is one of corporate governance, which provides only the flimsiest oversight to curb the greed of executives like Mr. Fuld. As Lucian Bebchuk, the director of the corporate governance program at Harvard Law School said, \"Compare the massive destruction of wealth for shareholders to what he gets at the end of the day,\" A central flaw of corporate governance is that boards of directors frequently are ornamental and provide negligible oversight. The financial crisis arising from USA is a test that corporate America is failing. Perhaps, China and its lawmakers should reflect upon this.\n2. What is the corporate governance?: 2.1 Definition of corporate governance\n3. Inefficient American corporate governance: 3.1 CEO primacy\n4. China and corporate governance: 4.1 Substantial progress of corporate governance in China's company laws\n5. China's reflection under the global financial crisis: There does not exist only the best corporate governance model in the world. Countries should be based on their unique economic, social, cultural and historical traditions to create suitable corporate governance structure to their own actual situation, which is a long way and maybe needs to pay a heavy price in its proceeding. During this period, it is not only useful but also essential for China to continue to study, sum up, refer to and draw positive foreign experiences or negative foreign lessons.Global financial crisis breaks out from the bankruptcy of Lehman Brothers and the take-over of the Fannie and Freddie in USA, for which western governments around the world jointly use the administrative intervention or take public money directly into the market to buy non-performing assets or shares of the listed companies. These methods may be taken as \"temporary\" means. The inefficient American corporate governance may be seen as the fundamental reason of the crisis.Any system can not be perfect, even in the countries with relatively mature market economy. The existence of loopholes of their corporate governance structure also need to be improved and perfected. To a certain extent, China and the US face similar problems: moral self-discipline and administrative supervision, legal punishment and inner and outer supervision of companies. However, the difference is that the USA has exposed the shortcomings of the ever running good system, and China are still in the process of institution building; the USA is urgent to repair their system, and China should learn from various experiences and lessons, combined with its own reality, to establish the rational and efficient corporate governance system in line with its own characteristics.The fundamental problem of corporate governance remains what it has always been: the separation of ownership and control. No reform can succeed unless it overcomes this contradiction. The core of the problem of listed companies'governance in the USA is that the BOD and management are too independent of the shareholders and the formation of embezzlement since high decentralization of the equities and the historical and traditional practices of the corporate laws of the states concerning the distribution of power between shareholders and the BOD; and our biggest problem is that the BOD and management are not too independent, easily controlled by individual shareholders or shareholders groups so that the purpose of the company is to achieve the only interests of individual shareholder or group of shareholders rather than the interests of all shareholders. In other words, the practice of companies in the USA faced by the principal contradiction is the conflicts between shareholders and management; and in China a few cases are that the BOD and management violated the will of the majority shareholders, and the fundamental problem is how to protect the small and medium-sized shareholders. A major contradiction in the company's practice is the conflict between the majority shareholders and the minority shareholders which is not changed for the completion of non-tradable share reform, even for the change in control of the state-owned companies by non-state-controlled since the companies after privatization will be under the control of the individual or its family. After all inheritance from his father's business is China's traditional business ethics.5.1 To combine the ethical approach with the legal approach to solve the issues of corporate governance\nNotes: 1. Available at: www.nytimes.com/2008/09/18/opinion/18kristof.html?_r=1&oref=slogin (accessed 10 September 2008)2. Available at: www.oecd.org/dataoecd/32/18/31557724.pdf (accessed 31 October 2008).3. Id.4. See generally (Phillips, 2002) Wealth and Democracy 317-46 (2002) (detailing a historical and political perspective on executive abuses).5. Because many recent scandals involved false financial statements, Congress enacted the Public Company Accounting Reform and Investor Protection Act of 2002, popularly referred to as the SOX Act. In the SOX Act, Congress required CEOs and CFOs to certify the accuracy of financial statements to their best knowledge.6. Myles Mace's book, Directors: Myth and Reality (1971), has the purpose of challenging the myths and telling the reality. See also, (Williamson, 2008), Corporate boards of directors: in principle and in practice, 24 J.L. Econ. & Org. 247, 252.7. Available at: http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/business/88820_scandals27.shtml8. Id. at 53-120.9. Id. at 25.10. Available at: www.amic.agri.gov.cn/DesktopModules/Infos11/Infos/ThisInfo.aspx?ItemID =58532&c=11.11. Thomas W. Lin, Corporate Governance in China: Recent Developments, Key Problems, and Suggested Solutions, at 10. Available at jacg.rd.fcu.edu.tw/dl/1101.pdf-12. Available at: www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/12/18/AR2006121800599.html13. Id.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: - China has hitherto followed the US model of corporate governance, but recent crises suggest that that might not be the model to follow. This paper aims to consider that proposition.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - This is a comparative study of US and Chinese systems of corporate governance.\nFindings: - Corporate governance is an alien concept for China. The establishment of the China company law system came later than western nations' corporate law system. Since 1992, China has made substantial progress in several areas of corporate governance. It is well known that for nearly a hundred years the American-style corporate governance mechanism has been the model of the countries in the world. And China also follows the example of American corporate governance. Against the background of the global financial crisis, it is time to reflect upon the model of corporate governance in China.\nOriginality/value: - The paper invites reflection on existing paths towards good corporate governance in China.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
The impact of leadership coaching on leadership behaviors
|
[
"Coaching",
"Executive",
"Individualized consideration",
"Leadership behaviours"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n__NO_TITLE__: In 2010, Businessweek published an article examining the top 20 companies for developing leaders. The 20 organizations highlighted in the article invested 300-800 million dollars toward the development of their leaders to promote organizational sustainability and growth (O'Connell, 2010). By focusing on leadership development, these organizations aspired to improve their leaders' competency with leading through economic downturn and surpluses, as well as, creating an organizational environment of collaborative innovation and creativity. For which, organizations can only achieve these goals through the relationships that organizational leaders develop with their followers. Fortunately, one way that leadership development assists with enhancing the relationships organizational leaders have with their followers is through leadership coaching (Baron and Morin, 2009; Ely Boyce et al., 2010).\nLeadership coaching and individualized consideration: We begin by examining the relationship between leadership coaching and individualized consideration. Individualized consideration, a dimension of transformational leadership, is defined as the leader's developmental orientation toward followers' developmental needs and concerns (Avolio and Bass, 2004; Bass, 1985; Piccolo and Colquitt, 2006; Rafferty and Griffin, 2004). Demonstrating individualized consideration entails leaders getting to know their followers' needs and motivations, as well as, providing individualized support for the development of their followers (Arnold and Loughlin, 2010; Cho and Dansereau, 2010; Rafferty and Griffin, 2006). Primarily, leaders act as a coach or mentor to assist their followers with achieving their full potential. To accomplish this, leaders provide their followers with learning opportunities and promoting a supportive climate (Bass and Riggio, 2006; McCleskey, 2014). What needs further understanding is why leaders may choose to provide individual support for their followers. Leaders who experience coaching may shed some insight on this relationship.\nIndividualized consideration and delegation: Leaders who seek to develop their followers will also demonstrate more delegating behaviors. Delegation is a leader behavior whereby the leader assigns, and thereby, relinquishes responsibilities and authority to their followers (Chen and Aryee, 2007; Schriesheim et al., 1998; Yukl and Fu, 1999). Research suggests that delegation has a positive impact on followers' performance. For instance, Leana (1986) demonstrated a positive association between leader delegation and followers' job performance with a sample of employees from a large national insurance company. This has also been supported by the work of Chen and Aryee (2007) with participants from a manufacturing company. Unfortunately, research examining the factors of why leaders engage in delegation are quite limited (Bass, 1990).\nIndividualized consideration and close supervision: The previous section discussed how individualized consideration may influence socially competent leaders to demonstrate more delegation behaviors. Extending upon this notion, this study also asserts that leaders who experience coaching may also demonstrate less close supervision. When leaders engage in close supervision, they micro-manage their followers' actions and behaviors. Consequently, followers often feel that they are constantly being evaluated, managed, and controlled, thereby, leading them to become unfocused and preoccupied with irrelevant work concerns and fears (George and Zhou, 2001; Ryan and Grolnick, 1986; Tetrick, 1989; Zhou, 2003). As such, this leadership behavior pressures followers to do certain things in certain ways, which facilitates the perception of an external locus of causality for their behavior (Zhou, 2003). This contradicts the goals that socially competent leaders have for their followers.\nMethods: Sample and procedures\nResults: All descriptive statistics and zero-order correlations for relevant variables are available in Tables I and II.\nDiscussion and conclusions: The proposed relationship between coaching and how leaders engage their followers as a result of their coaching experience offers interesting insights in the leadership literature. Previous studies have demonstrated the benefits for followers and the organization when leaders engage in more individualized consideration (Arnold and Loughlin, 2010; Cho and Dansereau, 2010; Rafferty and Griffin, 2006) and delegation (Hollander and Offermann, 1990; Leana, 1986, 1987; Valcea et al., 2011), as well as, less close supervision behaviors (George and Zhou, 2001; Ryan and Grolnick, 1986; Tetrick, 1989; Zhou, 2003); however, it is unclear why leaders engage in these behaviors. Leadership coaching may offer an explanation for why this occurs.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: Leadership coaching has received increased popularity over the past decade; however, there is a paucity of research that has examined its impact on leader behaviors within organizations. Drawing upon transformational leadership theory, the purpose of this paper is to understand the benefits provided to followers when leaders experience leadership coaching.\nDesign/methodology/approach: This cross-sectional study collected data from 75 mid- to senior-level organizational leaders and 188 followers.\nFindings: The results of this study reveal that leadership coaching is positively associated with leaders engaging in individualized consideration toward their followers, and in turn, leaders engage in constructive leadership behaviors (i.e. more delegation and less close supervision).\nResearch limitations/implications: While this study contributes to our understanding of leadership coaching for organizational leaders, it, however, focuses on a specific set of leadership behaviors and does not examine the practices embedded in the coaching process.\nPractical implications: Leadership coaching facilitates the leader's aspiration to provide their followers with more individual support. Organizations, in turn, need to promote more opportunities and practices for this interaction to continue.\nOriginality/value: This is the first study to empirically demonstrate the relationship between leadership coaching and constructive leadership behaviors.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Factors affecting performance of hospital nurses in Riyadh Region, Saudi Arabia
|
[
"Nurses",
"Performance management",
"Saudi Arabia",
"Job satisfaction"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: For decades, researchers have been studying factors influencing performance in health organizations with emphasis on worker factors and work environment factors. Nurses constitute the largest human resource element in healthcare organizations, and therefore have a great impact on quality of care and patient outcomes. Job performance has often been examined in light of work attitudes such as job satisfaction and organizational commitment. Nurses' attitudes towards their jobs; and commitment to their employing organizations have been compelling to researchers due to their impact on behavior at work and quality of patient care. In Saudi Arabia, interest has been growing on issues related to performance in health organizations, as a reflection of the increasing interest in quality improvement. This study examines job performance of hospital nurses in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, focusing on the impact of job satisfaction, organizational commitment and personal characteristics.\nLiterature review: Nursing performance\nMethods: Population and sample\nResults: A total of 923 (50 per cent) questionnaires were returned. Demographic and work-related characteristics of study respondents are reported in Table I. The majority of the sample (90 per cent) were women, most of the respondents (94 per cent) were not Saudi nationals, few (6 per cent) were from other Arab countries, most (64 per cent) were from Southeast Asian countries, and (12 per cent) were from Western countries. The education of the respondents was as follows: health institutes (high school equivalent) (13.2 per cent), college diploma (two years) (17 per cent), bachelor's degree (41 per cent), and graduate degree (9.6 per cent). The majority of subjects (37.4 per cent) had five to ten years' experience, (33 per cent) had less than five years of experience, and (29 per cent) had more than ten years experience. Monthly salary was less than 4,000 Saudi Riyals ($1,066) for the majority of respondents (96 per cent).Table II shows descriptive statistics of self-rated performance using single and total measures. Average scores were obtained for each item as well as an overall measure was obtained by calculating the total average for all items. Overall performance is rated at (3.52), which corresponds to good or average performance on the five-point scale used in this study. Self-rated performance was rated above average for most items, highest scores was reported for attendance and punctuality (3.92), while lowest score were reported for sick and emergency leave (2.82). Improving work methods and improving personal skills were among the weakest points of performance at (3.41) and (3.4) respectively.Job satisfaction and organizational commitment scores are also presented in Table II to provide an overall picture of these two independent variables. The data show that moderate levels of job satisfaction and organizational commitment exist among nurses in this study. Highest satisfaction was reported with relationship at work at (3.7), and lowest satisfaction was reported with opportunity for pay at (2.57).To obtain an overall picture of self-rated performance according to personal characteristics of nurses, t-test was conducted as shown in Table III. Self-reported performance was significantly higher among male than female nurses, married compared to unmarried, Saudi as compared to all other nationalities. Job satisfaction was found significantly higher among males, and married nurses, however, was not significantly different between Saudi and Non Saudi. Organizational commitment was found significantly higher among Saudis, among male and among married nurses.Pearson's Production Moment Correlation analysis was used to determine the correlation of each of the independent variables (organizational commitment, overall satisfaction, facet satisfaction, monthly salary, educational level, nationality, marital status, and years of experience) with overall job performance at 0.05 level of significance. The results of this analysis show a significant positive relationship between job performance and organizational commitment, job satisfaction, all six job satisfaction facets, marital status, monthly salary, and years of experience (Table IV). Results also indicate a negative correlation exist between level of education and job performance.Table V summarizes the results of the regression analysis. Regression analysis procedure designed to gain a better understanding of the strength of association between self-rated performance and the independent variables: supervision, promotion, pay, work conditions, the job itself, and relationships at work, organizational commitment, educational level, years of experience, and overall satisfaction. The regression coefficients (b) indicate a change in performance, measured on a five-point scale, associated with a one-unit change in the independent variable.Results of the regression analysis indicate that several variables contribute to overall self-rated performance: satisfaction with: supervision, promotion, pay, work conditions. Organizational commitment, overall satisfaction, and years of experience also influence performance. Other factors examined were not shown to be predictors of job performance, including educational level, satisfaction with the job itself, and relationship at work. The model explained 19 per cent of the variance in self-rated performance as measured by the adjusted R2.\nDiscussion: This study attempted to shed light on an important issue for health organizations today, which is nursing performance. The study examines self-rated performance levels among nurses working in Ministry of Health hospitals in Riyadh Region, Saudi Arabia. Moderate levels of job performance were identified, however, some aspects of performance are lacking, specifically, ability to improve personal skills, and the ability to improve work methods. The fact that these two aspects of performance received the lowest self-rating is an indication of lack of motivation for personal development and creativity among nurses in this study. It may also be a reflection of the limited opportunity available for improving nursing skills and competencies, and lack of a professional climate that stimulates ambition among nurses.Consistent with prior research, job performance was found positively correlated with overall job satisfaction as well as facet satisfaction including: Satisfaction with the job itself, supervision, relationship at work, satisfaction with pay and promotion opportunity, and work conditions (Knoop, 1995; Borda and Norman, 1997; Shader et al., 2001; Judge et al., 2001).Performance is influenced by relationships at work, including patient appreciation of nurses, cooperation among staff, as well as physicians' respect towards nurses and the decisions they make. This finding confirms the findings of other researchers, that perceived social support enhances job performance (Abualrub, 2004), and that patient recognition of nurses influence their performance (Fort and Voltero, 2004).The nature of the job itself was found positively correlated with performance, which indicates that satisfaction with the amount of variety and challenge in one's job actually influence performance. The sense of job significance, feeling important in the eyes of others, realizing ones' competence, and freedom to make decisions are positively related to performance.Job performance was also positively correlated with organizational commitment, which confirms findings by prior researchers that organizational commitment is a strong determinant of performance (Al-Meer, 1995). The positive relationship between organizational commitment and performance indicates that increased loyalty leads individuals to exert more effort at work and increases productivity and performance (Yousef, 1999). Samad (2005), found that several motivational factors moderate the positive relationship between performance and commitment, including relationship with supervisors and colleagues, organizational policies, work conditions, salary, nature of the job, achievement, job security, and possibility of growth.Results of this study show that level of education is negatively correlated with job performance, indicating that the higher the level of education, the lower job performance of nurses. This is contrary to findings by prior researchers that education has a positive influence on job performance. We may attempt to explain this negative relationship between education and performance to be a result of lower motivation among highly qualified nurses due to the low level of compensation associated with higher education, and limited opportunities for career advancement. The data presented in this study show that nurses are dissatisfied with their salaries as well as opportunity for promotion It is also possible that given that 94 per cent of the sample were non-Saudis, and building on research in other countries, migrant nurses may face unequal opportunities in career advancement and skill development (Alexis et al., 2006)This is only speculation given the limited data on this issue, however; further research is needed to investigate causes of the negative correlation between education and performance.One of the main objectives of this study was to identify determinants of nursing performance, focusing on job satisfaction, organizational commitment, and selected personal characteristics. Both job satisfaction and organizational commitment were found to be strong predictors of nurses' performance. Results further show that some aspects of job satisfaction are more able to predict job performance than others, specifically satisfaction with pay, supervision, promotion, and work conditions.These results confirm findings by other researchers that supportive and leadership behavior have positive effect on job performance (Hall, 2007; Drach-Zahavy, 2004; Abdel-Halim, 1980). Employees who perceive their supervisors to be adopting consulting behavior, and participating leadership style are more committed to their jobs and satisfied, and have higher levels of performance (Yousef, 2000). Dieleman et al., 2003, stressed that although financial and non-financial rewards are important motivating factors, the main motivators are appreciation by managers, colleagues and community, a stable job and income, and training.The fact that pay satisfaction is found to be an important determinant of performance of nurses in this study is also confirmed by other researchers in the region (Yousef, 1999; Al-Meer, 1995). Considering the levels of monthly salary received by nurses in this study that were less than SR4000 for more than half of respondents as shown in Table I, there is a need to re-examine salary scales for nurses in Ministry of Health hospitals. Other researchers stressed the need to improve financial reward associated with nursing practice in Saudi Arabia (Saeed, 1995; Jackson and Gary, 1991; Al-Omar, 2003).Promotion as a form of reward was found to be a predictor of job performance, which confirms the conclusion of (Dieleman et al., 2003) that motivation is influenced by both financial and non-financial incentives, and that the main discouraging factors for nurses were related to low salaries and difficult working conditions. In this study, job performance was found to be affected with satisfaction with several aspects of work conditions, including working hours, hospital policies, shifts, physical surroundings, and access to supplies and equipments as a significant predictor of job performance.Finally, consistent with earlier studies, years of experience were found to be strong predictors of job performance, indicating that work experience influences performance (Yousef, 1999; Al-Meer, 1995). Consistent with previous research, nationality was also found to be a strong predictor of job performance, indicating that national culture has a strong impact on work attitudes (Yousef, 2000).This study has several implications for health organizations seeking improvement of nursing performance. Performance improvement is not only a result of well functioning systems, but also depends on effective human resources strategies that succeed in recruiting and maintaining a committed and motivated workforce. Health organizations need to focus on factors that contribute to job satisfaction and organizational commitment of nurses as the largest group of professionals in direct contact with patients. Creating a positive organizational culture and better work environment would eventually enhance motivation and performance. Developing and implementing effective supervisory skills is essential to support, empower, and motivate professionals towards better performance. Financial and non-financial incentives should be improved taking into consideration the hardships nurses go through and the need to retain qualified nurses given the large shortage of nurses throughout the world. Work conditions in nursing, such working hours, shifts, and policies need to be re-examined to create more suitable work situation that motivate nurses into better performance. Physical environment, as well as availability of job-related materials and supplies needs to be improved to facilitate better performance. Human resources policies need to focus on development of nursing staff knowledge and skills. Effort should be directed towards enhancing initiative and creativity among nurses. Nurses must have access to updated information, learning resources, and continuous educational opportunities. The findings regarding the relationship between nationality and job performance indicate that health organizations need to recognize the impact of national culture on work attitudes, and direct their effort to create a high performance culture that is based on empowerment, effective open communication, and respect of cultural differences. Cultural diversity is a reality for most health organizations in Saudi Arabia, as in many countries, therefore, organizations need to adopt effective human resources strategies, that aim to improve commitment and retention of qualified workers.The findings of this study should be interpreted keeping in mind that it has its limitations due to the fact that all measures used are based on self-reports, which might have the problem of common method variance, and social desirability effects. This limitation is viewed as an opportunity for future research on work attitudes and their impact on performance in health organizations.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: - The purpose of this paper is to identify factors influencing performance of hospital nurses in Riyadh Region, Saudi Arabia. Specific objectives were to estimate self-reported performance, and determine whether differences in employee demographics, job satisfaction, and organizational commitment, influenced performance.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - In total, 15 hospitals were randomly selected. The questionnaire was sent to all nurses (1,834) in these facilities and 923 nurses responded. Statistical analysis included correlation, t-test, and regression analysis.\nFindings: - The study finds that job performance is positively correlated with organizational commitment, job satisfaction and personal and professional variables. Both job satisfaction and organizational commitment are strong predictors of nurses' performance. Job performance is positively related to some personal factors, including years of experience, nationality, gender, and marital status. Level of education is negatively related to performance.\nResearch limitations/implications: - The findings of this study have a limited generalisability due to the fact that all measures used are based on self-reports. Future research may be directed to other objective measures of performance.\nPractical implications: - Emphasis should be placed on effective supervision, empowerment, and a better reward system. Cultural diversity is a reality for most health organizations in Saudi Arabia; therefore, they need to adopt effective human resources strategies that aim to improve commitment and retention of qualified workers, and build a high performance organizational culture based on empowerment, open communication, and appreciation of impact of national culture on work attitudes.\nOriginality/value: - This study fulfills a research gap in the area of nursing performance, and its relationship with work attitudes in Saudi Arabia. The paper also highlights the impact of national culture on job performance and work attitude among nurses in Saudi Arabia, and other countries facing the issue of multi-national work force.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
How personality traits, employee incompetence and consumer similarity influence shoplifting behavior
|
[
"Personality traits",
"Consumer similarity",
"Employee incompetency",
"Shoplifting behavior",
"Shoplifting intention"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Shoplifting includes acts such as theft, changing price tags from expensive to discounted ones or eating a store's goods without payment (Bowman and Narayandas, 2004; Haenlein et al., 2007; Vitell and Muncy, 1992). More than 30 per cent of consumers have admitted to shoplifting at least once in their lifetime, and researchers have estimated that the real percentage could be twice (Kallis and Vanier, 1985; Klemke, 1982; Krasnovsky and Lane, 1998; Kraut, 1976). According to the Global Retail Theft Barometer, consumer shoplifting cost retailers $46.89bn (which is 38 per cent of total shrinkage) during 2014-2015 globally (Bamfield, 2016). The losses caused by shoplifting have been attributed to a high proportion of retail costs and an increased cost of security (Haenlein and Kaplan, 2009; Mittal et al., 2008).\nTheory and hypotheses development: A conceptual framework of shoplifting: a planned behavior approach\nMethods: Participants and procedure\nAnalysis and results: Table II presents a summary of the descriptive statistics and correlations of the variables. As expected, shoplifting intention was positively related to all three personality traits (materialism: correlation = 0.251, p < 0.01; sensation seeking: correlation = 0.239, p < 0.01; and alienation: correlation = 0.295, p < 0.01) and to shoplifting behavior (correlation = 0.506, p < 0.01).\nDiscussion: Drawing on the TPB, we set out to investigate how personality traits (i.e. materialism, sensation seeking and consumer alienation) influence shoplifting behavior via shoplifting intention. We find that the effects of materialism, sensation seeking and alienation on shoplifting behavior are mediated by shoplifting intention. More importantly, we also find strong support for the moderating roles of employee incompetence and consumer similarity on the relationship between shoplifting intention and behavior. While employee incompetence enhances the relationship between shoplifting intention and shoplifting behavior, consumer similarity negatively moderates the relationship between shoplifting intention and shoplifting behavior.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: This study aims to investigate the mediating role of shopping intention and the moderating roles of employee incompetence and consumer similarity in the relationship between consumers' personal traits and their shoplifting behaviors\nDesign/methodology/approach: Drawing on the theory of planned behavior (TPB), the authors develop and test a model that links personality traits to shoplifting intention and behavior. The results from a sample of 507 consumers.\nFindings: The results from a sample of 507 consumers show that shoplifting intention mediates the effects of personality traits (materialism, alienation and sensation seeking) on shoplifting behavior. In addition, both employee incompetence and consumer similarity are found to moderate the relationship between shoplifting intention and behavior. The findings offer some useful theoretical and managerial implications.\nOriginality/value: Drawing on the TPB, the authors investigate how personality traits (i.e. materialism, sensation seeking and consumer alienation) influence shoplifting behavior via shoplifting intention. They find that the effects of materialism, sensation seeking and alienation on shoplifting behavior are mediated by shoplifting intention. More importantly, they also find strong support for the moderating roles of employee incompetence and consumer similarity on the relationship between shoplifting intention and behavior. While employee incompetence enhances the relationship between shoplifting intention and shoplifting behavior, consumer similarity negatively moderates the relationship between shoplifting intention and shoplifting behavior.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
BPM and change management: An ambidextrous perspective
|
[
"Total quality management",
"Change",
"Ambidexterity",
"Resistance",
"Business process management",
"Business process re-engineering",
"Ambiguity"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Today organizations are traditionally engaged in change, especially to react to the dynamic environment, dominated by extreme competition, increasing customer needs and the extraordinary technologies-introduction rate. Particularly, in order to reach a sustainable competitive advantage, the literature has focused on ambidexterity as one of the most important theoretical concepts related to organization performance. Ambidexterity is the ability to reach an efficient equilibrium between exploration, or innovation-related activities, and exploitation, or refinement-related activities (Andriopoulos and Lewis, 2009; Gupta et al., 2006). The concept of ambidexterity is well established in the literature; however, there is a lack of empirical evidence related to its implementation, especially in project-oriented context. Starting from this research gap, the present study aims to describe how ambidexterity can be achieved by analyzing the main processes that influence its implementation. Particularly, it analyses the main contextual variables (Vom Brocke et al., 2016) underlying an ambidexterity project, implemented through a business process management (BPM) approach, based on two of its main influencing practices (Ravesteyn and Batenburg, 2010), namely total quality management (TQM) and business process re-engineering (BPR) (Nadarajah and Latifah Syed Abdul Kadir, 2014). The paper is structured as follows. In the next section we present the research background and the literature review. We then provide the research context and method as explanations of the data collection and analysis used in the study. Next, we describe the conceptual framework and main findings from the empirical analysis. Finally, we present the discussion and conclusion by highlighting the limitations of the study.\nResearch background: ambidexterity and BPM approach: Ambidexterity is one of the most important concepts related to organizational performance (O'Reilly and Tushman, 2013), as it is strongly connected to sustainable competitive advantage (O'Reilly and Tushman, 2008). The concept of ambidexterity describes the firm's capacity to simultaneously pursue the tensions between exploration and exploitation (March, 1991). Such tensions represent a conflicting issue (Smith and Lewis, 2011) but also an opportunity both to prevent organizations from the exploitation success trap, that strengthens and exacerbates organizational inertia (Benner and Tushman, 2002), by limiting the responsiveness to environmental shifts, as well as the exploration failure trap, that lacks concrete short-term results being oriented to search for innovation, and focused on search and experimentation for a long-term survival and future oriented actions (Chandrasekaran et al., 2012). The literature has described different ambidextrous strategies in order to manage such tensions. While temporal separation considers ambidexterity as periodical switches between exploration and exploitation according to time (Benner and Tushman, 2003), structural ambidexterity (O'Reilly and Tushman, 2004) aims at reaching such tensions simultaneously through the allocation of different processes into separate sub-units (or change management team (CMT)) each with distinct cultures, structure, control systems and incentives, by ensuring at a managerial level the synergic integration and maximization of the economies of scale and scope of each unit. Finally, contextual ambidexterity (Birkinshaw and Gibson, 2004) is achieved by building the context that enables individuals or teams to divide their time between alignment and adaptability, being focused on individuals who have the capacity to reconfigure activities as required by the task environment across an entire business unit, by innovating and changing in response to the changing demands in the environment. Ambidexterity has been largely studied in the literature, not only by highlighting the positive relationship with performance, innovation and sustainability (Birkinshaw and Gibson, 2004; Cao et al., 2009; Lubatkin et al., 2006) but also by investigating the underlying enabling processes (Gibson and Birkinshaw, 2004; Jansen et al., 2009) such as leadership, managerial roles (Hodgkinson et al., 2014; Liselore et al., 2015) and integration mechanisms between differentiated units (Chebbi et al., 2015; Chen and Kannan-Narasimhan, 2015) value chain activities (Winterhalter et al., 2015) cross-functional interfaces, as well as formal and knowledge integration mechanisms (Guttel and Konlechner, 2009).\nMethod: The research context and process\nConceptual framework: After refining the model, all the information gathered from the data collection process was grouped into four main underlying variables, which are task specialization and systems interoperability (that we named knowledge transfer process), identity and leadership (that we named knowledge conversion process), and two output variables (ambiguity and feedback to change), that captured the essence of the phenomenon investigated. We consider, within the BPM approach, that structural ambidexterity, such as the strategy context within the contextual ambidexterity, has been developed.\nEvidences from the conceptual framework: main findings: Our analysis, by considering the project's dynamics within a structural ambidextrous approach characterized by the simultaneous implementation of BPR and TQM projects, describes the main variables that interact together during the projects' implementation. The process of knowledge transfer, characterized by high task specialization and low system interoperability, caused problems of understanding and shared meaning among employees that came from several organizational functions, due to the implicit and specialized knowledge, embedded in misaligned IT systems and highly specialized tasks. The consequent ambiguity of meaning and understanding produced by teams' interactions, in terms of change requirements, led to different strategy implementation reactions, related to what we have codified as knowledge conversion. Such a process (and the underlying variables of team identity and leadership style mechanism) was useful to create and build new and useful knowledge that, in turn, influenced acceptance or resistance to innovation. We discuss the model in the following section.\nDiscussion: This study shows the importance of BPM through the analysis of some of its context-related factors (Vom Brocke et al., 2016), during a change management initiative, by adding important information to the question of what organizations need to do to implement change and achieve ambidexterity. The paper highlights different contribuitions related to the intersection between BPM and ambidexterity. The first one is related to the contextual \"enabling conditions\" of ambidexterity, and particularly how to enable the connection between knowledge transfer and knowledge conversion process (Guttel and Konlechner, 2009) within a change management project that is BPM oriented. According to the contingent perspective and importance of considering contextual factors, also in the BPM field, there is not a single universal best way to manage business processes but rather, BPM should consider the importance of contextual factors and their diversity on the management of change, being context-aware oriented. Even though contextual factors and awareness are critical for BPM, very few BPM approaches seem to consider the specific contexts, especially regarding the role of culture (i.e. leadership and identity), a domain under investigated by the literature (Schmiedel et al., 2014) and at the same time increasingly recognized as a key element in successful BPM in terms of efficiency and effectiveness. We specified such factors by finding that under a highly specialized context, dominated by specific structural characteristics such as specialization and low interoperability, there are different reactions to the ambiguity and uncertainty linked to change, and such reactions are related to soft variables such as identity and leadership style. Shared leadership and explorative identity are important for enabling CMT ambidexterity (Gibson and Birkinshaw, 2004) and managing resistance to change as they are able to produce a shared mindset and mutual absorptive capacity among heterogeneous sub-units (e.g. different domains, departments or specialties), with different background knowledge and heterogeneous tasks (Benner and Tushman, 2003). These results provide, then some intriguing insights in order to focus on variables that enable forms to reach ambidexterity and, therefore, foster change and higher performance. In line with the literature, that highlight that the culture of the organization is highly supportive of BPM (Vom Brocke et al., 2016), our study specifies two cultural variables (identity and leadership) as important contextual factors that should be analyzed order to create the contextual conditions for changing.\nConclusion: In this paper we have analyzed the implementation of an ambidexterity strategy in a large Italian company that works in the energy field. Particularly, we have empirically described how contextual ambidexterity has been achieved during a BPM approach by considering structural ambidexterity and its enabling mechanisms as the framework in which BPM is implemented.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to focus on the implementation of an ambidexterity strategy in a large Italian Company that works in the energy field. The aim of the study is to understand how contextual ambidexterity has been achieved during a business process management (BPM) approach by describing the main variables that interacted during the project implementation.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The authors based their study both on primary (direct observation and interviews) and secondary (company manuals, books and procedures) qualitative investigations of BPM approach based on three business process re-engineering (BPR) projects and nine total quality management (TQM) projects, focused on change team behaviors, dynamics and dialogues.\nFindings: The authors observed that the implementation of simultaneously radical and incremental change projects has been influenced by the exploration and exploitation activities related to every single TQM and BPR project considered. The findings suggest that the overall project has been influenced by four main underlying variables, which are task specialization and systems interoperability (knowledge transfer), identity and leadership (knowledge conversion) and two output variables (ambiguity and feedback to change), that, by interacting, enable ambidexterity.\nResearch limitations/implications: BPM is an important option to consider within the ambidexterity theory, being conceptually conceived as an approach in which TQM and BPR actually complement each other. Moreover, the results contextualize the importance of the change management team (CMT) to manage the connections between knowledge creation and refinement, and vice versa, depending particularly on the knowledge conversion process enabled by a flexible team culture. The focus of the study is mainly at the BPR and TQM project level. The authors consider structural ambidexterity and its enabling mechanisms as the framework in which BPM is implemented. Moreover, research limitations are related both to the specificity of the context, a large, highly specialized and mechanistic company and to the qualitative approach that may reduce the generalization of the empirical results.\nPractical implications: Managers need to be cognizant and aware both of the BPM techniques, in order to sustain ambidexterity, and of ambiguity and change feedback as variables that enable the effective connection of the different steps of innovation or refinement strategy and, therefore, of ambidexterity. Moreover, the contextual factors such as leadership and people identity should be considered and managed as important variables related to change.\nOriginality/value: The originality of this paper is related to improving the understanding of how to implement the theoretical concept of ambidexterity in a real world organization, by providing new evidence that highlights the importance of contextual ambidexterity within a structural ambidexterity strategy during a BPM project.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
A systematic review and thematic synthesis of research on school leadership in the Republic of Ireland: 2008-2018
|
[
"Principals",
"Leadership",
"Educational administration",
"Educational research",
"Republic of Ireland"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: This paper reviews the last decade of research on primary and secondary school leadership in Ireland. The paper is structured in the following way. First, the Irish school leadership policy context is introduced. Reasons explaining why a review of the literature is timely and practical are subsequently outlined. Second, a review framework and methodological concerns are shared. Third, six thematic findings are described. To conclude, some gaps and silences in the literature are identified to inform future directions of school leadership research in Ireland.\n2. Review framework and methodological approach: Sources from the field of school leadership were consulted in formulating a review framework and a methodological approach (Arlestig et al., 2016; Bush and Crawford, 2012; Hallinger, 2013; Oplatka, 2017). Adopting a systematic review and thematic synthesis (Cherry et al., 2017) ensured accurate synthesis of \"the relevant literature in a comprehensive, transparent and objective manner\" (Byrne, 2016, p. 1). This involved negotiation of a series of issues including ensuring the review was justified; defining the conduct of the search; critical evaluation of literature included in the review, balancing breadth and depth of literature coverage; and providing an overview to those not only currently interested in the field, but also for those readers who will enter the field in various capacities. Each of these issues was attended to in this review. Inclusion and exclusion criteria are summarised in Table I.\n3. Findings and analysis: The six themes that emerged from the analysis are listed below:\n4. Gaps and silences in the literature reviewed: First, although research has demonstrated the necessity to improve and expand provision of LPD, more research on current provisions is necessary, where judgements about the adequacy of formal LPD will need to be balanced against the increasing distribution and complexity of school leadership practices. Tracking those who engage in LPD as a cohort study into appointment and onwards could be insightful. Given reformed leadership and management structures, further research could be conducted on how school leaders are selected and appointed, the profile of and knowledge base drawn on by those who select and appoint them. Second, despite the impact gender has on aspirations to lead schools having been explored, broader accounts of diverse school leaders (for example, ethnicity, religious beliefs, sexual orientation, socioeconomic status), and consequently the opportunities and dilemmas encountered in leading (or aspiring to lead) schools, remain underexplored. Monitoring and understanding diversity more expansively is a necessary step to realise PricewaterhouseCoopers' (2009) recommendation that different images of school leaders needed to be promoted. Third, principals' inclusive leadership practices in diverse school contexts have been explored, but more research on the practices both system and senior school leaders employ to initiate and sustain the building of whole-school capacity for learning about and practising leadership in contexts experiencing increasing diversity is necessary. Despite qualitative (Sugrue, 2015) and quantitative (Darmody and Smyth, 2015) analysis of longitudinal data, larger scale mixed-method longitudinal research on school leadership could be conducted to become an important source of sustained evidence inform decisions about educational reform and its relationship to, and impact on, school leaders(hip). Funding this research could provide a map of school leaders in Ireland and reliably inform sustainable, long-term system planning. Research that examines how school leadership, particularly the principal, builds capacity to influence pre-service teachers' school placements or in-service teachers' professional development within schools through DL, partnerships or collaborative co-inquiry could be further expanded. Finally, research could also explore how and which administrative supports, understood to increase job satisfaction (Darmody and Smyth, 2015), support school leaders best, extending to Boards of Management.\n5. Conclusion: Despite policy interest in school leadership in Ireland growing steadily since the early 90s, only over the past decade has more significant progress in educational research been achieved. Based on this systematic review and thematic synthesis, each discussion under the each of the six themes generated in Section III demonstrates progress, persistent obstacles and the merging of local and global perspectives (Hallinger and Kovacevic, 2019) with implications for future directions for theory, research, policy and/or practice in Ireland and internationally (Hallinger, 2013). From a theoretical perspective, DL can be seen to underpin - at least in official policy - school leadership in Ireland. From a research perspective, DL's convergence with school evaluation and leadership preparation are both interesting and under-examined convergences. Exploring these convergences in Irish and other contexts, in implementation studies, for example, could be fruitful to advance school leadership theory, research and practice. The practical challenges of establishing balance in national approaches to LPD that are sustainable, particularly when conjointly implemented with multiple other reforms, rigorous, accessible and professionally enhancing for participants, from both their own and the system's perspective, are undoubtedly difficult and create onerous responsibilities for system leaders(hip). Therefore, these challenges necessitate further research. \"Religious influence on school leadership\", while taken up by Striepe et al. (2014) elsewhere, is a theme distinct in this review. While in Ireland, it impacts almost every school leader given systemic structures, leadership implications of religion, pluralism and diversity - both in secular and faith schools - demands further study globally. Given policy lacunae despite significant societal change and shifting international migration patterns, research could focus on how pluralism and diversity might be inclusively and democratically achieved, exploring implications for school and system leadership, particularly in politically uncertain times. Therefore, based on this national review, numerous possibilities are raised for continued generation of \"a truly global knowledge base\" (Hallinger and Kovacevic, 2019, p. 28) in school leadership.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to review and generate themes evident in research on primary and post-primary (secondary) school leadership in the Republic of Ireland (Ireland) from 2008 to 2018.\nDesign/methodology/approach: This paper follows the steps of a systematic review and thematic synthesis.\nFindings: Following the review, six themes are identified and described, summarising the most current school leadership research in Ireland.\nPractical implications: Potential future directions of research are identified.\nOriginality/value: No review of research on school leadership in Ireland is currently available and this is timely given the policy context's recent focus on school leadership. The steps taken to conduct the review are clearly outlined.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Testing the decoy effect in the presence of store brands
|
[
"Store brands",
"Promotion",
"Consumers",
"Decoy",
"Framework of sales promotion",
"Relative preference"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: In recent years, store brands have gained big market shares in almost every country in western Europe and are widely offered by European mass retailers (Fall et al., 2013). For example, these brands represent about 40 percent of the total purchases in grocery stores in Spain (Nielsen, 2012). The rapid expansion of store brands has generated a vast body of academic research (Burt and Davies, 2010; Hyman et al., 2010), and could be explained by the potential benefits they have for retailers. Among these benefits, Chen et al. (1999) highlight that store brands can be used to attract customers and make more marketing profits from these attracted customers as well as from loyal customers. Further, Sayman and Raju (2004) show that adding a store brand to the shelves of the retailer increases sales of existing store brands, as there is a positive externality across store brands that might be termed as \"umbrella brand\" effect. Their findings also provide evidence that the retailer may want to design its store brand strategy to take advantage of linkages among products. Furthermore, Sudhir and Talukdar (2004) show that consumers who buy more store brands in many categories are more profitable for the store than consumers who buy relatively more national brands. Thus, selling more store brands does not appear to increase consumers' price sensitivity or cause lower revenues or profits. Rather, it allows the store to differentiate itself relative to other stores, thereby raising profits. Further, they allow a wide range of product options to be offered to meet the differing needs and values of customer groups (Anselmsson and Johansson, 2007). Finally, Kremer and Viot (2012) show that store brands have a positive impact on the retailer image.\n2. Literature review: store brands and the decoy effect: Since the appearance of store brands, retailers have gone from conceiving it as a tool for increasing market share and profitability, to seeing that there are important benefits derived from the correct management of these brands (Oubina et al., 2006). Store brands have been implemented in clear competition to manufacturer brands, and the rise of store brands has been responded to by manufacturers in a number of different ways (Ailawadi and Keller, 2004), in an effort to mitigate their impact. Among these strategies, manufacturers have tried decreasing costs and cutting prices, increasing promotions, increasing R&D expenditures, introducing discount \"fighter\" brands, or even supplying private label makers. Regarding promotions, Ailawadi et al. (2001) show that there are three customer segments: two separate and sizeable segments that buy one but not the other and a third segment of value conscious consumers who usually buy store brands but buy manufacturer brands when they are promoted. The existence of these different segments implies that manufacturers and retailers have the opportunity to either avoid each other or to compete head-to-head. If manufacturers target the deal-focussed segment and retailers target the store-brand focussed segment the tug of war between manufacturers and retailers should diminish. However, if manufacturers and retailers both target the use-all segment, it can exacerbate competition within the channel.\n3. Testing the phenomenon: An online experiment has been conducted to test the validity of the decoy effect and rule out some explanations for the changes in demand that take place when a promotion is held in the presence or absence of a store brand.\n4. Conclusions: The rise of store brands is a challenge for national brand managers. Face-to-face competition on retail shelves adds complexity to the decision process; nevertheless, this challenge also allows managers to use the interrelationships among the decisions to maximize sales and promotions. This paper analyzes the decoy effect when a promotion is established in the presence or absence of a store brand in the choice set. Stemming from Huber et al.'s. (1982) model, we adapt and apply it to a three-component context, and carry out three experiments. As several studies have shown that promotions of national brands yield more effect than those of store brands (e.g. Blattberg and Wisniewski, 1989) the participants are asked to make a hypothetical choice between three products: one store brand and two national brands.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to test decoy effect in the framework of sales promotion, by conducting several experiments to figure out how this decoy effect is influenced by the presence or absence of a store brand.\nDesign/methodology/approach: Several experiments have been conducted to test the validity of the decoy effect and rule out some explanations for the changes in demand that take place. The experiments consider three brands (two national brands and one store brand). All the brand names and prices employed in the experiment are real.\nFindings: The results indicate that, as expected, the inclusion of a decoy in the choice set significantly increases the consumer's relative preference for the promoted product; however, more importantly, the results also show that store brand consumers are more influenced by a decoy than national brand consumers.\nOriginality/value: This paper presents the first evidence of the decoy effect in the presence of store brands.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Inequities in immigrants' access to health care services: disentangling potential barriers
|
[
"Immigrants",
"Italy",
"Health care utilization",
"Inequities",
"F22",
"I1"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: This study empirically assesses the presence of differences between natives' and immigrants' access to health services that cannot be ascribed to the distinct characteristics of these groups. In doing so, it contributes to the understanding of inequities in health care utilization related to immigration.\n2. Literature review: A substantial literature has addressed the unequal access of immigrants and, more generally, of ethnic and linguistic minorities to health care. While an exhaustive review is beyond the scope of this paper, we provide here a short appraisal of some of the contributions that are most relevant for our study. Research has mainly focussed on long-standing host countries, particularly the USA and Canada, and documented how differences in access between immigrants and natives persist over time (e.g. Akresh, 2009; Asanin and Wilson, 2008; Currie and Hotz, 2004; Gaskin et al., 2006; Hargraves and Hadley, 2003; Leclere et al., 1994; Pylypchuk and Hudson, 2010; Pylypchuk and Sarpong, 2013; Schwartz and Artiga, 2007; Wang et al., 2008; Weinik et al., 2005; The Kaiser Commission on Medicaid and the Uninsured, 2008) and are shaped by the institutional context (e.g. insurance coverage, Siddiqi et al., 2009) and the characteristics of migration flows (e.g. shorter stays and limited language proficiency reduce access; see Lebrun, 2012). For Europe, though, the available evidence is sparser. In most EU countries information on the health of migrants, including health determinants and their use of health services, is not available, which limits the possibilities to monitor and improve migrant health (Rechel et al., 2012). In general, existing studies (see Norredam and Krasnik, 2011, for a recent review of the literature) show that migrants face barriers to access (Gerdtham, 1997; Gravelle et al., 2003; Morris et al., 2005; Smaje and Le Grand, 1997), experience lower access to specialist and preventive care and higher usage of EDs (Cots et al., 2007; Davies et al., 2010; Ingleby et al., 2005; Sanz et al., 2000); there is also some evidence of greater use of GPs, especially among migrant women. Several recent studies focussed on Spain document that non-Spaniards are more likely to be treated in hospitals and to contact emergency medical services but less likely to visit specialist doctors than Spaniards are (Anton and Munoz de Bustillo, 2010; Hernandez Quevedo and Jimenez Rubio, 2009, 2011). Further evidence shows that experience with discrimination is a decisive factors in access to health care services (Agudelo-Suarez et al., 2009). These findings are particularly relevant for our study, because in both Italy and Spain, sustained immigration is a relatively new phenomenon.\n3. Context, data, and method: For a long time, Italy was a country of emigration. Starting in the early 1990s, though, the net migration inflow became positive and has increased over time. The share of foreigners in the total Italian population was barely 0.63 percent in 1991, 2.3 percent in 2001 (Istat, 2012b), and 7.5 percent in 2011 (Istat, 2012a), close to the average for the European Union as a whole (Eurostat, 2011). Although naturalization rules affect the cross-country comparison, foreign immigrants in Italy have increased dramatically in the past 20 years, attracting considerable attention in policy debates and the media. The number of countries of origin is large (194, according to Istat, 2012a), which poses some additional concerns for managing diversity in terms of languages, religions, and cultures. At the same time, given the large heterogeneity in welfare cultures of different countries of origin, it is unlikely that any correlation between immigrant status and health care utilization is driven by country specific attitudes toward health care, which are not captured by the control variables.\n4. Results: This section begins with descriptive statistics, followed by the results of the multivariate regression analysis. All statistics are computed using the sample weights provided by the INHS.\n5. Discussion and conclusions: The analysis of Section 4 documents that, after controlling for possible confounding factors, immigrants have unequal access to health care services. In particular, foreigners from extra-EU-25 countries are more likely to contact emergency services and less likely to visit specialist doctors or to use preventive care. These findings align with results obtained for other European countries. Remarkably, similar findings emerge for second-generation immigrants, who have a lower probability of visiting specialist doctors and higher hospitalization rates. The latter result raises concerns for equity and social cohesion in the long run and is consistent with prior findings (Borjas and Sueyoshi, 1997) indicating that differences in welfare participation rates among ethnic groups are transmitted to the children in these groups.\n",
"role": "user"
},
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"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to empirically assess whether immigrants suffer from unequal access to health care services, that add to prevailing socioeconomic barriers to care.\nDesign/methodology/approach: Using a uniquely rich Italian health survey, the authors estimate the correlation between immigrant status and the probability of accessing health services, conditional on a rich set of individual and territorial characteristics.\nFindings: Results show that foreigners are more likely to contact emergency services and less likely to visit specialist doctors and use preventive care. Similar results hold for second-generation immigrants.\nOriginality/value: The authors discuss the sources of observed inequities and suggest tentative policy implications to promote equal access.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Facilitating a just and trusting culture
|
[
"Patient safety",
"Incident reporting",
"Organizational culture"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n__NO_TITLE__: Trust is commonly understood as \"the optimistic acceptance of a vulnerable situation in which the trustor believes the trustee will care for the trustor's interests\" (Hall et al., 2001, p. 615). Trust is highly beneficial to the functioning of organizations; facilitating communication, organizational citizenship behavior, negotiation processes and conflict, cooperation between interdependent employees, job attitudes, organizational commitment, and job performance (Dirks and Ferrin, 2002; Kramer, 1999).\nStudy 1: qualitative analysis of interviews: Members of the Employee Advisory group and the Leadership Advisory Group of the Just and Trusting Culture team at the health region who expressed interest in this research project engaged in phone interviews that were set up at their convenience. They were asked what things their manager and the organization did/could do to either enhance or hinder the development of a just and trusting culture. The interviews lasted, on average, 30 minutes. A total of 12 individuals participated in this phase of the research. The male to female ratio was 4:8, respectively; six participants held leadership positions and six participants were front line employees. The sample size of 12 was deemed sufficient, as answers to the provided questions quickly became saturated. The data gathered from these interviews, along with extant literature on organizational trust were used in the second phase of this research.\nStudy 2: integrating the extant literature on precursors to trust and study 1 findings: Policy and trust\nStudy 2: a policy-capturing research approach: The methodological approach that will be used for this study is policy capturing which is a within-subjects design. The purpose of this methodology is to capture individual judges' decision-making policies; that is how they \"weight, combine, or integrate information\" (Zedeck, 1977). This approach has been used widely in organizational areas including personnel (e.g. Klaas and Wheeler, 1990), organizational behavior (e.g. Martocchio and Judge, 1994), job analysis (Sanchez and Levine, 1989), employment interviews (Dougherty et al., 1986), and strategic decision making (Hitt and Tyler, 1991).\nStudy 2: results: The policy-capturing methodology nests responses to the experimentally manipulated scenario cues within the individual respondent. That is, the 29 respondents were subjected to 32 different experimental design situations, rendering a total of 928 (29x32) individual-level responses. Some of the variability of the 928 responses is expected to be attributable to specific participants. For example, one participant may have been systematically lenient in their responses, while another may have been systematically harsh. This systematic within-person variance needs to be taken into account prior to the assessment of the effects of the variables of interest. This is accomplished through the use of multi-level modeling (Aiman-Smith et al., 2002).\nDiscussion: The current study examined several factors of trust that were hypothesized to relate to aspects of a just and trusting culture at both interpersonal and organizational levels. Empirical evidence showed that when violations of trust are ascribed to lack of ability rather than lack of integrity on the part of the violator, trust is more likely to be enhanced. This is consistent with recent research that contends trust violations come in different types (Kim et al., 2004). Those due to a lack of ability on the trustor's part are viewed less negatively than those due to a lack of integrity. If a clear explanation of how the medical error will be handled is provided rather than no explanation, trust is enhanced. This finding is clearly in line with the interactional justice literature pointing to its critical role in organizational trust research and practice (Greenberg, 1994). Finally, when the response of the direct manager as well as the organization as a whole is to assess the system rather than to blame an individual, trust is enhanced.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to identify managerial and organizational characteristics and behaviors that facilitate the fostering of a just and trusting culture within the healthcare system.\nDesign/methodology/approach: Two studies were conducted. The initial qualitative one was used to identify themes based on interviews with health care workers that facilitate a just and trusting culture. The quantitative one used a policy-capturing design to determine which factors were most likely to predict outcomes of manager and organizational trust.\nFindings: The factors of violation type (ability vs integrity), providing an explanation or not, blame vs no blame by manager, and blame vs no blame by organization were all significant predictors of perceptions of trust.\nResearch limitations/implications: Limitations to the generalizability of findings included both a small and non-representative sample from one health care region.\nPractical implications: The present findings can be useful in developing training systems for managers and organizational executive teams for managing medical error events in a manner that will help develop a just and trusting culture.\nSocial implications: A just and trusting culture should enhance the likelihood of reporting medical errors. Improved reporting, in turn, should enhance patient safety.\nOriginality/value: This is the first field study experimentally manipulating aspects of organizational trust within the health care sector. The use of policy-capturing is a unique feature that sheds light into the decision-making of health care workers as to the efficaciousness of particular managerial and organizational characteristics that impact a just and trusting culture.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Crisis as a plague on organisation: Defoe and A Journal of the Plague Year
|
[
"Organizational change",
"Crisis management",
"Cities",
"Fiction",
"Defoe",
"Organization"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: [...] it was never to be said of London that the living were not able to bury the Dead.(Defoe, 1722/2003, p. 100)\nUse of fiction in organisational learning: It is reasonable to assume that organisations may weather change through adaptation and resilience, and certainly resilience is an important factor (Barasa et al., 2018). This assumption, however, entails another - a continuity of cultural norms and value judgements. But what happens when change \"utterly confounds our notions of what is good or great, what is natural or just\" (Gosling, 2017, p. 36). Like Gosling we turn to fiction to explore this situation and for the same reasons as Gosling: \"not because of the lack of empirical evidence for economic, judicial and governmental disruption [...] but because [fiction] exercises a kind of truth-seeking and hermeneutic imagination\". Defoe, like Lear to whom Gosling refers, asks \"what we might legitimately hope at a time when the sense of purpose and meaning that has been bequeathed to us by our culture has collapsed\" (Lear, 2006, p. 104, in Gosling, 2017, p. 45). The Journal reveals the struggle to maintain norms, value judgements and structures of evaluation in a situation that no longer makes sense. Organisation studies increasingly include the study of fiction to understand real-life phenomena (Buchanan and Huczynski, 2017; De Cock, 2010; De Cock and Land, 2005; Holley, 2016; Phillips and Knowles, 2012; Rhodes and Brown, 2005; Watt, 2000). What Land and Sliwa (2009, p. 350) claim for Robinson Crusoe may be claimed for Journal.\nDefinitions of crisis: A crisis situation is when usual procedures are not able to handle the situation, experience is lacking and resources are insufficient (Janes, 2010, p. 89). A \"crisis\" is an \"extraordinary\", \"unpredictable\" and \"disruptive\" event. Some organisational repercussions for failure are obvious, such as loss of reputation, financial loss or even loss of life.\nThe First Phase of the plague November 1664 to April 1665: In this six-month period, the plague goes from \"two Men, said to be French-men, died of the Plague in Long Acre\" (Journal, p. 3) to a period of \"great Uneasiness\" (Journal, p. 6) when the Bills of Mortality are showing fluctuating death tolls. The Bill for the month of January shows the highest number of deaths in a month since the previous plague of 1656. In February, however, the Bills decrease and \"every body began to look upon the Danger as good as over\" (Journal, p. 6). This is followed by various alarms and \"terrible Apprehensions\" (Journal, p. 7) but relatively low numbers of deaths. Echoing the belief held by many in the early years of the AIDS pandemic that it affected only the gay community (Herek and Glunt, 1988), people (and H.F. includes himself in this) seem to believe that a particular group should be blamed. It was said to have been brought with a consignment of goods originally from the Levant and brought from (the recent enemy) Holland. They cling to the illusion that it is other types of people who are likely to die of the plague rather than themselves - \"it was [...] found that this Frenchman who died [...]\" - and they are encouraged to see that deaths occur in another part of the city than their own: \"[W]e began to hope, that as it was chiefly among the People at the End of the Town, it might go no further\" (Journal, p. 7). H.F. makes no mention at all of the intervention of the civic authorities or any kind of leadership or communication of a civil plan. There is no direction despite the mounting death toll at this time and the \"true Account\" in the possession of the Government. \"Several Counsels were held about Ways to prevent its coming over [...]\" (Journal, p. 3) but nothing of that seems to be communicated to the people. There is no sign of Leonard and Howitt's (2010) command or coordination. What is seen, however, is an individualised sensemaking. Unfortunately such attempts to simplify a situation usually contribute to its complexity (Weick, 2010).\nThe Main Phase of the plague May to end of September 1665: The high death tolls begin in May. From abiding hopes that the disease would be confined to a few deaths at one end of the city, \"[they found that] the Plague was really spread every way, and that many died of it every Day\" (Journal, p. 7). Defoe depicts a great bustle of people leaving the city, primarily those who could afford to, that is, \"the richer sort of people, especially the Nobility and Gentry\", \"people of the better Sort\", with the streets full of people and \"Waggons and Carts [...] Coaches [...] Men on Horseback\" (Journal, p. 9). His brother leaves with his family, telling H.F. that he has heard that \"the best preparation for the Plague was to run away from it\" (Journal, p. 11). H.F. finds this \"Hurry\" very sad, it continues all through May and June and even after that. He himself is in a quandary: he cannot decide whether to stay or flee, to prioritise his \"Business and Shop\" and \"all [his] Effects in the World\" or \"the Preservation of [his] Life\" (Journal, p. 10). H.F. - after six pages of cogitation - decides to stay.\nThe Final Days of the plague: \"The last week in September, the plague being come to its crisis, its fury began to assuage\" (Journal, p. 215). Although there was a decrease in deaths, \"the Plague was still at a frightful Height\" (Journal, p. 215). Nevertheless, people threw caution to the wind and \"not only went boldly into Company with those who had Tumours and Carbuncles upon them [...], but eat and drink with them, nay into their Houses to visit them\" (Journal, p. 216). This recklessness of the people is heavily criticised by H.F. \"The Physicians oppos'd this thoughtless Humour of the People with all their Might\" (Journal, p. 217). He shows great frustration at the people's refusal to restrain their behaviour. The general population is clearly reverting to \"business as usual\": \"they open'd Shops, went about Streets, did Business\" (Journal, p. 218) but the tone of the novel lifts as \"in a short while, Things began to return to their own Channel\" (Journal, p. 219). Janes's (2010, p. 89) \"business as usual\" is evident: \"It must be acknowledg'd that the general Practice of the People was just as it was before, and very little Difference was to be seen\" (Journal, p. 220). H.F. reports that many claimed the morals of the people declined, but he is quick to point out that he would not claim so much.\nConclusion: Defoe challenges the very idea of managing a crisis: \"The best Physick against the Plague is to run away from it\" (Journal, p. 190).\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to enrich the understanding of current models of organisational response to crises and offer additional perspectives on some of these models. It is also intended to confirm the value of fiction as a truth-seeking and hermeneutic device for enriching the imagination.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The study uses Daniel Defoe's 1722 novel A Journal of the Plague Year to draw parallels between his portrayal of the London Great Plague of 1665 and the management of modern-day crises. Defoe uses London's ordeal of the Great Plague to advise those subjected to future crises. Through his representation of plague-ridden streets, Defoe shows stakeholders acting in ways described in current crisis management literature.\nFindings: The authors note how the management of the Plague crisis was unsuccessful and they challenge the very idea of managing a true crisis. The authors are able to illustrate and offer refinements to the Pearson and Clair (1998) and Janes (2010) models of crisis management as well as confirming the value of their constructs across a lapse of centuries.\nResearch limitations/implications: Although it is an examination of a single novel, the findings suggest value in conceptualising organisational crises in innovative and more imaginative ways.\nOriginality/value: It confirms the heuristic value of using fiction to understand organisational change and adds value to current models.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Benchmarking the efficiency of the Korean banking sector: a DEA approach
|
[
"Korea",
"Banking",
"Organizational performance"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: The banking sector is the backbone of the Korean economy and plays an important financial intermediary role. Therefore, the health of the sector is very critical to the health of the economy at large. Given the relation between the well being of the banking sector and the growth of the economy (Rajan and Zingales, 1998; Levine, 1998; Levine and Zervos, 1998; Cetorelli and Gambera, 2001; Beck and Levine, 2004), knowledge of the underlying factors that influence the banking sector's efficiency is therefore essential, not only for the managers of the banks, but for numerous stakeholders, such as the central banks, bankers associations, governments, and other financial authorities. Knowledge of these factors would also be helpful to help the regulatory authorities and bank managers formulate going forward policies for improved efficiency of the Korean banking sector.The purpose of the present study is to extend the earlier works on the performance of the Korean banking sector and examine the efficiency of the Korean banking sector during the period of 1992-2003. The efficiency estimate of each bank is computed by using the data envelopment analysis (DEA) method. The method allows us to distinguish between three different types of efficiency measures, namely technical, pure technical, and scale. The DEA method has many advantages over traditional parametric techniques such as regression techniques. While regression analysis focuses on central tendency and approximates the efficiency of banks under investigation relative to the average performance, DEA in contrast, focuses on the yearly observations of individual banks and optimizes the performance measure of each bank. We differentiate this paper from previous ones that focus on the Korean banking sector and contribute to the present literature in several respects discussed below.First, the previous studies that examined the efficiency of the Korean banking sector adopt the intermediation approach. On the other hand, the present study compare the results obtained from the intermediation approach with value-added or revenue approach that was recently proposed by Drake et al. (2006) and operating approach. This allows us to observe if different input and output definitions affect the obtained efficiency levels.Second, unlike the previous studies that examined the efficiency of the Korean banking sector, the present study constructs and analyzes the results derived from dynamic panels. Constructing a separate frontier for each of the years under study is a critical issue in a dynamic business environment because a bank may be the most efficient in one year, but may not be in the following year. Within the context of the Korean banking sector, it becomes more crucial, as there is an ongoing liberalization in the banking sector over the estimation period. A dynamic panel analysis may also highlight any significant changes taking place in the Korean banking sector during the period under study induced by the Bank of Korea (BOK) supervisory policies.Finally, the present study attempts to critically analyze the returns to scale in the Korean banking sector, which has not been critically examined in the previous research. Given the initiatives by the BOK to strengthen the banking sector, which among others involved mergers and acquisitions of the domestic banking institutions, the precise nature of scale efficiency (SE) is critically important to both comprehend the economic rationale and to prescribe their going forward policies. Furthermore, it will be of practical interest to estimate and compare the returns to scale of the nationwide commercial banks[1] compared to their regional commercial bank[2] peers given that the size of the former are much larger than that of the latter. Furthermore, the regional commercial banks only maintain branch banking within their 0 localities and mainly serve small- and medium-sized enterprises, households, and individual borrowers in their respective regions. On the other hand, the nationwide commercial banks are allowed to maintain branch banking systems throughout the country and engage in both short- and long-term financing.This paper is set out as follows: in the next section, we provide reviews of the main literature. In Section 3, we outline the approaches to the measurement of efficiency change. Section 4 discusses the results, and finally we conclude in Section 5.\n2. Review of the literatures: Since its introduction by Charnes et al. (1978) and Banker et al. (1984), researchers have welcomed DEA as a methodology for performance evaluation (Gregoriou and Zhu, 2005). However, a large body of literature exists on banking efficiency in the USA (see surveys in Berger et al., 1993; Berger and Humphrey, 1997; Berger, 2007, and references therein) and the banking systems in the Western and developed countries (Sathye, 2001; Drake, 2001; Canhoto and Dermine, 2003; Webb, 2003; Fiordelisi, 2007; Pasiouras, 2008; Sturm and Williams, 2008; Siriopoulos and Tziogkidis, 2010).Fukuyama (1993) who considers the efficiency of 143 Japanese banks in 1990 is among the earliest to employ frontier estimation technique to examine the performance of Asian banks. The results suggest that banks of different organizational status perform differently in respect to all efficiency measures and that SE is positively, but weakly associated with bank size.Single country studies focusing on the Asian banking sectors have mainly concentrated on the comparison between the foreign and domestic banks' performance. Generally, the empirical evidence showed that foreign banks have succeeded in capitalizing on their advantages and exhibit a higher level of efficiency than their domestic bank peers. Leightner and Lovell (1998) find that the average domestic Thai banks experienced falling total factor productivity (TFP) growth, while the average foreign bank experienced increasing TFP. Unite and Sullivan (2003) suggest that the entry of foreign banks in the Philippines has resulted in the reduction of interest rate spreads and bank profits of the domestic banks that are affiliated with family business groups. In a study on the Malaysian banking sector, Matthews and Ismail (2006) suggest that foreign banks in Malaysia have exhibited a higher level of technical efficiency (TE). They also suggest that the productivity of the domestic banks is more susceptible to macroeconomic shocks than their foreign bank counterparts.The South Asian banking sectors have also been studied extensively. Sathye (2003) and Shanmugam and Das (2004) find that the public and foreign-owned banks in India have exhibited a higher level of TE compared to their privately owned bank peers. Iimi (2004) suggests that privatized banks in Pakistan are the most efficient, followed by the foreign-owned banks, while the public banks are the least efficient. Hardy and di Patti (2001) investigate the effects of financial reforms on profitability, cost, and revenue efficiency of the Pakistan banking sector during 1981-1998. They show that financial liberalization has positive impact on banks' performance. Subsequently, di Patti and Hardy (2005) examine the cost and profit efficiency of Pakistan commercial banks during the period 1981-2002. They find that financial liberalization leads to higher bank profitability, but only during the first round of financial reform of 1991-1992.Despite substantial studies performed in regard to the efficiency of financial institutions in the USA, Europe, and other Asia-Pacific banking industries, empirical evidence on the Korean banking sector is relatively scarce. By employing the Malmquist productivity index (MPI) approach, Gilbert and Wilson (1998) focus on the impact of deregulation in the 1980s on the productive efficiency of Korean private banks during the post-1980s to pre-crisis years, showing that deregulation did improve bank efficiency. Hao et al. (2001) employ the stochastic cost frontier approach and focus on the pre-crisis period of 1985-1995. The results indicate that high-growth institutions with vast geographical networks and banks funded with retail deposits were the most efficient during that era. Most recently, Park and Weber (2006) examine the efficiency and productivity of the Korean banking sector during the 1992-2002 period. The empirical findings derived from the directional technology distance function method suggest that the Korean banking sector exhibits productivity growth attributed to technical progress, which outweighs declines in efficiency. Other studies like An et al. (2007), Jeon et al. (2006), Choi and Hasan (2005) and Choe and Lee (2003) examine the performance of Korean banking sector by employing central tendency regression approach rather than frontier estimation techniques.\n3. Methodology and data: 3.1 Data envelopment analysis\n4. Empirical findings: In this section, we will discuss the TE change of the Korean banking sector, measured by the DEA method and its decomposition into PTE and SE components. The efficiency of the Korean banking sector is first examined by applying the DEA method for each year under investigation. To allow efficiency to vary over time, the efficiency frontiers are constructed for each year by solving the linear programming (LP) problems rather than constructing a single multi-year frontier.4.1 Efficiency of the Korean banking sector\n5. Concluding remarks: The present study examines the efficiency of the Korean banking sector during the period 1992-2003. The DEA method is employed to three different approaches to demonstrate how efficiency scores vary with changes in inputs and outputs. During the period under study, Korean banks' have exhibited a higher level of TE under the operating approach compared to the intermediation and value-added approaches, while banks are characterized by relatively low level of TE under the intermediation approach. The empirical findings suggest that the inefficiency of the Korean banking sector was largely due to scale rather than pure technical under the operating approach, while scale inefficiency seems to outweighs pure technical inefficiency under the value-added approach. We find that under the intermediation approach, the Korean banking sector's inefficiency stems largely from pure technical, rather than scale.The empirical findings from this study present important ramifications. From the policy-making perspectives, the empirical findings clearly demonstrate the sensitivity of the efficiency scores derived from the DEA method to the choice of inputs and outputs. If anything could be delved, the policy makers ought to be more cautious before making decisions from the results derived from a single approach. The results clearly highlights that a bank may be the most efficient under certain approach, but may not be under another approach.The empirical findings from this study clearly suggest that the decline in the efficiency of the Korean banks were mainly due to scale. The results imply that banks operating in the Korean banking sector are either too small to benefit from the economies of scale, or too large to be scale efficient. Thus, from the policy-making perspective, the results imply that the relatively smaller banks could raise their efficiency levels by expanding, while the larger banks would need to scale down their operations to be scale efficient.From the economies of scale perspectives, mergers among the small banking institutions should be encouraged. This should entail the small banks to reap the benefits of economies of scale. The larger institutions will also have better capacity to invest in the state-of-the-art technologies, which could enhance the rate of TFP growth of the Korean banking sector. Furthermore, consolidation among the small banking institutions may also enable them to better withstand macroeconomic shocks like the Asian financial crisis.During the period under study, it is observed that in terms of SE, the larger banks have lagged behind their smaller counterparts. The optimal size for a firm would be at a point where it reaches a constant return to scale (CRS). To recap, a DMU operating under IRS needs to expand its operations, while a DMU, which is operating at DRS would on the contrary lead to downsizing. Perhaps, the reason why larger banks are underperforming in comparison to their smaller peers could be that their size has become more of a burden than an advantage arising from the mergers and acquisitions activities. There are considerable costs associated with the management of a large organization and making sure that these costs do not outweigh the size benefits is of great importance. The findings above could be a reflection to the belief that scope economies, rather than economies of scale, are often seen as the main benefit banks derive by merging.The empirical results which suggest that the Korean banks have been operating at a non-optimal scale of operations are in line with the findings by among others Sufian (2007) on the Malaysian banking sector. To recap, Sufian (2007) found that during the post-merger period the inefficiency of the Malaysian banking sector was largely due to scale rather than pure technical. He also suggests that the mergers were particularly successful for the small- and medium-sized banks, which have benefited the most from expansion and via economies of scale. If anything could be delved from the results, policy makers ought to be more cautious in promoting mergers as a mean to achieve greater efficiency in the banking sector. However, as mentioned earlier, the findings above could be a reflection to the belief that scope economies, rather than economies of scale, are often viewed as the main benefit banks derive by merging, particularly within the context of the Korean banking sector.However, over the long term, improvements may arise arising from a more progressive banks developing and introducing new technologies. Such innovative banks may acquire improved status and benefit from scale operations. Although size alone is not sufficient to guarantee efficiency, nonetheless being a large bank is an important aspect to achieving sufficient scale to be able to invest in the identification and development of cutting-edge technology and management systems. This certainly applies where there has been significant progress in enhancing the network of delivery channels, including optimizing the number of branches within the bank's network.Owing to its limitations, the paper could be extended in a variety of ways. First, the scope of this study could be further extended to investigate changes in cost, allocative, and technical efficiencies over time. Second, the non-parametric frontier analysis used in this paper could be combined with the stochastic frontier analysis method of estimating the frontier. This should testify to the robustness of the results against alternative estimation methods. Finally, investigation of changes in productivity over time as a result of technical change or technological progress or regress by employing the MPI could yet be another extension to the current paper.Despite these limitations, the findings of this study are expected to contribute significantly to the existing knowledge on the operating performance of the Korean banking sector. Nevertheless, the study have also provide further insight to bank-specific management as well as the policymakers with regard to attaining optimal utilization of capacities, improvement in managerial expertise, efficient allocation of scarce resources, and most productive scale of operation of the banks in the industry. This may also facilitate directions for sustainable competitiveness of future banking operations in Korea.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: - The purpose of this paper is to critically examine the sources of inefficiency in the Korean banking sector. The present study focuses on three different approaches: intermediation approach, value-added approach, and operating approach, to differentiate how efficiency scores vary with changes in inputs and outputs.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - The paper utilizes the non-parametric data envelopment analysis methodology to measure the efficiency of banks operating in the Korean banking sector. The method allows for the decomposition of technical efficiency (TE) into its mutually exhaustive components of pure technical and scale efficiencies.\nFindings: - The empirical findings suggest that estimates of TE are consistently higher under an operating approach vis-a-vis the intermediation and value-added approaches. On the other hand, banks are characterized by a relatively low level of TE under the intermediation approach.\nResearch limitations/implications: - Further analysis on the performance of the Korean banking sector performance will examine the efficiency changes over time by employing the parametric stochastic frontier analysis method. Investigations into productivity changes over time, as a result of a technical change or technological progress or regression by employing the Malmquist productivity index could yet be another extension to the paper.\nPractical implications: - The findings from this study are essential not only for the managers of the banks, but for numerous stakeholders such as the central banks, bankers associations, governments, and other financial authorities. Knowledge of these factors would also be helpful to the regulatory authorities and bank managers who formulate going forward policies for improved efficiency of the Korean banking sector.\nOriginality/value: - Unlike the previous studies on the efficiency of the Korean banking sector, the paper focuses on three different approaches: intermediation approach, value-added approach, and operating approach to differentiate how efficiency scores vary with changes in inputs and outputs.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Occasionally open, always an experience: limiting store hours
|
[
"Relationship marketing",
"Apparel and home furnishings",
"Female entrepreneurs",
"Limited store hours",
"Occasional shops"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Why some retailers have adopted limited store hours and the strategies they employ to retain customers given the reduced hours of accessibility remain largely unexplored. The aim of this study is to learn more about the advantages and disadvantages perceived by retailers who have implemented a limited store hours approach to business. We focus on bricks-and-mortar women's apparel/accessories and home furnishings retail shop owners who operate viable businesses but do not keep traditional hours of operation. By opting to open four days a month or perhaps three days a week, these owners strive to balance family and personal time while still meeting customer demands. The limited store hour or occasional shop phenomenon has evolved nationally over the past ten years with female owners leading the way. As one example, such shops have clustered in Buffalo, Minnesota and now provide a destination shopping venue boosting the region's economy (see www.buffalo-mn.org/shopping.htm#occasional).\nLiterature review: Brief history of shopping hours\nMethod and analyses: Qualitative data collection\nFindings and discussion: Ten major themes emerged from the exploratory interview data. These were broad themes of:\nConclusions, limitations, and implications: Most understand the traditional business model involving nearly limitless hours of operation providing customers optimal access for shopping. What is less distinct pertains to how and why retailers adopt a business model of limited shopping hours. Strategies for offsetting limited open hours are unambiguous for these six retailers. Owners followed a strategy of concentrated merchandise turnover and vigilance in visual merchandising. This strategy is summarised by the following owner, \"We have right now 80-90 per cent new inventory each month and we rearrange it and we change how it looks and we take the time to make sure that the once-a-month methodology rewards our customer\" (IAPP2).\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The study aims to understand the new retail phenomenon of limited store hours. Specifically, the study explores the viability of the retail operation and how the owners of those businesses strategically compensate for fewer hours of operation (e.g. four days a month).\nDesign/methodology/approach: A qualitative, multiple-case study was conducted via interviews with six female owners of women's apparel/accessory or home furnishings shops, both independent and franchised operations. The duration of interviews ranged from 45 to 90 minutes. Transcripts were analysed using constant comparative methods.\nFindings: Ten major themes emerged from the interview data. Data supported the three propositions involving connections between lower pricing strategy and limited store hours, consumers' shopping flexibility and limited store hours, and relationship marketing practices and limited store hours.\nResearch limitations/implications: Findings are drawn primarily from data provided by female owners of stores selling apparel/accessory or home furnishing products in one region of the USA. Future research is encouraged to examine a variety of retail product categories, level of open store hours and locations, and customers' perspectives about this type of businesses.\nPractical implications: Retail operations with limited hours were deemed cost effective and thus provide entrepreneurial opportunities that allow balance between work and home life.\nOriginality/value: Scant research has investigated the phenomenon of businesses that are open limited store hours, though much has been written from the traditional business model in which the retail operation is open nearly around the clock. This exploratory study reveals the feasibility and personal benefits of operating a limited hour shop.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
How do strategic networks influence awarding contract? Evidence from French public procurement
|
[
"Public procurement",
"Social network analysis",
"Awarding contract",
"Strategic networks"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: In France, public procurement awarding represents nearly 15 percent of the GDP, and covers procurement contracts (traditional procurement), public service delegations (including concessions), and public-private partnerships (OECD, 2006). Nonetheless, the contracts upon which the public procurement system is based are subject to information asymmetries and contractual incompleteness (Saussier and Tirole, 2015). Public authorities cannot foresee every event that may arise while the contract is being performed, because the company providing the product or service knows its own costs and economic environment better than they do.\nTheoretical background: Awarding contract\nMethodology: The data used in this study come from the contract award notice file of the Bulletin Officiel des Annonces des Marches Publics (BOAMP) published in the French Official Journals for the year 2008. The BOAMP (www.boamp.fr) advertises calls for tenders and the contracts awarded by the state, local communities, and public establishments. Article 40 of the PPCC (2012) stipulates that advertising in the BOAMP is mandatory for all contracts valued at over EUR90,000.\nResults: The results of our test and estimation procedure are presented in three sections. First, we describe the general characteristics of the variables of the model (descriptive statistics). Then, we affirm the validity of our measurement model (quality of the measurement of latent variables) using validation procedures adapted to the type of variables of the model. Lastly, the structural model is estimated (testing of hypotheses formulated).\nDiscussion and conclusion: Table IV summarizes the research hypotheses and results. It shows that two hypotheses are affirmed and the third is partly supported.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to study how networks may influence the awarding of a contract. In particular, the authors explore strategic networks originating from cooperative relationships.\nDesign/methodology/approach: Based on notices of contracts awarded in the French public sector, the authors identified 10,377 partnership relations within 4,242 strategic alliances. The authors represented the system of relations in a graph. The authors used the networks depicted to measure a set of relational properties and build a structural equation model (partial least squared-path modeling).\nFindings: The results highlight two important elements. First, the authors reveal the impact of the strength of weak and strong ties on contract awarding. Second, the authors show that the strength of weak ties is magnified by lead partners.\nOriginality/value: The findings provide insight into strategic behavior that can influence awarding contract. The authors also provide public principals with new means to improve their partner relations.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Corporate social responsibility and innovation: a comparative study
|
[
"Corporate social responsibility",
"Service innovation",
"Manufacturing innovation",
"Resource-based view",
"Service-dominant logic",
"Stakeholder theory"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: Over the last few decades, corporate social responsibility (CSR) has attracted global attention and academic investigation. Further, stakeholders have made increased sustainability awareness the status quo (Hengst et al., 2020). Based on this, integrating responsible social actions into a firm's strategy is likely to enhance its competitive advantage (Herrera, 2015). A firm's CSR orientation should play a key role in promoting its long-term and sustainable growth in the dynamic environment (Martinez-Conesa, 2017) and be treated as a strategic priority for integrating social and environmental goals into organizational activities (Baumgartner, 2014). It should also be a firm's strategic priority to improve the overall quality of life in society and cultivate benign relationships with employees, customers, suppliers, shareholders, creditors, communities and other stakeholders (Hillman and Keim, 2001).CSR has been well studied in the literature, both theoretically and empirically. Much research has examined its outcomes, with a recent shift in focus from accounting and financial outcomes (e.g., Mcguire et al., 1988; McWilliams and Siegel, 2000) to non-financial and social outcomes (e.g., Gomulya and Boeker, 2014; Jones et al., 2014; Petrenko et al., 2016). The more recent literature has suggested that CSR can create added value in terms of innovation (e.g., Husted and Allen, 2007). Herrera (2015), for example, proposed a preliminary framework for corporate social innovation, relying on case studies to describe how firms' CSR considerations (e.g., footprint, stakeholders and strategy) contribute to their process or product innovations through institutional elements (e.g., stakeholder engagement, sustainability and organization). However, there has been a dearth of empirical research on whether CSR affects service and manufacturing firms differently, especially when it comes to its effects on innovation performance. This has created a research gap that calls for further understanding of the strategic decision-making underpinning CSR implementation and its associated benefits in terms of future development. Indeed, as an important corporate strategic consideration, CSR is related to the issue of corporate vitality. With corporate vitality, firms can develop the foresight to act on future environmental uncertainty (Rohrbeck et al., 2015) and enhance their innovation capacity (Rohrbeck and Gemunden, 2011).From another perspective, some research has portrayed CSR as deficient, and merely a matter of internal decision-making, whereas empirical investigations have generally focused on firms' internal socially responsible practices (Arend, 2014; Walker et al., 2014). Today we live in a networked environment, and CSR issues should be analyzed in an open-system environment rather than one that is internally focused or closed (Santana et al., 2009; Hengst et al., 2020). Specifically, in addition to internal environmental practices and processes, firms are advised to integrate network partners, such as suppliers, into their integrative processes directed at systemically shared sustainability goals (Wang et al., 2018). CSR research integrating both internal processes and external integrative processes is thus called for. This study investigates the mechanism through which CSR strategies affect innovation performance. It is based on a large sample of both manufacturing and service firms. Several studies have suggested that CSR has a \"strategic\" role to play in creating value for firms. We expand on this insight by empirically substantiating the role of CSR in stimulating innovation in both manufacturing and service firms. We also compare the influencing mechanisms respectively.From a theoretical perspective, this study enriches and extends service-dominant logic (SDL), stakeholder theory and the resource-based view (RBV) by applying them to the context of the CSR-innovation relationship. Both sides of this relationship are important to firms' long-term success. Specifically, this study reveals the similarities and differences between service and manufacturing firms in terms of the mechanism through which CSR affects innovation. Practically, our findings will help service and manufacturing firms to allocate limited resources in more efficient ways.The remainder of the paper is organized as follows. In the next section, a literature review provides the theoretical background for the research. It is followed by a set of hypotheses based on the theoretical framework. The research methodology section describes the proposed study and research method. Thereafter, the empirical results are analyzed. Finally, the results are presented and discussed, the managerial implications are explained and future research opportunities are suggested.\n2. Theoretical background and literature review: 2.1 CSR and firm performance\n3. Research framework and hypotheses: Based on stakeholder theory and the RBV, we used two key firm resources from stakeholders to explore the underlying mechanism through which CSR strategies affect innovation performance: internal employee involvement and external supplier collaboration. We also examined how CSR influences service and manufacturing innovation performance differently by building up unique firm resources. The conceptual model is shown in Figure 1. CSR was defined as \"the subset of corporate responsibilities that deals with a company's voluntary/discretionary relationships with its societal and community stakeholders\" (Waddock, 2004, p. 10). Employee involvement was defined as the extent to which employees actively participate in strategy implementation and work process optimization. \"Supplier collaboration\" referred to the extent to which suppliers are involved in product- or service-related improvements (Koufteros et al., 2007; Wang et al., 2016a, b). \"Service innovation\" (or \"product innovation\") referred to the newness and creativity of the service (or product) provided by a service provider (or manufacturer). 3.1 The relationship between CSR and innovation performance\n4. Research methodology: 4.1 Measures\n5. Results: We used the bootstrapping-based partial least squares (PLS) approach to SEM to analyze the data (Peng and Lai, 2012; Henseler et al., 2016). Traditional testing methods, such as the causal steps strategy (Baron and Kenny, 1986) and the Sobel test approach (Sobel, 1982), were limited by the requirement of multivariate normality in both total and indirect effects. Bootstrapping-based PLS was considered to be a more suitable approach to testing the indirect and total effects of multiple mediators in the same model (Preacher and Hayes, 2008). We followed Chin and Dibbern's (2010) permutation-based multi-group invariance testing method and used pair-wise t-tests to compare the indirect/mediation effects in different groups. SmartPLS (version 3.2.8) was used to assess the measurement and structural models (Ringle et al., 2015). Bootstrap samples were derived from manufacturing and service datasets, respectively, to ensure bias-corrected comparison. Both the service and manufacturing data were permuted according to the random allocation process, and as a result, 5,000 bootstrap samples of service firms and 5,000 of manufacturing firms were generated (sample size N = 686 and N = 1,646 respectively). The path coefficients for the direct effects in the bootstrap samples were multiplied to obtain the coefficients of mediation and the indirect effects for manufacturing and service firms, respectively. Next, pair-wise t-tests were carried out to compare the magnitudes of the mediation effects between the two groups. By sorting the 5,000 values from low to high, the confidence intervals of the mediation effects were obtained. 5.1 Non-response bias and common method bias\n6. Discussion and conclusions: 6.1 Major findings and implications\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this study was to examine how firms' corporate social responsibility (CSR) strategies affect their innovation performance via two mediating variables, employee involvement and supplier collaboration, and compare how this mechanism works in the service and manufacturing industries.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The conceptual model was built on stakeholder theory, the resource-based view (RBV) and service-dominant logic (SDL). Based on survey data from 686 service firms and 1,646 manufacturing firms, the hypothesized relationships were tested using structural equation modeling (SEM).\nFindings: The empirical results showed that CSR positively affected service innovation and product innovation in service firms and manufacturing firms, respectively, and that these effects were positively mediated by employee involvement and supplier collaboration. However, compared with manufacturing firms, the effect of CSR on innovation performance was greater for service firms. Supplier collaboration and employee involvement also played a stronger role in service firms when mediating the relationship between CSR and innovation performance.\nOriginality/value: By analyzing and validating the direct and indirect effects of CSR on innovation performance in both the service and manufacturing industries, this study addressed the strategic benefit of CSR and extended research focused on the financial benefits of CSR. Therefore, its findings contribute to our understanding of sustainability and innovation issues. From a theoretical perspective, this study extended the RBV, SDL and stakeholder theory to the context of the CSR-innovation relationship, and showed that firms could align CSR and innovation initiatives to achieve strategic synergy. It also revealed the similarities and differences between service and manufacturing firms regarding the mechanism through which CSR affects innovation.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Drivers of changes in product development rules: How generations of rules change back and forth
|
[
"Case studies",
"Product development",
"Organizational change",
"Organizational innovation"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: Even if the use of rule-based structured approaches is considered critical in achieving successful product development (Barczak et al., 2009; Brown et al., 2003; Ernst, 2002; Griffin, 1997), the dynamics of these have barely been researched, despite the fact that structured approaches were introduced as early as the late 1950s (Johnson and Jones, 1957) and have since spread throughout the world (Ettlie and Elsenbach, 2007). Successful companies are often claimed to be so due to the use of such systems (Buganza et al., 2010; Cooper, 1990, 2001; Cooper and Kleinschmidt, 1991; Ernst, 2002; Griffin, 1997), although this is contested (Khurana and Rosenthal, 1998; Olin and Wickenberg, 2001; Van Oorschot et al., 2010).\n2. Prior research on rules for the management of product development: Prior research has pointed to the widespread use of product development rules in companies (Barczak et al., 2009; Brown et al., 2003; Cooper, 1990, 2001; Ernst, 2002; Ettlie and Elsenbach, 2007; Griffin, 1997) and how managers, project managers and employees take them into account in their work in different ways (Christiansen and Varnes, 2009; Ettlie and Elsenbach, 2007; Martinsuo and Poskela, 2011).\n3. Research design: The sampling of cases can follow many strategies, but a strategy to support heterogeneity (Robinson, 2014, pp. 34-35) was chosen here based on four criteria: firms' experience with rules for managing product development; profitability; managerial attention on the management of product development; and industry diversity. Theoretical sampling is useful when the breadth or scope of possible variations is considered important. As Corbin and Strauss (2008, p. 143) originally stated: \"The purpose of theoretical sampling is to collect data from places, people, and events that will maximize opportunities to develop concepts in terms of their properties and dimensions, uncover variations, and identify relationships between concepts.\"\n4. Section one: factors influencing rule change: Changes in rule systems seem to be spurred by different drivers. As Table II shows, some of the factors influencing rule creation and rule change are found in all the case companies, whereas others are present in either one or only a few cases. The analysis showed that there were examples of the influence of all six suggested drivers of changes, but that four drivers in particular initiated changes.\n5. Section two: rule system dynamics: The analysis of the dynamics of the generations of rules produced interesting results (see Figure 1). No first generation rule systems (Cooper, 2001) were identified, but Alpha, Beta and Delta initially implemented a second generation, whereas Gamma and Epsilon started with a third generation gate system.\n6. Discussion: Previous research has focussed on the importance of internal learning processes when companies modify their rules regarding product development (Cooper, 1994, 2001; Griffin, 1997). The observations here support the initial assumption that there are several other factors that influence changes in the rules for product development, besides internal learning. The dynamics of rules are influenced by both internal and external factors, as also identified by researchers in organizational studies (Beck and Kieser, 2003; March et al., 2000; Sullivan, 2010; Zhou, 1993). However, previous studies in product development have not addressed the use of rules as a device for managers to redirect attention, regulate internal processes, manage conflicts and decision making, and facilitate the implementation of company strategies. One example is the need to coordinate development activities across units, phases and types; namely, the task of portfolio management. Portfolio management, in some form or another, had been introduced in all the companies in this study in the period analyzed and had caused the generation of new rules. Rules were created regarding how to report from project bases to business units, how to handle the project portfolio at the level of business units and at the corporate level, who was responsible for what and where, and how to conduct portfolio management meetings, as well as describing the criteria to be applied when selecting and evaluating projects, and outlining the types of decisions that portfolio management meetings could make. Rules were also changed due to external factors (March et al., 2000; Sullivan, 2010; Zhou, 1993), and the analysis provides examples of rule modifications when competition changed, new markets were entered or new government legislation was introduced.\n7. Conclusion: The analysis here has produced a number of observations that have not been addressed in previous research on rules and rule regimes in product development. Two things in particular are surprising: first, that the dynamics of rules regarding product development are influenced by other factors besides internal learning processes, and second, that companies might move backwards from a more advanced and flexible rule regime to stricter rule generations.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to investigate the drivers that induce companies to change their rules for managing product development. Most companies use a form of rule-based management approach, but surprisingly little is known about what makes companies change these rules. Furthermore, this management technology also has developed over time into different versions, but what drives firms from one version to another has only been suggested, not empirically studied.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The dynamics of the rules of five companies are analyzed over a period of more than ten years based on three rounds of interviews with 40 managers.\nFindings: Previous research has assumed that the dynamics of product development rules are based on internal learning processes, and that increasingly competent management will stimulate the implementation of newer and more complex rule regimes. However, the analysis here indicates that there are different drivers, both internal and external, that cause companies to adopt new rules or modify their existing ones, such as changes in organizational structures, organizational conflicts and changes in ownership or strategy. In addition, contrary to the predictions in previous research, companies sometimes move back and forth between different generations of rules. Companies that have moved to a more flexible third generation of rules might revert to their second generation rules, or supplement their flexibility with an increased level of management control and information systems. A model is proposed to explain the relationship between the drivers of rule change and the actual dynamics of rules, incorporating two sets of moderators: organizational moderators and rule-related moderators.\nResearch limitations/implications: The findings indicate that many factors influence the modification of rules, and that there is no simple linear progression from one generation to another. Organizational learning is one among several other factors that influences the dynamics of rules for managing product development. Further research is needed to explore the dynamic relationship between different factors, the proposed moderators and changes to rules. Lack of historical record keeping in companies puts special requirements on research concerning rules.\nPractical implications: Companies need to consider how and why their present versions of rules have emerged, whether or not the existing rules can actually solve the challenges they face today, whether or not the rules support the intended company strategy, and what mechanisms influence their product development rules.\nOriginality/value: A great deal of research has investigated the relationship between the uses of structured rule-based approaches to manage product development, but little is known about what makes these rules change. This is the first study to uncover the multitude of drivers that stimulate change in product development rules and to suggest sets of moderators that influence the outcome.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Establishment of Islamic capital market in jurisdictions with limited Islamic financial services: Case study of Maldives
|
[
"Islamic finance",
"Islamic Capital market",
"Shariah governance",
"K2",
"P4",
"G2",
"G3"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: Maldives is a small island nation with limited resources. It is a 100 per cent Muslim country, where Islamic finance is growing at a fast pace. Between 2011 and 2015, every year, there has been introduction of new Islamic finance services to the country proving Islamic finance as a sustainable finance mechanism. It is not wrong to state that demand is the driving force behind the growth of Islamic finance sector in Maldives.\n2. Financial landscape: The total population of locals in the Maldives in 338,434 (Census, 2014) (38 per cent of the population live in the capital Male') (Census, 2014) makes the development problems of the Maldives unique. Maldives is vulnerable to external economic shocks as witnessed by the economic recession following the tsunami of December 2004. Despite the relatively low death toll after the tsunami, the country's economy was badly shaken. Financial damage was estimated at 62 per cent of gross development product (GDP) or $470m, aggravated by a non-tsunami budget deficit of approximately $80m in 2005 due to a significant fall in revenue from tourism (Joint Needs Assessment by World Bank-Asian Development Bank-UN System, 2005).\n3. Islamic finance service providers[2]: Table I.\n4. Islamic Capital market products Offered[2]: Table II.\n5. Sovereign/treasury products Offered[2]: Table III.\n6. Islamic capital market regulations: 6.1 Equity products\n7. Challenges: There are numerous challenges faced in developing Islamic Capital Market in Maldives. Some of the pertinent challenges are stated below.\n8. Recommendations: Though Maldives can be considered as a role model for those countries that aspires to launch Islamic Capital Market, there are ways in which the current existing Islamic Capital Market framework of the country can be enhanced. Following are the recommendations made with respect to this:\n9. Conclusion: It can be concluded that Maldives is a role model to those countries that aspires to launch Islamic Capital Market. Within a short number of years, Maldives has established an Islamic Capital Market and has proved that with limited resources and limited banking and takaful activities, if there is government will and proper strategy is developed. However, to further develop and sustain the Islamic capital market in Maldives, proper action needs to be taken to resolve the challenges facing it.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: It is said that to establish an Islamic Capital Market, the first step would be to have a strong Islamic finance industry with numerous institutions offering Islamic financial services. This way it is easy to know that the demand for Islamic capital market would be there and that market will be sophisticated enough to comprehensive the nature of shariah compliant products. Generally, in most of the jurisdictions, this is how the Islamic capital market is created. The purpose of this paper is to understand the establishment of Islamic capital market in Maldives, small island nation where the establishment of Islamic capital market happened when at a time there was only one takaful company and one Islamic bank established.\nDesign/methodology/approach: This paper is a legal exploratory research that is based on the review of primary and secondary data available on the subject matter.\nFindings: It is anticipated that this paper will provide assistance and inspiration to those jurisdictions that aims to create Islamic capital market from scratch.\nOriginality/value: It shall be noted that there are no literature available on this subject about Maldives, and as such, this paper can be starting point to preserve knowledge in this area.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Start your own revolution: agency and action of the Riot Grrrl network
|
[
"Activism",
"Anarchism",
"Exene Cervanka",
"Positive Force",
"Pussy Riot",
"Riot Grrrl"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n__NO_TITLE__: BECAUSE we seek to create revolution in our own lives every single day by envisioning and creating alternatives to the status quo [...].\nIntroduction: \"Revolution Girl Style Now\" became the rallying cry of Riot Grrrl, a pro-girl movement that came of age in the 1990s in a response to a male dominated Punk scene. The movement began 25 years ago in Olympia, Washington, and extended to the US capital. These bi-coastal actions spread across the USA and later to countries around the world. Several studies of Riot Grrrl focus on its music (Schilt, 2003; Downes, 2012). The politics behind this movement is often overlooked, added as an addendum to a litany of discussions of girl punks, girl bands and girl music. Moreover, the unproblematized conflation of Riot Grrrl's counter-cultural community with punk music obscures, the ideological, political and economic motivations behind the do-it-yourself (DIY) ethos and effaces its anarchist history, modes of production and action, as well as its engagement in anti-war activism and social justice projects.\nX marks the spot: exene, war and Riot Grrrl: Much has been written about Riot Grrrl in the last two decades. However, these studies fail to recognize the work of punk artist Exene Cervanka, as significant to the development of the Riot Grrrl movement, one that incorporates an anarchist sensibility, DIY media and direct actions against war. Exene's music, writing and anti-war organizing are central to Riot Grrrl. One early member of the Riot Grrrl notes, \"I was really into Exene Cervanka and Lydia Lunch and no one understood me. Exene, her music and writing influenced many of us in the DC scene\" (Kaltefleiter, 1995, p. 135).\nSI: spectacle as action in Riot Grrrl: The fusion of knowledge and action must be realized in the historical struggle itself, in such a way that each of these guarantees the truth of the other. The formation of the proletarian class into a subject means the organization of revolutionary struggles and the organization of society at the revolutionary moment(Society of the Spectacle, 90).\nRiot Grrrl continuum: Food Not Bombs (FNB) to refugee actions: Clarity of agenda is not really something that is important to us. Riot Grrrl is a total concept. There is no editor or leader. There is no concrete vision or expectation(Riot Grrrl Zine #4).Riot Grrrl officially began in the summer of 1991 when five young women in Washington, DC came together to protest neighborhood gentrification, racial profiling and abortion clinic bombings. It was May and the neighborhood of Mount Pleasant erupted in violence - an incident that demonstrated the growing complexity of Washington's ethico-political scene and may have foreshadowed the Baltimore Riots and emergence of the Black Lives Matter movement. A city police officer shot a Latino man. The shooting sparked a week of intense rioting, the most intense civil unrest in the city since 1968 and as such correlates a historical connection back to Paris and the Situationists. Mount Pleasant residents, mostly young people, took to the streets and \"fought police [...] destroying more than a dozen squad cars before tear gas and a massive police mobilization contained the disturbance\" (Andersen, 2003, p. 313). Members from area bands, punks and Positive Force members viewed what was happening as \"The Revolution.\" The street actions in the Mount Pleasant riots set the tone or continuum of future anarchist engagement of Riot Grrrl actions for Choice, and OWS.\nConclusion: The future is a war and revolution of creativity and community\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to examine the Riot Grrrl activist network in the USA and highlight historical anarchist actions of the Washington, DC chapter by examining the nexus of feminism and anarchism on a continuum of youth activism, and by paying attention to anti-war campaigns, food distribution programs, free clinics and girl culture.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The paper historically contextualizes Riot Grrrl within the Situationist International literature and cultural resistance as well as Donna Harraway's work on cultural workers. Ethnographic work incorporates participant observation and semi-structured interviews as well as textual analysis of rare Riot Grrrl artifacts. Focus is given to the production of zines as mechanisms for communicating and deconstructing anarcho-grrrl culture.\nFindings: This paper charts the influence of Riot Grrrl with particular attention to anti-war demonstrations to contemporary activist projects that illustrate tenants of anarchism such as non-hierarchical leadership, direction action, cooperation, mutual aid and volunteerism.\nResearch limitations/implications: This paper focuses on the Riot Grrrl network in the USA, with a focus on the Washington, DC chapter. Subsequent Riot Grrrl chapters emerged around the world and future research might attend to regional impact these groups made in their communities.\nOriginality/value: The originality of the paper resides not only in its ethnographic approach to the essence of being a Riot Grrrl, but also includes the author's own reflections of involvement in this girl-centered activist collective. Further, the author acknowledges Los Angeles performance artist Exene Cervanka, whose anti-war writing and activist work was influential to the Riot Grrrl movement. This essay examines actions to (re)organize, and to disrupt preferred meanings and interpretations of organization and protest so as to mobilize knowledge and to affect authentic social change. This paper commemorates the 25th anniversary of Riot Grrrl and the Mount Pleasant Riots.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Realising the value of knowledge resources and capabilities: an empirical study
|
[
"Competitive advantage provided by knowledge management",
"KM process capabilities",
"Social knowledge management",
"Technical knowledge management"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: The knowledge management (KM) literature makes it clear that KM outcomes associated with competitive advantage are based on three separate but highly complementary factors. These factors include technical KM infrastructure (TKMI), social KM infrastructure (SKMI) and KM process capabilities. TKMI refer to technological resources that enable and support KM processes in an organisation. Leonard-Barton (1995) and Grant (1996) propose that the technological dimensions that are part of effective KM include business intelligence, collaboration, distributed learning, knowledge discovery, knowledge mapping, opportunity generation and security. Recent research on TKMI (Mills and Smith, 2011), however, recommend collaboration, distributed learning and knowledge mapping as the three major dimensions of TKMI. SKMI refers to the role of KM infrastructure elements from social perspectives that stimulate KM activities in an organisation. A broad range of these factors have been identified in the literature such as organisational structure, organisational culture, leadership, people and KM strategy (Gold et al., 2001; Lee and Choi, 2003; Migdadi, 2005; Zheng et al., 2010). KM process capabilities refer to the ability of firms in \"acquiring knowledge, converting it into a useful form, applying or using it, and protecting it\" (Gold et al., 2001, p. 190). Various perspectives of KM processes identified in the literature include discover/generate/create/acquire, capture, codify, coordinate/collaborate, accumulate/integrate, transfer, store, share, access, represent, use/apply and deploy/exploit (Mageswari et al., 2017; Pentland, 1995; Wu and Chen, 2014; Zaim et al., 2007). However, there is growing consensus in the knowledge management literature that KM process capabilities is a composite construct that captures a firm's ability in four facets: knowledge acquisition, conversion, application and protection (Gold et al., 2001; Mills and Smith, 2011; Granados et al., 2017).\n2. Theoretical background and model development: The RBV is a long-standing theory, which has its foundations in strategic management. RBV asserts that firms attain competitive advantage based on unique resources that remain valuable, rare, inimitable and non-substitutable by other resources (Barney, 1991; Conner, 1991; Schulze, 1992). The fundamental assumption underlying the RBV is that resources are heterogeneously dispersed across different firms and the differences between these firms based on the resources remain steady over time (Barney, 1991). Scholarly research on the RBV tends to define and classify resources broadly to include assets, knowledge, capabilities and firm processes (Bharadwaj, 2000). However, Grant (1991) distinguishes between resources and capabilities by classifying resources into tangible, intangible and human-based resources. While tangible resources refer to financial capital and assets such as equipment, plants and raw materials, intangible resources include firm reputation, brand image, as well as product quality. Human-based resources include technical know-how and other knowledge assets such as organisational culture and employee training.\n3. Research methodology: 3.1 Samples and procedure\n4. Analysis and results: 4.1 Common method bias\n5. Discussion: This paper set out to examine the role of technical and social knowledge management infrastructure within a firm and their effect on competitive advantage. Specifically, the primary objective was to determine whether TKMI and SKMI are determinants of a firm's knowledge management process capabilities (KMPC) and whether KMPC mediates the relationship between TKMI, SKMI and competitive advantage. The results support current research and confirm that both TKMI and SKMI have direct effects on competitive advantage. In addition, the findings extend existing theory and show that KMPC acts as a mechanism between both TKMI and SKMI and a firm's competitive advantage.\n6. Conclusion: In the modern business environment, knowledge is a highly valuable commodity that can offer significant competitive advantage. This paper has examined the relationships between technical KM infrastructure, social KM infrastructure, KM process capabilities and competitive advantage. Moving away from the typical RBV of competitive advantage, this study provides an objective picture of knowledge and its movement through the KM network from acquisition, through to conversion. In turn, viewing the route knowledge takes to influence competitive advantage sheds light, not only on the mechanisms at work within the network, but also on the managerial responsibilities for ensuring KM processes are in place and clearly linked to the requisite organisational outcomes. The findings from this research indicate that senior management cannot assume expenditure on technical KM infrastructure alone will result in increased competitive advantage. Instead, chief knowledge officers must ensure KM infrastructure is matched with KM process capabilities that will facilitate the acquisition, conversion, application and protection of knowledge.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: Drawing upon the resource-based view of the firm, this paper aims to develop and empirically validate a model that examines the relationships between technical knowledge management infrastructure (TKMI), social KM infrastructure (SKMI) and competitive advantage provided by KM (CAPKM). The authors argue that KM process capabilities account for the direct effects of TKMI and SKMI on CAPKM.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The study used partial least squares --structural equating modelling (SEM) to empirically test the hypotheses using a sample of 251 firms from an emerging economy. The results were then confirmed using the bias-corrected bootstrap procedure. The study also conducted two robustness checks including examining a competing moderation model and performing fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analysis (fsQCA), a set-theoretic method that examines how causal conditions combine into all possible configurations of binary states to explain the desired outcome.\nFindings: The findings show that TKMI and SKMI have positive effects on CAPKM. In addition, KM process capabilities mediate the direct effects of TKMI and SKMI on CAPKM.\nOriginality/value: This paper complements and advances previous research in several ways. Firstly, the paper develops a conceptual model that depicts the interrelationships between TKMI, SKMI, KM process capabilities and CAPKM. Secondly, this paper suggests the critical role of the \"action\" component (i.e. KM process capabilities) that capitalises on the KM resources in the creation of CAPKM.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
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