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Identifying policy entrepreneurs of public sector accounting agenda setting in Australia	[ "Agenda setting", "Public sector accounting", "Discursive institutionalism", "Discursive policy entrepreneur", "GAAP/GFS harmonisation", "Policy entrepreneur" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: The political nature of accounting standard and agenda setting has been widely acknowledged, and a growing number of studies have investigated this subject matter in recent years. One field of research is that of public policy and a vital element of this research is focussed on the key participants who aim to influence policy processes or to drive change of existing requirements. As Mintrom and Norman (2009) note:Highly motivated individuals or small teams can do much to draw attention to policy problems, present innovative policy solutions, build coalitions of supporters, and secure legislative action. Of course, no political activity or policy initiative can go anywhere without many actors getting involved. The question then arises: By what means can advocates of policy change come to have broad influence?(p. 649).\n2. Current understanding of PEs and developing proxies for their identification: Public policy has been defined as \"an officially expressed intention backed by a sanction which can be a reward or a punishment [...] in the form of] a law, a rule, a statute, edict, a regulation or an order\" (Lowi and Ginsberg, 1996, p. 607). Accounting standards can be viewed as public policies. More recently, a small but emerging stream of accounting literature has adopted this view and used theories or frameworks grounded in this realm to examine accounting standard-setting processes. In the past, some studies of accounting standard agenda-setting processes (Burrows and Rowles, 2010; Jones et al., 2004; Klumpes, 1994, 1995; Nobes, 1991; Hodges and Mellett, 2002; Ryan, 1998; Walker and Robinson, 1994) have used heuristic constructs, such as Cobb and Elder's (1971, 1972) and Cobb et al.' (1976) three approaches of agenda building or Nobes' (1991) accounting cycle. Heuristic public policy frameworks use observations to derive models that describe the agenda-setting process. Heuristic frameworks have, however, been criticised for being descriptive, too simplistic and, therefore, out-dated (for an overview of such criticisms refer, for example, to Sabatier, 2007).\n3. Methodology: The paper uses an in-depth qualitative case study to inform the theoretical development of Kingdon's concept of the PE. To ensure usefulness and trustworthiness (Eisner, 1991; Lincoln and Guba, 1985; McKinnon and Harrison, 1985; Patton, 2002; Scapens, 1990), and therefore the credibility (Denzin, 1978; Patton, 1990) of the research project, data were triangulated from several sources. The main sources were archival data and semi-structured in-depth interviews. A list of interviews and documents is provided in Appendices 1 and 2, respectively.\n4. Application of proxies: The application of the proxies to the GAAP/GFS harmonisation agenda-setting process is easier for some than for others. In particular, the proxies developed for the characteristics of \"negotiation skills\" and \"persistency\" are not straight-forward. These characteristics are so closely linked to the narrative of the case study that they are explained as part of Section 5. The application of the remaining proxies is presented in the following paragraphs.\n5. Foreground discursive abilities of PEs in the GAAP/GFS harmonisation agenda-setting process: Emergence and development of the idea of GAAP/GFS harmonisation\n6. Discussion and suggestions for further research: The purpose of this study was to develop and apply an improved concept of the PE, namely the DPE. The improved concept aimed to address prior criticisms of Kingdon's PE relating to a lack of institutional consideration and to develop operationalised proxies to help identify DPEs and provide further insights into their behaviour. The study provided insights into these aspects. In addressing RQ1 the study found that the DPEs showed all the characteristics claimed by Kingdon. They had a claim to hearing, political connections, negotiation skills and persistence. These attributes were, however, only able to be investigated after Schmidt's attributes of sentient agents were incorporated. This allowed for a distinction between DPEs and other active supporters, as it further illuminated the characteristic of negotiation skills into coordination, communication and the involvement with identifying and framing the policy solution. To express it in mathematical terms, in the GAAP/GFS harmonisation process, \"foreground discursive abilities were an equivalent condition (if and only if), with all other characteristics being necessary conditions\". Table II provides a summary of the applied characteristics to the potential DPEs of the GAAP/GFS harmonisation agenda-setting process.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to improve Kingdon's (1984, 2011) concept of policy entrepreneurs (PE) with regard to the theoretical development of the definition and identification and level of agency by supplementing it with elements of Schmidt's (2008, 2010, 2011, 2012) sentient agents. The improved concept of discursive policy entrepreneurs (DPEs) is then applied in an in-depth case study about the agenda setting process of micro and macro whole-of-government accounting in Australia in the late 1990s and early 2000s.\nDesign/methodology/approach: Based on the concept of DPEs, a series of operationalised characteristics and proxies are developed to identify them and describe their behaviour. These are then applied in the case study. The two main data sources are semi-structured in-depth interviews and archival documents.\nFindings: The findings show that the focus on DPEs' discursive and coordination activities is critical for identifying and investigating the key actors of the Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (GAAP)/Government Finance Statistics (GFS) harmonisation agenda setting process. The study also finds that the two relevant decision-making bodies, the Financial Reporting Council and the Australian Accounting Standards Board, lost control over their agendas due to the actions of DPEs.\nResearch limitations/implications: The improved concepts of DPEs will allow researchers to better identify the main agents of policy change and differentiate them from other supporters of policy ideas. Due to the qualitative nature of the study, the findings are not necessarily generalisable.\nPractical implications: The findings from this study can help participants of agenda setting processes to gain a better understanding of the actions and behaviours of DPEs. This might allow standard setting bodies to mitigate against undue influences by DPEs.\nOriginality/value: This study is the first study that uses Schmidt's concept of the sentient agent to address the limitations of Kingdon's concept of PE and develops and applies characteristics to identify PEs and their actions. It is also the only study to date that investigates the GAAP/GFS harmonisation agenda setting process.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Using response action with intelligent intrusion detection and prevention system against web application malware	[ "Information security", "Security", "Risk management" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: Web applications are increasingly important in areas such as the financial sector, e-commerce, e-government, social media networks, medical data, e-business, academic activities, e-banking, e-shopping and e-mail. Furthermore, web applications enable users to interact with back-end data servers to insert, delete and modify data contents by making a website their own space. Unfortunately, these activities have attracted malicious software writers to take advantage of such activities to perform malicious objectives for financial gain (Alazab et al., 2013).\n2. Background and related work: According to the Open Web Application Security Project, the top ten application security risks are presented in Table I, which provides a brief description of the most widely exploited vulnerabilities, along with the occurrence and the impact of each one. According to the report of Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures, the number of web-related vulnerabilities has increased steadily from 2005 to 2010 (Corporation, 2012). Table II shows the results from another study by the Web Application Security Consortium's Statistics Project from 2010 (Gordeychik, 2010) that identifies the most popular vulnerabilities in web applications. From this table, we note that all vulnerabilities are exploited in the database tier. These vulnerabilities allow attackers to perform malevolent actions that range from gaining unauthorized account access to achieving an attacker's objectives.\n3. Intelligent intrusion detection and prevention system: As shown in Section 2, traditional IDS have restrictions, including low flexibility, inability to distinguish novel attacks, high cost, slow updates and lack of extensibility. It also shows that both SIDS and AIDS have drawbacks. The aim of the new system is to design and develop an effective IIDPS that addresses the weakness of SIDS and AIDS. IIDPS combines SIDS, AIDS and Responses to IDS to become an IIDPS. Figure 1 shows an overview of the proposed IIDPS. In our system, AIDSs help to detect unknown attacks, while SIDS detects known attacks. The basic idea of the new system is to take benefits from both SIDS and AIDS to create effective IDS. The IIDPS has three stages: the SIDS stage, the AIDS stage and the response action stage.\n4. Experiment and performance evaluation: 4.1 Using Support Vector Machine\n5. Conclusion: Recently, prevention and detection IDSs have been an active research field in both industry and academia. While many detection and prevention solutions have been implemented, none of them guarantee a high level of security for web applications. The effectiveness of an IDS requests new demands to achieve a high degree of security. A detection system with a response system would be highly reliable against suspicious behaviour that could possibly be a zero day attack. In this paper, we developed IIDPS with a response action that provides an early-stage detection system. This IIDPS is capable of preventing and distinguishing various types of abnormal activity. Signature-based detection techniques were used to recognize known attacks, while anomaly-based detection techniques were used to recognize unidentified attacks. A risk assessment was completed to respond to the attack, with several response techniques used to minimize the damage caused by malicious activities.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to mitigate vulnerabilities in web applications, security detection and prevention are the most important mechanisms for security. However, most existing research focuses on how to prevent an attack at the web application layer, with less work dedicated to setting up a response action if a possible attack happened.\nDesign/methodology/approach: A combination of a Signature-based Intrusion Detection System (SIDS) and an Anomaly-based Intrusion Detection System (AIDS), namely, the Intelligent Intrusion Detection and Prevention System (IIDPS).\nFindings: After evaluating the new system, a better result was generated in line with detection efficiency and the false alarm rate. This demonstrates the value of direct response action in an intrusion detection system.\nResearch limitations/implications: Data limitation.\nOriginality/value: The contributions of this paper are to first address the problem of web application vulnerabilities. Second, to propose a combination of an SIDS and an AIDS, namely, the IIDPS. Third, this paper presents a novel approach by connecting the IIDPS with a response action using fuzzy logic. Fourth, use the risk assessment to determine an appropriate response action against each attack event. Combining the system provides a better performance for the Intrusion Detection System, and makes the detection and prevention more effective.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Corpus linguistics, newspaper archives and historical research methods	[ "Management history", "Corpus linguistics", "Text analysis", "Research methodology", "Newspaper" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: With the advent of mass digitisation of historical prints over the past two decades, researchers now have access to a unique but under-appreciated source of data - Words. Billions of words have entered online repositories as hundreds of millions of pages of old books and newspapers have been digitised by firms and organisations. Words in these real-world texts form a \"corpus\" and corpus linguistics refers to a branch of linguistic studies that systematically analyses them (Biber et al., 1998; Oakes, 1998; McEnery and Wilson, 2001). At its simplest, it can be defined as a \"methodology that uses computer support - in particular, software called 'concordance programs'- to analyse authentic, and usually very large, volumes of textual data\" (Mautner, 2009, p. 122). Alternatively, it may be defined as \"the study of language data on a large scale - the computer-aided analysis of very extensive collections of transcribed utterances or written texts\" (McEnery and Hardie, 2012). Both these definitions highlight the existence of a corpus of text that is sufficiently large in scale and machine-readable in nature. Scale is important to differentiate it from standard qualitative research software used which is used to analyse transcribed interviews. Further, concordance software in corpus linguistics can aid both quantitative and qualitative research.\nCorpus linguistics research methods: Types of corpora and the significance of newspaper archives\nApplications of corpus linguistics using newspaper archives: In the case of certain digitised newspaper archives, it is possible to analyse the textual data with available research tools without loading them on to any particular concordance software. Two methods stand out: term-count analysis and cluster analysis.\nLimitations: The validity of corpus linguistics is highly dependent on the size and nature of the corpus that is analysed. Newspaper archives are useful because of their large sample and standardisation, but they have their own limitations.\nCorpus linguistics and the theory and practice of management and organisational history: Historical research is based on \"distinct epistemic assumptions\" that need to be carefully understood by organisational scholars interested in learning from the past (Wadhwani and Bucheli, 2014, p. 3). Over the past decade, several studies have noted the need for more transparency and discussion of historical research methods in management and organisational studies. It has been argued that three basic elements - source criticism, triangulation and hermeneutics - should inform the description of sources used in historical management research (Kipping et al., 2014). Further, four distinct research strategies of organisational history have been pointed out - corporate history, analytically structured history, serial history and ethnographic history - closely tied with dualisms in explanation, evidence and temporality (Rowlinson et al., 2014). Additionally, periodisation has been identified as a core function of historical approaches to organisational research (Fear, 2014). As a method of research, corpus linguistics based on newspaper archives is well suited to address several of these issues.\nConclusion: Corpus linguistics has been noted to be useful for two types of management and organisation studies (Pollach, 2012). First, lexical patterns can be located, quantified and compared across different and big samples to find similarities, and second, it has been recommended for narrative studies on organisations. However, in conjunction with newspaper archives that provide the added dimensionality of time measured in decades or centuries, it also raises the possibility of creative adaptation in the field of management and organisational history.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to demonstrate the utility of corpus linguistics and digitised newspaper archives in management and organisational history.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The paper draws its inferences from Google NGram Viewer and five digitised historical newspaper databases - The Times of India, The Financial Times, The Economist, The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal - that contain prints from the nineteenth century.\nFindings: The paper argues that corpus linguistics or the quantitative and qualitative analysis of large-scale real-world machine-readable text can be an important method of historical research in management studies, especially for discourse analysis. It shows how this method can be fruitfully used for research in management and organisational history, using term count and cluster analysis. In particular, historical databases of digitised newspapers serve as important corpora to understand the evolution of specific words and concepts. Corpus linguistics using newspaper archives can potentially serve as a method for periodisation and triangulation in corporate, analytically structured and serial histories and also foster cross-country comparisons in the evolution of management concepts.\nResearch limitations/implications: The paper also shows the limitation of the research method and potential robustness checks while using the method.\nPractical implications: Findings of this paper can stimulate new ways of conducting research in management history.\nOriginality/value: The paper for the first time introduces corpus linguistics as a research method in management history.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Green innovation in the automobile industry	[ "Environmental performance", "Firm performance", "Market demand", "Green innovation" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: In recent years, the transportation sector has accounted for 27 percent of the world's total energy consumption and 33.7 percent of the greenhouse gas emissions (Tie and Tan, 2013). It is clear that these trends cannot be sustained given the scarcity of fossil fuels and mounting environmental pressures (Nilsson et al., 2012). With increasing concern about environmental issues from customers, suppliers, the public and governments around the world, firms have been developing a number of environmentally friendly products (Green et al., 2012; Tseng et al., 2013). As a result, techniques for saving energy and reducing air pollution and CO2 emissions in the transportation sector have become important issues and principal challenges for governments (Hui, 2010). Due to Shrivastava (1995) suggests that firms can differentiate their products, improve product quality and lower the cost of production through product and process innovations. Hence, continuous innovation is a vital strategy to overcome pressures from customers, competitors, and regulators (Porter and Van der Linde, 1995). Therefore, it is very important to adopt green innovation for their stakeholders.\n2. Literature review: 2.1 Market demand\n3. Hypothesis development: Since the proposed constructs help to understand the function of green innovation under RBV theory in specific contexts, there are four major hypotheses are considered in this study.\n4. Research methodology: This study modeled the green innovation model using a structural equation model to test the hypotheses of this study. Accompanying this model, there were tests for non-response bias, reliability, and exploratory factor analysis.\n5. Results and discussions: The main purpose of conducting demographic analysis was to briefly summarize the background features of participating firms. The results demonstrated that most of the firms were in operation for more than 25 years (42.5 percent) with turnover rates of more than $NT 1.5 billion (53.2 percent), capital of more than $NT 70 million (82.48 percent), and more than 201 employees (70.0 percent).\n6. Managerial and theoretical implications: This study has important implications for the hybrid vehicle industry in particular and all businesses in general. The results provide guidelines for the enhancement of business performance. Based on the significant impact of market demand on green innovation, this study strongly recommends that firms make greater efforts to understand customer needs and expectations.\n7. Conclusions: As for the impact of green innovation, which is an important topic among researchers and practitioners, this study observed significantly positive effects on green product innovation and green process innovation. This supports the results of previous studies claiming that green innovation is a reliable means with which to gain sustainable development through improved environmental performance (Chen et al., 2006; Hoffmann, 2007; Kammerer, 2009; Carrion-Flores and Innes, 2010; Awasthi et al., 2010; Chiou et al., 2011; Lin et al., 2013). In practice, firms which promote green innovation in the manufacturing of environmentally friendly products are widely believed to reduce environmental damage.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: Despite the stimulation provided by market demand and green issues on business performance, the exact nature of the relationships among these aspects remains an issue of contention. This study sought to bridge this gap in the research by examining the effects of market demand on firm performance using green innovation and environmental performance as mediators. The paper aims to discuss these issues.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The Taiwanese hybrid vehicle industry was targeted as the scope of research. Using random sampling method, survey questionnaires were distributed to retailers, wholesalers, and component sale firms in the industry through post and e-mails. AMOS 5.0 and the structural equation modeling (SEM) were used to test the hypotheses and the theoretical model.\nFindings: Except for the impact of market demand on environmental performance, all relationships were found to be significant. The mediating effect of green innovation which was proven to be significant, while that of environmental performance remained insufficient.\nResearch limitations/implications: This study has a number of limitations. The use of figures from a single industry partly restricts the generalizability of these findings.\nPractical implications: These results suggest that firms should make greater efforts to understand customer needs and promote core competencies in the innovation of green products and processes to align green initiatives with consumer values in order to satisfy market demand and ensure sustainable performance.\nSocial implications: This study has important implications for the hybrid vehicle industry in particular and all businesses in general. The results provide guidelines for the enhancement of business performance. Based on the significant impact of market demand on green innovation, this study strongly recommends that firms make greater efforts to understand customer needs and expectations.\nOriginality/value: This study was the first to establish a model for investigating the links among market demand, green innovation, environmental performance, and firm performance in the Taiwanese hybrid vehicle industry. The findings provide effective guidelines for the achievement of market leadership and sustainable performance.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Extending customer order penetration concepts to engineering designs	[ "Supply chain", "Decoupling point", "Co-creation", "Engineer-to-order", "Postponement", "Order entry point" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: The importance of product customisation has been popularised by a wide range of published work (Lampel and Mintzberg, 1996; Pagh and Cooper, 1998). Customer-driven manufacturing has been positioned as a key concept for the factory of the future, and many companies have responded by seeking to develop customer-driven manufacturing systems (Rudberg and Olhager, 2003; Wortmann et al., 1997). This can be done in a variety of different methods and degrees. A useful way to consider the gradations of customisation possible, developed to facilitate control over the flow of goods, is offered by the customer order decoupling point (CODP). The CODP describes the way in which customer orders penetrate the \"basic structure\" of operations, indicating how deeply a customer order enters into the goods flow (Hoekstra and Romme, 1992). It has since been conceived of as a strategic stocking point that provides a buffer between fluctuating customer orders and smooth production output (Naylor et al., 1999). Upstream of the CODP, activities are typically speculative, aggregated and standardised; downstream of the CODP, activities are typically predictable, attached to known orders, individualised and customised (Lampel and Mintzberg, 1996; Olhager, 2003; Rudberg and Wikner, 2004).\n2. Literature review: 2.1 Early customer penetration definitions and frameworks\n3. Research methodology: 3.1 Research strategy\n4. A classification of ETO supply chains: Through the initial co-operative inquiry activities, and through interaction with the literature, the first conceptual stage was to \"unpack\" the ETO supply chain to explore potential order penetration positions.\n5. Focus group findings: Within the CODP literature, there has been discussion of the competitive trade-offs apparent at different decoupling positions. Barlow et al. (2003), addressing traditional material flow CODP, argue that trade-offs for competitive priorities exist in relation to different positions for the CODP, showing that levels of customization affect lead time and cost. Findings from the focus group suggest that it is likely that there are different opportunity and risk profiles associated with different subclasses, where the outcomes are more predictable and less complex as we move towards complete designs. As suggested by one participant \"There are different opportunity and risk profiles across the spectrum, as you veer from left to right\" (commercial director). Based on these arguments, Figure 5 visualises these trade-offs. It suggests that the more customisation that is offered, the longer lead times tend to be, and the more cost involved in comparison to a standard offering. However, there are potential gains to be made by customer service and co-creation, as well as innovative engineering work. This also has implications for complexity, as outlined by another participant \"They [the subclasses] determine how predictable, how complex, how much understanding we have in particular area\" (technical director).\n6. Case studies of the engineering subclasses: As noted in the method section, the case phase of the research is intended to be exploratory, comparing and relating the classification to case studies. Figure 6 provides the main features of the case studies, including highlighting the order penetration characteristics, defined by \"Starting Point for Design\" and \"Nature of Customer Input\". We also analyse major uncertainties and enablers for each case.\n7. Discussion and conclusion: This paper has investigated the application of customer penetration concepts to design and engineering activities, addressing the question \"how do customer penetration concepts apply to engineering design activities?\" A co-operative inquiry approach was utilised, including interaction with a company advisory board, a focus group and multiple case studies. This resulted in a framework of nine engineering subclasses. These are presented as a continuum of strategies, clustered under research, codes and standards, and existing designs subclasses. The first category raises the interesting possibility that research might have to be undertaken \"to-order\" as part of an ETO project, an area that has received little discussion in the literature. The second category addresses the development and application of codes and standards, and how specific customer orders may challenge or engage with such codes. The final category relates to existing designs, and resonates much more strongly with existing literature in the area of customer penetration and engineering adaptations.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: The customer order decoupling point (CODP) concept addresses the issue of customer engagement in the manufacturing process. This has traditionally been applied to material flows, but has more recently been applied to engineering activities. This later subject becomes of particular importance to companies operating in \"engineer-to-order\" (ETO) supply chains, where each order is potentially unique. Existing conceptualisations of ETO are too generic for practical purposes, so there is a need to better understand order penetration in the context of engineering activities, especially design. Hence, the purpose of this paper is to address the question \"how do customer penetration concepts apply to engineering design activities?\"\nDesign/methodology/approach: A collaborative form of inquiry is adopted, whereby academics and practitioners co-operated to develop a conceptual framework. Within this overarching research design, a focus group of senior practitioners and multiple case studies principally from complex civil and structural engineering as well as scientific equipment projects are used to explore the framework.\nFindings: The framework results in a classification of nine potential engineering subclasses, and insight is given into order penetration points, major uncertainties and enablers via the case studies. Focus group findings indicate that different managerial approaches are needed across subclasses.\nPractical implications: The findings give insight for companies that engage directly with customers on a one-to-one basis, outlining the extent of customer penetration in engineering activities, associated operational strategies and choices regarding the co-creation of products with customers. Care should be taken in generalising beyond the sectors addressed in the study.\nOriginality/value: The paper refines the definition of the ETO concept, and gives a more complete understanding of customer penetration concepts. It provides a comprehensive reconceptualization of the ETO category, supported by exploratory empirical research.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
What constitutes a good hand offs in the emergency department: a patient's perspective	[ "Quality improvement", "Patient satisfaction", "Clinical guidelines", "Customer", "Patient centredness" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: The Harvard Medical Practice study (Croskerry et al., 2004) and subsequent researchers found that emergency departments (ED) have the highest preventable error levels. According to the Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations (JCAHO, 2005), poor communication causes most sentinel events, medical mistakes and so-called near misses. The Joint Commission (2007) noted that communication failures between care providers or between providers and patients and their families caused up to 65 percent of the sentinel events. Effective communication among all these individuals in the ED is central to good patient care. One place where communication breaks down is in the patient hand-off process - the information exchange from one ED physician to another, which is mandated any time when attending physicians change. According to (Apker et al., 2007), communication breakdowns during patient hand-offs threatens most patient safety. There are several factors that exacerbate ED hand-off difficulties. First, the ED patient hand-off can be a complex process owing to the range and type of patients and presenting illnesses seen every day. Second, ED staff experience overcrowding that result in long waiting times treatment delays, which is why several reports, such as Aurora and Johnson (2006) and JCAHO (2007), recommended using a standardized approach to hand-off communications as one national patient safety goal. These guidelines recommend that patients and families are given opportunities to ask and respond to questions. It did not, however, include any specific hand-off process.\nResearch question and method: The study aimed to determine from the patient's perspective what constitutes a good hand-off procedure. The current hand-off was compared to the IPASS the BATON process using patient satisfaction data. Including customer service indicators in the study provides a supplementary view to the hand-off process that could avoid communication breakdown. Worthington et al. (2004), Bordreaux et al. (2004) and Muntlin et al. (2006) showed that patients who feel they receive more information are more satisfied and more likely to comply with medical instructions. More satisfied patients are less likely to sue caregivers (Worthington, 2004). They also bring their ED experience to bear on how they view the hospital and it has been shown that there is a correlation between patient satisfaction and hospital profitability (Sun et al., 2004).\nLimitations, conclusion and recommendations: Overall, patients felt that formal and informal hand-off processes were informative, were satisfied with the process and overall care quality. The formalized hand-off process had additional benefits - it increased the patient's recall of oncoming and outgoing ED physicians and gave them an opportunity to more fully understand the laboratory tests they were undergoing.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: The aim is to determine, from the patient's perspective, what constitutes a good hand-off procedure in the emergency department (ED). The secondary purpose is to evaluate what impact a formalized hand-off had on patient knowledge, throughput and customer service\nDesign/methodology/approach: This study used a randomized controlled clinical trial involving two unique hand-off approaches and a convenience sample. The study alternated between the current hand-off process that documented the process but not specific elements (referred to as the informal process) to one using the IPASS the BATON process (considered the formal process). Consenting patients completed a 12-question validated questionnaire on how the process was perceived by patients and about their understanding why they waited in the ED. Statistical analysis using SPSS calculated descriptive frequencies and t-tests.\nFindings: In total 107 patients were enrolled: 50 in the informal and 57 in the formal group. Most patients had positive answers to the customer survey. There were significant differences between formal and informal groups: recalling the oncoming and outgoing physician coming to the patient's bed (p=0.000), with more formal group recalling that than informal group patients; the oncoming physician introducing him/herself (p=0.01), with more from the formal group answering yes and the physician discussing tests and implications with formal group patients (p=0.02).\nResearch limitations/implications: This study was done at an urban inner city ED, a fact that may have skewed its results. A comparison of suburban and rural EDs would make the results stronger. It also reflected a very high level of customer satisfaction within the ED. This lack of variance may have meant that the correlation between customer service and handoffs was missed or underrepresented. There was no codified observation of either those using the IPASS the BATON script or those using informal procedures, so no comparison of level and types of information given between the two groups was done. There could have been a bias of those attending who had internalized the IPASS the BATON procedures and used them even when they were assigned to the informal group.\nPractical implications: A hand off from one physician to the next in the emergency department is best done using a formalized process. IPASS the BATON is a useful tool for hand off in the ED in part because it involved the patient in the process. The formal hand off increased communication between patient and doctor as its use increased the patient's opportunity to ask and respond to questions.\nOriginality/value: The researchers evaluated an ED physician specific hand-off process and illustrate the value and impact of involving patients in the hand-off process.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Effects of the dimensions of ethnocentrism on consumer ethnocentrism: An examination of multiple mediators	[ "Nationalism", "Ethnocentrism", "Consumer attitudes", "Mediation analysis", "Prejudice" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Although early sociologists proclaimed that, with modernization and progress ethnicity would cease to be important (Eriksen, 2010), and in the 1990s Fukuyama (1992) proclaimed the End of History and the triumph of liberal democracy and capitalism, we currently live in a world where ethnicity, ethnocentrism, authoritarianism and exclusionary tendencies have resurged. This is evident in the election of Donald Trump in the USA, Brexit in the UK, and the popularity of right-wing and ethnocentric politicians throughout the world (e.g. Duterte in the Philippines, Orban in Hungary and Putin in Russia). Yet, the world has never been more interconnected and globalized. For example, over the last several decades, markets have integrated into a common global marketplace, and global consumer culture has rapidly grown in almost every corner of the world (Alden et al., 1999; Ritzer, 2007; Steenkamp and de Jong, 2010).\nLiterature review: Ethnocentrism and its dimensions\nHypotheses development: How does the ancient attitude of ethnocentrism lead to its modern consequence of consumer ethnocentrism, which was developed recently in response to globalization (Cleveland et al., 2009)? It is important to point out that ethnocentrism is concerned with ethnic groups, whereas consumer ethnocentrism is concerned with nation states. As argued elsewhere (e.g. Worchel, 1999; Worchel and Coutant, 1997), ethnicity and nationality are distinct, and their relationship is complex (e.g. a nation state may consist of two ethnic groups, and an ethnic group can inhabit two nation states). In contrast to ethnic groups, nation states have existed only for several centuries. The concept that comes closest to ethnocentrism in the world of nations is nationalism, which is defined as a sense of superiority and dominance of one's own country over others (Kosterman and Feshbach, 1989). Yet ethnocentrism's focus is decidedly not the nation state, and so ethnocentrism is recognized as being a distinct attitude to nationalism (Rosenblatt, 1964).\nMethod: Participants\nResults: Table II presents the means and standard deviations for the key variables. Participants on average scored around the mid-point of the scale on devotion, preference, consumer ethnocentrism, and nationalism, and somewhat rejected group cohesion, superiority, purity and exploitativeness. On average, they expressed relatively strong ethnic and national ingroup positivity, and somewhat rejected prejudice against foreigners.\nDiscussion: The current study attempted to find out whether there is a plausible indirect effect of the six dimensions of ethnocentrism on consumer ethnocentrism through four mediating variables. Overall, the findings supported the view that the ancient attitude of ethnocentrism has a significant role to play in consumer ethnocentrism. The findings showed, partially supporting H1, that exploitativeness indirectly influenced consumer ethnocentrism via nationalism. The effect size suggested that people's selfish and exploitative attitudes in favor of their own ethnic group tended to moderately to strongly lead to nationalistic attitudes, and in turn, to consumer ethnocentrism. This finding tells us that at the core of consumer ethnocentrism is the ancient attitude of the selfish pursuit of the interests of one's own ethnic group against any other (Sumner, 1911). Although it was expected that devotion would indirectly influence consumer ethnocentrism, the influence was not as hypothesized via ethnic and national ingroup positivity (H2 and H3), but via nationalism. The effect size suggested that consumer ethnocentrism is moderately and indirectly caused by unconditional and uncritical devotion for one's own ethnic group. This finding shows that at the core of consumer ethnocentrism is a very strong, uncritical and \"blind\" emotional attachment to one's own group. This suggests that consumer ethnocentrism is not caused by objectively justified preferences for consumer products from one's own country, but from blind and uncritical support.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to investigate, theoretically and empirically, the role of the six dimensions of reconceptualized ethnocentrism in consumer ethnocentrism. The paper investigates both direct and indirect effects of the six dimensions on consumer ethnocentrism, through four theoretically meaningful mediators: nationalism, ethnic ingroup positivity, national ingroup positivity and prejudice against foreigners.\nDesign/methodology/approach: This study has used primary data collected from 304 US citizens through online surveys, including measures of demographics, ethnocentrism, consumer ethnocentrism, nationalism and attitudes toward ethnic ingroups, national ingroups and foreigners. Correlational, sequential multiple regression and parallel multiple mediation analyses were conducted to investigate effects of the dimensions of ethnocentrism on consumer ethnocentrism.\nFindings: Regression and mediation analyses, covarying age, education, gender, ethnicity and socio-economic status, showed that ethnocentric purity had a direct effect on consumer ethnocentrism, whereas ethnocentric devotion and exploitativeness had indirect effects, entirely mediated by nationalism. There were no significant effects of the other dimensions of ethnocentrism, ethnic ingroup positivity, national ingroup positivity or prejudice against foreigners. In addition, two demographic variables (white/Anglo Americans and lower socio-economic status) had a direct effect on consumer ethnocentrism, whereas three other variables (gender, education and age) did not.\nOriginality/value: This study is first to explore how the dimensions of ethnocentrism relate to consumer ethnocentrism. Although consumer ethnocentrism has often been linked to ethnocentrism, the relationship has never been explicitly studied. Ethnocentrism, defined as ethnic group self-centeredness and self-importance, in which the main role is to ensure ethnic group strength and survival, plays a substantial but mainly indirect role via nationalism in consumer ethnocentrism. This study shows that both direct and indirect processes concerned with ethnic groups play a substantial role in the development of consumer ethnocentrism. Implications of the findings for consumer ethnocentrism and global consumer culture are discussed.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Group acceptance sampling plan for resubmitted lots based on life tests for odds exponential log logistic distribution	[ "Consumer’s risk", "Group acceptance sampling plan", "Producers risk", "Resubmitted lots" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: Acceptance sampling is concerned with inspection and decision making regarding manufactured products. It is one of the major components in the field of statistical quality control. Usually the decision of either acceptance or rejection of lot is called lot sentencing. More recently, quality assurance expanded the scope of final inspection that consists of all features of manufacturing (e.g. statistical process control, HACCP, Six sigma and ISO 9000). Acceptance sampling plans were frequently used during the Second World War, for instance MILSTD-105, and became commonly used as quality standards (Dodge and Romig, 1959). The applications from real life scenarios are as follows: if every bullet is inspected prior to war, then no bullet is at hand at the time of action, and if no bullet is inspected, then tragedy may occur in the war. Dodge described that a sample is chosen from a lot or batch, and the outcome of the products totally depends on the characteristic collected from this sample. This procedure is called acceptance sampling plan or lot acceptance sampling. It is used to accept or reject a submitted product but not to estimate the quality of the lot. Acceptance sampling is a middle way between no inspection and hundred percent inspection. Among all acceptance sampling methods, the single attribute acceptance sampling is the most commonly used because it is easy for practical implementation. If one is interested in collecting the life times of all the observations of a sample, the experimental time/life test becomes longer and longer, hence the life test must be terminated within a specified time, and such a life test is called truncated life test.\n2. GASP for resubmitted lots: An attribute acceptance sampling plan has much utilization in several ways. For example, it is used to inspect the submitted products to satisfy the prerequisite assumptions before they are manufactured. The attribute acceptance sampling plan has three design parameters: lot or batch size N, sample size n and the acceptance number or the number of failures c. The plan is carried out as follows: select specific n products from a lot of size N with the acceptance number c. If the number of defective products is less than c, then accept the lot; otherwise reject the lot. The quality measure p indicates the fraction of defective products. If p=0 percent or p=100 percent, there is no argument to use the attribute acceptance sampling plan. On the other hand, if p lies between 0 and 100 percent, the attribute acceptance sampling plan is very helpful to accept or reject the product on the basis of random sample taken from the lot.\n3. Application of the proposed plan to industry: In this section, the following real data set corresponding to an uncensored data set from Nichols and Padgett (2006), on breaking stress of carbon fibres (in Gba) is considered and the proposed plan is described:\n4. Conclusions: In this article, a GASP for a resubmitted lot to ensure the specified product lifetime percentile has been developed for the OELLD. The plan parameters c and g of the proposed sampling plan are determined such that the lot acceptance probability is larger than 1-a at the producer-specified quality level but the lot acceptance probability is smaller than b at the consumer's specified quality level. The tables have been developed for the industrial use according to various parameters and percentile values. It was observed that the number of groups required increases as the consumer's confidence increases or the number of resubmission decreases. Moreover, the sample size can be significantly reduced by allowing just a small number of resubmissions in the proposed sampling plan.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to develop a group acceptance sampling plan (GASP) for a resubmitted lot when the lifetime of a product follows odds exponential log logistic distribution introduced by Rao and Rao (2014). The parameters of the proposed plan such as minimum group size and acceptance number are determined for a pre-specified consumer's risk, number of testers and the test termination time. The authors compare the proposed plan with the ordinary GASP, and the results are illustrated with live data example.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The parameters of the proposed plan such as minimum group size and acceptance number are determined for a pre-specified consumer's risk, number of testers and the test termination time.\nFindings: The authors determined the group size and acceptance number.\nResearch limitations/implications: No specific limitations.\nPractical implications: This methodology can be applicable in industry to study quality control.\nSocial implications: This methodology can be applicable in health study.\nOriginality/value: The parameters of the proposed plan such as minimum group size and acceptance number are determined for a pre-specified consumer's risk, number of testers and the test termination time.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
IT capabilities, interfirm performance, and the state of economic development	[ "Business performance", "Communication technologies", "Cross‐cultural studies", "Thailand", "United States of America" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: By definition, developed countries dominate the world economy. They hold recognized leadership positions over the developing and underdeveloped countries with respect to critical competitive resources such as scientists, engineers, infrastructure, and legal and financial institutions. Similarly, their information technology (IT) infrastructures are extensive, complex and highly sophisticated. Research and development (R&D) activities keep them at the cutting edge and IT adoption is prevalent throughout the society. The majority of firms and citizens are comfortable with IT in enhancing their work efficiency and quality of life (Anandarajan et al., 2002).By contrast, IT is not as widely available and utilized in most developing countries (Dewan and Kraemer, 2000). One fundamental issue is a disparity in the level of investment in IT (Shih et al., 2008). However, not only are there differences between developed and developing countries in how extensively IT has been deployed, but also various cross-country studies indicate that firms in the developed countries actually extract more benefits from IT utilization than their counterparts in less-developed countries. These prior studies typically investigated the impact of IT at either the firm -level, examining the effects on individual firm performance, or the aggregate effect on an entire industry or country economy. The primary performance variable of interest in these cross-country comparisons has been productivity growth attributed to IT investment, following the reasoning that automation due to IT adoption increases labor productivity or that organizational process improvements increase multi-factor productivity (MFP).A recent review, in summarizing several empirical studies, reported consistent positive correlations between IT investment and growth in both labor productivity and MFP in developed countries but insignificant or inconsistent correlations in developing countries (Dedrick et al., 2003). Although an increase in profitability is also an objective in IT investment, this outcome has proven elusive due to competitive forces (Hitt and Brynjolfsson, 1996). In developed economies, firms in highly competitive environments lack pricing power. Hence, gains in efficiency and quality may be passed on to the consumer through price reductions, rather than contributing to higher profit margins for the firm. This effect is not as extensively studied in developing economies.However, there are other potential benefits of IT adoption that were not included in these prior comparisons between developed and developing countries. These benefits are derived from the inter-organizational usage of IT to link customers and supply-chain partners (Johnston and Vitale, 1988; Subramani, 2004). The current study addresses this gap by extending previous comparisons between developed and developing countries to include inter-organizational IT capabilities. The context of interfirm relationships is essential in the current global business environment. Firms strive to collaborate with others to realize benefits from alliances and the global value chain.The cross-country interfirm IT study is still at a very early stage of development. While organizations in developed countries have been familiar with interfirm relationships and exploiting benefits from such relationships, organizations in developing countries are just beginning to realize the importance of such relationships. When cross-country context is not at focus, a number of within-country studies have made progress (Johnston and Vitale, 1988; Subramani, 2004). These studies suggested that firms with advanced IT capabilities generally have a positive relationship with interfirm firm-level performance. In other words, firms attain higher performance as a result of their IT-based interfirm relationships. The primary reason is because IT brings improvements to the relationship quality. As the quality improves, insightful and useful information is exchanged and various transaction costs are reduced. Taken this suggestion with the general cross-country IT literature earlier, a generalization can be made that firms in developed countries attain higher interfirm performance than their peers in less-developed countries do in the context of IT-based interfirm relationships. This generalization maintains cross-country context of the earlier literature and extends it with the interfirm IT literature. The thread to validity of this generalization is minimal because interfirm firm-level performance is a subset of aggregated firm performance. However, this generalization at firm-level may lead to misunderstandings at the relationship-level. That is because the firm-level performance does not always correlate positively with the relationship-level performance (Balakrishnan et al., 1996). Good firm-level performance does not mean good relationship-level performance and vice versa. There are many factors such as firm strategy and economy influencing firm performance. Therefore, this presents an opportunity to further our understanding of cross-country interfirm IT adoption.This paper intends to advance cross-country interfirm IT study in two ways. First, it aims to generate new insights and understanding about the impact of IT capabilities in the cross-country context within the interfirm IT literature. Second, it refines the investigation from firm-level performance to relationship-level performance. Particularly, it aims to discover differences and similarities in IT-related elements between interfirm relationship-level performance in developed and developing countries. Two research questions are posed:RQ1. Is there any difference in terms of the relationship-level interfirm performance between firms in the two types of countries?This question sets a baseline for the next question. The second question deals with the explanation of first question:RQ2. Does IT utilization contribute similarly or differently in the performance?By posing these two questions, we hope to capture a more comprehensive picture of the context in focus, which is cross-country interfirm performance at the relationship-level.In the next section, we present a literature review in the area of interfirm performance and IT capabilities in the context of country development levels. This review will lead to the development of hypotheses. Then, research methodology is discussed, including measurement and data collection. Next, the collected data are analyzed through statistical methods to test the hypotheses and ultimately answer research questions. The last section presents the conclusion of the study and its implications.\nReview of relevant literature and hypotheses development: Using the Solow residual as an indicator of total factor productivity, Lee et al. (2005) reported that aggregate IT investment does not contribute to economic growth as much in the developing countries as it does in the developed countries. This confirmed earlier results from Dewan and Kraemer (2000) who studied productivity differences using an inter-country production function relating gross domestic product to IT capital stocks. Differences in the effect of IT on productivity and economic growth were attributed to the prevalence of IT complementary factors such as specialized information infrastructure, human resources, R&D, low tariffs on computer imports, telecommunication liberalization, adaptive business models, and reorganization of manual processes. These fundamental factors must, to a large extent, be established by government policies and development strategies, which vary from country to country. The authors concluded that countries that have invested in information and communication technology (ICT) over a long period of time and accumulated a substantial installed base and complementary investments in telecommunications and human resources are better able to achieve positive and significant returns to IT.Studies at the firm level, using a technology-organization-environment framework found that organizations in the developed countries enjoyed more benefits from advanced IT capability than their counterparts in the developing countries (Zhu et al., 2004; Zhu and Kraemer, 2005). The primary reason given was that organizations in the developed countries have successfully integrated IT into their organizational capabilities. Dedrick et al. (2003) also documented that the relationship between organizational performance and IT capability is very strong in developed countries but not strong in developing countries. They reasoned that low-labor costs discourage developing IT capability to substitute for human resources in developing countries. Hence, IT capability in organizations was not potent in the relationship.Interfirm relationships and performance\nResearch methodology: We conducted a two-country research in the USA, a developed country, and Thailand, a developing country. Thailand was selected because it is an average developing country. According to the World Bank's classification of economies, Thailand has been consistently ranked in the middle of developing economies. Table I illustrates basic economic and IT infrastructure indicators of the two countries in late 2006. The data on the number of telephone subscribers, cell-phone subscribers, internet users, and broadband subscribers were collected from the ICT Statistics Database of the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) and are reported in the unit of per-100 inhabitants. The income per capita was collected from the World Bank in US dollars.IT infrastructure data indicate that Thailand lags behind the US significantly in IT infrastructures. Relatively, small gaps exist in voice-oriented communications and much larger gaps present in data-oriented communications. These gaps hint that voice communications are much more ubiquitous than data communications across the two countries.Control variable\nResults: Descriptive statistics\nDiscussion and conclusion: This study refines cross-country IT study from the firm-level to relationship-level. It aims to investigate differences and similarities between the interfirm relationships in a developed and a developing country in association with IT adoption. Two research questions and three hypotheses guided this investigation. Statistical analyses revealed the following findings:1. both Thai and US firms attained similar economic performance;2. Thai firms realized higher innovation performance;3. IT technical capabilities are positively associated with both aspects of interfirm performance across two countries;4. IT personnel capabilities had a positive relationship with both aspects of interfirm performance in Thai firms;5. US firms had higher levels of both IT technical and personnel capabilities than Thai firms did; and6. Thai firms implemented less routine interfirm tasks than their US counterparts did.The first and second findings answer RQ1. This study documents that economic performance was similar but innovation performance was different between the two countries at the relationship-level. The third and fourth findings answer RQ2. IT capabilities benefited interfirm relationships in the developing country more than in the developed country. Both types of IT capability are consistently and positively associated with the two types of interfirm performance in Thai firms. However, only one type of IT capabilities (i.e. technical) and one type of interfirm performance (i.e. economic) were positively linked in the US firms. The earlier literature review at firm-level suggested a result that firms in the developing countries were less successful in harvesting benefits from IT capabilities. The current result at relationship-level contradicted with this result at the firm-level. This study showed that the firm-level findings did not hold at the relationship-level. The fifth finding confirms previous literature on the level of IT capabilities in developed countries. The sixth finding highlights a nature of Thai interfirm task characteristics.This study recognizes that there is a possibility that Thai managers might have misinterpreted the questionnaire. To assess whether this possibility presents a significant threat to this study's findings, the reliability of questionnaire is examined. All Cronbach's alpha (a reliability indicator) values show good reliability. Hence, the reliability of this study was not compromised given the possibility of misinterpretation.Furthermore, data from only two countries present a challenge in generalizing the findings. The nature of this study is exploratory. We do not seek to develop a new causal theory about interfirm relationship-level performance. Nonetheless, these findings shed many insights. First, technical IT capability was not a dominant factor in interfirm economic performance within the cross-country context. The impact of the capability was alike across the two countries. US firms had higher IT capabilities but achieved about a same level of performance as Thai firms did. If technical IT capability was a dominant factor, interfirm economic performance would have been higher among the US firms. In other words, technical IT alone does not lead to superior performance at the relationship-level. Second, a reason that Thai firms attained higher innovation performance was the positive impact of IT capabilities and task variety. Insight regarding innovation performance is in line with the result of many studies (Karimi, 2004; Majchrzak et al., 2005). IT capabilities facilitate information sharing (Apostolou et al., 2009) and task variety encourages collaborations between parties (Wong, 2004). Information flow between parties enhances innovation.The third insight is based on the sixth finding. This finding highlights a dynamic nature of Thai interfirm task and environment uncertainty. In other words, this finding may suggest that the US firms implement more routine tasks as the environment is more stable. Majchrzak et al. (2005) point out that high-task variety is associated with low-task routineness. Low-routine tasks are more dynamic and complex (Kirsch, 2004). Karimi (2004) uncovered that nonroutine tasks were often the result of environment uncertainty.The last insight, the lower innovation performance among the US firms might have stemmed from their defocus (either intentionally or unintentionally) on innovation. Levina (2005) observed that firms that focus heavily on economic efficiencies might unintentionally hurt their innovation. A cross-cultural study between the USA and Japan managers reported a similar insight (Tiwana and Bush, 2007). US managers placed importance on the economic aspect but not on the knowledge aspect of interfirm relationships. Japanese managers, unlike their US counterparts, placed importance on both aspects. Since knowledge is the source of creativity, the US firms' innovation suffered.Discussions up to this point lead to some meaningful managerial implications. An implication is that managers in developing countries should not be discouraged by their handicap in IT capabilities. This study showed that the handicap did not equate to lower performance. Another implication is that opportunities to enhance interfirm performance are open for managers in both developed and developing countries. Managers in the developed countries may look to improvements of task characteristics as a means to increase the interfirm performance. Managers in the developing counties, on the other hand, may look into IT infrastructure as a means to improve performance. The final implication is rather a reminder. Many studies showed that advanced IT capabilities in the developed country helped firm performance. However, managers must not confuse relationship- with firm-level performance. This study agrees with Balakrishnan et al. (1996) that good relationship-level performance does not automatically translate to good firm-level performance.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: - Prior studies have found that productivity gains associated with information technology (IT) adoption, measured at either the firm- or aggregate-economy levels, differ between developed and developing countries. The purpose of this paper is to extend prior cross-country research to the interfirm IT capabilities and relationship-level.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - A two-country comparative study is conducted: the USA, a developed country; and Thailand, a developing country. The measurement constructs for the interfirm IT capabilities and performance are derived from the existing literature. Data are collected from IT managers who oversee interfirm relationships as follows: 68 from the US firms; 107 from Thai firms. Several statistical tools are used to test the developed hypotheses, including correlation, regression, and t-test analysis.\nFindings: - The important results of the paper indicate the following: IT technical capabilities are positively associated with interfirm performance across two countries. However, IT personnel IT capabilities had a positive relationship with interfirm performance only in Thai firms. Also, Thai firms realize higher innovation performance as a result of IT adoption than the US firms.\nResearch limitations/implications: - This is an exploratory study as it is based on data from only two countries. Thus, a new causal theory about interfirm relationship-level performance is not sought. The future research needs include data collection from more countries and longitudinal analyses of trends based on advances in IT capabilities in different countries.\nOriginality/value: - In today's networked global economy, many organizations have value chains that involve interfirm relationships. This paper is the first attempt to explore productivity gains associated with IT adoption, measured at interfirm relationship-level, based on cross-country comparative analysis.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
A model for analyzing churn effect in saturated markets	[ "ICT adoption", "First mover advantage", "Customer switching behaviors", "Churn effect", "Bass diffusion model", "South Korea", "Mobile telecommunications", "Marketing" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1 Introduction: Currently, the diffusion rates of representative information communication technology (ICT) products, such as cellular phones, internet, and PC come close to the 100 percent adoption rate in many developed countries. Mobile phone distribution rates in most advanced countries are 80 percent or greater according to an International Telecommunication Union (ITU) report in 2004 (ITU, 2004). Many countries show internet penetration rates of over 70 percent (Robert et al., 2008). ICT suppliers face a different market environment where they have to acquire consumers through customer immigration, because there are very little numbers of remaining adopters.Therefore, the customer immigration generated by switching from one service provider to another becomes prevalent because ICT suppliers compete severely with one another in saturated ICT markets. In this environment, it is important to figure out the flow of the adopters' switching behaviors in ICT markets. Particularly, for ICT market that is reaching market saturation, the prediction of the adopters' switching flow becomes more important.Many diffusion models have been employed to analyze ICT market (Bayus, 1993; Lee et al., 2006; Citrin et al., 2000; Gharavi et al., 2004; Harman and Koohang, 2006; Liu and Li, 2010). Among them, we use the Bass (1969, 2004) diffusion model as the basic model in this research. The Bass diffusion model has been applied to predict diffusion of new products (Horsky and Simon, 1983; Kalish, 1983; Robinson and Lakhani, 1975). However, the previous research could not regard the flow of adopter migration in ICT markets. Therefore, we develop a new model that regards customer immigration. A similar study was conducted by Kim et al. (2006), but their Lotka-Volterra model actually produced false results. In this research, we expected that we can obtain more insightful results in saturated competition ICT market.\n2 Literature review: In this section, we review the previous adoption research using Bass diffusion model. In many previous studies, the Bass model has been proven to be useful. Unlike other growth models, the Bass model was derived from a basic premise of diffusion and, its parameters have intuitive interpretations in a diffusion context. In addition, in most contexts, the \"Bass Curve\" mainly deals with the unconditional likelihood of a purchase at time t rather than the cumulative distribution. As a consequence, the focus is on the pattern of adoption (or sales), the peak and decline, which, in most cases is the primary pattern of interest of managers (Bass, 2004). To date, there has been a small number of these kinds of mathematical studies in the area of management of information systems. Therefore, we think that it is meaningful to use the Bass diffusion model to analyze ICT adoption.Table I summarizes some major previous researches using the Bass diffusion model. The table showed the Bass diffusion model has been used for analyzing industry without limitations of product types and of country.In addition, from this reviewing, we identified that there is no adoption research which considers customer immigration. Therefore, it is very worthwhile to conduct this research because our new model can analyze the competition among companies in saturated ICT markets. In the next section, we suggest our expanded Bass diffusion model.\n3 Method: We first suggest an original mathematical form of the Bass (1969, 2004) diffusion model.3.1 External influence model\n4 Data collection: The dataset of subscribers used in this analysis was obtained from public organizations, the Korea Communications Commission (http://eng.kcc.go.kr) and Federal Communications Commission. Two different datasets were used to investigate the diffusion trend, which is affected by migrations of the post-adopters among ICT suppliers. The first dataset, spanning 21 years from 1988 to 2008, is the number of subscribers for three major companies: SKT, KT, and LGU+. The second dataset, spanning five years from 2004 to 2008, is the number of subscribers who migrated from one cell phone service provider to another by competition. We set year 2004 as the competition start point because one unique phone number can be usable in different service providers since that year, and because competition among service providers has become severe since that year. Table II shows those data.\n5 Results and discussion: Table III describes the results from the expanded Bass diffusion model. The expanded Bass diffusion model explains the diffusion trend of the mobile communication market in South Korea with statistical significance and reasonably good conformity. In addition, the expanded Bass diffusion model can explain the migration trend of subscribers along with the market because it includes data regarding customer immigration, which the original Bass diffusion model could not consider. In this expanded model, we can identify the differences in diffusion trends among competitors at a particular time, as shown in Table II.At first, F-values of all suggested that models are quite high (11.14-51.39). And, all models rejected white-noise model. Especially, R2s of the expanded Bass diffusion models for KT and LGU+ are greater than those of original Bass diffusion models for KT and LGU+.Innovation effect is the main factor of customer immigration in market saturated period\n6 Conclusion: To survive in highly competitive ICT market, it is very important to understand the flow of customer immigration. By developing the expanded Bass diffusion model, we can explain diffusion effects arising from the migration of post-adopters among competitors. The contributions of this research are as follows: first, with high F-value, we developed more comprehensive model the original Bass model. Our model demonstrated the customer immigration behavior in cell phone market of South Korea with innovation and imitation parameters. Because white-noise tests were rejected (Table II), the parameters we gained are statistically significant.Second, using this model, we can confirm that innovation effect is the main factor of customer immigration in matured market. Innovative technology continually offers the ICT market high-quality services. At the same time, the migration of post-adopters among competitors is constantly increasing as ICT market becomes saturated. For the followers (late mover), it is difficult to use imitation effect because they do not have market power. Therefore, they should overcome this obstacle by adopting innovative products. On the other hand, first and fast movers also focus on technological innovation of their products in order to prevent their customers from migrating to another service provider.Third, our models show that imitation effects still exist, and they are beneficial to first and fast movers. This result may be related to first mover advantage. As we discussed earlier, people think that first movers have advanced technology or high-quality service. Hence, they want to join big service provider who starts the service earlier. Conclusively, it is recommendable that first or fast movers who have market power focus on intensifying their first mover advantage. Surely, they should continuously enhance their products' innovativeness.\n7 Limitation and future research: The limitations of this study are as follows. First, mobile phones are not the only products of all ICTs. For the consistent and comparative results, this research should include as many ICT devices and conventional products as possible. Second, even though South Korea is one of leading ICT countries, regional or cultural bias may exist because the study does not have data from other countries. Thus, further conduct of analytical tests with the verified data from other countries is recommended. Finally, compared to the conformity of the Bass diffusion model, that of the expanded Bass diffusion model was reasonably fair. However, the research on improving the model conformity should be consistently pursued.About the future research, the most critical issue of our paper was about the measuring innovation and imitation effects. We concur that the Bass diffusion model is not able to measure the innovation and imitation effects directly from subjects. In the current study, we focused on the general change in an adopter's switching patterns, not on a detailed factor in adoption. In the future research, we expect that we can find novel factors of switching behaviors.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: - The purpose of this paper is to propose a model that predicts information communication technology (ICT) adoption in saturated markets, to analyze the shifting behaviors of the subscribers and to present the results.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - By developing an expanded Bass model, the authors analyzed post-adopters' switching behaviors in the mobile phone market, using the officially verified time-series data for the number of mobile phone adopters in South Korea.\nFindings: - The results show that: the expanded Bass diffusion model can delineate the stream of post-adopter's switching behaviors in saturated ICT markets; based on innovation value p and imitation value q, the authors conclude that customer immigrations during market saturated period are mainly caused by innovation effect, which is closely related to launching innovative products; and fast mover still has its imitation effect, which is closely related to first mover advantage.\nOriginality/value: - The paper provides novel insights for the frame of practical strategies. To survive in a saturated market, late movers should continuously develop new and innovative products. In addition, fast movers should also develop innovative products to prevent customer immigrations, and they also should utilize their first mover advantage more efficiently, even in matured market.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Workplace energy conservation at Michigan State University	[ "Energy conservation", "Energy attitudes", "Energy behaviors", "Policy support", "University workplace" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: Because higher education institutions are intimately linked to societal growth and transformation, they can help create and instill both the basic and applied knowledge that provides opportunities for all peoples and nations to achieve a heightened state of social and economic well-being and sustainable prosperity (Michigan State University President LouAnna K. Simon).\n2. Methods: 2.1 Participants and procedures\n3. Results: 3.1 A snapshot of employee energy conservation behaviors and behavioral intentions at Michigan State University: descriptive statistics\n4. Conclusions and potential implications: The analyses included variables used in the TPB model (self-efficacy, attitudes toward energy conservation, social norms and behavioral intentions) given the expectation that the outcomes, especially the policy support outcome, would be influenced by them and thus to some degree conform to the model's expectations. Instead, our psychosocial variables yield some surprising results - with only limited support of the TPB model regarding self-efficacy for energy-saving workspace habits and a positive attitude toward energy conservation, which predicts support for energy-saving policies. Social norms are not significant predictors of either outcome. As mentioned above, it may be that more indirect measures of social norms, such as through repeated contact and encouragement of the performance of certain actions, would perform differently.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: This research contributes to the literature on workplace energy conservation by examining the predictors of individual employee behaviors and policy support in a university. The purpose of this research is to better understand what factors influence energy conservation behaviors in this setting to inform programs and interventions.\nDesign/methodology/approach: This project gathered survey data from employee-occupants of three campus buildings. Ordinary least squares regression analyses were used to investigate the theory of planned behavior (TPB) and attitudes-behavior-constraints (ABC) models examining what drives energy behaviors.\nFindings: This study finds a large proportion of respondents would support energy use reduction policies, more technology-based interventions and increased use of renewable sources. Respondents report positive attitudes toward individual energy conservation behavior but mild agreement with the influence of social norms. Self-efficacy reports also are positive. Although the TPB model is not fully supported in this group, the ABC model appears to perform well.\nOriginality/value: In addition to adding to the relatively limited data on employee energy-saving behaviors in the university workplace, this study provides initial evidence that the ABC model is pertinent to this behavioral context. It also provides specific, usable data about policies and actions that campus community members might deem feasible and acceptable to relevant university offices.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
A well-tailored centrality measure for evaluating patents and their citations	[ "Centrality measures", "Naive Patent Degree", "Network-based analysis", "Patent analysis", "Patent lifecycle", "Patent scope", "Power patents", "Refined Patent Degree" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: Patents have been largely investigated in the past scientific literature (Abbas et al., 2014; Ejermo and Karlsson, 2006; Lanjouw and Schankerman, 2004; Lubango, 2015; Sternitzke et al., 2008; Wagner and Leydesdorff, 2005). In fact, their analysis can supply a large amount of information concerning both the state-of-art and the protagonists of a certain research and development (R&D) field (Fontana et al., 2013; Guellec and van Pottelsberghe de la Potterie, 2001; Hingley and Bas, 2009; Hsueh and Wang, 2009; Lo Giudice et al., 2018; Miguelez and Moreno, 2013; Singh, 2008; World Intellectual Property Organization, 2009). This is also because the submission of a patent is usually the first public claim of a new invention or innovation. Patent analysis allows decision makers to investigate the experiences of other (possible competitor) institutions and/or countries, in such a way as to know the past and the current R&D activities in the fields of interest, to delineate their evolution and to foresee their future developments. Furthermore, patent analysis allows the construction of a detailed picture of the R&D cooperations among different institutions and/or countries and can be an indicator of geo-political evolutions happening all over the world (Bornmann and Daniel, 2008; Cooke and Hall, 2013; Shen et al., 2017).\n2. Related work: Centrality has always been one of the core topics of network analysis and has been largely investigated in the literature. It allows people to quantify the importance of nodes in their network and to understand the structural properties of this last one. As a matter of facts, already Pinski and Narin (1976) developed a self-consistent methodology for determining citation-based influence measures for scientific journals, subfields and fields. Specifically, these authors formulate an eigenvalue problem leading to a size-independent influence weight for each journal or aggregate. Then, they define two other measures, namely, the influence per publication and the total influence. Finally, they present some hierarchical influence diagrams and numerical data to display inter-relationships for journals on physics. In the same years, Freeman (1979) examined and explained the role of centrality metrics in network analysis.\n3. Preliminaries: 3.1 Patent database\n4. Centrality measures: 4.1 Theoretical definition\n5. Some possible applications: Our new patent centrality measures can have a lot of applications. In order to give an idea of them, in this section, we present three applications, namely: the computation of the \"scope\" of a patent; the definition of the lifecycle of a patent; and the detection of \"power patents.\"\n6. Conclusion: In this paper, we have proposed a well-tailored centrality measure for evaluating patents and their citations. First, we have explained the motivations that justify our research efforts. Then, we have considered related literature. Afterwards, we have presented the network-based model that we have defined to represent patents and their citations and, ultimately, to carry out our research. After this, we have introduced two new centrality measures, called NPD and RPD, and we have evaluated them by using the PATSTAT-ICRIOS database. Finally, to give an idea of the relevance of our centrality measures, we have illustrated three possible applications of them.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: The development of innovations in all the research and development (R&D) fields is leading to a huge increase of patent data. Therefore, it is reasonable to foresee that, in the next future, Big Data-centered techniques will be compulsory to fully exploit the potential of this kind of data. In this context, network analysis-based approaches are extremely promising. The purpose of this paper is to provide a contribution to this setting. In fact, the authors propose a well-tailored centrality measure for evaluating patents and their citations.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The authors preliminarily introduce a suitable support directed network representing patents and their citations. After this, the authors present the centrality measures, namely, \"Naive Patent Degree\" and \"Refined Patent Degree.'\" Then, the authors show why they are well tailored to capture the specificities of the patent scenario and why classical centrality measure fails to fully reach this purpose.\nFindings: The authors present three possible applications of the measures, namely: the computation of a patent \"scope\" allowing the evaluation of the width and the strength of the influence of a patent on a given R&D field; the computation of a patent lifecycle; and the detection of the so-called \"power patents,\" i.e., the most relevant patents, and the investigation of the importance, for a patent, to be cited by a power patent.\nOriginality/value: None of the approaches proposing the application of centrality measures to patent citation networks consider the main peculiarity of this scenario, i.e., that, if a patent pi cites a patent pj, then the value of pi decreases. So, differently from classical scientific paper citation scenario, in this one performing a citation has a cost for the citing entity. This fact is not considered by all the approaches conceived to investigate paper citations. Nevertheless, this feature represents the core of patent citation scenario. The approach has been explicitly conceived to capture this feature.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Human Capital 4.0: a workforce competence typology for Industry 4.0	[ "Human capital 4.0", "Competences and skills", "Typology", "Workforce architecture", "Industry 4.0-enabled interaction", "Industry 4.0" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction and motivation: The new paradigm of Industry 4.0 is rapidly spreading worldwide. This revolutionary concept offers the story of the next Industrial Revolution as a flexible platform where technologies and the Internet are pervasive means to do businesses and manufacturing.Efforts have been made to propose future tendencies and shifts in terms of technologies, systems and tools. However, there still seems to be a lack of considerations for future workers, especially at a holistic view. In other words, there is a need for a corresponding term and scenario for humans in parallel to Industry 4.0. To address this need, the following questions demand an answer:RQ1. How does the future interaction and communication look like for employees in a manufacturing company? What type of new structure and activities may arise from such new interactions?RQ2. What is the best term to represent an inclusive set of future-proofing attributes of the workforce?RQ3. What are the competences required for this new paradigm shift?The research reported in this paper attempts to answer these questions by having carried out a state-of-the-art review. This methodology allows both to address a wide literature and topic, and to highlight perspectives for further research (Grant and Booth, 2009), which resonates with the aim of this paper.In this sense, the work presented elaborates on the new changes at the factory atmosphere, such as its architecture levels and the workforce interactions. Furthermore, it also proposes a new approach and term with a human-focused perspective in order to meet the challenges of the future labour force. This new term is \"Human Capital 4.0\". This is a holistic approach of the human force worth considering for different aspects required for a successful adoption of Industry 4.0. Lastly, we present a novel competence model to enhance the understanding and application of every type of skill.The remainder of the paper is organised as follows. Section 2 presents state-of-the-art literature on existing terminologies within Industry 4.0, the factory structure, the workforce architecture and interactions and the review of human capital and competences. Section 3 provides the results and discussion to the three initial questions to be answered. Section 4 gives conclusion and further implications of the results. Section 5 mentions the limitations of the research and future work.\n2. Literature review: 2.1 Industry 4.0 and recent terms\n3. Results and discussion: In this section, we have addressed and presented an answer to the research questions pointed out in the Introduction section. In addition, there is some discussion around their practical implications. 3.1 Q1, how does the future interaction and communication look like for employees in a manufacturing company? What types of new structure and activities may arise from such new interactions?\n4. Conclusion and further implications: This paper has shed some light in three relevant aspects of industry and its human labour force: a workforce architecture with new interactions, a term to embrace the human capital of the future and a typology for referencing the required competences for Industry 4.0.The architecture and workforce communications will find themselves impacted by the connectivity and interoperability sought in Industry 4.0. Moreover, the self-adaptability and decentralisation in the systems are also believed to affect the existing model of interaction among co-workers in manufacturing plants. A new Industry4.0-enabled interaction is proposed, where elements of the company will be interactively enhanced and influenced by Industry 4.0 technologies and goals. Examples of emerging activities have been also given. Although the literature mentions different ways of new connections and interactions in general, further research needs to be done considering more realistic manufacturing scenarios with the workforce elements as a whole. Whether this emerging interaction model will influence the existing hierarchical or authoritative ladder in a company is also a question worth pondering. In addition, a focus for research should be whether existing technological settings already offer opportunity to smoothly display the future architecture among the manufacturing workforce.With Industry 4.0 posing disruptive challenges at different scales (i.e. business models, manufacturing processes, economy), it is necessary to upgrade the human force at different levels (i.e. technical, psychological, social) to meet those changes. Therefore, Human Capital 4.0 is proposed as a holistic shift in terms of competences, education, well-being and innovation that the workforce should exhibit for the era of Industry 4.0. Future workforce will need to be highly adaptable, resourceful, resilient and interdisciplinary for interaction and collaboration in the industrial market. It is not claimed that the new concept proposed covers all the variety for possible unforeseen needs in the new industry. Instead, it is expected that this term serves as a platform for continued discussions.Lastly, a novel typology of competences for human capital of the future was developed. The soft workforce will exhibit the interconnectivity and self-adaptability in the company through flexible and social interactions. The hard workforce will demonstrate enhanced knowledge of basic work, that is, industrial processes or working techniques, but also will adopt high-level digitalisation expertise. The cognitive workforce will show self-autonomy and management of complexity through increasing learning and experience. The emotional intelligent workforce will undergo change adaptations through proper motivation and perspective development. The digital workforce will do and perform all types of work activities in a digital-context scenario through the understanding and utilisation of digital means.The proposed typology not only covers why these qualities are required for Industry 4.0, but also attempts to emphasise the particularity and difference among them. In this way, it should be easier to improve methods and tools to train and assess such qualities, respectively. This is another area that can be benefitted from further research.Today, in the 21st century, it should work as an opportunity to heed that disruptive technological changes should be undertaken for the benefit of humans and the planet. The Industry 4.0 paradigm proposes a shift in thinking and actions from the traditional way. Such changes will have a high impact on human labour. Therefore, continuous work needs to be done at holistic perspectives in order to support the transition from a conventional to a new thinking and operational model.Industry 4.0, as well as its previous precursors, came out of technological disruptions, requiring a post adaptation from humans. Perhaps one day, fully developed competences of humans could come before and be the trigger for the next disruptive Industrial Revolution in line.\n5. Limitations and future work: As stated above, this paper was based on a state-of-the-art literature. Although this helps us to offer a wide picture of the topic with relative fresh information, it does not lend itself for delving further into each section. Therefore, the limitations of this article are framed within the nature of it by not digging deeper into every subtopic. Furthermore, another factor or term left out in this research, which may be suitable to consider, is sustainability and its role within human capital.Future work aims to propose an assessment test of the Human Capital 4.0 competence typology in a physical and/or virtual prototype setting that can be displayed in a laboratory. In addition, foreseen work considers the development of a novel model for training and education of workforce.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is twofold: to raise and address an important change for the human capital in the future of Industry 4.0, and to propose a human-focused perspective for companies underneath the new Industrial Revolution.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The research study follows a state-of-the-art literature review process. The nature of the selected approach enables to cover the extensive aim of the paper with sufficient scientific solidity that should support the understanding of every topic.\nFindings: This work has presented three relevant aspects for Industry 4.0 and its human labour force: a workforce architecture with new interactions, a term to embrace the human capital of the future and a typology for referencing the required competences for Industry 4.0.\nResearch limitations/implications: The paper sheds light on an important aspect for the emerging Industrial Revolution, the human force. The result and conclusion sections suggest future implications for academia and the private sector, due to changes at the conceptual and practical levels of human operation in the industry - for example, new structural interactions among employees, additional qualities to human capital and different ways to identify the competences for the workforce.\nOriginality/value: This is an interdisciplinary study that tries to bring together a modern industrial term, a social focus and a company scenario. From this, it was possible to obtain a new social term, a novel typology of competences and a new company-scenario interaction.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
An investigation of female and male constructs of leadership and empowerment	[ "Gender", "Leadership", "Empowerment" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n__NO_TITLE__: The study of leadership has been a jewel in the crown of organizational psychology for decades and, as a focus for research income, it has consistently attracted substantial funds from both military and civilian organizations.\nDo samples of women and men describe qualities and characteristics of leadership differently?: We can leave aside the oft-quoted debate as to whether, in the main, women and men actually adopt different leadership styles, which regularly concludes that the findings are equivocal (Ferrario, 1994), since these are, in this context, largely irrelevant to the question.The question is: \"What do women and men perceive as qualities and behaviours of leadership\"? Since this is a major source of data in determining what and how leadership will be assessed.One recently published study and a small pilot study of my own have provided evidence of sex differences in perceived leadership qualities.The first is a study of UK local authority housing managers (Sparrow and Rigg, 1993), in which two groups of managers, one male and one female, were questioned using the technique of the repertory grid interview (Kelly, 1955) to identify the skills and attributes they believed were important for a housing manager's job.The attributes that emerged from the two groups were very different with respect to several key aspects of the job. Table I summarizes the constructs elicited. At times, they are almost the opposite of each other.Which will be the attributes described on the \"person-specification\", and thus adopted as the final list of criteria used by assessors for selection purposes? With regard to decision-making approach, will it state \"quick\" or \"not snap decisions\"? With regard to working style, will it look for individuals who are \"political\", \"forceful\", \"flamboyant\" and \"confident\", or for those who are \"measured\", \"participative\" and who \"work through people\"?Clearly, the information sought in the selection interview, or the behaviours scored highly in an assessment centre exercise, will differ, depending on which final list is adopted.The second study, which is a pilot study of my own, based on using the repertory grid interview technique with a sample of 12 female and 12 male senior managers in the British National Health Service, also produced qualitatively different constructs of leadership.The managers were asked to think of individuals with whom they had worked, and who, in their experience, possessed differing qualities of leadership. By comparing these managers in a variety of combinations, dozens of constructs of effective and non-effective leadership emerged. Table II shows a summary of the findings.Again, it can be seen that very different qualities and skills emerge. Which qualities will emerge in a final \"person specification\" should we wish to select or promote someone to a senior management position? Should we focus on a profile of an individual who is \"independent\", \"career driven\", has \"clarity of purpose\" and \"gives clear direction\", or should we look for evidence of someone who \"thinks through issues and where they are leading people\", is \"concerned to take people with them\" and can \"admit vulnerability\"?Depending on the final choice, there will be very different training given to the assessors in a selection interview, to assessors observing behaviours in an assessment centre.Three particularly interesting points emerge from the findings of these two studies. The first is how similar are the patterns or styles of leadership that are identified by the female managers in both studies, and the male managers in both studies. The second is that the different styles identified by the females and males appear to reflect the distinctions that are currently being made in the literature on leadership. The third is that these differences in perception of leadership qualities are remarkably similar to the findings obtained in a US study of how female and male managers describe their preferred leadership style (Rosener, 1990).Among Rosener's (1990) findings for women were:* Women are more likely than men to use \"transformational leadership\" - motivating others by transforming their individual self-interest into the goals of the group.* Women use \"interactive leadership\" styles by encouraging participation, sharing power and information, enhancing peoples' self-worth.* Women are much more likely than men to ascribe their power to interpersonal skills or personal contacts rather than to organizational stature.* Women as leaders believe that people perform best when they feel good about themselves and their work, and they try to create situations that contribute to that feeling.* Rosener found that: \"In describing nearly every aspect of management, the women made reference to trying to make people feel part of the organization from setting performance goals to determining strategy\" (Rosener, 1990, p. 120).Men, on the other hand, were found to be more likely than women to:* adopt \"transactional\" leadership styles (exchanging rewards or punishment for performance); and* use power that comes from their organizational position and formal authority.One of the major preoccupations in current debate and literature on leadership is the distinction between the skills of management and the skills and qualities of leadership (Kotter, 1990). Confusingly, they are frequently described as \"transactional\" and \"transformational\" leadership, respectively, (Bass and Avolio, 1989).Transformational leadership involves the important distinguishing feature of encouraging the empowerment of staff. Rosener (1990), in her study, makes the direct association between the leadership style described by her sample of female managers and notions of transformational leadership. As contemporary writers Rosenbach and Taylor (1993, pp. xi-1) state:[...] if one is to understand leadership, one must understand its essential nature - that is, the process of leaders and followers engaging in reciprocal influence to achieve a shared purpose. Leadership is seen as a means to the empowerment of followers. To study leadership apart from the complex interactions leaders have with followers is to miss the most important aspect of leadership.The importance that the female managers, in the other two studies cited, attributed to the relationship between manager and colleagues (including subordinates) was the feature which most distinguished the styles described by the women and the men, and it reflected the notion of empowerment.\nEmpowerment: a gendered concept?: The meaning of the term \"empowerment\", given its increasing importance in the leadership literature, and its practical importance to organizations, is worth closer scrutiny.The process of \"empowering\" subordinates has been described variously as a method of increasing autonomy, personal control, accountability and increasing self-esteem. It is a seductive concept, which holds an immediate appeal for me and, doubtless, many others, clothed as it is in the warmth of humanistic language.Increasingly, however, I have experienced a sense of dissonance created by the experience of attending conferences and workshops on \"empowerment\" at which individuals, who have reputations for favouring management styles more akin to Machiavelli than to the public image of Mother Teresa, extol its benefits.The rationale presented for advocating empowerment often appears to be primarily for the benefit of the organization, by getting more out of the employee through increased productivity and efficiency. Among the reasons cited for empowering staff are that it can support organizational change by improving employees' sense of responsibility, authority and identity at work, and so directly affect their motivation. Employees will feel happier as the sense of \"ownership\" of their job increases.Under the guise of empowerment being provided as a gift to employees - something they will just love - it creates a sense of paternalism, and appears to encourage notions of selfishness and self-sufficiency. Rarely does the notion of \"connectedness\" reverberate in the reasons given above as to its value to the organization, or in the outcomes for the individual.The distinction is similar to that made by feminist writers between \"feminine\" and \"masculine\" principles. Marshall (1993), for example, has described \"feminine\" values as being characterized by qualities which include:* interdependence;* co-operation;* receptivity;* merging;* acceptance;* being aware of patterns, wholes and contexts; and* being.But what she refers to as \"masculine\" values or principles are characterized by qualities which include:* self-assertion;* separation;* independence;* control; and* competition.Empowered individuals are being seen by many proposing modern leadership models as \"recipients of power\" rather than \"sharers in power\", a thesis lucidly elaborated by Cullen and Townley (1994). Not only do the imbalances of power remain, since it is still in the power of the leader to remove the gift, but the individuals empowered become more accountable for the disappointments and failures which previously were regarded as responsibilities of their manager. Empowerment therefore smacks of old-style autocratic management, but \"dressed up\" in a warm, humanitarian model.One major seduction is that it gains legitimacy by appealing to notions of being \"self-actualizing\", the central concept of which was developed by Maslow (1954) from studies which, as Cullen (1994) explains, were degrading to the women who were the subjects of the research, and valued only those women who were like men. Cullen expands her thesis that self-actualization dangerously glorifies the concept of individualism:Maslow's theory is the ultimate expression of the American middle-class belief in the value of individual accomplishment and material prosperity. By stressing the personal and social importance of the development of individual autonomy and self-fulfilment, it is a psychological counterpart to liberal democratic political theory, which stresses similar values. It also supports and justifies depersonalized and dehumanized interactions with others. The self-in-relation which informs feminist theory (Chodorow, 1978; Gilligan, 1982) is a self that thinks in terms of connection with others. Whether it reflects gender, class, racial or cultural differences (Harding, 1986), the self-in-relation is one that does not see itself as separate from, or superior to, other selves.In summary, there must be concern that in many definitions of \"empowerment\" it is the \"masculine\" version which is adopted, in which increased autonomy and separateness is being encouraged, rather than \"feminine\" notions of connectedness and interdependence (Marshall, 1993; Cullen and Townley, 1994; Cullen, 1994). Cullen and Townley point out:In this relational view, power is not a commodity which one group and not another \"has\", nor is it something which some individuals have \"more of\" than do other individuals. As a relational concept, power is seen to be present in all social relationships, manifested in the continuous everyday discourses and actions within the relationship. It is the property of relations, manifest in its exercise: the fabric of relationships between individuals and groups, constituted through processes and practices (Cullen and Townley, 1994, p. 12).There is already considerable evidence that these latter behaviours, while positively valued in subordinates, are not valued as leadership qualities when adopted by women (Russell et al., 1988; Schein, 1975; Schein and Mueller, 1990; Watson, 1988).\nConcluding thoughts: This article has not been written for the purpose of reinforcing sex or gender stereotypes. Nonetheless, it has deliberately made comparisons between the perceptions of female and male managers of the qualities required for leadership. The reason is that the author wants to challenge the dangerous implicit assumption that identifying the criteria for leadership positions from groups of senior managers, all or most of whom (chances are) are male, may well lead to gender-biased criteria for the subsequent assessment process. Indeed, the findings cited here provide evidence that including a significant or equal proportion of women in the sample from which the criteria are elicited might lead to very different attributes emerging. It would also appear that these criteria might more closely resemble \"transformational\" leadership qualities.Moreover, leadership researchers are stressing the increasing importance of transformational leadership:All over the world, the need to understand leadership has heightened. People are joining together to bring about changes, and the quality of their leadership will be critical to their progress toward achieving their shared goals. Whereas, we first merely explored transformational leadership as an interesting new concept, we are now convinced that the research and literature confirms the transformational leadership paradigm as most meaningful in today's diverse and complex world (Rosenbach and Taylor, 1993).In view of the demands for transformational leadership, and given the very different interpretations of the central concept of \"empowerment\", this article asks: \"Will women be penalized yet again for interpreting transformational leadership as a shared process rather than as a gift, by virtue of the grace and favour of managers who will still, ultimately, hold the power?\" Can we realistically expect patriarchy to be dismantled in organizations, as those in positions of power experience Pauline conversions, or will the manager become a chameleon?\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: - The purpose of this paper is to investigate female and male constructs of leadership and empowerment.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - The paper describes the findings from two recent UK studies which investigated female and male constructs of leadership qualities.\nFindings: - Very different models emerged. The women's descriptors related directly to notions of transformational leadership, and the men's to transactional leadership. The implications for assessment practices are considered, as is the concept of empowerment, which is central to the notion of transformational leadership and fast becoming the organizational \"buzz\" word. Less obvious, and of particular concern are the observations that empowerment, like so many other values, is a gendered concept, and that beneath its attractive humanistic guise may be hidden a more sinister interpretation.\nOriginality/value: - The paper offers insights into female and male constructs of leadership and empowerment.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Examining situational continuous mobile game play behavior from the perspectives of diversion and flow experience	[ "Behaviour", "Continuance", "Adoption", "Hypothesis testing" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: With the widespread use of mobile devices such as smart phones, a variety of mobile applications have been developed and widely used, such as mobile games, mobile news, social media, navigation, mobile music and so on. Among these activities, mobile game playing is the most popular mobile app category (LABS, Xcube, 2011). And mobile games have become many users' major leisure activity as they can carry their portable game devices with them anywhere and anytime. It is estimated that mobile games account for the majority of time spent on mobile devices: about 48 percent on the iPad, 31 percent on the iPhone and 53 percent on Android devices (Thomas, 2013). According to an analysis by iResearch Consulting Group (Group, 2015), China's mobile game market has achieved a volume of CNY32.08bn (equivalent to $5.17bn) in the first quarter of 2015, accounting for 31 percent of the total revenue in Chinese network game industry.\n2. Literature review: 2.1 Situational adoption behavior\n3. Research model and hypotheses: In the mobile adoption context, people may intend to use or not to use the mobile games based on different situations. The adoption behavior of mobile game has a close relationship with the unique psychology of users.\n4. Research methodology: 4.1 Construct measurement and questionnaire design\n5. Research results: Statistical analysis of the survey data was conducted with IBM SPSS 22 and AMOS 17.0. In the following, the reliability and validity of the measurement model will be examined. Then the hypotheses proposed in the research model will be tested. Finally, the fitness of the research model will be evaluated to ensure its accuracy.\n6. Discussion: 6.1 Key findings\n7. Limitations and further research directions: There are some limitations in this study. First, the adoption behavior of users may also differ among different countries with different cultural and social environment. More research in other countries is needed to validate the model and to explore social and cultural impacts on situational mobile game playing behavior. Second, different games may be suitable in different situations. While some simple games are suitable for creating a diversion, more sophisticated games are likely to require a higher degree of attention to play. We should include game characteristics and situation differences into considerations of situational play. Third, our study only employs self-reported survey data to assess mobile game behavior intentions, and it would be very helpful to include objective measurements about mobile game players in future research. Fourth, another limitation is that there is no attempt to incorporate actual usage in the research due to the difficulty of obtaining actual usage data. In the future, some attempt will be made on actual usage by the system log files, which would make the research model more powerful. Finally, flow experience can be considered in the light of factors related to user psychology and internal motivation. Findings from this study provide an initial step toward including psychological characteristics of players into the research model in order to analyze user behavior in situational mobile game play. Further research is needed to refine and better qualify the internal psychological factors that are likely to affect game play.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to investigate users' continuous adoption behaviors on mobile game playing from the perspective of situational habit formation.\nDesign/methodology/approach: Based on the literature research, a continuous adoption model for situational mobile game is proposed. And the research model is assessed based on data gathered from a sample of 226 mobile game players by employing the structural equation model methodology.\nFindings: The results show that situational cues represented by availability, perceived ease of use and diversion lead to repeated performance that can be represented by flow experience and satisfaction in the situational mobile game playing context. But only flow experience and diversion influence continuous usage directly. Additionally diversion, as a critical situational variable, not only indirectly affects continuous usage intention through flow experience, but also directly affects continuous usage intention for situational mobile game playing.\nOriginality/value: Mobile game adoption has been studied from different perspectives, but most research is based on the technology acceptance model. They could not explain the common fact that young people tend to be highly motivated by mobile games and can be regarded as pro-active mobile game players, but many people play mobile games only when they are bored and need a diversion. So this study attempts to illustrate the phenomena to fill the gaps.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Data mining: an ethical baseline for online privacy policies	[ "Data mining", "Ethics", "Data subjects", "Online privacy" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: motivation and research question: With the proliferation of online services comes the explosion of data that is generated by consumers and collected by the businesses that offer these services. Subsequently, many of these businesses are using analytics, such as data mining, to help them understand their customers better. This understanding, in turn, can benefit the consumer if the provider is able to discern and predict patterns in the consumer's future use. While many consumers of these online services are aware (at least to some extent) that the business may be mining their data, what if a consumer does not want his private information discovered and/or used by anyone? In circumstances where confidentiality is desired, the practical, moral, and technical challenges to maintaining privacy are immense. The practice of data mining presents an abundance of issues, and a correspondingly wide array of perspectives on its proper handling.\nResearch background: Data mining\nMethodology: The methodology that we used to craft foundational ethical principles for data mining and our proposed practices for online privacy policies for use in business followed several steps. After identifying the research questions, stakeholders were identified from various literature searches. As discussed earlier, identifying stakeholders is an important step to gain understanding of the effects of data mining; this analysis provides a very basic foundation, in a purely qualitative way, for an assessment of the benefits and costs of data mining. Payne and Landry (2005), Earp et al. (2002), Jackson (2002), and Baumer et al. (2004) all contributed stakeholders to the list developed and used in this analysis. Further, the authors used a survey of existing frameworks found in legislation and regulatory instruments to identify critically important elements of online privacy policies. These frameworks include the Malaysian Personal Data Protection Act, the United Kingdom Data Protection Act, EU Directives, Safe Harbor Principles, the Organization for Economic Co-Operation and Development (OECD) Fair Information Practice (FIP) Principles, and the US's Code of FIPs. In the development of the list of stakeholders and the derivation of the foundational principles of online privacy policies and proposed practices, keywords were identified as being relevant. For example, as can be seen in Table III (which follows the analysis of the frameworks), words such as fair, legal, integrity, and right were qualitatively chosen for their meanings and then identified in the various documents as being integral to the policy. Those words, taken in context, were fitted into our derived foundational principles and proposed practices for online privacy.\nDiscussion and implications: Comparing proposed practices to reality\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to advocate for and provide guidance for the development of a code of ethical conduct surrounding online privacy policies, including those concerning data mining. The hope is that this research generates thoughtful discussion on the issue of how to make data mining more effective for the business stakeholder while at the same time making it a process done in an ethical way that remains effective for the consumer. The recognition of the privacy rights of data mining subjects is paramount within this discussion.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The authors derive foundational principles for ethical data mining. First, philosophical literature on moral principles is used as the theoretical foundation. Then, using existing frameworks, including legislation and regulations from a range of jurisdictions, a compilation of foundational principles was derived. This compilation was then evaluated and honed through the integration of stakeholder perspective and the assimilation of moral and philosophical precepts. Evaluating a sample of privacy policies hints that current practice does not meet the proposed principles, indicating a need for changes in the way data mining is performed.\nFindings: A comprehensive framework for the development a contemporary code of conduct and proposed ethical practices for online data mining was constructed.\nResearch limitations/implications: This paper provides a configuration upon which a code of ethical conduct for performing data mining, tailored to meet the particular needs of any organization, can be designed.\nPractical implications: The implications of data mining, and a code of ethical conduct regulating it, are far-reaching. Implementation of such principles serve to improve consumer and stakeholder confidence, ensure the enduring compliance of data providers and the integrity of its collectors, and foster confidence in the security of data mining.\nOriginality/value: Existing legal mandates alone are insufficient to properly regulate data mining, therefore supplemental reference to ethical considerations and stakeholder interest is required. The adoption of a functional code of general application is essential to address the increasing proliferation of apprehension regarding online privacy.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Information literacy perceptions and behaviour among history students	[ "Information literacy", "History students", "Skills self‐assessment", "Learning habits", "Spain", "Information management", "Information retrieval", "Students", "Learning methods" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: 1.1 Research context, value and originality\n2. Approaching a model of IL for history students: These diagnostic targets must be based on a model of IL to suit the information needs and problems of history students. This section constitutes a first and preliminary approach to that model.2.1 Information literacy models and instruments for self-assessment\n3. Research design: This paper presents one of the first applications of the IL-HUMASS questionnaire: a case study in order to explore the self-reported learning habits of history students and their levels of \"belief in importance\" and \"self-assessment\" with regard to a set of previously defined IL information skills.3.1 Aims and objectives\n4. Results: The survey items pursued two quantitative responses related to perceived levels of \"belief in importance\" and \"skills self-assessment\", as well as a qualitative answer on the \"preferred learning habit\". An exploratory and descriptive analysis and interpretation of the data is displayed here through six sections:1. data statistics;2. belief in importance;3. skills self-assessment;4. improvement opportunities;5. students' learning habits; and6. students' suggestions.4.1 Data statistics\n5. Discussion: Although the whole work has been focused on the subjective perspective of the perceptions and behaviour of history students, this limitation does not preclude that the findings may have implications for policy makers and instructors, as well as the students themselves.5.1 Improvement opportunities\n6. Originality and value: This paper describes the state of the art of IL in three History faculties in Spain. Both its general goal and its academic limitation should be taken into consideration. It is a pioneering study due to the fact that it approaches IL from an user's perspective, which to date has received little research attention. Its potential importance derives from the incipient nature of this new research path. The IL-HUMASS survey is a singular and complex diagnostic tool that approaches IL from the three subjective dimensions of \"belief in importance\", \"skills self-assessment\", and \"learning habits\". There is no evidence of any other IL studies that jointly examine these dimensions. This paper presents the initial results of an ongoing research; a further survey is planned for 2011 in the same faculties, to evaluate the progress made on these IL issues in the institutions involved in the research. Ultimately, it is relevant for history students to become aware of their initial IL strengths and weaknesses. This is the best starting point in order to play an active role in their learning venture.\n7. Conclusion and further research: Some general conclusions may be drawn from the study. Only a trace amount of history students believe they have fully achieved the status of literacy in information. On average, students rated themselves moderately in the dimensions \"belief in importance\" and \"skills self-assessment\" of the IL competencies. But a significant correlation with the dimension \"preferred habit of learning\" has not been found.In order to improve IL-related aspects for history undergraduates, the first challenge is to enhance their levels of \"belief in importance\" and \"skills self-assessment\" with regard to the most disadvantaged IL information skills. A further point for reflection in relation to learning habits is the very low status of the library and classes as providers of information. One way of raising this status would be for institutions to recognize IL as part of the educational curricula of history faculties, in accordance with the importance recently attributed to this issue by accreditation organizations. Meanwhile, more extensive planning processes and the promotion of specific courses addressing the weaknesses uncovered in some of the 26 IL survey variables could bring about improvements in history students' IL information skills. Were that the case, the involvement of classes and libraries in the students' learning would also markedly improve.The surveyed history students show a meaningful preference for an \"isolated\" and \"unaided\" learning. But independent learning means a lot more. Students' concept of independent learning has to be clarified and enriched.The lack of progress in student IL perceptions across the different academic courses reveals the lack and need of an adequate information literacy program. Since there is no IL programming, and a subsequent instruction, the results obtained are mainly conditioned by the personal circumstances of students. In any case we are determined to deepen the understanding of the subjective dimensions of history students, and this requires a complementary instrument with more specific questions.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: - The purpose of this paper is to discover Spanish history students' subjective perception of their information literacy (IL) status in order to find and suggest some academic and individual improvement actions.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - The implementation of the IL-HUMASS survey provides diagnostic data on two IL quantitative dimensions (belief in importance and skills self-assessment) and a third qualitative dimension (learning habits) deployed along 26 variables, which are grouped into four categories (search, evaluation, processing, and communication-dissemination of information).\nFindings: - The analysis confirms that variables related to information processing (above all schematising and abstracting information) show high scores of belief in importance and skills self-assessment among students. By contrast, variables related to technological advances (above all the use of bibliographic reference managers) show the worst results. In sum, there is a lack of subjective digital literacy in a set of skills related to the technologies of search, processing and communication of information. Among the less valued skills, independent learning reaches an excessive priority. However, this is really just an isolated learning.\nResearch limitations/implications: - The help of classrooms and libraries as learning tools would improve these results. Policy makers and instructors need to improve their role in the learning process by means of more extensive planning processes and the promotion of specific courses, above all on skills related to the technologies of information search, processing and communication. The concept of independent learning needs to be clarified and enhanced.\nOriginality/value: - This is a pioneering study that approaches IL from a triple perspective.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Spatial effects of the property sector investment on Greek economic growth	[ "Property", "Investment", "Economic growth", "Geographic regions", "Greece" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: The property sector is considered to be one of the most important sectors of the Greek economy, and this is not only because of its size (Vlamis and Kalfamanoli, n.d.). It significantly affects the country's economic growth and its importance for the growth prospects of the Greek economy has never been questioned. The Greek property sector (GPS) grew quite strongly throughout the last decade. There are several factors that have contributed to the exemplary growth performance of the GPS, particularly after 2000 (Karousos and Vlamis, 2008). Of primary importance is the contribution of the EU Second and Third Community Support Framework (CSF) programmes[1], which provided ample funding for public infrastructure (Michelis et al., 2004, Lambrinidis et al., 2005). At the national level, all Greek regions[2] enjoyed support from these programmes in terms of infrastructure investments, such as new roads and motorways, the railway network, airports, tourist sites, etc. Moreover, the European Regional Development Fund offered support to the majority of the Greek regions.Second, during the 1990s and at the beginning of the new century, significant structural changes took place in Greece, which have had a certain effect on the GPS (Karousos and Vlamis, 2008). Starting from the international economic environment, European Monetary Union (EMU) was under way through the implementation of stabilising macroeconomic rules and policies that led to low-cost financing. Thus, a decline in interest rates made mortgage loans accessible and boosted demand for privately owned housing (Karagiannis and Tsouma, 2005). Third, the organisation of the Athens 2004 Olympic Games significantly boosted investment activity in Greece through the construction of sports sites and the development of public infrastructure projects. Fourthly, the inclusion of new land in the National City plans expanded the available space for new construction, mainly in Athens, the capital city of Greece (Karousos and Vlamis, 2008).Parallel to the above, inter-regional inequality has been one of the main issues of regional development in Greece. The country's presence in the European unification process has shaped its national and regional economic policy orientation. One of the key questions raised by a number of studies is whether the integration course has enhanced regional growth and convergence (Syriopoulos and Asteriou, 1998; Petrakos and Saratsis, 2000; Tsionas, 2002; Michelis et al., 2004; Christopoulos and Tsionas, 2004; Alexiadis and Tomkins, 2004, Benos and Karagiannis, 2008). Empirical results reported mixed evidence at both the regional (NUTS 2) and prefecture levels (NUTS 3).Although there are several studies concentrating on the growth debate in Greece, there seems to be a shortage of research related to which factors may determine regional growth in terms of industry-level dynamics. One of the distinctive features of this study is to discuss critically the extent to which the GPS, as part of a broader nexus of domestic and global factors, affects regional economic growth - either directly or indirectly. To the best of our knowledge, none of the existing studies in this area provides a systematic treatment of the property sector as a contributory factor in explaining the growth performance of the Greek regions. We believe that this is an important empirical issue, especially given the spatial disparities that characterise Greek economic growth.Our results reveal a positive relationship between investment in real estate services and hotels and restaurants and regional growth. Also, our estimations show a positive and significant effect between investment in the energy sector and regional growth, which is closely linked to housing activity as it includes quarrying activities. The energy sector also partially captures the positive effect that the construction industry has on economic growth. We hope that our results regarding the GPS will be useful for industry professionals and policy-makers alike.The paper is structured as follows. Section 2 presents a review of developments in the Greek property sector at the national and regional levels. In Section 3, we present the dataset and the econometric methodology. In Section 4, we discuss our empirical results. Section 5 concludes the paper.\n2. The evolution of the Greek property sector at national and regional levels: The property market is generally regarded as being divided into broad sectors, each comprising similar types of real estate assets (residential, industrial and commercial property) (Parsons, 2005). In line with this, we define the property sector as including the following industries[3]:* construction;* hotels and restaurants; and* real estate services.We next present the gross value added (GVA) of each of the above industries within the Greek property sector for the period 1995-2003 (Figure 1). As far as the construction industry, hotels and restaurants and real estate services are concerned, they contributed on average 7.4 per cent, 7.3 per cent and 16.4 per cent, respectively, to the total GVA during the period of interest.With regard to the growth rate of the construction industry, it grew by 10.7 per cent for the whole period while its growth reached approximately 12 per cent for the period 2000-2003. Regarding hotels and restaurants and real estate services, they grew by 9 per cent and 6.3 per cent, respectively, in the same period.A number of notable disparities exist in the Greek regions regarding GDP per capita growth rates and the distribution of human and physical capital. As is evident from Table I, annual growth rates in Greece increased from 2.6 per cent (1995-1999) to 4.2 per cent (2000-2003). This trend was followed by most regions, while centrally located Attica and Mainland Greece together with the heavily touristic regions (Southern Aegean and Ionian Islands) outperformed the national average. Figure 2 provides a representation of the 13 Greek regions and their division into two sub-groups on the basis of their average GDP per capita during 1995-2003[4].Furthermore, according to Table II, a high proportion of employment (11.1 per cent) is evident in the construction industry in both the Northern and Southern Aegean regions. As regards real estate services, a high proportion of employment is concentrated in the regions where the two main urban centres of Athens and Thessaloniki are located, i.e. 8.3 per cent in Attica and 5.6 per cent in Central Macedonia.In addition, investment follows an uneven spatial pattern, from around 1.5 per cent in the real estate industry (e.g. in Eastern Macedonia and Thrace, Ionian Islands and Western Greece) to 29 per cent in the construction industry (e.g. Southern and Northern Aegean) (see Table III). An additional conclusion from the examination of regional dynamics is that investment in the hotel and restaurant industry is allocated mostly in the regions of the Ionian Islands, Southern Aegean and Crete, where the main tourist sites are located. We also observe large regional disparities in terms of volume regarding newly built residential properties (Table IV). The highest volume is observed in Attica and Central Macedonia, where the two main cities are located, while the lowest volume is found in th Southern Aegean and Thessaly. A similar pattern characterises the spatial distribution of newly built residential properties with respect to their value. Overall, both the volume and the value of new residential property exhibit a strong upward trend in the period analysed.In an effort to further analyse and evaluate regional disparities in Greece, Balassa-Hoover specialisation indexes for investment and employment, respectively, in 16 industries were constructed (Tables V and VI). As is evident from the employment specialisation index, the service and public administration industries are mainly concentrated in the capital region (Attica), while the energy and mining sector is located in Western Macedonia. A similar pattern is observed in the investment index, where agriculture capital specialisation is mainly concentrated in Eastern Macedonia and Thrace and Thessaly. A complete definition of the Balassa-Hover specialisation index is available in Table VII.\n3. Data and econometric methodology: In this study, the employment and investment impact of the GPS on GDP per capita growth is captured by employing a Cobb-Douglas production function. For this reason, a regional accounts dataset[5] on investment and employment at the industry level for the 13 NUTS 2 Greek regions is used. To the best of our knowledge, this particular data set has never been used before in an empirical study for Greece at a spatial level.An econometric specification of the following form is assumed: Equation 1 where the subscripts i, t and j denote region, year and industry respectively; Yitj, Litj and Kitj measure output, employment and capital, respectively, in industry j located in region i in period t, A is total factor productivity, and l is the coefficient of the time trend t of technological progress. Parameters a and b correspond to the elasticities of output with respect to employment and capital, respectively, and uitj is the error term capturing unobserved variations between industries, regions and over time. After taking a logarithmic transformation, output can be expressed as a function of employment and capital as follows: Equation 2 Since the purpose of this study is to estimate a growth equation, we approximate growth rates, taking logarithmic differences[6]: Equation 3 We estimate equation (3) by resorting to panel data methods because panel data analysis offers several advantages over time series and cross-section techniques. Specifically, it allows for more efficient parameter estimates[7], uncovers dynamic relations[8] and identifies otherwise unidentified models[9]. We should note here that OLS assumes that the error in each time period is uncorrelated with the explanatory variables in the same period. However, a primary motivation for using panel data is to solve the problem of omitted variables, which are effectively part of the error term and cause bias in the coefficient estimates. In light of that, we assume that there is a time-constant unobserved effect, which we treat as a random variable drawn from a population together with the observed dependent and explanatory variables. The unobserved effect may represent region-specific technology, tastes, historical and cultural factors. These characteristics are assumed to be correlated over time but uncorrelated with the observed explanatory variables, which is critical for the consistency of our estimates. We proceed with random effects estimation and apply GLS to compute robust standard errors of the coefficients[10].Although the main premise informing the present empirical work is the effect of regional investment and employment on respective GDP per capita growth, the association does not mean that causality runs exclusively in one direction. If this is the case, biased and inconsistent estimates will be obtained. To account for this problem we use a GMM estimator[11] developed by Arellano and Bond (1991). This requires first differencing and lags of the dependent and explanatory variables as instruments (Caselli et al., 1996). First differencing removes region-specific effects, which are a potential source of omitted variable bias, and deals with series non-stationarity. In our model, the explanatory variables are treated as endogenous, in that we suppose that past values of the error term have some impact on their future realisations. So, we are more confident about GMM compared with RE results and therefore emphasise the former. At the same time, if the findings are similar, this is a sign of robustness.Regressions are performed using a balanced panel dataset consisting of the 13 NUTS 2 regions of Greece. The annual growth rate of GDP per capita is regressed on a number of explanatory variables. Two different versions of equation (3) are estimated. First, we estimate the aggregate model, which includes four sectors, namely the primary sector, the secondary sector, the property market industries (constructions hotels and restaurants and real estate services), and the remaining services. A complete list of the sectors and the corresponding industries is presented in Table VIII. Second, the disaggregate model includes seven sectors:1. primary;2. energy;3. manufacturing;4. construction;5. hotels and restaurants;6. real estate services; and7. other services.In the following section, we present the results from the two models described above.\n4. Empirical results: 4.1 Aggregate model\n5. Concluding comments: The property market has always been one of the pillars of Greek economic growth. This paper evaluates empirically whether the GPS has an impact on regional growth using investment and employment data at an industry level. The period of our analysis includes the decisive phase before and after the adoption of the single European currency, thus comprising the effort of the Greek economy for nominal convergence with the EMU member states. Two model specifications are applied at different levels of disaggregation.It is evident that there are strong linkages between developments in the GPS and economic growth at regional level with positive side effects at national level as well. Our results reveal a positive relationship between both investment in real estate services and hotels and restaurants and regional growth. Also, investment in the energy sector, which is closely linked to construction and consequently to housing activity, appears to have a positive and significant effect on regional growth. The existence of regional disparities across Greece has important implications for the implementation of economic policy at the national level. Spatial investment in the property sector has a detrimental effect on both regional performance and development for Greece. We believe that it would be interesting to research the likely effect of the property market on regional growth for a large sample of European and non-European countries. This is next on our research agenda.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: - The aim of this paper is to identify the importance of property sector investment in regional economic growth in Greece.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - The paper uses regional accounts data, including investment and employment for all Greek industries. The standard Cobb-Douglas specification is used. The authors apply random effects and GMM estimators for dynamic panel data and employ two model specifications (aggregate and disaggregate).\nFindings: - The results indicate a positive relationship between investment in real estate services and hotels and restaurants and regional growth. Also, investment in the energy sector, which is closely linked to construction and consequently to housing activity, appears to have a positive and significant growth effect.\nPractical implications: - The authors believe that these results are useful, make a contribution to the existing knowledge, and provide firm justification that the property sector has a considerable effect on regional economic growth in Greece.\nOriginality/value: - One of the distinctive features of the paper is that it discusses critically the extent to which the Greek property sector, as part of a broader nexus of domestic and global dynamics, affects regional economic growth - either directly or indirectly. To the best of the authors' knowledge, none of the existing studies in this area provides a systematic treatment of the property sector as a contributory factor in explaining the growth performance of Greek regions. The authors believe that this is an important empirical issue, especially given the spatial disparities that characterise Greek economic growth.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Aggressive tax planning and stock price synchronicity: evidence from China	[ "China", "Stock price synchronicity", "Aggressive tax planning", "Corporate opacity" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: This paper investigates how aggressive tax planning affects the ability of stock prices to incorporate and reflect information in China. Hanlon and Heitzman (2010) define aggressive tax planning as the reduction of explicit taxes. Traditional theory views taxes as a cost to the firm and shareholders. Thus, transferring wealth from governments to shareholders through aggressive tax planning is viewed as a value-maximizing strategy (Phillips, 2003).\n2. Literature and hypothesis: Hanlon and Heitzman (2010) define aggressive tax planning as the reduction of explicit taxes: a continuum of tax planning strategies with legal tax avoidance at one end, and tax noncompliance, evasion, aggressiveness and sheltering at the other. Following Hanlon and Heitzman (2010), we do not distinguish between legal avoidance and illegal evasion, because the legality of a tax avoidance transaction is often determined ex post (Cai and Liu, 2009).\n3. Methodology: 3.1 Measures of stock price synchronicity\n4. Results: 4.1 Sample selection and descriptive statistics\n5. Robustness: 5.1 Alternative measures of stock price synchronicity\n6. Conclusion: In recent years, a substantial body of literature has investigated the determinants of stock price synchronicity, as well as the economic consequences of aggressive tax planning. But the potential connection between these two factors has not been well examined. Using a large sample of firms listed in China's emerging stock markets, where \"investor protection is weak and agency problems are severe\" (Allen et al., 2005), we propose and find a positive and significant relation between aggressive tax planning and stock price synchronicity. Our results are robust to potential endogeneity and to other specifications, as well as to the use of different tax aggressiveness measures. In addition, we find that the firms engaging in aggressive tax planning exhibit relatively high corporate opacity. Furthermore, we find that the improvement in tax enforcement regime, the stated ownership and the high-quality auditors constrain the adverse effects of tax aggressiveness. These results, taken together, indicate that aggressive firm tax planning reduces the ability of firm stocks to incorporate and reflect information.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to investigate the association between aggressive tax planning and stock price synchronicity.\nDesign/methodology/approach: Employing the special institutional background of China, this study constructs tax aggressiveness and stock price synchronicity measures for a large sample of Chinese stocks spanning the period 2003-2015. The authors employ OLS regression as the baseline methodology, and a fixed effect model, the Fama-Macbeth method and GMM as sensitivity checks. Matched samples and difference-in-difference analyses are used to control for endogeneity.\nFindings: The authors find a significant and positive association between aggressive tax planning and stock price synchronicity. Because material information about risky tax transactions tends to be hidden in various tax accruals accounts, aggressive tax strategies make financial statements less transparent, thereby, increasing information asymmetry and decreasing stock price informativeness. The authors also find that the firms engaging in aggressive tax planning exhibit relatively high corporate opacity. In addition, the authors find that improvements in the tax enforcement regime, ownership status and high-quality auditors all constrain the adverse effects of tax aggressiveness.\nPractical implications: This study has important practical implications for China's regulators, who are striving to reduce the tax burden of enterprises. It also helps investors to consider investment decisions more appropriately from a taxation perspective.\nOriginality/value: First, this paper contributes to the stock price efficiency literature by identifying the effect of a hitherto unexamined factor, namely, firm-level aggressive tax planning, on the efficiency of stock prices. Second, this study provides further empirical evidence to support the agency view of tax aggressiveness, and the informational interpretation of stock price synchronicity. Third, this study helps us better understand the effects of firm-level tax policy on firm-specific information capitalization in an environment where overall country-level investor protection is relatively weak.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Auditors and regulatory work (1987-2013): From reporting accountants' to skilled persons' reports in the UK	[ "Financial regulation", "Regulatory space", "New audit spaces", "Regulatory work", "Reporting accountants’ reports", "Skilled persons’ reports" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: The primary responsibility of company auditors under the UK Companies Act is to provide an affirmation to shareholders that in the auditor's opinion the accounts show a true and fair view of the state of a company's affairs and of its profit or loss. In the UK, in the case of banks and the financial services industry more generally, auditors are also involved in processes of supervision and regulation. For banks these provisions were first introduced under the Banking Act 1987 and continued in modified form under the Financial Services and Markets Act (FSMA) 2000.\n2. Regulatory space, new audit spaces and regulatory work: The analytical framework to be employed in this study is that of new audit spaces, recently developed by Andon et al. (2014, 2015). This built on the earlier concept of regulatory space, originally developed by Hancher and Moran (1989). We therefore review the ways in which the frameworks, first, of regulatory space and then, more recently, of new audit spaces have been used in the accounting literature. It is also important to be able to characterise the nature of this new audit space of reporting accountants' and skilled persons' reports. We consider the discussions of Power (2016) on riskwork and Robson et al. (2017) on financial reporting and auditing as social and organisational practice, and suggest that the extended role of auditors in the new audit space of banking and financial regulation should be characterised as regulatory work.\n3. From reporting accountants' reports under the Banking Act 1987 to skilled persons' reports under FSMA 2000[1]: The first part of this section focuses on the origin and structure of the reporting accountants' regime under the Banking Act 1987 before moving on to discuss subsequent refinements to the regime following the collapse of BCCI in 1992 and Barings in 1995, and the eventual transfer of banking regulation from the Bank of England to the FSA in 1998. The role of auditors and reporting accountants in this new audit space is then described and discussed by drawing on information primarily taken from annual reports of the Bank of England and the FSA. This is characterised as regulatory Work I.\n4. Discussion and conclusion: The paper has traced the little known story of the involvement of auditors in two UK regulatory reporting regimes for banking and financial services from 1987 to 2013 under the Bank of England and the Banking Act 1987 and then under the FSA and FSMA 2000.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to investigate the jurisdictional expansion of audit into the area of UK financial regulation. The paper draws on the analytical framework of new audit spaces (Andon et al., 2014, 2015), which built on the concept of regulatory space (Hancher and Moran, 1989), and characterises this new audit space as regulatory work.\nDesign/methodology/approach: Through an intensive reading of a variety of publicly available documentary sources, the paper investigates the role of auditors and accountants in the reporting accountants' and skilled persons' regimes in the UK under the Banking Act 1987 and the Financial Services and Markets Act 2000.\nFindings: The paper identifies a new audit space characterised as regulatory work, which is made up of three distinct phases (and suggests the recent emergence of a fourth phase), and considers the extent to which these phases of regulatory work share common themes across new audit spaces identified by Andon et al. (2015) as independence, reporting, accreditation and mediating.\nOriginality/value: The paper identifies a further jurisdictional expansion of audit into a new audit space, characterised as regulatory work.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Standing strong in the winds of change: an analysis of a Document Delivery Service in South Korea	[ "Academic libraries", "Document delivery", "Resource sharing" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Interlibrary loan (ILL) and Document Delivery Service (DDS) represent the long history of the library community's efforts to support users' information needs beyond the limitation of individual library's collection. The role of ILL/DDS as a primary means to widening access for users, however, has been challenged in the \"digital\" era. With the wide availability of digital resources and services, the range of information that users have at their fingertips has greatly expanded, which, in turn, has heightened user expectations for faster and easier access to information. Given these changes, it is not surprising that questions arise as to the role, value or capacity of ILL/DDS in this era.\nBackground: KERIS ILL/DDS\nTransaction log analysis: In this paper, we consider 1999-2003 as the first phase of the KERIS DDS, where the initial infrastructure for the service, including the system and the consortium, was established and the service has grown substantially. The migration to the Web-based WILL system marked the beginning of the second phase. In this phase (2004-2012), as discussed above, the service went through some turbulence most likely due to external factors such as expanded electronic journal subscriptions in Korea. At the same time, a number of changes in policies, workflows and technical components were introduced to the service which, we believe, were instrumental in sustaining its value. To examine the impacts of those changes on both the quantity and quality of the service, we will analyze the transaction log data covering the second phase of the service.\nDiscussion: The past few decades saw remarkable changes in information infrastructure which transformed, to a large extent, the way information is produced and disseminated. The availability and consumption of digital resources became a norm for users rather than a rarity, and as a result, users have become accustomed to fast access to a wider range of materials. The changes in the information environment pose unique challenges to a long-standing library service, ILL/DDS.\nConclusion: The changing information environment calls for a reassessment of traditional library services like ILL/DDS in light of their appeal and value to library patrons. Observing seemingly widespread decline in ILL/DDS usages, researchers and library professionals have urged reconfiguration of the services to better meet users' expectations in the era of abundant digital resources (Jackson, 2005; Oberlander, 2007).\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: This paper aims to review the evolution of a nation-wide Document Delivery Service in Korea over the past decade, focusing on how the service has been reconfigured to sustain and fortify its position as a central channel for accessing information in the era of abundant digital resources.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The impacts of policy changes and technical improvements introduced incrementally over the years on the advance of the service are analyzed. The overall statistics over the period of 14 years are first presented to show the changing trends of the service, and the transaction log of the period of nine years is analyzed in detail to examine the impact of policy implementation and technical advancement on the quantity and quality of the service.\nFindings: The transaction log analysis has uncovered the two main themes or directions of changes that have contributed to its robustness. First, changes introduced to streamline the service process both on the request end (unmediated requests) and on the delivery end (electronic delivery) have brought a sizable improvement on the speed of the service. Second, efforts to incorporate various resource-sharing activities into a unified service framework have led to an enhanced efficiency of the service as well as an increase in volume.\nOriginality/value: The empirical data demonstrating how managerial and technological changes have contributed to sustain the value of the service can be valuable benchmarking data for other services facing the same challenges.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Public provision of employment support services to youth jobseekers: Effects on informality and wages in transition economies	[ "Transition economies", "Wages", "Informal employment", "Public employment support service provision" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: Youth are considered a labor market group with pronounced risks of joblessness, long-term unemployment, long school-to-work transitions and are more prone to accepting informal jobs (Quintini et al., 2007). Youth unemployment rate in the transition economies of Southeast Europe and the Commonwealth of Independent States stands at 28 percent being almost double the OECD average of 16.4 percent (2014). Public employment support services (PESS) became the cornerstone of employment strategies in many countries worldwide in the battle against unemployment. They mainly appear in the form of active labor market programs, ranging from providing various trainings, employment subsidizing, individual counseling and matching services, and target youth to a given extent.\n2. Some stylized facts: Transition countries face large but heterogeneous youth unemployment rates (Figure 1). The youth unemployment rate in 2014 ranges from 3.5 percent in Kazakhstan to sizeable 50.8 percent in Macedonia. About 10 percent of all active youth and nearly 14 percent of all employed youth have been employed informally, i.e. with oral or without contract. Though there is again prevalent heterogeneity across countries, the share of informal employment in total employment ranges from 5.1 percent in Russia to sizeable 22.1 percent in Armenia (Figure 2). Therefore, the unfavorable position of youth on the labor market may be somehow softened with the possibility of informal employment.\n3. The methodological design: 3.1 Quasi experimental design\n4. Results and discussion: We start analyzing our results by looking at Table II, which provides the Heckman selection model results, i.e. results when the endogeneity is ignored. We do this to test the validity of the exclusion restrictions and to obtain the inverse mills ratio. The table is organized in the following manner: the upper panel presents the outcome equation results, whereas the lower panel presents the selection equation. The bottom of the table presents the Likelihood Ratio Tests which acts as overidentification test as it compares the full model (presented in each column) with just identified model whereby just identification comes from the functional form. The different columns of the table add the exclusion restrictions one by one. Marginal effects are presented.\n5. Results from different types of PESS: In this section, we observe the different PESS treatments on youth. Recall, we assigned individuals to the treatment group (PESS) in case an individual has been subject to one of the following policy measures: receiving advice on how to search for a job, information on job vacancies, guidance on education and training opportunities or placement in education or training programs. However, payoffs and costs of different PESS interventions may differ substantially for both the state and the respective individual, so that it is worthwhile to distinguish treatment effects according to the specific policy measures. We do this in Table VI. It presents only the second-stage regression of the IV-corrected estimates, suggesting that all the preceding steps have been conducted but are available on request. We present the results for both informal employment and wages, and the four types of PESS for each.\n6. Conclusion: In this paper, we analyzed the relevance of the public provision of employment support service to young individuals in selected transition economies of Southeast Europe and the Commonwealth of Independent States. In particular, we examined its role for informal employment and wages. The paper devoted a special attention to two econometric challenges in such examination: the selectivity into employment and informal employment, and the endogeneity of the public employment support service with respect to informal employment and wages. We argued that individuals who feel weaker and/or discouraged on the labor market, as well with less developed network, are more likely to approach the ESA for support, or even individuals who are expecting that informal employment is more probable in their case are more likely to seek public employment support. We utilized the class of Heckman sample selection methods, as well IV techniques to address these challenges. We first proposed the country employment rate at the time the individual finished school and the number of years since that moment as instruments. However, along the many concerns about their exogeneity, we also failed to prove it through statistical tests. Hence, we relied on a recent advancement of the IV techniques proposed by Lewbel (2012) whereby identification is achieved by generating internal regressors which are uncorrelated with the product of heteroskedastic errors. We relied on the SWTS 2014-2015 for seven transition countries for which such surveys were available.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to investigate if public provision of employment support services to youth leads to reduced informality and increased wages in transition economies.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The author uses the school-to-work transition data sets of the International Labor Organization for seven transition economies of Southeast Europe and the Commonwealth of Independent States. The author focuses on two econometric issues: the selectivity into informal employment and the endogeneity of the public employment support service provision with respect to informal employment and wages. The authors achieves identification by employing internal regressors which are uncorrelated with the product of heteroskedastic errors, a-la Lewbel (2012), as the author could not prove the external validity of the commonly used external instruments in similar contexts.\nFindings: Results suggest that the public provision of employment support services matters for relegating informal employment, but not for wages, in general. Placement in education or training programs is most powerful in reducing informal employment among the four different employment support services, while only advice for job search works positively for wages probably through enabling better match.\nSocial implications: Increasing budget allocations, varying the array of public employment support measures, enhanced targeting, and advancement of the profiling system may significantly contribute to strengthening the public employment support service effect on youth employment in transition economies.\nOriginality/value: The paper brings a couple of novelties to the current literature. First, it is among the early papers dealing with the issue of informality, public employment support service and labor market prospects of youth in general in a rigorous manner. Second, it fills an important gap for transition economies which were less researched due to the long-lasting transition process as well due to data scarcity. Third, it utilizes the recently collected School-to-Work Transition Surveys (SWTS). Finally, and likely most importantly, it thoroughly addresses the issues of selectivity bias and endogeneity of PESS by utilizing a recent approach of Lewbel (2012) whereby internally generated variables are used as instruments. Hence, the paper accounts for the endogeneity stemming from unobservables in a novel manner, contrary to the common approaches in the literature based either on propensity score matching addressing selectivity on observables only, or relying on commonly used instruments in the labor market literature - mainly regional employment variables - whose external validity is easily disputed.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Examining e-loyalty towards online shopping platforms: The role of coupon proneness and value consciousness	[ "Electronic commerce", "Loyalty", "Value consciousness", "Coupon proneness", "Online shopping platforms" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Along with the growth of internet and electronic commerce, online shopping has become a popular and significant activity in everyday life. In today's highly competitive online environment, the role of e-loyalty has been receiving tremendous attention from business practitioners and academics alike. E-loyalty, referring to customer retention and purchase in future, represents a strategic imperative for long-term business success (Gefen, 2002). Specifically, customer retention was highly associated with the profitability of online vendors (Helgesen, 2006).\nLiterature review and theoretical background: In this section, we first provide a review of previous studies on e-loyalty, particularly highlighting what has been done in the context of online shopping. We then address the theoretical foundation of price-tactics-related variables (coupon proneness and value consciousness) in explaining customer retention in the online shopping platforms.\nResearch model and hypotheses: Based on our previous discussion on the existing studies, we attempt to advance the literature by examining the development of repurchase behaviors (rather than stopping at behavioral intention) through exploring how the two price-tactics-related variables, coupon proneness and value consciousness, influence customer repurchase behaviors in the online shopping platforms. Figure 1 depicts our research model.\nResearch method: In this study, we collected data via an online questionnaire among users of Taobao. Taobao marketplace (www.taobao.com) is the most popular online shopping marketplace in China, a leading online shopping destination with around 255 million active buyers by the end of March 2014. According to the web information track company Alexa (www.alexa.com/topsites/global), Taobao.com is ranked the third most visited website in Mainland China and the tenth most visited in the world. From Alibaba group company overview, the total gross merchandise volume of Taobao reached RMB1.678 trillion for the year ended March 31, 2014 (www.alibabagroup.com/en/ir/financial). We therefore considered Taobao.com appropriate for our study.\nData analysis and results: This research followed a two-step approach to data analysis (Anderson and Gerbing, 1988). First, we assessed the construct validity of the measurement model using confirmatory factor analysis (CFA); then examined the proposed research model (Figure 1) by structural equation modeling analysis. The AMOS 20.0 program was used to facilitate both phases.\nDiscussion and implications: Drawing on the limited e-loyalty research into repurchase behaviors in the context of the online shopping, we seek to examine the determinants of e-loyalty and the moderating effects of coupon proneness and value consciousness on the relationship between loyalty intentions and repurchase behaviors. In this section, we discuss the findings of the research model and hypotheses testing, address the limitations of this study, and highlight the contributions towards and implications for research and practice.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: Existing research has long considered e-loyalty as a key to the success of online shopping. The purpose of this paper is to advance the theoretical understanding of e-loyalty by exploring the roles of coupon proneness and value consciousness in the context of online shopping platforms.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The authors empirically tested the research model using a sample of 537 users of an online shopping platform in a longitudinal setting.\nFindings: The results provided support to all the hypotheses in the research model; particularly, the authors found that coupon proneness and value consciousness play important roles in explaining e-loyalty. They both exhibited significant moderating effects on the relationship between loyalty intentions and repurchase behaviors. The impact of trust on loyalty intentions was also examined.\nResearch limitations/implications: The authors believe that this study will shed light for practitioners and enable researchers to deepen their understanding of e-loyalty in online shopping platforms.\nOriginality/value: The research better explains the gap between two important price-tactics-related variables (including coupon proneness and value consciousness); and further examines their roles in determining customers' repurchase behaviors in the context of online shopping, which is not well examined in previous studies.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Can the student-t distribution provide accurate value at risk?	[ "Case studies", "Normal distribution", "Risk management" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Value at risk (VaR) has become the most popular quantitative technique for risk management, because it can give a concise measure of the exposure to downside risk on financial markets over a trading period. The market participant with long position focuses on the right side of the distribution of returns, and on the left side of the distribution with short position. Thus, in addition to the downside risk, the risk measure on the right side of the distribution of returns is also important to the participants in the financial markets.A good description of the returns series is important for risk measures like VaR. The existing literatures have shown that distributions of numerous financial asset returns exhibit fatter tails than the normal distribution (Fama, 1965; Gray and French, 1990; Bekaert et al., 1998). This normality assumption results in underestimated VaR at a higher confidence level. To alleviate this problem, a broad variety of methods such as Monte Carlo simulation, GARCH model, non-parametric quantile estimation, and extreme value theory (EVT)-based method have been studied (McNeil and Frey, 2000; Lee and Saltoglu, 2002). In all of these methods, the techniques are quite sophisticated, computer intensive and take time.In contrast, the Student-t distribution is a relatively simple distribution that is well suited to deal with the fat-tailed and leptokurtic features (Praetz, 1972; Blattberg and Gonedes, 1974; Kim and Kon, 1994). However, Student-t distribution is criticized for its inability to capture the asymmetry of distribution of asset returns. To investigate whether the VaR models using Student-t distribution give precision VaR estimate, two alternative VaR models are studied. The first approach considers Student-t distribution as a fit to the empirical distribution, namely, VaR-t model. The other approach is based on the EVT, namely, VaR-x model, which allows of estimating VaR for the left side of distribution of returns using negative returns and that for the right side of distribution using positive returns. In other words, this approach determines VaR estimate from asset returns on the corresponding side of distribution and allows both the leptokurtosis and skewness of distribution of returns to be taken into account.Besides, this study illustrates two different approaches for calculating the degrees of freedom of returns distribution. In the VaR-t method, the number of degrees of freedom is derived by calculating the excess kurtosis, using the whole empirical distribution of asset returns. Instead, the VaR-x approach calculates the tail index based on EVT to determine the degrees of freedom.Empirical results show that at higher confidence levels, both the VaR-t and VaR-x models appear to yield more accurate VaR forecasts compared to that derived from normal distribution. Empirical evidence suggests that using the Student-t distribution for estimating VaR can improve the VaR estimation and offer accurate VaR measure, particularly when tail index technique is used to determine the degrees of freedom for the confidence level exceeding 98.5 percent.\nValue-at-risk models: In this section, three different methods for measuring relative VaR, the loss relative to the mean of asset returns, are presented, respectively.The most popular approach is the method that calculates VaR under the assumption of normality; namely, the VaR-n model, which is written as Equation 1 where W0 denotes the initial asset investment, s is the volatility of rates of return, and za is the percentile at a% of a standard normal distribution.The second method fits empirical distribution with Student-t distribution, namely, VaR-t model. The density function of a non-central Student-t distribution is Equation 2 where m denotes a location parameter, b represents a dispersion parameter, n is the degrees of freedom, and G( * ) denotes the gamma function.Using the method of moments, the mean, variance, and excess kurtosis are represented as follows: Equation 3 Equation 4 Equation 5 Obviously, a simple relationship exists between the excess kurtosis and the degrees of freedom from Equation (5). Consequently, we can rewrite equation (4) as Equation 6 For the standardized Student-t variable, Equation 7 Setting ta,n as the percentile at a% of a Student-t distribution with n degrees of freedom gives the VaR-t estimate as: Equation 8 The VaR-x model, proposed by Huisman et al. (1998), has the advantage of taking account of the asymmetry through determining VaR estimates from asset returns on the corresponding side of distribution. In estimating the downside risk, for example, this work starts by determining the tail index of the left tail of the distribution of returns. Let x(i) denote the ith increasing order statistic of the absolute left-tail returns such that: x(i)>= x(i-1) for i=2, ... , n. Hill (1975) proposed an estimator of tail index g(k) as follows: Equation 9 where k denotes the number of the tail observations. The tail index is simple the inverse of the estimator g(k). However, the Hill estimator suffers serious bias, which stems from the difficulty of determining the appropriate value of k for allowing an unbiased estimate of g(k). Huisman et al. (2001) proposed a modified version of Hill estimator which corrects the bias by observing the bias of the Hill estimator as the number of tail observations increases up to k, where k equals one-half the sample size (i.e. k=n/2): Equation 10 The intercept b0 of Equation (10) is the optimal estimate for the tail index. The inverse of the estimate b^0 is just the number of degrees of freedom of Student-t distribution, and thus can be used to determine the corresponding critical t-value ta,n. After reading ta,n, the relative VaR estimation is obtained by: Equation 11\nEmpirical study: Data used in the empirical evaluation are obtained from the AREMOS database, including four daily closing stock market indices of S&P 500, NASDAQ, DAX, and FTSE 100. Logarithmic daily returns calculated by ln(pt/pt-1), where pt denotes closing price index at time t, are analyzed from January 2, 1990 to June 19, 2003. Table I reports preliminary statistics, including the mean, variance, skewness, excess kurtosis and Jarque-Bera test, for the four returns series. As is commonly found for daily equity returns, the assumption of normality is strongly rejected for all returns series. Based on the kurtosis estimates, it may be argued that all the distributions of returns are fat-tailed. Also, all the return series except NASDAQ displaying significantly negative skewness shows that the asymmetric tail extends more towards negative values than positive ones. This implies that a negatively skewed distribution with fatter than normal tails will tend to produce higher VaR estimates than generated by the assumption of normality.To implement a conditional approach to the VaR estimates, this study first conducts the moving window procedure, which starts with a window size of 500 observations, to generate the estimate series of mean, standard deviation, and critical value. Moving forward by one trading day, the estimation is then repeated for the following trading day. The whole process continues step by step until the entire data set has been processed. Moreover, the study employs J.P. Morgan's Riskmetrics, namely, exponentially weighted moving average method, to capture conditional volatility with the decay factor l equals 0.94. Finally, manipulate Equations (1), (8), and (11) and enable the realization of the estimates of conditional VaR-n, VaR-t, and VaR-x.In this study, the Kupiec (1995) LR test is used to evaluate the accuracy of three VaR models. The null hypothesis of test is that the failure rate p on each trial equals the specified probabilityp, and the test statistic is: Equation 12 where: p^=x/T, x denotes the number of observed failures, which follows a binomial distribution representing the number of exceedances of VaR estimates, and T represents the total number of VaR estimates.All VaR outcomes are tested with a confidence level 1-a, which ranges from 95 to 99.9 percent. The evaluation results using the three VaR methods for various confidence levels are presented in Table II. For the 95 percent confidence level, VaR-n model yields the lowest failure rates and closely approaches to the model's specified probability 0.05. However, all the failure rates of the three VaR models are unable to pass the LR test except that of VaR-n derived from S&P 500 index. As the confidence level increases, the observed failure rates of VaR-n model become increasingly different from the model's specified probability. That is, the VaR-n model underestimates risk at high confidence levels.While the confidence level exceeds 95 percent, both the VaR-t and VaR-x models outperform the VaR-n model. VaR-t model performs reasonably well for the NASDAQ, and DAX indices as the confidence level exceeds 95 percent and yields the lowest failure rates at the 97.5 percent confidence level for these two stock indices. As for the S&P500 and FTSE 100, both of them have lower failure rates relative to the VaR-n model at the 97.5 percent confidence level and higher, however their failure rates do not pass the LR test until the confidence level rises to 99 percent and 99.5 percent, respectively. The other model, VaR-x model, turns out to be much better in forecasting performance than the alternatives at higher confidence level. As the confidence level exceeds 98.5 percent, this model passes all the LR tests for all selected indices; therefore, it yields the optimal VaR estimates.Figures 1-4 illustrate the failure rates of three alternative VaR models, and present theoretical values for the four stock indices at different confidence levels. Clearly, the observed failure rates of the VaR-n model approximate the model's specified probability at the 95 percent confidence level. When the confidence level exceeds 95 percent, the failure rates of the VaR model with normality assumption are larger than those of the other models. Consequently, the VaR-n model is preferred in situations involving lower confidence levels; however, in comparison with VaR-t and VaR-x models based on Student-t distribution, the VaR-n model deviates from model's specified probability, as the confidence level exceeds 97.5 percent.\nConclusions: This paper aims to investigate whether the value at risk generated using Student-t distribution well captures the market risk. In this study, two alternative techniques, excess kurtosis and tail index, are presented to easily determine the degrees of freedom of the Student-t distribution. The second technique is embedded in the VaR-x model, which takes into account the asymmetry of distribution of asset returns by estimating VaR using the asset returns on the corresponding side of distribution.Evaluation results indicate that both the VaR-t and VaR-x models pass the Kupiec's LR test at higher confidence levels. Particularly, the VaR-x model based on the EVT appears to yield superior VaR forecasts than the VaR-t model for all return series as the confidence level exceeds 98.5 percent. The findings of our analysis suggest that using the Student-t distribution for estimating VaR not only offers an improvement over the parametric-normal approach but also provides accurate VaR estimates, especially the VaR-x which yields the optimal estimate as the confidence level exceeds 98.5 percent.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: - This paper aims to investigate how effectively the value at risk (VaR) estimated using the student-t distribution captures the market risk.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - Two alternative VaR models, VaR-t and VaR-x models, are presented and compared with the benchmark model (VaR-n model). In this study, we consider the Student-t distribution as a fit to the empirical distribution for estimating the VaR measure, namely, VaR-t method. Since the Student-t distribution is criticized for its inability to capture the asymmetry of distribution of asset returns, we use the extreme value theory (EVT)-based model, VaR-x model, to take into account the asymmetry of distribution of asset returns. In addition, two different approaches, excess-kurtosis and tail-index techniques, for determining the degrees of freedom of the Student-t distribution in VaR estimation are introduced.\nFindings: - The main finding of the study is that using the student-t distribution for estimating VaR can improve the VaR estimation and offer accurate VaR estimates, particularly when tail index technique is used to determine the degrees of freedom and the confidence level exceeds 98.5 percent.\nOriginality/value: - The main value is to demonstrate in detail how well the student-t distribution behaves in estimating VaR measure for stock market index. Moreover, this study illustrates the easy process for determining the degrees of freedom of the student-t, which is required in VaR estimation.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Brand communities on the internet: A case study of Coca-Cola's Spanish virtual community	[ "Spain", "Internet", "Brands", "Virtual organizations", "Communities", "Customer satisfaction" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Given the increase in the globalisation of the world's economies, coupled with the rise of the internet, new opportunities and challenges have emerged for marketing brands and products (Bellman et al., 2006). In its early days, the internet was seen as an opportunity for marketers to communicate with consumers, and even to engage them in two-way communications. However, consumers are becoming overwhelmed by marketers' attempts to engage them in relationship marketing strategies. Only recently, it has become apparent that consumers are using the internet to communicate with each other (Goldsmith and Horowitz, 2006). Cyberspace has become a new kind of social terrain, crowded with \"virtual communities\" (Rheingold, 2000). Over 40 million people worldwide are estimated to participate in some form of virtual community.This evidence is forcing managers and planners to apply new ideas in order to make their web sites more effective. The traditional web site is no longer motivating customers to return to the site. An alternative strategy involves the development of a virtual community around the brand (Cova and Pace, 2006; Mathwick, 2006).Virtual community is an issue that deserves special attention as it is still in the early stages of research (Claricini and Scarpi, 2007). Recent research has focused attention on the identification of those characteristics that lead consumers to value brand community and participate in communal activities (Bagozzi and Dholakia, 2006; McAlexander et al., 2002). Managers need to understand the bases for dialogue that can lead to strong relationships (McWilliam, 2000). In addition, interactions among members can influence the choice of brands and impact brand loyalty, making virtual communities very relevant from both a theoretical and a managerial perspective (Claricini and Scarpi, 2007; Mathwick, 2006).In order to get a better understanding of the creation and development of virtual communities in this study, we explain one of the most successful online strategies developed by a global brand; Coca-Cola in Spain. The paper analyses the key drivers of the well-established Spanish virtual community in order to learn what makes it thrive. This study also provide insights for the theory and practice of virtual communities.The structure of the paper is as follows. Firstly, we review the literature about brand communities. Then, we study how the internet has made possible the development of communities in a virtual environment. Thirdly, we analyse in detail the Coca-Cola virtual community developed in Spain. Finally, we discuss the consequences and the effectiveness of this strategy.\nBrand community: Community is a core construct in social thought. A review of the sociology literature reveals at least three core components of community (Muniz and O'Guinn, 2001). The first and most important element of community is consciousness of kind, which represents the intrinsic connection that members feel toward one another, and the collective sense of difference from others not in the community. This factor is redefined as social identity by Bagozzi and Dholakia (2006). It consists of three interrelated parts: cognitive identification with the group, affective commitment towards it and collective self-esteem. The second indicator of community is the presence of shared rituals and traditions, also called group norms. The third marker of community is a sense of duty to the community and its members which is often, but not always, shared by group members.Several authors (Bagozzi and Dholakia, 2006; Hoppe et al., 2007; Muniz and O'Guinn, 2001) argue that brand communities are in fact legitimate forms of community, which form around a brand. A brand community is defined as any group of people that possess a common interest in a specific brand and create a parallel social universe rife with its own myths, values, rituals, vocabulary and hierarchy (Cova and Pace, 2006).Muniz and O'Guinn (2001) envision a brand community as a customer-customer-brand triad formed by two types of relationships, those established between the brand and the customers, and those that emerge between community members. Without the relationship between community members it is impossible for the brand community to become successful. In fact, members feel an important connection to the brand, but more importantly, they feel a stronger connection towards one another. McAlexander et al. (2002) extended Muniz and O'Guinn (2001)'s model by including those relationships established between the customer and the firm and those between the product and the customer (Figure 1). According to this customer-centric model, brand communities enhance consumer identification with the brand and foster the development of a strong corporate feeling (Hoppe et al., 2007; McAlexander et al., 2002).Research on brand communities identifies several dimensions on which they differ, including social context, size, temporality and geographic concentration (Dholakia et al., 2004; McAlexander et al., 2002). Interactions within a brand community may be rich in social context or nearly devoid of it. Community members may have a great deal of information about one another, including such data as age, sex, and attractiveness, or they may know nothing of one another. Regarding the size, Dholakia et al. (2004) found interesting differences between big communities and small group-based communities in terms of motivation to participate. Another dimension of communities is their temporality, some are stable and others are temporary. The temporal stability can be an asset to marketers inasmuch as longevity equates with a long-term, stable market. Finally, communities may be either geographically concentrated or scattered.A community is likely to form around brands with a strong image, with a rich and lengthy history, and threatening competition. Traditionally, only brands that operated in niche markets and required consumers to make major investments in time or money (i.e. Mercedes, Harley Davidson, etc.) had a noticeable brand community. However, recent research (Cova and Pace, 2006; McWilliam, 2000) has shown that brand community management might be an option for brands mainly offering convenience products such as soap, tools, toys or soft drinks (as for example Coca-Cola).The appearance of the internet may further change some of the rules that have traditionally guided the creation and development of brand communities. In the next section, we will analyse the particularities of brand communities on the internet, as well as the crucial role of the company web site in their development.\nVirtual communities: Virtual community versus off-line community\nThe Coca-Cola Spanish virtual community: Methodology\nDiscussion: The analysis of a successful virtual community has allowed us to understand that consumer-to-consumer interaction facilitated by brands online, might offer marketing opportunities and satisfy both the company and its consumers. In addition, virtual communities are not subject to many of the problems increasingly associated with traditional marketing approaches such as fragmentation of media or the resistance of consumers to receive marketing communications posed by direct marketing campaigns (Bagozzi and Dholakia, 2006). The strength of the Coca-Cola strategy in Spain relies on the creation of a virtual community, which provides functional, social, and experiential values.From a functional perspective, members may find information about their topics of interest in forums provided by the community. Members can post their opinions and perspectives, and share information and expertise. The community may also offer downloading options to its members. Different incentives may stimulate different people. In the case of young people, downloading (e.g. the latest tones for their cellular phones) appears to be the most appealing strategy in order to capture their attention and interest.However, offering a functional value is not enough to maintain a virtual community alive. Members could end up using the web site only to obtain information or downloading without actually participating in the community. In order to success, a virtual community must also support social interaction (Preece and Maloney-Krichmar, 2003). Connecting online for friends has become the corner store of the rapidly growing social networking phenomena, especially between young people. For that reason, the Spanish web site is designed to allow consumers to socialize and network online by posting a profile, looking for and networking with friends. Community members create their own identities and can meet others in a virtual space supported by the brand.The social value also resides on the volume of communication and interaction generated between consumers. As Henning-Thurau et al. (2004) state, the writing behaviour signifies consumer participation in and presence with the virtual community and enables them to receive social benefits from membership. Consumers also benefit from their ability to recognize in each other \"people like me\" and to form genuine relationships with like-minded people (McWilliam, 2000). As a result, virtual communities become venues where intense relationships emerge voluntarily among members (Mathwick, 2006).Finally, a virtual community should allow its members to explore new worlds of fantasy, entertainment and fun. Coca-Cola provides this experience through online games, sweepstakes and prizes. Games not only entertain consumers, but also reinforce consumers' impressions about the products by appealing to the emotional and sensorial benefits experienced by participants. The values inherent in play create memorable experiences that strengthen relationship and influence consumer attitudes towards the site, as well as towards the brand (Mathwick and Rigdon, 2004). In addition, sweepstakes and prizes are intrinsically fun to watch and to participate in (Chandon et al., 2000).In summary, virtual communities are not valuable mainly for their informational value, but they may be even more valuable for the social support and entertainment options they offer. Thus, in contrast to Dholakia et al. (2004) results, it is also likely a large virtual community, where people do not know each other personally, attribute more value to entertainment and social interaction instead of a more informational value. Both, the entertaining content and the possibility of forming relationships with others draw members back to the site on a frequent and regular basis.However, some limitations should be considered. The findings of this study are limited by the fast-paced nature of the internet. The virtual community may have changed since the study was conducted. In addition, the analysis developed is qualitative and restricted to the Spanish community. This analysis could be improved with a quantitative study in which members were asked about the degree to which their functional, social and entertainment needs are satisfied.\nManagerial implications: The virtual community of Coca-Cola offers many useful lessons for those who wish to accrue brand benefits through an online community. Connecting the brand site and the social aptitude of community participants potentially creates a new marketing tool (McWilliam, 2000). This case study has shown that the development of a web site with proper contents and options is crucial for the creation of a virtual community around a brand.The development of a loyalty program to support the virtual community is a good starting point to increase members' interest in becoming part of a community. It will generate traffic to the site, and will turn visitors into members. The incentive chosen is very important for consumers to return to the site regularly. Prizes are the most frequently incentive used by brands to stimulate consumers (Promo Magazine, 2006). Therefore, marketers must find out what may motivate their targets to register in the virtual community.Once individuals are registered, the maintenance of lively and interesting contents for members is crucial to retain members participative. Downloading options and the creation of common spaces to give and receive information (e.g. forums) help in maintaining the community active. In addition, the site must offer members a sense of involvement or a social identity (Bagozzi and Dholakia, 2006). Finally, virtual community management should provide its members with entertainment options. Entertainment has a powerful influence in creating memorable experiences that can positively influence consumer attitudes towards the site, as well as towards the brand (Mathwick and Rigdon, 2004).In order to success, marketers need to do a perfect analysis and response to community members' wishes (Lee et al., 2003). Sharing resources, establishing relationships and living fantasies are very appealing to youngsters, as we have observed in the Coca-Cola community. Other targets may be stimulated with different venues, therefore, each brand needs to identify what options may appeal the most to its target. In addition, the company should generate reports and statistics about most visited sections and visit durations. Less visited sections can be swapped for new ones of more interest for members. Thus, information obtained is useful to redesign the communication strategy, and to improve the relationship with consumers in the long term.A virtual community supported by a web site will serve to improve the relationships between individual consumers, as well as among the consumers and the brand. As a result, intense relationships will emerge voluntarily fostering both consumer loyalty and trust (Mathwick, 2006). The experiences lived by members in the virtual space will also boost brand loyalty by increasing the commitment and emotional ties with the brand (Kim and Jin, 2006). Ultimately, it is very likely that the virtual community strengthen the attitude towards the company and the corporate image (Rosenbaum et al., 2005).\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: - The purpose of this study is to provide a better understanding of the virtual communities' phenomenon.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - This paper reports a case study. It explains one of the most successful online strategies developed by a global brand, Coca-Cola, in Spain.\nFindings: - This study has shown that a web site can act as a marketing tool to develop a group of loyal consumers around the brand. The strength of the Spanish strategy relies on the creation of a virtual community, which provides functional, social, and experiential values.\nOriginality/value: - The paper analyses the evolution from off-line communities to virtual communities. A uses and gratification approach is used to explain consumer participation in virtual communities. The paper offers some useful guidelines for the creation and maintenance of a virtual community.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Systematic review: School health promotion interventions targeting physical activity and nutrition can improve academic performance in primary- and middle school children	[ "Schools", "Health", "Promotion", "Exercise", "Nutrition", "Academic", "Learning" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: School health promotion interventions (SHPIs) are effective in improving the health status of school-aged children (Stewart-Brown, 2006; St Leger and Nutbeam, 2000). These programs teach children about health and its determinants and enable them to develop skills to make healthy choices in their lives. Such efforts can be embedded in a broader framework, such as the Health Promoting School (HPS) approach which also targets the physical and social environments in and around school supported by community activities and health services. Broader frameworks to school health promotion are supposed to generate even greater health improvements in children (Lister-Sharp et al., 1999; Stewart-Brown, 2006; St Leger, 1999).In the last decades a huge growth could be observed in the availability of SHPIs (Lister-Sharp et al., 1999; Stewart-Brown, 2006) and initiatives to implement school-based interventions (Boot et al., 2010; Deschesnes et al., 2003). This was accompanied by ample evidence for a positive relation between students' health status and their academic performance (AP) (Davis and Cooke, 2007; Resnick et al., 1997). This relation can partly be explained by several common determinants of health and education on the micro (e.g. socioeconomic status (SES), gender), meso (e.g. geographical location, friends' habits) and macro level (e.g. health and education-related policies and programs) (Suhrcke and de Paz Nieves, 2011). The direct and causal relation between effects of general health promotion interventions and AP is much less clear.Direct positive effects of mental health promotion and social and emotional learning interventions on AP have been shown (DeSocio and Hootman, 2004; Greenberg et al., 2003). DeSocio and Hootman (2004) explain these effects from the direct impact of mental health symptoms (e.g. poor concentration, distractibility, sleepiness, etc.) on children's learning ability. Zins et al. (2004) point at the impact of social relations and emotions on what and how children learn. Most mental health and social and emotional learning interventions are designed for specific risk groups or students with evident symptoms, rather than the general school population.More general lifestyle interventions, e.g. those targeting physical activity (PA) levels and healthy diet, have a less obvious connection to learning and teaching. Nevertheless, several mediating processes have been suggested for a relation between AP and PA (Trudeau and Shephard, 2010) and nutrition (Taras, 2005). A review of school-based PA interventions (1966-2007) showed that increased opportunities for PA at school can enhance children's AP (Trudeau and Shephard, 2008).These findings provide preliminary evidence that SHPIs may enhance children's AP, even when they are not specifically designed for children at risk or children with evident symptoms, or when they do not employ elements directly connected to school education. These findings also suggest that mechanisms relating to children's healthier lifestyle might mediate the effects of school-based interventions on AP. However, some studies in the above reviews were methodologically weak, the outcome measures of AP varied widely, and some studies focussed on groups at risk rather than the general school population. The objective of the present review was to expand the available preliminary evidence by combining studies focussing on general health domains and restricting ourselves to methodologically sound designs (randomized controlled trials (RCTs), cross-over controlled trials, quasi-experimental designs with pre- and posttest) using standardized measures of AP (e.g. grade-point averages (GPA) or end of year marks) to increase comparability between studies. To maximize the applicability of the interventions effects, we only included studies addressing general school populations. The second objective of the present review was to report on the explanations authors of original studies suggest for the observed effects, to improve our understanding of the process that links lifestyle interventions to AP. Also, we were interested in whether employing a broad and comprehensive framework to SHPIs, such as the concept of HPS, would make any difference in observed effects on AP when compared to single issue health promotion interventions, such as a nutrition education program.\nMethods: The literature search included two main strategies: an electronic search of the PubMed and PsycINFO databases and inspection of all reference lists of (selected) articles, reviews and dissertations generated from the databases. The electronic search was conducted on June 7, 2010[1]. A basic search was performed, first. Based on the results of the basic search, the search query was specified for a second search. The search query included different descriptions of the outcome measure, encompassing most general synonyms of AP, such as academic success and academic achievement (basic search), a diversity of school grades, such as math grade, science grade and the GPA (basic search and advanced search), and different titles of national examination tests (advanced search), such as Californian Achievement Test and Comprehensive Achievement Test. Secondary search terms related to the research population (e.g. children, adolescents, pupils) and intervention setting (e.g. primary prevention intervention, school health promotion). No specific time frame and geographical scope was specified for this search. The entire search query is included in Appendix.The selection process included two steps: titles and abstracts of articles were scanned for school-based health promotion interventions and full texts of relevant studies were evaluated with a standard form on final eligibility criteria (Figure 1).During the full text examination, studies were excluded from the review if they did not report on a RCT, quasi-experimental design, pretest-posttest controlled trial or cross-over control trial, or if they did not include individual school grades, results of national test examinations or GPAs as an outcome measure. Articles were also excluded when they reported on mental health interventions, social and emotional learning interventions which address determinants associated with children's learning ability or interventions designed for specific target groups (e.g. children at risk, disabled children, children diagnosed with asthma, epilepsy, ADHD, with behavioral problems or other evident symptoms) rather than the general school population. We also excluded articles for which no full text was available (e.g. dissertation abstracts or book chapters despite our requests to the authors; Fourestier, 1962; Shephard et al., 1984) or repeated reports of interventions reporting identical outcomes, with identical measures on the same population.The selection process was independently conducted by the first author and a research assistant. Disagreement was resolved by discussion.Three types of studies were identified, namely PA interventions, interventions which combined PA and nutrition elements and school breakfast programs (SBP). No studies targeting other health behaviors fulfilled our selection criteria. Information for the study description was extracted from the original article: the country where the study was conducted, the main purpose of the intervention, research design, sample size, intervention, outcome measure, effects on AP measures and components of the HPS (school health policies, physical environment, social environment, school/community relationship, personal health skills and school health services, infrastructure support). We operationalized use of the HPS approach by coding for the presence of each of these elements, using the definition of IUHPE:School health policies are clearly defined policies in documents or accepted practices that promote health and well-being. Physical environment refers to the buildings, grounds and equipment in and surrounding the school. The social environment of the school is a combination of the quality of the relationship among and between staff and students. Community relationship presumes a connection between the school and key local groups and individuals. The individual health skills and action competencies include the formal and informal curriculum and associated activities, where students gain age-related knowledge, understanding, skills experiences, which enable them to build competencies in taking action to improve the health and well-being of themselves and others in their community, which enhances their learning outcomes. School health services refer to local and regional school-based and school-linked services, which have a responsibility for child and adolescents health care promotion, through the provision of direct services to students (IUHPE, 2009, p. 2).Effects on other outcome measures than AP are reported when they were used by authors of original studies to explain observed effects.Cohen's d effect sizes were calculated to indicate the magnitude of intervention effects. Effect sizes were calculated for each AP variable, using the reported means and standard deviations of the outcome measure at pre- and posttest and the sample size of the experimental group and the control group. If these data were not supplied, alternative methods were applied. Effect sizes were only calculated when there were significant differences between conditions in terms of AP measures. The effect sizes were interpreted based on Cohen's suggestion that r=0.10, 0.30 and 0.50 represent small, medium and large effects, respectively (Cohen, 1988, 1992).Below, we first report the effects of the reviewed SHPIs on AP, then report the explanations authors of original studies offered for observed effects.\nResults: The search resulted in a total of seven studies (1989-2010) which exclusively addressed primary school children and children in middle school, targeted the maintenance of energy balance, and originated from North America. The findings for the three categories of studies are described separately: PA interventions, interventions which combined PA and nutrition elements and SBP.Effects of PA interventions on AP\nDiscussion: We reviewed the evidence for effects of general lifestyle interventions on children's AP and the mechanisms researchers have proposed to account for these effects. We specifically focussed on the effects on standardized measures of AP found in methodologically sound studies of interventions addressing healthy lifestyles in the general school populations. Although we initially found a large number of studies evaluating effects of SHPIs on AP, very few met these criteria. The remaining studies exclusively addressed primary school children and children in middle school, targeted the maintenance of energy balance, and originated from North America.The reviewed SHPIs showed that interventions targeting energy balance obviously can have small to large effects on AP (range of effect sizes: 0.19-0.75). Effects of different kinds of interventions varied in size and across academic domains, as mathematics and language scores. Also positive effects were observed in subjects from which time was taken for the intervention, e.g. for additional PE. No negative effects occurred, although some inconsistent results were reported. Two PA-studies resulted in no effects on AP. In one of these studies SES was suggested as possible explanation for no effects. Although most authors suggest SES and gender are important moderators of health and AP, only a minority report on these variables. Studies on PA interventions did not measure SES-intervention interactions at all. Interventions combining PA and nutrition or targeting nutrition only were mostly directed at children from low SES backgrounds (most of the children were eligible for free or reduced-priced meals at schools). Contradicting results were reported for gender-intervention interactions in PA intervention, while no gender-intervention interaction were measured in the other two intervention domains. No studies referred to SES as a mediator, although there are studies outside the intervention field which see SES as possible mediator of the relationship between health behavior and AP (Datar et al., 2004): in this study, the relation between obesity and academic achievement disappears when controlling for the positive relation of learning with SES.Since our review only included studies from North America, it remains unclear whether the same effect on AP would be found in SHPIs from other countries and continents. Possibly, different grading systems are used in other countries, which are more or less responsive to changes in children's AP. Suhrcke and de Paz Nieves (2011) state that there seems to be a general lack of information on the impact of health and health behaviors on AP in countries belonging to the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). It might be that evaluations on AP using standardized testing are more common in North America. In the USA, for example, most schools complete at least one annual achievement test battery (MAT 6/7 or CAT 3). Alternatively, standardized test may be more accessible for research purpose in North America than in other countries. For instance, within the Netherlands standardized test scores are only available on school level not on individual pupil level. Further, central tests are not identical in different grades.The second objective of this review was to report on the mediators that authors suggested for the observed effects; regretfully, little evidence for possible mediators was provided. Instead, authors based hypothetical assumptions on previous studies in experimental settings. Mediators were proposed for PA interventions and the SBP. These were mechanisms directly related to physical, neuro-hormonal and cognitive conditions, such as improved psychomotoric skills, inducement of arousal levels, improved self-esteem and nutritional balance. As regards indirect mechanisms, Sallis et al. (1999) suggested improved teaching practices, which might have transferred from teaching of PE to teaching of other subjects, such as English lessons. For example, in this study the SHPIs might have enhanced teachers' confidence and competence in teaching in general (no matter what their topic) and thereby increased children's AP.We were interested whether we could find any differences in outcomes between the studies that used a broad framework to school health promotion, such as the HPS initiative, and studies that used a more limited approach. The only intervention that referred to a broader framework had no effects on AP. However, we cannot exclude underreporting of HPS elements in the reviewed studies.The findings of this review support previous work by Trudeau and Shephard (2008) who conclude that general interventions targeting physical health may lead to improved AP. With this review we extend this conclusion by providing additional evidence for interventions simultaneously targeting healthy diets and PA levels and a SBP. This again indicates that school health promotion does not necessarily have to target children at risk or with specific symptoms in order to generate effects on AP. Also, interventions do not necessarily have to employ elements related to school education per se to produce academic gains, although it is likely that effects on AP might even be larger in those interventions.Strengths and limitations\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: - A systematic review of effects and mediators was conducted to determine whether school health promotion interventions (SHPIs) can enhance children's academic performance (AP).\nDesign/methodology/approach: - PubMed and PsycINFO database searches and subsequent reference list reviews were conducted for papers published before 18 January 2012 with a standard form of eligibility criteria encompassing standardized measures of AP (e.g. grade-point averages, end of year marks) and methodology sound studies (e.g. randomized controlled trials, cross-over controlled trials, quasi-experimental designs with pre- and posttest) of interventions addressing healthy lifestyles in the general school population. Information for the study description was extracted from the original article (e.g. country, study purpose, research design, effects on AP measures, components of Health Promoting School, author's explanations for observed effects). Effect sizes were calculated for effects on AP measures.\nFindings: - Remaining SHPIs targeted exclusively the maintenance of energy balance (physical activity (PA) and nutrition) and had small to large positive effects on AP; no negative effects were reported. Effects of different kinds of interventions varied across academic domains. One PA intervention reported large effects of vigorous activity on mathematics; another PA intervention had small to medium impact on language scores. Small to medium effects were found for interventions combining nutrition and PA elements; one affected mathematics and another both mathematics and language scores. Slight improvements in language scores were observed for breakfast provision in schools.\nLimitations: - The small number of interventions, little homogeneity in intervention components (content, length and measurement instruments), reporting bias and some inconsistent results should be considered when interpreting our results. Our review did not allow definite conclusions concerning mechanisms responsible for effects of SHPIs on AP.\nPractical implications: - Planned development of school health promotion will need to be based on evidence. Measures of AP should be included in evaluations of SHPIs. Schools and health professionals should be made aware of the importance of these measures.\nOriginality/value: - We provide evidence that SHPIs promoting energy balance can affect AP, also if they do not target children at risk or with specific symptoms, nor employ elements directly connected to school education.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Green Star is not a physical activity star	[ "Workplace", "Design", "Activity", "Offices", "Health", "Sedentary" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: This paper reports and builds on a case study of workplace-based physical activity of an organisation before and after relocating from a 30-year-old building to a contemporary purpose-designed building. Although the new building achieved Australian A-Grade Property Council and 5 Star Green Star ratings, and the staff reported increased feelings of wellness and energy, the staff remained predominantly sedentary. Objective measurements of activity recorded in this study were similar to the pre-move recordings and to other Australian and international studies of office-worker physical activity. In this paper, we explore the social-ecological context of the new workplace to understand why better physical activity outcomes for the staff were not observed in the new building despite influence from a staff wellness committee during design; achieving success against existing best-practice indicators; and staff reporting increased feelings of wellness, energy and satisfaction with the new building. After contextualising the research within the current work on workplace physical activity and active design and providing a summary of the pre-/post-buildings, the following three aspects of the studies within the new building are discussed: the use of breakout space, the staircase design and the space planning of the office. The discussion of these three aspects draws on the social-ecological understanding of physical activity behaviour and identifies factors within social, spatial and personal fields, which influence the staff's movement and stillness in the building.\n2. Background: 2.1 Physical activity in the workplace\n3. Research method: This paper reflects on the results of a natural pre-/post-study of a group of office workers in Perth, Western Australia, who moved from a building that the organisation had occupied for 30 years to a purpose-built 5 Star Green Star (Green Building Council Australia) and A-grade (Property Council) building. Data was collected at two points: before preparations for the move commenced and after a settling-in period of three months. Both periods had similar outside weather conditions: fine and moderate. A twinned approach was taken to the study design, drawing on the researchers' expertise in architectural research and health promotion and from the diverse methods available to understand physical activity in place (Creagh et al., 2014). The research methods are in line with the social-ecological model of influences on physical activity in place. Methods were selected to observe aspects of personal, social/organisational and spatial/environmental factors. Objective recordings of participant's physical activity and sedentary behaviour were made using accelerometers worn by participants. A representative 42 staff (out of 80 onsite full-time staff at the start of the study) participated in objective measures. The survey included demographic questions and two reliable and validated instruments: the Short Form 12 Health Outcome Scale provides summary scores for the physical and mental components of health within eight health domains (Ware et al., 1996); and the Indoor Environment Quality Survey assesses indoor environmental quality and its effect on comfort and productivity through office layout, furnishings, thermal comfort, indoor air quality, lighting and acoustics (Zagreus et al., 2004). The survey and accelerometer measurement and analysis are described further in Jancey et al. (2014). Qualitative methods included in-office observation of participants' movement patterns and use of space (10 min periods observed at four points throughout the workday on two mid-week days), photo survey of the building and focus groups about barriers and facilitators to physical activity in the office. The triangulation between the quantitative survey and physical activity measurement and qualitative observation and focus groups enabled an account of worker movement in the two buildings that was rich and robust.\n4. Design aspects of the new building: 4.1 Break-out space\n5. Discussion: The discussion of this paper explores the mismatch between the current office design practice and workers' physical activity outcomes. As designers, health promoters or facility managers, we might anticipate excellent health outcomes for building occupants moving to a new building. This is particularly so for one that has been purpose-built for an organisation with input at the design stage from a wellness committee, and achieves 5 Stars in the Green Star ranking together with an A-grade Property Council standard. Health outcomes could be expected to include better than average physical activity and sedentary behaviour measures throughout the day; however, this was not the result from the quantitative measures of the study (Jancey et al., 2015), and so, we turn to the social, spatial and personal context of the case study to understand why.\n6. Conclusion: This research assesses the impact of office design on the physical activity and sedentary behaviour of a cohort of office workers. The combined results indicate that workers in this organisation are sedentary for the vast majority of their workday. The comparison of the results between the old and new buildings does not demonstrate a dramatic improvement in physical activity outcomes for participants after moving to the new highly-rated building. Participants moved a little more, but still not enough, or vigorously enough, to meet current health guidelines; participants also sat more than is healthy, just as in other unrated offices worldwide. Therefore, despite the organisation convening a wellness committee to advise on the design process and despite health being a considered factor in the buildings design goals, little difference was achieved. This highlights the need for further design and management engagement with the social, spatial and personal context of workplace-based physical activity.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to report on research investigating the relationship between physical activity and workplace design. In particular, the paper explores the social-ecological context of a new workplace building. This paper seeks to understand why better physical activity outcomes for the staff were not observed in the new building despite influence from a staff wellness committee during design; achieving success against existing best-practice indicators; and staff reporting increased feelings of wellness, energy and satisfaction with the new building.\nDesign/methodology/approach: Three design aspects are taken as a focus from within an opportunistic pre-/post-physical activity study of an organisation as they move from a building they occupied for 30 years into a new purpose-designed building. This study was conducted through mixed methods, incorporating ethnographic, architectural and quantitative means.\nFindings: The social, spatial and personal context is important for understanding participant workplace-based physical activity. Despite the health and well-being goals and 5 Star Green Star outcomes of the new building, participants were sedentary for a substantive part of their workday in both buildings.\nPractical implications: A well-designed environment can support staff feeling healthier, but the 5 Star Green Star rating does not implicitly ensure a healthier, activity-promoting environment. Facilities managers and designers can act to provide physically active paths as the most straightforward circulation option in workplaces.\nOriginality/value: The originality of this study lies in the opportunity to conduct a pre-/post-study of physical activity where the organisation, workforce and type of work are constant and where the variable is the building design, spatial configuration and location. The methods used in this study draw from both health promotion and architectural research practices.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Disaster relief supply chain quality management (DRSCQM)	[ "Lean Six Sigma", "Supply chain quality management", "Disaster relief", "Quality management principles" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: The Earth is increasingly witnessing natural disasters (Duran et al., 2013; Cozzolino, 2012; Schwester, 2012; Balcik et al., 2010; Altay and Green, 2006; Thomas and Kopczak, 2005). Earthquake measuring 6.1, for example hit Haiti in 2010. Hurricane Sandy hit New York City and New Jersey in 2012. Landslides hit the Washington state town of Oso in 2014. A strong earthquake hit the Chinese province of Sichuan in 2013. Nigeria faced massive flooding in 2012, and in 2013, it faced new challenges as a result of massive flooding from heavy rain falls. When natural disasters occur, policy makers and stakeholders are challenged to make quick and tough decisions with limited resources and information. It is important in these situations to be able to provide quality services responsibly and timely to disaster victims. The ability to deliver these services timely and professionally presents serious challenges. Thomas and Kopczak (2005), for example, identify five core challenges in the context of disaster relief operations:\n2. The birth of DRSCQM system: DRSCM system is used for the purposes of structuring, bundling, and leveraging resources to respond to humanitarian needs in the event of major natural disaster. DRSCM may be linked to quality management tools and concepts such as LSS and referred to as the DRSCQM.\n3. Understanding LSS process improvement principles: Maleyeff (2007) points out that LSS is an important component of organizational success. It is a rigorous process management approach that aims at eliminating wastes while simultaneously achieving common goals set by the Six Sigma metrics (Madu, 2006). It relies on efficiency in all processes and the streamlining of activities across the organization. LSS focusses on achieving customer satisfaction through continuous improvement of processes by eliminating wastes and redundant activities (Locher, 2007; Madu, 2006; Assarlind et al., 2012; Antony et al., 2012). Consequently, risk is minimized and process variations and errors are reduced. It is a strategy for both repetitive and innovative processes. The application of LSS covers the entire value delivery chain. It helps organizations to become agile and to respond rapidly to their dynamic environments (Madu, 2006, p. 79; Antony et al., 2012).\n4. Implementation of DRSCQM: Figure 2 illustrates the complexity in attempting to integrate the disaster relief life cycle and the CIMO logic on LSS principles. Early in the life of a disaster relief, the DRSCQM system appears relatively salient. At the various phases of the disaster relief process, there is need for process improvement. The complexity faced can be outlined as follows.\n5. Managing DRSCQM transformation: The real challenge in the disaster relief setting becomes how to manage the DRSCQM transformation. Figure 3 presents a conceptual map to aid in that process. The transformation process involves three loops:\n6. Conclusion: Dr Edward Deming pointed out that, an example teaches nothing unless studied with the aid of a theory. In this paper, disaster relief life cycle is analyzed in the context of CIMO logic and LSS principles. The systemic and holistic procedure developed here views the environment of disaster relief as dynamic, complex, chaotic, and ever-changing and takes into account the fact that relief organizations' actions often involve a team of diverse specialists working on a project basis. Oftentimes, this is a result of the sudden nature of natural disasters since they are unplanned and may differ in terms of magnitude and intensity. Nevertheless, it is important to remain focussed even in times of chaos and natural disasters. Planning effectively and responding timely may help to optimize the limited resources that are available at the time and to deliver quality relief services to the disaster victims. A transformation process based on Dr Deming's PDCA cycle has also been proposed to show how a relief organization/supply chain can assess its current maturity level, react to it, develop more sustainable disaster relief practices, and propel the entire system to the right direction.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to develop a framework for disaster relief supply chain quality management (DRSCQM).\nDesign/methodology/approach: This paper introduces a structured approach to making decisions in the following areas: system foundation, system constraints, initial sudden natural disaster encounter point(s), the intensity of disaster, the efficacy of the disaster relief supply chain systems, and post-disaster relief management.\nFindings: The context-intervention-mechanism-outcome logic provides guidelines for facilitating Lean Six Sigma to eliminate wastes and improve the overall performance of the DRSCQM.\nResearch limitations/implications: The theoretical frameworks will enhance the current knowledge base in DRSCQM literature and will also be helpful to manage disaster relief operations and supply chains. However, there is a need to conduct empirical studies based on the proposed frameworks in the future.\nPractical implications: A transformation process based on Dr Deming's plan-do-check-act cycle has also been proposed to show how a relief organization can assess its current maturity level, react to it, develop more sustainable disaster relief practices, and move the entire system in the right direction.\nSocial implications: The systemic and holistic procedure developed in this paper views the environment of disaster relief as dynamic, complex, chaotic, and ever-changing and takes into account the fact that relief organizations' actions often involve a team of diverse specialists working on a project basis.\nOriginality/value: The framework presented here helps to improve the efficiency and the effectiveness of disaster relief supply chain management. This is timely and important now as there continues to be an increase in climate-related natural disasters.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Message on a bottle: the wine label's influence	[ "Wines", "Brands", "Consumer behaviour", "Labelling", "Packaging" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n__NO_TITLE__: If laundry detergent is on the shopping list, a consumer can choose Tide, Cheer, All, Wisk, or any of the other 48 options for laundry detergent available at supermarkets across the country. Need some mayonnaise and ketchup? There are around 27 choices for different types of mayo, and seven brands of ketchup. Of carbonated soft drinks there are about 140 offerings to quench consumers' thirst. There are around 135 different options for the beer consumer. Typically each product category gives consumers many brand options. It is also typical that each product category has a powerhouse brand or two with which everyone is familiar. Beer has Budweiser, Miller, and Coors. Soft drinks have Coke and Pepsi. Laundry has Tide; the hamburger has Hellmann's mayo, and a hot dog has Hunt's and Heinz catsup. Wine is a different case all together.\nLiterature: Clearly, wine choice is complex, even for relatively inexpensive bottles. It is also a relatively risky decision in that the quality of wine and one's satisfaction with the choice cannot be assessed until the product is consumed. Consequently, wine consumers will use risk reduction strategies to decrease the likelihood of making a bad choice (Rasmussen and Lockshin, 1999). Several strategies are possible including selecting a brand known for quality, relying upon a peer recommendation or retail aide, developing advanced knowledge of the product category, using price as a quality indicator, and using the package and label design as quality cues (Spawton, 1991; Rasmussen and Lockshin, 1999). These risk reduction strategies are consistent with constructs identified in the consumer wine buying decision model, proposed by Dodd et al. (2005), and refined by Barber and Almanza (2006). The model suggests that the consumer wine buying decision is influenced by consumer perceptions of the wine label design, information, and bottle package, which is likewise affected by the consumer's knowledge, usage experience, and various sources of information (impersonal, personal, and self). This study focuses on one aspect of the model, specifically, the influence of the label as an impersonal source of information on consumer perceptions of the wine and purchase intent.The label is a key source of information for wine consumers, providing details on both intrinsic and extrinsic quality cues (Lockshin and Rhodus, 1993; Chaney, 2000; Thomas and Pickering, 2003). Intrinsic cues relate to the product's characteristics such as grape varietal, region, producer, and wine style. Extrinsic cues are those within the marketer's control including price, style of packaging and labeling, and brand name (Quester and Smart, 1996). Though the label's design and the name associated with the label are themselves external cues, they reside as but one of many quality indicators available on the label. Boudreaux and Palmer (2007) noted that label design is a core component of a wine's brand image, saying \"bottle labels are particularly relevant to the decision-making process, especially for infrequent wine drinkers\". As Barber and Almanza (2006, p. 85) wrote, \"consumers shop with their eyes\", explaining the consumers' preference to peruse wines personally, reading labels as they consider the possible selections. Thus, we can conclude that the label is a critical opportunity for branding and purchase influence with aesthetic factors such as label design and naming convention among the few components of the label within the marketer's control.Wine design genres and naming conventions\nMethods: Overview\nResults and discussion: We approached this from an exploratory perspective, seeking to find answers to the research questions posed. The results of the study are presented and discussed below:RQ1. How are the various combinations of design genre and naming convention perceived by wine consumers?Individual components of perception were measured for each label (\"This label suggests that this wine is - (good, desirable, complex, cheap (reverse-scored), high quality, common (reverse-scored), and pleasant)\"). Table I provides the mean scores for the individual measures used in assessing how the labels were perceived. The results suggest that traditional labels are more associated with the adjectives good, desirable, high quality, and pleasant while novelty and contemporary styles tend to be associated with the descriptor, cheap:RQ2. Are there advantages associated with specific formulations of design and name in terms of overall attitude?To answer this research question, overall scores of attitude toward the wine (as represented by each label design) were created from the individual measures of attitude toward the wine. Analyses of variance (ANOVA) allowed for a test of significant differences between the groups. Thus, we were able to assess the extent to which the naming convention and designs affected perceptions of the wine. Table II reveals that there were significant differences in the attitudes for every design examined. The attitudes were most positive for the traditional label designs, regardless of name. For each name, the traditional design fared better than contemporary or novelty. The novelty design scored the lowest on overall attitude toward the brands, which can be explained in part by the perception of novelty labels as an indicator of cheap wines. Attitudes toward the contemporary design labels illustrate that the design approach can be desirable though it does not score as well overall as the traditional design.For naming conventions, the traditional Warren Williams name performed best under all three label design conditions. Tadpole, our novelty name, was the next best performer (for all designs). Killer Whale, the contemporary naming convention which utilized a recognizable critter, performed least well and particularly so for the novelty Killer Whale. This could be a reaction to the choice of critter for the brand, but in particular, the negative attitude score for the novelty Killer Whale label should give warning to the many wine marketers now utilizing novelty names and labels:RQ3. Are perceptions most positive when congruence exists between name and design genre?All traditional labels earned overall attitude scores over 3.5 with the highest mean score for the traditional label design combined with the Warren Williams traditional name (mean of 4.07). This suggests that Doyle and Bottomley (2004) were right in their claim that the best wine labels have congruence between name and design. However, this is quickly dismissed when one views the mean scores for the other naming conventions - traditional designs scored better across the variety of naming conventions. The traditional Tadpole scored better than the novelty Tadpole and the traditional Killer Whale fared better than the contemporary one. The traditional Tadpole design scored an overall mean of 3.96 while the contemporary Tadpole scored 2.92 and the novelty Tadpole scored 2.51 (all differences are significant at a 0.05 level).Analyses of variance was used to determine differences in the likelihood of purchasing the wines for the four wine occasions. These results also showed significant differences among the groups and mimicked the findings regarding consumer perceptions of the fictitious wines (Table III).For all four wine consumption occasions, participants are significantly more likely to purchase the wine with a traditional label design. Within the traditional label designs, interestingly, the Tadpole scored well on likelihood to purchase across all wine occasions. It even topped the traditional Warren Williams' brand when considering purchases for a party (mean of 2.66 for traditional Tadpole vs 2.51 for the traditional Warren Williams on a scale of 1-4). Thus, it seems that any naming convention can perform well if given a traditional label design.Killer Whale was not as desirable a brand name, regardless of wine use occasion but it performed as well as other brands when combined with the traditional label design. Participants were significantly less likely to purchase the novelty Killer Whale brand than the others for a private evening at home, a dinner party, at a restaurant, or for a gift. This suggests that if a brand is utilizing a novelty or critter name, it is best to combine it with a traditional design label. Novelty labels overall did not perform well in terms of purchase intent:RQ4. What factors are important when choosing a wine for specific wine occasions and how do label design and name rank among those factors?The process of choosing a wine can be influenced by the occasion for which the wine will be served and consumed. Wine is one of few products that is served with its label visible to those to whom it is being served. At a dinner party at home, at a restaurant, or when given as a gift, the wine's brand and label remain seen. Mean importance scores for several factors relevant to wine choice for each occasion considered are provided in Table IV.It appears clearly that the first decision made regardless of occasion is the type of wine desired. Familiarity/experience with the brand and price are also consistently found among the most important decision factors, although they shift in rank among the occasions. Price is second only to type of wine chosen for consumption at home or in a restaurant. It is third, following type and familiarity/experience for choosing a wine for a dinner party at home and gifts. Thus, when it is primarily the buyer who will also serve as primary consumer, the choice model will focus on type and price, followed by familiarity/experience but when the wine choice may be judged by others (dinner party at home, gift exchange), familiarity/experience with the wine trumps price. Interestingly, the look of the label and appeal/liking of the brand name are among the most important factors only when the wine is intended as a gift. The importance of both variables is significantly higher when choosing wine as a gift than for the other three occasions. As Finkelstein and Quiazon (2007) anticipated, factors such as vintner, distributor, year bottled, and region were of less concern to wine consumers. Surprisingly, the wine's ranking from a source like Wine Spectator was also deemed less than important when choosing a wine.\nConclusion: One of the key elements in successful marketing is understanding the target audience. The target audience must be the focus for the overall marketing message, including the packaging. This applies to all wine marketing. The wine consumer is a rather unique consumer. An understanding of the wine consumer requires knowledge of his/her motivation to buy the bottle of wine. Is it purchased for personal consumption at home, or is it to serve to guests at a dinner party? Often this motivation is a more important factor in the purchase decision than the shopper's demographics or psychographics. What makes marketing wine so volatile is that one's motivation drastically changes one's buying behavior. For example, consumers customarily spend 200 percent more for a bottle to give as a hostess gift than they do for a bottle intended for personal consumption at home. Wine consumers are not necessarily the same consumer from day to day. The multitude of consumer tastes and motivations helps explain why there are 10,000 wine brands.This contributes to the fragmentation of the wine product category and helps explain why the ad budgets for wine brands are a tenth of that for beer brands. At the same time, the multitude of flavors and brands in the wine category contribute to the fragmentation of the wine consumer. The design of wine labels is getting more sophisticated. Labels are getting better at talking to specific consumers (as opposed to the masses), and this conversation is scattering the market even more. Thus, the cycle of fragmentation continues to escalate.Wine labels have been commonplace since the 1860s. For virtually 100 years there were not major changes in wine label design. During the 1960s the influence of the new California wines changed wine label design by introducing more color, personality, and individuality. However, the labels that have come out since the late 1990s have made major strides in evolving what is put on the outside of a wine bottle. The marketing of wine will continue to explore new strategies at a pace that the wine industry has not seen since its inception.Importantly, this research suggests that the evolution of wine labels has not changed the consumer's perception of what a wine label ought to look like. Though novelty and contemporary names scored well, novelty designs with contemporary and novelty names were less desirable. Further, novelty wines were perceived as cheap and of low quality. They are considered perhaps more appropriate for novelty occasions rather than occasions studied in this research. As anticipated by the consumer wine buying decision model, the label design does serve as an extrinsic cue in the development of perceptions about a wine, and these perceptions affect the intent to purchase.In terms of what matters when selecting a wine for different occasions, we learned that for the most part, the occasion is not as critical as once thought. The same factors were important whether choosing a wine for a private evening at home, a dinner party at home, a gift, or for a meal at a restaurant. Consumers consistently choose a type of wine and then rely upon familiarity and experience with the brand and price considerations. Likability of the name and label were influential only for wines chosen to serve as gifts.There are limitations to this study. Most importantly the sample was a self-selected convenience sample rather than one based on a list of wine consumers. In addition, the sample was somewhat homogenous which likely limited the ability to identify differences that might exist for age, income, and gender. For instance, wine consumers with lower incomes may prefer the seemingly cheap novelty wines, as may younger consumers who seek out a wine image more congruent with their own lives. In this study, fictitious wine label designs and names were utilized to ensure no brand effects extended to the responses. However, perhaps the designs and names chosen were not the most accurate depictions of the three label designs and naming conventions. This in part could have been addressed had the study included a pre-test with manipulation checks.Still, despite these limits to the study, the results do provide some clear managerial implications for marketing managers in the wine industry. The likability of the wine brand name and label matters only when the wine is given as a gift. Then the label and name relay information on the gift's value and intent. Labels and brand names provide a price and quality cue to consumers. Traditional label design is most associated with a desirable wine.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: - The choice facing a wine consumer is one of dizzying options with thousands of wine brands available. Packaging and labeling are among those cues consumers use when choosing wines. The purpose of this paper is to better understand the influence of two labeling variables - design genre and brand naming convention - on perceptions of wine and wine choice by occasion. In particular, three types of label design and naming conventions (traditional, contemporary, and novelty) are examined.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - A 3*3 (three versions of visual design and three brand naming conventions) factorial design was used to expose participants to a set of three wine label design variations. Participants viewed wine labels online at www.ratethelabel.com and then completed a web-based survey designed to measure the influence of label design and brand name on wine perceptions, purchase intent by wine use occasion, and the relative importance of factors affecting wine choice.\nFindings: - Despite the popularity of novelty designs and names, participants preferred traditional labels and names. Label design and name were not as influential as wine type, brand familiarity, and price for wine choices made across four wine use occasions. Label design and brand name likeability mattered only for gift choices.\nPractical implications: - For wineries developing or revising labels, traditional designs should be considered despite the current trend to use novelty labels.\nOriginality/value: - This study assessed consumer response to a trend in the wine industry - the use of novelty designs and names.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Multi-criteria supply chain performance evaluation: An Indian chemical industry case study	[ "Supply chain", "Performance evaluation", "Multi‐criteria", "Analytic hierarchy process", "India", "Performance management", "Supply chain management" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: A manufacturing or service organization, today, may be broadly classified as a part of a supply chain. Collaboration in supply chain plays a dominant role for improving performance and for gaining competitive advantage. Organizations can achieve strategic competitive advantage through collaborative operations. This is possible as collaboration assures tangible and intangible benefits to enterprises, by enabling sharing of knowledge and resources. Collaboration also helps explore more market and organizational opportunities, but this value creation is followed by challenges within and beyond organizational boundaries (Geringer et al., 2000; Hitt et al., 1997; Choy et al., 2004; Ndubisi et al., 2005; Droge et al., 2004; Perks and Wong, 2003; Bidault et al., 1998; Kamath and Liker, 1994; Jeong, 2003; Sivakumar and Nakata, 2003; Chopra and Sodhi, 2004).To ensure competitive advantage, supply-chain partners need to focus on various elements: from in-house management to customer service; functional collaboration to innovative product design; supply chain to demand chain; price negotiations to increase in margins; etc. To utilize the supply chain at its maximum performance level, organizations have to integrate its goals and activities (Cooper et al., 1997) and all its stakeholders. McClellan (2003), proposed \"a win-win arrangement that is likely to provide improved business success for both parties.\" This also leads to improved supplier performance and commitment to quality, cooperation and dispute resolution. The performance evaluation of a supply chain is necessary as it helps in motivating employee or/and providing feedback to focus on weak areas, and measuring the degree to which the firm has attained its strategic goals. Briefly, the different elements/links comprising a supply chain (and hence the supply chain) needs to be evaluated for its performance so as to enable the manager to effectively monitor and control the process/es of the organization. Traditionally, supply chains have been evaluated based on the operational costs, but this may not always suffice the purpose holistically and hence there is a need of multi-criteria evaluation. For instance, Taylor (2004) discusses the criteria as time, cost and efficiency (productivity) to evaluate the performance. Cuthbertson and Piotrowicz (2011) presented a performance evaluation framework in various supply-chain contexts. The developed framework, presented with a case study, is suitable to compare various systems used across different supply chains. Beamon and Chen (2001) explain a regression analysis methodology to evaluate the supply chain on the basis of average inventory cost, average transportation cost, etc. The paper by Cagnazzo et al. (2010) focusses on the role of performance measurement systems as a critical success factor to support quality improvement initiative in supply chain. This paper is also useful in exploring the correlation between performance measurement systems and quality improvement initiative/s.Gilmour (1999) describes a framework based on a set of capabilities, which incorporate the integration and the use of associated technologies. The degree to which logistics is effectively utilized also forms a key element of overall strategy formulation and implementation. Barbosa and Musetti (2011), present an empirical analysis of a role played by the use of performance measurement system in the logistics change process. The authors present two case studies in manufacturing sector to describe the use of performance management system. McCarthy and Golicic (2002) used an integrating perspective of sales forecasting and collaboration in the supply chain. The authors claim that the approach resulted in improved supply-chain performance of the company, product availability, etc. In a review paper, Shepherd and Gunter (2006), presented a classification of performance measures for supply chain, followed by a critical evaluation of measurement systems.While implementing the supply-chain performance measures, Betchel and Jayaram (1997) advocated implementing an integrated measure, i.e. to have a cross-functional view of the complete system and to avoid optimization at any localized link in the supply chain. Remko (1998) suggested that non-financial measures have to be developed as they supplement financial measures. Gunasekaran et al. (2001), on the other hand, suggested \"time\" has to be used as a strategic metric in performance measurement. This is because controlling and compressing time shall increase quality, reduce costs and enhance the responsiveness to customer demands and overall productivity. This model is based on identify, plan, source, make or assemble and delivery as links of supply chain.Ohdar and Ray (2004) attempted to evaluate the suppliers' performance in a fuzzy environment. They considered generation of fuzzy rules. A genetic algorithm-based methodology is developed to evolve the optimal set of fuzzy rule base, and a fuzzy inference system. The work by Simatupang et al. (2004) is also useful; they proposed an actionable framework for collaborative benchmarking in the supply chain. It contains three components: internal assessment report, collaborative performance system and external benchmarking. Identifying a similar need in other sectors, Yilmaz and Bititci (2006) compared the performance measurement of manufacturing and tourism industries from a value chain perspective. Here the authors demonstrated the usability of SCOR-like frameworks in the tourism industry to manage and measure the value chain processes.It is therefore, felt essential that the performance criteria need to classified based on various criteria (for instance, cost, customer service, etc.) rather than on the basis of phases of supply chain (for instance, plan, source, make and deliver). This will enable the performance measurement effective as per business strategy. The importance of criteria may vary for each element/link. Further, with the motive to improve the overall efficiency of the supply chain, internal and external performance metrics needs to be monitored. This integrated performance matrix can also be useful to facilitate monitoring of actual performance and responses (Lambert and Pohlen, 2001).It can also be noted that in order to achieve best in class practice, there is a need for better benchmarking practices. Benchmarking provides ideas for improvement and comparison between collaborative performance vs customer competitive requirement (Boyson et al., 1999; Cox et al., 1997; Watson, 1993). The literature revealed that the initial research focussed on benchmarking of individual organizations and its benefits. But later, it was noted that benchmarking for supply chain was still restricted to improvement analysis and it provided direction for supply chain performance evaluation (Simatupang and Sridharan, 2008).In the present work, we explore more than 80 criteria for collaborative supply-chain performance evaluation. These criteria are grouped under 12 different categories namely: cost, customer service, productivity, asset measurement, quality, time, innovativeness, price, flexibility or adaptability, supplier profile, marketing measures and the ability to collaborate.The methodology results in computation of a Supply Chain Performance Number (SCPN), reflecting the performance of the supply chain with respect to the set benchmark defined by the company or the organizations participating in the collaborative chain. For instance, SCPN value \"0\" will reflect an absolute non-conformance to the benchmark and SCPN value of \"1\" reflects that the set benchmark is achieved.This paper is organized as follows: the next section briefly explains different types of supply-chain networks where the proposed methodology can become handy. A view of supply-chain evaluation criteria (performance criteria) is elaborated in Section 3. The appendix provides the list of the criteria (with brief explanation) that may be considered. The proposed methodology is then presented in Section 4. Subsequently, a simple example is illustrated for better understanding of the proposed methodology. Section 6 discusses a real-life case from an Indian chemical company. Finally conclusions are presented.\n2. Brief classification of supply chain: Supply chains can be classified based on their \"structure\" (Beamon and Chen, 2001). The \"structure\" is a result of the inter-connections, chain like amenities representing the co-ordination of the work or the tasks. Some of the widely seen supply-chain structures are: assembly supply chain, divergent supply chain, conjoined supply chain and general supply chain.2.1 Assembly supply chain\n3. The evaluation criteria: In this section various criteria for performance evaluation are presented, most of them are compiled from the available literature. A few criteria are also identified by informal discussions with practicing managers in various companies. These criteria are classified into 12 categories. A brief description of the different criteria, classified under these categories is presented in the Appendix:\n4. The methodology: The proposed methodology is developed based on a few assumptions. Before explaining the proposed methodology, the assumptions, the methodology viewpoint and the need to use a multi-criteria decision-making tool (AHP) is explained briefly.4.1 Assumptions\n5. Illustrative example: An illustrative example, typically resembling a manufacturing organization, is illustrated here. The supply chain has four echelons (the raw material suppliers, the manufacturers, the distribution centers and the retailers). For illustrative purpose, we consider three nodes each at the supplier and retailer echelon and one and two nodes at the manufacturing and distribution center echelon, respectively. Figure 3 shows these links. The supply chain has a total of nine nodes and 11 links. The proposed methodology is explained as follows:\n6. A case from Indian chemical company: Here, we present a real-life example illustrating an application of our proposed methodology.6.1 Company background\n7. Discussions: This proposed approach helped the organization in making various vital decisions. The company decided to concentrate on vital CFAs like Delhi, Boisar and Jaipur whereas the CFAs at Ranchi, Coimbatore and Bhiwandi seemed to be less important.The methodology also helped the organization in quantifying the importance of the criteria for the performance evaluation. It can be noted (form Table IV) that number of non-conformities (Q1) is considered as highly important with PEN value of 0.19, whereas quality of storage (Q8) is least important with PEN value of 0.011. Thus the organization was also able to introspect and confirm its performance criteria in tune with its vision and mission. This certainly helped in verifying the appropriateness of its progress. The approach also helped in identifying the present status of various criteria and its contribution in the overall supply chain.It was also possible to compute the performance of the individual link using the LV. For instance, Cuttuck (E1) LV=0.879; this indicates, the performance of approximately 88 percent, and it carves scope of around 12 percent for improvement. It can be noted (refer Table VII) that the CFA Pune can be considered as best performing unit with LV of 0.977 and the CFA at Indore is performing lowest among all with LV as 0.634. Thus, the performance of each link considering them at par with each other can also be computed. This enabled the organization create a healthy competitive environment within.If CV are considered, the analyst can identify the exact lacuna in the link and can even understand criteria influencing the performance or the scope of improvement can be also identified.Finally, the computed overall supply-chain performance number indicates that there is approximately 21 percent scope of improvement in the entire supply chain.It can be noted that even though the methodology was applied for a single stage of a supply chain, the same can be extended for the entire supply chain without any difficulty, as explained in the illustration. However, the study was conducted only for one stage, since the organization wanted to test the methodology on a sample data.Thus, the proposed technique has helped the practitioners; each step facilitating them to make decisions in the process of evaluating the performance of supply links. Hence, evaluating the performance of the entire supply chain and carving scope for future modifications has become handy.We feel this model can be applied to any type of the supply chain as explained in Figure 1. In order to be successful, the practicing manager has to understand the complete supply chain and make some prior decisions before implementation. These decisions include: identification of various links in the supply chain, identification of various criteria (with proper hierarchical structure) for evaluation. The next step would be to define the time span and collect the required data. Typically, an organization may decide to collect the data either for a week, or a month, or a quarter year. For instance, if time span is considered as \"one week,\" and the criteria is \"number of non-conformities,\" the data collection sheet should indicate, the total non-conformities against the received consignment. Developing a Microsoft excel template/computer package would be beneficial to maintain uniformity in the data collection plan. Deciding a proper benchmark for each of the criteria for each of the links is also vital part of the analysis.Post data collection, the analysis is quite simple and does not require any expert assistance. Maintaining proper records and conducting proper analysis is the key to the success. Analysis can be easily carried out by using spread sheet (Microsoft excel sheet), template and the software tools like expert choice (www.expertchoice.com).\n8. Conclusions: The initial section of the present work explores through the various supply-chain performance evaluation criteria. More than 80 performance criteria were identified, compiled and grouped into 12 categories. Further, this paper proposes a methodology to compute the value of SCPN. The value of SCPN lies between 0 and 1:1 indicating complete compliance with the set benchmark and 0 indicating the worst possible performance of the supply chain. Thus, this number helps the evaluator to assess the present status of the supply chain based on the agreed benchmark.One can realize that the proposed methodology is based on performance evaluation of supply links, which eventually translates into the performance analysis of the supply chain. This approach creates scope for identifying the strongest and the weakest link. Making a suitable decision/strategy for overall improvement of the supply link and hence the supply chain becomes possible.The methodology is also flexible as it permits any addition/deletion of criteria to any of the links in the supply chain. In the present paper we have explained a methodology with an assumption that all the criteria under consideration are applicable to all links. Suitable modification in the approach can be carried out, in case some data are missing or in case a criterion is not applicable for any of the links. The proposed methodology is explained for a manufacturing unit, which typically follows a conjoined supply-chain structure.One of the major components of the analysis is the benchmark (target) value. The analysis, therefore demand proper setting of benchmark value. An illegitimate value will lead to improper results. Hence this role of setting a benchmark value has to be carried out with utmost care. One can realize this methodology enables identify and trace the criteria for further improvement. The methodology is developed with an assumption that the criteria are independent or are not co-related with each other. If the criteria are correlated or are dependent with each other, it may lead to some indifferent results. The analyst must therefore make sure that the criteria considered are independent of each other. Scope exists to extend this work by considering interdependent criteria.The methodology is quite simple to implement, as compared to the other popular methodologies like SCOR, etc. It allows weightages to be provided for the various criteria, thus, enabling the managers to link it with the organizational goals. While most of the other methods provide a focussed view of supply-chain evaluation, the proposed method provides a holistic view of analyzing performance of the supply chain.The computation of the SCPN involves a large amount of data and hence computer assistance seems to be a requirement. Although the proposed multi-criteria approach is explained for a conjoined supply chain, this link-based approach can be suitably modified to suit the other supply-chain structures such as assembly, divergent and general.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: - Understanding the significance of supply chain, demands need of multiple criteria for its performance evaluation. The aim of this paper is to propose an approach to evaluate the performance of supply chain using multiple criteria.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - A multi-criteria decision making tool, like analytic hierarchy process is used to develop an eight step methodology for performance evaluation. The proposed methodology is also elucidated with an illustration and a case from Indian chemical company.\nFindings: - Supply chain performance number is computed, suggesting the present performance status of the supply chain. The methodology also helps rank the various links according to its performance. The analysis leads in computation of supply chain performance number (SCPN): the value lies between 0 and 1.\nResearch limitations/implications: - The methodology can be suitably modified to accommodate any number of criteria and supply links, given the structure of the supply chain.\nPractical implications: - A case from an Indian chemical industry is presented in this paper. The findings of which, are encouraging and have benefited the practicing mangers in various ways.\nOriginality/value: - This paper presents a unique approach for supply chain performance evaluation considering multiple criteria, with a flexibility to modify and analyze using the available data sets.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Benchmarking the interactions among barriers in third-party logistics implementation: An ISM approach	[ "Logistics", "Benchmarking", "ISM", "Supply chain" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1 Introduction: During the last two decades, globalization has emerged as a major force shaping business strategies, leading firms to develop products designed for a global market and to source components globally (Cooper, 1993). Globalization of corporations and ensuing competitive pressures have placed increasing demands on organizations to deliver customer-adapted products all over the world quickly and on time (Sohail and Al-Abdali, 2005). Logistics has been called the last frontier, and improvements in logistics are key factors in providing good customer service in terms of delivery, punctuality, timeliness, accuracy, and maintaining a competitive advantage (Perego et al., 2011). Because a company's competitive advantage comes as much from the delivery process as from the product itself (Muller, 1991b), logistics has been upgraded from its traditional back-room function to a strategic boardroom function (Foster, 1994). Accordingly, the management of logistics functions in modern enterprises involves decision making for the complete distribution of goods and provides services to maximize value and to minimize cost.\n2 Literature survey: Christopher (1992) defines logistics management as the supply chain process that plans, implements, and controls the efficient, effective flow and storage of goods, services and related information from the point of origin to the point of consumption in order to meet the customers' requirements. Vinay et al. (2007) recognize the tremendous potential of logistics and its major strategic role in companies with increased global competition to gain a competitive advantage. Because of this intense competition among companies, logistics outsourcing has been rapidly expanding so as to achieve competitive advantage and cost savings (Rabinovich et al., 1999).\n3 Problem description: Despite the fact that TPL industry is experiencing a rapid growth, it faces certain barriers in implementation (Razzaque and Sheng, 1998). In this work, the company chosen is a well-known manufacturing company in the Southern part of India. The company wants to adopt the TPL system in order to triumph over the intense competition of those seeking the same business. After a literature survey and a discussion with the expert team, eight barriers to the implementation of TPL have been identified. These barriers are explained as follows:\n4 ISM methodology: ISM methodology is primarily intended as a group learning process, but can also be used individually (Kannan and Haq, 2006). Sage (1977) has pointed that the ISM methodology transforms unclear and poorly articulated models of systems into visible and well-defined models. When we have a complex issue and a systematic and logical thinking approach is needed, then ISM is used. This provides order and direction for numerous complex relationships among the variables (Sage, 1977; Singh et al., 2003; Jharkharia and Shankar, 2004). Saxena et al. (1992) use ISM methodology for modeling the variables of energy conservation in the Indian cement industry. In this work, the key variables are identified using both direct and indirect interrelationships. Sharma et al. (1995) apply ISM methodology to achieve the future objective of waste management in India. Kannan and Haq (2006) propose ISM methodology for analyzing the interactions of criteria and sub-criteria for the supplier selection for the original equipment manufacturing company which works in a build-to-order supply chain environment. Diabat and Kannan (2011) develop an ISM model of the drivers affecting the implementation of green supply chain management. Diabat et al. (2011) proposes an ISM model for risk supply chain management in food industry.\n5 Application to the case illustration: In this section, the above illustrated methodology of ISM is applied to the case company to model the various barriers for the TPL implementation.\n6 Result and discussion: The objective of this work is to study and to analyze the interactions between the barriers for the implementation of services of TPL providers in a well-known manufacturing company in the Southern part of India. An ISM-based hierarchical model has been developed to study the significance of the barriers in adopting TPL in a manufacturing industry. Based on the ISM model, a MICMAC analysis is done.\n7 Managerial implications: ISM methodology is a tool that enables managers to develop a map of the complex relationships between various factors or elements involved in a decision-making process. The theoretical implication of this methodology is that it can simplify a complex system into a hierarchical model composed of multiple levels. Its practical implication is to make use of the managers' experience and knowledge to provide a fundamental understanding of a complex situation, followed by a course of action for problem solving.\n8 Conclusion: The case company under consideration in this work, in order to triumph over the intense competition wants to adopt the TPL system. Based on the available literature and a discussion with the expert team, eight barriers to the implementation of TPL in the case company have been identified. The interaction between the barriers is analyzed and modeled using ISM methodology.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to analyze the interaction among some of the major barriers that may hinder the implementation of third-party logistics (TPL) in manufacturing industries.\nDesign/methodology/approach: This paper uses an interpretive structural modeling (ISM) methodology to analyze the interactions among the barriers.\nFindings: It is beneficial for the management of any firm to be aware of significant barriers and to diagnose those that could be integral to the organization's future survival. Many works have focused on identifying barriers for TPL implementation, but a model for such barriers is lacking. This paper attempts to develop a model for the barriers using an ISM methodology and analyzes the mutual interactions among the barriers. The model differentiates between the barriers so that driving barriers, which can intensify other barriers, and dependent barriers are identified separately.\nOriginality/value: In this research, eight barriers are considered. Interactions between the barriers are evaluated with the help of the ISM matrix. Of the eight barriers, three barriers, including the lack of application and knowledge of advanced information technology, congested roadways and ports, and fear of employees of the firm, demonstrate both strong driving power and strong dependence power, as illustrated in the MICMAC analysis.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
New public governance and activation	[ "Governance", "Activation", "New Public Management", "Public employment service", "Performance measurement", "Fuzzy set", "Europe" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: All over Europe the last decades brought along a change in paradigm from passive to active welfare state policies. The emphasis is no longer on mere income protection but on the activation of clients in working age. This reorientation has demanded adjustments in institutional and organisational structures. New modes of governance were introduced to enable the implementation of activation policies. Defining governance as \"public and private interactions taken to solve societal problems and create social opportunities, including the formulation and application of principles guiding those interactions and care for institutions that enable them\" (Kooiman and Bavinck, 2005, p. 17), a range of basic principles can be identified which have been adopted more or less all over Europe to meet the new challenge (for an overview see van Berkel et al., 2011, pp. 18-29). This article assesses one of these main tendencies in the governance of activation, the introduction of new public management (NPM) instruments.Comparative studies on public management reforms show that most European countries adopted NPM principles, but that the chosen approaches are far from being consistent (Pollitt et al., 2007; Hood, 1991). The same diversity of reform tendencies under the common label of NPM occurs in the governance of income protection and activation. van Berkel et al. (2011) conducted nine country-case studies analysing the emergence of new modes of governance in activation policies in Europe. They showed that NPM is a common phenomenon, but that kind and degree of implementation vary greatly. In the light of the immense diversity stated in the literature, this article asks for the existence of similarities. We will evaluate whether, among all this differences, common patterns can be identified and described. Therefore, it is necessary to discuss the meaning of NPM in the field of activation policies. Based on this conceptual framework, the emergence of NPM in the governance of activation in the nine European countries analysed by van Berkel et al. (2011) will be evaluated. The analysis focuses on the public agencies responsible for the implementation of activation policies - in most countries the public employment services (PES). The emergence of NPM tendencies in PES was analysed by Mosley et al. (2000), Nunn et al. (2009) and Weishaupt (2010), focussing on different aspects of NPM. By comparing the introduction of NPM and looking for common patterns, this article can make a contribution to the classification of the existing empirical material and to the current discussion on new modes of governance in activation policies in Europe. The identification of common patterns can serve as a starting point for further analyses about the effects of NPM reforms on the content and the provision of activation services.To identify different patterns of NPM, fuzzy set theory will be applied. Fuzzy sets are used as a typology building tool which can be helpful in studying reform diversity. More specifically, it allows to access differentiation in both degree and kind of the introduction of NPM (Kvist, 2006, pp. 171-5). In the first part of this article, the concept of NPM and its different dimensions will be outlined. In the second part, the methodological approach and the data in use will be described. In the third part, the identified patterns of NPM will be presented and the results will be discussed.\nNew public management in activation: NPM is not a consistently defined concept. However, referring to Dunleavy and Hood (1994, p. 9), it may be understood as a \"summary description of a way of reorganizing public sector bodies to bring their management, reporting, and accounting approaches closer to (a particular perception of) business methods\" with a change from input to outcome orientation as a main aspect of NPM reforms (Schedler and Proeller, 2009). In accordance with van Berkel et al. (2011), this article uses the concept of NPM in a narrower sense, thereby emphasising the principles guiding the ways in which national governments steer public agencies and manage their conduct. More specifically, the focus is laid on the shift from input or output (e.g. number of places for clients) to outcome control (e.g. successful activation trajectories) and its implementation within the PES. In accordance to this definition, three dimensions of NPM can be identified. The first dimension concerns the introduction of a performance measurement system, also called \"management by objectives\" or \"management by results\" (Ritz and Sager, 2010). The second and third element emphasise the implementation of outcome control by looking closer at the division of the strategic and the operational level. On one hand, the analysis of this division addresses the steering by contracts as a means to separate strategic decisions from the implementation level. On the other hand, it addresses the discretion left to the operational units to enable them to choose instruments to achieve the expected performance (van Berkel et al., 2011, p. 27; Pollitt, 2001, pp. 10-11). However, the three dimensions cannot be treated equally, as the introduction of a performance measurement system (first dimension) is constitutive for the other two dimensions. In the following, the three dimensions will be outlined in detail.Performance measurement system\nMethod: To identify different patterns of NPM in activation, fuzzy set theory is applied. Fuzzy sets can be a helpful approach to study reform diversity as they allow to access simultaneously quantitative and qualitative differentiation, that is differentiation in degree and kind of reforms (Kvist, 2006, pp. 171-5). Therefore, fuzzy sets can be used as a typology building tool. They are, on the one hand, used to identify ideal types based on theoretical concepts and, on the other hand, applied to measure the set membership of a case in an ideal type (for the use of fuzzy sets as a typology building tool, Kvist, 2006). In the following, two basic principles of fuzzy sets allowing its use in sophisticated ideal type analysis will be discussed, before the application on NPM reforms is outlined.Difference in degree: partial membership\nIdeal type setting and data: For the analysis of ideal types in NPM in activation, the different aspects of NPM have to be defined. According to the dimensions of NPM as identified in the previous chapter, three fuzzy sets will be created (performance measurement system, contract steering, operational discretion). To measure the degree of membership within each fuzzy set, we use different criteria which are qualitative in nature. To find the qualitative breaking points for each fuzzy set, we rely on the definition of the three dimensions. Table I summarises the fuzzy set calibration for all three dimensions.In a second step, we identify the theoretically relevant ideal types resulting from the three dimensions. Accordingly, we have to consider the hierarchical order of the dimensions. The first dimension is a precondition for the second and third dimension. If a country has not implemented a performance measurement system, the other two dimensions are irrelevant. Table II provides an overview of the ideal types deduced from the theoretical concept. For a detailed description of the construction of ideal types and the calculation of membership scores, Kvist (2006).The first ideal type comes closest to private sector management, since it represents countries with a high developed performance measurement system, a strict division of the political from the operational level, and high discretion for the operational units. It is therefore called business type NPM. Even though the following three types also represent countries with highly developed performance measurement systems, they differ on the other two dimensions. Countries of the centralized NPM type have high-level contracts with a strict division of the operational from the political level, but with limited discretion on the operational level. Accordingly, political and operational decisions are centralized. The opposite is true for the self-governing NPM. In countries of this type the political and operational levels are not strictly separated and the operational units and subunits dispose of high autonomy. The procedural type introduced NPM, but the implementation remains in the traditional perspective, relying on rules and procedures with no or limited contract steering and low discretion for the operational units. This ideal type comes closest to the fifth type, which represents countries without or with minor attempts to introduce NPM in activation policies.Based on this methodological construct, the emergence of NPM will be analysed for nine European countries representing different geographical regions and traditions of welfare states. The nine countries involved are the Czech Republic, Finland, France, Germany, Italy, The Netherlands, Sweden, Switzerland, and the UK. Subject of the analysis are the PES, since, in all countries under investigation, they are key players in the provision of activation services for unemployment benefit recipients. In addition, the PES play an important role in the activation of social assistance clients. A somewhat special case is The Netherlands, because the activation trajectories initiated by Dutch municipalities outnumber the ones initiated by the PES (van Berkel and de Graaf, 2011, p. 211; Ehrler and Sager, 2011, pp. 236-7). When analysing The Netherlands, this article therefore considers the municipalities as well as the PES, while for the eight other countries under investigation, only the PES are analysed.Starting point are the case studies realised and presented in van Berkel et al. (2011). Besides the research results by van Berkel et al. (2011), empirical data from other existing case studies (Mosley et al., 2000; Nunn et al., 2009; Schutz, 2001, 2009; Weishaupt, 2010), national reports and analysis (PES Monitor, 2011; Barbier, 2007) are used.\nPatterns of NPM: In the following, the empirical evidence for every dimension is discussed separately before the results are brought together in order to identify and discuss the findings related to ideal types.Performance measurement system\nConclusion: The present article has analysed the emergence of NPM in the governance of activation in nine European countries. The current literature indicates profound diversity in the introduction of NPM as a whole and also in the governance of activation policies. In the light of the stated differences, this article has asked for similarities. Using fuzzy sets as a typology building tool, it has been shown that common patterns exist. The construction of ideal types helped to describe existing patterns and it was possible to identify four different types of NPM within the nine countries involved. At the same time, it has been shown that the majority of countries do not represent pure models but unify different tendencies within one dominant type of NPM.In conclusion, it can be stated that common patterns in the emergence of NPM in the governance of activation exist, but diversity prevails. However, the identification of common patterns can mark the starting point for more profound analyses of the political consequences of governance and the impact of different modes of governance on the content of activation strategies. The repercussion of governance on policy making is difficult to identify, but it would be interesting to show how the different types or patterns of NPM create opportunities and restrictions for the policy making process. The same is true for the effects of governance on organizational practices and the content of activation services. There are rarely any analyses on effects of NPM on the operational level and the delivered activation services in European countries. However, Considine et al. (2011) show for Australia that NPM reforms do not always generate the intended outcome on the street level. The patterns identified in this article could be a useful instrument to examine the implications of NPM on the content and delivery of activation services in Europe.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: - The purpose of this article is to assess the emergence of New Public Management in the governance of activation policies in nine European countries. In the light of considerable diversity in the implementation of New Public Management in the different countries, the article tries to identify common patterns.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - For the identification of patterns, fuzzy set theory is applied. Fuzzy sets are used to define ideal types and to measure the degree of membership in the different ideal types for every country.\nFindings: - It is possible to show that despite the substantial diversity of New Public Management approaches in the governance of activation policies, common patterns exist. The article identifies four ideal types of New Public Management within the nine countries involved in the analysis. At the same time it is shown that most countries do not represent pure models but unify different tendencies within one dominant type.\nOriginality/value: - The identification of common patterns in the emergence of New Public Management in the governance of activation can provide a useful framework for discussion and further research on the implications of different forms of governance on the content and delivery of activation services in Europe.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Funding accessibility for minority entrepreneurs: an empirical analysis	[ "Entrepreneurship", "Access to loans", "Demographic characteristics", "Ethnic minority" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Among the many constraints that affect the success of new venture development (Kim et al., 2006; Zimmerman and Zeitz, 2002), access to capital is crucial for entrepreneurs (Au and Kwan, 2009; Cooper et al., 1994). Compared to private sources such as family members and friends, financial institutions present an important funding source, with sufficient funds designated for venture investment (Berger and Udell, 2002; Treichel and Scott, 2006). As such, how to access financial resources from financial institutions to start and grow their new businesses has become a challenging task for entrepreneurs.\nTheory and hypothesis development: Minority entrepreneurs refer to owners of new ventures with non-white ethnic backgrounds in this study. Current literature has indicated that minority entrepreneurs share some common demographic characteristics that are distinct from non-minority entrepreneurs. For example, past research observed that minority entrepreneurs were generally from lower- or middle-class family; and that they were relatively young, married and entrepreneurially experienced when they were engaged in new entrepreneurial activities (between the ages of 35 and 45); they usually had a college degree and were mainly driven by needs for achievement and job satisfaction (Gomolka, 1977; Hisrich and Brush, 1986). In addition, racial groups have different effects on self-employment rates and business ownership (e.g. Bates, 2000; Borjas and Bronara, 1989; Fairlie, 2004). Most importantly, although they have different start-up motivations and growth intentions (Edelman et al., 2010), minority entrepreneurs have lower rates of success in entrepreneurial activities (Sullivan, 2007). In this study, we focus on entrepreneurs' access to financial institutions' funds, an important factor determining new ventures' fate.\nMethodology and measurement: Sample and sources of data\nDiscussion: Entrepreneurship is a fact of life in many countries, but the access to capital is restricted (Treichel and Scott, 2006). The restriction is even more so for minority entrepreneurship. There is a lot of prior research looking at minority entrepreneurs in other countries such as Australia (Collins, 2003) and New Zealand (Pio, 2006). In the USA entrepreneur population is still dominated by mainstream business owners, in spite of the significantly increasing presence of ethnic minority owners. In general, accessing funds from financial institutions seems unpopular among entrepreneurs, and those that do access financial institution loans mostly explore one source. Even though this study was done based on US originated data, lack of financing from public institutions is a reality for minority entrepreneurs in different countries. In the UK for example, research shows that minority entrepreneurs have trouble becoming formal due to lack of knowledge on how to set up their business, lack of capital and uncertainty related to migrant status among other things (Sepulveda et al., 2011). A lot of minority entrepreneurs in Israel did not receive funding from banks or the government; they used personal savings (Kushnirovich and Heilbrunn, 2008). There is a dissonance between the number of minority entrepreneurs and the access to funding from public institutions.\nConclusion: Our study has made several contributions to the entrepreneurship study. First of all, the current study uses empirical data from a range of ethnic groups, whose social and economic influences are becoming increasingly important in the USA and in other countries. Our research was based on US-based data but the results can be seen to apply to other countries that have a large group of entrepreneur minority since research show that the access to public financial institutions is a general problem regardless of the country (Kushnirovich and Heilbrunn, 2008; Sepulveda et al., 2011). The results demonstrate systematically financing patterns distinctive from that of the non-minority entrepreneurs, enriching our understanding of minority entrepreneurs as an aggregated group. Second, it provides an empirical investigation on the correlation of ethnic minority background and access to funds from financial institutions and the moderating effect of a set of demographic factors.\nLimitations and future research: One major constraint is that our data did not allow us to explore the actual reasons for the observed correlations between entrepreneurs' ethnic background, demographic characteristics and their use of financial institutions' funds. Future research that collects primary data on applicant and lending officers' behavior pattern should provide valuable information for developing solutions and strategies for entrepreneurs and policy makers. In the current study, we did not distinguish between different funding sources of financial institutions, which, however, may develop different criteria for assessing applications and require different liabilities. Future study, using appropriate empirical evidences, should explore the differences across various funding sources and their accessibility to entrepreneurs of different characteristics. Ortiz-Walters and Gius (2012) have found that business debt has different effect on firm profitability for minority owners and non-minority owners. They explained that the cause of such difference could include the small amount of debt, minority entrepreneurs' inability of leveraging debt from different sources. Our next step can focus on how these financing factors affect the firm performance for minority owners. Due to the lack of data on industry type, that is, high technology industries vs non-high technology industries, we were unable to assess whether education level's impact differs across industry sectors, which pose an interesting question. It is rational to believe that in the high technology sectors, the entrepreneur's education level may serve as a good caliber about the new venture's survival and success potential. In contrast, new ventures in non-high technology sectors may rely less on owners' education, and one example is lodging and restaurant industries where new immigrants have traditionally been active; nonetheless, greater variance in owners' education levels may be observed in such traditional sectors than in high technology industries.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to examine what factors affect entrepreneurs with minority background to access public financial institutions' funds in initiating and developing their new ventures. Following the signal theory, social capital theory and the liability of newness perspective, the effect of demographic characteristics of entrepreneurs were investigated and the differences between ethnic minority and non-minority entrepreneurs' access to financial institutions' funds were compared.\nDesign/methodology/approach: This paper draws on the data of 2,119 high technology and non-high technology firms from the Kauffman foundation survey. The empirical analysis was focussed on the characteristics of entrepreneurs of these new ventures and the nature of the financial arrangements of these businesses to test the theoretical framework.\nFindings: This study provides empirical evidence that ethnic minority entrepreneurs are less likely to access loans from financial institutions than non-minority entrepreneurs. Moreover, the education level of ethnic minority entrepreneurs was identified as a key factor to help them to access financial institutions' funds.\nResearch limitations/implications: The main limitation is that the data did not allow us to explore the actual reasons for observed correlations between entrepreneurs' ethnic background, demographic characteristics and their use of financial institutions' funds.\nPractical implications: Since the constraints in the access to financial resources greatly impact the success of new ventures, this study indicates through what factors minority entrepreneurs can increase their credence to get more financial support. In addition, it is also helpful for the loan managers of financial institutions to make rational decisions when they assess the application of minority entrepreneurs.\nOriginality/value: This study enriches the understanding of minority entrepreneurs in the entrepreneurship literature. First, it aggregates major minorities in the USA and strives to identify systematically different financing behaviors of these minority entrepreneurs; second, it provides empirical investigation on the correlation of ethnic minority background and access to funds from financial institutions and the moderating effect of a set of demographic factors.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
The importance of university facilities for student satisfaction at a Norwegian University	[ "University", "Student satisfaction", "Facilities", "Norway", "Education", "Higher educations institutions" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: The higher education market is strongly affected by globalization (Hemsley-Brown and Oplatka, 2006). This has produced an international market for educational services and increased competition to attract students. As competition among higher education institutions (HEIs) has increased, these institutions have been forced to adopt market-oriented strategies to differentiate themselves from their competitors and, thereby, attract as many students as possible (Butt and Rehman, 2010). HEIs have also realized that their sector represents a business-like service industry and have begun to focus more on meeting or exceeding the needs of their students (Gruber et al., 2010). Therefore, numerous studies have been conducted to identify the most important factors influencing student satisfaction.\n2. The models: Two models are estimated. The purpose of the first model (satisfaction model) is to estimate how different factors influence student overall satisfaction with a Norwegian HEI. The purpose of the second model (facility model) is to estimate the influence of individual university facilities on student overall satisfaction with the facilities at the HEI.\n3. The data: 3.1 The higher education system in Norway\n4. Results and discussion: 4.1 The satisfaction model\n5. Conclusions and implications: HEIs compete fiercely for the best and the brightest students. Accordingly, knowledge about how student satisfaction is developed can be used by HEIs to develop strategies that make them more attractive for prospective students. In this study, we first explored factors associated with student overall satisfaction with HEIs, and second, we identified the individual facilities that most strongly influence overall satisfaction with HEI facilities. Two econometric models were estimated using data from a survey conducted among students at a relatively small Norwegian university.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: This paper aims to explore the influence of higher education institution (HEI) facilities on overall student satisfaction, and to identify the distinct facilities that most strongly influence student overall satisfaction with HEI facilities.\nDesign/methodology/approach: A tailor-made questionnaire is developed to measure student perception about student life, including their perceptions about the facilities at the HEI they attend. Two econometric models are estimated using OLS regression analysis.\nFindings: The factor that most strongly influences student satisfaction with university facilities is the quality of its social areas, auditoriums and libraries. Conversely, it is determined that computer access on campus does not influence student satisfaction.\nResearch limitations/implications: The sample includes data only from a single university. Moreover, only Norwegian students at the university participated in the survey.\nPractical implications: Based on our findings, the most effective strategy to improve student overall satisfaction with the facilities at an HEI is to improve the quality of social areas, auditoriums and libraries. Such a strategy will result in students who are more satisfied with the HEI they are attending and, thereby, increase the HEI's chances of long-term success.\nOriginality/value: To the best of our knowledge, this is the first study to identify the facilities that most strongly influence the overall satisfaction of students with the facilities at HEIs.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Ideological leadership in public schools	[ "Ideological leadership", "Educational administration", "Close/Distant leaders", "Public schools", "Work outcome variables", "Transformational leadership" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Scholars have demonstrated the influence of ideology on public organizations' mission, service paradigms, structure, management practices and decision-making (Lavertu et al., 2013; Rabovsky and Rutherford, 2016). This begs an investigation of ideological leadership (IL) among leaders in public schools to better understand how ideology is manifested in these settings. IL can be described as a form of vision-based leadership that inspires followers with an unwavering commitment toward a comprehensive set of ideals (Lovelace et al., 2019). However, the research on IL is still in its preliminary stages. First, the corpus of studies is small. Second, research has focused mostly on the emergence of IL among grand historical protagonists, such as presidents, and world leaders (Griffith et al., 2018). Finally, IL has not been studied in close organizational settings (those with a considerable degree of proximity between leaders and followers, both hierarchical and physical), and neither has a scale for its measurement been developed (Lovelace et al., 2019). Thus, this study aims to explore the conception of IL as it relates to public schools, and to validate a tool for its measurement in this setting.\nTheory: Ideological leadership of grand leaders\nMethod: Ideological leadership in the school context\nResults: Construct validity\nDiscussion: Given that little attention has previously been given to IL in public organizations, we sought to examine the meaning of IL in the ideologically laden context of public schools. The study's findings highlighted several issues: First, this research validated the current tool for measuring IL in the close public school setting, drawing on Strange and Mumford's (2002) conceptualization of grand (distant) IL. Specifically, using construct validation of an IL measure in elementary public schools, findings confirmed the hypothesized personalized and socialized IL dimensions among public school principals. Socialized IL was found to incorporate the principal's efforts to captivate teachers so that they adopt a coherent set of beliefs and values used to justify and direct organizational actions. Personalized IL was found to incorporate the leader's inclination to be aggressive and dogmatic, to demonstrate intolerance toward \"non-believers,\" and to regard others instrumentally, only as they relate to his/her ideological agenda. Thus, while socialized ideological leaders seek to enlist believers through identification with a transcendent worldview, personalized ideological leaders are manipulative, coercive and alienating. In personalized IL, the oppositional and practical elements of IL outweigh its transcendental aspects. The results, then, replicated the theoretical distinction between personalized and socialized IL as inferred from previous studies of grand leadership figures (Lovelace et al., 2019; Strange and Mumford, 2002).Second, it was found that discriminant and convergent validation distinguished IL from TL. As expected, personalized IL related negatively both to the empowering and the charismatic-visionary dimensions of TL. This is not surprising, as personalized ideological leaders tend to ignore their followers' needs, treat them mainly as pawns and wield ideological vision as an exclusionary measure (Anderson and Sun, 2017; Mumford et al., 2007) rather than as a way to inspire, enlist and make followers feel part of a great undertaking. By contrast, the use of shared vision to captivate followers through the intensification of group identity, hemophilia and feelings of belonging--which is common to socialized IL and the charismatic-visionary dimensions of TL--can explain the significant positive relation found between the two in the current study. On the other hand, a negative relation was found between socialized IL and individualized consideration, one of the empowering dimensions of TL. This is not surprising, as socialized IL (similar to personalized IL) is found to overlook followers' needs and agency in seeking to transform social realities. However, unexpectedly, socialized IL was found to correlate positively with intellectual stimulation, the other empowering dimension of TL. This can be explained by previous findings which suggested that although socialized ideological leaders reject alternative interpretations of reality, they do not demand complete conformity or display intolerance toward others who disagree with their values (Lovelace et al., 2019; Strange and Mumford, 2002). Thus, it seems that for intellectual stimulation to emerge under IL, it is sufficient that teachers are not excluded on the basis of their ideas. Arguably, this indicates that if ideas are not rejected as \"unacceptable,\" then they may be tolerated even under a regime that promotes and maintains a supposedly fully coherent set of beliefs and values.Third, findings shed light on the role of IL in public schools, a topic that is greatly underexplored (Rabovsky and Rutherford, 2016). Specifically, using predicative validation (controlled for TL), only personalized IL among school principals was linked to teachers' work outcomes, associated with lower organizational commitment, lower LMX and higher controlled motivation (controlled for TL). Our findings on the negative effect of personalized IL at the group level on followers' organizational related attitudes (such as commitment) differs from prior findings on the positive effect of TL that operate on a group level (Kark et al., 2003). This attests to the robust ethical inclinations of transformational leaders (Bass and Steidlmeier, 1999), which are less salient among personalized IL. No significant relationship was found between socialized IL and teachers' work outcomes when controlling for TL. The fact that only personalized IL predicted teachers' work outcomes in a close leader-subordinate setting can be explained by considering the characteristics of the two IL orientations.Socialized IL, it would seem, does not affect teachers' work outcomes in a close leadership setting beyond transformational behaviors, because for its impact to be felt, it requires a considerable social distance (Berson et al., 2015; Shamir, 1995). This is rare in close settings in public schools. The destructive interpersonal aspect of personalized IL emerged in the analysis results, which suggest that the unbearable interpersonal circumstances created by personalized IL lead to the alienation of individuals, and consequently to teachers' rejection of the organization, the leader, and his/her ideology.Meanwhile, the strong effects of personalized IL in close leader-subordinate settings can be explained by the fact that these circumstances are highly sensitive to the quality of interpersonal relationships (Berson et al., 2015; Shamir, 1995). Thus, the study demonstrates that personalized IL in the restricted confines of close school settings, where every move is visible and personally attributed, can considerably undermine the effects of positive leadership behaviors (such as TL elements), as its demands abrade teachers' attachment and drive. One can reasonably speculate that these costs may even endanger the overall efficiency of public schools over time.In summary, the study offers two important innovations, related to its methodological design and to its findings. First, it provides an elaboration of the meaning of IL in schools--to our knowledge, the first time this has been done--and offers a new scale for measuring it. Second, the study revealed several unexpected outcomes of IL. Specifically, findings indicate that socialized IL does not make a significant contribution toward improved teacher outcomes. By contrast, personalized IL was found to entail a dogmatic approach that clearly distances and alienates teachers from their leaders, and ultimately leads to their disengagement. This in turn draws scholarly attention to the adverse side of IL in close settings, where ideological zeal can have a negative effect on the intense relationships among school staff members.The results invite future research on IL in schools and beyond. First, further research could explore the dynamics between school leaders' ideological content (conservatism vs. liberalism), and ideological zeal as their multifaceted interactions may lead to differential effects. Second, future research may examine the moderating effects of psychological variables on the relationship between IL and organizational outcomes (e.g. student performance, school effectiveness and staff satisfaction). This includes an investigation of variables such as emotions, psychological rigidity, aversion to risk and uncertainty. Finally, the study focused on the primary education system as a case study. Thus, samples from different settings in education (e.g. higher education) and other organizations (e.g. business, welfare etc.) should be examined in order to strengthen the generalizing ability of the instrument and identify its variations.\nConclusion: While the 20th century's golden era of ideologies (from communism to fascism) has passed, it appears that in the second decade of the 21st century ideology remains alive and well in the public schools. The current study, using an organizational-psychological approach, reveals the dynamics that result when leaders in public schools adopt IL methods to advance their agendas. In particular, in these close leadership settings, personalized IL behaviors can have deleterious influence on teachers' work outcomes that outweighs the possible benefits of this leadership style. Thus, this study adds to previous scholarship on ideology in education. It demonstrates that in cases in which IL takes a dogmatic form, this can have detrimental effects, leading to what can be described as the \"dark side\" of IL. This contradicts popular notions on IL, and the accompanying calls for greater ideological vigor in order to boost educational professionals, organizations, and leaders (Harpaz, 2015; Laursen, 2006). It is hoped that these findings encourage debate among public school principals as to the desirability of embracing ideological zeal: while it can encourage fervor and adherence to clear, constructive goals, it also risks fostering dogmatism and the use of control tactics. Certainly, these findings indicate the importance of further study of ideological actors and ideology in public schools.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: This study aims to explore the conception and construct of ideological leadership (IL) as it relates to public organizations, such as public schools, and to validate a tool for its measurement in this setting.\nDesign/methodology/approach: Data was collected from 633 teachers working at 69 randomly-sampled Israeli public schools. In each school, an average of nine (SD = 2) randomly-sampled teachers completed questionnaires that measure IL, transformational leadership, organizational commitment, leader-member exchange and motivational factors. The data underwent validity and hypotheses tests.\nFindings: The hypothesized presence of the personalized and socialized IL orientations among public-school principals has been confirmed. Only personalized IL predicted teachers' outcomes above and beyond transformational leadership, affecting measures of organizational commitment, leader-member exchange and controlled motivation.\nOriginality/value: New evidence supports the validity of this proposed measurement tool. New evidence also suggests that although ideology has been known to be a factor of charismatic leadership, IL in close public-school settings accentuates practices of control, rather than proselytizing coherent worldviews to teachers. This, in turn, may have a deleterious influence on work outcomes and outweigh the possible benefits of IL. Accordingly, it is suggested that school leaders should critically consider the desirability of embracing ideological zeal as part of their leadership tools.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Keep them on-board! How organizations can develop employee embeddedness to increase employee retention	[ "Employee retention", "Employee development", "Job embeddedness" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n__NO_TITLE__: Increasing employee retention benefits organizations in many ways (Mayfield and Mayfield, 2012). Better retention has a bottom-line value given that turnover costs between one and one-and-a-half times an employees' annual salary (Cascio and Boudreau, 2011). A single dollar estimate, however, can mask the problems low retention can create. When someone leaves an organization, so does their tacit knowledge. A person exiting can require co-workers to cover for the missing person, and the extra work can create more stress, higher absenteeism and lower productivity (Cascio and Boudreau, 2011). Departures can be contagious and make others consider leaving, possibly creating another turnover cycle in the turnover (Cascio and Boudreau, 2011).\nJob embeddedness and employee retention: Mitchell et al. (2001) developed the concept of job embeddedness - the totality of forces that keep people in a job. Embeddedness has three main attributes: fit, links and sacrifice. These factors work together to keep employees integrated with their surroundings, and this connection leads people to stay with an organization.\nA practical model of employee retention: Enhance fit via employee selection and development\nConclusion: Keeping your best talent from leaving is critical to firm success. Companies can increase retention by embedding their employees through fit, links, and sacrifice. Our paper developed an embeddedness-based model of employee retention. We also provided specific organizational practices to improve organizational embeddedness.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: This paper aims to examine how companies can increase employee retention through job embeddedness.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The authors adopted a job embeddedness perspective to explain how different components of job embeddedness-fit, links, and sacrifice can contribute to employee retention.\nFindings: The authors developed a practical model of employee retention by building job embeddedness into employee recruitment, selection, training, and development processes and provided a variety of easy-to-implement organizational practices.\nOriginality/value: This paper introduced job embeddedness as a new way to increase employee retention and developed a practical model for managers to develop HR practices for retaining their top talent.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Bringing person-centeredness and active involvement into reality: The feasibility of a participatory concept for patient education	[ "Health", "Education", "Diseases", "Educational practice", "Empowerment", "Illness", "Participatory methods", "Participation" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Chronic diseases are the leading cause of death and disabilities worldwide with a continuously rising prevalence (World Health Organization, 2008; Mathers and Loncar, 2006). Chronic conditions, as opposed to acute conditions, are primarily managed by patients rather than by health care professionals, and require substantial knowledge and attention by patients (Bodenheimer et al., 2002; Clark et al., 1991; Funnell, 2000).\nMethods: The exploration of cultural probes as a method for patient education was carried out in two steps: first, the development of a toolkit consisting of various education tools; followed by, second, a study of the feasibility of the tools through an exploration of educators' perspectives and their views on the ability of the toolkit to support patient-centeredness and active involvement. The focal point of the study was to test the feasibility of applying cultural probes in patient education in general, with diabetes, chronic heart disease and chronic obstructive lung disease as specific cases. Therefore, a generic model was chosen. Our interest was on the format and processes rather than the disease-specific content.\nResults: Patient education settings\nDiscussion: The majority of educators found the tools both usable and useful. However, results showed that some tools received the majority of answers and others only a few answers, which prohibits drawing a conclusion regarding the toolkit as whole. The tools with which most questionnaire responses were associated were the ones that were presented and described in more detail at the introduction seminars. This emphasizes the importance of a more detailed introduction to new tools. Getting to know new tools or materials can be a challenge for educators, who may have limited time to familiarize themselves with new tools. Implementing new tools and methods in practice requires time and training, which may be a barrier for the implementation. Introduction seminars may work as effective education forums for health care professionals.\nConclusion: This study revealed that the use of cultural probes in patient education appears to be a useful method to achieve patient-centeredness and active involvement among participants in chronic illness self-management programmes. The majority of educators emphasized the usability of the toolkit and their desire to use it again. Educators felt supported in the process of facilitation when applying tools based on the ideas of cultural probes. This indicates that tools based on cultural probes may act as a useful catalyst for turning the ideas of patient-centeredness and active involvement into practice.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to examine the use and applicability of cultural probes - an explorative participatory method to gain insights into a person's life and thoughts - to achieve person-centeredness and active involvement in self-management education for people with chronic illness.\nDesign/methodology/approach: An education toolkit inspired by the ideas of cultural probes was developed and feasibility tested in 49 education settings in Denmark. Questionnaires, interviews, and observations were used to collect data, which were analysed using descriptive statistics, analysis of variance, and systematic text condensation.\nFindings: Educators emphasized the applicability of the toolkit, and between 69 and 82 per cent of educators reported that the toolkit supported them in facilitating person-centred education and active involvement to a high or very high degree. Most educators (81 per cent) reported that they would like to apply the toolkit again in future education to a high or very high degree. Five categories of educator experiences were identified: interaction and activity; person-centeredness; group dynamics and synergy; openness; and light and cheerful atmosphere. Educators talked significantly less in situations where the toolkit was applied. This indicates the ability of the toolkit to facilitate talk among participants and thereby let participants become the focal point of education. Applying cultural probes in patient education targeting people with chronic illness seems to be a useful method to achieve patient-centeredness and active involvement in patient education and to support educators in facilitating this process.\nOriginality/value: Introducing fully flexible education toolkits inspired by cultural probes may, in the future, lead to improved self-management patient education among people with chronic illness.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Co-innovation toolbox for demand-supply chain synchronisation	[ "Uncertainty", "Supply chain coordination", "Shared decision-making", "Co-innovation", "Information quality", "Demand-supply chain synchronisation" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: The study began from a practical need for knowledge about the synchronisation of a demand-supply chain in an uncertain environment between customers and subcontractors in the Finnish high-tech industry. The study focussed on products which were in a growth phase in their lifecycle, making their demand unpredictable. The uncertainty focussed particularly on the amount of material. The subcontractors needed earlier demand information from their customers, and the customers earlier supply information from their subcontractors, to make their decisions sooner. Because of the lateness of demand information, the subcontractors had challenges in responding cost-effectively to the demand changes of their customers. On the other hand, because of the lateness or lack of supply information, the customers were unable to anticipate supply disruptions.\n2. Suitability of VOP-OPP to create common understanding in uncertain circumstances: After defining the practical problem, the researchers searched theoretical knowledge on tools, which help analyse information, material and decision-making flows from the point of information timing. VOP-OPP and its predecessors (e.g. Customer Order Decoupling Point; Hoekstra and Romme, 1992) and derivatives (i.e. Demand Visibility Point (DVP)-Requirements Penetration Point; Holmstrom et al., 2010) were found. As the predecessors and derivatives did not seem to offer significantly different points of view, the VOP-OPP was chosen as a preliminary framework to help companies create common understanding of the problems in their demand-supply chains.\n3. Methodology: The recognised deficiencies of the VOP-OPP triggered the abductive case study. The study aimed at improving the existing VOP-OPP tool by developing its empirically identified deficiencies to create a refined version of the tool, and experiment it in practice.\n4. Theory matching - creating and experimenting new synchronisation tool proposals: The first empirical experiments showed that the VOP-OPP model did not work well in an environment of highly uncertain demand and supply. Since the experiments revealed the major weaknesses of the VOP-OPP, theoretical knowledge was searched for four recognised areas missing from the VOP-OPP. The proposals for the new synchronisation tools were created by combining some of the elements of the predecessors and derivatives of the VOP-OPP found in the literature. After the creation of the new tool proposals, the embedded case designs of the tools were created and experimented in practice to see their functionality and needs for refining.\n5. Theory suggestion - proposals for new synchronisation tools: Regarding the DVP-DPP tool, a new category was added to demand information: post-delivery date demand information (e.g. expediting of deliveries). The supply chain was divided into material and service flows because these involve different decisions. For example, the reservation of capacity for the sake of flexibility is critical in the service flows, which cannot be buffered by inventories. The principle of the updated DVP-DPP is shown in Figure 4, which also presents the common DVPs and DPPs found in the practical demand-supply chains.\n6. Discussion: The study's novel contribution is related to the modelling of demand-supply synchronisation in an uncertain environment as a comprehensive model (Figure 7). It includes information transparency, the synchronisation of shared decision making, flexibilities and the creation of common understanding as main elements.\n7. Conclusions and need for further research: The study presents a co-innovation toolbox and a comprehensive model for demand-supply chain synchronisation in a highly uncertain environment. Their goal is to help partners create common understanding of synchronisation problems and development needs for changing decision-making structures to improve the overall performance of the demand-supply chain. The toolbox includes three synchronisation tools: the DVP-DPP, SVP-SPP and integrated synchronisation. Both demand- and supply-driven synchronisation was taken into account. The timing, reliability and accuracy of information were recognised as essential information quality dimensions in highly uncertain circumstances.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to promote decision-making structures between the customer and the supplier in a highly uncertain environment. This phenomenon of demand-supply chain synchronisation includes sharing of high-quality and timely demand and supply information in order to improve the quality and speed of decision-making.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The study was carried out as an abductive case study, which started from empirical observations that did not match the prior theoretical framework. Through abductive reasoning and empirical experiments, the prior framework was extended to a new synchronisation model and tools that better accommodate the observed need.\nFindings: A new co-innovation toolbox was developed to create common understanding of demand-supply chain synchronisation between the customer and the supplier. The toolbox includes Demand Visibility Point-Demand Penetration Point, Supply Visibility Point-Supply Penetration Point and Integrative Synchronisation tools.\nResearch limitations/implications: The study extends the current models and tools of demand-supply chain synchronisation. With the new toolbox, the development needs of decision-making structures can be identified more comprehensively than with the current tools.\nPractical implications: The developed visual toolbox helps partners create a common understanding of problems and development possibilities in demand-supply chain synchronisation in a highly uncertain environment. Common understanding is a starting point for changing decision-making structures to improve the overall performance of a demand-supply chain.\nOriginality/value: The new toolbox is both more comprehensive and more detailed than the previous tools.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Wine consumers' willingness to adopt environmentally friendly packaging practices at tasting rooms: An ECHAID analysis	[ "Segmentation", "Recycle", "Generation", "ECHAID", "Light-weight glass", "Tasting rooms" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: Glass bottles and cork stoppers were first introduced in the seventeenth century, with a patent for today's bottle size and shape awarded to the Rickets of Bristol in 1821 (Malin, 2014). It is likely that containers and closures will continue to evolve as new materials and production methods, with advantages over current packaging, are identified. A container's purpose goes beyond just being a storage vessel, rather, according to Mintel (2017a), 66 percent of survey participants \"agreed\" that they \"pay attention to packaging format,\" which included the material used to construct the container and its shape. In addition, when asked to select packaging features that indicate \"high quality,\" 42 percent of survey participants selected \"glass container\" (Mintel, 2017a). It has even been suggested that consumers who purchase expensive wine will expect that the beverage is packaged in a \"heavier, if not environmentally friendlier, bottle\" (Dugan, 2011).\n2. Literature review: The ever-increasing pressures on the natural environment are driving some consumers to buy either green or greener product alternatives that have environmental benefits. More specifically, Hur et al. (2013) found that perceived social, emotional and functional values have a positive effect on customer satisfaction, which, in turn, facilitates the diffusion of \"green innovation\" with resulting implications for marketing strategy, etc. Hence business practices are increasingly embracing environmental sustainability in response to this shift in consumer behavior (Flores, 2018; Heyns et al., 2014; Vermeir and Verbeke, 2008). Because of the vested interests of multiple stakeholders therein, sustainability is aptly defined as \"a combination of economic (profits), ecological (planet) and social (people) aspects\" (Vermeir and Verbeke, 2008, p. 542). The drive toward environmental sustainability is manifesting itself in what has become commonly known as \"green marketing\" (Groening et al., 2018; Heyns et al., 2014). In the words of Groening et al. (2018, p. 1850) \"green marketing consists of actions directed to all consumers and incorporates a broad range of marketing activities (e.g. price, planning, process, production, promotion, and people) designed to demonstrate the firm's goal of minimizing the environmental impacts of its products and services.\"\n3. Results: 3.1 Predictive analysis\n4. Discussion: Collectively, 77 percent of participants were members of just three of the eight segments: Natural Cork Segment 3, Natural Cork Segment 6 and Household Income Segment 8, with 90 percent of participants in these segments willing to bring empty wine bottles to a winery tasting room to be recycled. There were commonalities among the three segments, for example, Natural Cork Segments 3 and 6 were both generated from a split based on the predictive variable: natural cork is used to seal bottles. The approach to encouraging Natural Cork Segment 3 to bring empty wine bottles to a winery tasting room; however, may differ from what may motivate the other two segments as Segment 3 participants were Baby Boomers and Segments 6 and 8 were Millennials and Generation Xers.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to investigate consumers' wine preferences, recycling attitudes and behaviors and socio-demographic data in an effort to build market segment profiles of those willing to transport wine bottles back to winery tasting rooms to be recycled, interest in standard-weight glass-alternative packaging and, various cork-alternative bottle closures.\nDesign/methodology/approach: A two-stage online survey was administered to 714 wine consumers residing in the Mid-Atlantic region of the USA during two periods in March 2016. Exhaustive chi-square automatic interaction detector (ECHAID) decision tree predictive analysis was used to identify the market segments.\nFindings: A majority of survey participants were willing to bring empty wine bottles to a winery for recycling (85 percent). Collectively, 77 percent of participants were members of just three of the eight segments developed using a decision tree predictive algorithm, with 90 percent of participants in these segments willing to bring empty wine bottles to a winery tasting room to be recycled. Two segments were comprised of Millennials and Generation X, and the third of Baby Boomers, two having a moderate to extreme interest in natural cork used to seal wine bottles, and similar.\nOriginality/value: An ECHAID classification tree method was used to develop eight consumer segments. Identifying characteristics that describe consumers likely to return empty wine bottles to a winery benefits recycling efforts and could possibly encourage additional sales.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Economic efficiency in supermarkets: evidences in Spain	[ "Economic measurement", "Data encapsulation", "Supermarkets", "Spain" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1 Introduction: As with the rest of Europe, the Spanish commercial distribution sector has gone through a great transformation in recent decades. In this context, growing competitiveness among retailers and the globalisation of markets have given rise to an economic environment where it is becoming increasingly difficult for companies to survive. Consequently, the analysis of productivity and efficiency has become an important activity in retailing (Parsons, 1997; Lusch et al., 1995). The utility of analysing the efficiency of the intermediaries of the distribution sector is twofold. First, it allows the units evaluated to measure the goodness of strategic decisions as it provides a valuation of company results and facilitates the analysis of their competitive position (Bucklin, 1978). Second, the analysis of the efficiency of intermediaries has important implications for the producers of goods and services, given the fact that it allows them to identify intermediaries that effectively use their resources to bring their products to the market place. Thus, efficiency can be an orientation criterion in the choice of intermediary at a vertical relationship level and in the distribution channel. Traditionally, the main choice criteria for distributors were economic, in terms of the costs and incomes of each alternative; or strategic, which include market coverage, flexibility of adaptation to environmental changes or control over the actions of the intermediary (Stern and El-Ansary, 1992). Along with these aspects, we should consider the efficiency of intermediaries (Bultez and Parsons, 1998), since efficiency determines, to a certain extent, the capacity of an intermediary to carry out its main function of supplying the market.For the first time, our study analyses the economic efficiency of the operations of the intermediaries of the Spanish retailing sector. In particular, this paper analyses the efficiency of supermarket chains. However, this level of inter-company analysis has an important limitation in the availability of information on the inputs and outputs of commercial activity. Therefore, the relevant variables have been obtained from secondary sources, which limits the type of efficiency analysed and leads us to concentrate on the estimation of economic efficiency. The methodology applied is based on the non-parametric data envelopment analysis (DEA) technique to evaluate efficiency. The empirical application is carried out on a sample of 100 supermarket chains operating in the Spanish market between 1994 and 2001, which have undoubtedly become one of the pillars of the distribution of mass consumption products in almost all Spanish cities (Casares and Martin, 2003).The study is ordered as follows. The second section describes the contextual setting of the analysis. The third one reviews previous literature on this field. The fourth describes the methodology and sample used. In the fifth section, we show the results obtained and finally in the last section, we present the conclusions of the study, the limitations of the work and future research possibilities.\n2 Contextual setting: The Spanish distribution sector has in recent years been characterised by the following features:* growth in self service establishments (Esteban and Matea, 2003) to the detriment of traditional stores;* increase in market concentration (Rebollo, 1999; Cruz-Roche et al., 2003);* intensification of inter type competition (Gimenez et al., 2002); and* progressive incorporation of new commercial techniques into the sector, especially new IT and communication technology (Esteban and Matea, 2003).First, the significant growth of self service establishments in detriment to traditional stores is one of the main characteristics of the distribution sector in the past two decades, both at a national and an international level (Esteban and Matea, 2003). Among them, supermarket chains deserve special attention as they have become one of the main players in the distribution of mass consumption products in almost every Spanish city (Casares and Martin, 2003) and, in recent years, have earned significant market shares from traditional stores and hypermarkets. Tables I and II show relative market shares of the different intermediaries operating in the food market with MAPA data (Table I) and for the food, house cleaning and personal hygiene categories (Table II) with Nielsen data. They both highlight the importance of the supermarket format.The importance of supermarkets has led traditional hypermarket operators to develop the supermarket format - for example, Auchan (Alcampo in Spain) with Sabeco Supermarkets; Carrefour with Champion Supermarkets-; similarly with distribution groups - for example, El Corte Ingles with Supercor and El Corte Ingles Supermarkets.Second, the Spanish distribution sector, along with those of other European countries, has in recent years been characterised by an increase in market concentration (Cruz-Roche et al., 2003; Rebollo, 1999) as a consequence of the size growth of companies. Essentially, companies wish to reduce the costs of production and supply through growth and can only reach these objectives when they have high market power. Moreover, this market power is only obtainable when a company has a relatively large size in the market. This fact, along with the new market structure it creates, can have important repercussions on firm efficiency, insofar as it allows for cost reductions. As can be seen in Table III, the participation of the four principal companies in all commodities value market has grown from 33.8 per cent in 1995 to 52.6 per cent, whereas the participation of the first eight companies has grown from 46.6 to 68.3 per cent in 2001. To be precise, the companies with the greatest market share in 2001 are the French company Carrefour (25.9 per cent), which operates with both hypermarkets and supermarkets, and the Spanish company, Mercadona (10.1 per cent), which operates exclusively through supermarkets (Table IV).Thirdly, we want to stress the significant increase in inter type competition among different commercial formats (Gimenez et al., 2002). Although the differences between the services provided by different intermediaries justify the coexistence of different commercial formats such as convenience stores or supermarket chains (Betancourt and Gautschi, 1988, 1990), in Spain the relevant markets of the different commercial formulas are overlapped insofar as consumers are concerned. This implies strong complementariness and substitutability relationships among commercial formats. It also leads both establishment types to provide the same type of products and to be considered by consumers as competitive alternatives.Finally, we should point out the progressive incorporation of new commercial techniques in the sector, especially in new information and communication technology. In the case of the distribution sector, the advances in this field have had particular significance (Esteban and Matea, 2003), allowing more and more complicated real time operations and more efficient stock management as well as providing huge amounts of information for market studies; which has even favoured the apparition of establishments other than traditional stores. In this sense, new information technology has been able to alter the production structure and location of companies, develop new products and services and change the way they are commercialised; and even alter the way companies are managed, the competitive structure of the environment and social behavioural habits.\n3 Literature review: The analysis of productivity and efficiency has become an important activity in retailing (Parsons, 1997; Lusch et al., 1995). However, although the terms productivity and efficiency have been used interchangeably, this is unfortunate because they are not exactly the same thing. The most common interpretation in marketing and economics is expressed by Bucklin (1978) and Ingene (1982), who state that:\"total ratio productivity is the ratio of all outputs to all inputs. Partial input productivity is the ratio of all outputs to a single input\". In this sense, productivity indexes are calculated by inserting numbers into predetermined formulas or ratios and do not take into account the performance of other retail outlets. However, relative efficiency is a new approach to retail productivity measurement, which focuses on one outlet relative to the best performers rather than the average performers as done in the traditional absolute measures.We can distinguish the following research perspectives. The first one estimates productivity in retailing, based mainly on the average productivity of the labour factor (Waldorf, 1966; Nooteboom, 1982; Ratchford and Stoops, 1988; Goldman, 1992) and total factor productivity (Ratchford and Brown, 1995). The fact that the inputs used are usually variables related to the labour factor along with the intensive use of this factor has often led to the association and indistinct use of the terms productivity in distribution and labour factor productivity (Ingene, 1982; Stern and El-Ansary, 1992). However, this circumstance is one of the main limitations to this line of research, for two reasons:1. the work factor is only one of the inputs used in distribution (Good, 1984); and2. there are a great number of workers in distribution that are not directly involved in sales tasks.A derivation from the above research perspective is based on the estimation of the labour factor productivity and the subsequent explanation of its determinant factors (Hall et al., 1961; George and Ward, 1973; Ingene, 1982; Nooteboom, 1983; Lusch and Moon, 1984, Van Dalen et al., 1990). For the estimation of productivity, the majority of studies apply ratio analysis, whereas to explain the differences in productivity they use regression analysis. The main limitation of this research perspective is related to considering the estimation of labour factor productivity as a measurement of productivity in retailing. In order to solve this problem and in an attempt to consider other inputs used in the development of commercial activities, Good (1984) estimates total factor productivity; using an output of added value and inputs of the labour factor and the capital factor. With regard to explaining productivity differences, most authors use different dimensions as determinant factors. These can be classified as (Lusch and Moon, 1984):* marketing variables, related to establishment management (location of establishment, price levels, size and depth of product range and promotion costs);* company characteristics (type of establishment, legal situation, salary levels, intensity in the use of capital and labour factors and size of establishment - selling area); and* environmental characteristics of the establishment, which include the level of competition or potential demand (income, population, household sizes, etc.).Finally, the most recent research perspective estimates the efficiency of intermediaries operating in the distribution channel (Thomas et al., 1998; Ratchford, 2003; Donthu and Yoo, 1998; Keh and Chu, 2003; Barros and Alves, 2003, 2004). To be more specific, these studies estimate cost efficiency (Ratchford, 2003), technical efficiency (Thomas et al., 1998; Donthu and Yoo, 1998; Keh and Chu, 2003; Barros and Alves, 2003) and scale efficiency (SE) (Keh and Chu, 2003; Barros and Alves, 2003). For this, they usually apply non-parametric techniques (Thomas et al., 1998; Donthu and Yoo, 1998; Keh and Chu, 2003), with few studies being based on parametric techniques (Ratchford, 2003).The majority of studies adopt a static perspective (Thomas et al., 1998; Ratchford, 2003; Donthu and Yoo, 1998; Keh and Chu, 2003; Barros and Alves, 2003), whereas only Barros and Alves (2004) adopt a dynamic perspective, examining the temporal evolution of efficiency through Malmquist indexes.With regard to the level of analysis, all the studies analyse efficiency from a micro economic perspective, which considers the individual establishments that make up a single retail distribution chain (Thomas et al., 1998; Ratchford, 2003; Keh and Chu, 2003; Barros and Alves, 2003, 2004) (Table V).\n4 Methodology, sample and variables: 4.1 Methodology\n5 Results: 5.1 Estimation of economic efficiency\n6 Conclusions and implications for management: The aim of this paper has been to analyse the efficiency of 100 supermarket chains operating in Spain between 1995 and 2001. The methodology employed is based on the estimation of economic efficiency through the non-parametric technique of DEA. The empirical application shows the existence of high levels of inefficiency. Given the fact that we have only analysed one of the players in the channel of distribution, the generalisation of the conclusions of the study to the whole sector should be made with caution,. Therefore, the scope of the results obtained in this study should only be considered at the level of the sample used.In general, the application of these techniques has important implications in retailing. First of all, the analysis of the efficiency of intermediaries favours the management of goods and services producers (Sinigalia et al., 1995), as it allows them to identify intermediaries or retailers that efficiently use their resources to bring their products to the market. In this sense, efficiency becomes an orientation criterion for the choice of vertical relationships in the distribution channel. Traditionally, the criteria for choice of distributors have been economic, in terms of the costs and incomes of each option; and strategic, considering market coverage, flexibility of adaptation to environmental changes or control over the actions of the intermediary. Along with these aspects, we should consider the efficiency with which intermediaries operate (Bultez and Parsons, 1998), given that it is going to determine, to some extent, the capacity of the intermediary to comply with its primary function of serving the market.The analysis of efficiency also facilitates the management of the intermediaries themselves (Sinigalia et al., 1995). At a horizontal level, the measurement of productivity is important in the strategic management of companies in the sector, as it allows the realisation of strategic \"benchmarking\" analysis. Basically, the process of benchmarking requires measurement of the difference between the current performance level of an organisation and the best practically possible level, in order to subsequently identify the underlying causes of each difference; the most important of which are management style, organisational structure and product quality among others (Camp, 1989).Finally, as a future line of research, we propose a decomposition of the temporal evolution of the efficiency indexes estimated into two components. First, the changes associated with efficiency gains (change in the distance of observed production from the current maximum feasible production) and, second, changes associated with technical progress or technical change (movements in the frontier).\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: - To estimate the economic efficiency of supermarket chains in the Spanish retailing industry.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - The methodology applied is based on the non-parametric technique of data envelopment analysis. The empirical application is carried out on a sample of 100 supermarket chains between 1995 and 2001.\nFindings: - The results reveal high levels of economic inefficiency in the Spanish retailing sector.\nResearch limitations/implications: - The generalisation of the conclusions of the study to the whole sector should be made with caution, given the fact that only one of the players in the channel of distribution has been analysed.\nPractical implications: - Efficiency analysis facilitates the management of the intermediaries themselves at a horizontal level, allowing the realisation of \"benchmarking\" analysis. Producers can also identify the efficient retailers, what could be useful for vertical relationships in the channel.\nOriginality/value: - For the first time, this study analyses the economic efficiency of the intermediaries in the Spanish retailing sector.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Flags and anthems: naturalisation effects on income and employment	[ "Immigrants", "Income", "Labour market outcomes", "Employment chances", "Naturalization", "Regression discontinuity design", "C21", "J15", "J61" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: During the 2007/2008-2011/2012 period of the recent European debt and unemployment crisis, migrants' unemployment rates rose by five percentage points, compared to the natives' three. Immigrants' unemployment rates are more pronounced in some countries, for certain groups of immigrants, and in some specific industries. Unemployment rates among immigrants are the highest in countries such as Spain, Greece, Portugal, Ireland, and Germany. Immigrant groups that took the unemployment brunt were the less-skilled immigrants, younger immigrants between age 15 and 24, and those from North Africa and Latin America, as well as those in the manufacturing and construction industries. At the height of the crisis period, unemployment rates for immigrants in Spain peaked at 34.7 per cent and in Greece at 33.7 per cent, while the rates for natives were relatively lower, at 23.0 and 23.4 per cent (OECD, 2013). Yet immigration in Europe as a whole has rebounded by 15 per cent in 2010/2011 after a decline of 40 per cent during the crisis period. While countries most hard hit by the crisis such as Greece and Spain understandably saw some decline in their inflows of immigrants, many other European countries (e.g. France, Germany, Austria, UK, Belgium, the Netherlands, Switzerland, Denmark, and Norway) actually experienced an increase in immigrants' inflows, especially during the 2009-2011 period towards the end of the crisis.\nData and methodology: Data\nResults and findings: Descriptive statistics\nConclusion: Combining two recent sources of European data sets, this paper estimates the causal effects of naturalisation, i.e. the effects of interest on income and employment probability. Using the RDD quasi-experimental framework, identification for the causal treatment effect of naturalisation is achieved by exploiting exogenous variations generated from the eligibility rule for naturalisation. Results are obtained from three model estimations: first-stage, reduced-form, and second stage (IV) estimations.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: Even though Europe has recently undergone a difficult time and is recovering from the aftermath of prevalent unemployment, immigrants are still flocking towards Europe and taking up citizenships of their host countries through naturalisation. The purpose of this paper is to look at the how naturalised immigrants fare in terms of income and employment chances, compared to immigrants.\nDesign/methodology/approach: Using a fuzzy regression discontinuity design and the 2008 European Values Study integrated data set with a final sample of 4,460 observations, this paper isolates the causal effect of naturalisation on the income and employment chances of immigrants by exploiting exogenous variations generated by the eligibility rules for naturalisation in 41 European countries.\nFindings: Main findings show that the probability of being naturalised increases for eligible immigrants, income and employment chances increase for eligible immigrants, and income and employment chances increase for naturalised immigrants.\nResearch limitations/implications: This study has a data limitation, where in using the discontinuity design, there is an unbalanced number of observations to the left and right of the design's threshold value.\nOriginality/value: There are limited studies using causal models or potential outcome frameworks to examine the effect of immigrant naturalisation on labour market outcomes in Europe. This study fills this gap.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
New concepts of strategic spatial planning dilemmas in the Dutch Randstad region	[ "Economic development", "Regional development", "Strategic planning", "Partnership", "The Netherlands" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nThe dilemma of strategic spatial planning - more dirigisme or more governance?: More regional development planning?\nExperiences of strategic spatial planning in Randstad South: As discussed, in recent years, a trend has emerged to strengthen the development-oriented role of regional agencies such as the Dutch province. In this new role, the province in particular would no longer only prepare plans and (passively) test lower level plans for conformity, but also assume a committed role in actively stimulating some developments at the regional scale (IPO, 2002). The province would have to abandon a role as plan-maker and reviewer of municipal plans and be an \"enterprising party\" and \"negotiator\". The province of South-Holland also has taken steps into this direction. In the following, we will describe some of the considerations that key actors in the regional arena have about a development-oriented planning style, pointing to the duality between strategy and implementation. These considerations include references to notions of using instruments to improve regional control (our first approach), and to notions of creating coordinative and communicative intelligence (our second approach).Strategy or implementation?\nConclusion: Throughout our discussion, we employed as our yardstick two fundamental approaches to strategic spatial planning. First, the Dutch \"development planning\" approach: a strategic planning approach emphasizing the extension of capacities for control at the regional level of scale (legal and financial instruments). And, second, an approach, which gradually came out more potently, highlighting the importance of creating strategic network capacity and enlarging coordinative and communicative intelligence. Obviously, the two approaches are not necessarily contradictory; they might even be combined under certain conditions, but it is crucial to be aware that the two approaches stress very different qualities and requirements of societal guidance.The experiences from the North Wing and South Wing areas made clear that, in particular, key actors involved in setting up more strategic regional planning efforts display some considerable caution with the first approach. The main predicament with providing a regional agency, such as the province of South-Holland, with more instruments aimed at planning control would be that this could easily lead to frictions between relevant actors. These frictions imply, primarily, some discord between the regional body and cities, or municipalities, about the allocation of authority over issues such as housing and the development of industrial estates.Overall, the experiences from the North and South Wing areas of the Dutch Randstad articulate a potent wish to give more emphasis to strategic spatial planning in what was referred to previously as \"second approach\", that is a new style of policy making altogether. It is a style of strategic policy making that revolves around the ability to build coalitions, and orchestrate varying interests. These coalitions and interests include the private sector (i.e. transforming economic claims into some demands for a spatial strategy), as well as contacts within international networks (convert international standards for quality and relative location to internationally competitive regions into a spatial strategy).If we look back at our cases, we find a remarkable dominance of established discussions about regional competencies by nested territorial jurisdictions. The Dutch situation is short of fundamental reflections about the potential of wider interconnectedness. Yet it seems that a supplementary role of \"development planning\" ought to be beyond doubt. In addition, there exist some noteworthy ideas about regional land development and development agencies. Strengthening direct development instruments is acceptable whenever municipalities lack the capacities to employ agreed strategies at a supra- municipal level, as, for instance, in the case of a major new centre of urban growth in a small rural village.An agency such as the Dutch province, however, should not play a directing role as a heavily-laden \"navigating officer\", hereby heightening the possibilities of administrative conflict in the crowded Randstad metropolitan area. Such a role would also compromise options for a provincial role in conflict resolution and intelligent coordination. Conventional regional government agencies - especially those within unitary (that is combined regional and local) jurisdictions that take an intermediary (\"lightweight\") position in the hierarchy of regions - already have, or are in the process of doing so, acquired an intermediating role. They are therefore perfectly positioned to shape network building and assume a strategic role based on enhanced communicative and coordinative intelligence. As yet, however, these potencies are not employed to the full.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: - Drawing on changes in the nature of European metropolitan development planning in general, and the example of the Randstad, in particular, the purpose of this paper is to argue for an improved interconnectedness between regions and their public and private sector agencies. These should be linked to \"flows of social and economic interaction\", and, as such, complement conventional notions of \"bounded spaces\" and \"nested territorial jurisdictions\". This is in response to the now crucial question for metropolitan planning of how to develop and renew effective institutional capacity to deal with the increasing spatial complexities at regional or metropolitan level.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - The paper is a case study-based theoretical review of types of metropolitan planning, drawing on original policy documents and interviews with relevant policymakers.\nFindings: - It is shown that the answer to addressing the challenges of development planning at the city-regional level is not primarily to enlarge the steering powers of regional planning per se, but to broaden its strategic network capacity through enlarging the coordinative and communicative intelligence of the intermediate regional planning bodies. This allows better responsiveness to the evident transformation processes within spatial development planning as such, with a growing emphasis on a strategic element within it. This, again, is more in line with the changeability of urban space.\nOriginality/value: - The paper shows that the notion of spatial development planning has made a strong revival in the last ten years. It has been spatial planning that has attracted the key focus of debate, more so than adjacent policy-making sectors (economic policy in particular).\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Readiness factors for the Lean Six Sigma journey in the higher education sector	[ "Higher education", "Six Sigma", "Lean", "Lean Six Sigma", "Readiness factors" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nCorrigendum: It has come to our attention that the viewpoint article \"Readiness factors for the Lean Six Sigma journey in the higher education sector\" by Jiju Antony published in the International Journal of Productivity and Performance Management Vol. 63 No. 2, 2014, did not fully attribute one of the sources drawn upon. This was the dissertation supervised by Jiju Antony: \"Lean Readiness Model for Higher Education\" by Netasha Krishan. This error has been corrected in the online version. The author apologises sincerely for this error.\nIntroduction: The last two decades have witnessed an increased pressure from customers and competitors for greater value from their purchase whether based on superior quality, faster delivery or lower cost (or combination of both) in both manufacturing and service sectors (George, 2002). A number of organisations have adopted Lean, Six Sigma or Lean Six Sigma (LSS) as the strategy for finding the balance among quality, cost and delivery. Lean thinking has its origin in the philosophy of achieving improvements in the most economical manner with a greater focus on reducing waste in business processes (Womack and Jones, 1996). Lean has proved to be very powerful in reducing waste or non-valued added steps between processes whereas Six Sigma has been very effective to reduce variation within a business process. There has been a constant debate about which strategy (Lean or Six Sigma) should be used first for efficiency and effectiveness improvements. There is no straightforward answer to this question in our point of view. The answer depends upon the nature of the problem and what the organisations really want to get out of these strategies of business process improvement.\nRFs for the implementation of LSS in the HEI: A number of papers in the Lean, Six Sigma and LSS literature focus on the importance of critical success factors popularised in the late 1970s by Rockart (1979). However, the author argues that these are essential ingredients required for the implementation of a CI initiative in any industrial setting and these are critical once the management team decide to invest on a specific initiative as part of their CI journey. However, it is equally or even more important to consider if the organisation is ready to take this new initiative on board and this can be determined by looking into the RFs. RFs are those essential ingredients which will increase the probability of success of any CI initiative before an organisation invests its resources (financial, manpower, etc.) heavily on the initiative. A lack of readiness can lead to frustration among employees, resistance (individual or organisational or even political) at various levels across the business and confusion due to the lack of direction for the CI journey. If the organisation is ready for embracing LSS initiative, then it should show some or many of the following attributes:\nConclusion and agenda for future work: LSS can be a very powerful methodology for tackling process inefficiency problems in the HE industry. However, this powerful methodology has not yet been widely adopted by many universities and colleges due to the pure misconception that it is only meant for manufacturing companies. HEIs can make use of LSS for tackling efficiency and effectiveness of business processes across the sector. However, it is recommended to kick off the initiative to tackle some of the administrative processes before one should invest heavily in strategic-oriented projects. Lean can be a good starting point for establishing business processes and identifying and reducing or even eliminating different forms of waste that exist in university processes. Six Sigma can be extremely useful if variation within the process causes defects or errors or even failures which lead to customer dissatisfaction. This paper makes an attempt to reveal the RFs required for any HE sector who wishes to embark on LSS or any other CI initiative.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to reveal the readiness factors (RFs) which are required for the successful introduction and development of a Lean Six Sigma (LSS) initiative within the context of higher education (HE) sector. These RFs are a pre-requisite for the successful implementation, deployment and sustainability of LSS in higher education institutions (HEIs).\nDesign/methodology/approach: The author uses secondary data from literature to justify the need for RFs before any HEI invests on continuous improvement (CI) methodologies such as LSS. The author would argue that these RFs must be assessed properly to understand the strengths and weaknesses of the HEI.\nFindings: The paper presents the RFs which are essential for the implementation and sustainability of LSS. It is important to note that RFs are prior to embarking on a CI initiative whereas success factors are determined once the senior management team decides to invest on a specific CI initiative (Lean, LSS, etc.)\nResearch limitations/implications: This is a very theoretical paper based on the existing literature and authors' experiences in the HE sector. The next stage of the research is to carry out empirical studies in a number of HEIs to determine the RFs for LSS as a business process improvement methodology.\nOriginality/value: This paper makes an attempt to derive the RFs for the successful development of LSS in the HE sector from the current literature. The RFs would assist any HE sector who would like to launch a LSS journey for improving the efficiency and effectiveness of business processes across the business.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Finding middle ground management strategy for software development	[ "Software prototyping", "Management strategy", "Project planning", "Cost reduction" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1 Introduction: The choice of a systems development methodology is one of the enduring topics in information systems research. Boehm and Turner (2004) assert that this choice is an important decision since the development approach has been shown to affect project outcome, moreover, cost overruns and untimely delivery of final products are typical in many software development cases. So a better understanding of the underlying problems faced by project managers and suggestions regarding possible improvement are useful. Initially and for a long time, researchers and practitioners focused on the plan-driven, or waterfall model. With improvements in software development tools, rapid development methods - including spiral and prototyping - became the focus of study. Most recently, agile software development methods are receiving a great deal of attention (Rajlich, 2006). During this time, research has focused on the strengths and limitations of each method and the characteristics of projects where each approach is likely to deliver superior results. Methodologies are typically viewed as mutually exclusive, however there is discussion of hybrid development methods in the academic and practitioner literature (Vinekar and Slinkman, 2006).\n2 Objectives: The objective of this paper is to identify an optimal approach for a given project based on total cost minimization. Our approach will be adaptable to events and outcomes during the life of the system development project. The model can be used as a robust tool in defining project phases and their duration in structuring projects. Ideally, a manager should be able to describe prospectively the key project characteristics, and then generate an optimal project plan that shows the steps in the development process. In addition, the manager should also have the ability to identify events that call for re-planning the project. Armed with this plan, the manager is in a position to minimize expected costs and maximize the likelihood of project success. Given the importance of selecting an appropriate development methodology, and the difficulties in delivering acceptable business software, we pose the following research questions:RQ1. How should a development manager prospectively plan a system development project? What is the correct number of development iterations, and the length of each iteration? What is the expected cost of the development project?RQ2. How should a manager respond to changes during a project? Should he or she stay the course with the iteration plan established at the beginning of the project or change the iteration schedule? If so, in what way?To answer these questions, we first provide in Section 3 a short overview of widely used systems development methods and offer findings that guide our research model.\n3 Overview of system development methodologies: Plan-driven development\n4 Software development dynamic planning model: The four key concepts of our model include the following: first, business software is developed in cycles or iterations. Iteration comes to a close when business users are able to observe and offer feedback on functioning software. Second, user feedback is the ultimate determinant of acceptable software. While documentation can be important, the software itself delivers the needed business functionality. Third, there is a great deal of uncertainty surrounding development iterations. One cannot predict the iteration outcome at the beginning of that development cycle. Finally, negative feedback from business users requires that developers backtrack and add rework tasks to the project. Such rework effort could impact the project cost, and delivery of subsequent development cycles. This is especially severe if rework forces the project completion to be delayed. With these concepts in mind, we develop a new approach based on dynamic planning model for determining the number and length of development iterations to minimize the project's expected cost.Model assumptions, definitions, and limitations\n5 Numerical example and sensitivity analysis: In this section, we present numerical cases with different cost profiles. We start with a basic case and discuss the solution obtained. Then we perform sensitivity analysis by changing several parameters and observing the effects these changes have on the optimal solution.Basic case. A project is planned to last 52 weeks. The weekly operating cost is $10,000. The set up cost function is increasing with the iteration length. Specifically, S(x+1)=S+(1+b1)S(x)-b1S(x-1), where S=$5,000 is a fixed cost per iteration, and the constant b1=0.9 determines the level of curvature, i.e. if b1>1 the function is convex (an increasing rate of increase), and if 0<b1<1 the function is concave (a decreasing rate of increase). Also, S(1)=$1,000 and S(2)=$1,100. The probability functions Px(r) are binomial. More specifically, we assume there is probability p=0.3 a work unit (of one week) will need to be reworked. Also we assume different week units are independent (from probabilistic point of view). Then the probability R=r weeks need to be reworked out of x weeks long iteration is: Equation 4 The set of penalties Bnx demonstrate a decreasing function with n but increasing with x.Solution. The 52 weeks project will be covered by the following iteration schedule (in weeks): 35, 10, 4, 2, 1 (the first iteration will last 35 weeks, followed by a ten week long iteration, etc.). This is the actual set of iteration for the scenario where no iteration needs to be reworked as the project progresses (note: this is not the optimal solution for the case where uncertainty does not exist; rather it is the solution for the case where - including all the possible uncertain scenarios - the scenario realized is \"no rework\"). However, other possible scenarios might take place, for each one an optimal solution is already available being part of the dynamic solution. For example, for the case where one week of rework needs to be done at the end of iteration 1 with no further interruptions, the second iteration will start at week 37 (rather than at week 36), and will last for nine weeks, followed by three iterations of 4, 2, 1 week long, respectively, (as in the original solution). For the case of two weeks of rework needed in iteration 1, the second iteration will start at week 38 and lasts for nine weeks, followed by three iterations of 3, 2, 1 week long, respectively.In what follows, we present sensitivity results. The results discussed pertain to the scenario where no rework is needed.5.1 Changing the unit operating cost c\n6 Conclusions: In this paper, we developed and analyzed a dynamic planning model for software development projects. Here, are recommendations to improve planning and managing such projects.If the manager seeks to deliver software that meets business users' needs, while at the same time attempting to minimize project costs, he or she may consider adopting the dynamic approach identified by our planning model. Such an approach asks the manager to describe the project operating costs, duration, expected setup costs for a development iteration, and business penalties for a failed iteration. Given these inputs, the model returns an optimal project approach. For most projects, the model recommends an approach with relatively long iterations early in the project, with a series of short iterations in the later stages of the project. The early iterations provide time for the team to establish the system architecture and prepare a rigorous overall system design. During this time, the team should focus on those system features that are less likely to change. The manager should keep in contact with business users to track possible changes in requirements. Also, the manager should not divide the longer iteration into a series of short \"sub-iterations\" in which the team commits to delivering software features. Each of these relatively long iterations ends with business user reviews of production-ready software increments.Another important observation regarding the early iterations is about their stronger sensitivity to changes in input parameters relative to iterations scheduled later on. Since early iterations are the ones performed first, it is important to provide adequate estimates of cost profiles in order to avoid errors in scheduling the iterations at the beginning stages of the project. During the shorter iterations late in the project, the team focuses on new/changed business requirements. Such iterations deliver requirements that are reprioritized and thus the project team commits to delivering software increments in relatively short timeframes. The final iterations focus on user acceptance testing and final system changes. Our model provides a plan that minimizes the total project costs and obtains the optimal number of iterations and their durations. A battery of scenarios of project samples tested by the model showed that it is not necessary to follow any of the old established methods of software developments to obtain an optimal solution that minimizes the total project costs; and thus a project plan should reflect the unique characteristics and attributes of the project and not just to conform to any previous established methods.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: - The purpose of this paper is to advance a dynamic programming model that encompasses critical attributes of plan-driven development, rapid development, agile development, and the hybrid open source development. The paper aims to put forward a middle ground management strategy for software development to gain more effectiveness and efficiency in delivering projects on time and within budget.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - The paper combines narrative with argument and analysis with a dynamic programming model. The model was applied to numerical cases with different project operating costs, duration, expected setup costs for a development iteration, and business penalties for a failed iteration. Sensitivity analysis is performed by changing several parameters and observing the effects these changes have on the optimal solution.\nFindings: - The model delivers a middle ground management strategy for software development and obtains an optimal solution that is better than if a project used one specific development methodology.\nOriginality/value: - The paper demonstrates how the dynamic programming model when used with middle ground management strategy would produce the ultimate goal of delivering projects on time and within budget.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Why top people can shortlist their employer: It is all to do with emphasizing employability over employment	[ "Leadership development", "Recruitment", "Career development" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n__NO_TITLE__: The biggest mistake that you can make is to believe that you are working for somebody else. Job security is gone. The driving force of a career must come from the individual. Remember: jobs are owned by the company, you own your career.\nHow to shortlist an employer: Job-seekers must choose the right employer based on their passions, the career opportunities and monetary benefits on offer. Job-seekers must be clear about their career goals and objectives over the next 5, 10, 15 and 20 years. They should emphasize their passions rather than monetary reward, as people who follow their passions will often find that money will naturally follow. Additionally, choosing and shortlisting the right employer helps the job-seeker to balance personal, professional and social life to provide meaning to life.\nSeven tools to fast-track a career: Here are seven timeless tools to fast-track a career:\nBuild your career capital: Henry Ford once remarked: \"If money is your hope for independence, you will never have it. The only real security that a man will have in this world is a reserve of knowledge, experience, and ability.\" Career capital is the ability to build a career consistently to be marketable in the current global context. The days of permanent employment are gone. These are the days of permanent employability to enhance professional success. Hence, it is essential for employees to build their career capital cumulatively by learning from various sources such as training and development, practical exposure and pursuing courses.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: Emphasizes the soft and hard skills needed to put a person in a position to shortlist his or her employer.\nDesign/methodology/approach: Shares seven tools to fast-track a career. Outlines tips to build career capital.\nFindings: Advances the view that there is no permanent employment but only permanent employability.\nPractical implications: Argues that the findings can be applied in any industry or sector of the economy.\nSocial implications: Examines why the modern business world rewards the greater flexibility associated with employability over employment.\nOriginality/value: Turns the spotlight on acquiring the right mindset, tool set and skill set to be able to shortlist an employer.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Forewarned is forearmed: Assessment of IoT information security risks using analytic hierarchy process	[ "Analytical hierarchy process", "Information security", "Internet of Things (IoT)", "Pareto principle", "IoT risks" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: Kevin Ashton, in 1999, coined the word, Internet of Things (IoT), a system of interconnected devices (Ashton, 2009; Gubbi et al., 2013; Borgia, 2014; Al-Fuqaha et al., 2015). It is one of the most significant technological revolutions that have modernized the contemporary Internet set-up to the concept of a unconventional computing network system in which several dissimilar physical things get seamlessly integrated by unique identification and ubiquitous connectivity (Atzori et al., 2010; Da et al., 2014; Li et al., 2015; Misra et al., 2017; Ray, 2016). The internet is an ever-changing and ever-evolving entity due to the continuous spree of applications that result in the spawning of several new business models. The rapid growth of information exchange from the traditional on-premise to the current on-device environment has led to a state of \"always connected.\" Enhanced power of devices has embedded several elements of smartness that were earlier native only to human beings (Guo et al., 2013; Mishra et al., 2016). The changing technology landscapes, a broader reach of internet due to faster percolation of broadband connectivity, has resulted in making the web a very affordable and the most effective means of data transfer. Critical characteristics of IoT to be emphasized are real-time data from number of connected physical devices that can be converted into wisdom (analytics) and dramatically improves decision making (Chui et al., 2010; Uckelmann et al., 2011; Bonomi et al., 2014; Rathore et al., 2016; Chianese et al., 2017). Also, IOT would result in minimal intervention by human beings at the time of operations (Sarkar et al., 2014). Such a big revolution and opportunity comes with more significant risks and challenges, and from the IoT point of view, information security is the challenge and risk (Yang et al., 2012; O'Neill, 2014, 2016; Rayes and Salam, 2017). Security considerations for IoT and threat analysis are yet at early stages, and the impact could be threatening. Therefore it becomes mandatory to sufficiently work on the security aspects of IOT to be thoroughly prepared for our future and prevent any loss to the organizations as well as individuals from monetary, reputational and data loss point of view (Zhang et al., 2014; Lee and Lee, 2015).\n2. Literature review: In this section, we discuss the existing literature relating IoT risks. Although over the last ten years, IoT is in existence in several forms and vocabulary; today it is the core of research interest from both academia and the industry. The rapid development of the internet and wireless technologies has enhanced the interoperable and orchestrating ability of electronics and information technology, thereby creating an eco-system of seamless connection, communication and collaboration between the infinite number of heterogeneous devices and protocols (Yan et al., 2014; Atamli and Martin, 2014; Andersen et al., 2017). The need to understand and assess the risks, which remains under-researched (Boos et al., 2013; Kounelis et al., 2014; Kirkham et al., 2014; Samaila et al., 2017; Yan et al., 2017). The term heterogeneity in the context of this research work conceptualizes the risks associated with the adaptability and understandability of the infinite devices. Understanding the complexity of the vulnerabilities of the IoT operating environment is very critical as well as assessing the degree of severity. Today, organizations faced challenges hover around the need to prioritize risks that emerge from the IoT device network, which are endogenous and exogenous to the organization. The identification of threats from the different layers of the network architecture is another fundamental perspective about IoT risk assessment. Studies have reiterated the need for assessing the layer-wide security and redundancy for better risk management of IoT devices. Given the high diversity in devices, networks, layers between and within organizations, the risk assessment needs have to be customized to address the specific risks in each segment (Misra et al., 2017; Verma et al., 2017; Tomovic et al., 2017). IoT has gained quite a lot of attention as the future technology and research with particular emphasis to security. The IoT lends focus to the future of IoT technology. A survey on the architecture, challenges and services detailed the IoT evolution and the future roadmap (Singh et al., 2014).\n3. Method: This research work is exploratory and administered sources of data, both primary and secondary. The survey instrument comprised of IoT layers and Risk factors (please refer to Table II) pair-wise arranged using the Saaty-scale.\n4. Results: In the subsequent paragraphs, we present a three-segment analysis: prioritizing and ranking the IoT risk factors in each of the six layers, prioritizing and ranking of all the six risk layers (constructs) and a comprehensive ranking of all risk factors in all the six IoT layers and a Pareto principle chart illustrating the application of the 80/20 rule to the ranking of risk factors.\n5. Discussion: 5.1 Theoretical and practical implications\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: Internet of Things (IoT) interconnects many heterogeneous devices to each other, collecting and processing large volumes of data for decision making without human intervention. However, the information security concern it brings has attracted quite a lot of attention, and, at this stage, the smart step would be to analyze the security issues of IoT platform and get to the state of readiness before embarking upon this attractive technology. The purpose of this paper is to address these issues.\nDesign/methodology/approach: IoT risk assessment through the application of the analytical hierarchy process (AHP), a favorite multi-criteria decision making technique, is proposed. The IoT risks are prioritized and ranked at different layers, before which a well-defined IoT risk taxonomy is defined comprising of 25 risks across six layers of the IoT model for developing control and mitigation plans for information security of IoT.\nFindings: People and processes layer, network layer and applications layer are the top three critical layers with risks like the lack of awareness, malware injection, malicious code injection, denial of service and inefficient policies for IoT practice get the highest priority and rank. Pareto analysis of the overall risk factors revealed that the top ten factors contribute to 80 percent of the risks perceived by information security experts.\nResearch limitations/implications: The study focuses only on certain predefined constructs or layers of the IoT model traced from legacy studies. It is essential to re-look these constructs on a timely basis to prolong the results' validity. The study's empirical scope is confined only to the risk perception of select IoT experts and does not encompass a broader segment of the IoT ecosystem. Therefore, the risks assessment may not be sweeping to a bigger audience.\nPractical implications: The study implications are two-fold: one it consolidates the earlier siloed works to intensify the need for risk assessment in the IoT domain, and second the study brings yet another contextual avenue of extending the application AHP and Pareto principle combination. The paper also draws specific critical organizational interventions about IoT risks. A comprehensive approach to prioritizing and ranking IoT risks are present in this research paper.\nOriginality/value: The contribution of this study to the benchmarking of IoT risk assessment is two-fold. One, a comprehensive risk assessment taxonomy is proposed, and two, the risks are prioritized and ranked to give a convincing reference for the organizations while making information security plans for IoT technology.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Influence of occupational heat stress on labour productivity - a case study from Chennai, India	[ "Construction industry", "Productivity measurement", "Productivity", "Health and safety", "Labour efficiency", "Occupational health/safety" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: Chennai is located in the South Eastern coast of India in the state of Tamil Nadu with geographical coordinates of 13deg04'N latitude and 80deg17'E longitude. It has a spread of various manufacturing sectors namely, automobiles, automobile parts, electronics, food and glass manufacturing, which has created a large market for employment opportunities for locals and people in other states of India. Also, Chennai is the sixth most populous city in India with a total population of 46 million that has increased 7 per cent since 2001 (Government of India, 2011) and it is the fourth largest urban agglomeration in the country. Due to this booming population, the need for quality built environment and public infrastructure has also increased, with subsequent increase in number of workers engaged in construction work, which accounts for about 1.8 million workers (The Times of India), while in Tamil Nadu about 19 per cent of workers are involved in this occupation (Construction Workers Welfare Board) (Krishnamurthy and Nair, 2003). In India, according to the National Survey Sample (2007-2008) the estimated amount of migrant population is about 326 million (Srivastava, 2011), and construction industry attracts a large percentage of this migrant population across district/state borders for employment.\n2. Materials and methods: This study was carried out in the month of May (during the summer of 2014) which is considered to be peak summer in Chennai, India. Quantitative data of heat exposures and metabolic heart rate of workers were collected between 10:00 a.m. and 3:30 p.m. in their work shift, when the work was in progress. Short-term area heat stress measurements were carried out using an area heat stress monitor, Model QuesTempdeg34, manufactured by Quest Technologies, USA. The device has an accuracy level of +-0.5degC between 0 and 120degC of dry bulb temperature and relative humidity (RH) of +-5 per cent between measurement range of 20 and 95 per cent RH. The wet bulb globe temperature (WBGT) index combines the effect of the three main thermal components affecting heat stress: air temperature, humidity and radiation, as measured by the dry bulb, wet bulb and globe temperatures. ISO method 7243 (Parsons, 2006) was adopted to evaluate the heat stress exposure of different construction activities. The instruments were calibrated at the beginning and end of the measurement day. While measuring the area heat measurements using the WBGT metre, the instrument was placed at a height of 3.5 feet (1.1 m) for standing individuals using a tripod mount to prevent anything that might block radiant heat or flow.\n3. Results and discussion: Results of short-term area measurements indicated that (Table I) maximum WBGT of 31.8degC was observed in the top floor where the workers were exposed to direct sunlight and the globe temperature measured was 49.2degC. Minimum WBGT (27.2degC) was measured in the building corridor where very good cross-ventilation was observed and effect of solar radiation was minimal. During the study period, there was a lot of cloud cover at varied times throughout the day. Among the 14 locations measured for WBGT (except for two ambient readings), five locations in the construction site exceeded the ACGIH threshold limit values (TLV). In all these locations, workers were engaged in jobs that exposed them to direct sunlight and most of them were engaged in moderate to heavy work for most part of their shift. Given its tropical setting, it is not uncommon in Chennai that ambient temperature readings exceed 42degC in summer (Ayyappan et al., 2009). ACGIH has given guidelines for estimating workload by observations (ACGIH, 2010) which were followed in this study for validating against the estimates obtained from heart rate measurements.\n4. Conclusion: Occupational heat exposure is high in Chennai during summer for workers' engaged in construction works with moderate to heavy workloads. Quantitative measurements of heat stress showed that the construction workers were exposed to heat stress that was a few degrees higher than the safe working levels as prescribed by ACGIH which could have potential adverse health and productivity outcomes. Heat strain experienced by the workers as a consequence of exposure to heat stress was measured by continuous heart rate monitoring and productivity loss was estimated using the PMV model. Different work categories showed different amounts of productivity depending on their heat exposures and work intensity. The estimations showed substantial productivity losses of the workers ranging between 18 and 35 per cent that can have negative implications on the success of the construction project. Problems with meeting production targets were usually compensated by overtime at the cost of the workers' physiological strain and personal time. Though the health decrements of construction workers caused by exposures to heat stress and wages lost due to productivity losses cannot be estimated accurately due to varied factors, if unattended, this situation could further worsen when a few extra degrees are added in due to climate change. To protect the health and productivities of millions of construction workers in India, preventive measures that include appropriate work-rest ratios, skewed working hours, fluid-replacement and engineering controls must be considered. Stringent protective policies to protect workers' health in construction sector must be promulgated to abate further health risks and economic losses.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: Raise in temperatures due to climate change is likely to increase the heat stress in occupations that are physically exerting and performed outdoors which might potentially have adverse health and productivity consequences. The purpose of this paper is to estimate the productivities in construction work under the influence of heat stress using the predicted mean vote (PMV) index.\nDesign/methodology/approach: Field studies were conducted during May 2014 which is summer time in Chennai. Continuous heart rate of workers and wet bulb globe temperature measurements are conducted for workers engaged in different jobs in construction. Metabolic rates and the workload of the workers from heart rate were calculated using the ISO method 8996 and the PMV values are calculated using the tool developed by Malchaire based on the method ISO 7730. Direct observations and personal interviews were conducted to substantiate the productivity estimations.\nFindings: The results showed that workers working outdoors with moderate and heavy workload exceeded the threshold limit value of 28degC and had adverse productivity impacts (18-35 per cent productivity loss), whereas the workers engaged in light indoor work was not affected by heat stress and consequent productivity losses. The productivity estimations using the PMV index is found to be statistically significant for three types of construction works (Pearson correlation coefficient value of -0.78) and also correlated well with the observations and self-reported productivities of the workers.\nOriginality/value: The method used in this paper provides a scientific and reliable estimation of the productivities which may benefit the industry to set realistic project completion goals in hot weather and also implement interventions and policies to protect workers' health. Developing adaptive strategies and implementing control measures are the need of the hour to protect worker's health and economic losses in the face of climate change.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Connecting the silos: Implementations and perceptions of linked data across European libraries	[ "Linked open data", "Semantic Web", "Europe", "W3C", "Linked data", "Cultural heritage", "Metadata standards", "Library data", "Scottish libraries", "National libraries" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: The digital realm evolves consistently, presenting information professionals with the need to update their professional skills constantly. Web 3.0 is no exception. In 2001, Sir Tim Berners-Lee introduced an extension to the World Wide Web called the Semantic Web (SW) which would enable relationships not only between documents, but also amongst the elements (data) within documents. Also known as Web 3.0 or the Web of Data (Talleras, 2013; van Hoolan and Verborgh, 2014), linked data (LD) is the accepted means to enable the SW (Bizer et al., 2009). The goal is to provide a seamless \"web of trust\" where anyone can make contributions (Library of Congress, 2012a). This requires communicating the content in a format \"understandable\" by computers, so they can automatically build relationships between resources to enrich user experience and improve discoverability (Rasmussen Pennington, 2016).\nSW and LD: The SW was introduced to bring meaning and logic to the existing WWW (Berners-Lee et al., 2001; Baker et al., 2011). The first and most important step towards its realisation is to publish data online in a machine-readable format (Berners-Lee, 2000). As previously mentioned, if SW is the goal, LD is the tool to achieve it (Bizer et al., 2009). Several ways of describing the LD concept have been suggested. Berners-Lee, defined LD as \"the Semantic Web done right\" (Berners-Lee, 2008). According to Bizer et al. (2009), \"LD\" indicates a set of best practises for publishing and connecting structured data on the web (Bizer et al., 2009). LD should be interpreted as a continuously evolving set of best practices for the publication of structured data on the web rather than a specific technology (Van Hoolan and Verborgh, 2014). Heath (2009) defines LD as \"a means to dismantle data silos\". Shiri and Davoodi (2016, p. 65) define LD as a \"set of standards, data publishing models and methods that bring consistency, interoperability and shareability to unorganized and unidentifiable data on the web\".\nLD applications: Started in 2007 and supported by the W3C SW Education and Outreach Group, the Linking Open Data Project's goal was to identify existing data sets available under open licences, convert them into RDF and publish them online, with links to other data sources (Bizer et al., 2009). Contributors to DataHub, a free data management platform, collect and curate the metadata published in the LOD cloud, where organisations are encouraged to publish their data collections (Abele et al., 2017; DataHub, n.d.). A central hub of LOD is DBpedia, generated from extracted structured Wikipedia data (DBpedia, 2017). It is a publicly accessible RDF data set covering several domains (TED, 2009). In 2014, DBpedia consisted of three billion RDF triples; more recently, it reached 23 billion triples (Freudenberg, 2017).\nLibrary data: The key to accessing library collections is metadata: it allows the description, identification, organisation, retrieval, access, use, conservation, delivery and preservation of all resources (Sugimoto et al., 2015). Van Hoolan and Verborgh (2014) describe metadata from cultural institutions as \"legacy metadata\", since it lasts long-term.\nLD and libraries: In 2011, Library of Congress (LC) announced its intention to develop a new bibliographic framework based on LD principles and RDF (Library of Congress, 2011). The release of \"bibliographic framework as a web of data: linked data model and supporting services\" (Library of Congress, 2012a) led to BIBFRAME, a dedicated LD model for bibliographic metadata (Talleras, 2013). BIBFRAME aims to assist libraries with their transition from MARC21 to LD, ensuring data exchange continuity, which enables savings on cataloguing cost and resource sharing (Neish, 2015). The project requires a shift in thinking: rather than embedding data in a record, links are provided to external authoritative sources. BIBFRAME's \"library of congress linked open data service\" (http://id.loc.gov/) enables both humans and machines to access data values and hosted controlled vocabularies (Library of Congress, n.d.). The service allows access and bulk download of authority names and controlled vocabularies at no cost, and permits users to link their metadata to the LC data values (Marden et al., 2013). These initiatives have placed LC at the forefront of library LD implementation.\nResearch questions and methodology: The research questions addressed were as follows:\nResults: Tables I and II summarise results from the European national libraries, indicating the main channels through which data was collected for each one.\nLD uses: Scottish and European national libraries have implemented LD for multiple uses and in various forms. In Scotland, a few libraries (7 per cent; n=8) have adopted LD applications within MARC records, digitised resources, social media and research outputs using RDF, Dublin Core and SPARQL. Plans to implement in Scotland (11 per cent; n=12) involve OWL, SKOS and the Europeana Data Model. European national libraries have chosen many paths in their quest to support SW development. The following sub-sections provide an overview of the most common ways.\nDiscussion and recommendations: Many participants cited collaboration as the solution to widening libraries' SW participation. By merging efforts and sharing knowledge, they could create more sophisticated methods to overcome technical issues as well as provide guidance to new implementers. Several respondents stressed the importance of conferences as collaborative learning opportunities (e.g. SW in Bibliotheken, http://swib.org/). Germany expressed a strong need for forums to discuss issues and find solutions. Partnership and cooperation represent the only way to participate in SW advancement for libraries lacking resources to implement LD fully, as Luxembourg and Portugal stated.\nConclusions: This is the first known study to present a multinational comprehensive picture of library LD implementations and associated librarians' perceptions. Despite the achievements of several European national libraries, LD is still considered a niche technology. A minority of participating institutions (n=15 national libraries; n=8 Scottish libraries) have applied LD to their resources. Each library has developed LD in isolation, which has resulted in different technical implementations, uses, and tools. A lack of human resources, finances, expertise and implementation guidelines emerged among the primary obstacles. Several institutions stated that presenting LD as the future of library data management was the trigger to begin experimentation. A few libraries demonstrated the advantages of augmenting data visibility and discoverability, supporting interoperability and data reuse within and beyond the library environment, and overcoming obstacles such as linguistic barriers. However, some institutions expressed disappointment in implementation and its results, as well as reservations about presenting the truthfulness of LD's vision to users.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to determine how information professionals in Scotland and in European national libraries perceive linked data (LD) as well as if and how they are implementing it.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The authors applied four data collection techniques: a literature review, semi-structured interviews (n=15), online resources analysis (n=26) and an online survey (n=113). They used constant comparative analysis to identify perceived benefits and challenges of LD implementation, reasons behind adoption or non-adoption of LD and the issues hindering its implementation in libraries.\nFindings: Some projects demonstrate LD's potential to augment the visibility and discoverability of library data, alongside with overcoming linguistic barriers, and supporting interoperability. However, a strong need remains to demonstrate the Semantic Web's potential within libraries. Participants identified lack of expertise and lack of resources/time/staff as implementation barriers. Several other issues remain unsolved, such as licensing constraints, as well as difficulties with obtaining management buy-in for LD initiatives, even where open data are government-mandated.\nPractical implications: Information professionals and vendors should collaborate to develop tools for implementation. Advocacy through disseminating and reviewing successful implementations can help to solve practical difficulties and to obtain management buy-in.\nOriginality/value: This is the first known study to present a multinational, comprehensive picture of library LD implementations and associated librarians' perceptions of LD.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Cultural heritage as digital noise: nineteenth century newspapers in the digital archive	[ "Sweden", "Archives", "Documents", "Accuracy", "Print media", "Auto-segmentation", "Character recognition equipment", "Large-scale digitization" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: In October 1847, the telegraphic wire in St Germain outside of Paris was struck by lightning. The Swedish newspaper Aftonbladet reported that a telegraph assistant at a station nearby had discovered the demolished telegraph printing several letters on its own. Yet, according to the paper, \"since they were not coherent, he decided to signal the phrase used for 'I do not understand.'\" In doing so, however, he received \"a heavy electric shock, which was followed by a loud bang, sounding like a gunshot\" (Aftonbladet, 1847).\nMedia transformations - in theory and practice: Among scholars researching digitized cultural heritage it is well known that so called \"digital surrogates\" do not, and cannot, duplicate or replace original paper documents (Conway, 2015; Dahlstrom, 2009; Manoff, 2006). Digitization is a way to provide access - and not a preservation strategy in the traditional sense (preserving the integrity of the physical object). However, within a heritage culture permeated with digitization activities that are nowadays customary, one might argue that the notion of \"surrogates\" is increasingly contested. Online digitized newspapers can, indeed, skew historical research (Milligan, 2013). Yet, they are steadily becoming the norm for research (rather than studying original prints) - which makes it particularly important for heritage institutions to keep an eye on actual output.\nExploring noise: Our paper explores the digitized newspaper collection produced by the National Library of Sweden from a perspective where we media archeologically concentrate on and accentuate heritage as noise. To uncover what is hidden and taken for granted during the process of digitizing newspapers, we are using media theoretical perspectives focusing on media as technical infrastructures, rather than content and representations (Kramer, 2015; Peters, 2015b). Following this tradition the functions of technical infrastructures are revealed in primarily two ways: media technologies are examined when they are still under construction and before they are presented to end users, or approached when they either break down or generate noise.\nNoisy media theory: In classic information theory, the signal is usually defined as useful information and noise as a disturbance. Noise has generally been understood as distorting the signal, making it unintelligible and/or impossible to understand. Eliminating noise was, in short, paramount within information theory - but, it also lead to the fact that noise per se became an analytical category. Information theory was, in short, always interested in noise. As is well known, Claude Shannon's article, \"A Mathematical Theory of Communication\" (1948) - which envisioned a new way to enhance the general theory of communication - basically concentrated on noise. As has often been stressed, Shannon was not interested in messages with \"meaning.\" All semantic aspects of communication were deemed \"irrelevant to the engineering problem\" - but noise was not. Shannon (1964) stated that he wanted \"to include a number of new factors, in particular the effect of noise in the channel,\" where the fundamental problem of communication, to his mind, was that of \"reproducing at one point either exactly or approximately a message selected at another point\" (p. 31). As is evident, contemporary digitization activities display a number of resemblances and affinities to these remarks and arguments.\nDigitizing newspapers, generating noise: Newspapers are traditionally described in quantitative terms, according to page numbers and weight, in meters of columns and meters of shelf space. For digital newspaper databases, large numbers are often a goal in themselves. The results of projects are given in the millions of pages digitized so far - as well as the many millions waiting to be digitized. The Library of Congress, for example, announced in 2015 that its database, Chronicling America (with historic newspaper pages from 1836 to 1922), \"now features more than 10 million pages - 74 terabytes of total data - from more than 1,900 newspapers in 38 states and territories\" (Library of Congress, 2015). In addition, the British Newspaper Archive presents what almost look like a live-updated figure of pages now available online - 18,522,948 pages in March 2017[1]. The National Library of Sweden has in a similar way been announcing an ever increasing number of searchable newspaper pages. At \"Svenska dagstidningar\" users are told to search with \"*\" to receive current and up-to-date numbers of available newspapers pages, 15,109,119 in March 2017[2]. The enormous amounts of data, and the expectations of what these numbers might make possible, in many ways corresponds with beliefs and ideas constituting \"Big Data\" - big size is what matters (Boyd and Crawford, 2012).\nInstitutional noise: To get a better understanding of the digitization process we visited the facility where Swedish printed newspapers are presently turned into data. The digitization facility is located in Fransta, a town on the northern shore of the river Ljungan, about 370 kilometers north of Stockholm. The location is due to regional political rationales - still, the Swedish Media Conversion Center (Mediakonverteringscentrum (MKC)), is also a division of the Swedish National Archives. It is in fact the largest center in Europe specialized on digitizing (paper based) cultural heritage. Besides digitizing the records of the National Archives itself, MKC provides its services to commercial companies as well as different Swedish public agencies, such as the Swedish Tax Agency (old church records) or Lantmateriet, the Swedish Mapping, Cadastral and Land Registration Authority (regarding maps). Since 2004, MKC has regularly digitized historical newspapers on behalf of the National Library of Sweden. Initially, work was done on an experimental basis, and later the National Library became something of a regular partner. About 70 employees work at MKC in two shifts with various digitization projects.\nConclusion: During the nineteenth century journalists and newspaper editors frequently copied and pasted news items. These were inserted into and tailored to fit the specificity of the medium of the daily press - form, in short, affected content. In a similar manner as during the nineteenth century - moving from scissors to scanners - digitization today transforms content. In many ways, it seems apt that the segmentation tool used at the digitization factory, MKC in Fransta is called Zissor. On a daily basis up to 50,000 newspaper pages are digitized, complete with OCR interpretation and automatic article recognition by the Zissor software. As we have shown, however, in this paper, the resulting XML files are extremely full of noise. Form indeed affects content. The scanned, digital collection of Aftonbladet contains millions of misinterpreted words, as well as millions of random texts created by the auto-segmentation tool. In fact, the resulting XML files are best described as newspaper content never written.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to explore and analyze the digitized newspaper collection at the National Library of Sweden, focusing on cultural heritage as digital noise. In what specific ways are newspapers transformed in the digitization process? If the digitized document is not the same as the source document - is it still a historical record, or is it transformed into something else?\nDesign/methodology/approach: The authors have analyzed the XML files from Aftonbladet 1830 to 1862. The most frequent newspaper words not matching a high-quality references corpus were selected to zoom in on the noisiest part of the paper. The variety of the interpretations generated by optical character recognition (OCR) was examined, as well as texts generated by auto-segmentation. The authors have made a limited ethnographic study of the digitization process.\nFindings: The research shows that the digital collection of Aftonbladet contains extreme amounts of noise: millions of misinterpreted words generated by OCR, and millions of texts re-edited by the auto-segmentation tool. How the tools work is mostly unknown to the staff involved in the digitization process? Sticking to any idea of a provenance chain is hence impossible, since many steps have been outsourced to unknown factors affecting the source document.\nOriginality/value: The detail examination of digitally transformed newspapers is valuable to scholars depending on newspaper databases in their research. The paper also highlights the fact that libraries outsourcing digitization processes run the risk of losing control over the quality of their collections.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
The moderating effects of product involvement on situational brand choice	[ "Philosophical concepts", "Consumption", "Brand awareness", "Consumer behaviour" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n__NO_TITLE__: An executive summary for managers and executive readers can be found at the end of this article.Just as people can be described in terms of their personality as perceived by other people, brands can be described in terms of their images as perceived by consumers. It has been found that consumers use products not only for their material utilities, but also for the symbolic meaning of those products as portrayed in their images (Elliot, 1997). An important determinant of the impact of products' symbolic meaning is the interrelationship between the perceived product image and the buyer's self-concept. A consumer may decide to buy a product because he/she feels that the product enhances his/her own self-concept. The degree to which product image coincides with self-concept is referred to as self-congruity (Zinkhan and Hong, 1991). The greater the congruity between consumer's self-concept and a particular product, the more likely that the product will satisfy the consumer's symbolic consumption need, and, therefore, the more likely the consumer is motivated to purchase and consume that product (Sirgy, 1982).\nReview of literature: Self-congruity theory\nMethod: Experimental design\nResults: Self, situation and brand choice\nDiscussions: Self-concept and situation\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: - The purpose of this paper is to investigate the moderating role of product involvement in predicting the effects of self-concept and consumption situation on consumers' situational decision making.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - An experiment was conducted based on a two (self-concept) x two (consumption situation) between group design. Participants' product involvement was treated as a covariate in repeated measures test to analyze the relationships between product involvement, self-concept and consumption situation.\nFindings: - Results suggested that, for consumers who were highly involved with the product, self-concept and consumption situation were both determinant factors in a situational brand choice. For consumers who were not highly involved with the product, however, their situational brand choice was based solely on the situational factor, not their self-concept.\nResearch limitation/implications: - Participants' pre-existing attitude towards the brands might have influenced their answers. Only a single product category was used. The findings of this study can help us understand the underlying mechanism for the impact of self-congruity and situational congruity. From a marketer's perspective, it seems logical to assume that both self-concept and consumption situation are influential factors for those who find the product personally relevant, while only consumption situation is influential for those who are not.\nOriginality/value: - The paper examines the interaction effect between self-concept and consumption situation. It introduces a new variable, product involvement, to self-concept research to extend our understanding of when self/situation congruity effects occur.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Task variety and counterproductive work behavior	[ "Job characteristics", "Counterproductive work behaviour", "Resources", "Deviance" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Today's organizations use standardization, automatization and technology to gain efficiency in production. The way in which work is organized has implications, which can often be lower levels of task variety (Loukidou et al., 2009). According to the job design literature (Demerouti et al., 2001; Humphrey et al., 2007), low levels of task variety reflect a lack of work stimulation. The influence of job design on employees' attitudes and well-being has been studied widely. It is also the case that employees may not want to simply accept unsatisfactory job design. Thus, research has also increasingly recognized the need to explore employees' behavioral reactions when coping with unsatisfactory and unstimulating job designs (e.g. Oldham and Hackman, 2010; Wrzesniewski and Dutton, 2001). Some of these behaviors may have dysfunctional implications for organizations (Balducci et al., 2011; Spector and Fox, 2010).\nHypothesis development: Task variety is the extent to which employees are able to perform a wide range of tasks and refers to the use of different skills and variety in their job content (Morgeson and Humphrey, 2006). An example of a job with low task variety is the job of a data entry clerk, which requires data being input and corrected all day. An example of a job with high task variety is the job of a product manager; this job includes the whole product management circle, such as developing a marketing strategy, implementing marketing measures, conducting market analyses and pricing. According to the job demand-resource model, high task variety is a job resource (Bakker and Demerouti, 2007; Demerouti et al., 2001). Job resources are aspects of work that help employees achieve personal goals, satisfy personal needs, stimulate personal growth and cope with job demands that require effort to deal with (e.g. time pressure). High levels of job resources are associated with positive motivational outcomes, such as work engagement (Bakker and Demerouti, 2007; Demerouti et al., 2001). In contrast, \"lacking resources preclude dealing effectively with high job demands and foster mental withdrawal or disengagement\" (Schaufeli and Bakker, 2004, p. 296).\nMethod: Procedure and sample\nResults: Table I presents the descriptive statistics of the variables included in the model. To estimate the relationship between task variety and CWB, we used task variety measured at T1 as a predictor and CWB-O and CWB-I measured at T2 as outcomes. To estimate the relationship between change in task variety and change in CWB, we controlled for the baseline level of CWB (i.e. CWB-O and CWB-I at T1) and for the baseline level of task variety at T1. OLS regressions were estimated on a step-by-step basis. The results are reported in Table II. Missings were deleted list-wise because there was no indication as to whether they were non-random (kh2(1.836)=1,813.78, p=0.639) and results did not change when the full information maximum likelihood method was used to replace missing data. Additionally VIF values (>2.00) indicated that multicollinearity was not an issue.\nDiscussion: In this paper, we investigated how the baseline level of perceived task variety and change in perceived task variety were related to CWB and changes in CWB, respectively. Data supported a negative relationship between task variety at T1 and CWB-O at T2 and CWB-I at T2. This implies that a low level of task variety might have unintended harmful consequences for organizations. Specifically, we found further support for literature that suggests that CWB is a coping behavior that employees exhibit in order to deal with unsatisfactory work conditions (e.g. Shoss et al., 2016; Spector and Fox, 2005). Yet, CWB may serve employees as both as an outlet whereby they can express displeasure and as a behavior in which they indulge when perceived task variety is low to make up for a lack of interesting work. Consequently, we recommend further research to investigate the effect of negative psychological experiences and the need for enhancing stimulation as variables that potentially mediate the relationship between low task variety and high CWB. It would also be worthwhile examining buffers in such mediation models. For instance, perception of job importance may influence the extent to which low task variety is tolerated (Barbalet, 1999).\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to examine the relationship between task variety and counterproductive work behavior (CWB) and the relationship between change in task variety and change in CWB. CWB is proposed as being a behavior that serves as an outlet by which employees can express displeasure and acts as a substitute for a lack of interest when task variety is low.\nDesign/methodology/approach: This study analyzed survey data that were collected at two points in time (T1 and T2) from 515 employees with different occupations working in Switzerland.\nFindings: Task variety at T1 negatively related to organizational CWB (CWB-O) at T2 and interpersonal CWB (CWB-I) at T2. Task variety at T1 was also related to a change in CWB-O and a change in CWB-I. However, change in task variety showed a non-significant relationship to change in CWB-O and change in CWB-I.\nResearch limitations/implications: Results indicated that employees tend to respond with CWB when task variety is permanently low and that CWB may even increase over time. Further studies that examine the dynamics between task variety and CWB are therefore recommended.\nPractical implications: Findings inform the practice on the potentially harmful effects of unstimulating work designs and therefore have implications for how to better prevent CWB.\nOriginality/value: The two-wave data collection allowed for differentiation between the effect of the baseline level of task variety at T1 on CWB at T2 and the effect of a change in task variety on a change in CWB.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Youth employability training: two experiments	[ "Employment", "Self development", "Youth", "Career guidance", "Canada" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: We partnered with the employment center of a Canadian business school in an effort to develop, and systematically evaluate, a training intervention that would increase youth job seekers' employability. The job search model of Saks (2005) and a survey study by Wanberg et al. (1999) informed the training interventions used in the two studies. The model outlined by Saks (2005) shows that individual difference variables including job search self-efficacy influence one's goals. These individual differences and goals influence people's job search behaviors, which in turn, impact their employment outcomes such as job interviews and job offers. Similarly, empirical work by Wanberg et al. (1999) found that the intensity of one's job search was positively related to job search efficacy and motivation control skills.Overall, both of these works suggest that motivation (e.g. goal setting) and job search self-efficacy (i.e. confidence in one's ability to conduct an effective job search) are key to successful employment and job search. Given that goal setting is a key element of goal setting theory (Locke and Latham, 1990, 2002) and self-efficacy, or task confidence (Bandura, 1986), is a key element of social cognitive theory (Bandura, 1986, 1997), these two theories provided the framework for the present training interventions.\n2. Literature review: Employability\n3. Study 1: Hypotheses\n4. Results: Preliminary analysis\n5. Discussion: The study shows that a relatively short training program using both self-management and VSG can reduce the anxiety levels and increase interview performance (e.g. BOS score) of participants, namely, youth job seekers. As such, it adds further evidence to the model of Saks (2005) and suggests that a joint intervention can be helpful for unemployed youth.While the previous employability-focused VSG interventions of Latham and Budworth (2006) and Millman and Latham (2001) were longer, consisting of multiple training sessions, these results suggest that a single SMVSG session can be effective in enhancing interview performance and reducing anxiety. However, contrary to hypothesis two, the single session did not increase self-efficacy in this study. Past research can shed light on this result. Sue-Chan and Latham (2004) found that a single training intervention combining self-management and VSG had no effect on self-efficacy. However, the previous employability studies reviewed in this paper that did find a main effect for verbal persuasion or VSG training on self-efficacy (i.e. Eden and Aviram, 1993; Millman and Latham, 2001) used multiple self-efficacy boosting training sessions. This would suggest that while the single training session did result in lower anxiety and higher interview performance, multiple sessions may be needed before SMVSG can bolster self-efficacy.This is the first study to use a true experimental design to examine the effectiveness of intervention grounded in VSG on employment. As such, it further generalizes the VSG training technique to a new variable, anxiety, and overcomes limitations of previous studies that were quasi-experimental in nature (e.g. Latham and Budworth, 2006; Millman and Latham, 2001).Furthermore, this appears to be the first study to use a self-management intervention for employment training. As such, it generalizes this technique to new dependent variables, namely employability and anxiety, for perhaps the first time in the literature.\n6. Limitations: Limitations of the study are as follows. First, we used a combination of VSG and self-management in our study. Given the past work of Millman and Latham (2001) and Latham and Budworth (2006), we see that VSG alone can be effective for improving employability. However, a closer read of Latham and Budworth (2006, p. 520) does suggest a confound as \"a panel of Native North American role models\" was used in addition to VSG. Thus, we can conclude that SMVSG resulted in improvements to a control group, but we cannot be certain if there was any advantage to augmenting VSG with self-management.Second, our only measure of employment was a mock interview. While this is consistent with Latham and Budworth (2006), as Sak's (2005) shows, there are other measures of employability, such as number of job offers, number of interviews, that were not assessed in this study.Third, the treatment group received 45 minutes of additional contact when compared to the control group, which may have an effect on the study outcomes. However, it is important to note that this is consistent with Gist (1989), where the VSG treatment and control groups were not exposed to the identical amount of training time.Fourth, we did not measure interview anxiety. As shown in a recent study, the Measure of Anxiety in the Selection Interviews (MASI) contains five anxiety dimensions (e.g. communication, appearance, social, behavioral and performance) and is known to correlate with interview performance (McCarthy and Goffin, 2004). A limitation of the work to date on MASI is that it has not examined the extent to which the MASI (or the five dimensions) influence what is arguably the ultimate measure of employability (e.g. job offers). Thus, we felt further research was needed. In the next section, we present a study that overcomes these limitations.\n7. Study 2: The purpose of the second study was to broaden our measurement of employability beyond performance in the interview. Furthermore, given the importance of anxiety in successful job search, and the relatively limited investigation of MASI, our second purpose was to assess the extent that MASI and the underlying five dimensions, correlated with actual offers from employers. Third, we wanted to assess the relative effectiveness of VSG versus SMVSG. The hypotheses of the study were as follows:H1. The five dimensions of the MASI (as well as total MASI score) will correlate with number of offers from employers.H2. Both VSG and SMVSG training programs will result in improvements in self-efficacy, anxiety, interview anxiety and employability.H3. Participants trained in SMVSG will have significantly higher self-efficacy, higher employability, lower anxiety and lower interview anxiety relative to those trained in VSG alone.Method\n8. Results: Preliminary analysis\n9. Discussion: This study extends the validity of the MASI measure of interview anxiety to what is arguably \"the\" measure of employability, namely job offers. As discussed previously, post-training interview anxiety correlated significantly (both in terms of total score and all but 1 dimension) with number of offers. Thus, finding ways to reduce interview anxiety is important to practitioners, policy makers in their attempts to reduce unemployment, as well as scholars in their quest to design and test interventions to improve employability.Second, this study provides further empirical evidence for the effectiveness of VSG interventions on employability. We found that both training programs were effective in that post-training measures of self-efficacy and job search effort were higher while measures of general anxiety and interview anxiety were lower. Given that both training programs involved VSG, and past studies of VSG in employment have not examined general anxiety, interview anxiety or job search effort, the present study extends the validity of this technique to several dependent variables for the first time in the literature. Moreover, the significant correlations between use of VSG skills and both the number of interviews and offers further confirms the effectiveness of VSG in this context. The improvements in efficacy reaffirm the past results of other studies (e.g. Brown, 2003; Millman and Latham, 2001). Given these results, practitioners and scholars should have great confidence in the ability of VSG-based interventions to be effective for employability related needs.Third, also of importance to the study and utilization of VSG in employment contexts is our finding that a single VSG session was found to have beneficial effects. As shown by the paired t-tests results discussed previously, both conditions resulted in improved self-efficacy, employability (e.g. job search effort), and reduced anxiety. The two previous studies that examined VSG in the context of employability (e.g. Millman and Latham, 2001; Latham and Budworth, 2006) used multiple VSG training sessions conducted. The present results suggest that a very short (1/2 day) session can be sufficient to improve employability.Fourth, our findings provide limited evidence to suggest that augmenting VSG with self-management (e.g. SMVSG) results in improved employability, efficacy, or reduced anxiety relative to VSG alone. While a review of the means of many key variables suggests that scores were superior in the SMVSG group, the only significant differences found in this study were for the job search effort and self-efficacy variables. The only difference between these two training programs was self-management. Goal setting is a key element of the self-management process and goal setting is deemed to be a motivational intervention (Latham and Pinder, 2005; Locke and Latham, 2002). In the present setting, we believe that participants were highly motivated to find a job as failure to find a job meant that they would be required to work full-time as an unpaid volunteer in order to gain the experience needed to remain in the business program. Thus, the SMVSG participants may not have needed the motivation effects of goal setting. This suggests that future studies are needed in different settings and that future studies should use a measure of motivation to see if SMVSG works best for unmotivated participants.\n10. Limitations: There are several limitations of this study. The first is that we lacked true interview scores from employers. While we did have access to the number of offers and interviews, we lacked employer data concerning interview performance (e.g. BOS or otherwise). While one could argue that an offer is \"the best\" assessment of interview performance, future studies should use employer generated interview performance data.Second, there were 42 people assigned to each training condition. Considering Cohen's (1992) work on desirable sample sizes it is important to note there may be a possibility of a high Type II error rate.Third, approximately 25 per cent of participants failed to either complete the post-training survey or attend the interview. While such non-response rates are lower than that of Latham and Budworth (2006), where employment data was available for less than 50 per cent of participants post-training, we cannot rule the possibility of non-response bias. Moreover, we did find that both pre-training MASI and age differed with non-respondents being higher on these measures. In this study, older participants (and those with lower levels of interview anxiety), were less likely to complete all study components. This again suggests the need for replication.Fourth, our second study lacked a control group. Without a control group we cannot be certain if any of these changes are at all due in part to some outside influence. Thus, future studies should incorporate a control group to better assess the effectiveness of the training intervention.Finally, in the future researchers may want to consider using a 2x2 experimental design in order to separately assess the effects of VSG and self management as well as their combined effect on the variables examined in the current study.\n11. Implications for theory: We believe that the two studies in this paper can provide important insights for theory. First, the studies show that an employability intervention developed from social cognitive and goal setting theories, and grounded in VSG and self-management, can improve the self-efficacy, employability, and reduce anxiety of unemployed youth. Given the previously discussed slowing of the economy and the increased employability hurdles faced by youth, it appears MVSG intervention can be an effective way to facilitate successful job search.Second, the results support several of the elements of Saks' (2005) model in that an intervention that involved goal setting, in this case SMVSG, was shown to influence employment outcomes. Similarly, the previously support positive correlations involving the individual difference variable of job search self-efficacy also supports Saks' model and the findings of Wanberg et al. (1999).Third, these studies add incremental evidence to support the effectiveness of VSG-based interventions for employability. Moreover, for the first time in the literature, it extends this validity to the issue of anxiety, which is a key variable in successful employment.\n12. Implications for practice: Both studies show the value of bridging the gap between scientists and practitioners. In the present study, human resource management practitioners, namely the staff of a student employment center, and the researchers worked together to develop training interventions to improve youth unemployment. Together they were able to use each other's skills and experience to develop a training intervention, and then critically assess the effectiveness of this training. The result being a relatively simple, and low cost training intervention and associated performance measures that can continue to be used with future groups of youth job seekers.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: - This paper aims to assess the effectiveness of verbal self-guidance (VSG) and self-management on youth employability. It seeks to access the joint effectiveness of these interventions, grounded in social cognitive and goal setting theories, for youth job seekers.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - The studies used experimental designs involving participants enrolled in an undergraduate business cooperative degree program. Survey data assessing self-efficacy and anxiety were collected pre and post-training. Interview performance was also assessed in each study.\nFindings: - In study 1, it was found that students trained in self-management and verbal self-guidance (SMVSG) improved interview performance and reduced anxiety. In study 2, it was found that self-efficacy and job search effort were higher in the SMVSG group relative to VSG alone.\nResearch limitations/implications: - For study 1, the only measure of employment was a mock interview. For study 2, a limitation was that approximately 25 per cent of participants failed to either complete the post-training survey or attend the interview.\nPractical implications: - Overall the studies describe a relatively simple and low cost training intervention, and associated performance measures, that can continue to be used by practitioners and scholars with future groups of youth job seekers.\nOriginality/value: - The paper shows that these studies further support the effectiveness of VSG-based interventions for employability. The paper also shows the value of augmenting VSG training with self-management training in the context of youth employability. Furthermore, this research also considered anxiety, a key variable in successful employment that has often been omitted in the literature.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Stakeholder management and human resources: development and implementation of a performance measurement system	[ "Stakeholder analysis", "Human resource management", "Performance measures", "Multivariate analysis" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Numerous authors of managerial literature (Donaldson and Preston, 1995; Freeman, 1984; Mitchell et al., 1997), in agreement with the resource based theory (Grant, 1996; Wernerfelt, 1984), assert that the development of relationships between a company and its stakeholders (relational assets) represents a determining factor for the creation of value for the company because it provides greater opportunities for gaining access to knowledge and the exchanging of know-how, thereby favoring a climate of collaboration and trust which has a considerable effect on company performance and on the company's ability to innovate.The fact that there is more attention being given to the stakeholder approach today can be related to the changes that have taken place in market competition, changes that have demanded of a company to substantially modify the way it does business. From the requirement to maximize the efficiency of its system has emerged, in fact, the necessity to form solid alliances with its interlocutors and to establish long term relationships based on trust both in and outside its own system, promoting an attitude and behavior of collaboration as opposed to the one of conflict that up to only a short time ago predominated in the day to day and contractual relationships of a company's governance (Sciarelli, 1996).In the entrepreneurial world there is manifest proof of a widespread commitment on behalf of entrepreneurs and managers to develop and implement within their own companies systems of customer relationship management, supply chain management, balanced scorecard and those for the measurement of intangible assets, all instrumental in the strengthening of relationships between the company and its stakeholders (Post et al., 2002).There is moreover a consolidated belief that human resources play a role of primary importance within a company and that the employees are to be classed among the principle stakeholders (Clarkson, 1994; Lev, 2003; Zingales, 2000). Employees knowledge and know-how, unlike tangible capital, represent a strategic role for the company because they are resources that are difficult to imitate and transfer (Grant, 1996; Rumelt, 1984). As a result, companies capable of conserving a stable and motivated workforce are able to guarantee themselves a substantial portion of the value created by their employees and, at the same time, to acquire the professional talent and the competence developed by its personnel.It is therefore now well known how important it is to attract and hold onto employees with expertise and special skills. The management of human resources is, as a result, fast becoming an important critical success factor and corporate social strategies could well have a significant effect on the development of the following intangible resources (Turban and Greening, 1997; Jeffries and Reed, 2000; Ulrich and Smallwood, 2004): trust of employees in their company; sense of belonging of employees to the organization; sense of responsibility of collaborators; ability to work in a group; stability of workforce; satisfaction at work; professional skills developed by employees; ability to communicate.\nResearch questions and aims: The premise on which the stakeholder approach toward employees is based is that stakeholder management actions, namely the company tools and policies developed in order to satisfy stakeholders' expectations, bring a strengthening of internal legitimacy and therefore the possibility of creating better working conditions that will lead to improved company competitiveness. If the company has precise knowledge of the degree of development of intangible resources created by employees and of the factors that have contributed to generate such resources this will enable the company to plan their corporate policies better.This research was done in collaboration with a leading Italian company in the agricultural and food sector. With a total turnover in 2005 of about EUR900 million, the company sells nationally through 13 production plants and has about 100 distribution centers. The company has been implementing a strategy orientated towards stakeholders for several years and has received important national awards and recognitions. In particular, the attention paid to the employees has always been central to their operations alongside the commitment in defining and implementing precise human resources policies. Such an investment on the part of the company has necessitated the planning of a durable monitoring structure to register the results deriving from the company policies adopted. Therefore, the research questions are:1. When a company has given special attention to its social strategy, what intangible resources do its employees develop, and how can they be measured?2. What are the main factors that influence the development of such a system of intangible resources?3. Which are the applications of the measurement tool of the intangible resources as a company's performance measurement and control system?The aims of the research are therefore:* to determine and measure the system of resource of value developed by employees of a company that has developed a stakeholder management policy;* to create a model that permits the company to evaluate the factors which have a major effect on the development of such a system; and* to define the applications and uses of the tool as a company's performance measurement and control system.The present study is articulated in various phases. Firstly, careful analysis of the stakeholder theory literature enabled us to measure and study more closely the relations existing between the social policies implemented by the company with respect to its own employees and the resources the latter generated. Subsequently, from analyzing the human resources management literature measurement scales could be defined for each resource.The quantitative measurement of the resource system was carried out by means of two surveys, with employees of the company being used as the unit of analysis. In order to develop the questionnaire, the authors and responsible parties in the communication, human resources and social responsibility departments of the company discussed and compared the various scales found in the literature. The same survey was also used to measure the factors relative to the second aim of the research. Finally, the implementation and applications of the tool are presented in the section related to the case study description.\nSocial strategies and resources of value developed by employees: Numerous authors hold that the adoption of a stakeholder approach contributes to the development of the intangible capital of a company (Clarkson, 1995; Post et al., 2002; Donaldson and Preston, 1995; Ulrich and Smallwood, 2004). In particular, it would seem to favor the development of an intangible capital made up of three \"people dependent\" resources (Hall, 1992) (Table I): \"the capacity to motivate employees\" (Donaldson and Preston, 1995), \"the capacity to attract and keep professional and qualified personnel in the work market\" (Turban and Greening, 1997), \"the ability to develop internal and external company relationships\" (Post et al., 2002).Capacity to motivate employees\nMethod: Questionnaire and scales of measure\nAnalysis and results: The measuring system for intangible resources: validity and reliability of the measurement scales\nImplementation and use of the measuring tool: description of the case study: The measuring system developed in this research is a tool that will above all prove its usefulness in the course of the years and it originates from the examination of resource values in relationship to the evolution of a company's social policy. In this section some possible applications and uses of the system are illustrated with reference to the company case study in question.In particular, the different resources have been analyzed using the categories \"context factors\" described in the section Analysis and Results: professional category, seniority within the company, area of work and production plant. For each context factor we have carried out a cross-section analysis, for each of the two years covered by the survey, and a longitudinal analysis, which compares the resource values in the course of time (in this research the values compared are those relative to 2005 and 2006) in order to establish the development trend of the resources. The results obtained have been validated using statistical tests, namely the analysis of variance (ANOVA), the t-test and non-parametric tests, in order to verify whether the employees belonging to different groups within the organization and in the different plants, develop certain resources in particular. Below is a general description of results pertaining to the entire Company Group and further on follow the individual analyses for each context factor.Company group analysis\nConclusions: The measuring and control system implemented in this survey could constitute useful control tool for any organization that considers a \"stakeholder management\" approach as an important factor within its overall policy and objectives in its mission as a company. A constant monitoring process relative to the resources developed by employees can in fact provide an important support in the programming and assessment of the company's investments at different times throughout its history.By means of the case study we have been able to highlight the possible uses and applications of the tool within the reality of an industrial company operating at national level with a network of numerous production plants and distribution centers. The surveys, conducted in relation to the varying context factors, have underlined the existence of varied orientations in the organization's development of intangible resources and the presence of some critical situations that merit further examination.The questionnaire drawn up in the course of our research can naturally be used for any kind of company that intends to measure the system of defined values.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: - The premise on which the stakeholder approach toward employees is based is that stakeholder management actions bring a strengthening of internal legitimacy and therefore the possibility of creating better working conditions that will lead to improved company competitiveness in terms of intangible resources developed by company employees. The aims of the paper are: to determine and to measure the system of resources of value developed by employees of a company that has developed a stakeholder management policy; to create a model that permits the company to evaluate the factors which have a major effect on the development of such a system; and to define the applications of the tool as a company's performance measurement and control system.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - In order to pursue these aims two surveys were conducted in 2005 and 2006 on the employees of a leading Italian company in the agricultural food sector. Structural equation model methodology and multivariate analysis were used to define the quantitative measures of the system of resources and to determine the role played by stakeholder management policies in the development of the intangible resources.\nFindings: - The authors found that the company's social policies have a significant influence, even though its intensity varies, on most of the resources analyzed, and in particular on trust, job satisfaction, networking and communication, ability to work in a group and low turnover propensity. These results confirm the strong link between the resources of value developed by employees and the social strategy of the company.\nOriginality/value: - The measurement system developed in this research can be used in any firm that wants to measure the intangible resources related to employees and represents a control tool that may support managers in planning and control the social investments of the firm.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Are some taxes better for growth in Pakistan? A time series analysis	[ "Pakistan", "ARDL", "Economic growth", "Direct tax", "Indirect tax" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: Tax revenue is the most important and powerful tool to enhance and sustain economic growth in a country. Tax system is an efficient and strong channel to mobilize the internal resources of a country. Primary objective of the tax system is to reduce the income inequality, finance the public goods and services, promote efficient allocation of resources and economic stabilization (Musgrave, 2006). Tax-growth nexus has always been the most controversial topic among economists and policy makers. This question has been addressed in numerous empirical and theoretical studies. Previous studies suggest that there is a correlation between taxes and economic growth. Different tax instruments have different impacts in exogenous (neoclassical) and endogenous growth theory. The neoclassical growth theory argues that changes in tax policy do not have long-run growth effect but they only generate temporary effects (Ramsey, 1928; Solow, 1956; Cass, 1965). On the other hand, the proponents of endogenous growth theory believe that change in tax rate may have long-run growth effect and increase economic activity (Romer, 1986, 1990; Lucas, 1988; Rebelo, 1991).\n2. Literature review: There are number of theoretical and empirical studies on the effects of taxation on economic growth. Instruments of tax policy have different impacts in endogenous and exogenous (neoclassical) growth theory. The researchers have used different tax components, tax rates, policies and reforms to check their hypothesis on the relationship between taxes and growth.\n3. Tax composition and economic growth in Pakistan: Among developing countries, Pakistan falls in bottom ranked countries because only 5 percent population is paying direct taxes. The budget potential of Pakistan can increase by strengthening the tax base. Total revenue is only 13-14 percent of GDP which is very low as compared to other developing countries. The tax revenue of Pakistan has fallen continuously from 1961 to 2014. Due to the presence of small tax base and large number of tax exemptions granted in excise duty, income tax, sales tax and custom duty the income elasticity of tax is low. Federal tax receipts were started to increase from 15 percent in 1990s to 32 percent in 2000 and 40 percent in 2010. Income tax contributes around 95-97 percent of total direct taxes. Major portion of income tax come from withholding tax, i.e. 53 percent. Thus, the leading source of direct tax is withholding tax followed by voluntary payments (29.5 percent) and collection on demand (17.5 percent). Second major contribution in revenue generation came from sales tax. 65 percent of indirect taxes came from sales tax during 2009 to 2010. In total, 60 percent of total domestic sales tax has come from sales tax on imports of petroleum products (40 percent) and telecom sector. Share of custom duty was 12.2 percent and excise duty was 9.1 percent in total tax receipts during 2009-2010 that has decreased up to 5.5 and 8.5 percent in 2013-2014. Tax on international trade (tariff) and surcharges contributes around 9.25 and 5.75 percent in total tax revenue during 2013-2014, respectively.\n4. Model, methodology and data: Neoclassical growth model predicts that changes in fiscal policy will have no permanent effect on the economy's steady-state growth rate (Ramsey, 1928; Solow, 1956; Cass, 1965). On the contrary, endogenous growth models shows that changes in fiscal policy will permanently change the growth rate of the economy (Romer, 1986, 1990; Lucas 1988; Rebelo, 1991). Any tax policy that distorts the incentives to accumulate physical and human capital will permanently reduce the growth rate in endogenous growth models. Therefore, taxes on capital and the accumulation of capital, such as personal and corporate income taxes will reduce economic growth. However, all taxes may not be equally distorting and therefore the tax mix becomes an important growth determinant. If labor supply is highly inelastic then a consumption tax will not distorts an individual's intertemporal consumption choice, which leaves capital accumulation decisions and growth unaffected (Rebelo, 1991). King and Rebelo (1990), Rebelo (1991) and Jones et al. (1993) assessed the distortionary effect of taxes on economic growth for US economy and found that the effect of taxes significantly varies from very small to very large on economic growth.\n5. Results: ADF and PP unit root test are applied and results indicate that all variables are stationary at first difference except ITOT and ITSUR, which are stationary at level. The results of unit root test fulfilled the assumptions of ARDL bound test, i.e. dependent variable (RGDP) is integrated of order one (I(1)) and none of the variable is I(2). The results of ADF unit root test are confirmed by using PP unit root test. The results are almost similar with ADF tests except ITOT variable which is stationary at first difference I(1) but in ADF it is I(0). The results of ADF and PP test are presented in Table I.\n6. Conclusion: Tax system is the most powerful tool to sustain economic growth, whereas primary objective of the tax system is to reduce the income inequality, finance the public goods and services, promote efficient allocation of resources and economic stabilization. The objective of this study is to analyze the impact of taxes on economic growth in Pakistan from 1976 to 2014. Taxes are disaggregated into direct and indirect taxes, while indirect taxes have been further disaggregated into excise duty, sales tax, surcharges, tax on international trade and other indirect taxes. Time series analysis is conducted under ARDL framework to examine the long-run and short-run relationship between economic growth and different forms of taxes.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to analyze the impact of taxes on economic growth in the long run as well as in the short run.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The study uses simple time series model, where real GDP is dependent variable and different forms of taxes are explanatory variables under ARDL framework from 1976 to 2014 at annual frequency for Pakistan.\nFindings: Direct taxes have positive relation with economic growth in the long run. Sales tax, tax on international trade (tariffs) and other indirect taxes have positive impact on economic growth of Pakistan in the long run as well as in the short run. However, sales tax and other indirect taxes impact negatively on economic growth in the short run after one year because people realize decline in their real income.\nPractical implications: Government should increase direct taxes by increasing tax base. Indirect taxes usually indicate negative impact after one and two years; therefore, government should decrease its reliance on indirect taxes. Government should promote tax awareness among the people which increase the tax morale of people and increase the tax base.\nOriginality/value: Taxes are disaggregated into direct and indirect taxes, while indirect taxes have been further disaggregated into excise duty, sales tax, surcharges, tax on international trade and other indirect taxes. This study provides useful insight for policy makers in designing taxes and their effect on growth.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Surviving regulation: how European energy industries are adapting to new rules	[ "Climate change", "Core competencies", "Business strategy", "Regulation", "New business models", "Energy incumbents" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n__NO_TITLE__: The climate is changing, and, in an effort to control the changes, 195 countries agreed, in Paris in 2015, to reduce global greenhouse gas emissions. Because the energy industry is responsible for more than 30 per cent of all the greenhouse gas emissions, it has been singled out as the low-hanging fruit by regulators looking to meet their climate change goals.\nStrategy 1: fight: Is fighting a viable strategy? The research on non-market strategy suggests no.\nStrategy 2: flight: Is exiting the market a viable option? Or leaving the country or the industry? The \"theory of competitive advantage\" suggests that neither is a serious option.\nStrategy 3: follow: What about the option of moving from carbon to renewables and following the markets' changing needs? Again, the research suggests that such a strategy is unlikely to succeed.\nStrategy 4: fit: What are the options? By fighting, the incumbents risk looking like the tobacco industry; by fleeing, the incumbents risk destroying massive value; and by following, the incumbents risk becoming the new Blockbuster or Nokia. Fifty years of research suggests that, when presented with a change, the incumbents should accept the trends and look to their \"core competencies\" to redefine their position to fit within the new market.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: In Paris, in 2015, 195 countries agreed to limit the emission of CO2. The German Energiewende is an example of the types of regulatory changes that countries will need to enact to meet their Paris commitments. The Energiewende saw the German Government forcefully shift the energy base from non-renewable to renewable sources to reduce CO2 emissions, and the effect of this was to reduce the market value of some German energy firms by as much as 70%. This paper aims to consider the strategic options available to energy incumbents facing the sort of regulatory challenges implied by the Paris agreement.\nDesign/methodology/approach: This paper is a literature review and a thought experiment, in which, 12 fields of strategy research are reviewed, and using the insights obtained from these fields, four strategic options are proposed for the energy incumbents, namely, \"fight,\" \"flight,\" \"fit\" and \"follow.\" Each strategy is introduced and evaluated, and, by looking at examples from other industries, the viability of that strategy for the energy industry is concluded.\nFindings: Of the four strategies identified - that is, fight (lobbying), flight (internationalization or diversification), follow (imitation) or fit (adopt a core competencies perspective that re-imagines the firm) - it was concluded that only the last is feasible. The present review, and the application of the discussion to the energy industry, suggests that \"fight\" is viable only in the short term as a delaying strategy; \"flight\" is a value-destroying strategy, and, therefore not a real option for the energy industry; \"follow\" will lead the energy incumbents to lose their current positions of power; and only \"fit\" will allow the energy incumbents to remain viable in the long term.\nResearch limitations/implications: All research has its limitations. The main limitation of this research is the fact that this study is a thought experiment based on a literature review. The suggested strategies are forward-looking, but are based on historical examples, and are intended to guide the energy incumbents, even when they are based on non-energy examples. The reader should view this paper in that light.\nPractical implications: The practical implication of this research is that, of the 12 fields of strategy that it reviews, there is only one feasible strategy for the energy incumbents looking to survive the sorts of regulatory challenges implied by the Energiewende and the Paris agreement. The research suggests that many/most/all of the energy incumbents will, at first, choose a \"fight\" strategy, but in the long term only those that choose for a \"fit\" strategy will survive the sort of disruptions implied by these regulatory changes.\nSocial implications: The social implications of this research are that many/most/all firms in the affected industry will go through a predictable process, of first resisting the change, before eventually supporting it; that \"flight\" is not a viable strategy; and that radical innovation rarely comes from incumbents. Policymakers should be aware of these facts when not only working with incumbents to develop the regulations necessary to meet the Paris climate commitments but also looking at the impacts of regulation and when trying to \"pick winners.\"\nOriginality/value: The paper reviews the existing literature, and the review is not new. The application to a specific industry and the advice gleaned from this for managers and policymakers is new and of high value.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
R&D-marketing integration in innovation - does culture matter?	[ "Culture", "Product development", "Cross-functional collaboration" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1 Introduction: In order to address the challenges of increased competition in the global markets, companies need to take a proactive stance and become market oriented. This is especially true for manufacturing companies, who historically struggle to deliver innovative products to market. An integral part of becoming market-oriented is an effective product development process and the ability to collaborate beyond functional boundaries within an organization. In today's competitive environment, companies that succeed will be those which develop products that satisfy customer needs better than their competitor products. It is therefore necessary that companies fully research such needs, and generate ideas and solutions that best satisfy them. The more innovative the NPD projects the greater is the need to integrate marketing and R&D functions within the company, as they are key functions that transfer a customer need into a tangible product. Literature within the field indicates that ideal levels of integration between R&D and marketing have been defined (Gupta et al., 1986; Gupta and Wilemon, 1991; Griffin and Hauser, 1996) and used to analyze companies within different economies. Furthermore, authors (Lu and Chang, 2002; Song and Thieme, 2006) have defined different integrative mechanisms that should lead to higher levels of R&D-marketing integration. None of the studies however examined these frameworks beyond world leading economies. Understanding cultural meaning in practice requires cross-cultural sensitivity and is more relevant in twenty-first century due to globalization and macro-economic factors (Harris, 2004; Kessapidou and Varsakelis, 2002). In fact, scholars suggest that cross-cultural hurdles in achieving performance are significant. Difficulties include, but are not limited to, building shared values and purpose, while at the same time recognizing national differences (Shelton et al., 2003). Further insight is therefore needed and this paper attempts to test leading R&D-marketing integration frameworks in two different cultural contexts, in order to better understand the role of culture in such applications.\n2 Conceptual background: A company is a social system composed of interdependent subsystems (Olson et al., 2005). Coordination within subsystems is accomplished through management policies and practices, which in turn interact within the environment to help achieve a set of goals and objectives. In NPD, coordination at the R&D-marketing interface gains in importance, as R&D and marketing perspectives substantially overlap as companies move along the route towards market orientation (Kang et al., 2007). Next to cross-functional collaboration, an understanding of how cultural differences affect decisions being made within NPD processes is important to a company's external operations. Even in organizations with elaborate standard operating procedures, interpretation of environmental cues may vary among managers as a result of national cultural differences (Tse et al., 1988). Also decisions within one organization might vary from those in a similar organization simply due to cultural differences. The failure to take cultural differences between countries into account has been the cause of many business failures and moreover, many of marketing, R&D, management and NPD theories have been developed and validated solely in leading world economies (Steenkamp, 2001). Advancement of NPD and the ever-changing global environment require that validity of these theories and models be examined in other cultural settings to identify the degree of generalization. Management and organization ideas and theories are often exported to other countries without regard to the value context in which these ideas have been developed, although it should be evident that there is no single formula for success in different cultures (Hofstede, 2001). To get further insight into how R&D-marketing interfaces are formed and managed and how culture may affect them, we outline the best-practice R&D-marketing integration frameworks and cultural links and influences in NPD in the next sections of the paper.\n3 Methodology: Two companies have been chosen to serve as case studies on which the R&D-marketing integration framework will be studied. Both companies are working within the high-tech business environment, where innovation, and consequently R&D plays a central role. Both companies have separate R&D functions that are responsible for innovation within the company. Their marketing sections differ according to the importance, organization and cooperation with other functions. With this in mind, the cases serve the purpose of providing empirical evidence about R&D-marketing cooperation within a company. The two companies come from different cultural backgrounds. Case 1 company is a Slovenian company, and case 2 is a UK based company. This puts them on two opposite spectrums of Hofstede et al.'s (2010) cultural dimensions (Figure 3), thus their comparison will give indications of cultural influences in cross-functional integration.\n4 Discussion of findings: The findings within the two cases will be presented in line with the research method used. First, the questionnaire survey results will be presented. They will then feed into the discussion of the interview results. Finally cross-case comparison will be done through the use of QJ method.\n5 Conclusions: This research is in line with the most current development within the field, suggesting that traditional models should be emphasized less and more focus should be placed on country-specific factors, especially when choosing an international business location (Jain et al., 2013).\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: This paper takes an exploratory approach towards understanding the applicability of established theoretical frameworks for cross-functional integration in different global environments. In particular, the role of culture is considered as its impact on organizations may affect the ability to create a global generic model for cross-functional integration in product development. In order to achieve this aim, the paper will explore two cases from different cultural environments, namely that of Slovenia and the UK.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The authors compare two different companies, based on their case profile and cultural background. Both are heavy engineering companies involved in product development, one originating in the developing economy of Slovenia, the other from the developed UK economy. The authors have employed a mix methodology, including literature and documentation analysis, questionnaire surveys and interviews.\nFindings: Combining organizational climate and consequently informal cooperation with formal organizational schemes, when allowing moderate levels of authority, can be beneficial for NPD success and R&D-marketing integration. These findings confirm the theoretical principles of Gupta et al., but are to some extent actually directly connected to NPD success, rather than to the R&D-marketing interface. The framework might be valid when exploring a large sample of companies at national levels, but needs further specifications and expansion when employed in a single case company. Furthermore, the two studied cases show that special care needs to be placed on taking account of cultural differences, when employing NPD in different locations/international business units.\nOriginality/value: The paper presents a case comparison of cross-functional integration in two different cultural contexts. From this exploratory research, the main contribution highlights the key role of cultural context in developing effective cross-functional interfaces in product development.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
The role of labour migration inflows on R&D and innovation activity: evidence from Russian regions	[ "Knowledge spillovers", "Innovation process", "Russian regions", "Labour migration" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: According to endogenous growth theory, the knowledge formation and technological innovation have important effects on productivity and growth (Solow, 1957; Romer, 1990; Aghion and Howitt, 1992). A key role in the knowledge production function is assumed by skilled labour input (Caballero and Jaffe, 1993; Pekkala Kerr and Kerr, 2011). We can define the number of people from other countries (or from other regions of the country) as an inflow of immigrants (incoming migrants) [1]. Depending on the educational level of immigrants, the native employees respond by increasing the own investment in human capital. This process could lead to important effects to the innovation activity and thus to the economic growth of the country. In particular, in case of immigrants' human capital higher than the natives' one the positive externalities still occur, and migration policies may be considered as a source of investment in human capital, while if incoming migrants have a lower level of human capital, positive externalities may be reversed. However, migration inflows will reduce the average human capital level.\n2. Literature review: migration and innovation: The analysis of the relevant literature shows that there many examples of empirical studies that analyze the effects of migration [2] (that in the context of the reviewed papers is primarily counted (measured and understood) as immigration [3] process i.e. as inflows of (high- or low-skilled) immigrants to the region or to the country from other regions of the same country of from other countries) on innovations on different levels (countries, cities, sectors of economy, firms):\n3. Theoretical framework: Following an interesting strand of economic literature (Acemoglu, 1996; Aldieri and Vinci, 2017), this section hopes to give a basic framework for our empirical investigation devoted to explore the economic effects of migration inflows in a framework of potential increasing returns in human, physical and knowledge capital accumulation. The characteristics of immigrants (i.e. incoming migrants) have a key role in charging whether or not migration inflows may yield positive special effects on the welfare of the receiving economy. We assume the being of two economies: a receiving, characterized by diverse geographic areas, and a foreign one, and focus on the effects of internal (from other regions of the country) and external (from other countries) migration inflows on a particular region of the host economy.\n4. Data and empirical approach: To estimate the effect of migration inflows on the R&D and innovation activity we consider a model linked to R&D and technological innovations expenditures, innovation systems and knowledge spillovers, as in Aldieri et al. (2018) and Rodriguez-Pose and Villarreal Peralta (2015), that is equation (17):\n5. Results and discussion: The situation concerning the migration flows in Russia is interesting to be investigated. For a better understanding, we provide a map of Federal subjects of the Russian Federation by types in Figure A1 in Appendix and the maps of eight Federal Districts (FD) of the Russian Federation with composition of federal subjects included into each Federal District (as on start of 2018) [9] in Figures A2-A9 in Appendix. Indeed, the key \"absorbers\" of migrants from other region in Russia are: Moscow (with +99.8 ths. persons of net migration inflow from other regions in 2015); Moscow region (+66.8 ths. persons) - both from Central FD; Saint-Petersburg (+51.2 ths. persons) - North-Western FD and Krasnodar Krai (+41.7 ths. persons) - Southern FD. Moscow, Moscow region and Saint-Petersburg are among the most economically developed regions of Russia while Krasnodar Krai is the most economically developed region in Southern FD. On the other hand, the regions with the highest negative migration outflow to other regions in 2015 are: Republic of Dagestan (-14.2 ths. persons of net migration outflow) - North-Caucasus FD; Volgograd region (-9.8 ths. persons) - Southern FD; Kemerovo Region (-9.8 ths. persons) - Siberian FD; Orenburg region (-9.7 ths. persons) - Volga FD; Arkhangelsk region (-9.1 ths. person) - Northwestern FD; Republic of Bashkortostan (-8.7 ths. person) - Volga FD; Irkutsk region (-8.1 ths. persons) - Siberian FD; Omsk region (8.0 ths. region) - Siberian FD. Looking at interregional migration flows \"density\" and taking the ratio of net migration inflow/outflow to the population of the region we should state that in 2015 the leader by this indicator is Sevastopol: +2.39%. The other regions with relatively high ratio of net migration inflow to the population of the regions are: Saint-Petersburg (+0.98%); Leningrad region (+0.92%); Moscow region (+0.91%); Moscow (+0.81%); Krasnodar Krai (+0.76%). Regions with the highest ratio of net migration outflow from other region to its population are: Magadan region (-1.81%); Chukotka Autonomous District (-1.41%); Jewish Autonomous Oblast (-1.26%); Komi Republic (-1.11%); Republic of Kalmykia (-1.02%).\n6. Conclusions: The purpose of this paper is that of investigating the impact of migration inflows on R&D and innovation process in Russia (measured as expenditures on R&D and technological innovations). We can define the number of people from other countries and other Russian regions as an inflow of migrants. Depending on the educational level of immigrants (i.e. incoming migrants), the native employees respond by increasing the own investment in human capital. This process could lead to important effects to the R&D and innovation activity and thus to the economic growth of the country. In particular, in case of incoming migrants' human capital higher than the natives' one the positive externalities still occur, and migration policies may be considered as a source of investment in human capital, while if incoming migrants have a lower level of human capital, positive externalities may be reversed. However, migration inflows will reduce the average human capital level.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: What is the effect of an increase of migration inflows on the R&D and innovative performance of developing countries? The purpose of this paper is to investigate the impact of migration inflows on the R&D and innovation activity (measured as expenditures on R&D and technological innovations) in Russian regions.\nDesign/methodology/approach: To this end, the authors use data on 85 Russian regions for the period 2010-2016 through a multi-region economic geography model. In particular, the authors test the hypothesis about the importance of migration inflows on R&D and technological innovation activity (H1) and the hypothesis about the importance of immigrants' (incoming migrants) human capital (measured by the education level of incoming migrants) on R&D and innovation activity (H2).\nFindings: Empirical findings support the evidence in favour of a positive causal link between innovation and migration inflows. Results of our investigation are important because they suggest useful insights for formulating science and innovation policies in Russia, which is a developing country where the recent policies favouring the technological innovation as the transition period have not yet achieved a satisfying outcome.\nOriginality/value: This paper increases the knowledge in the field with respect to the existing literature, shedding further light on the migration inflows effects, which is a political topic to manage very relevant in all countries.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
The role of information technology in strengthening human resources for health : The case of the Pacific Open Learning Health Network	[ "Public health", "Human resources", "Information technology", "Network", "Health services professional education", "Continuing education", "Pacific", "Open learning" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: The human resources for health (HRH) shortage is a significant global concern posing a serious challenge to equitable healthcare delivery. It is well acknowledged that HRH quality essentially impacts on health system performance (Kanchanachitra et al., 2011). Appropriate structures for professional and personal support and for quality management processes for members of the health workforce are essential in any health system. It has been established that continuing education (CE), interactive training and professional development geared towards priority health conditions and needs of the local population improves health professionals' competency and motivation (Hongoro and Normand, 2006; Henderson and Tulloch, 2008; World Health Organization (WHO), 2006; Mathauer and Imhoff, 2006). Implementing lifelong learning strategies is necessary and can be achieved at low cost, and has been identified to have a moderate effect on health professionals' performance (WHO, 2006). CE and training are understood to be important drivers that enable workers to cope with job requirements and take on more challenging tasks thereby contributing to job satisfaction and improved healthcare delivery (Willis-Shattuck et al., 2008; Mathauer and Imhoff, 2006). Furthermore, CE facilitates better workforce responsiveness towards the specific health needs of rural and remote populations and other disadvantaged groups (WHO, 2006).\nPacific Open Learning Health Network (POLHN) and the Pacific: POLHN is an initiative created in response to the HRH shortage and skills misalignment in the Pacific. The POLHN project was established in 2003 through partnership between Pacific Ministries of Health and the World Health Organization, in response to a recognised lack of access to CE for health professionals across the region. Since its inception, POLHN has grown into a network of 38 computer labs, in hospitals and health centres across 12 Pacific island countries. Through a central web site, POLHN offers access to self-paced online/desktop courses, as well as sponsorship for health professionals to participate in online postgraduate and diploma programmes (www.polhn.org).\nMethods: A systematic search of literature in English was conducted using ProQuest and the National Library of Medicine's (PubMed) databases between 1990 and 2012. Key words used included: Human resources for health (HRH): human resource [], health, public health, health professional [], brain drain, health care worker [], AND Continuing education (CE): continuing education, continuing medical education, study, professional development, accreditation, registration, OR Information technology (IT): technology, information technolog []. computer [*], telemedicine, telehealth, online learning, e-learning, digital divide, internet, and satellite. All titles and/or abstracts were screened to identify original publications. The search was extended by scrutinising the references of selected articles and only articles for which the full text and abstract was available were considered. Due to the paucity of information, only studies relevant to the three search areas including HRH, IT and CE were included. This search was complemented by a manual search of POLHN's archives.\nFindings: The summary of two areas identified from literature and POLHN's archives is discussed below under two main themes: first, innovation including technology and its relevance in health professionals' CE and practice and second, governance of CE in relation to human resources and IT, including management and coordination concerns related to quality assurance, participation and control and access to resources.\nInnovation: incorporating new technologies: The potential role of IT in strengthening HRH is significant. The contemporary information age is characterised by rapid technological developments that routinely affect social change. Research into the potential applications of innovative technologies has advocated their use in streamlining processes, enhancing communications, education and health promotion. However, as computer literacy, IT awareness and comfort levels vary, particularly among health professionals in the Pacific, some of the potential uses of innovative technologies may be beyond the current capacity of users. A further consideration is the potential cost of implementing innovative technologies effectively, particularly if adequate explanation, user training and testing must accompany implementation. While innovative new technologies may stimulate discussion and progressive ideas, practical considerations in relation to planning, implementation, cost, effective monitoring and evaluation are necessary to address concerns of viability and sustainability.\nSocial media: An example of recent innovative IT development is social media. Social media in this paper refers to web sites that support the creation and sharing of user-generated content (Yamout et al., 2011a). User-generated content refers to information created by people who do not typically fit within the term \"professional\". In the twentieth century, information was packaged by professionals and delivered to users. In the twenty-first century this transmission has become increasingly conversational, user driven and participatory (George, 2011). The over-arching framework for online collaboration and information sharing is known as Web 2.0. Web 2.0 refers to the evolution of the internet as a platform that revolves around the creation of networks which get bigger and better as more people use them (Musser and O'Reilly, 2006).\nTelehealth: In addition to social media, telehealth is another example of IT advances useful for improving HRH. Telehealth is a broad term describing the use of technologies to improve remote health services through a number of means, including telemedicine, distance education, e-mail and cell phone use. Telemedicine refers to the clinical use of information and technology to improve the health status of patients (Wootton and Bonnardot, 2010). Simulation involves replicating real life conditions in a learning environment to practice skills (Elliott et al., 2011). Simulations can involve human interaction in the form of role-play activities or human-machine interaction, where the simulation combines elements of role-play and computer processes interacting with a learner. Possible uses of cell phones include facilitating surveillance information collection, service delivery, evidenced-based practice, management of supply systems and transmission of health messages (Ajay and Prabhakaran, 2011; Zolfo et al., 2010). In Fiji, the Vodafone foundation has recently rolled out the \"mhealth\" application that provides subscribers with daily health tips and through a network of 20 volunteer doctors responding to text messages, subscribers can text their symptoms to receive brief medical advice (Vodafone Foundation, 2012).\nDiscussion: The above examples of technological innovation share several commonalities that can guide engagement with new technologies. First, interactivity appears to be a key element in recent technologies. Interactivity refers to the two-way flow of information between people, or people and things, such as machines or electronic devices. A second inference is that recent technological developments have been concerned with information access, creation and/or sharing. Third, technologies have often sought to facilitate communication. Finally, many technologies are intended to streamline or increase the effectiveness of processes. Accordingly, we can approach new technologies by recognising recurring values of interactivity; information access, creation and sharing; communication; and simplicity.\nDiscussion: Accordingly, while CE resources and opportunities are increasing, greater attention is needed to ensure resources are founded on quality research, and are relevant and appropriate to the health professionals using them. Additionally, greater diversification of the methods by which people can obtain CE should be explored continually in line with technological innovations. As health systems move towards people-centred practice, it is important to have an understanding of technologies that are increasingly relevant and utilised by people in their daily lives. Coupled with diversification and quality assurance, CE legislative and policy frameworks should move from using quantitative measures of participation in CE, to incorporate qualitative indicators such as improved practice, skills transfer and teaching, and contributing to research. Effective integration of CE and human resource development strategies would facilitate meaningful up-skilling of staff and provide greater motivation for employees to value lifelong learning.\nConclusion: CE is a key aspect in overcoming the HRH shortage. As the gateway to CE in the Pacific, POLHN contributes to improved skills and knowledge among health professionals who can, as a result, deliver better health services. In a region as geographically dispersed and isolated as the Pacific, innovations in IT offer a means of overcoming challenges posed by distance, limited infrastructure and small remote communities. Innovative technologies can be useful in streamlining processes, enhancing communication, education and health promotion. Recent technologies, such as social media, and telehealth tools, such as simulations and cell phones, share common elements of interactivity; information access, creation and sharing; communication; and simplicity. As these appear to be recurring values in new technologies, health professionals and policy makers can approach future technologies by looking for these values in order to better understand how technologies might be relevant and useful in practice.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to discuss innovative ways of addressing human resources for health (HRH) shortage in the Pacific, supported by a review of the literature and the Pacific Open Learning Health Network (POLHN), a programme created in response to the Pacific's HRH concern.\nDesign/methodology/approach: A systematic search was conducted of English literature between 1990 and 2012. A number of key words, singly and/or in combination, were used to search for articles on ProQuest and PubMed. Original articles were identified and reference lists scrutinised to obtain additional literature. Due to the paucity of information, only narrative review was conducted and themes emerging from the literature identified and critically reviewed.\nFindings: There is a worldwide HRH shortage and a need to improve the skills of the health workforce to respond to changing population health needs. Continuing education (CE) through use of information technology (IT) is a means to strengthen HRH. POLHN is one example of an initiative to improve health worker skills and motivation. Technological change is increasingly common place in society. To make sense of these changes, practitioners can look for common themes in successful technological innovations of interactivity; information access, creation or sharing; communication; and simplicity. To ensure effective regulation of CE and IT there is a need to incorporate qualitative as well as quantitative measures, to prioritise the creation of quality, relevant, and appropriate resources and to facilitate access and active participation by health workers.\nOriginality/value: The paper highlights the complexity of HRH shortage as a global problem, which demands multiple initiatives to respond to the shortage in the pursuit of skilled, equitable and just delivery of health services and distribution of health service providers. One initiative that has worked elsewhere is professional development of health professionals through the provision of CE using IT. Online learning offers a pathway to address HRH shortage and overcomes challenges posed by distance, limited infrastructure and in small remote communities. POLHN contributes to improved skills and knowledge among health professionals who can, as a result, deliver better health services in a region as geographically dispersed and isolated as the Pacific.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Time-based competence and performance: an empirical analysis	[ "Performance", "Time-based competitiveness", "Time-based manufacturing capability", "Time-based manufacturing competence" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Today's business environment is characterized by global competitive pressures. Traditional competitive factors such as cost and quality are no longer enough to sustain a competitive advantage. Firms must be aware of the many competitive dimensions in today's market in order to achieve success, and they must be quick to introduce a variety of products, maintain low cost and high quality, and produce products in the least possible amount of time (Nadeau and Mitch Casselman, 2008). This means that firms should adopt a multi-competitive advantage orientation which enables them to survive in today's global competition.\nLiterature review: In today's world-class competition, firms must adopt a time-based business strategy and a time-based manufacturing strategy (Grahovac and Miller, 2009). In the competitive environment of the last part of the twentieth century, innovations in competitive strategy have had life cycles of ten to fifteen years (Stalk and Hout, 1990). Stalk and Hout (1990) traced the evolution of Japanese manufacturing competition, suggesting that Japanese companies' best illustrate the stages of competition through which today's leading companies have evolved to obtain multi-competitive advantages. Competition has evolved through several stages.\nMethodology: This study was based on an empirical investigation of manufacturing firms in the steel minimill industry in the USA. In manufacturing, as in the service industry, a time-based competitor is emerging in virtually every manufacturing segment (Blackburn, 1991). The steel minimill industry was chosen for this study because of the fact that it has achieved significant growth as a result of adopting a time-based production process. The adoption of such a process reflects a time-based orientation. The introduction of flexibility and other innovative management techniques has contributed to this success, and this study's objective was to determine whether the time element has played a role in that success. The steel minimill industry is an example of an industry in which time is an essential factor of its competitiveness.\nData analysis: Prior to analyzing the data a profile of the SMEs in the sample is provided with respect to plant capacity and market share. The steel minimill plants produce a vast variety of product lines, which are generally referred to as long products. The structure of the companies that participated in this study is either single plant or multiplant firm. Steel industry operations had been based mainly on integrated systems until the 1980s, when businesses became more aware of the strategic role of time, and it was then that the steel industry adopted minimill operations. The integrated steel industry in the USA has suffered a decline in growth and global competitiveness, but plants that incorporated the minimill process in their operations have achieved a remarkable growth in a declining industry. The minimill process has been limited to plants with small capacity. The capacity of minimill operations is relatively small compared to that of the integrated system. Table I indicates that the level of capacity for more than 88 percent of the participant plants is less than one million tons per year supporting their classification as SMEs. In fact, more than half of the participant plants have a capacity of fewer than 400,000 tons per year.\nDiscussion: The findings from this study indicate a significant positive relationship between TBMC and business performance. The most salient notion in strategy research is that business strategy guides manufacturing strategy (Anderson et al., 1989; Koufteros and Vonderembse, 2003). The positive relationship between time-based competitiveness and time-based manufacturing capability supports this notion. The degree of importance of competitive priorities has a positive relationship with the degree of the strength in the manufacturing capabilities.\nConclusions: This study has contributed significantly to SME strategy theory and practice in several ways. First, the significant positive relationships that this study empirically explored between time-based constructs and performance provides support for the notion that time-based strategy enables SMEs to achieve a sustainable competitive advantage. This suggests that TBMC allows SMEs to attain high performance. Second, this study's findings identified the need for time-based competition. The literature suggests that the strategic focus on time enables SMEs to obtain a sustainable competitive advantage (e.g. Tian et al., 2010). Nevertheless, this suggestion has been based on conceptual rather than empirical research. The results of this study provide empirical support for that suggestion.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to evaluate the relationship between time-based manufacturing competence (TBMC), time-based competitiveness, time-based manufacturing capability, and the performance of SMEs engaged in the steel minimill industry in the USA.\nDesign/methodology/approach: This study was based on an empirical investigation of manufacturing firms in the steel minimill industry in the USA. The sample of firms was provided by the US Association of Iron and Steel Engineers. In order to obtain valid and reliable measures of the variables, previously validated scales were used to measure all variables. The primary data for the study were collected from a self-administered mail survey of 137 SMEs with the sample consisting of 71 SMEs indicating a response rate of 52 percent.\nFindings: Statistically significant positive relationships were found between all independent variables and performance. The results also indicate that the high performers have a higher TBMC than the low performers. The findings further confirm the assertion in the manufacturing strategy literature which states that time, as a strategic factor, is a source of competitive advantage.\nResearch limitations/implications: From a methodological perspective, a potential concern may be that the measures are all self-reported. Consequently, the relationships tested may be susceptible to the influence of common method variance.\nPractical implications: TBMC enables SMEs to offer high-quality products at low cost and in a timely manner. This reflects the value of the positive relationship between TBMC and business performance.\nOriginality/value: This study's finding identifies the need for time-based competition. The literature suggests that the strategic focus on time enables firms to obtain a sustainable competitive advantage. Nevertheless, this suggestion has been based on conceptual rather than empirical research. The results of this study provide empirical support for that suggestion with respect to SMEs.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
How does customer participation in service influence customer satisfaction? The mediating effects of role stressors	[ "Role conflict", "Customer participation", "Customer satisfaction", "Role ambiguity", "Customer compliance", "Customer creativity" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: The literature in service marketing has redefined the role of customers as the \"active producer,\" rather than the traditional \"passive audience\" (Verleye, 2015; Caru and Cova, 2015; Gummesson et al., 2014). This is because service output needs to be produced by the collaboration of service providers and customers. Customer participation refers to the degree of customer involvement in the production and delivery of services (Dabholkar, 1990). Since production and consumption occur at the same time in most of the services, the customers must participate in the production and delivery of the services. For the organizations which aim at improving customer satisfaction through increasing the degree of customer participation, it is vital to understand the impact of customers' participation on their evaluations.\n2. Theoretical background: 2.1 The impact of customer participation on customer satisfaction\n3. Conceptual framework and hypotheses: The conceptual framework of the current work is shown in Figure 1. Based on the role stressor theory, we propose a model to explain how customer participation width and depth affect the role stressors (role ambiguity and role conflict), and how the role stressors affect the customer role behaviors and satisfaction.\n4. Method: 4.1 Data collection and sample\n5. Results and discussions: 5.1 General discussion\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to examine the impact of customer participation on role behaviors and customer satisfaction. The mediating role of role stressors is also examined.\nDesign/methodology/approach: Based on literature reviews, a survey of 317 bank customers was conducted in Central China, using a structured questionnaire. Structural equation modeling was used for data analysis to test research hypotheses.\nFindings: The current work found that the inconsistency between the role expectations from participating customers and service providers would increase the customer perceived role stress. Therefore, customer participating width and depth can affect customer satisfaction in two different ways. On the one hand, role stressors (i.e. role ambiguity and role conflict) in customer participation have a negative effect on customer compliance, decreasing customer satisfaction. On the other hand, role stressors have a positive effect on customer creativity, increasing customer satisfaction.\nOriginality/value: No prior studies, thus far, have examined how customer perceived role stressors in service participation affect customers' role performance and satisfaction in the service process. The current research identifies the characteristics of customer participation from the perspectives of task role set. On the basis of role stressor theory, this research examines the effects of customer participation width and depth on customer satisfaction using customer perceived role stressors as mediating variables. This research also investigates the mixed effect of role stressors on customer satisfaction. It provides empirical support for the role of customers as \"co-creators\" by distinguishing customers' creative behaviors from customer compliance and finds the positive effect of role stressors on customer satisfaction via customer creativity.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Relative importance of managerial skills for predicting effectiveness	[ "Managerial skills", "Managerial effectiveness", "Management skills", "Management effectiveness", "Relative importance" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n__NO_TITLE__: Human capital resources are viewed as strategic assets, and managers in particular are often identified as a key source of competitive advantage (Barney, 1991). Given their importance, a critical question arises regarding what individuals need to learn to become more effective managers. Are there particular skills that are more or less important for predicting overall managerial success? To address this question, one must first identify the types of skills that are possessed by managers. Scullen et al. (2003) conducted an in-depth construct validity study to identify a coherent and reliable set of managerial skills. Across multiple rating sources (e.g. supervisors, peers, and subordinates) and different instruments, Scullen et al. identified four overarching managerial skill dimensions:1. technical skill;2. administrative skill;3. human skill; and4. citizenship behavior.Despite the overwhelming support for the existence of these four managerial skills, questions remain regarding the utility of these four skills in predicting overall managerial effectiveness. The purpose of this paper is to examine the relative importance of these four managerial skills for predicting overall managerial effectiveness. In addition, we explore two potential moderators (gender and organizational level) of the managerial skill-effectiveness relationship.\nManagerial skill dimensions: Some of the earliest writings on managerial skill pointed to similar typologies. Mann (1965) introduced a three-skill typology consisting of administrative competence, human-relations competence, and technical competence to describe the essential functions of a manager. Subsequently, Katz (1974) proposed a similar three-skill typology replacing administrative skill with conceptual skill[1], but retaining the other two skill dimensions. Some empirical support for these managerial skills comes from factor analytic work by Lau et al. (1980). They factor analyzed responses to 50 items describing Mintzberg's ten managerial roles, resulting in four factors. One factor comprised technical problem solving similar to Mann's technical competence. A second factor labeled supervision appears to parallel the human-relations skill. The final two factors identified by Lau et al. correspond to information gathering and planning and decision making, which mirror conceptual/administrative skill.Although different typologies of managerial skills exist, the most recent in-depth empirical investigation of managerial skills was conducted by Scullen et al. (2003). They developed a four-factor typology of managerial skills consisting of technical skill, administrative skill, human skill, and citizenship behavior based on prior work by Mann (1965), Katz (1974), and Coleman and Borman (2000). Technical skill refers to a manager's proficiency in specific methods or techniques related to that manager's functional area. Administrative skill subsumes areas such as planning, organizing, delegating, and coordinating. Human skill is concerned with a manager's ability to interact and work effectively with team members. Citizenship behavior attempts to capture other beneficial aspects of work behavior such as being cooperative, loyal, and persistent.Scullen et al. (2003) empirically tested their four-factor typology in two stages. Initially, they had subject matter experts sort items from two 360-degree assessments of managerial competencies into the four skill types. Subsequently, using thousands of ratings from multiple sources (e.g. peers, supervisors, and subordinates), Scullen et al. conducted a confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) of two rating instruments consisting of 34 skill measures completed for developmental purposes. Results of the CFAs yielded excellent fit, indicating that their hypothesized four-factor model provided a good fit to the data for both instruments and for all rating sources. Because some skills were highly correlated, Scullen et al. tested three-factor CFA models by combining correlated skills and comparing them to the four-factor model to test for skill redundancies. They also compared the four-factor model to a unidimensional model in which all managerial skill items loaded onto a single factor. In each case, the four-factor model fit the data significantly better than did the alternative models. As such, Scullen et al. concluded that their analyses consistently provided evidence of four conceptually and empirically distinguishable skills across multiple rating perspectives.Scullen et al. (2003) made important contributions to our understanding of the construct validity of managerial skills. They clearly demonstrated that peers, supervisors, and subordinates recognize these four skills when rating managers via 360 assessments. Although previous studies have established a positive relationship between single, global 360 measures of managerial skills and managerial effectiveness (e.g. Atwater et al., 1998), questions remain regarding the importance of these four skills from Scullen et al.'s framework for predicting managers' effectiveness. This study intends to fill this void by examining the relationship between these skills and managerial effectiveness using one of the 360-degree instruments (Benchmarks(r); CCL, 2004) factor analyzed in Scullen et al. (2003).Given that raters reliably identify these four skills across raters and instruments, and that these skills are clearly believed to be relevant for managers, we expect all four skills to be related to managerial effectiveness. For example, the classic Ohio State studies (Stogdill, 1950) identified two important dimensions of managers' behavior:1. initiating structure; and2. consideration.Initiating structure concerns the likelihood that a manager will organize the work, set goals, and provide structure to employees. Consideration refers to the extent to which one develops relationships with employees and shows concern/respect for them. Both dimensions share a number of similarities with the skills identified by Scullen et al. (2003). For example, the typical conceptualization of initiating structure (e.g. \"degree to which a leader defines and organizes his role and the roles of followers, is oriented toward goal attainment, and establishes well-defined patterns and channels of communication\" Judge et al. (2004, p. 36), overlaps considerably with Scullen's administrative skill, which subsume areas such as planning, organizing, delegating, and coordinating. Similarly, consideration overlaps quite a bit conceptually with human skill. Judge et al. (2004) conducted a meta-analysis that examined the relationships between initiating structure and consideration with manager effectiveness. They found that consideration and initiating structure were positively related to effectiveness. Similarly, Whiting et al. (2008) found meta-analytic evidence suggesting a relationship between citizenship behaviors and performance evaluations.Although we expect all four managerial skill dimensions to contribute to the prediction of managerial effectiveness, we believe that some skills may be more important than others. Judge et al. (2004) found that, though both consideration and initiating structure were positively related to effectiveness, consideration was significantly more strongly related to effectiveness than initiating structure when cumulating across studies. Given these findings, we propose the following:H1. All four managerial skills, technical skill (H1a), administrative skill (H1b), human skill (H1c), and citizenship behavior (H1d), will be significant predictors of overall managerial effectiveness.H2. Human skill will be a more important predictor of managerial effectiveness than administrative skill.Though some skills may be more important than others, we also think the relative importance of various skills depends on other critical variables. In what follows, we discuss two potential moderators of these relationships.Gender as a moderator\nMethod: Participants\nResults: Means, standard deviations, and correlations for study variables are reported in Table II. Although the correlations between the skills in our sample are high, they are almost identical to the intercorrelations among the skills in Scullen et al. (2003). Moreover, despite these relatively high intercorrelations, Scullen et al. found that a four-factor model of managerial skills fit the data better than more parsimonious unidimensional and three-factor solutions. This was true across seven different data sets, multiple measures, and multiple rating sources. In addition, we conducted our own CFAs on the measures to confirm that the four-factor model fit the data better than a single-factor model despite the high skill dimension correlations. Our CFA results indicated that the four-factor model was a much better fit to the data (CFI=0.95; RMSEA=0.088; SRMR=0.05) than was the one-factor model (CFI=0.77; RMSEA=0.19; SRMR=0.09). Given this wealth of evidence, we preserved Scullen et al.'s four-factor solution for our analyzes.Providing preliminary support for H1 (a-d), technical skill (r=0.26, p < 0.001), administrative skill (r=0.36, p < 0.001), human skill (r=0.34, p < 0.001), and citizenship behavior (r=0.26, p < 0.001) were all significantly correlated with managers' overall effectiveness. Although gender and organizational level were both significantly positively correlated with citizenship behavior, their relationships with other skills were not statistically significant. Finally, there were correlations among the managerial skills, reinforcing the need to use relative weight analysis to determine their relative importance for predicting managerial effectiveness.Moderated multiple regression results\nDiscussion: This study represents one of the first attempts to empirically evaluate the relationship between managerial skill and effectiveness using a well-validated managerial skill measure. Using ratings provided by multiple sources, these results show that all four managerial skills identified by Scullen et al. (2003) are significantly important predictors of managers' perceived effectiveness. Although we predicted that human skill would be the most important, the data did not entirely support that prediction. Human skill was significantly more important than technical skill and citizenship behavior, but administrative skill, though not significantly different from human skill, was most important overall. One possible explanation for this result concerns our dependent variable. Although Judge et al. (2004) found that effectiveness was more strongly related to consideration, than initiating structure, both were similarly related to job performance. The criterion used in our study is actually a combination of managerial effectiveness and performance, which may explain why we failed to find more support for this hypothesis.Though citizenship behaviors are intended to be extra role behaviors outside the scope of the typical evaluation system, they nevertheless seem to be consistently related to evaluations (see Podsakoff et al., 2000 for a review). The statistically significant relative weight associated with citizenship behavior provides confirmation of recent meta-analytic results suggesting that citizenship behaviors are related to performance evaluations (Whiting et al., 2008). Our finding that citizenship behavior was not differentially important when compared to technical skill provides converging evidence that citizenship behavior is equally important to some aspects of task performance. However, we also make a unique contribution by identifying administrative skill as perhaps a different and more important aspect of managerial evaluations that has not been explored in prior studies of citizenship behavior.The different pattern of results obtained from the multiple regression and relative weight analysis supports the use of relative weights as an important supplement to regression, when predictors are correlated (Tonidandel and LeBreton, 2011). Researchers who fail to take the collinearity among predictors into account may mistakenly conclude that particular skills are not important for predicting managerial effectiveness (Courville and Thompson, 2001). Relying solely on the regression results, one would incorrectly conclude that not all of the managerial skills are meaningful predictors of managerial effectiveness. In contrast, relative weight analysis clearly demonstrated that all four skills explained a statistically significant amount of variance in managerial effectiveness.The results examining male-female differences in the managerial skill-effectiveness relationship failed to support our moderation hypothesis. In fact, we found a small positive relationship between gender and managerial effectiveness in favor of female managers (see Table II). These results run counter to past research; however, there are a number of potential explanations for this inconsistency. First, attitudes towards female managers may be changing. Duehr and Bono (2006) surveyed both students and managers and found that perceptions of females in managerial positions have improved, and both men and women are now thought to equally possess the traits of a successful manager. A second possible explanation for the failure to support this hypothesis may be because our measure of human skill was broad, encompassing a variety of interpersonal variables, whereas many previous studies have focused on particular stereotyped aspects of human skill such as emotional sensitivity (e.g. Byron, 2007). Recent research also suggests the perceived differences between male and female managers may not be consistent across different organizational levels or situations (Rosette and Tost, 2010). Finally, prior cited research (e.g. Byron, 2007; Heilman et al., 2004; Heilman and Okimoto, 2007) that found male-female differences in evaluations based on gender stereotypes was conducted using laboratory experiments. In contrast, Duehr and Bono (2006) found that actual managers had more favorable impressions of female managers than did college students. Taken together, these findings imply that bias toward females in management positions may be less prevalent in real-world settings. Because there is limited information available to participants making judgments in laboratory settings, seemingly irrelevant features may influence those judgments. However, when more information about a target is available, as is the case in real-world settings, gender may play less of a role in the evaluation. Our results are consistent with these notions. Despite the non-significant findings for gender as a moderator, our research fills an important void by investigating these relationships with practicing managers.This study found partial support for organizational level as a moderator. As predicted, administrative skill was significantly more important for executives than for middle managers. Looking at the raw relative weights (see Table VI), which can be interpreted as a measure of effect size, administrative skill was able to explain over three times more variance in the executive sample than in the middle manager sample. That is, administrative skill explained 11.1 percent of the variance in managerial effectiveness for the executive sample but only explained 3.6 percent of the criterion variance in the middle manager sample. We also predicted human skill would be significantly more important for middle managers than for executives, but we failed to find support for this hypothesis. The discrepancy between our finding and past research may be a result of our conceptualization of human skill as a broad construct, whereas past research examined specific aspects of human skill such as warmth (Kaiser and Craig, 2005). Nevertheless, in retrospect, our results are quite consistent with Mumford et al.'s (2007) findings regarding the perceived skill requirements across managerial levels. According to their results, the perceived requirements of all four skill dimensions increased as managers moved up the organizational hierarchy, and the rate of increase was steepest for business and strategic skill. Similarly, our results showed increased actual importance at higher organizational levels for all four of the skill dimensions. However, the increases seen for interpersonal skills (human skill and citizenship behavior) were less than what was observed for business-related skills (administrative and technical skill). Thus, the pattern of results observed for the relative weights across organizational level is in fact consistent with our initial expectations.Limitations and future research\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: - The purpose of this paper is to examine the relative importance of four managerial skill dimensions (technical skill, administrative skill, human skill, and citizenship behavior) for predicting managerial effectiveness. In addition, it aims to explore whether the relative importance of these skill dimensions varies as a function of gender or organizational level.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - Participants were 733 managers enrolled in a nationally recognized leadership development program. Ratings of managerial skill were obtained from peers using a well-validated 360-degree assessment instrument, while manager effectiveness ratings were provided by supervisors. Moderated multiple regression and relative weight analysis were used to test the study's hypotheses.\nFindings: - Using ratings provided by multiple sources, these results show that all four of the managerial skill dimensions were significantly important predictors of manager effectiveness. Human skills were significantly more important than technical skill and citizenship behavior, while administrative skills were most important overall. Gender was not a significant moderator of the skill-effectiveness relationship, but organizational level was.\nPractical implications: - Individuals tasked with selecting, developing, or placing managers should take all four skill dimensions into account. Moreover, special consideration should be given to administrative skill, and this emphasis should increase for managers higher up in the organizational hierarchy.\nOriginality/value: - Although prior research has speculated about the importance of different managerial skills, this study is the first to provide empirical support for this skill typology in predicting actual managerial effectiveness using appropriate statistical analyses for examining the relative importance of these skill dimensions.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Exploring voluntary external disclosure of intellectual capital in listed companies: An integrated intellectual capital disclosure conceptual model	[ "Stakeholders", "Intellectual capital", "Disclosure", "Intellectual capital disclosure", "Listed companies", "Voluntary external disclosure" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: The communication process allows a company to interact with its stakeholders (Meigs et al., 2001). They need an open, honest, transparent and comprehensive communication strategy (Giacosa, 2012; Nielsen and Madsen, 2009) for evaluating the company's economic and business activity (Strathern, 2000) and the consequent supply of resources. In light of some well-publicized accounting scandals, such as those of Enron and Parmalat, the need for transparent and comprehensive communication has never been more pressing. Indeed, the \"lack of innocence\" (Strathern, 2000) caused such major financial misdemeanours.\n2. Literature backbone: A vast amount of literature focusses on ICD, as IC is one of the most representative and elucidating resources a company owns (Dumay, 2012). Indeed, IC contributes towards the company's value creation (Blair and Wallman, 2001; Goldfinger, 1997; Trequattrini et al., 2012) and the development of a sustainable competitive advantage (Kremp and Mairesse, 2002). In this branch of research, several definitions of ICD have been proposed by various authors (Guthrie et al., 2012; Dumay, 2009, 2013, 2014; Baldini and Liberatore, 2016). From all of the definitions of ICD given in the literature, the one chosen for the purpose of this study is from Dumay (2016): disclosure is \"the revelation of information that was previously secret or unknown\". Our literature review was made according to the way companies may increase transparency towards stakeholders through an effective ICD and within a \"sender to receiver\" model (Nielsen and Madsen, 2009; Parker et al., 1989; Van Riel, 2000) (which is so useful for our research as illustrated in the Research Method section).\n3. Methodology: As already mentioned, a model that illustrates the relationships between voluntary ICD mechanisms is absent from the literature. This represents an important research gap that this paper aims to fill. This model should produce an effective voluntary ICD, in which both the company and the stakeholders play a relevant role. In particular, it should practically assist the production of a successful voluntary external ICD and would also make way for a mechanism for feedback from external stakeholders. On this basis, our research question has to identify the most relevant dimensions that have an impact on an effective voluntary ICD, which the company has to take into careful consideration within the relationship with the stakeholders. Therefore, we set out the following research question:\n4. The dimensions of the ICD conceptual model: Each dimension of our conceptual ICD model is analysed below and illustrated in Figure 1. The conceptual model is then developed in the following section, considering the combination of each dimension in turn and highlighting some mechanisms for an effective ICD.\n5. The mechanisms beyond the ICD conceptual model: Each dimension of the ICD conceptual model (when, what, how) has been discussed in the previous section, highlighting the features that may impact an effective ICD. In this section, our conceptual model is developed. As stated into the methodology section, our first level of investigation is the frequency of ICD. Each level of frequency has been combined with the contents and the means for an effective ICD. This combination allows us to identify and discuss six mechanisms for an effective periodic reporting, and seven mechanisms for a disclosure at time of events by which the company may reach an effective ICD (Figure 2).\n6. Theoretical implications: The research contributes to the literature on ICD in terms of some theoretical implications. These have been reached by contextualizing ICD into the \"sender to receiver\" model (Parker et al., 1989; Van Riel, 2000), from the point of view of both the sender (the company) and the receiver (the stakeholders). We can identify two main theoretical implications in particular.\n7. Conclusions, managerial implications and limitations: The proposed model shows that an effective ICD may only be achieved through a combination of decisions - in terms of when, what and how ICD should be communicated - taking into account each individual company's needs and those of the stakeholders. The dimensions on which our conceptual model is based (the frequency, the contents, and the means) are already in use in general communication models (Corvi, 2000; Giacosa, 2012). It means that the principles and concepts of other widespread generic disclosure models may also be applied to the production of an effective voluntary ICD. It may benefit the company to make an effective ICD (Chiucchi and Montemari, 2016; Giacosa and Mazzoleni, 2012).\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to create a conceptual model that practically assists companies to produce an effective voluntary external intellectual capital disclosure (ICD) and valorises both the company's and the stakeholders' role. It illustrates the relationship among voluntary ICD mechanisms and it takes into consideration the feedback mechanism from external stakeholders.\nDesign/methodology/approach: Nielsen and Madsen's (2009) study constitutes the framework of the conceptual model, as it refers to a \"sender to receiver\" model, which is particularly useful for the research.\nFindings: An effective ICD may only be achieved through a combination of decisions taking into account each individual company's needs and those of stakeholders' ones. In addition, the dimensions on which the conceptual model is based are already in use in other widespread disclosure models, and this favours the company.\nResearch limitations/implications: Limitations concern design features, recipients and validity of the conceptual model. In terms of theoretical implications, the model emphasizes an \"integrated ICD\" approach; in addition, the model is based on some dimensions which characterize widespread and general communication models already in use.\nPractical implications: First, this relates to the production of an effective ICD when considered as \"one-way information\", from the company to the stakeholders. Second, this relates to the interaction between the company and its stakeholders, within a dyadic exchange.\nOriginality/value: The conceptual model is based on some dimensions which characterize widespread and general communication models already in use, which in the model are applied to ICD. Therefore, companies may favour making an ICD, as they are already confident and familiar with these dimensions.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Making sure the training travels: Goal-setting way to transfer knowledge	[ "Coaching", "Knowledge transfer", "Leadership development", "Learning", "Training", "Transformational leadership," ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nDo not assume that what is taught will be automatically applied: According to Plato, the learning and knowledge that we have is, at the most, but little compared with that of which we are ignorant. According to a Chinese proverb, learning is a treasure that will follow its owner everywhere. According to modern-day cynics (or maybe they are just realists) involved in teaching and coaching, a huge chunk of what we learn at management training programs does not follow us far beyond the training center door, and a further large proportion of what is remembered is not applied to the job.Bearing in mind that, despite current financial constraints, huge sums are still being spent on management and supervisory training - it is a multi-billion dollar industry in the USA alone - forgetfulness and lack of application is quite an expense. Training that does not travel to where it has to be implemented is a waste of time and money.Even so, while many organizations have reduced or cancelled training programs, management and supervisory training appears to have been recognized as an investment that forward-thinking companies cannot do without and there are signs that, rather than being a reducing resource, it is increasing. According to Training magazine's 2009 Industry Report, while overall industry spending was down, mid-sized companies saw an increase in spending per learner.So, if significant sums continue to be spent on leadership training, management development and management training, it is a no-brainer to merely assume that what is taught will be automatically transferred to the workplace. Retention of what is being taught, and how it is transferred into organizational performance, has to be planned more effectively. Improving the long-term outcomes of training courses should be a priority for training suppliers, but there can still be a weakness if those being trained, those whose skills are being developed, and their organizations, adopt a passive role. Taking responsibility for your own training and development, and for transferring new knowledge, self-confidence and expertise to the workplace is also essential.Carter McNamara of Minnesota-based Authenticity Consulting, says: \"Management development is an effort (hopefully, planned in nature) that enhances the learner's capacity to manage organizations (or oneself). Very simply put, managing includes activities of planning, organizing, leading and coordinating resources. A critical skill for anyone is the ability to manage their own learning. You are much more likely to learn useful skills in management if you develop and implement a training plan.\"\nAccepting responsibility for your own learning: Taking responsibility for managing your own learning can be a tall order for many people who adopt the easier \"Teach me and I'll learn\" approach. However, merely being instructed - no matter how dynamic, attention-grabbing and motivational the training - has the inherent fault of not addressing the potentially short lifespan of newly-acquired knowledge, nor of how to share newly-acquired skills with associates. Some of the \"new stuff\" which those fresh from training are no doubt eager to share and put into practice, can also drift away when the priority becomes getting the job done. That is when the \"old stuff\" tends to reassert its influence.Accepting responsibility for your own learning can - indeed must - involve responsibly setting some goals for yourself. Instructors/coaches can also set goals but the individual is often best placed to know which, and how many, will be appropriate. Discussing this prior to the learning can be advantageous even though the discussion might be somewhat contentious. Some hold the opinion that specific, difficult-to-achieve goals are best for concentrating the mind and constantly, if sometimes unconsciously, testing the training against desired outcomes in the workplace. Others hold the view that more indistinct, easier-to-achieve goals are more appropriate in that they allow the learner to absorb knowledge and develop their skills without the pressure of \"ticking the box\" of a difficult goal. Others suggest even fewer demands should be put on the learner, who should merely be advised to \"do your best.\"Travor C. Brown, a professor of labor relations and human resources, and Martin McCracken, a lecturer in organizational behavior, consider goal-setting to be one of the most effective workplace motivational techniques. They say: \"The positive relationship between goals and efficacy is important to management development because the effectiveness of learning interventions is deemed to be dependent upon the degree to which they increase participants' self-efficacy.\"They present different types of goals that participants might set to enhance the transfer of learning from management development programs. Distal outcome goals are best suited for simple, straightforward tasks that only require motivation. They are not suited to tasks where participants lack the skills to perform them effectively. However, breaking long-term distal goals into shorter-term proximal, or benchmark goals, can facilitate transfer and learning. This is because proximal goals provide participants with feedback which may motivate people as they experience \"small wins\" and achieve their benchmarks.\nEssential to see a clear purpose in what they are doing: Competency models, behavioral lists and behavior-based learning points can be used in a number of ways to enhance transfer. For example, assigning participants goals based on key learning objectives, having participants set goals to achieve specific learning points and having participants track progress using behavioral checklists based on key learning points can be effective ways to motivate individuals and enhance transfer.Whatever technical terminology is applied to ways in which we hope learning will transfer into a positive, and hopefully profitable, return for the organization, those involved in learning must be able to see a clear purpose in what they are doing. Learning for learning's sake might be an OK thing to do in some of academia's ivory towers but, when managers and supervisors are taking time out to \"develop\", they need to be clear about the direction they are headed. Will their new skills and new ways of looking at the business help them manage their staff? Will it help them fulfill the organization's sustainability and environmental responsibilities? Will it help their company get new products to the market more quickly? Or more personal goals: Will it fast track them to promotion? Will it increase the likelihood of a pay rise? Not everything will be equally important to the company, but being able to relate what is being taught to what is going to happen when they get back to work is important in ensuring they are able to focus on both the learning and the desired outcomes.Everyone in the organization needs clearly-defined objectives so they are aware of their own duties and responsibilities, and how their objectives mesh with those of others. When attending training courses, they should be able to understand how those everyday workplace objectives link in with the intended objectives of the training.\nThat managerial tool called listening is often overlooked: One skill essential to managers and leaders that is often overlooked is the ability to listen. The reason it is often overlooked is that it's not seen as a fancy managerial tool, merely an ability we are born with. Hearing and listening, as many a disgruntled husband or wife could confirm, are, however, not the same thing.Experts are always telling us that communication is important and that employees' opinions count, but they do not always go on to state the obvious - that being heard is not always as easy as it sounds. How many people in business have been insulted by their superiors who have continued to look at their computer or phone screens when they are being spoken to? Management development and training advice should reinforce that, when someone is speaking to them, they listen. Look at the person who is talking and do not be distracted. Some occasions may require a move to another room, where there are no distractions, to ensure the views being expressed are heard.They did not have management development programs when Confucius was alive, but there is little doubt he would have been an effective trainer. Maybe one of his sayings should find a place above the training room door, or maybe the boardroom door: Learning without thought is labor lost; thought without learning is perilous.\" Or perhaps today's managers will relate more to John F. Kennedy who said: \"Leadership and learning are indispensable to each other.\"\nComment: This review is based on \"Which goals should participants set to enhance the transfer of learning from management development programmes?\" by Travor C. Brown and Martin McCracken; \"Developing emotional intelligence abilities through team-based learning\" by Nicholas Clarke; and \"The relationship between transformational leadership behaviors, psychological, and training outcomes in elite military recruits\" by Lew Hardy, Calum A. Arthur, Graham Jones, Adie Shariff, Kathy Munnoch, Izzy Isaacs and Adrian J. Allsopp. Travor C. Brown and Martin McCracken study the goal-setting literature, with particular emphasis on the effectiveness of different types of goals for successful transfer in management training programs. Nicholas Clarke investigates the effects of attending a one-day emotional intelligence training session followed by participating in team-based learning. Lew Hardy et al. examine the effects of a differentiated model of transformational leadership on follower outcomes.\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: - According to modern-day cynics (or maybe they are just realists) involved in teaching and coaching, a huge chunk of what we learn at management training programs does not follow us far beyond the training center door, and a further large proportion of what is remembered is not applied to the job.\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" } ]
Determining the optimal allocation of time among work, sports, internet use, and sleep	[ "Efficiency", "Well-being", "Optimal time allocation", "Actual allocation", "Minimized gap" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: Time allocation is a complex process. Yaari's (1964) pioneer claim is that the existence of an optimal choice among all permissible choices is not always assured. People always try to maximize their discounted life utility. One of the main questions is whether this depends only on one's level of consumption or whether additional causes contribute (Psarianos, 2007).\n2. The model: 2.1 Target function of time allocation\n3. Conclusion: Time allocation has a major effect on productivity as well as on consumers' utility. Research thus far, however, has discussed the process of allocating time mainly in regard to labor supply and its relation to utility from leisure and consumption. In this paper, it is assumed that each agent has in mind an optimal preference of time allocation but that his or her actual time allocation for each activity is influenced by time allocations for other activities and exogenous variables such as health and wage per hour, to name only two. It is assumed that weekly time is allocated to work, sleep, sports, and internet use. The novelty in this study concerns the allocation of vacant time to various activities, unlike a binary focus on leisure and work only. This innovation ties into Biddle and Hamermesh's (1990, 2007) claim that time spent on sleep is a choice variable that augments productivity, enters the utility function directly, and lends itself to individuals' optimization.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to extract the optimal time allocation of weekly hours among work, sleep, sports, and internet use for 16 different demographic groups.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The agent wishes to minimize the gap between his or her actual and optimal allocation for each activity. His or her actual allocation of time for each activity is affected by his or her allocations for other activities and by exogenous variables. A system of simultaneous equations is constructed, with the four levels of time allocation as the endogenous variables. Using a cross-section database of 928 Israel residents, the authors estimate the system and predict the actual allocation of time. Inserting the forecast equations into the agents' target function and differentiating by each actual time allocation, the authors extract the optimal time allocation for 16 different demographic groups.\nFindings: The results make it clear that the optimal desired level of sleep hours is highest among married Jews and non-Jews of both genders, whereas the desired level of work hours is highest among female non-Jews whose children have a computer and among married males, Jewish and non-Jewish alike. Female Jews and non-Jews wish to allocate the most hours to internet use, while married males of both nationalities wish to allocate the fewest. The desired level of sports hours is highest among married and non-married Jews. Examining the effect of age on time allocation, the main findings show a very significant cutback in allocation of hours for sleep among agents at age 20.8 and an increase of about 2.5 hours of sleep among agents aged 60.8, both relative to those aged 40.8.\nOriginality/value: The original model presented here brings a non-traditional approach to the analysis of time allocation. The authors believe that each agent wishes that he or she could allocate his or her time for personal benefit on the basis of a theoretical apportionment determined on the basis of experience and tendencies. Even though an agent's actual time allocation may be affected by many factors, he or she still has a sense of disutility when the actual allocation deviates from selected optimum.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Adopting a management innovation in a professional organization: The case of improvement knowledge in healthcare	[ "Healthcare", "Action research", "Improvement knowledge", "Management innovation", "Professional organization" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Compared to the manufacturing sector, the service sector - particularly the healthcare sector - is widely regarded as lagging in terms of adopting new management innovations (Christensen et al., 2009; Greenhalgh et al., 2004; Walley, 2003). However, the call for new or even disruptive management innovations in the healthcare sector is increasing due to the many challenges faced by the healthcare sector today (Mohrman et al., 2012; Christensen et al., 2009). As the population ages, increasingly more patients suffer from multiple illnesses that require extensive specialist care. At the same time, new and expensive drugs and treatments are introduced at an accelerating rate. These are just a few examples of changes that challenge the whole healthcare system. Recent years have seen an increase in the demand to meet these challenges by changing the way healthcare is delivered and increasing the efficiency of the sector (Mohrman et al., 2012).\nTheoretical background: In this paper, previous research on management innovations and on improvement knowledge will be considered, and the latter focus will center more specifically on the healthcare setting.\nMethod: This paper reports on a transformation at the Skaraborg Hospital (SkaS) in Sweden - a hospital group with a long history of working with a variety of quality management initiatives. As an example, SkaS was the first hospital group in the Nordic countries to broadly apply Six Sigma as a quality improvement program in its care processes (Lifvergren et al., 2010). The research project was conducted using an action research approach (Coghlan and Brannick, 2010; Reason and Bradbury, 2008) in which two academic researchers (the first and fourth author) from the Centre for Healthcare Improvement (CHI) at Chalmers University of Technology worked as external researchers together with two insider action researchers, the development director (second author) and the nursing director (third author) at SkaS, the development director and the nursing director have both been deeply involved in the transformation and integration of improvement knowledge for several years and have their roots in medicine and nursing. This paper focusses on the transformation that occurred from 2003 to 2011. The development director and the nursing director are also researchers at CHI, simultaneously engaged in action research collaboration between CHI and SkaS.\nThe transformation at SkaS: Table I present a summary of the transformation at SkaS based on the elements of improvement knowledge (Deming, 1993; Batalden and Stoltz, 1993) and Donabedian's (2003) structure-process-outcome (SPO) model. The SPO model is common in research related to measurements of quality and quality improvements in healthcare. The components in the model are described as follows. \"Structure\" is refers to the \"design the conditions under which care is provided\" (Donabedian, 2003, p. 46). Examples include material and human resources, the presence of teaching and research, performance reviews, and so on. \"Process\" signifies \"the activities that constitute healthcare - including diagnosis, treatment, prevention, and patient education [...]\" (Donabedian, 2003, p. 46). Finally, \"outcomes\" measure the resulting states from care processes, both technical (e.g. absence of complications) and interpersonal outcomes (e.g. patient satisfaction).\nStructure: SkaS has a process management structure in place; it has designated process owners for more than 20 of the most critical care processes, the deputy hospital director is also the process manager, and there is an established process measurement system (Hellstrom et al., 2010; Lifvergren et al., 2010).\nProcess: A vital part of the strategy has been to maintain energy on the micro level (i.e. in the workplace). This aspect of the strategy is based on leadership that promotes small-scale improvement and everyone's involvement as a means to reduce complexity and encourage employee participation and individual growth. Achieving this intended outcome requires a long-term management approach and a fair amount of patience. It also requires management to give healthcare professionals a certain amount of freedom to redesign their own work:\nOutcome: The case also shows good results in various outcome dimensions. It is of course difficult to claim a distinct cause-and-effect relationship between an organizational intervention and an outcome. However, members of the organization with good insight into the work and its progress highlight several different outcomes. Thus, drawing from publically reported results in 2011 and 2012 (Swedish Association of Local Counties and Regions (SALAR), 2011, 2012), some examples include: the shortest length of stay at emergency wards in the western region; a 75-percent success rate in medium- and large-scale improvement projects in care processes, thanks to a well-organized Six Sigma structure; cost efficiency above the national average in several care processes; and above-average performance in 24 of 38 parameters in national quality registers (e.g. 28-day survival rate after myocardial infarction; proportion of stroke patients satisfied with the care delivered; etc.) and average or slightly under-average performance in the remaining 12 parameters. The hospital rate of healthcare-associated infections is below the national mean (7.1 percent mean at SkaS, 9.4 percent mean in Sweden, SALAR, 2011, 2012). The hospital-wide patient satisfaction survey shows general satisfaction; specifically, 95 percent of patients reporting being satisfied.\nDiscussion: The case studied in this paper illustrates aspects concerning adoption of management innovations in a professional organization (Freidson, 2001). Given professional organizations' general reluctance to integrate externally derived knowledge, and adhere to managerial control efforts (Laughlin et al., 1992; Hoque et al., 2004; McGivern and Ferlie, 2007), the professional organization can be seen as especially problematic when introducing new practices through implementation of management innovations. This paper identifies five critical practices for adopting a management innovation in a professional context.\nConclusions: The purpose of this paper was to study critical practices when adopting improvement knowledge as a management innovation in a professional organization. In the hospital studied, improvement knowledge has been a part of a transformation based on changes in structures and processes. Considering improvement knowledge to be management innovation, the witnessed transformation demonstrates that an evolutionary perspective on innovation is needed - one in which the management innovation shapes and is shaped by the context. In the case studied in this paper, changes occurred in the organizational structure, processes, and achieved outcomes.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to study critical practices when adopting improvement knowledge as a management innovation in a professional organization.\nDesign/methodology/approach: This paper is based on an action research approach, in which practitioners and researchers are seen as a part of a participative community generating actionable knowledge. Research involved gathering data over a five-year period through more than 250 interviews and 25 focus groups.\nFindings: This paper identifies five critical practices for adopting a management innovation in a professional context: first, focussing on labeling and theorizing to create an organization's own vocabulary; second, focussing on the role of internal change agents; third, allowing for an evolutionary adoption process; fourth, building new professional competence through the change agents; and fifth, adopting a research-driven approach to the adoption of a management innovation.\nPractical implications: For healthcare practitioners, this paper points to practices to consider when adopting improvement knowledge - for example, identifying the patient as the guiding principle and encouraging involvement and local change initiatives. For practitioners in other professionally driven organizations, this paper identifies critical practices for adopting a management innovation - for example, focussing on theorizing and labeling in order to create an organization's own vocabulary related to the professional context.\nOriginality/value: On a generic level, this paper contributes to the understanding of critical aspects when adopting management innovations in a professional organization. In a healthcare context, this paper points to the value of improvement knowledge for improving quality of care. Improvement knowledge is relatively new in healthcare, and this study provides an example of a hospital in which this management innovation helped transform the organization.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Theoretical understanding of sociomateriality in workplace studies	[ "Activity-based workplace", "Facility management", "Materiality", "Social practice", "Sociomateriality", "Theory-based research" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: The field of facility management (FM) emerged in the late 1970s to explain how the workplace can impact on a business organization. A key objective of FM is to ensure that the function of a physical building, its components and related services, all effectively support to achieve the goals of an organization's core business (Alexander, 1996). To effectively achieve organizational goals, the workplace has changed, and the changes have resulted in the effects on workers' productivity, satisfaction and health. Therefore, FM considers not only physical buildings but also the people that occupy the space and their organizational work processes.\n2. Methodology: To achieve the objective of this research, a solid literature review was conducted focusing on sociomateriality and workplace studies. The literature included peer-reviewed journal articles, conference proceedings and books. First, literature for sociomateriality was searched in Google Scholar with the keyword \"sociomateriality\" and were from Athens Journal of Social Sciences, Organization Studies, MIS Quarterly, Information and Organizations and the Academy of Management Annals. The aim of literature review on the sociomateriality theory was to understand the definition and concept as well as to identify the relevant components in the workplace setting. This study reviewed 12 peer-reviewed papers, two conference proceedings, and one book that focused on a theoretical approach. The areas contained organizational studies (Orlikowski, 2007; Orlikowski and Scott, 2008; Leonardi, 2011, 2013; Leonardi et al., 2012; Balogun et al., 2014; Hultin and Mahring, 2014; Bavdaz, 2018), information systems and technology (Parmiggiani and Mikalsen, 2013; Cecez-Kecmanovic et al., 2014; Mazmanian et al., 2014; Sesay et al., 2016), and education (Bhatt and De Roock, 2013; Mifsud, 2014; Goldszmidt, 2017). As the concept was firstly introduced by Orlikowski (2007), this study reviewed the papers published since 2007.\n3. Sociomateriality: Sociomateriality is a theory that illuminates the relationship between social practice and materiality in an organization (Orlikowski, 2007; Leonardi, 2013). This theory aims to explain the state that is simultaneously social and material in the workplace. With this theory, all materiality is created, interpreted, and used based on social practice, and all social practice is affected by materiality (Leonardi, 2012). Hence, an organization is constructed by the interaction between material forms and human agency (Orlikowski, 2007). The physical environment of the workplace has material characteristics, and social practices including workers and their work differ depending on workplaces. Therefore, to comprehensively understand what happens in the workplace, consideration for both material and social perspectives is required.\n4. Theoretical framework development for workplace research: As noted, sociomateriality consists of two main components: social practice and materiality. When sociomateriality theory is applied to workplace study, a workplace and its physical environments can be interpreted as a material agency, and workers and their works can be regarded as a social practice. As the place is an integrated concept of physical space and the complex social function (Lefebvre, 1991), it is necessary to consider both materiality and social practice to understand how a workplace and its components are related to each other. However, workplace studies have focused on the effect of a materiality perspective, which explains how the workplace affects workers, especially productivity, satisfaction and health (Al Horr et al., 2016; Arundell et al., 2018; Engelen et al., 2019). As workplace can have different meanings of a place where people perform different activities in the space, considering only one aspect of space would not be enough to understand the circumstance comprehensively (Lefebvre, 1991).\n5. Methodological implications: The proposed framework of sociomateriality for FM study has complex relationships between social practice and materiality. To analyze this framework, two statistical analysis methods are suggested:\n6. Conclusion: This study proposes a theoretical framework for the study of sociomateriality for workplaces in FM. Sociomateriality aims to describe the cumulative effects of materiality and social practice in the workplace. As FM can be found at the intersection of the workplace, work and workers, workplace research in FM has common interests with sociomateriality. This study reviews the adaptability of sociomateriality to workplace research, focusing on the ABW concept in the FM field. ABW provides different workplace types to support various activities of knowledge workers. Here, the workplace and its components are a material agency, and work and workers are a social practice component. This study explains that the type of work affects where to work, and the workplace influences the productivity, satisfaction, collaboration and health of workers.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: This paper aims to propose a theoretical framework for workplace research based on sociomateriality. Sociomateriality is a theory to explain the effects of social practice and materiality in an organization. Workplace studies in facility management (FM) can adopt this theory to understand the complex relationships between physical work environments and human factors.\nDesign/methodology/approach: Review of sociomateriality was conducted to understand the connection to existing workplace studies in FM. This study addresses the components of the workplace through the sociomateriality perspective.\nFindings: The main focuses in sociomateriality theory are materiality and social practice. For workplace concepts specifically in FM, workplaces and their components are a material agency, and work and workers are a social practice agency. By considering both materiality and sociality in workplace environments, researchers can understand office dynamics and interrelationships. Lastly, two statistical analysis methods are suggested to analyze the framework: structural equation modeling and multilevel analysis.\nOriginality/value: To understand the human-environment relationship, it is essential to consider both materiality and social practice perspectives simultaneously. The proposed framework can be a foundation to explain the complex interactions between the physical environment and human factors of workers in individual organizations.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
IT competency and the commercial success of innovation	[ "Information technology", "Commercial success of innovation", "External learning competency", "Internal learning competency" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: Information technology (IT) facilitates access to key knowledge, and enables time savings, more effective management and improved information (Phiri, 1999; Patrakosol and Lee, 2009). A clear relationship with general firm performance has been suggested in extant literature. However, some studies could not fully demonstrate this relationship (Lee et al., 2008; Perez-Lopez and Alegre, 2012). In an attempt to provide a deeper understanding of IT-firm performance relationship, we focus on a specific key performance issue: the commercial success of innovation (CSI).\n2. Conceptual background: 2.1 ITC\n3. Hypotheses: Time is one of the most important parameters to control in competitive markets. The faster a company develops a product, the more likely it will be to achieve competitive advantage (Filippini et al., 2004). The R&D department should therefore apply techniques to speed up the product development process. Effective use of ITC within the R&D department can reduce the time needed to develop a product and also helps to build a collaborative environment by means of electronic newsletters or knowledge-sharing portals, for example. This kind of environment encourages creative thinking and accelerates the efficiency and effectiveness of innovation processes (Li et al., 2006), positively affecting product innovation.\n4. Methods: 4.1 Sample\n5. Results: The kh2 statistic is the most commonly used tool to measure model fit indices and is especially recommended to test mediating effects such as the one proposed in the present study. The first model examined the direct effect between ITC and CSI. This model was used to test H1, which suggests a positive and significant relationship between ITC and CSI. As shown in Figure 1, the kh2 statistic is significant but other relevant indices indicate good overall fit (Tippins and Sohi, 2003). This finding provides support for our first hypothesis.\n6. Discussion: As companies are increasing the use of digital media systems and pushing their knowledge management initiatives, information systems researchers have highlighted the need for more studies that shed light on the role of IT in knowledge management processes and company innovation (Sambamurthy and Subramani, 2005; Joshi et al., 2010).\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to analyze the impact of information technology competency (ITC) on internal and external learning competency and the relations among ITC, internal and external learning competency and the commercial success of innovation (CSI)\nDesign/methodology/approach: The paper uses survey data from 186 companies. Through structural equation modeling the paper assesses the links between ITC, internal and external learning competency and the CSI.\nFindings: First, this study finds that ITC plays a critical role in internal and external learning competencies. Second, internal and external learning competencies are directly related to the CSI. Third, internal and external learning competencies mediate the relation between ITC and the CSI.\nResearch limitations/implications: The research is cross-sectional, so cause-effect relation cannot be definitively inferred from the results.\nOriginality/value: This study contributes to organizational learning research, identifying a key antecedent of internal and external learning competencies - ITC - and analyzing the link between internal and external learning competencies and the CSI. Moreover, this study is relevant to IT literature because it shows that ITC, on its own, is insufficient to generate and maintain a competitive advantage. Firms need complementary strategic capabilities such as learning competencies to strengthen the effect of ITC on firm performance.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
A competency-based model of the human resource development management of ustadz at salaf boarding school	[ "Teacher development", "Human resource development", "Competency based", "Qualified ustadz", "Salaf boarding school", "Ustadz" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: According to Notoatmodjo (2003), natural resources and human resources are essential and even determine the success of development, while Cochran-Smith (2002) highlighted the important of educator roles for educational success. Smethem and Ken (2005) added that the quality of educational program not only depends on the concept of intelligent programs, but also the personnel who have the ability and desire to accomplish.\nLiterature review: Teacher development\nResearch paradigm: The objectives of this research are: to describe and analyze the criteria of qualified ustadz and its HR development management, and also to propose a model of competency-based HR development management. Related to those three objectives of this research, the research paradigm can be presented as follows. Kyai is the supreme leader at pesantren, who has the power and full authority for the policies and school operation inside and outside of the school. One of his authorities is to provide and manage ustadz that covers: ustadz needs, recruitment, selection, promotion and assignment, coaching and development, compensation, discipline enforcement and termination. Among those authorities, the coaching and development of ustadz needs to be managed specifically: planning, organizing, implementation and surveillance. The implementation of ustadz development can be conducted formally or informally, individually or in a group. The objective of ustadz development is to obtain ustadz who have the skills and competencies of professional religious, personal religious and social religious. This research paradigm can be seen in Figure 3.\nMethods: This study used qualitative case study approach. The researcher collected data in the field using in-depth interview techniques with kyai and mentor, observation, and document study. Kyai and mentor act as the primary source of data, while participants and alumni act as the secondary data source. The results of the interviews with the primary data source are cross-checked against the secondary data source (triangulation of data source). The materials for cross-checking from participants consists of methods and materials of development, and also life skills; while from alumni this consists of ustadz competencies (personal, social, and professional religious), coaching methods development, the purpose of fostering development, types of skills, targets to be achieved each skill, and the relationship between skills and livelihood. The interviews with kyai and mentor were held after they finished teaching or during break time, while the interviews with participants were held before or after lunch and dinner. Collection of data from alumni was held at the residence of alumni such as in Magelang, Wonosobo, Demak and Semarang. Data were analyzed using qualitative analysis, of which according to Miles and Huberman (1992) there are three stages: data reduction, data presentation and conclusion.\nResult and discussion: Qualified ustadz\nConclusion: Qualified ustadz at traditional Islamic educational institutions quantitatively receive a shorter education than D-IV or S-1 (bachelor) degree holders, but qualitatively their academic credentials are the same. In addition, competency-based human resource development management for ustadz in traditional Islamic educational institutions has successfully produced qualified ustadz. Furthermore, if the competency-based HR development management model for ustadz are conducted by kyai, with carefully consideration of the steps, high qualified ustadz will be successfully developed and obtained.\nImplication: Research on the competency-based HR development management for ustadz is part of applied science. This paper seeks to apply the theory management which according to Castetter (1996) covers four stages, namely: analysis needs, planning design, operational development and evaluation. There is no obstacle for the theory to be implemented in salaf boarding school, even giving significant advantage because there is a high spiritual motivation for all parties involved. This study increases public perception of the role of traditional Islamic educational institutions in fostering and educating the public, especially about religious life, the nation and the state.\nRecommendation: In the future, Tahassus education level should be extended into eight semesters that contain educational science, learning, educational psychology and other sciences associated with learning. In order to implement this, it is advisable that pesantren should cooperate with or involve education experts from Islamic institutions or other professionals. Besides every ustadz should be required to create a documented lesson plan (RPP). Furthermore, it would be better if ustadz recruitment was open to the public. Related to compensation, it is necessary to provide compensation based on the school's financial capability. Additionally, it is advisable for kyai to immediately adjust the vision, mission and objectives of pesantren to its nature. Moreover, a competency-based model of human resource development management should become a forthcoming model for the school leader.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to study the criteria of qualified ustadz and how the salaf boarding school leader (kyai) manages the ustadz in order for them to become qualified ustadz.\nDesign/methodology/approach: This study uses a qualitative research approach. Data were collected by in-depth interview techniques with kyai and mentor as primary source of data, while participants and alumni as secondary ones. The correctness of data from kyai and mentor then were cross-checked against data from participants and alumni.\nFindings: This paper gives the following findings: the qualified ustadz is ustadz who has competencies of personal religious, professional religious, social religious, and life skills; while efforts undertaken by kyai are planning, organizing, implementation and evaluation.\nOriginality/value: The paper contributes to the Islamic educational institution in development management model for ustadz that has some stages, namely: need analysis, planning design, implementation and development evaluation. The proposed model can be used as a reference for leader of traditional Islamic education around the world in order to improve the quality of ustadz.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
A systematic review of the antecedents of knowledge transfer: an actant-object view	[ "Knowledge transfer", "Actor network theory (ANT)", "Objects", "Actants", "Antecedents", "Knowledge exchange", "Systematic review" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Rapid proliferation in the business potential of knowledge transfer (KT) attracts researchers from various fields to contribute to the growing body of research on this phenomenon. Although several scholars (Argote and Ingram, 2000; Kang et al., 2010; Teo and Bhattacherjee, 2014) endeavored to highlight the benefits of KT in organizations, still many organizations cannot successfully yield the benefits of KT (Szulanski et al., 2016), in part due to a lack of clear understanding of all aspects of KT and its complexities (i.e. the big picture). In addition, it is argued that KT literature is highly fragmented and there is no consensus on the conceptualization of KT and what determines its success in organizations (Argote and Ingram, 2000).\nTheoretical background: Knowledge transfer\nMethodology: To conduct a synthesized comprehensive review, we followed the suggestions by Leidner and Kayworth (2006) to (i) carry out a literature review, (ii) select and apply appropriate criteria for inclusion and exclusion of papers in the study, and finally (iii) develop a conceptual framework grounded in the literature.\nFindings: Following ANT, we grouped all KT antecedents into six. As demonstrated in Table I, the first two constitutes, knowledge exchange and knowledge sender/receiver account for over half of antecedents involved in KT. Knowledge exchange refers to all significant aspects within the flow of knowledge. In fact, it is the actual process through which KT happens. Therefore, it was placed at the center of the model (Figure 1) to highlight that all other five KT network constitutes are linked together through knowledge exchange. Antecedents such as the levels of trust and risk involved, coordination requirements, speed and quality of knowledge being exchanged through a reciprocal flow between a sender and receiver are all investigated in this constitute of KT. Table II depicts all 27 identified antecedents which encompass knowledge exchange based on prior research.\nResearch contributions: Our paper makes important contributions. From a theoretical perspective, adopting a synthesized approach based on ANT puts forward a valid theoretical foundation on further understanding of KT and its network constitutes. This theoretical lens helped us analyze the complex organizational behavior of KT from objects and actants' view. Accordingly, our research contributed to theoretically extending the application of ANT in KT. Moreover, our proposed framework contributes to KT research by providing ontology of the underlying constitutes of KT from a socio-technical point of view. Therefore, by adopting a comprehensive approach to identify the key antecedents of KT, we contribute to understanding the motivational, behavioral, technological and organizational aspects of KT. Taking all aforementioned aspects into account, this research contributes to existing literature by offering a comprehensive context-free literature review on KT, which synthesizes and generalizes the findings of existing knowledge on KT.\nConclusion, limitations and future studies: In this paper, we provided an overview of the current knowledge on KT, and proposed a conceptual framework based on ANT, which highlighted the key constitutes and antecedents that influence KT. Based on ANT, we categorized KT constitutes as actants and objects. The KT constitutes that are related to actants were human-oriented, while the object-related constitutes were about the artifacts that facilitate KT. We found three constitutes of actants related to organization, team, and knowledge sender/receiver, and three constitutes of objects related to technology, knowledge exchange and knowledge. For each constitute, the main antecedents, including those that facilitate or impede KT were investigated. Our findings advance extant research on the key constitutes that influence KT process:\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: While numerous studies have studied knowledge transfer (KT) and endeavored to address factors influencing KT, little effort has been made to integrate the findings of prior studies. This paper aims to classify the literature on KT through a detailed exploration of different perspectives of KT inter and intra organizations.\nDesign/methodology/approach: Using actor-network theory (ANT) as the baseline, we conducted a systematic review of KT research to summarize prior KT studies and classify the influential factors on KT. The review covered 115 empirical articles published between 1987 and 2017.\nFindings: Drawing on the review and ANT guidelines, the authors proposed a conceptual model to categorize KT constitutes into objects including those related to (1) knowledge, (2) knowledge exchange and (3) technology, as well as actants including those related to (4) organization, (5) team/business unit and (6) knowledge sender/receiver.\nResearch limitations/implications: Adopting a holistic synthesized approach based on ANT, this research puts forward a valid theoretical foundation on further understanding of KT and its antecedents. Indeed, this paper investigates KT inter and intra organizations to recognize and locate the key antecedents of KT, which is of substantial applicability in today's knowledge-driven economy.\nPractical implications: The findings advance managers and practitioners' understanding of the important role of actants and objects and their interplay in KT practices.\nOriginality/value: While most studies on KT have a narrow focus, this research contributes to holistic understanding of motivational, behavioral, technological and organizational issues related to KT. It also offers a thorough and context-free literature review on KT, which synthesizes the findings of prior studies on KT.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
The effect of CSR knowledge on customer liking, across cultures	[ "CSR reputation", "New CSR initiative", "Consumer response", "Liking", "Community orientation", "Cultural value", "Social responsibility", "Banks" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: Corporate social responsibility (CSR) refers to the concept that businesses have broader societal interests to consider, and not just the financial self-interests of the organisation (Sen and Bhattachrya, 2001). Moreover, in meeting societal obligations, proponents have argued that a more socially responsible organisation will engender enhanced business performance, including product purchase, firm loyalty and favourable word of mouth. The growth and scope of interest in CSR activities and their consequences for the organisation shown in the past decade appears to be a widespread phenonomen. In turn, more businesses are now considering introducing CSR activities for the first time, leveraging current activities under a CSR banner, or upgrading their CSR activities to catch up to industry norms (Bertels and Peloza, 2008). Many firms possibly responding to increased media focus on CSR are now communicating their social responsibility activities to stakeholders (Luo and Bhattacharya, 2006).In addition, banks worldwide are now including CSR considerations into their strategic thinking to enhance their public image and attract more customers (McDonald and Lai, 2011). Furthermore, Pomering and Dolnicar (2009) also suggest that banks are seeking to persuade consumers of their CSR credentials through CSR communications. They point out that in Australia one major bank has been leading the national CSR index for many years and competitor banks are now imitating their CSR positioning. In reviewing much of the marketing literature related to CSR, Maignan and Ferrell (2004) also acknowledge the high level of enthusiasm for CSR research. However, Luo and Bhattacharya (2006) argue that so far we have a very limited understanding of the effects of CSR on firm performance.Accordingly, it is not clear what particular CSR initiatives would be likely to build greater customer-related outcomes. Furthermore, authors note that the relationship between CSR communication and customer response has not been examined sufficiently, especially in non-western contexts (McDonald and Lai, 2011). While it is apparent that the CSR paradigm is growing worldwide, Lindgreen et al. (2009) question whether customer expectations of CSR in developing countries will be the same as expectations found in well-developed economies. This issue relates both to the nature of CSR practices adopted by firms in different countries, and the differing expectations or orientations from their stakeholders.This paper aims to address a gap in our understanding of the relationship between perceptions of contemporary CSR practices, the addition of new CSR information, customer orientation and the consequent affective outcomes on customers. In the context of a CSR campaign by a financial institution, customer liking of the bank will be measured to test the efficacy of such CSR perceptions held by bank customers, across two countries - Australia and Thailand.\n2. Literature review: To date, a number of scholars recognise that findings relating to the effects of CSR on customer responses are inconclusive and issues remain unresolved (e.g. Lindgreen and Swaen, 2010). On the one hand, CSR initiatives have been linked to consumer responses, such as satisfaction, perceived corporate benefits, behavioural benefits, product evaluations, purchase intentions and brand equity. For instance, Luo and Bhattacharya (2006) found a positive link between published CSR ratings and customer satisfaction (ACSI) scores using secondary data. Similarly, Sen and Bhattachrya (2001) found a positive association between CSR and a customer evaluation of the company. In support, Brown and Dacin (1997) found that CSR perceptions of the company are positively correlated with new product evaluations by the customer.On the other hand, several studies report a weak or no correlation between CSR initiatives and customer-focused service outcomes. For instance, Berens et al. (2005) found a non-significant relationship between CSR associations and product evaluations when the corporate brand was dominant. Similarly, Becker-Olsen et al. (2006) concluded that CSR initiatives are weak alternatives to strong brand strategies and quality offerings. The dominance of service quality perceptions was illustrated by Chomvilailuk and Butcher (2010) who found that CSR initiatives provided marginal predictive ability to brand preference in the banking sector. However, Berens et al. (2007) conclude that CSR can be a compensating quality trade-off, depending upon the circumstances, especially the outcome variables being measured. That is, determining the nature of salient outcome variables likely to be most impacted by the introduction or promotion of CSR initiatives appears to be a critical issue. In this regard, Maignan and Ferrell (2004) and Nan and Heo (2007) both suggest that the nature of the CSR-customer response relationship is complex and requires careful teasing out of salient variables for better understanding. That is, to seek \"softer\" intervening variables that are more likely to be directly affected by specific CSR activities. This is a first step to better understanding of such complex relationships.Affective responses in retail banking\n3. Method: Two studies were conducted; the first comprised a survey of 219 bank customers in Thailand, and the second study involved 204 bank customers in Australia. Convenience samples were collected in both studies. In Thailand, a questionnaire was administered face to face in a traffic intercept, outside four leading banks in Bangkok. For the Australian study, questionnaire administration was conducted online questionnaire. In the latter survey, a commercial list broker forwarded the survey to 3,000 names from a large panel of potential respondents. The different modes reflected the practicality of capturing data effectively: one from a developing country with relatively inexpensive costs for field work and the other a developed country with high labour costs but a sophisticated system of e-mail data lists. In both studies, the survey instrument contained a short vignette containing new CSR information, using a press release from a bank setting. In both studies, the bank in the vignette referred to the respondent's main personal bank. A sample vignette is shown in Appendix 1. Overall, all items used in the Thai study were replicated for the Australian study but three more statements were added to improve internal consistency.Measures\n4. Results: Study 1 - Thailand\n5. Discussion: In this exploratory study, the effects of three CSR variables at the firm, the product and the individual levels on customer liking for their bank have been explored. This study has extended previous research into the effects of CSR reputational information and new CSR initiatives by combining their investigation in the same study. In addition, actual perceptions of new CSR initiatives have rarely been investigated in the CSR literature. Second, we have introduced a new affective customer response construct, termed liking for the bank, as the dependent variable. This variable meets the calls of researchers, such as Bhattacharya et al. (2009), who have argued for salient variables to be investigated in the CSR-organisation performance paradigm. Third, we have extended the literature by answering calls from scholars about whether the CSR-customer response relationship varies between cultures and countries. We have used a series of split group analyses based on the cultural value of community orientation to test for variances in the pattern of effects. This latter contribution helps to bridge the research gap described by Nan and Heo (2007) wherein the relationship between CSR information and customer response is complex. It is clearly evident that different segments will respond in different ways to CSR, however, it remains unclear whether this is due to cultural influences or other segmentation criteria.Beliefs about the CSR reputation of the bank were found to be a significant predictor of liking for the bank for both the Thai and Australian studies. First, this finding is consistent with the literature (e.g. Marin and Ruiz, 2007; De los Salmones et al., 2009). However, no previous studies have explicitly modelled liking for the bank. While Marin and Ruiz (2007) included one item for bank liking in their scale, other items related to bank attractiveness, such as prestige, were included. Conversely, McDonald and Lai (2011) included a construct closely related to bank liking but did not capture CSR reputation in their study. They measured different types of CSR initiative as independent variables. Second, the relative strength of this association was stronger in the Australian sample than for the Thai sample. That is, CSR reputation was almost twice as strong a predictor of bank liking as the perceived CSR initiative, in the Australian study, but about equal with the CSR initiative, in the Thai study. This finding extends the literature because no previous studies have considered such predictor variables jointly. When the samples were split according to community orientation the relative strength of CSR reputation was enhanced for the low community minded group for both studies. In the Australian study CSR reputation increased its relative power to the CSR initiative variable substantially. In the Thai study, the pattern was similar albeit less pronounced. Again this finding extends the literature as no prior work has considered such moderating factors. The CSR reputation measure includes several aspects relating to the level of investment in CSR and \"cost\" to the customer, rather than a benefit. For instance, the level of CSR reputation is indicated by using a large amount of bank profits, a lot of time and money, doing more than other banks, together with specific non-core banking activities. However, it seems that customers increase their liking for the bank when they perceive these resources being used in this manner. This finding implies that in the low community group more self-interest is evident and subsequently customers perceive such benefits to be attractive to them at an individual level. In contrast, the high community minded group were not as enamoured by perceived CSR reputation. Indeed, for the Thai study, CSR reputation became a non-significant predictor of liking for the bank. The reduction in predictive power is substantial and indicates that in a collective society, such as Thailand, the relevance of CSR activities towards community groups is more evident. In addition, if bank customers hold longstanding weak or negative perceptions about a banks CSR performance then new CSR activities or communications not designed for a broad-based community will have minimal effect.Second, there is a strong positive association between new CSR information embedded in the press release and liking for the bank in both the Thai and Australian studies. This finding is consistent with the literature (e.g. Ricks, 2005; McDonald and Lai, 2011). This is the first study to include a measure that represents the dual aspects of a range of CSR beneficiaries coupled with the long-term nature of the CSR initiative. That is, an initiative that benefits a wide section of society and remains current for an extended time is regarded as more beneficial than an initiative that benefits a narrow section of society for a short time. In the work of Ricks (2005) and Chomvilailuk and Butcher (2010) these aspects have been treated separately. The longer lasting and broader serving was the customers' perception of the CSR initiative then the more accepting was the customer towards liking for the bank. Furthermore, this positive effect is enhanced for the group most oriented towards community. For the low community orientation group this effect was diminished. The consideration of this moderating factor extends the literature and our understanding of how CSR information affects customer response. It appears that CSR activities that most benefit a broad section of a particular community will generate more liking for the bank when a focused segmentation strategy is conducted. An unfocused segmentation approach will not generate any increases in liking for the bank but rather diminish such an outcome for those that perceive no tangible benefit.As this study demonstrates, segmentation based on a cultural value concept of community mindedness can make a difference in liking for the bank from respective CSR perceptions. On the one hand, mass CSR communication campaigns that offer little perceived benefits to a wider community will achieve a lesser response from bank customers. On the other hand, the findings provide support for the idea that CSR-customer response relationships are complex and will likely differ among cultures. In turn, while we have used a community-oriented construct based on a collective cultural value it is likely that all cultures will have groups who vary on such values.Management implications\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: - The purpose of this paper is to investigate the efficacy of corporate social responsibility (CSR) knowledge on customer liking for the bank across two countries and cultural contexts.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - Three CSR variables were tested for their comparative influence on customer liking under different cultural value conditions. Surveys were completed by 204 bank consumers in Australia and 219 bank customers in Thailand. ANOVA and regression were used to test hypotheses.\nFindings: - Perceptions of existing CSR performance and new CSR initiative had significant effects on liking for the bank. However CSR orientation had no effect. These influences varied substantially depending upon the community orientation of the target customer.\nResearch limitations/implications: - Understanding the differing roles of the two significant CSR variables provide insights into the complexities of CSR relationships. The successful introduction of a scale to measure a salient internal outcome measure, called liking for the bank, suggests future research opportunities.\nPractical implications: - The differential impact of CSR information on customer responses highlights the importance of understanding different cultural contexts and suggests that careful segmentation strategies are required for particular CSR campaigns. In particular, new social-cultural segmentation bases may be required.\nOriginality/value: - A combination of three CSR variables, together with new CSR information reflecting aspects of CSR not previously used in combination. A new affective customer response measure was used. The first cross-cultural and country analysis to be conducted for CSR-customer response relationships within the banking sector. Use of the cultural value of community orientation as a moderator.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Diversity and equity	[ "Policy", "Ideology", "Integration/multiculturalism", "Assimilation/melting pot", "Marginalisation/exclusion", "Separation/segregation" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Diversity, equity and multiculturalism: Most contemporary societies are diverse with respect to culture, ethnicity, religion, gender, age and sexual orientation. In order to live successfully together in such societies, we need to understand that diversity must be accompanied by equity if individuals and groups are to achieve mutual accommodation. Perhaps the most researched aspect of diversity is that of cultural diversity, which is usually captured by the concept of multiculturalism. This paper will focus on this concept.\n2. Intercultural strategies in culturally diverse societies: Although all culturally diverse societies experience challenges in facing their diversity, all societies do not develop and pursue the same strategies to deal with them. The main challenge is to work out how societies, groups and individuals will engage in their intercultural relations. There are two core issues that need to be examined and addressed in all diverse societies. The concept of intercultural strategies has been proposed to conceptualise the various options (also called acculturation strategies; Berry, 1970, 1974, 1980). These variations have been derived from two basic issues facing all peoples in culturally diverse societies. These issues are based on the distinction between orientations towards one's own group, and those towards other groups. This distinction is rendered as a relative preference for maintaining one's heritage culture and identity and a relative preference for having contact with and participating in the larger society along with other ethnocultural groups. These are the same two issues that were identified as characterizing all diverse societies: accepting diversity, and promoting equitable participation (see also Koopmans, 2010).\n3. Locus of intercultural strategies: These various strategies can be used by individuals and groups in both the non-dominant groups and the larger society. They can also be used by institutions within the larger society. One way to view the locus of intercultural strategies is presented in Figure 2. This shows six places in which these various orientations can be found. On the right are the views held by the various ethnocultural (or \"minority\") groups (who usually are non-dominant in the contact situation); on the left are the views held by the larger (or \"mainstream\") society. There are three levels, with the most encompassing group level (the national society or ethnocultural groups) at the top; at the bottom are the least encompassing (the individuals who are members of these groups); and in between are various social groupings (called \"institutions\"), which can be corporations, governmental agencies, and educational, justice or health systems.\n4. Multiculturalism: demography, policy and ideology: In this section we examine the three main features of multiculturalism: as demographic diversity, as policy, and as ideology.\n5. Multiculturalism framework: As just noted, many culturally diverse societies have sought to understand and manage their diversity by developing multiculturalism policies. The first multiculturalism policy was advanced in Canada in (1971). The basic goal of the policy was articulated as follows:\n6. Mutual adaptation to living in culturally diverse societies: One important outcome for individuals living interculturally is how well they adapt. In the multiculturalism framework, the integration hypothesis proposed that adaptation will be more successful in culturally diverse societies when individuals engage both their heritage culture and the larger society. There are three kinds of adaptation: psychological, sociocultural, and intercultural. The first two of these were identified by Ward (1996) who distinguished between psychological adaptation and sociocultural adaptation. The first refers to adaptations that are primarily internal or psychological (e.g. sense of well-being, or self-esteem, sometimes called \"feeling well\"). The second adaptations (sociocultural) are sometimes called \"doing well\". This form of adaptation is manifested by competence in carrying out the activities of daily intercultural living. A third form of adaptation was introduced: intercultural adaptation (Berry, 2005). This concept refers to how well individuals relate to each other in a culturally diverse society. It includes both affect (liking or disliking) and behaviours (acting on these preferences), and is assessed using constructs such ethnic attitudes, tolerance, discrimination and prejudice.\n7. Improving intercultural relations in culturally diverse societies: As noted throughout this paper, the multicultural vision is defined as meeting two requirements: the maintenance of diverse heritage cultures; and equitable participation for all ethnocultural groups. Some multiculturalism policies advance these features and legislate for these outcomes; however, others only promote diversity without equitable inclusion. The multicultural vision for a society reflects the notion that diversity should be valued as a public good, that it should be accommodated and that it should have positive consequences for individuals and groups. But how can we ensure positive outcomes from sustained intercultural contact?\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to describe and analyse two features of multicultural societies: diversity and equity. The author argues that both these features are necessary for multicultural societies and their institutions to be successful. Diversity is understood to include variations in culture, ethnicity, religion, age, gender and sexual orientation. Equity is understood to include inclusive participation and the removal of barriers to such participation. Diversity without the opportunity for equitable participation can lead to a form of separation; equity without diversity can lead to a form of assimilation; the absence of both can lead to marginalisation; and the presence of both can lead to a full integration.\nDesign/methodology/approach: This is a conceptual paper with a focus on better understanding of how to manage multicultural societies and institutions.\nFindings: The author distinguishes between three meanings of multiculturalism; as demography; as policy; and as ideology. He proposes a conceptual framework to illustrate the various ways in which intercultural relations may take place at three levels (society, institutions and individual), and with two kinds of groups (dominant and non-dominant). An analysis of multiculturalism policy in Canada and internationally reveals three principles needed for success in such societies: the multiculturalism principle; the integration principle; and the contact principle.\nResearch limitations/implications: The use of these concepts for better management of intercultural relations in multicultural societies and institutions through mutual adaptation is proposed.\nOriginality/value: With much debate and confusion about the meaning and value of multiculturalism, this paper has sought to clarify many of the concepts and distinctions.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
A health audit for corporate entrepreneurship: innovation at all levels: part II	[ "Entrepreneurialism", "Corporate strategy", "Innovation" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: In our first article of this two-part paper, we argued that to develop and nurture simultaneously today's and tomorrow's competitive advantages, grounded in innovation, firms increasingly rely on \"corporate entrepreneurship\" (CE). As noted previously, CEis a process through which individuals in an established firm pursue entrepreneurial opportunities to innovate without regard to the level and nature of currently available resources. Leading edge companies see the effective use of CE as a source of competitive advantage and as a path to higher levels of financial and non-financial performance.In our view, a CE strategy (CES) is an important path firms can take to make it possible for employees to engage in entrepreneurial behaviors, using knowledge as the foundation for continuous and successful innovations as they do so. More formally, a CES is a vision-directed, organization-wide reliance on entrepreneurial behavior that purposefully and continuously rejuvenates the organization and shapes the scope of its operations by recognizing and exploiting entrepreneurial opportunities that are oriented to innovation. Creating a work environment where all employees are encouraged and are willing to \"step up to the plate\" to innovate on their jobs is a centerpiece of an effective CES. Developing an internal work environment capable of cultivating employees' interest in and commitment to creativity and the innovation that can result from it is the product of effective efforts by managers at all levels. Indeed it is extremely important to understand not only the \"what and why\" of CE but also the \"how.\" This article is our second part of the two part paper where we introduce the tool needed for a company to examine its own internal environment in order to assess the \"entrepreneurial health\" of the firm.Our purpose in this second part is to introduce the \"Entrepreneurial Health Audit\" as a tool to use to diagnose and address the extent to which an organization is capable of fostering sustainable entrepreneurial behavior as the path to improved performance.\nIs your firm ready? Using the Entrepreneurial Heath Audit to find out: We have discussed the importance of CE as well as organizational dimensions (e.g., structure, controls, human resource management systems and culture) that are vital parts of forming and effectively using a CES in our part one article that appeared in the previous issue of the journal. But there is more to the story. Indeed, before a CES can be formed, top-level managers must understand several things about their firm with respect to its entrepreneurial status and capability. The \"Entrepreneurial Health Audit\", to which we now turn our attention, is a tool managers can use to gain this needed knowledge. As we will see, there are three steps to the audit (see Figure 1).Step I: assessing your firm's entrepreneurial intensity\nA CE employee development program: * Introduction to entrepreneurship. A review of managerial and organizational behavior concepts, definitions of corporate entrepreneurship and a corporate entrepreneurship strategy, examination of the entrepreneurship in established companies, and a review of several entrepreneurial cases.* Entrepreneurial breakthroughs. An overview of entrepreneurial breakthroughs in the company and in other organizations. Best practices in terms of highly entrepreneurial initiatives can be reviewed. This challenges participants to think innovatively and emphasizes the need to take risk and be proactive in order to do so. Importantly, employees must be given a reference point in terms of the types of entrepreneurial behaviors that are expected of them.* Creative thinking. The process of thinking creatively is foreign to those working in firms that have not attempted to implement a CES. Misconceptions about thinking creatively should be reviewed and a discussion of the most common creativity inhibitors should be presented and evaluated. After completing a creativity inventory, participants engage in several exercises to facilitate their own creative thinking.* Idea development process. Participants should generate a set of specific ideas on which they would like to work. Issues of strategic fit can be examined, together with a review of the types of criteria the organization uses to evaluate new concepts. Additionally, participants can identify the resources they will require to complete their projects.* Barriers, facilitators and triggers to entrepreneurial thinking. Culture factors from the Corporate Entrepreneurship Climate Instrument are reviewed. This is done to discuss the most common barriers to innovative behavior. This effort includes examining a number of aspects of the firm's culture including structural barriers and facilitators. Specific types of internal and external triggers for different forms of entrepreneurship can be explored. Participants can complete exercises that will help them deal with barriers in their internal work environment. In addition, video case histories are shown to describe the entrepreneurial behaviors of entrepreneurs in the participants' firm who have positively contributed to implementing a chosen strategy. Time in this module, or in a distinct module, might be devoted to strategies for soliciting sponsors and leveraging internal corporate resources. In addition, it is important here to review the firm's structure, control systems and human resource management system to verify that each is oriented to facilitating entrepreneurial behavior.* Venture planning: the intra-plan. After participants examine several aspects of facilitators and barriers to behaving innovatively in their organization, groups are asked to begin the process of completing a plan. The plan includes setting goals, establishing a work team, assessing current conditions, developing a step-by-step timetable for project completion and evaluation.Finally, we should note that experience suggests to us that the type of program we are outlining here should be ongoing in nature. As new entrepreneurial opportunities surface in a firm's external environment, as the internal work environment changes simply from being used, and as new employees join the organization, it is appropriate for those from whom entrepreneurial behavior is expected to work together to find the best ways to proceed to implement a CES. In this sense, efforts to engage successfully in corporate entrepreneurship must themselves be entrepreneurial - changing in response to ever-changing conditions in the firm's internal and external environments.\nConclusion: assessing and maintaining an entrepreneurial mindset: As we discussed in our first article, an entrepreneurial mindset is a way of thinking about opportunities that surface in the firm's external environment and the commitments, decisions, and actions necessary to pursue them, especially under conditions of uncertainty that commonly accompany rapid and significant environmental changes.Firms in which an entrepreneurial mindset exists are those where the Entrepreneurial Health Audit is adopted and valued. Herein, we have presented the audit as a tool through which an organization can assess the degree to which its employees are prepared to engage in entrepreneurial behavior as exercised through innovative, risk-taking and proactive actions. The Entrepreneurial Health Audit involves three-stages. First, the firm's level of entrepreneurial intensity is determined. Second, a company's internal work environment is examined to understand the factors accounting for the degree of entrepreneurial intensity the firm has at a point in time. Third, the audit reveals to firms the type of work to complete to help employees form an entrepreneurial mindset as the source of and reinforcement for the entrepreneurial behavior they need to display for the chosen CES to be successfully implemented.The Entrepreneurial Health Audit can be used by firms competing in all types of industries as well as by not-for-profit organizations. In all instances, the audit provides insights to an organization's decision makers about the three core issues we are describing. These insights are very helpful to firms interested in understanding what can be done to improve their ability to compete in today's complex, rapidly changing competitive environments. In many instances, decision makers believe that entrepreneurship is a path to improved performance. We share this conviction. Indeed, in this twopart paper, one of our objectives has been to explain the importance of corporate entrepreneurship and of a CES as the means for firms to behave entrepreneurially. Moreover, in this specific article, we have discussed a tool (the entrepreneurial health audit) that decision makers can use as a part of their efforts to help their firms successfully engage in entrepreneurship as a path to organizational effectiveness.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: - The purpose of this article is to introduce and discuss the \"Entrepreneurial Health Audit\". This organizational tool is used to assess a firm's entrepreneurial intensity, diagnose organizational characteristics low in entrepreneurial intensity, and to create an understanding of the processes needed to foster a corporate entrepreneurship strategy as a means of improving organizational performance. This article is part two or a two-part series.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - Based on the existing literature, case studies, and the authors' own research and experiences with a diverse mix of companies, the paper develops a three-stage \"Entrepreneurial Health Audit.\" Top-level managers can use this tool to determine their firm's ability to act entrepreneurially at a point in time.\nFindings: - The paper describes how managers assess and improve their firm's entrepreneurial health. In the first stage, the \"Entrepreneurial Intensity\" instrument is used to measure the degree and frequency of entrepreneurship occurring within the firm. In the second stage, the \"Corporate Entrepreneurship Climate Instrument\" is used to identify why the firm has developed its current level of entrepreneurial intensity. Finally, the third stage of the \"Entrepreneurial Health Audit\" fosters commitment to a work environment supporting entrepreneurial behavior, thereby enhancing the degree and frequency of corporate entrepreneurship within the firm.\nResearch limitations/implications: - The paper raises a number of questions regarding how organizations stimulate entrepreneurial behavior and undertake organizational changes to facilitate these actions. It provides a tool top-level managers can use across time continuously to increase their firm's ability to be entrepreneurial.\nPractical implications: - The paper demonstrates to managers how to approach the concept of entrepreneurship within an established organization, including how to diagnose characteristics constraining the firm's entrepreneurial potential and how to build commitment encouraging entrepreneurial behaviors.\nOriginality/value: - The paper fills an existing void between researchers and practitioners in terms of how firms can take steps to transform their current entrepreneurial potential into the \"ideal\" characteristics studied in entrepreneurship research. It offers a unique organizational tool to use to assess an individual firm's potential to be entrepreneurial.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
The boundary of sustainability reporting: evidence from the FTSE100	[ "Boundary", "Corporate social responsibility reporting", "Content analysis", "Sustainability reporting", "FTSE100", "Global reporting initiative" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Sustainability reporting has been criticized for being subject to managerial capture and failing to discharge accountability (Burritt and Schaltegger, 2010; Henri and Journeault, 2010; Joseph, 2012; Milne and Gray, 2013; Spence et al., 2010). It is unfit for purpose. Many critical thinking solutions have been advanced which call on academics and practitioners to learn from other disciplines (e.g. Rodrigue et al., 2013; Tregidga et al., 2014). This paper follows this multi-disciplinary approach with regards to a meta-level issue that has received limited academic attention: boundary setting.\nBoundary constructs: Boundary constructs specify the limits of a field of enquiry. It is of interest across disciplines to demark cultural, political, social or religious borders, the margins for ecosystems or to define limits for responsibility or accountability. This section explores the main interdisciplinary theoretical perspectives that have been used to explain and predict the nature of boundary drawing for organizations and to discuss how these may apply to accounting and sustainability reporting.\nA conceptual model of boundary setting within sustainability reporting: Boundary setting within sustainability reporting has largely been overlooked by the academic community, despite being a central issue for accountability. Previous research has conceptualized reporting boundaries as dichotomous, differentiating between organizational boundaries (control and significant influence) and operational boundaries (upstream and downstream impacts of the supply chain, outsourced activities and life-cycle assessments) (Antonini and Larrinaga, 2017; Archel et al., 2008; Kaspersen, 2013). Ringham and Miles (2018) proposed a tripartite approach to sustainability reporting boundary setting based on reputation management, ownership and control and accountability. Derived their model from a conceptual analysis of 40 boundary attributes evident within 15 sets of accountability standards. This paper takes a different approach: analyzing the multi-disciplinary theoretical literature on boundary setting to extract boundary characteristics. This has provided theoretical support for the tripartite model proposed by Ringham and Miles (2018):\nMethod: To evaluate the quadripartite sustainability reporting boundary model a content analysis of the published sustainability reports of the FTSE100 was undertaken.\nResults: FTSE100 boundary definitions\nDiscussion: The empirical analysis provides a disheartening picture of boundary setting within the FTSE100. The majority of FTSE100 companies (n=72) on average followed a reputation management boundary indicating that the theories with greatest predicative ability over sustainability reporting boundaries are impression management (Hooghiemstra, 2000; Michelon, 2011; Colleoni, 2013; Othman et al., 2011; Perez, 2015), risk management (Bebbington et al., 2008), signalling theory (Karasek and Bryant, 2012) and legitimacy theory (Deegan, 2002). This supports claims that current sustainability reporting fails to act as a vehicle to discharge accountability, as it is subject to managerial capture (e.g. Burritt and Schaltegger, 2010; Henri and Journeault, 2010; Joseph, 2012; Milne and Gray, 2013; Spence et al., 2010). This finding is dispiriting as sacrificing accountability to the pursuit of self-interest is to shun responsibility (Shearer, 2002), reduce the usefulness of reports and has moral implications (Francis, 1990).\nConclusions: The aim of this paper is to use a multi-disciplinary theoretical understanding of boundary setting to develop a quadripartite model in which sustainability reporting boundaries are classified as \"Reputation Management\", \"Ownership and Control\", 'Accountability; and, \"Stakeholder Engagement\". Understanding of boundary setting was derived from an analysis of social constructionism and multi-disciplinary theoretical perspectives including impression management theory, economic theories of rationalism, systems theory, contingency theory and network theory. Prior academic analysis of this meta-level concept is scant, prompting a need for further research to fully understand how decisions over boundary construction help, and hinder, accountability. Viewing boundary construction from a range of multi-disciplinary perspectives has enabled a theory-informed advancement in thinking of boundary setting within sustainability reporting, which was previously viewed as dichotomous (organizational/operational) (Antonini and Larrinaga, 2017; Archel et al., 2008) or tripartite (reputation management, ownership and control and accountability) (Ringham and Miles, 2018).\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to use a multi-disciplinary theoretical understanding of boundary setting to develop a quadripartite model in which sustainability reporting boundaries are classified as \"Reputation Management\", \"Ownership and Control\", \"Accountability\"; and, \"Stakeholder Engagement\". Content analysis is then used to empirically test the model.\nDesign/methodology/approach: Using impression management theory, rationalism, systems and contingency theory, and network theory, a model is created which classifies sustainability reporting boundaries. Content analysis is used to empirically test boundaries across the disclosure of 49 GRI topics by the FTSE100.\nFindings: Sustainability reporting fails to discharge accountability due to adoption of narrow \"Reputation Management\" boundaries. Boundaries are significantly (p<0.0001) narrower than previous research suggests. Findings support impression management theory as the strongest theory to predict reporting content. An ownership and control boundary, although widely criticized, represents the boundary of progressive reporters, lending marginal support for economic theories. Accountability boundaries are scarce. No evidence was found for stakeholder engagement boundaries.\nPractical implications: The determination of boundary is critical to the discharge of accountability. A critical consideration of boundary setting is required, including authentic stakeholder engagement in determining boundaries and transparency of boundary adopted. The results are ranked to enable benchmarking of the FTSE100. Boundaries can be widened through regulation or \"name and shame campaigns\".\nOriginality/value: This paper provides a theory-informed advancement in thinking on sustainability reporting boundary setting and the importance of this for advancing sustainability reporting quality.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
The Little Black Book of Innovation by Scott D. Anthony	[ "Organizational Development", "Creativity", "Innovation" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n__NO_TITLE__: Innovation is essential for organizations and individuals to meet the challenges of global change and competition. This is an easy to read, lively book that delivers on its promise to make innovation understandable and accessible. Scott Anthony writes in a conversational style and uses footnotes to add insights and personal thoughts. The book begins by explaining that the ability to innovate can be improved by studying and applying patterns. This idea, adopted from Clayton Christensen, Harvard Business School professor and author of The Innovators's Dilemma, serves as a guide for the book.\nWhat's worthwhile?: The first part of the book presents the current thinking and tools of the leaders in the study and practice of innovation. The second part offers a 28 day/four-week program that poses questions and offers insights into the process of innovation. Both sections are based on Scott Anthony's experiences as a graduate student, researcher, writer and consultant working with Clayton Christensen and many other masters of innovation.\nWhat's inside?: The Preface explains why this book was needed - as a single guide and reference that can be used by anyone with a wish to innovate. The Introduction is a personal explanation of how Scott Anthony's life has been affected and influenced by innovation and missed opportunities.Chapter 1 begins with defining innovation as something different that has impact. Innovation can be categorized as either strategic intent or type of innovation. Proctor & Gamble categorizes innovation by four strategic intents. Commercial innovation focuses on marketing and promoting existing products. Sustaining innovation involves incremental improvements. Breakthrough products in existing categories create transformational innovation, while creating a new category is disruptive innovation. Types of innovation may include introducing new products, finding new ways of distributing products, creating new ways of earning revenue, or changing a process in a way that makes an impact.Chapter 2 introduces 12 Masters of Innovation, including Peter Drucker, Steve Blank, Clayton Christensen, Vijay Govindarajan, Bill James and Rita McGrath. The chapter condenses the thinking around innovation into brief lessons from experts who have influenced the field. Each of the 12 Masters is presented, along with their most important writing and key lesson or contribution.Chapter 3 introduces the four faces of the Mount Rushmore of Innovation: A.G. Lafley, Robert N. Anthony Sr, Thomas Edison and Mike Tyson. Lafley as CEO of Proctor & Gamble earns his place for the view that the customer is boss and that taking an external viewpoint is essential. Mike Tyson's contribution is to recognize that there is no perfect plan so innovators have to search for flaws and examine their assumptions. Thomas Edison adds the lesson that innovation is a discipline that requires hard work. Robert N. Anthony, Sr, Scott's grandfather, is the final face. His contribution is that every strength has a corresponding weakness. Innovation requires not letting the core of a business or personality stop the creating of new ideas.Chapter 4 rounds out the foundational chapters of the book by discussing the pitfalls to innovation success. Using the 7 Deadly Sins analogy, Anthony shows that innovation requires taking the customer's view, working hard, keeping resources available for innovation, staying focused, encouraging growth efforts in new directions, rewarding efforts rather than outcomes, and being patient.Part two introduces the 28-day innovation program, framed as four weeks of lessons to encourage the processes of innovation. Each day has a central question, a one sentence answer and a how-to lesson. The reader is challenged to apply the techniques to an innovative idea or a real problem, at work or personally.Week 1 is about discovering opportunities, beginning with encouragement to watch trends and anticipate change. Taking the view that the consumer is boss, innovators must learn to see through the consumer's eyes, finding their challenges, annoyances, problems or hassles and then focusing on how to help. Careful observation and research means getting into the field and taking the time to understand ways to satisfy customers, while evaluating the costs and barriers to the solutions.Week 2 deals with the blueprinting of ideas. Finding inspiration for new ideas happens by borrowing from other cultures, industries or approaches. Ideas lurk in unexpected places, so diverse new experiences are essential. Ideas must be tested to determine what matters most to the customer, and how much the customer is willing to invest to address a problem. Disruptive innovation looks for new options that offer simplicity, affordability, convenience or accessibility.Week 3 addresses options for assessing and testing ideas. Experimenting is essential to determine the invalid assumptions in the plan and to find out if the idea is financially viable. Testing the innovation on real customers and finding ways to bring the idea to life can increase focus. Learning comes from both successes and failures, it's in the data analysis the opportunities often become clearer. Look for the unexpected.Week 4 encourages the innovator/reader to move forward using proven strategies. Clarifying options and resources forces the innovator to look for ways to leverage efforts. Many great ideas fail for lack of support, but others live on long after they are proven useless. Quickly moving in promising directions requires leadership and a willingness to let go.\nWhat's the recommendation?: There are thousands of books and programs about innovation, and each contributes to the field. This book condenses the essential lessons of innovative thinkers and demonstrates how to apply them to real challenges. The book introduces patterns and principles of innovation, especially the idea that successful innovators are good at associational thinking, at making connections between previously unconnected ideas. Asking questions, networking, observing and experimenting can encourage associational thinking and creative innovation.There are two parts to the book. The first part explains what innovation is and why anyone can improve their ability to innovate, and introduces the masters and tools of innovation. The second part is a step-by-step guide to the innovative process.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: - Reviews the latest learning and development books across the globe and pinpoints practical implications.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - This briefing is prepared by an independent writer who adds their own impartial comments and places the articles in context.\nFindings: - Innovation is essential for organizations and individuals to meet the challenges of global change and competition. This is an easy to read, lively book that delivers on its promise to make innovation understandable and accessible. Scott Anthony writes in a conversational style and uses footnotes to add insights and personal thoughts. The book begins by explaining that the ability to innovate can be improved by studying and applying patterns. This idea, adopted from Clayton Christensen, Harvard Business School professor and author of The Innovators's Dilemma, serves as a guide for the book.\nPractical implications:: - Provides strategic insights and practical thinking that have influenced some of the world's leading organizations.\nOriginality/value: - The briefing saves busy executives and researchers hours of reading time by selecting only the very best, most pertinent information and presenting it in a condensed and easy-to digest format.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Time and space in new public management reform: the case of geriatric care	[ "Health and medicine", "General management", "Public sector reform", "Public administration", "Sweden" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: During the past two decades, many public-sector organizations in OECD countries have introduced new public management (NPM) change initiatives (Hood, 1991, 1995). Although some commentators have argued that NPM has had little effect on the structures and processes of organizations (Brunsson and Olsen, 1997), most scholars agree that NPM has had a significant impact (Denhardt and Denhardt, 2000; du Gay, 1996; Townley et al., 2003; Power, 1997). NPM is a heterogeneous reform program that consists of a multitude of (sometimes contradictory) ideas - including total quality management (TQM), customer satisfaction measurement, decentralization of management authority, creation of quasi-market mechanisms, and cost control (Ferlie et al., 1996; Hood, 1991; Power, 1997). The aim is to produce a public administration in which \"... the values of innovation, enterprise management and problem solving are paramount\" (Davies and Thomas, 2003, p. 682).The effects and implications of NPM have been studied and debated from several theoretical perspectives - including neo-institutional theory (Brunsson and Sahlin-Andersson, 2000; Hasselbladh and Kallinikos, 2000; Oaks et al., 1998; Power, 1997), rationalization theory (Townley et al., 2003), power (Dean, 1995; Stokes and Clegg, 2002), interpretative approaches (Bevir et al., 2003a; b), and Foucauldian approaches to subjectivity (Davies and Thomas, 2003; du Gay, 1996). Although each of these has made a contribution to an understanding of NPM reform, the present paper argues that there is a missing dimension to the theoretical debate regarding NPM reform - that of time and space. On the basis of the notion of time-space logics, the present paper develops a framework that can contribute to a fuller understanding of NPM reform and organizational change/inertia in general. The term \"time-space logics\" is taken here to refer to different understandings of time and space in various organizational settings.Based on work within neo-institutional theory (Brunsson, 1993; Czarniawska and Joerges, 1996), the present study makes a distinction between ideas and institutionalized practice. Accordingly, it argues that all ideas that inform NPM contain certain elements of time-space logics that are fundamental to the various NPM ideas. In addition, practices are viewed as institutionalized by certain time-space logics which are fundamental to how they work and are perceived. The paper describes two particular paradigms (i.e. framework of thinking) of time-space logics:1. the time-space paradigm of finance and manufacturing (referred to here as \"speed\"); and2. the time-space paradigm of health care and associated care-giving practices (referred to here as \"closeness\").The study argues that speed is a feature of almost all NPM programs, but that NPM programs are often directed at practices institutionalized by a time-space paradigm of closeness.The empirical part of the paper is based on a three-year case study of an NPM-reform program within the Swedish health care sector. The NPM reform was especially focused on strategic development on the basis of business planning and quality management. The paper outlines the general ideas behind the reform program at the management level - with particular reference to the way in which a group of health-care personnel, particularly nurses, engaged in geriatric care interpreted the ideas driving the reform. Rather than using established theories for analyzing public-sector reform, the study utilizes the time-space logics framework to explore the potential conflict between NPM ideas of speed and practices institutionalized by closeness.The paper offers two distinctive contributions to existing knowledge. First, it adds to the arsenal of analytical tools available to assess NPM reform by introducing the perspective of time-space logics. Secondly, by developing and using a time-space framework, the paper presents a detailed analysis of the outcome of a particular NPM-reform program. The paper thus offers novel theoretical and empirical insights.The paper begins with a review of previous research on the subject of time and space in studies of public administration. The paper then develops a framework for considering time and space within the context of NPM reform. After explaining the methodology of the study, the paper then presents and analyzes a case study using time-space logics. The final section discusses the implications of the time-space framework for the study of NPM reform. The paper concludes with a summary of the conclusions and the contribution of the study.\nLiterature review and conceptualization: Time and space in studies of public administration\nCase study: Methodology\nDiscussion and contribution: The analytical framework of time and space presented here contributes to the study of public-sector reform. Health care activities characteristically take time and demand space. Everyday nursing activities involve \"micro meetings\" for the daily private management of such things as food and hygiene.An asymmetry of expectations can therefore easily arise. In contrast to service production in general - with two active partners in a buyer-seller relationship - health care is about the relationship between a weaker (exposed) party and a stronger (benevolent) party. The asymmetry between the partners in health care means, in the words of Hirschman (1970), that \"exit\" is more difficult, \"voice\" is courteous, and \"loyalty\" is absolutely dominant (although it might be a forced loyalty in some situations). Health care activities cannot therefore be rationalized to the same extent as can be achieved in industrial production or in \"typical\" service production (such as banking, insurance, and so on). In health care, speed is restricted by the recipient's restricted perception (because of age, handicap, or illness). Moreover, in health care, centrally imposed demands for good care and good economy can be perceived as unreasonable - given local circumstances in daily operations. Local circumstances often mean that central decision-makers are forced to relax their demands for efficiency. In addition, there is often a gap between the expectations of personnel with respect to the health care procedures that are to be carried out and the care recipient's expectations of the same situation. This expectation gap is widened when both partners feel dissatisfied with the situation because of the obvious time pressures that are placed upon them by management or by the responsible authority (such as the CCV). In terms of the logics of time and space discussed above, the conflict is intensified if the emphasis on \"speed\" becomes the dominant paradigm at the expense of health care's traditional emphasis on the time-space paradigm of \"closeness\".This paper presents empirical evidence of NPM-reform work within the process group charged with geriatric care at the CCV in Varmland, Sweden. The paper shows that this reform work created a tension between the principal commissioning body's demand for increased financial effectiveness and the health providers' desire for good care. This tension has been analyzed with a particular focus on time and space in which financial effectiveness is posited as being dominated by \"speed\" whereas good care is dependent on \"closeness\". Whether health care is managed and financed privately or publicly, the paper suggests that the tension generated by the different time-space logistical paradigms remains problematic, and that these problems are relatively little studied and poorly understood.These problems are not unique to geriatric care. Other health care specialties - such as psychiatry, child care, and so on - face similar problems when NPM reforms are introduced. This study's focus on the problematic relation between a desire for increased \"speed\" (in the paradigm of return on capital) and a desire for \"closeness\" (in the paradigm of traditional health care) adds to the arsenal of theoretical tools for analysis of public-sector reform.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: - The implications of new public management (NPM) have been studied from several theoretical perspectives. The present paper sets out to argue that there is a missing dimension to the theoretical debate regarding NPM reform - that of time and space. On the basis of two different notions of time-space logics, the present paper seeks to develop a framework that contributes to a fuller understanding of NPM reform and organizational change/inertia in general.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - The theoretical framework of the paper draws on studies of time and space in organizations, research on public-sector reform, and neo-institutional theory. The empirical case study presented here focuses on an attempt to change geriatric care using NPM initiatives.\nFindings: - The paper describes two paradigms of time-space logics - the paradigm of \"speed\" (as used in finance and manufacturing) and the paradigm of \"closeness\" (as used in health care and associated care-giving practices). The study argues that speed is a feature of almost all NPM programs, but that NPM programs are often directed at practices institutionalized by a time-space paradigm of closeness. The study utilizes the two time-space paradigms to understand the effects of NPM in the case reported. The use of time-space paradigms in studies of public-sector reform adds to the arsenal of theoretical tools for the analysis of NPM-reform.\nResearch limitations/implications: - Although the methodology of a case study is an appropriate vehicle for introducing the time-space paradigm to this area of research, the methodology is not well suited to generalizing the findings to other contexts. Future research could elaborate on the present study by applying quantitative approaches to the subject-matter.\nPractical implications: - The study presents an analysis of an NPM-reform program in geriatric care - a context in which ideas of \"speed\" clash with the traditional practice of \"closeness\". This potential clash has important practical implications for managers.\nOriginality/value: - The paper introduces notions of time and space into research on NPM-reform. This novel approach to the study of NPM reform might be of value in future research.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Corporate governance and corporate social responsibility disclosure: evidence from Pakistan	[ "Pakistan", "Corporate governance", "CSR disclosure", "CSR guidelines" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Since the beginning of the twenty-first century, the field of corporate social responsibility (CSR) has shown significant growth around the globe. CSR is not just considered as a social activity, but explicit commitments regarding CSR have been made to the vision, mission, value statements, management structure and processes of the company, so that every social responsibility issue is foreseen and dealt with in a proper way (Shahin and Zairi, 2007). The purpose of CSR is to go beyond profit maximization to include responsibility of company toward multiple stakeholders - investors, customers, community, employees and environment (Gill, 2008; Ofori and Hinson, 2007). CSR reporting has not only increased but its notion has also broadened considerably (Cho et al., 2015; Laidroo and Sokolova, 2015). Transparency is the main reason for organizations to disclose their CSR information (Kolk and Pinske, 2010; Ofori and Hinson, 2007; Qu and Leung 2006). To be more transparent and to meet the needs of stakeholders, companies try to disclose most of the information (Gelb and Strawser, 2001). Managers voluntarily disclose different types of information so as to narrow the information asymmetry between management and shareholders (Ho and Taylor, 2013). Companies with good corporate governance (CG) mechanisms not only promote ethics, transparency and accountability but also keep generating profits (Ruangviset et al., 2014). CSR disclosure can be used as a proxy to assess companies' performance in terms of CSR initiatives (Gelb and Strawser, 2001; Turker, 2009) as managers disclose CSR in annual reports to attract investors and manage public relations (Idowu and Papasolomou, 2007; Saleh et al., 2010). Because CSR reporting is considered as an important part of CSR, the extent of CSR disclosure by an organization can be considered as its intentions to engage in CSR initiatives.\nLiterature review and hypotheses formulation: CSR is a highly significant trend, and progressive firms are taking it very seriously (McManus, 2008). It will remain with us, at least for the foreseeable future and even beyond that (Idowu, 2011). CSR is a moral and ethical movement, whose supporters want higher ethical standards across the board (Robins, 2008). CSR is an area of corporate concern and helps organizations build corporate strategy and corporate reputation (Galbreath, 2006; Papasolomou-Doukakis et al., 2005). It provides an opportunity to re-configure competitive position of a firm and develop distinctive and dynamic resources and capabilities (Arendt and Brettel, 2010; Husted and Allen, 2007). It is expected that like quality, CSR will also become a cornerstone of future organizational activities (Castka and Balzarova, 2007).\nResearch methodology: Data set\nResults and discussion: Descriptive statistics for variables are shown in Table I. The level of CSR disclosure in Pakistani companies has increased after the introduction of CSR guidelines. The minimum number of board members has increased from four to seven and the leverage of companies has decreased from 273 per cent in 2013 to 60 per cent and 2014.\nConclusion: This paper examines the extent of CSR disclosure in the context of SECP voluntary guidelines 2013 and the effect of CG elements on CSR disclosure. The effect of SECP voluntary guidelines was examined by applying paired-samples t-test. This study concludes that CSR disclosure is different before and after the issuance of guidelines. The mean values show that there is a moderate increase in the extent of CSR disclosure from 58.68 to 62.90 per cent. This implies that the CSR reporting culture is evolving in Pakistan and is consistent with a study conducted in top companies of India (Jain and Winner, 2016). It is expected that with the passage of time, the remaining firms will also disclose CSR information in their sustainability reports depending upon social awareness of stakeholders and regulators. The ANOVA test reveals that the extent of CSR disclosure is different across sectors. The Oil and Gas sector discloses the highest information regarding CSR. Gamerschlag et al. (2011) argued that companies from polluting industries report more CSR information because they are usually confronted by powerful stakeholders like environmental activists. The Textile industry that contributes around 60 per cent to exports and 70 per cent to overall employment discloses the least CSR information. It seems that this industry enjoys special treatment from regulators because of its vital importance in the national economy.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: This paper aims to investigate whether there is any change in corporate social responsibility (CSR) disclosure in Pakistani companies after the introduction of CSR voluntary guidelines in 2013 by Securities and Exchange Commission of Pakistan (SECP) and determine the effect of corporate governance (CG) elements on CSR disclosure.\nDesign/methodology/approach: Content analysis was applied to measure CSR disclosure from annual and sustainability reports of 50 companies from eight different sectors from 2010 to 2014. Paired-samples t-test was applied to examine the difference in CSR disclosure. Regression analysis was used to examine the relationships between CG elements and CSR disclosure.\nFindings: Paired-samples t-test shows an increase in the extent of CSR disclosure after the introduction of CSR voluntary guidelines in 2013. The one-way ANOVA test reveals that the extent of CSR disclosure is different across various sectors. Multiple regression results prove that independent directors, women directors and board size positively affect the extent of CSR disclosure.\nPractical implications: SECP should enforce medium-sized firms to start producing CSR reports. Voluntary guidelines of 2013 moderately improved CSR reporting. Therefore, enforcement of the SECP rule of independent directors may enhance the extent of CSR disclosure.\nOriginality/value: This study is the first to examine the effect of CSR voluntary guidelines issued by SECP in 2013 and CG elements on CSR disclosure in Pakistan.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Lay off employees or terminate consultant contracts? Responses to an external shock in three firms in the Norwegian petroleum industry	[ "Downsizing", "Competence", "Seniority", "Core-periphery model", "External consultants", "Non-standard employment" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: Research on downsizing, e.g. reducing the number of personnel who are engaged in doing work for the firm, is almost exclusively targeted at the employees of the firm (cf. Cascio, 1993; Datta et al., 2010). For example, Cascio (2012) states: \"Employment downsizing, the planned elimination of positions or jobs, is a defining characteristic of modern life in organizations\" (p. 2). However, this approach is challenged in those instances when teams and projects combine employees of a focal firm with personnel in other employment categories, such as leased personnel, freelancers, contractors and external consultants. In contemporary organizations, such work constellations have become more common (Ashford et al., 2007; Nesheim et al., 2007; Cappelli and Keller, 2013). In this paper, we study the reduction of personnel in a setting (the Norwegian petroleum sector) where firms for decades have used employees with standard open-ended two-party contracts working \"side-by-side\" with external consultants (Nesheim et al., 2014). When firms made labor adjustments after an external shock in 2014 (sudden reduction in the oil price), they were confronted with a choice of whose contracts should be terminated; those of the employees or those of the consultants.\n2. Research on non-standard employment relations: Previous research on non-standard employment arrangements has covered a number of issues such as the conceptualization of such relations (Pfeffer and Baron, 1988; Kalleberg, 2000; Kalleberg et al., 2003; Cappelli and Keller, 2013), how non-standard employment arrangements are \"embedded\" in institutional environments (Gonos, 1997; Nesheim, 2002), the motives for and antecedents of non-standard arrangements (Atkinson, 1984; Pfeffer and Baron, 1988; Davis-Blake and Uzzi, 1993; Kalleberg et al., 2003; Olsen and Kalleberg, 2004), as well as the consequences and challenges - for organizations, manager and employees - when standard and non-standard arrangements are combined (Connelly and Gallagher, 2004; Barley and Kunda, 2004; Ashford et al., 2007; Nesheim et al., 2014).\n3. Theoretical framework: labor adjustments as responses to external change: Compared to the study of downsizing in \"pure\" employment contexts, our analysis of employee vs consultants adjustment and the relative importance of seniority vs competence criteria, has to be based on a broader theoretical framework. First, since the work constellations that were adjusted consisted of employees and \"externals,\" they have to be explained. Second, there is a need to analyze both the employee vs consultant choices and the relative importance of seniority vs competence.\n4. Empirical context and methods: Given the few previous studies of mechanisms and processes related to downsizing in employees-/consultant constellations, case studies are useful in obtaining new knowledge of the theme. We have studied three firms in the petroleum industry in Norway that reduced the number of personnel in the aftermath of an external change in the Summer of 2014. Following a period of increase in investments, projects and demand for labor, the trend was reversed after a dramatic reduction in the price of oil. The price was halved from August 2014 to January 2015. Together with a trend of increasing costs in the industry and the cost-effectiveness measures taken by Statoil, the main operator in Norway, these changes constituted a severe external shock for sub-contractors and oil service firms.\n5. Empirical analysis: downsizing in three firms: 5.1 Use of consultants before the external change\n6. Discussion: The findings from the empirical analysis reveal a number of interesting issues. First, neither the core-periphery model nor the \"intentional use of consultants in the core\" thesis (Matusik and Hill, 1998) matches the empirical constellations of employees vs consultants before the change. The three firms (and especially A and B) all intended to have a HR strategy that resembles the core-periphery model, but this strategy was difficult to implement. Due to \"peak demand\" and preferences for a consultancy arrangements rather than ordinary employment among workers, many \"externals\" held key roles and firm-specific knowledge. The ratio of consultants to total personnel was higher than ideal, and firms perceived that they to some extent were dependent on consultants. Thus, the constellations of \"internals\" and \"externals\" were outcomes of several different mechanisms, but tend to support Atkinson (1984) and Nesheim et al. (2014), rather than Matusik and Hill (1998).\n7. Conclusion: Here, the authors have explored downsizing processes among firms that combine employees with external consultants. Thus, we have extended research on labor adjustments to include considerations of employee layoffs vs termination of contracts with external labor power. In a world of increasingly \"fuzzy\" organizational boundaries and the proliferation of non-standard work (Cappelli and Kelly, 2013; Kalleberg, 2011; Holst, 2014), this approach is highly relevant.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: Previous studies on non-standard employment relations have analyzed how firms' use of non-standard work arrangements are explained by variables related to numerical flexibility. Here, the purpose of this paper is to explore how firms respond to changes in the external environment through reduction in staffing. Since the firms combine employees and external consultants, they are confronted with a dilemma between laying off employees or terminating consultant contracts.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The empirical context is the petroleum sector in Norway. The data consists of 11 interviews with managers at different levels in three firms.\nFindings: The authors found that firms terminated over 80 percent of the consultant contracts, while around a forth of employees were downsized. A core-periphery strategy and union power are vital drivers of the prioritization of employees. However, some consultants were retained due to their knowledge of unique aspects of the firm and their role in development and innovation. The authors also found that the firms differed in their emphasis on seniority vs competencies criteria in deciding \"survival\" among employees.\nResearch limitations/implications: A main contribution of the study is thus the identification of variables and mechanisms that influence the two interrelated choices of downsizing in such multi-employment contexts. The main limitation is the number of firms analyzed (three), which restricts statistical generalization.\nPractical implications: Better understanding of circumstances and criteria of downsizing choices in employees/external consultants' constellations.\nOriginality/value: This study is one of the first to analyze two interrelated issues of downsizing in such constellations lying off employees vs terminating consulting contracts, and whether seniority or competence criteria were prioritized when laying off employees. A main contribution of the study is the identification of variables and mechanisms that influence the two interrelated choices of downsizing in such multi-employment contexts.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
The effect of change in organizational identity on knowledge creation by mobile R&D workers in M&As	[ "Human capital", "Knowledge creation", "Change in organizational identity", "Human mobility", "M&As" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: In high-technology industries characterized by rapid innovation and technological complexity, human mobility serves as a strategic tool for acquiring and creating new knowledge (Alnuaimi et al., 2012; Hoisl, 2007; Rao and Drazin, 2002; Rosenkopf and Almeida, 2003). Previous studies on human mobility have focused on cases where an employee from one firm moves to another, and the growth in productivity by the new employer elicited by that movement, as well as the transfer of knowledge. The premise of such studies is that since two firms continue to do business, the relationship would remain unchanged when an employee leaves.\n2. Theoretical background: Some scholars have researched the antecedents for increased knowledge creation at the firm level following M&A (Ahuja and Katila, 2001; Bresman et al., 1999; Ranft and Lord, 2002). However, individual level research has encountered problems with the data access of workers. A few studies have investigated the productivity of R&D workers following M&As. According to Kapoor and Lim (2007), knowledge workers from the acquired firm showed lower productivity following M&A due to incentive alignment. Paruchuri et al. (2006) examined how structural integration may lead to a drop in productivity for the acquired knowledge workers, due to loss of status in the resulting organization.\n3. Hypotheses development: 3.1 Change in organizational identity following M&As\n4. Methods: 4.1 Sample and data\n5. Results: Table I reports descriptive statistics and correlations between all variables of interest. Descriptive statistics show that the mean for the dependent variable (knowledge creation by mobile R&D workers) is 1.434. This implies that, on average, every mobile R&D worker from a sample of 410 produced 1.434 patents during the 5 years following M&A. The mean for the change in organizational identity is 0.285, which meant that in approximately 29 percent of the cases, the target firm's name did not appear following the M&A. The mean for the mobility direction is 0.839, meaning almost 84 percent of mobile R&D workers moved from the target to the acquiring firm. The average number of all patents for every mobile R&D worker used to measure human capital is 3.210. In case tenure, another control variable, the mean is 3.803.\n6. Discussion and conclusions: The results of this study are that when R&D workers moving to another firm is accompanied by changes in the environment such as caused by M&As, the workers' knowledge creation is affected not only by the human capital accumulated before the move, but also by the change in organizational identity and the interaction between this change and the already acquired human capital. The sample analyzed in this study was comprised of 182 M&As events. Among these 182 events, 75 events (about 41 percent) accounted for mobile R&D workers moving to another company prior to M&A. As a strategy to minimize risks and costs associated with acquiring external knowledge, many firms relied first on human mobility and then on M&A.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to examine the relationship between change in organizational identity and knowledge creation of mobile research and development (R&D) workers by combining the literature on human mobility and mergers and acquisitions (M&As).\nDesign/methodology/approach: Negative binomial regression was used to test the hypotheses, based on knowledge creation of 410 mobile R&D workers in 75 high-technology M&As.\nFindings: The findings showed that while a change in organizational identity after M&As decreased the knowledge creation by R&D workers who moved before M&As, a higher degree of human capital in mobile R&D workers could increase knowledge creation after M&As. A moderating effect of the change in organizational identity on the relationship between knowledge creation and human capital of mobile R&D workers was also found.\nResearch limitations/implications: This paper augmented the research opportunity on the organizational change and knowledge creation during an M&A by combining study of individual-level human mobility during firm-level M&As, suggesting change in organizational identity affects knowledge creation of mobile R&D workers. A limitation of this study is the focus of human capital accumulated in the prior company before movement.\nPractical implications: The study suggests that managers intending to acquire knowledge through human mobility and M&As must implement post-mergers activities such as structural integration with care.\nOriginality/value: Much of the literature on human mobility has focused on knowledge creation after movement, regardless of the changes that may occur in of focal dyadic companies during M&As. The paper might be one of the first studies of knowledge creation of mobile R&D workers within the context of M&As.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Improving protection mechanisms by understanding online risk	[ "Risk management", "Internet", "Privacy", "Qualitative research" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Where personal information is overlapped and influenced by internet connectivity, the potential for harm emerges. The media reports the latest threats to individual privacy arising from the latest technology (BBC News, 2006; Ward, 2006a, b), creating a climate of concern. Privacy advocates encourage individuals to protect their confidentiality and personal data (Caspian, 2004; The Big Opt Out, 2006; No2ID, 2007; Spychips, 2007). The primary motivations behind the abuse of personal information, are considered by Furnell (2005) in terms of either \"mischief or money\".Harassment and bullying are now seen to coexist with identity theft as more serious elements in the potential for harm. The increase in availability of personal information has led to the manifestation for the abuse of the information. Social networking web sites have been linked to murder (Wired News, 2006), Bocij (2004) identifies the internet as a tool for stalking behaviour; Southworth et al. (2005) illustrate how domestic abuse is made easier with modern technology; and Mitchell et al. (2005) and Hughes (2003) observe how the internet has facilitated sexual exploitation of women and children.Irrespective of whether the fear of harm is greater than the reality, as Furedi (2002) suggests, what remains is that a significant number of individuals experience mental or physical harm because of the abuse of personal information. The internet is becoming a social space with individuals choosing to make use of the web applications that allow them to share their thoughts, feelings, photographs and videos. Individuals can interact with their chosen communities and peer groups in a wide variety of ways, utilising approaches such as:* social networking web sites such as MySpace, Facebook, or Bebo;* blogs and online diaries facilitated by sites such as Blogger.com; and* sharing of photographs and videos using Flickr or Youtube for example.Access to the internet enabled social space is no longer confined to the computer, mobile devices offer the ability to peruse and upload content. Mobile phone usage has seen unprecedented growth in recent years (World Telecommunication/ICT Development Report, 2006). With 77 per cent of 7-16 year olds in the UK now owning a mobile device (HBOS, 2006). New Nokia phones contain lifeblog software offering the ability to create an online diary whilst on the move. O2 encourage individuals to upload content in return for payment (O2, 2006). Youtube have launched the facility to access videos from their web site using mobile phones (BBC News, 2006).The European Commission (EC, 2006) and the UK Home Office (2006) have taken action to address the issues for harm: the EU safer internet programme unites European countries aiming to provide a safer online environment for children; the Home Office (2006) initiated the Child Exploitation and Online Protection Centre. Government education campaigns (Fiveash, 2006), and researchers (Bocij, 2004; CRU, 2006) give advice that centres on keeping personal information private. However, here lies the dichotomy - young people are advised to keep their information safe, but they want to share it with their friends using the technology that is part of their social world.The vulnerability of individuals is seen by Solove (2004) to be increased because an \"architecture of vulnerability\" has been created, where individuals are placed at risk, yet powerless to take any action. The Fraud Advisory Panel (2005) identify technology as providing new approaches for fraudulent behaviour, changing the boundaries of how criminal behaviour takes place. A strong link has been made between vulnerability and the disclosure of personal information by Dinev and Hart (2004). The more information that is disclosed, the more vulnerable an individual becomes (Margulis, 1977). Garfinkel (2000) suggests that developers create naturally privacy invasive solutions by ignoring the need to protect personal information, leading to lack of control for the individual.Vulnerability has been considered by Alwang et al. (2002) in terms of a chain. Risk starts the chain, is combined with the options for managing that risk, followed by the welfare implications of the outcome of the risk and thus leading to a measure of vulnerability. Utilising risk and the ability to control it as central tenets of vulnerability is not without controversy. Raab and Bennet (1998) suggest that controlling risks to privacy would address the issues of social inequalities whereby some individuals enjoy large amounts of privacy protection, leaving others with none.This research has been undertaken to better understand the threats that exist to certainly vulnerable group whose release of personal information could lead to serious harm and how technology might be used to offer more effective protection. We present the findings from two case studies and demonstrate how data from these has been utilised in the development of a prototype designed to assist individuals in the control of their personal information.\nMethodology: Selecting candidates from an appropriate population required careful consideration along with carefully defined criteria as to who would be considered appropriate (Yin, 1994). Two target groups of individuals were therefore chosen as those who most exhibit issues of vulnerability: domestic abuse survivors (hereafter referred to as survivors) and teenagers. Vulnerability, for these groups is determined as the lack of control of personal information leading to serious consequences. Survivors are at most risk when they decide the leave an abusive relationship (Women's Aid Federation of England, 2002); Teenagers make full use of the internet as a social networking tool and are considered most at risk from predatory behaviour (Magid, 2004).Qualitative approaches to collecting information were adopted as the most appropriate way to study the social context (Dahlberg, 2004) and to gain an understanding of how the different complexities involved were experienced (Feenberg, 1999). Semi-structured interviews were held with members of statutory and voluntary sector bodies in the field of domestic abuse. These included: refuge managers; providers of survivor's outreach services; and probation and police officers. Victims of domestic abuse are monitored carefully by the perpetrators of abuse due to the nature of the behavioural traits centring around issues of power and control. It was therefore very important to ensure that the influence of the research and the researcher did not place any survivor in a dangerous situation. Front line staff were therefore selected because of their ability to hold a broad perspective due to their familiarity with the target population; their broad experience of different situations encountered during the course of their work; they would not be under intense emotional duress; and discussions with them would be less likely to cause more distress and danger.Focus groups were held involving 105 teenagers from the South West of England, with an average age of 14.7 years and a fairly even gender balance. Three of these groups were held with community groups and the others were held in a school setting. Prior to conducting the discussions, a questionnaire designed to elicit some broad demographic data around their internet usage and to set the context for the discussions was issued. The discussions were generated by describing a set of scenarios based upon an understanding of the potential problems, and encouraging the respondents to discuss their thoughts and feelings. An online questionnaire distributed through snowball sampling collected opinion about different privacy scenarios concerning the internet.\nFindings: Whilst the issues for survivors and teenagers fell into different categories, there were some similarities. Tracking of survivors was felt to be the primary concern, whether technologically assisted or through methods best described as \"social engineering\" (Mitnick and Simon, 2003). Teenagers did not see any problems with sharing their personal information on specific web sites, but they did view with suspicion web sites that wanted to gather personal information for which there was no obvious reason. Some described unwanted contact and how they had dealt the situation.Survivors\nConclusion: The finding from the two groups has illustrated the different risks that occur from the release of personal information. Readily available tracking technologies; release of personal details; divulgence of information by third parties all combined causing different threats. In the case of survivors, often the impacts were felt even though they did not themselves engage with the technologies.Teenagers made good use of the web in a predominantly social manner. The use of messenger and social networking web sites illustrated a significant amount of personal information being divulged. Teenagers demonstrated their proficiency at making use of the software controls provided or by providing false information to circumvent excessive collection of personal data.To address the current criticisms of PETs technological solutions need to allow individuals the ability to minimise their risks, that are intuitive and relevant to the situation in which the individual finds themself. In this regard, PETs could then be seen to fulfil a role in controlling the risks for the potential for harm.The purpose of this research has been to explore the privacy issues faced by the more vulnerable members of society. The issues highlighted in the study where individual's have been exposed to a risk of harm, or where privacy has been eroded through an individual's own use, or another's use of technology, form important elements for consideration when considering the impact of technology upon privacy. These useful pointers can be used by designers of technology and software; for policy-makers and for those who have a moral responsibility for individuals.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: - The purpose of this research is to examine privacy risks for two groups of individuals for whom privacy is an important issue. Understanding the risks to vulnerable groups leads to the development of a prototype tool used to inform users about areas of potential harm in their online behaviour.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - Data collection employed a number of qualitative approaches in order to best understand both the risks and the social context surrounding them. Semi-structured interviews, focus groups and questionnaires were all utilised where appropriate. Subjects were selected from two groups of individuals for whom the abuse of personal information could lead to serious harm - teenagers and domestic abuse survivors.\nFindings: - The findings provide specific examples of risks posed to the two groups of individuals involved in the study and demonstrate the need for protection mechanisms that promote the awareness of potential risk among vulnerable internet users. These formed the basis of the requirements for the prototype.\nOriginality/value: - This paper presents a contribution to the understanding of risks faced by individuals from technologies as well as considering the potential for harm in an online setting against traditional abuse theories. It also contributes to the body of knowledge considering the development of privacy-enhancing technologies.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Does intellectual capital help predict bankruptcy?	[ "Performance", "VAIC", "Intellectual capital", "Bankruptcy prediction" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: This paper explores whether a firm's intellectual capital performance reduces the probability of default and can help to predict bankruptcy. In a knowledge-based economy, intellectual capital plays a crucial role when it comes to increasing a firm's competitiveness and performance (Lev, 2000; Seetharaman et al., 2002; Massaro et al., 2015). Several studies show that intellectual capital has a positive impact on a firm's financial performance and market value and that they could be considered an indicator of future financial performance (e.g. Bontis, 1998; Pew Tan et al., 2007; Cabrita and Bontis, 2008; Zeghal and Maaloul, 2010; Clarke et al., 2011; Dzenopoljac et al., 2016).\n2. Literature review: 2.1 Intellectual capital literature\n3. Hypotheses development: According to the resource-based view of the firm, intellectual capital is a strategic asset capable of generating long-term competitive advantage and superior financial performance (Riahi-Belkaoui, 2003; Dzenopoljac et al., 2016). Intellectual capital is hardly imitable, is often not even observed and measured in the firm. It cannot be separated and sold. It is thus a type of resource not available in the market.\n4. Research methodology: 4.1 Sample description\n5. Empirical findings: 5.1 Descriptive statistics\n6. Conclusions: In this paper, the authors hypothesise and find that intellectual capital performance is negatively associated with the probability that a firm will default. The authors also find that the bankruptcy prediction models that include intellectual capital performance have a superior predictive ability over standard bankruptcy prediction models.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to explore whether intellectual capital affects the probability that a particular firm will default. The authors also test whether including intellectual capital performance in bankruptcy prediction models improves their predictive ability.\nDesign/methodology/approach: Using a sample of US public companies from the period stretching from 1985 to 2015, the authors test whether intellectual capital performance reduces the probability of bankruptcy. The authors use the VAIC as an aggregate measure of corporate intellectual capital performance.\nFindings: The findings show that the intellectual capital performance is negatively associated with the probability of default. The findings also indicate that the bankruptcy prediction models that include intellectual capital have a superior predictive ability over the standard models.\nResearch limitations/implications: This paper contributes to prior research on intellectual capital and firm performance. To the best of the knowledge, this is the first study to show that the benefits of intellectual capital extend from superior performance to long-term financial stability. The research can also contribute to bankruptcy studies. By using a time frame covering decades, the findings suggest that intellectual capital performance measures can be included in bankruptcy prediction models and can effectively complement traditional performance measures.\nOriginality/value: This paper highlights that intellectual capital is associated with long-term financial stability and a lower bankruptcy risk. Firms realising the potential of their intellectual capital can produce a virtuous circle between higher performance and greater financial stability.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Capital requirements or pricing constraints? An economic analysis of measures for insurance regulation	[ "Capital requirements", "Insurance regulation", "Price regulation" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: Insurance companies are subject to different regulatory restrictions. Two prominent examples include risk-based capital requirements, on the one hand, and interventions into pricing and product design, on the other hand. Different forms of risk-based capital requirements have been introduced in Canada (1994), the USA (1994), Japan (1996), Australia (2001), the United Kingdom (2004), The Netherlands and Switzerland (2006). Recent developments in that direction include the European insurance regulation project Solvency II with risk-based capital requirements in its first pillar, and the Solvency Modernization Initiative of the US National Association of Insurance Commissioners (NAIC). The idea of risk-based capital requirements is to limit the insurer's default risk below a regulatory desired level. In Solvency II, e.g., this is specified by the annual ruin probability of 0.5 per cent.\n2. Model framework: The model incorporates three types of actors: the regulator, who imposes restrictions on insurer safety levels and prices; an insurer with limited liability, who chooses an allowed safety level and insurance price under an objective shareholder-value maximization strategy; and a heterogeneous group of consumers, who make their buying decisions based on these figures. The time horizon is the interval [0, 1].\n3. Insurer response to regulatory constraints: 3.1 Risk-based capital requirements\n4. Implications: 4.1 Comparison of capital requirements and price floors\n5. Numerical examples: 5.1 Model parameters\n6. Discussion: 6.1 Reference to the bank regulation literature\n7. Conclusion: The paper studies the interaction between price regulation and optimal safety levels of insurance companies. It shows that rate suppression induces insurers to reduce their safety levels. Binding price floors, in turn, induce higher safety levels and thus act as a regulatory instrument for solvency regulation. If insurance demand is less than perfectly elastic with regard to default risk, risk-based capital requirements turn out to be more efficient than price floors, as they lead to lower insurance prices, and therefore increase welfare.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: This paper aims to investigate the interaction between capital requirements and pricing constraints as measures for insurance regulation.\nDesign/methodology/approach: In a theoretical model framework, the author derives the insurer's shareholder-value-maximizing response to capital regulation, price regulation and the unregulated strategy as a benchmark; all three strategies are presented in an analytical form.\nFindings: The paper demonstrates that risk-based capital requirements exhibit an efficiency advantage over price regulation and allow for lower premiums. Moreover, the analysis identifies situations in which price floors make insurance more expensive, but have no positive impact on the safety level.\nPractical implications: The comparison between capital regulation and price floors provides policymakers with a methodology to evaluate which regulatory tool is more appropriate. Also, the article discusses that maximum discount rates for European life insurers could be ineffective when the new regulatory framework Solvency II is in place.\nOriginality/value: In all, the article obtains analytical and informative results with relevant implications for insurance regulation.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Green value stream mapping approach to improving productivity and environmental performance	[ "Production", "Environmental sustainability", "Lean management", "Environmental performance", "Value stream map" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: Academic and corporate awareness of environmental issues has increased significantly in recent years (Pipatprapa et al., 2017). Furthermore, large corporations and small businesses alike are under increasing pressure to improve their resource consumption and reduce their environmental footprint (Handfield et al., 1997). In the current global market, thanks to regulations, NGOs and consumer requirements, there is much concern about the impact of production processes on the environment. Thus, environmental awareness has emerged as a new competitive criterion and the improvement of the environmental performance of companies is a business imperative (Cherrafi et al., 2016; Garza-Reyes, 2015). However, the issue of how to carry out practices (i.e. planning and implementing) that improve environmental performance may be a costly endeavor if certain economic factors (e.g. ratio between the full revenue and the full costs) are not taken into consideration (Simpson and Power, 2005).\n2. Background: 2.1 Environmental performance and lean management\n3. Methodology: the OGP-VSM approach: This paper presents a new, innovative approach and framework called OGP-VSM, with the aim of demonstrating how combining the OGP metric and VSM can improve both productivity and environmental performance. OGP-VSM is a visual representation of processes within a pathway, and it can be considered to be a visual map of all activities related to the production of a given product, starting with raw material and ending with the end consumer. The enhanced mapping approach illustrates how the activities are linked to each other and provides performance-related information. That is, it shows costs and compression time for productivity along with resource consumption and waste for environmental performance.\n4. Case study: Research on relating productivity and environmental performance has been mostly theoretical and anecdotal (Molina-Azorin, Claver-Cortes, Lopez-Gamero and Tari, 2009). Empirical approaches, such as case studies and action research, are needed to promote in-depth understanding of the impact that integrating environmental performance has on companies' development (Morioka and de Carvalho, 2016). A case study allows a problem to be investigated in a real-life context, thus helping to build and validate knowledge in practice and in theory (Seth et al., 2017). Following upon the previous discussion on how to construct the OGP-VSM, this section applies the proposed approach to a manufacturing context. The company selected is a tier-1 supplier in the automotive sector and it manufactures bumpers for an automotive original equipment manufacturer (OEM). In total, 90 percent of its turnover comes from the manufacture of parts for final assembly, while the rest is from parts for spare parts.\n5. Discussion and conclusions: This paper proposed a new methodology that integrates lean management tool concepts in order to improve environmental effectiveness in companies. This approach provides insights and highlights whose characteristics are to be considered in order to shift toward environmentally friendly (green) manufacturing. For example, it is important to note that some activities that are instituted for lean benefits have the opposite effect on the environmental performance of companies. In this context, the final applied alternatives should seek a balance between improving productivity and improving environmental performance.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to introduce a new methodology called overall greenness performance for value stream mapping (OGP-VSM). Using value-added concepts, this approach has the potential to integrate, measure, control and improve productive and environmental performance in accordance with a company's context.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The OGP-VSM approach was developed by reviewing and integrating the environmental aspects of existing lean thinking tools and approaches.\nFindings: This research revealed the lack of practical integration between productive and environmental performance. Using OGP-VSM, managers can see that environmental practices have a direct impact on productivity. OGP-VSM allows a balance to be found between lean and green practices in order to achieve the simultaneous improvement of productivity and environmental performance.\nPractical implications: The proposed approach is applied to a case study in an automotive company in Spain and lays the groundwork for moving toward functional environmental sustainability in manufacturers.\nOriginality/value: Companies are increasingly implementing environmentally focused practices. Pursuing environmentally friendly (green) performance poses several challenges, but it also affords opportunities to create new methodologies for generating a competitive advantage for manufacturing companies. There are a limited number of approaches to drawing together the elements and attributes that are essential for a holistic, practical and long-lasting improvement of environmental performance in the manufacturing sector.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Ownership concentration and executive compensation in emerging economies: evidence from China	[ "Corporate ownership", "Senior management", "Compensation", "Corporate governance", "China" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n__NO_TITLE__: What is the relationship between ownership concentration and executive compensation1? This is probably one of the most important but inconclusive questions in corporate governance research and practice. Although existing literature usually adopts the agency theory to study this linkage, there are different perspectives on this issue (O' Neill, 2007). Some researchers indicate that there is a positive impact of firm performance on executive compensation to depress agency problems (Fama, 1980; Jensen and Meckling, 1976). Connected with the inverse U-shaped linkage between ownership concentration and firm performance (Morck et al., 1988; Tuschke and Sanders, 2003), the relationship between ownership concentration and executive compensation is inverse U-shaped. However, other researchers argue that corporate control is a critical tool to decrease agency problems (Gomez-Mejia et al., 1987; Morck et al., 1989). The dispersion of ownership reduces the incentives and abilities of shareholders to monitor managerial actions, thereby creating opportunities for managers to enlarge their pay packages (Goldberg and Idson, 1995). Thus, the dispersion of ownership leads to high executive compensation. Existing empirical findings on the relationship between ownership concentration and executive compensation are also inconclusive. For example, both Dyl (1988) and Goldberg and Idson (1995) find a negative linkage; Chung and Pruitt (1996) report a positive one; while Toyne et al. (2000) find a non-linear relationship. Thus, the impact of ownership concentration on executive compensation is still subject to debate (O' Neill, 2007).\nTheoretical background and hypotheses development: Agency theory and executive compensation\nMethodology: Sample\nDiscussion: Two theoretical contributions emerge in this study. First, most existing studies on the relationship between ownership concentration and executive compensation are limited to firms facing relatively stable institutional environments and function well market systems. Yet, little is known about that in emerging economies experiencing significant institutional changes and dysfunctional market systems. As research horizon is now increasingly expanded to emerging economies (Peng, 2003; Wright et al., 2005) and the compensations received by senior executives in emerging economies have recently attracted considerable attentions (Ding et al., 2007), this study offers an empirical examination of the association between ownership concentration and executive compensation in China, an issue that has received little attention. We find that the relationship between ownership concentration and executive compensation is U-shaped in non-SOEs, while there is no significant influence of ownership concentration on executive compensation in SOEs. Overall, this article joins a small number of recent studies on corporate governance in an emerging context (Peng et al., 2007). More broadly, this article represents a part of a series of recent work that conceptually pushes corporate governance research in emerging economies (Peng et al., 2007; Young et al., 2008).Second, we join the debate between different perspectives on the impact of ownership concentration on executive compensation, not by simply conducting \"one more\" study, but by connecting different perspectives with the characteristics of emerging economies together to answer this question. Therefore, the right question to ask is not which perspective is right, but rather, which one is more powerful in a certain context. In this case, we find that when the ownership concentration is low, the corporate control perspective based on the agency theory is more powerful; while, when there is a controlling shareholder, the principal-principal perspective becomes a helpful tool in non-SOEs. In addition, the special characteristics of SOEs make both the corporate control perspective and the principal-principal perspective faint. Overall, this article serves as an example of how to \"contextualize\" existing theories embedded in emerging economies' realities (Tsui, 2004).Practical implications\nConclusion: With substantial implications and a base for significant new research on the corporate governance in emerging economies, this work provides important contributions to our knowledge on the impact of ownership concentration on executive compensation in emerging economies. Overall, this study tests the relationship between ownership concentration and executive compensation by connecting different perspectives with the characteristics of emerging economies together. Our finding not only offers an empirical test, but also provides some insights into the debates on the relationship between ownership concentration and executive compensation in emerging economies.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: - The research on corporate governance has different perspectives on the relationship between ownership concentration and executive compensation, and the empirical findings on this linkage are also inconclusive. The purpose of this paper is to investigate the impact of ownership concentration on executive compensation in emerging economies.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - By connecting different perspectives with the characteristics of emerging economies together, this research explores the impact of ownership concentration on executive compensation, and then empirically tests the hypotheses based on the archival data of publicly held firms in China.\nFindings: - The paper finds that there is no significant relationship between ownership concentration and executive compensation in state-owned enterprises (SOEs), while there is a U-shaped relationship in non-SOEs.\nOriginality/value: - This study not only offers an empirical test of the effect of ownership concentration on executive compensation, but also provides some insights into the debates on the relationship between ownership concentration and executive compensation in emerging economies.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
A case study of issues of strategy implementation in internationalization of higher education	[ "Internationalization", "Higher education", "Strategy implementation", "United Kingdom" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Strategy implementation has become an essential part of business strategies in today's international competition; however, it seems little attention has been given to particular issues and challenges arising from higher education (HE) internationalization, in spite of the discussion of related factors in literature. Most research in this area either concentrates on commercial organizations (see Table I), or is based on quantitative studies (Teichler, 1996; Teichler and Maiworm, 1996; Van Damme, 2001; Joyce et al., 2003; GATE survey, cited in Sidhu, 2007), which lack in-depth analysis and explanation of particular problems in an institutional context. The literature cannot fully explain the observed issues of HE internationalization in the present case study. Problems of HE internationalization may take different forms within institutional contexts, which require more research. This study addresses the issues and challenges of HE internationalization. A post-1992 university was chosen as a case study. This university is located in central England; it consists of four faculties[1], with approximately 25,000 students; the main focus is on undergraduate delivery. This university is a typical example of most UK universities that undertake HE internationalization without establishing satellite overseas branch campuses. First, a brief review of literature is presented, including factors of strategy implementation and choice of international market; this is followed by an evaluation of related educational issues highlighted in this area. Next, a discussion of the methodology addresses the research approach, data collection and analysis, followed by the discussion of the findings. Finally, this paper ends with conclusion, implications and suggestions for further research.\nLiterature review: Factors of strategy implementation\nMethodology: The focus group technique (Cohen and Manion, 1992) was adopted as a way to better understand why different departments feel the way they do in relation to issues of HE internationalization. Based on positions and job responsibilities, 20 interviewees from three key departments were selected and 1:1 interviews were conducted over the period of six months. The three interview groups are the corporate group, or the senior management in charge of advancing the university's strategic plan; the marketing group, who liaise with different departments in charge of international recruitment, partnerships, initiatives and student support; and the faculty group, or the academic teaching team who are responsible for strategy implementation. The answers from each group were used in comparative analysis, resulting in an overlapping pattern structure, which consists of common points (agreed by three groups), partially shared points (agreed by two groups), and group-specific points (single group).The principal researcher is not an internal academic at the university and therefore is better placed to maintain a more objective perspective on the data collected. The secondary author, while internal to the institution, is not directly involved in internationalization. Semi-structured interviews (Hammersley, 1992; Robson, 2002; Bell, 2002; Denscombe, 2003) played a dominant role in primary data collection. Other types of data collection were used to triangulate with primary data, including observation (Ackroyd and Hughes, 1992) and secondary documentary data. A total of 329 pages of interview transcripts were analyzed. Data analysis strategies included content analysis, critical discourse analysis (CDA), categorization of meaning and color coding. Content analysis normally accepts the circumstance as what has been told (Stemler, 2001); while CDA (Fairclough et al., 2004) does not only recognize the denotative meaning (such as interview transcripts) (Chandler, 1998), but also interpret the underlying connotative meaning (Barthes, 1974, 1977) of interviewees' subjective views. With categorization of meaning, the data are analyzed for common sub-themes and patterns (Kavale and Forness, 1996). Color coding of transcripts was used to identify the most frequently mentioned issues and to develop sub-themes within the categories (Strauss and Corbin, 1990).Findings of primary data\nConclusion, implication and further research: The research concludes that issues of HE internationalization are mainly in relation to integration, operation, communication, resource, people, change and culture. Most factors are rooted internally, and the university's internal cohesion, capability and willingness are primarily vital to HE internationalization, although external factors are also important. First, these critical factors present particular forms of international strategy implementation issues within an institutional context, and highlight the areas where the university needs to improve. Different key departments can better realize and understand the challenges of HE internationalization, and adjust themselves to achieve a more efficient outcome. Next, these factors are not unique to education nor do they exist within one particular university. For other similar institutions, these critical factors are also applicable. The larger proportion of overlap among the key departments implies the higher level of integration within the university, and the more possibility of success in HE internationalization.Recommendations suggest that the university should provide more training and staff development that can help in the transfer of knowledge (Sirianni and Frey, 2001; Zhao, 2005), share more common values, increase interaction and level of cooperation across key departments. Organizational culture needs to be changed fundamentally through an internal top-down influence from leadership (Hrebiniak, 2009), facilitating a culture shift (Carden and Callahan, 2007) and fostering the employees' willingness to support international initiatives. High performance is not always the result of good effort, but of greater understanding (Frese and Zapf, 1994), thus efficient communication and understanding are highly encouraged. This qualitative research contributes to a better understanding of the issues and challenges of HE internationalization in the present case study, and creates a sound basis for a more broad-based study across the HE sector. Further research will concentrate on testing these critical factors in other institutions through quantitative population studies.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: - The purpose of this research is to identify and critically evaluate key issues faced by an institution in the quest to implement higher education internationalization.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - A qualitative research is conducted in a post-1992 UK university. A total of 20 interviewees from three key departments participated in this project. Content analysis, critical discourse analysis and categorisation of meaning were applied on analysing three sources of data collection.\nFindings: - This study identifies critical issues that impede international strategy implementation within an institutional context. These issues include resource allocation, communication, operational process, cooperation and coordination, organizational culture, resistance to change, student support and external environment. Researching findings indicate that most issues are rooted internally. Higher education (HE) internationalization is deemed to be integration and cohesion.\nResearch limitations/implications: - This research contributes to rich understanding of challenges of the present case study; therefore, further research in this area is encouraged to test these highlighted issues through quantitative population studies in other institutions.\nPractical implications: - Research findings show different understanding of critical issues of HE internationalization, and highlight the areas that need to be improved. This study encourages different key departments to conduct and evaluate internationalization internally.\nOriginality/value: - This research suggests that HE internationalization is primarily an internal matter of integration rather than a process driven only by external environment. This study addresses particular forms of critical issues within an institutional context through a qualitative analysis.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Attitudes of migrants towards foreign-made products: an exploratory study of migrants in Australia	[ "Consumer behaviour", "Ethnocentrism", "Immigrants", "Imports" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n__NO_TITLE__: An executive summary for managers and executive readers can be found at the end of this article.\nIntroduction: For many years, consumer ethnocentrism has been widely studied by international marketing scholars. According to Shimp and Sharma (1987, p. 280), consumer ethnocentrism is regarded as a \"unique economic form of ethnocentrism that captures the beliefs held by consumers about the appropriateness and indeed morality of purchasing foreign-made products\". Consumer ethnocentrism denotes consumer tendencies to distinguish between products of the in-group (home country) and out-groups (foreign countries) and to avoid buying foreign products due to nationalistic reasons. Even as non-ethnocentric consumers evaluate products on their own merits with respect to price, quality and other desired features, ethnocentric consumers consider purchasing imported products to be incorrect due to perceptions of losses to the domestic economy (Shimp and Sharma, 1987). However, what would be the level of consumer ethnocentrism of migrants, who may also be part of an ethnic minority group, in a host country? What would be their attitudes toward foreign-made products as compared to domestic host-made products? What would be the differences between overseas-born migrants and local-born people in consumer ethnocentrism and attitudes toward foreign products? This paper addresses all these questions, using one country - Australia - as a type of case study.In fact, the questions are quite related to the issues of ethnic marketing, which aims to study the marketing within ethnic minority contexts (Cui, 1997; Pires, 1999). Ethnic marketing is getting increasing attention due to the significant increase of migrants in many developed countries like the USA, Canada, Britain, France, Germany and Australia. However, the study of ethnic marketing in Australia has attracted less attention and is relatively limited as compared with other countries. Thus, it is worthwhile and interesting to contribute to the literature of ethnic marketing and consumer ethnocentrism by studying what the situation is in Australia especially since Australia has a very diverse population and almost 25 percent of its population were born overseas. In the perspective of cross-cultural comparison, it is interesting and necessary to examine the differences between Asian and Western migrants as well. In short, the main objectives of this study are:* to compare the differences in consumer ethnocentrism between the Australian migrants (Asian and Western) and local-born Australians; and* to examine the attitudes toward local-made and foreign-made products for the Australian migrants (Asian and Western) and local-born Australians.\nBackground: Ethnic marketing\nFindings: Sample characteristics\nDiscussion, managerial implications and future research: This study aims to investigate the attitudes of Asian and Western migrants and native-borns in Australian toward foreign-made products and the impact of consumer ethnocentrism on attitude formation. The results show that migrants whose cultural backgrounds are similar to that of the host country tend to have similar ethnocentrism scores to local-borns. Both were found to have a higher level of consumer ethnocentrism compared to those with a different cultural background, i.e. Asian migrants. Consumer ethnocentrism is found to have a positive effect on preference for local or Australian made products, but this effect is not as strong for the migrant groups as for local-born Australians. However, the impact would depend on the product categories and other factors such as cultural openness, collectivism, animosity, materialism, dogmatism, economic development of host country, acculturation and demographic factors (see Acharya and Elliott, 2003; Shankarmahesh, 2006).Previous research shows that consumer ethnocentrism positively affects the preference and purchase intentions of domestic host-made products but negatively towards foreign-made products. However, there may be limitations for the use of consumer ethnocentrism in marketing communications or promotion strategies within multi-cultural countries like Australia. In terms of ethnic marketing, an understanding of the development of consumer ethnocentrism within overseas-born ethnic minority groups may help in promoting the domestic products manufactured in the host country. Western migrants with similar culture values and systems would have a higher level of consumer ethnocentrism toward the host country, Australia. In contrast, Asian migrants with different culture values and systems would have a lower level of consumer ethnocentrism. Moreover, age and the number of years staying in the host country are found to be positively related to consumer ethnocentrism, although the statistical significance of the relationship varied among the groups. Although there is a positive relationship between consumer ethnocentrism and product preference (and, thus, purchase intentions), as stated above, the impact depends on the product categories and other factors. This study concerns a major issue for managers within a country, particularly those marketing non-nationally-made products, and managers outside a country whose entry mode into that country is export. This issue is the effect that level of consumer ethnocentrism has on sales to consumers. With a high level, sales of domestic products will rise and sales of foreign products will decline.The generalization of this study is limited by the relatively small sample size. Further research with a larger sample size and measurement of actual purchase behavior of foreign-made and local-made products is recommended. Moreover, it is interesting for future research to examine whether the impact of globalization and the formation of global consumer culture has started to diminish the differences between migrants and locally-born people in consumer ethnocentrism and attitude toward country-of-origin of products.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: - The purpose of this paper is to study the attitudes of Asian and Western migrants and native-borns in Australia toward foreign-made products and the impact of consumer ethnocentrism on attitude formation.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - The research was designed as a personal interview survey using shopping mall intercepts. A total of 206 consumers were asked to indicate their preferences for foreign-made versus Australian-made products for five diverse products. Respondents also responded to a short version of the CETSCALE, a scale measuring consumer ethnocentrism. Respondents were classified as Australian-born, Asian-born migrants, or Western-born migrants.\nFindings: - Consumer ethnocentrism is negatively related to attitudes toward foreign-made products for both overseas-born (Asian and Western) migrants and local-born Australians. Asian-born migrants reported a significantly lower level of consumer ethnocentrism than both of the other respondent groups. Within the Western migrant group, males had a significantly higher level of ethnocentrism than females; there was no significant difference between genders in the other two respondent groups. For migrants, the number of years living in Australia is positively related to ethnocentrism. Age is related to ethnocentrism for all sample groups.\nOriginality/value: - The study contributes to knowledge about ethnic marketing to migrant groups and consumer ethnocentrism, especially for Australia, in which migrants represent a large share of its population. Thus, it could very well serve as a model of \"things to come\" in other countries that experience large immigration inflows. This is the first study to look at ethnocentrism and attitudes toward country-of-origin of products of migrants and locally-born people.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Mainstreet USA revisited	[ "Marketing", "Culture", "Consumer behaviour", "Ethnography", "United States of America" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: We live in an age increasingly marked by the centrality of marketing activity (Slater and Tonkiss, 2001). Commercial interests are one of the predominant sponsors of cultural artifacts, with widespread examples in foods; music, film/print media; arts and crafts; and other consumption objects and services exchanged domestically and internationally (Wilk, 2006; Garcia-Canclini, 2001; Miller, 1997). This development has been deplored by cultural critics on the political left and right; among their concerns are its debasing effects on individual agency (Huyssen, 1984), and erosion of traditional cultural forms (Bell, 1976).Yet for Latinos/as[1] and others positioned outside the white, male, heterosexual upper middle class \"mainstream\" in the USA, the contemporary moment is potentially a politically progressive time as marketers rush to target them, and as scholars chart out changing social relations[2]. Contemporary democratic capitalism promises exciting possibilities of inclusion, legitimization, and self-determination for previously marginalized groups as they are constituted as consumers (Penaloza, 1995). However, realizing these possibilities necessarily goes beyond traditional consumption models of brand choice (Day, 2005) and political models of voting behavior (Hero, 1992; de la Garza, 1993) to include additional forms of market politics, such as language and cultural traditions played out in housing, education, and social services.Fundamental in mapping out contemporary market politics is understanding the nature of relationships between mainstream and marginalized social groups. Scholars have charted how the cultural authority of the mainstream subject rests upon the exclusion of various marginal subject positions for its very constitution and particular determinations (Jameson, 1984; Lyotard, 1984). Like more general forms of social \"difference\" (Derrida, 1978), racial/ethnic hierarchies depend upon the construction and maintenance of others (Sandoval, 2000; Delgado and Stefancic, 1997). Social institutions are critically important means through which social relationships of power are exercised (Gramsci, 1985; Foucault, 1983). One major social institution is marketing.In this paper, I employ ethnographic methods to investigate market politics and community at a predominantly Latino/a marketplace site within the city of San Pueblo[3] in Southern California. Here, Latinos/as come to buy and sell. Importantly, the city is at the same time a socio-cultural, economic, and political space where Latinos/as continually enact and reconstruct community in relationship to White mainstream culture[4].I have selected this fieldsite as a microcosm of larger national and global market/political phenomena. Nationwide, Latinos/as number 42.7 million people (US Bureau of the Census, 2006), with over 650 billion dollars in annual expenditures (Conference Board, 2004). However, while market incorporation has advanced at a brisk pace since the 1980s, political representation falls well below what numbering 14 per cent of the population might attest (Hero, 1992; de la Garza, 1993).My use of the term community is influenced by several disciplines, including anthropology, sociology, ethnic studies, and consumer culture. Anthropologist Rouse (1991) described \"the place of the putative community - whether regional or national\" as a \"site in which transnationally organized circuits of capital, labor, and communications intersect with one another and with local ways of life\" (p. 16). The title of this article, Mainstreet Revisited, harkens back to Lewis' (1961) classic satire of American life in a small town in the 1920s, a time when race/ethnic/ gender \"issues\" were present, but tempered below the surface, only to explode decades later in the Civil Rights Movements of the 1960s.The argument is that Latinas/os are incorporated into US social domains - city, state, and nation 'communities' - through an amalgam of marketing, socio-cultural, and political activity. Marketing activities targeting Latinos/as not only promote the economic interests of sponsoring firms, but also effectively constitute and legitimate Latinos/as as consumers in US society (Penaloza, 1994a, b), thus challenging to some degree existing social hierarchies (Penaloza, 2004). I believe this situation to be particularly acute in late capitalist societies (Jameson, 1984), such as the USA, where consumer culture is markedly prevalent and strongly valued. This legitimization warrants critical attention, however, concerning the limitations of constituting community members primarily as consumers, and whether marketing activity can be appropriated towards community ends.\nMarketing segmentation, social relations, and community: From market discovery to social construction\nMethods: Research methods combine ethnographic and historical techniques (Shapiro, 1992), both my own and secondary sources. My ethnographic work was carried out in the shops, on the street, at festivals, and in the Catholic Church in downtown San Pueblo from 1987 to 1991, and again from 1995 to 1998, which I supplement with Lisbeth Haas' work on political activity in the city from 1976 to 1987 (Haas, 1991). Historical work focuses on when Mexicans and Whites came to the area, under what circumstances, and how the two groups have coexisted over time.The focus of this article is twofold; on marketing activities and political activities in relation to consumption at this particular site. Observations and interviews on consumption activities highlighted foods, clothing, transportation, communications, identity, and relations with others. Political activities at the time included legislation for English as the Official Language and against the provision of services to illegal immigrants, city council development and housing codes, and rent strikes on the part of residents.Combining these data has been instrumental in theorizing consumption politics within the context of the city. In this sense, Latinas/os are consumers and more; they are political-economic agents who inhabit particular geographic spaces. In contrast to other work on virtual community, how they are incorporated into social systems and institutions is significant in the development of this Latina/o community. A few qualifications are in order. I am not attempting to resurrect an authentic past, nor herald a utopian future. I do not view consumption as either inherently facilitating community or inherently liberatory. Instead, I seek to retain a critical posture, highlighting and interpreting contradictions and gaps in the logic of marketing and political activities, asking whose perspective(s) and interest(s) operate and interrogating how these discourses tend to present particular subject positions.\nLatino/a community in San Pueblo: City development\nDiscussion and implications: reimagining the Latino/a community: Deciphering market politics\nConclusions: This paper has interrogated the ways in which Latino/a community is constituted at the nexus of marketing and civic politics. While the constitution of Latino/a consumers by marketers offers some forms of social validation and legitimization, these marketing inclusions do not necessarily bring about political inclusion in themselves, although they can accompany or even drive the latter. Also important is continued labor activism and work etching out a place for capital in the development of Latino/a communities.This study is not without its limitations. Its fragmented treatment of \"culture\" as overdetermined, contradictory, and increasingly mediated by marketing activity; and correspondingly, consumption as grounded in multiple and overlapping \"cultural\" contexts provides a partial view of Latina/o community. Further work is called for that explores in more depth Latinos/as and others in and outside the market, with particular attention to the ways in which consumers reconcile the contrasts of inclusion in market targeting with continued exclusion in many other social spheres, such as housing, education, and political participation.As demonstrated in this work, market targeting provides Latinos/as a welcomed sense of inclusion and legitimation in contemporary US society, yet it is no substitute for concerted political enfranchisement and participation. This was evident during my fieldwork in the 1990s in the aftermath of California's Proposition 187, which called for a moratorium on the provision of social services to illegal immigrants, and it tops the contemporary political agenda at the time of this writing, summer 2006. At present legislators debate official English, immigration reform, building a fence, and deploying the national guard at the US/Mexico border, even as Latinos/as - only a small minority of whom are illegal - are welcomed as consumers, employees, and business owners at this site, and countless others across the nation. These contradictions fuel political opportunists on both sides of the political spectrum.It is significant that the integration and legitimization of Latinos/as takes place at a mix of private, commercial, consumption space and public, and governmental space. While government is held to democratic standards and cast as public domain in the national imaginary, it has had a very exclusive history at this site and others across this nation (Lipsitz, 1998; Acuna, 1987) and others (Garcia-Canclini, 2001). Traditional, public arenas and institutions such as city centers, schools, and city councils are being transformed by a mix of socio-demographic trends and particular blends of political economy, in this case, democratic capitalism in the USA.I have brought together facets of market targeting and social relations to offer new ways of thinking about community. In this post-melting pot era, the Latino/a community in the USA, like minority communities in many other parts of the world, is not wholly separate nor isolated, but is moving to become an integral part of the mainstream. As it does, the people of this country face a number of challenges to national identity, history, and community. It is my hope that we will come together to see the others in ourselves, and ourselves in these others; it is not an overstatement to suggest that the future of our communities depends upon it.\nNotes: 1. I use the term Latino/a to include both men and women, and because it has become the most acceptable umbrella term by those of Mexican, Central and South American descent and origin in the USA, although it remains controversial by those intent upon keeping their national origin, the more acculturated who prefer the term Hispanic, and the more political who prefer Chicano/a.2. Similar arguments have been made for women, African Americans, Asians, and gays and lesbians in the USA and Western Europe (Nicholson, 1990; Owens, 1983), to name a few marginalized groups. However, the focus in this paper is on relationships between Whites and Latinos/as at this site. Relations between other groups in other cities and other nations feature similarities and differences in the distinctions made across a number of social characteristics in addition to race/ethnicity/nationality, such as religion, class, and gender.3. San Pueblo is not the real name of this city. I use a pseudonym to respect the privacy of the people who live, work and shop here.4. I use the term White and mainstream US culture interchangeably, as consistent with work on Whiteness in the USA (Lipsitz, 1998; Delgado and Stefancic, 1997). Cultural mainstreams in other nation necessarily reflect other socio-demographic configurations and terms.5. San Pueblo contains the county's largest percentages of Asians and Blacks, although Latinos/as are numerically dominant by far.6. On a Sunday afternoon 156 people were counted passing by in a ten minute period.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: - This paper aims to examine the nature of market politics in a Latino/a community in Southern California, USA.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - Research methods combine orignial ethnographic and historical work with secondary sources on marketing and political activities in their relation to consumption.\nFindings: - Findings highlight conflicts brought about by the burgeoning development of the consumer market for Mexican immigrants in the area, as proponents of conventional industrial and residential development projects clash with Latino/a consumers, Latino/a and Asian buisnessmen and women, and community activists.\nResearch limitations/implications: - A partial view of Latino community is provided that stems from the treatment of consumer culture as fragmented, contradictory, and increasingly mediated by marketing activity and social relations.\nPractical implications: - Implications strive to re-imagine Latino/a community and develop policy directives by considering the place of consumption, labor, and capital, and by taking into account the fluid nature of identity, the porous and dynamic bounds of community, and in/formal structures of political power.\nOriginality/value: - This research contributes to our understanding of social relations between mainstream and minority groups as played out in marketing activity and consumer culture. It should prove valuable to academics, policy analysts, and community activists.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Expatriate CEO assignment: A study of multinational corporations' subsidiaries in Taiwan	[ "Chief executives", "Taiwan" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: As global competition continues to intensify, it becomes increasingly important for multinational corporations (MNCs) to manage their globally dispersed subsidiaries to gain competitive advantages (Birkinshaw and Hood, 1998). Therefore, a MNC should assign competent managers to execute the subsidiary's activities in order to achieve various objectives, including utilizing the subsidiary's capabilities (Frost et al., 2002), exploring and exploiting the locational advantages of the host country (Almeida and Phene, 2004; Dunning, 1995), overcoming cultural barriers (Hennart and Larimo, 1998), and integrating the subsidiary's activities with those of the other MNC units (Luo, 2002). Clearly, a subsidiary's chief executive officer (CEO) is one of the most important subsidiary's managers. The CEO plays a key role in formulating the firm's strategy and has a critical influence on its organizational activities and performance (Herrmann and Datta, 2002). Moreover, the subsidiary CEO also serves as a \"bridge\" between the MNC, the host country and the subsidiary (Gong, 2003a, 2003b), and balances the pressure between \"global integration\" and \"local responsiveness\" (Taggart, 1998).The subsidiary CEO position can be filled either by the assignment of an expatriate or by the appointment of a local national (Gong, 2003b). The two choices are quite different in terms of their strategic implications for the MNC. The reasons for assigning an expatriate to the subsidiary may include the desire to increase strategic control over the subsidiary's operations, to enhance the integration between the subsidiary and the MNC, to promote the utilization of the MNC's and subsidiary's capabilities and facilitate knowledge transfer, and to enhance the transmission of the MNC's culture to the subsidiary (Selmer, 2004). In contrast, the objectives of assigning a local manager may include the needs to reduce hiring costs, to increase the interactions of the subsidiary with its local stakeholders, to secure access to local resources, to ensure a better fit with the local environment, and to motivate local employees (Selmer, 2004).Recognizing the important tasks of the subsidiary CEO, the assignment of an expatriate or a local national as the subsidiary CEO has a strategic importance rather than an operational one (Kessapidou and Varsakelis, 2003). The international human resource literature has recognized the impact of expatriates assignment on a subsidiary's operations (e.g., Baruch and Altman, 2002; Harzing, 2001; Tahvanainen, 2000). Unfortunately, CEOs have been ignored within this research stream (for exceptions, see Gong, 2003b; Kessapidou and Varsakelis, 2003; Kabst, 2004). In addition, past literature regarding expatriates has centered mainly on the \"international adjustment\" perspective (e.g., Selmer, 2001, 2002; Shay and Baack, 2004), which focused on the \"adaptation\", the \"personal characteristics\", or the \"career path\" of expatriates. Since a subsidiary's CEO has strategic importance for managing the subsidiary's operations, it is important to consider whether the subsidiary CEO can facilitate the subsidiary's work to achieve its various objectives. The purpose of this paper is to investigate the determinants of an expatriated CEO assignment based on the eclectic paradigm (Dunning, 1988, 1995, 2000), including ownership factors, location factors and internalization factors; referred to henceforth as OLI factors. We also applied resource-based view (RBV) and transaction cost theory (TCT) perspectives to analyze MNC's decision concerning expatriated CEO for subsidiaries. As such, this research contributes to knowledge about the determinants of expatriated CEO assignment, and illuminates the importance of OLI factors for MNCs. Although aspects of staffing decisions in MNCs have received attention from scholars in the past (e.g., Benito et al., 2005; Bonache-Perez and Pla-Barber, 2005), little research has examined CEO assignment as influenced by OLI factors. The CEO can be expected to contribute significantly to a subsidiary's performance in a MNC. Understanding how a MNC can assign the right CEO will help sustain its competitive advantage.\nConceptual framework and hypotheses development: Conceptual framework\nHypotheses development: Influence of subsidiary's ownership-specific factors\nResearch methodology: Data collection\nQuestionnaire development and research variables: Research variables\nResearch findings and discussion: The descriptive statistics of the current research variables are presented in Table III. Since the dependent variable (i.e. whether or not the MNC appoints an expatriated CEO to the subsidiary) is dichotomous, a logistic-regression model was used to test the hypotheses. The highest correlation between the independent variables is 0.568. Hence, multi-collinearity is not a serious problem in the present model. The results of the logistic-regression models are presented in Table IV. As can be seen, the Chi-Square value of this model is 21.924 (p < 0.01) and the percentage of correct model prediction is 76.10 percent. Hence, the research variables regarding OLI factors exert strong influences on the likelihood of assigning an expatriated CEO to a subsidiary.Regarding the hypotheses related to the ownership-specific factors, equation (1) in Table IV shows that H1 (b=0.817, p < 0.05) and H2 (b=1.143, p < 0.05) are both supported. Therefore, the variables related to the ownership-specific factors have a significant influence on the assignment of an expatriated CEO. The results indicate that:* the MNC would appoint an expatriated CEO to facilitate capability (knowledge) utilization, transfer, and dissemination; and* as the subsidiary's size increases, the MNC is more likely to assign an expatriated CEO to the subsidiary, implying that larger subsidiaries can be considered as being more important to their parent companies (Benito et al., 2005) and tend to be allocated more resources by headquarters.Considering the hypotheses related to the location-specific factors, H3 (b=-1.261, p < 0.05) is supported. Hence, the variables related to the location-specific factors has a significant impact on the assignment of an expatriated CEO. The results show that the appointment of a local national as the subsidiary CEO will assist the subsidiary to acquire locational advantages.Regarding the hypotheses related to the internalization-specific factors, H4 (b=3.150, p < 0.05) and H5 (b=0.614, p < 0.05) are both supported. Hence, the two variables (i.e. strategy type and internalization motivation) related to the internalization-specific factors exert a significant effect on the assignment of an expatriated CEO. The results imply that:* when the subsidiary pursues a global strategy, appointing an expatriated CEO to control and integrate the subsidiary's activities with those of the MNC is necessary; and* when the level of internalization motivation is high, an expatriated CEO is required in order to control the subsidiary's activities to gain certain benefits.Finally, the third internalization-specific factor, the effect of cultural distance on the assignment of an expatriated CEO, is contingent on internalization motivation (b=0.066, p < 0.1). H6 is, therefore, supported. A typical process for interpreting such effects was used following Hitt et al. (2001). Figure 2 shows the interaction between cultural distance and internalization motivation plotted for the expatriated CEO, with the highest predicted value for high cultural distance and high internalization motivation. The lowest predicted value was for high cultural distance and low internalization motivation. The results indicate that under the circumstance of large cultural distance between the home country and host country, a highly internalization motivated MNC tends to assign an expatriated CEO to its subsidiary; in contrast, a weakly internalization motivativated MNC prefers to recruit local manager as subsidiary's CEO. Internalization motivation is the contingency variable that predicts the relationship between cultural distance and expatriated CEO decision.\nConclusions and future research directions: This research attempts to explore the determinants of an MNC assigning an expatriated CEO to its subsidiary, which has been relatively neglected in pervious literature. The results indicate that the OLI factors can properly explain the determinants of expatriated CEO assignment. In conclusion, this research has theoretical and practical implications. The practical implication of this study lies in the finding that MNCs could make subsidiary's staffing decision by taking into account ownership-specific, location-specific, and internalization-specific factors. Failure to do so will lead to poor subsidiary's operation. The theoretical implication of this study lies in the application of RBV and TCT perspectives on MNC's decision concerning the assignment of expatriated CEO for subsidiaries. From the RBV perspective (i.e. ownership- specific factors), a firm could develop sustained competitive advantage through creating value within MNC operation. Regarding the subsidiary's ownership advantages (capability and size), these have a great impact on the MNC's operations. Hence, as asserted in studies on MNC's resources and capabilities (Peng, 2001), leveraging each subsidiary's capability is essential to the whole MNC in order to increase the MNC's competitiveness (Hansen and Lovas, 2004). In this situation, the expatriated subsidiary CEO, who possesses the knowledge of the MNC's global strategy and operations, and has higher intention to transfer and disseminate the subsidiary's capability, is expected to fully utilize the value of a subsidiary's capability.In contrast, from the TCT perspective, the internalization-specific factors, including the subsidiary's strategy type and the subsidiary's internalization motivation, increase the likelihood of assigning an expatriated CEO to the subsidiary in order to enhance the MNC's control over the subsidiary's operations and facilitate operational integration between other units of the MNC, thus achieving many benefits (Dunning, 1995; Rugman and Verbeke, 2003). As a result, an expatriated CEO who shares similar perspectives with the MNC and regards the MNC's strategy as the first priority, can be for a proper choice in this situation. Therefore, the benefit of \"internalization\" should be achieved through expatriation.Different from the above-mentioned internalization-specific factors, the effect of cultural distance on the likelihood of assigning an expatriated CEO to the subsidiary is contingent on a moderating variable - internalization motivation. Large cultural distances lead to high transaction costs for MNCs operating in foreign countries. Unfamiliarity with the host country's culture and local management gives MNCs incentives to internalize so that they can control their subsidiaries more effectively (Chen and Hu, 2002). Consequently, MNCs which are highly internalization motivated will assign an expatriated CEO to the subsidiary in order to increase its control over the subsidiary. On the other hand, for MNCs of low internalization motivation, the unfamiliarity associated with cultural distance may lead them to exert control through locally recruited CEOs. Thus, they can avoid costly mistakes in the new environment (Chen and Hu, 2002)Finally, the location-specific factor relates to the utilization of local resources advantage. When a host country's local environment is quite different from that of its home country, the assignment of a local national CEO would enhance the subsidiary's local embeddedness in the host country (Almeida and Phene, 2004), thus capturing locational advantages.As a guide to future empirical research, it is prudent to examine some of the key limitations of this study. First, this research focuses on factors influencing the origin of subsidiary CEOs (i.e. an expatriate or a local national). We do not consider the influence of the subsidiary CEOs' other characteristics (e.g., functional background, education level and demography, etc.), which are related to the CEO's competences, on the subsidiary CEO staffing decision. Future studies can incorporate additional CEOs' characteristics to examine this topic. Second, the research does not differentiate between two different types of expatriates, i.e. a parent country national (PCN) expatriate or a third country national (TCN) expatriate (Gong, 2003a, 2003b). However, since any expatriated CEO will tend to reflect the MNC's perspective, and because a TCN is seldom chosen compared with subsidiary CEOs or managers from other sources(Gong, 2003b)(e.g., only 10 percent of the expatriated CEOs are TCNs in the current research sample),.this is not deemed a significant weakness. Future research should consider examining these different types of CEOs and their respective influences. Third, this study focuses on advanced countries' MNCs subsidiaries in Taiwan; future research can extend this topic by investigating developing countries' MNCs subsidiaries (e.g., Korea and Thailand, etc.) in Taiwan, or by examining developing countries' MNCs subsidiaries operating in advanced countries. Finally, the assignment of a subsidiary CEO is just one of several important subsidiary staffing mechanisms and thus future studies can extend this research by investigating the characteristics of the top management team of the subsidiary (for example, examining the proportion of expatriates in a subsidiary's top management team).\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: - The purpose of this paper is to explore the factors influencing whether a multinational corporation (MNC) appoints an expatriate or a local national as the CEO of its subsidiary.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - The study proposes a framework comprising ownership-specific, location-specific and internalization-specific factors to examine determinants of expatriate CEO assignment. MNCs' subsidiaries in Taiwan were selected for the study.\nFindings: - For the effect on the assignment of an expatriated CEO to a subsidiary, the factors of a subsidiary's capability and size, MNC's global strategy and internalization motivation are positive; in contrast, the factor of the host country's locational advantages is negative. In addition, in circumstances of large cultural distances, the effect of high internalization motivation is positive and that of low internalization motivation is negative.\nResearch limitations/implications: - The research does not differentiate between two different types of expatriates and focuses on advanced countries' MNCs' subsidiaries in Taiwan. The theoretical implication of the study lies in the application of the perspectives of resource-based view and transaction cost theory on an MNC's decision concerning the assignment of an expatriated CEO for subsidiaries.\nPractical implications: - MNCs could make a subsidiary's staffing decision by taking into account ownership-, location-, and internalization-specific factors. Failure to do so will lead to poor operation of the subsidiary.\nOriginality/value: - The research contributes to knowledge about the determinants of expatriate CEO assignment, and illuminates the importance of ownership, location and internalization factors for MNCs.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Phycocyanin as substitute for texture ingredients in ice creams	[ "Fat", "Ice cream", "Emulsification index", "Emulsifier", "Phycocyanin", "Stabilizer" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: The concern over the safety and quality of foods drives the search for replacement of chemical additives for those obtained from natural sources, leading to a growing demand by the enrichment of foods with bioactive compounds that have beneficial effects on human health (Carocho et al., 2015; Recharla et al., 2017; Nathia-Neves and Meireles, 2018).\n2. Material and methods: The study was divided in two steps: first, the influence of addition of EP in ice cream bases and second, the influence of addition of EP in five ice cream formulations. The ice cream bases represent the ice cream preparation before the step of air incorporation.\n3. Results and discussion: 3.1 Characterization of the emulsifying potential of the EP\n4. Conclusion: The extract of phycocyanin obtained from Spirulina presented emulsifying and stabilizing effects, providing the formulation of a product with good quality for consumption. We produced a product using a natural additive, which has received attention from the food industry nowadays.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: The phycocyanin is a pigment present in the microalga Spirulina that has been studied due to its applicability as food coloring; however, it can be used due to the ability to act as an emulsifier or stabilizer in function of its protein characteristic. The purpose of this paper is to use aqueous extracts of Spirulina containing phycocyanin (EP) as a substitute of additives in the production of ice creams.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The study was divided in two sections: first, the influence of addition of EP in ice cream bases (that represent the ice cream preparation before air incorporation step) and second, the influence of addition of EP in five ice cream formulations, in which the differences were the addition of EP in substitution of stabilizer, Chantilly or emulsifier, one at a time or in substitution of all additives together, by the EP.\nFindings: The different ice creams developed presented centesimal composition according to Brazilian legislation in relation to the chemical parameters. The EP presented emulsifying and stabilizing activity in the ice creams formulations acting in substitution of emulsifier and stabilizer presented in the standard formulation, not influencing the overall acceptability of consumers.\nOriginality/value: The authors demonstrate that the aqueous extract of Spirulina containing phycocyanin can be used as a natural additive in ice cream in substitution of emulsifiers and stabilizers normally used in this product, contributing to produce more healthy foods, once phycocyanin is an protein of high nutritional value.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
What makes hotel online reviews credible? An investigation of the roles of reviewer expertise, review rating consistency and review valence	[ "Heuristics", "User-generated content", "Perceived credibility", "Review valence", "Review rating consistency", "Reviewer expertise" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Information becomes increasingly collaborative through social interaction because of the development of advanced technology and Web 2.0. The internet users shifted their roles from passive readers to active creators and sharers of information and content (Wright and Zdinak, 2008). Online content created by users instead of professionals are referred to as user-generated content (UGC). Online review is one of the popular UGCs that consumers use when making travel decisions (Sparks and Browning, 2011). Consumers read online reviews written by other travelers to generate ideas, streamline choices, reduce risk and confirm booking decisions (Cantallops and Salvi, 2014; Gretzel et al., 2007). They consider reviews posted by travelers as more credible and important than the information provided by commercial sources (Gretzel and Yoo, 2008; Kusumasondjaja et al., 2012). Online reviews demonstrated their powerful influence on the booking intention of customers (Zhao et al., 2015), hotel occupancy rate (Viglia et al., 2016), room revenue (Blal and Sturman, 2014) and business performance (Kim and Park, 2017).\nLiterature review: Perceived credibility of user-generated content\nMethodology: Research design\nFindings: Respondents' profile\nConclusion and discussion: Conclusion\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: This study aims to adopt a cognitive heuristic approach to investigate the interaction effect of a message source characteristic (reviewer expertise [RE]) and two message structure characteristics (review rating consistency [RC] and review valence [RV]) on the perceived credibility of hotel online reviews.\nDesign/methodology/approach: Data were collected from 242 university students and were analyzed by three-way analysis of variance through a 2 x 2 factorial experiments using a simulated hotel review page on TripAdvisor.\nFindings: Results show a three-way interaction effect of RE, RC and RV on the perceived credibility of hotel online reviews. The main effects of the three factors are also determined. Higher perceived credibility scores are found for negative reviews, reviews written by experts and reviews with a consistent rating.\nResearch limitations/implications: This study adopts an experimental approach and is the first to investigate the three-way interactions of message source and message structure characteristics of online hotel reviews. Data were collected from students in a university in Hong Kong. Results may not be generalizable to other markets.\nPractical implications: Results suggest that reviews written by experts have higher perceived credibility. Hotels should pay attention to the content of online reviews and the expertise level of reviewers. Efforts should be exerted to create positive experiences for hotel guests that motivate expert reviewers to write positive reviews. Note that negative reviews have higher perceived credibility than positive ones. Hotels should promptly address negative reviews and provide professional responses to reviewers. Platform operators of user-generated content (UGC) should create well-defined reviewer profiles that can serve as cues that communicate the different expertise of reviewers.\nOriginality/value: This study is the first to test the three-way interaction effect of RE, RC and RV on the perceived credibility of hotel online reviews. Results provide recommendations to hotels and UGC operators and enable them to benefit from emerging UGC usage.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Embedding new entrepreneurship programmes in UK higher education institutions: Challenges and considerations	[ "Entrepreneurialism", "Education", "Learning", "Higher education", "United Kingdom", "Teaching" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: The Discovering Entrepreneurship programme (hereafter DE) described in this paper takes a tripartite approach to teaching entrepreneurship behaviours by involving undergraduate students, entrepreneurs and academics in a collaborative learning environment where all participants learn with and from each other. In this project, 16 students were recruited from three local universities. The students were from fine arts, computing and engineering degree programmes. The variety of institutions and degree programmes was intentional and designed to minimize the effects of institutional mindsets, and maximize the newness, and uncertainty surrounding the \"experiment.\" A \"pool\" of academics was recruited from several UK universities for similar reasons and to ensure that issues of ownership were minimised. In total five entrepreneurs were recruited from local small firms. The development team for DE comprised three educationalists from two UK universities; they were also members of the academic \"pool.\"The paper begins by explaining the concept of DE and the underlying assumptions about its creation. It then describes how the programme ran and describes the action research approach taken. The evaluation process and the immediate and medium term impact on all participants are outlined in detail. Suggestions for further development of the programme are made. To conclude, the challenges of embedding such an approach in entrepreneurship education programmes in UK higher education institutions (HEIs) are presented.\nProgramme concept: The idea for DE emanated from frustration with the way entrepreneurship is taught in Higher Education Institutions and also a feeling that there were different learning methods that could be used to instil entrepreneurial behaviours in students. It also grew from a belief that taking a tripartite approach to the development, design and delivery of the learning experience would be beneficial for all parties. Entrepreneurship education is valuable to all students, including those who are taking courses other than business and management, and this programme sought to reach beyond that traditional audience. The underpinning assumptions for DE were:* Entrepreneurs have a great deal of knowledge and experience to share with others, some of which will be of value to students who wish to act in entrepreneurial ways.* Students have a knowledge and experience set which may be different to entrepreneurs but which may be of value to them.* Collaborative and co-learning environments are the perfect medium for encouraging this exchange of information.* Engaging the student, the entrepreneur and the academic in its development, design and delivery, is likely to lead to effective learning of entrepreneurial knowledge, skills and behaviours.* Creating a safe environment which is mutually supportive and where collaboration and reciprocity between students, entrepreneurs and academics is encouraged, will enhance the learning of entrepreneurial behaviours.DE was designed to be delivered in an entrepreneurial, experiential and participatory manner, that is, it encompassed the same qualities in its delivery that it sought to instil in participants. Since the programme was a significant departure from typical university courses and because the entrepreneurs involved had not engaged with institutionalised learning environments for some time, a unique set of ground rules was put in place to try to ensure that the parameters for participation were clear. These ground rules were; all participants were responsible for what took place; all had an equal say what was done and how, where, when and why. At any time any participant could stop proceedings and ask for a rethink and/or refocus of an activity (hence all activities were negotiable); mutual respect for other participants was to be the norm with a non-judgemental approach; democratic decision-making, keeping in mind the institutional constraints on the academics and the individual constraints of the students and entrepreneurs, and the constraints of the synergistic approach; co-operation and collaboration; the commitment to try anything and be open-minded (to try to say \"maybe\" instead of \"no\"). All participants were asked to \"agree to\" these ground rules as a condition of involvement.Discovering entrepreneurship - programme detail\nConcluding remarks: In this paper we have explained how an innovative entrepreneurship education programme may be developed and have described how the programme was delivered and evaluated. While we are unable to measure accurately the extent to which DE participant's embedded entrepreneurship into their lives, we do know that it is possible to deliver a programme in an innovative, flexible and creative way. The challenges to teach entrepreneurial knowledge, skills and behaviours in this way in an institutional environment are many, particularly since university programme development proposals, regulations and quality assurance procedures tend to have a bureaucracy which, albeit necessary from a programme management perspective, is at variance with the tenets of entrepreneurialism.There are many challenges to be faced when embedding a programme like DE into the curriculum. Academics will be challenged to learn and develop the skills. Programme leaders and validation panels will be challenged to find assessment methods that will meet the needs of university regulatory bodies while maintaining the ethos of the DE programme. Finding space in a busy timetable for a resource intensive programme like DE will be difficult as will finding the entrepreneurs and educators to deliver it. The cost of delivering such a programme may also be prohibitive.The nature of and flexibility inherent in DE presents problems, which most institutions will find difficult to overcome. Within conventional timetables, a programme like DE will be stifled and would probably prove impossible to deliver. This said, the reader might wonder why one should even bother to try to create an innovative programme. Certainly the challenges are significant, and the rewards, as yet, are difficult to quantify. However, the authors believe that changing the way we teach entrepreneurship to incorporate synergistic learning techniques is essential if we are to improve entrepreneurship behaviours in our graduates. Additional further research into how such a programme could be incorporated into the undergraduate curriculum while preserving its freshness; flexibility and innovative flavour would be appropriate.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: - The purpose of this paper is to develop the understanding of the challenges and considerations of how new and innovative entrepreneurship education programmes may be inculcated into UK higher education institutions (HEIs).\nDesign/methodology/approach: - The paper employs an action research approach to provide insights into entrepreneurship education andragogy in the first instance and in the second instance evaluate the success of such a programme then discuss the challenges of embedding it within universities.\nFindings: - The paper provides substantial evidence for the effectiveness of innovative programmes and concludes that it would be difficult to embed such a programme within HEIs in the UK due to: resource limitations; lack of training in synergistic methods; keeping the freshness alive; finding suitable entrepreneurs to take part in the programme; finding the right space in academic timetable and curriculum.\nResearch limitations/implications: - In this paper the evidence for the success of the programme comes from one cohort of students who were followed for a 12-month period and the assessment of suitability for embedding in universities is based on this one experience.\nPractical implications: - The paper shows issues about the structural problems of embedding entrepreneurship programmes that employ new pedagogic methodology seem significant. The question of whether or not universities should make the effort to try to embed new learning and teaching methods is broached and the conclusion is that it is unlikely that any such programmes could be adopted in any substantial way.\nOriginality/value: - The paper has developed a tripartite approach to delivering entrepreneurship education, which involves new synergistic learning techniques. The paper broadens the discussion about the challenges of bring such programmes into UK HEIs.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Managers' silent whisper innovation involvement and role-modeling in service firms	[ "Service innovation", "Leadership", "Managers’ context and conditions", "Role-modelling" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: Innovation is a compelling challenge for every firm, necessary for competitive reasons. Successful innovation relates to firm's capabilities of identifying and organizationally embracing new ideas in praxis, rather than outlining winning strategies (Teece et al., 1997). In a popular survey about key revenue sources, innovation was considered as the most driving factor to reach top-line revenues (Oke et al., 2009). To promote innovation and renewal is therefore of great importance for any manager in order to alert and engage employees in the innovation challenge. This can be referred to as change-oriented behavior, which is a central leadership aspect embracing both initiating and enabling activities (Yukl, 2012). Yet it is also a research area that has hitherto focused on the frequency and relation of different leadership roles at the expense of answering questions about when, why and where this specific initiating-leadership role is used. In this paper an individual-level investigation approaches these inquiries in the context of service innovation.\n2. Theoretical background: While the fundamental leadership role of promoting and participating in innovation efforts is depicted as employee supportive, it is argued in this paper that there are more nuances to explore to understand how this role is executed. The citation below gives some indications of what aspects are to be investigated further:I participated in executive management training last week. One lecture was on \"social media\" like Facebook. Second World [Life?][1] and others. I quickly realized that I am lagging behind on these aspects, but I see new opportunities related to communication. I have now opened a Twitter account. I do not know if it opens for new business deals, but if I can get parts of the staff members to read it, it might take the development forward.\n3. Methodology: With the considerations of dynamics commonly related to innovation, this paper is a result of a longitudinal investigation of four service firms over a total project period of four years. The longitudinal approach permitted the examination of leadership and service innovation under more controlled environmental conditions, and facilitated the drawing of casual inferences derived from the dynamics of each firm (Zahra and Covin, 1995).\n4. Empirical findings: Our empirical findings are presented below, derived from the main dimensions presented as follows: the contextual origin and character of the ideas, i.e. whether they are derivable from customer involvement or other contexts (Mattsson, 2010); and what act the manager takes in relation to the ideas, e.g. role-modeling or other possible acts.\n5. Discussion: To this end, we have presented what kind of ideas the managers perceive as innovative, the context of the managers and thereby also the domicile of the ideas, and the managers' concrete acts in relation to single ideas. While prior research has suggested role-modeling as a relationally valuable behavior of managers, with the purpose of stimulating employees to innovation activities (de Jong and Den Hartog, 2007), we extend that knowledge through the practice of that role, and key activities that managers pursue on their own to evaluate and develop new ideas. With this leadership perspective, we are able to identify the practice of innovation, and identify how potential opportunities emerge and are evaluated also by managers. As such the results contribute with managers' involvement, i.e. evaluating activities, but also iterative dimensions of the innovation process.\n6. Conclusions: Aligning to the idea that role-modeling activities are a powerful way of getting others to follow the example, our findings propose that, in addition to what de Jong and Den Hartog (2007) point out, managers continue to be potential powerful actors in acting as good examples. Particularly, since this practice-derived conclusion shows how they are genuinely attempting to behave as role-models throughout their executed leadership. They have a lot of ideas for a wide scope of innovation purposes. They are very reflective regarding finding ways to get around structural and resource limitations. They take evaluating steps for developing the ideas. Yet the innovation activities are scattered, and the managers do not strongly act as alliance partners, neither with the clients nor with the employees, or other stakeholders. They clearly want to set good examples of opportunity development. Yet concluding the results from this study, we paraphrase the strategy literature (Regner, 2003), proposing that the managers' behavior is an expression of enacting innovation. Similar to the work of crafting out strategy, which often can be seen as a continuous daily activity performed by managers (Mintzberg and Frances, 1992; Solvell, 2008), innovation work by managers in service companies are iterative too, and emerge in the practice context. Therefore, their leadership of innovation remains a silent whisper.\n7. Limitations and implications for future research: These findings pave the way for further investigation approaches to understand leadership related to innovation. However, some main limitations and flaws need to be mentioned. First, the responses are limited in time and completeness, even with a longitudinal approach. This somewhat contradictive statement implies that our focus covers initiation and early evalution steps, rather than following ideas to successful or unsuccessful achievement. Therefore the findings do not distinguish whether the various evaluation tracks and iterative activities by the managers are successful or not. Neither does the investigation include if the managers' behaviors are motivating employees in their innovative endeavors. This limitation is an apparent road for further investigations of how employees perceive and understand this leadership role.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: The task of leading innovation is predominantly pictured as a supportive role vis-a-vis employees. Motivation is a crucial aspect of this task. To better understand the practice of this change-oriented leadership task, the actual behavior and activities of managers are investigated. The purpose of this paper is to reflect through practice and self-reports how this leadership challenge is executed.\nDesign/methodology/approach: In this longitudinal multi-method investigation, the service innovation literature constitutes the main theoretical framework. The investigation draws additionally on leadership literature about how to understand leadership through practice. The methodological design facilitated the drawing of causal inferences in the dynamics of service innovation.\nFindings: The investigation enhances our understanding of managers' particular context of innovation, and particularly the initiation context. It provides empirically grounded descriptions of what managers identify as potential opportunities, and how they take them further in the ideation stage. The results develop the suggestion that leadership roles, and specifically change-oriented roles, are not restricted to initiating or enabling activities related to the employees. Instead the much downplayed leadership role, i.e. the active practice-based involvement in innovation, is theorized as a role that is continuously activated, but tends to be set aside for contingency reasons.\nResearch limitations/implications: Further research is needed to assess the importance of managers' involvement in the practice of innovation, both through systematic mapping of ideas on a larger scale, and through the employee perspective. This paper provides useful insights on managers' cognition and involvement in innovation for further investigations of innovation management.\nPractical implications: The results provide awareness for managers regarding their diverse leadership roles related to innovation. First, the study embraces heterogeneous ideas that are useful to evaluate and constitute role-modeling. Second, it highlights how managers' execution of innovation creates awareness about the challenges involved. Finally, but maybe most important, the results alert managers of the discontinuity, even in strategically anchored intentional innovation.\nSocial implications: In a changing innovation landscape, individual firms need to draw on other firms to achieve their innovation strategies. In pursuit of this goal, this paper enhances the understanding of the role-modeling leadership task. It is a novel way of guiding individuals that are exposed to new and uncertain innovation contexts, and rethinking how innovation eventually can be achieved.\nOriginality/value: While earlier research has identified the multifaceted leadership behavior to support innovation, this paper outlines the contextual conditions and the practice of executing the suggested powerful role of being a role-model for others.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Entrepreneurs' optimism, cognitive style and persistence	[ "Ghana", "Developing country", "Cognitive style", "Entrepreneurial persistence", "Entrepreneurs optimism" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Persistence is a crucial element in entrepreneurship because the process of founding and growing a venture is full of uncertainties (Burke and Miller, 1999), and entrepreneurs encounter several constraints along the way (Cardon and Kirk, 2015; Holland and Shepherd, 2013; Markman et al., 2005; Shane et al., 2003; Wu et al., 2007). Prior research suggests that these obstacles create self-doubt and cognitive constraints, or a difficulty in perceiving, processing and selecting the information needed to make the decisions that facilitate the achievement of entrepreneurs' goals (e.g. Busenitz, 1999; Gatewood et al., 2002; Gimeno et al., 1997; Haines and Townsend, 2013). As such persistence is particularly important in entrepreneurship (Shane et al., 2003), and entrepreneurs who are tenacious in pursuit of their goals have a greater chance of success (Timmons and Spinelli, 2009). Therefore, understanding the factors that drive tenacious goal pursuit is critical.\nTheory and hypotheses: Existing scholarly studies have used meta-analyses of studies about personality traits and entrepreneurship to show the need to examine more proximal moderators rather than direct effects of individual characteristics on entrepreneurial outcomes (e.g. Zhao and Seibert, 2006; Rauch and Frese, 2007). Understanding the relationship between the entrepreneur and more proximal outcomes such as cognition and decision making provides a richer and more complete picture of the entrepreneurial process (Shane et al., 2003).\nMethod: Study setting\nStatistical procedures: Hierarchical linear regression analysis was used to estimate the research model. Hierarchical regression is well established as a model estimator in entrepreneurship research (Anderson and Eshima, 2013). As a result of the inclusion of interaction terms in the regression estimate, multicollinearity becomes apparent. Previous scholarly studies have contended that failure to orthogonize the exogenous and endogenous variables can lead to structural coefficient bias (e.g. Cadogan et al., 2006). All the variables involved in the creation of the interaction terms were residually centred and a low variance inflation factor was obtained (see Table V), way below the recommended cut off of 10.00 (Aiken and West, 1991; Baum, 2006).\nResults: Table IV provides the means, standard deviations and bivariate correlations for the study variables. Table V presents the results of the hierarchical regression models for persistence. Model 1 included the control variables, Model 2 added cognitive knowing, planning and creating styles as main effect variables, Model 3 also added entrepreneurs' optimism, and Model 4 included the three interactions of entrepreneurs' optimism with each cognitive style. From Model 1 the study finds a negative relationship between firm size and persistence. Additionally, founders' age was found to be negatively related to persistence. However, working experience was positively related to persistence. Further, firm age, gender and education had no direct effects on entrepreneurial persistence.\nDiscussion: Prior research suggests that entrepreneurs who are tenacious in pursuit of their goals have a greater chance of success (Foo et al., 2006; Timmons and Spinelli, 2009). A major insight is to argue that even if entrepreneurs who are tenacious in pursuit of their goals have a greater chance of success, an equally crucial issue is the circumstances under which such tenacious behaviour is more or less pronounced in entrepreneurs' persistence. Therefore, the purpose of the present study was to examine the moderating effects of entrepreneurs' cognitive styles on the relationship between entrepreneurs' optimism and persistence. Thus, this paper extends knowledge on conditions in which entrepreneurs' optimism is more or less prevalent in enhancing persistence. The study's contribution to the optimism literature is the empirical validation of the theoretical argument that entrepreneurs' optimism-persistence relationship is differentially moderated by cognitive styles. Therefore, a better understanding of the conditions in which optimism strongly relates to persistence will be useful for both practitioners and researchers. The study helps to answer how cognitive style translates optimism in the decision to persist. This study uniquely contributes to the literature by explaining the drivers of persistence.\nConclusions: This study set out to empirically examine the relationship between optimism and persistence and the moderating influence of cognitive style dimensions on this relationship. This theoretically derived research model which links optimism, cognitive style and persistence was empirically validated by means of an empirical study of 198 SMEs in Ghana. The findings from this paper are that optimism positively relates to persistence and that cognitive creating and planning style positively amplify this relationship. Somewhat interestingly, cognitive knowing style works against the translation of optimism into improved persistence. The present study extends our knowledge in the realm of entrepreneurship, suggesting that some cognitive style dimensions (planning and creating styles) can translate optimism into improved persistence outcome whilst cognitive knowing style works against the optimism-persistence linkage.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to examine the moderating effects of cognitive style dimensions on the relationship between entrepreneurs' optimism and persistence.\nDesign/methodology/approach: This theoretically derived research model is empirically validated using survey data from 198 small and medium-sized enterprises in Ghana.\nFindings: The study's empirical findings are that the relationship between entrepreneurs' optimism and entrepreneurial persistence is enhanced at higher levels of cognitive planning and creating styles. Somewhat interestingly, cognitive knowing style negatively moderates the relationship between optimism and entrepreneurial persistence.\nResearch limitations/implications: The cross-sectional design of the study does not permit causal inferences to be made regarding the variables examined. Future studies may use longitudinal design to examine the causal links of the variables.\nPractical implications: The results of this paper can assist entrepreneurs and policy-makers in understanding the dynamics and processes involved in entrepreneurial decision making. The understanding of this issue can promote the development and maintenance of entrepreneurial ventures.\nOriginality/value: The paper has a strong theoretical value as it relies on cognitive explanations of human behaviour, and seeks to advance the theoretical field by demonstrating the value of cognitive style within the domain of entrepreneurship.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Age, proactivity and career development	[ "Older workers", "Career development", "Human resource management", "Self‐assessment" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nAge, proactivity and career development: In Europe and North America many countries are facing demographic developments that imply that older workers will become an increasingly substantial part of the workforce in the near future. This is a result of a combination of shrinkage of the overall workforce and an increase in the relative number of workers in higher age groups. This scenario raises many questions as to the work participation and performance capacities of the future older sections of the workforce in these countries (Ilmarinen, 2006; Vaupel and Loichinger, 2006).A behavioural attribute that has been suggested as central to extended work participation and dealing with increased flexibility demands is proactivity (Frese and Fay, 2001; Unsworth and Parker, 2003; Parker et al., 2006). Employees who take a proactive approach towards different facets of their work are expected to deliver sustained productivity in fast and dynamic work contexts in two ways. First, proactive employees actively engage in solving inefficiencies that arise in continuously changing work processes (on-the-job proactivity). Second, proactive employees scan new work environments for developmental needs and seek to learn and acquire new skills and knowledge to ensure their future employability (developmental proactivity). Although it is recognised that personal initiative-taking towards job and development are important aspects for the modern workforce (Fay and Kamps, 2006), only limited empirical data are available on the relationship between aging and these two types of initiative-taking.Warr and Fay (2001) previously investigated this relationship and found differential results for personal initiative towards the job versus personal initiative towards developmental activities. They found no relationship between age and job proactivity, but a negative relationship with developmental proactivity. This suggests that older workers' limited initiative towards development might seriously limit their (future) work participation, performance and flexibility. This is problematic in light of the demographic outlined above. For the research field of career development it is crucial to understand the link between age and proactivity. This might benefit employers and society at large in finding ways to promote work participation and continued career development in older employees. It might also benefit employees in that better conditions are created for extended participation in attractive work over the career span. Unfortunately, apart from Warr and Fay's short report dating from 2001, no other studies are available on this relevant issue. This is the first purpose of the current study: to find out how age relates to proactivity and whether HR practices offered by an organisation make any difference in this relationship. We will assess HR practices by interviewing HR and line managers in order to avoid all measures deriving from the same (employee) source, thereby reducing the risk of common method bias. Considering proactivity as an outcome is not enough, however, because ultimately it is also relevant how proactivity in turn contributes to career development. Therefore, we shall extend the Warr and Fay study by researching how age, proactivity and HR practices contribute to career opportunities as experienced by employees. This is the second purpose of the current study. It is important to recognise at the outset that proactivity will be studied here as an outcome (of age and HR) as well as a predictor (of career opportunities).Proactivity\nMethod: A cross-sectional survey study was carried out among 619 employees working in 47 departments of 11 Dutch organisations. At the same time separate interviews were conducted with all HR and line managers of these departmental units. Thus, the data derive from two levels (individual, unit) and three sources (employees, HR managers, line managers). The research context was a larger PhD research project on proactivity, HR and performance.Procedure\nResults: Means, standard deviations and bivariate correlations for all study variables are presented in Tables I and II. Table I contains the results at the individual level, Table II the results at the unit level. The highest correlation at the individual level is that between the two types of proactivity, which amounts to 0.47. Warr and Fay (2001) found correlations of 0.48 and 0.43 between personal initiative towards job and towards development (in two waves of a longitudinal study), which is comparable. Although this level of correlation is not problematic in the sense of multi-collinearity, we shall nevertheless conduct separate analyses on the two types of proactivity. None of the other individual correlations is above 0.30. What is remarkable is that the amount of HR practices targeted at development relates positively to age (0.21). Units with more HR practices for development in place appear to employ more employees in higher age groups. A 0.50 correlation at the unit level further illustrates this point.Our first two hypotheses concern how age and HR practices targeted at development relate to proactivity. The corresponding results can be found in Table III. Our current results show a more positive picture of the age-proactivity relationship than those by Warr and Fay (2001): for job proactivity work we found a positive association with age (instead of none as expected). For developmental proactivity we found a slightly negative relationship with age, but this is not significant (whereas in Warr and Fay's study it is).H2 is confirmed: for both types of proactivity a positive relationship is found with the number of \"development-oriented\" HR practices in place. Also, as expected, there is no significant cross-level interaction between age and HR practices on proactivity.In our next three hypotheses we relate proactivity, age and HR practices to career opportunities. H3 is confirmed for both types of proactivity. Higher proactivity correlates with more career opportunities. The association is considerably more convincing for developmental proactivity, however, than for job proactivity. Also, as expected according to H4, career opportunities are strongly negatively related to age. H5 is also confirmed. When more HR practices targeted at development are reported by HR and line management, better career opportunities are perceived by the employees (Table IV).We also investigated the cross-level interactions between HR practices on the one hand and age/proactivity on the other hand. The results are somewhat mixed. For the interaction between age and HR practices the results are as expected but not very strong: a negative additional effect over and above the main effects is found for this interaction effect, indicating that younger employees working in a unit with many HR practices for development in place report more career opportunities. The results for the HR x proactivity interaction are not as expected. They also differ between the two types of proactivity. For the interaction between HR practices and developmental proactivity we find no significant effect. This interaction term has a negative sign. The interaction between HR and job proactivity is also negative in its impact on career opportunities, but this time it is significant. This means that employees working in units with many HR practices targeted at development and describing their job proactivity as low, report more career opportunities. This runs counter to the direction that we expected for this cross-level interaction term.\nDiscussion: All in all, the results are mostly in line with the hypotheses that guided our study. This study picked up on the theme of the age-proactivity relationship as studied by Warr and Fay (2001) and tried to extend the study of this relationship to how it connects with HR practices for development (proactivity as an outcome) and with career opportunities (proactivity as a predictor).Age does appear to be positively correlated with job proactivity, and slightly negatively (but not significantly) correlated with developmental proactivity (H1a and H1b). This means that, contrary to popular opinion among managers (Boerlijst and Van der Heijden, 2003), older employees are rather on the positive side of proactivity on the job, and are hardly different from younger employees in their developmental proactivity. The current results are different from what was expected on the basis of earlier studies by Warr and Fay (2001) and Maurer et al. (2003). We find a more positive picture than both these studies. Our Dutch sample from 2006 may not be comparable in terms of culture, job market context and/or period with the German and American samples used in these previous studies. The positive result from our current study fits well with the call for a more positive psychological view on the value of older workers (Peterson and Spiker, 2005). Proactivity at work may be one of the characteristics of psychological and emotional capital that are discerned by these authors as positive attributes of older workers, and that might contribute important value to organisations.HR practices targeted at development, as assessed independently from employees by interviewing line and HR managers, correlate with both types of proacitivity (H2). This underlines that proactivity is not a personality characteristic, but a set of job orientations/behaviours that is influenced by situational antecedents (Frese and Fay, 2001; Unsworth and Parker, 2003; Parker et al., 2006). No evidence was found of an interaction effect between age and HR practices for development on proactivity, suggesting the effects of HR and age are additive, as was expected.Career opportunities as experienced by employees have multiple determinants. We found significant main contributions from HR practices for development, age and both types of proactivity, especially developmental proactivity (H3, H4 and H5). All main effects are in the hypothesised directions. The results for proactivity correspond with expectations based on arguments in the literature that this attitude will promote performance and employability in employees (Crant, 2000; Parker, 2000). HR practices also contribute to career opportunities, much in line with previous research (Sullivan, 1999). The results on proactivity and HR practices for development fit very well with the basic tenet of modern strategic HRM, where leading organisations are thought to invest more in the development of their employees, provide better rewards for initiative on behalf of the employees, and are able to provide better career paths, all because they want to achieve (sustained) competitive advantage (Boxall and Purcell, 2003; Paauwe, 2004). Indeed, mutual investment in individual advantage and organisational advantage is believed to be a founding principle for the exchange relationships in such leading organisations (Tsui et al., 1997).Age was negatively associated with career opportunities, which is consistent with previous research by Howard and Bray (1988), Warr and Birdi (1998) and Van der Heijden (2006). Notwithstanding the political rhetoric on the importance of engaging the older sections of the workforce, organisational reality is still far from such a situation (Peterson and Spiker, 2005).Evidence of an interaction effect between HR and proactivity on career opportunities is neither strong nor consistent. Mainly, these two predictors appear to have an additive effect on career opportunities. The other cross-level interaction in the analysis of career opportunities was found consistently, although it was rather weak. We have confirmed that high age and a low level of development-orientated HR practices are associated with fewer career opportunities. An additional negative effect is found for the interaction term of high age and low HR practices for development. This means, that especially young people report higher career opportunities in an environment that is rich in HR for development. Formulated reversely, for older employees in contexts low on HR practices for development, career opportunities are particularly bad. These results are consistent with the possibility of a negative spiral for older employees in their career development: no opportunities for development given by the organisation means no opportunities for career advancement, and the consequent career stagnation makes employees even less eligible for future learning and development investments by the organisation, thus creating a downward process (Lyon and Glover, 1998).Limitations\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: - The purpose of this study is to shed more light on the role of employee proactivity (self-starting, action-orientated behaviours aimed at greater organisational effectiveness) in relation to aging and career development. It aims to do this in two ways. First, by investigating how age and HR practices for development initiated by the organisation influence proactivity. Here, proactivity it seeks to study as a career-relevant outcome. Second, by examining how age, proactivity and HR practices for development influence employee experiences of career opportunities. Here, it aims to use proactivity as career-relevant predictor.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - A total of 619 employees from 47 departments completed a questionnaire, including two scales on proactivity (on-the-job and developmental proactivity) as well as a scale on career opportunities. HR and line managers in these departments were interviewed about HR practices directed at career development of the employees. The data combine information from two levels (employee, department) as well as three different sources (employee, line manager, HR manager), and are analysed using multi-level analysis.\nFindings: - First, the paper presents the results on proactivity as an outcome: age is positively related to proactivity on-the-job but has no association with proactivity towards development. HR practices targeted at career development are positively associated with both types of proactivity. Second, the results on proactivity as a predictor show that career opportunities have a negative association with age, a positive association with proactivity, and a positive association with career development-orientated HR practices. An additional negative effect on career opportunities is found for the cross-level interaction between HR practices and age.\nOriginality/value: - This study is original as it combines individual, psychological, and HR perspectives in researching age-related career issues. It contributes to the literature by showing that age has no negative, but rather a positive impact on proactivity. Proactivity furthermore is sensitive to HR practices for development, implying that organisations can influence the proactivity of their employees. For older employees the study implies that, although organisations tend to offer them fewer HR practices for development, they can offset this disadvantage to some extent by increased proactivity, and thus retain career opportunities.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Uncovering generalized patterns of brand competition in China	[ "China", "Consumer behavior", "International marketing", "Buying behavior", "Competition", "Duplication of purchase law" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Amid the stagnant economy of the USA and the Eurozone, multinationals and investors have shifted their priorities and investments to emerging markets that offer the potential for significant market growth. China, with a population of more than 1.3 billion (19 per cent of the world's population) living in more than 650 cities, is considered the most powerful emerging economy of our time. Two reasons for this power are the consumer-driven economy as gross domestic product and income per capita increase (World Economic Outlook, 2013), and the gradual removal of constitutional barriers from the government that allow foreign brands to enter the market (Hingley et al., 2009).\nTheoretical background and hypothesis development: When entering the Chinese market, it is useful to understand China's branding history (Rosenbloom et al., 2012). Branding in China can be traced back to 2700 BC and the practice of marking pottery with the manufacturer's identity, with branding logos used in the Song Dynasty (960-1127) (Wang, 2008). An example is the White Rabbit brand logo that aided brand recognition for their target market, i.e. women with low literacy levels that purchased the brand's sewing needles, and associated the brand with symbolic and mythical properties (Eckhardt and Bengtsson, 2010). Therefore, branding is not a new concept to marketers or consumers in China. However, the literature on consumers and brands in China (and other emerging markets) frequently suggests that marketers need to rethink their strategic priorities as both consumers and brands are different to those encountered in Western markets such as the USA or UK, where much of our current marketing knowledge has been developed (Cayla and Arnould, 2008; Pauwels et al., 2013).\nResearch method: Duplication tables were constructed to answer RQ1 (as per Table I). Then, we calculated the average column duplications to determine if average sharing was correlated with brand penetration using Spearman's rank correlation coefficient. The next step is testing the goodness-of-fit of the DoP model for the data. We calculate the residuals between the average observed and expected brand duplications for each brand. To calculate the expected duplications, we draw on the duplication coefficient (D), which is the average likelihood that consumers of any brand in the category tend to buy other brands. It is generated by the equation proposed by Ehrenberg (1972): Equation 1\nResults: The results are split into two sections. The first section tests the fit of the DoP law, the second section reports on the brands with excess or deficit sharing (partitions).\nImplications and future research: This research is a successful differentiated replication of the DoP law across six different categories ranging from personal care to food to electronics; different time periods and different methods of data collection (survey and panel data collection). This means that in repeat purchase categories in China, competition between brands, from a consumer perspective, is first and foremost determined by the penetration of the competitor brand. Every brand should pay attention to the largest brands in the category, irrespective of brand positioning or functional differences.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: The purpose of this research is to analyze brand competition in China using the Duplication of Purchase (DoP) law, with important implications for understanding Chinese buyer behavior in comparison with Western buyers. Discovered in the Western markets, the DoP law holds across a variety of product categories.\nDesign/methodology/approach: Multiple sets of new data are examined to extend past research in the application of the DoP law in Chinese buying behavior. This study draws on panel data and self-reported data, utilizing bootstrapping to identify partitions where excess sharing occurs.\nFindings: This paper finds the DoP law holds across six categories (two personal care, two impulse categories and two durables), as well as over multiple years. Brands in China share customers with other brands in line with the market share of the competitor brand. There were few partitions where brands shared significantly more customers than expected. Partitions occur due to the same umbrella brand or ownership, and geographic location.\nResearch limitations/implications: Areas for further research include extended replication in other categories, investigating partitions and whether a different consumer path to purchase occurs in China.\nPractical implications: DoP can be applied across a wide range of categories in China to understand market structure. New entrants to China can use this approach to understand a category from a consumer behavior perceptive. DoP provides guidelines for marketers to identify competition and allocate resources appropriately.\nOriginality/value: This research provides a comprehensive, unparalleled examination across six very different categories of brand competition in China. This gives confidence in the robustness and generalizability of the results.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Implementing the sustainable development goals at University level	[ "Higher education", "Implementation", "Sustainable development goals", "Sustainability curriculum", "Transforming teaching and learning" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: The first decade of the twenty-first century has been characterised by major changes making the world a less sustainable, less secure and more violent place. The greatest challenge and responsibility facing higher education today is to contribute to fostering peace, cooperation and sustainability so as to guarantee the safeguarding of human rights.\n2. Methods: The methodology applied in this case study is of a descriptive and empirical nature. Non-parametric qualitative and quantitative analysis techniques were used.\n3. Results and discussion: By using a mixed methodology, different visions, difficulties and challenges with respect to teaching contents and strategies and education for sustainability were identified. Addressing those concepts enabled describing and presenting the initial outline of this study.\n4. Conclusions and future perspectives: In this study, the visions, difficulties and challenges related to the topics linked with the SDGs and the pedagogical strategies used to train active and critical citizens in this respect became apparent. This reality enabled defining and depicting a starting point for the implementation of the SDGs at the UIC. The research helped us describe and portray concepts documented in the degree reports regarding the SDGs, the reasons for implementing them and how to apply them, which represents the added value of this study. Special emphasis was given to the challenges and opportunities for training future graduates and the whole University community in the SDGs.\n5. Limitations of the study: The study presents certain limitations. The presence of spheres linked to the SDGs in the degree reports (in accordance with the DESD), using the methodological study conducted at the Universitat de Valencia (Spain) as a reference, was analysed by means of a quantitative study. However, global competences related to ESD were not considered. Analysing the teaching programmes of each subject would provide a fuller picture of what goes on in every classroom, both in terms of content and the competences that teachers endeavour to develop in students. The teaching programmes set out in detail in the curricular content, the methodologies used and the evaluation systems for each subject are updated every academic year. An in-depth study on how to improve the implementation of the SDGs in the curriculum would need to be carried out. However, for further generalizability in research, it should be applied in other universities. This could be the subject of a future study.\n6. Proposals for making education for sustainable development more robust in higher education: The following proposals were made based on the results of ESD research carried out in this study, focusing on the five priority action areas of the Global Action Programme (UNESCO, 2014b), including the recent UNESCO publication on ESD and the SDGs (UNESCO, 2017). Examination of international sustainability in HE literature shows no study that specifically addresses the interaction between declarations on sustainability developed by the University sector (Grindsted and Holm, 2012). This paper intends to contribute to this significant gap in HE literature. From the findings obtained in the analysis carried out, the following questions need to be considered: What can be done? Which steps need to be taken to truly transform the University, making ESD more robust and implementing the SDGs in HE? The proposals put forward from the findings obtained in this research, together with reference documents on ESD in HE, may be the way forward towards an all-round transformation of University education. This paper refers to several documents on ESD in HE, especially the Peoples' Sustainability Treaty on Higher Education. Others are the draft for Rio + 20 (STHE) (Tilbury, 2012), the Sustainability Commitment, signed by Higher Education directors during the UN Conference on Sustainable Development (UN, 2012a), the Guidelines for the inclusion of Sustainability in the Curriculum (CRUE-Comision de Sostenibilidad, 2012, 2015) and the Roadmap for Implementing the Global Action Programme (GAP) on Education for Sustainable Development (UNESCO, 2014b).\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: The purpose of this case study is to explore the principles and practices of sustainable development (SD) in the university curriculum.\nDesign/methodology/approach: To explore the principles linked with the sustainable development goals (SDGs) and the learning and teaching practices in sustainability at the International University of Catalonia (Universitat Internacional de Catalunya, UIC, in Catalan), an empirical study was carried out by using a mixed methodology for data collection. Indicators related to SDGs found in the University curriculum (quantitative analysis) were measured using Excel, combined with in-depth semi-structured interviews to the deans of different faculties (qualitative study), which were analysed using Atlas.ti.\nFindings: Several visions, difficulties and challenges were identified in this mixed-method study around the concept of sustainability, which allowed the authors to describe and portray a specific starting position in relation to the SDGs at the UIC.\nResearch limitations/implications: The presence of dimensions linked to the SDGs in the University curriculum were analysed by means of a quantitative study. However, global competences related to education for sustainable development were not studied.\nPractical implications: Special emphasis was given to the challenges and opportunities for training future graduates and the whole University community in SD.\nOriginality/value: This paper shows a methodological exploration of the principles related to the SDGs and the learning and teaching practices in sustainability in higher education.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Risk aversion decomposition and the impact of monetary policy surprises on aggregate tail risk aversion	[ "Risk aversion", "Risk premium", "Monetary surprise", "Rare events" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: Volatilities exist in financial market constantly, and there are also rare events such as the 1987 Black Monday, the Great Recession and the 2016 Brexit Referendum. A rational investor should react differently in the presence of rare events from daily volatilities. To demonstrate the fear component toward rare events, we extend the jump-diffusion model to extract the fear component from traditional representative agent's risk aversion, and provide theoretical evidence that an investor's risk aversion toward frequent volatility and rare events is different. We also empirically investigate the linkages among monetary surprises, stock market returns and the decomposed risk aversion components.\n2. Decomposing the volatility index and identification of value at risk model: 2.1 Theoretical motivation and risk aversion decomposition\n3. Data: 3.1 Data description for monetary policy shocks\n4. Estimation results from the VAR framework: 4.1 The evidence of interdependence\n5. Estimation results from event study analysis: 5.1 Descriptive statistics\n6. Conclusion: This paper first extracts the fear component from the representative agent's risk aversion and empirically investigates the interdependence of stock market, risk aversion and monetary policy surprises. From implications of the theoretical model, both volatility and tail risk aversion are important components of equity risk premium and play important roles in explaining the risk premium. The empirical findings show that a positive shock to stock prices generally decreases both volatility and tail risk aversion and increases Fed funds rate, and a positive shock to monetary policy decreases both volatility risk aversion and tail risk aversion as an increase in interest rate normally indicates an improving economy. From the event study analysis, we find that a surprise decline in the expected short-term rate has a positive impact on stock prices, which is consistent with the effect during conventional monetary policy period. However, a surprise decline in the expected short-term rate has a mixed effect on tail risk aversion during unconventional monetary policy periods. A plausible explanation is that investor believes a surprise drop in short-term rate reflects a fast worsening economic outlook in unconventional monetary policy period.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to present theoretical and empirical support that the fear component associated with rare events has an impact on risk premium and market returns.\nDesign/methodology/approach: Extension of jump-diffusion model to extract the fear component from representative agent risk aversion, Standard VAR and impulse response function analysis, Event study analysis.\nFindings: The model implicates that investor fear of tail jumps in the financial market impacts equity risk premium. The empirical findings show both positive stock and monetary policy shocks decrease investor's fear. It can be attributed to that a bullish stock market and an increase in interest rate reflects expanding economy, and it leads to a decrease in fear. Moreover, a surprise decline in the expected short-term rate has a mixed impact on tail risk aversion. A plausible explanation is that investors believe a surprise drop in an expected short-term rate reflects a fast deteriorating economic outlook during unconventional monetary policy period.\nOriginality/value: This paper provides theoretical framework to decompose risk aversion into two separate components: one component associated with daily volatility, and the fear component associated with rare events. The study uses risk premiums decomposed from Chicago Board Options Exchange volatility index as proxies for the two components of risk aversion, and then utilizes standard value at risk and event study analysis to show the fear component plays a role in risk premium and market return.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Promoting radical innovation through end-user computing satisfaction	[ "Radical innovation", "Organizational learning capability", "End-user computing satisfaction" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: Under conditions of uncertainty and high competition, such as those faced by companies in many sectors nowadays, innovation is one of the main mechanisms that allow organizations to increase their competitiveness and ensure their long-term continuity in the market. Among the different types of innovation distinguished in the literature, radical innovation occupies a prominent place as a means to achieve these objectives (Chandy and Tellis, 1998; McDermott and O'Connor, 2002), since it advances the price/performance frontier by far more than the existing rate of progress (Gatignon et al., 2002, p. 1107), and is crucial for both organizational and economic growth (Buschgens et al., 2013).\n2. Literature review: 2.1 Radical innovation\n3. Hypotheses: 3.1 EUCS and organizational learning capability\n4. Research methodology: 4.1 Data collection\n5. Results: 5.1 Descriptive statistics and psychometric properties of the measurement scales\n6. Conclusions: The present research contributes to extend the knowledge about alternative organizational factors that promote radical innovation, by showing the positive effect of EUCS and OLC on radical innovation. Results confirm the model and all the hypotheses proposed. Conclusions have significant implications for the EUCS literature, as well as the literature on OLC and radical innovation.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to provide empirical evidence of the relationship between end-user computing satisfaction (EUCS) and radical innovation, using organizational learning as an explanatory variable.\nDesign/methodology/approach: An empirical study was conducted in a population of 402 Spanish companies. A sample of 251 valid questionnaires was obtained. Structural equations were used to validate the proposed hypotheses.\nFindings: Organizational learning capability fully mediates the relationship between EUCS and radical innovation.\nResearch limitations/implications: The sample of companies is heterogeneous in terms of size, sector, age and market share. The study uses single informants.\nPractical implications: Results highlight the need to implement adequate information systems to promote radical innovation. In addition, it is necessary to facilitate organizational contexts that encourage dialogue, experimentation, risk-taking, participative decision-making and openness to the external environment.\nOriginality/value: This research contributes to the study of alternative antecedents of radical innovation by highlighting the importance of EUCS.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Evaluation of customer satisfaction for PSS design	[ "Customer satisfaction", "Services", "Design for quality" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1 Introduction: The offering of products in combination with services by manufacturers as a strategy for retaining their competitiveness has been receiving much attention (Shostack, 1977). Recently, manufacturers must contend with severe market circumstances, namely, diversified customer needs, overheated low-cost competition, and social demand for sustainable development. The product-service system (PSS) is a concept whereby services are additionally offered with products to increase their value (Mont, 2000; Tukker and Tischner, 2006). Services are produced rather flexibly and independently from materials compared to products. Therefore, PSS is expected to afford opportunities for manufacturers to differentiate their products by meeting diversely segmented customer needs in a sustainable manner.The design should involve integrated procedures that can deal with service and products seamlessly. Service and product designs place importance on different points. Service is designed in chains of activities (Teboul, 2006; Shostack, 1984) or policies (Fisk et al., 2004) for employees, whereas products are designed to satisfy consumers by their features (Akao, 1990; Suh, 2001; Kano et al., 1984). We therefore need an integrated methodology for designing PSS to make the combination effective.The conceptual stage plays an important role in the entire PSS procedure. Implementation of PSS is complicated, because solutions have wider possibilities and services are dynamic and intangible. The conceptual design works as a compass in the implementation. It consists of customer values and features of the offering. Designers make decisions as to how to provide the features according to the conceptual design. Therefore, the conceptual stage defines almost all of the value provided to customers.For the conceptual design, designers need an evaluation that compares different candidates of the solution. In this stage, the solution should be chosen using the same method customers use, which is according to customer satisfaction. Designers carry out the evaluation depending on their own experience and knowledge, because little information about the customers is available. This conceptual design that depends on the designer rarely creates ideas that are consistent among designers or satisfying for customers. Therefore, designers desire procedures that can analyse customer satisfaction as a consequence of the features, thus enabling quantitative estimation of satisfaction by the candidate solution.Hence, in this paper we propose a method for estimating customer satisfaction that enables designers to compare design solutions in the conceptual stage. To do so, first, the models that introduce the customer's viewpoint are adopted. Then, we propose the estimation procedure that utilises a value function called the satisfaction-attribute (S-A) function to quantify customer satisfaction. The proposed procedure is verified though its application to domestic in-flight service.In Section 2, we review the literature regarding PSSs, service engineering, service marketing and management and product design, and in Section 3, we propose an estimation procedure. We verify the estimation by application to a case study in Section 4. In Section 5, we present our conclusion of the findings and outline a direction for future research.\n2 Evaluation of PSS design: 2.1 Product-service system\n3 Estimation of customer satisfaction: 3.1 Approach\n4 Application to domestic in-flight services: The proposed method was applied to domestic in-flight services for verification. In-flight services are typical PSS where a customer evaluates intangible factors as represented, for example, by the flight attendants' attitude, as well as tangible assets, such as amenities or seats. The purpose of the application is to prove the estimation's capability to quantify customer satisfaction with both tangible and intangible features.At first, the persona was decided as a person who usually uses domestic flights for the purpose of business trips, and all questionnaires introduced below were designed with this in mind. Although the requirements on business trips vary depending on his/her gender, age, condition on the flight and so, forth, in this application, we limited the questionnaire items to the receiver's state and the service features that are commonly important for a business person. As a result, the receiver's state \"feel comfortable while seated\" was chosen as the target of evaluation. Although, we discuss about only the state \"feel comfortable while seated\" in this application, the designers should evaluate all the states in the actual development.We enumerated 25 FPs that affect the receiver's state and then chosen five significant FPs according to the results of a preliminary questionnaire completed by 25 business people who usually travel on domestic flights. The questionnaire asked the respondents to choose five of the most important FPs from among the original 25 we enumerated. The following five features were selected according to the preliminary questionnaire results:1. leg space;2. seat to sit in;3. personal space to be apart from others;4. cabin crew's attentiveness; and5. silence of space.Based on the receiver's state and five features corresponding to the original abstract FPs, we described the view model. Figure 5 shows a small part of the developed model.Next, we collected the responses of 554 people through an internet research service. The respondents were limited to business people who used domestic flights at least one time within a year according to the persona. The questionnaire was carried out to obtain the information required for determining the S-A functions and the importance of each FP. The questionnaire comprised four items. Q1 asked the perceived quality of each FP and the corresponding level of satisfaction was revealed by Q2. The expectation of quality was obtained by Q3. Q4 concerned the importance of each FP that is used as weight to calculate satisfaction with the RSP. In Q1 and Q3, quality was represented by a single choice of numeric quality: \"cm\" for \"leg space\" and \"personal space to be apart from others\" and \"dB\" for \"silence of space\". For \"seat to fit in\" and \"cabin crew's attentiveness\", we prepared options where the respondents could choose multiple options: for example, \"hardness of a seat\", \"position of arm rests\", \"ease to recline\" for \"seat to fit in\". Quality was represented by difference between the number of chosen comfortable items and chosen uncomfortable items. However, since the impact of each item is not fully equivalent, we regarded the number to represent the degree of goodness in order to quantify quality. In Q2 and Q4, the respondents rated the importance of each feature on a seven-point scale, from 1 - dissatisfied/not important to 7 - satisfied/important.Table I and Figure 6 show the S-A functions, which were determined for the five features from the obtained data. The functions are divided into \"satisfied\" and \"dissatisfied\" by the expectations as explained previously. In Table I, the expectations are determined by averaging the answers from all respondents. \"Satisfied\" indicates the functions of quality that exceed the expectation, and \"dissatisfied\" of quality inferior to the expectation. These functions are obtained by regression analysis on pairs of quality and satisfaction data. Here, the satisfaction values obtained by the questionnaires are normalised from -1 to 1 before being regressed. All the functions are statistically significant. In Figure 6, dots indicate respondents' answers and lines surrounding the dots indicate the number of overlapping data. Solid curves represent satisfaction with the S-A functions and dashed curves represent dissatisfaction.Figure 6 shows that the non-linear function is necessary to estimate satisfaction. In Figure 6(a)-(e), curves show continuity as well as linear functions. However, Figure 6(c) reduces the incline at the expectation toward satisfied, Figure 6(d) increases the incline toward satisfied. This implies the designer needs different strategy to decide quality considering shapes of the S-A function. For example, different trends between \"Leg space\" and \"personal space to be apart from others\" lead to different strategies. Namely, the leg space should be widen as much as possible, meanwhile satisfaction will be little increased if the designer widens the distance from next person.Finally, we estimated overall satisfaction of each respondent by weighted sum of the estimated satisfaction for each FP. The importance obtained by Q4 was averaged across the respondents, and then normalised within the FPs. Table II shows the weights of the FPs. The respondents answered that they were satisfied with overall services in Q3. Figure 7 is the scatter diagram showing correlations between the stated satisfaction with overall services and the estimated satisfaction. Calculation of Spearman's correlation coefficient revealed that the estimated satisfaction and the overall satisfaction were correlated (R=0.66695, p<0.001). This implies that the estimated satisfaction has a similar trend to the customers' stated satisfaction, and thus the estimation is applicable to making a comparison of design candidates.\n5 Discussion: The evaluation centres on the estimation of customer satisfaction to allow the designer to choose a design solution from the customer viewpoints. For this purpose, we introduced two fundamental models: the view model and the S-A function. The view model illustrates features with relation to a customer's state change. This principle of the model is effective to let the designer stand in the customers' shoes. In addition, the description of features, instead of physical specifications, allows designers to seek another way to satisfy customers. The second model, S-A function, provides designers with a systematic method with which to estimate customer satisfaction. It introduces a non-linear model that utilises customer expectation as a comparison standard. It enables the designer to evaluate design candidates in the conceptual stage where little information is available, and therefore supports iterative improvements without the designer needing to hesitate under the weight of market analysis. In addition, the proposed procedure estimates customer satisfaction in a single transaction. It can offer concrete information for design, as opposed to cumulative satisfaction, which is a popular indicator in the service marketing literature.The estimation was statistically proved to effectively illustrate customer satisfaction through application to an actual case with a sufficient size of data sample. Table III shows the comparison between non-liner function and liner function obtained from linear regression analysis. It revealed that the satisfaction of the customer is not necessarily proportional to quality. This implies that non-liner function is suitable for the estimation of customer satisfaction, as opposed to liner function, which is assumed in conventional product development. However, in some FPs, liner function was suitable for estimating customer satisfaction. Therefore, designers need to select either function type depending on the type of FP. With regard to total customer satisfaction of the RSP, the application revealed that the estimated satisfaction was correlated with the satisfaction obtained from the questionnaire. This means that designers can use the proposed estimation procedure in decision making without the need for surveys each time they change the design. Thus, the estimation procedure presented here appears to be applicable to and effective for improving the design of PSSs.\n6 Conclusion: The tough circumstances in which businesses are currently operating can be addressed by PSSs. Consequently, as a matter of course, a PSS design is needed that will meet the diversified demands of customers. The design should be applicable to multidisciplinary fields, including engineering, service marketing and psychology. In this paper, we proposed an evaluative method developed by integrating concepts and methodologies scattered across the literature. The evaluation includes the following characteristics:* evaluates a transaction of a PSS;* introduces customer satisfaction as the criterion to choose the design solution;* assumes that PSS designers use the evaluation in the conceptual design stage;* represents the PSS within a structure of customer state change and features; and* uses a non-linear value function model to estimate customer satisfaction from features.In this paper, we limited the estimation to a single transaction. However, for companies producing PSSs, it is necessary to consider the relationship with customers over time. Since customers easily switch to other companies and their preferences show increasing liquidity, companies need to predict and advance their products and services beyond these customer changes. Therefore, in future, we need to integrate the concept of effects over time such as loyalty and defection into the proposed framework, thus allowing the designer to manage customer satisfaction through entire service experience. Other future works include implementation on a software tool to design PSS by using the proposed method more efficiently.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: - Combined offerings of products and services, that is, a product-service system (PSS), have been attracting much attention. Consequently, a good design methodology of services as well as that of manufacturing products is needed. The purpose of this paper, is to propose a method for estimating customer satisfaction that enables designers to compare design solutions in the conceptual stage.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - In the proposed method, first, the models that represent PSS features with relation to a customer's state is adopted. Then, the authors propose the estimation procedure that utilises a non-linear value function called the satisfaction-attribute (S-A) function to quantify customer satisfaction.\nFindings: - The proposed method centres on the estimation of customer satisfaction. It enables the designers to evaluate design candidates in the conceptual stage where little information is available, and therefore supports iterative improvements without the designer needing to hesitate under the weight of market analysis.\nResearch limitations/implications: - In this paper, the estimation is limited to a single transaction with a customer, rather than cumulative satisfaction that represents a customer's imprints about the provider accumulated by repeating purchases. In future, therefore, the authors need to integrate the concept of effects over time such as loyalty and defection into the proposed framework.\nPractical implications: - In the application, the proposed method is statistically proven to effectively illustrate customer satisfaction.\nOriginality/value: - This paper proposes the estimation method of customer satisfaction for PSS design. The proposed method allows designers to choose a design solution from the customer viewpoints.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Illusions of compliance and governance	[ "Corporate governance", "Liability", "Business ethics" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n__NO_TITLE__: The downfall of Enron, conviction of Arthur Andersen, and bankruptcy of WorldCom define what has been called an historic period of corporate greed, unprecedented fraud, widespread \"gatekeeper\" failure, and organizational misgovernance (Coffee, 2004a; Gordon, 2002; Langevoort, 2003, 2004; Ribstein, 2002). Allegations against some of the most revered companies continue to raise disturbing questions about business ethics, company valuations, and corporate accountability. To calm investor fears, return perceptions of legitimacy to the markets, and demonstrate the apparent resolve of state and federal regulators, a host of legislative reforms, high profile investigations, and symbolic prosecutions continue unabated (Coffee, 2004b).\nThe tale of corporate governance: Prescriptive rhetoric\nWhy such a skeptical and pessimistic account?: Critics of recent reforms have noted significant concerns, including the fact that SOX was seriously misconceived and poorly deliberated by Congress (Romano, 2004; Cunningham, 2003). It was also argued that SOX and other contemporaneous reforms disregarded an increasingly mature body of corporate finance research that would have point toward other more effective governance initiatives, which would more likely improve audit quality. These critics and others, however, miss an opportunity to reflect on why similar movements have failed in the past despite periods of scandals that seem to recur with somewhat of a predictable regularity. Therefore, any suggestion for reform is best off accompanied by a healthy dose of skepticism and pessimism because:* corporate power and especially top management control of the governance process remains dominant relative to other stakeholders;* there is a distinct absence of metrics to evaluate the effectiveness of corporate compliance with law;* regulators and prosecutors rely on limited and elementary constructions of corporate deviance;* there is a whim to the attribution of corporate criminal liability that makes it difficult, often impossible, to know what conduct will be construed as civil, administrative, or criminal;* politicized prosecutions undermine deterrence and the lessons learned from the criminal law; and* the commitment of corporations to virtue remains suspicious.Dominance of corporate power\nPrognosis for reforms: Most of the reasons offered for the unlikely success of the good corporate citizenship movement, found in Table I, generalize well to recent governance crisis and its reforms. The dominance of corporate power remains, as does the absence of metrics gauging effectiveness; a difficulty defining the nature of corporate fault and the means to impute it; an arbitrariness to the attribution of blame; largely symbolic prosecutions that seem unlikely to persist; and little hope that governance-inspired virtue will fare better than its compliance equivalent.There are other significant shared lessons between compliance and governance, including that learned from the episodic nature of corporate crime scandals: corporate deviance, heightened regulatory scrutiny, reforms, symbolic prosecutions, regulatory laxity, and a new set of scandals that seem unparalleled. Roe's (2004) rendition of the historical instability of corporate governance since the second world war, a history marked by recurring breakdowns and resulting reforms, is entirely comparable. According to Roe (2004, p. 1):The recent business crises seem new and different from what has gone on before. But at their core, they are not. The core fissure in American corporate governance is the separation of ownership from control - distant and diffuse stockholders, with concentrated management - a separation that creates both great efficiencies and recurring breakdowns.What lessons are learned by an alternating, episodic history of compliance and governance failures? There are least two noteworthy answers. First, there is a resiliency to the regulatory status quo that reflects the complexity of business regulation and the many stakeholders with competing if not conflicting interests. This resiliency reflects some seemingly intractable conflicts - sources of ambivalence - that make resort to more formal and serious regulatory responses seem strange, if not wrong. Resiliency is certainly one reason why, even with the rise of the regulatory state and subsequent periods of regulation and deregulation, fundamental changes in corporate compliance and governance are not often seen.Second, the production of carefully minted images of corporate compliance, good corporate governance, and the corporate soul make this resiliency and any accompanying ambivalence with business regulation so very difficult to see. Images of a government-led war against corporate fraud, for example, new resources that strengthen the staff and mandate of the Securities and Exchange Commission, the passage of historic corporate governance legislation, and the requirement that corporate leaders sign their financial statements inspire confidence in our markets and recognize the legitimacy of regulatory responses. Images of firms committed to doing the right thing in spite of lost profits and to choosing the path of compliance for reasons of integrity, not risk management, convey a strong message of ethical self-regulation. The images promote a conventional wisdom about a more ethical and better-governed firm, one in which the safeguards against another Enron or WorldCom are found in multiple layers of capable and mature oversight. These images meld good governance practices, the importance of leadership, an organization's commitment to ethics and integrity, the need for social responsibility and good corporate citizenship, and prospect of corporate virtue all into one. And, in spite of their strong intuitive appeal, their compelling message, and our desire to believe in and take comfort from their message, they are far too often illusory.\nConclusion: This article considers corporate governance reforms in light of a decade old movement of corporate compliance that ended in a very quiet whimper as corporate scandals emerged at the dawn of the new millennium. The weaknesses of this failed movement, the images and rhetoric accompanying it, are offered as part of a skeptic's and pessimist's account. The tale of corporate governance bears an eerie resemblance to the old pitch that companies must be \"in compliance\" with sentencing guidelines. This message was at the heart of the tale of compliance sold by a cottage industry of consultancies only a decade ago.Both compliance and governance tales, I conclude, support the steadfast nature of the regulatory status quo with images from a host of stakeholders that hide just how ambivalent and conflicted we are over the regulation of businesses. Perhaps even more discouraging, the images are all too frequently creative and seductive illusions of corporate compliance and governance.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: - This article aims to place recent corporate governance reforms in the historical context of the good corporate citizenship movement that began in the US in the mid-1990s and came to an abrupt end in 2002 when the most recent spate of corporate scandals emerged. It explores what the apparent failure of this movement portends for the recently-enacted governance reforms.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - The paper engages in a policy analysis of regulatory reform.\nFindings: - After offering the tale of corporate governance, a critical take on current reforms, the paper finds the skeptic's and pessimist's account of corporate good citizenship movement to be most helpful in explaining the illusory nature of corporate reforms and the resilience of the regulatory status quo.\nOriginality/value: - The paper is a critical analysis of corporate governance reforms.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Ownership structure, earnings management and acquiring firm post-merger market performance : Evidence from Canada	[ "Canada", "Acquisitions and mergers", "Corporate ownership", "Earnings", "Organizational performance", "Earnings management", "Ownership structure", "Post‐merger market performance" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: Since the late 1990s, mergers and acquisitions (M&A) have been drawing the attention of the business world and academia. This is not surprising given the five major merger waves in the USA since the nineteenth century. Several studies have tried to determine whether these transactions benefit the shareholders. Empirical results show that the shareholders of target firms are clearly the big winners in business combination transactions; mainly owing to the high control premiums they receive (Bruner, 2002; Tuch and O'Sullivan, 2007). In addition, the literature shows that acquiring firms' shareholders obtain nil or, even worse, negative abnormal returns, particularly for stock-financed M&A (Bruner, 2002)[1]. Stock-for-stock transactions often diminish the controlling positions of dominant shareholders. Therefore, controlling shareholders have an incentive to manage earnings to lower the acquisition price and protect their voting position.This study examines the relationship between the ownership structure of acquiring firms and earnings management (EM). Several studies document the relation between earnings and share prices (e.g. Ball and Brown, 1968; Foster, 1977; Beaver et al., 1979). Healy and Wahlen (1999) suggest that managers may have incentives to manipulate earnings in an effort to influence short-term stock returns. Given that accounting numbers are used to determine the exchange ratios in stock-financed transactions (Erickson and Wang, 1999), stock-for-stock M&A offer an interesting setting in which to examine the issue of EM.Large shareholders have strong incentives to manage earnings upward prior to stock-financed M&A transactions in order to reduce the number of shares issued and limit the dilution of their controlling position. This paper extends prior research by specifically examining the link between the ownership structure and the use of EM in stock-for-stock M&A.This research also investigates the potential consequences of EM prior to the transaction on the long-term stock returns of acquiring firms in stock-financed transactions. Prior M&A research (Loughran and Vijh, 1997; Rau and Vermaelen, 1998; Louis, 2004; Andre et al., 2004) reports evidence of long-term underperformance, typically over a three- to five-year period, of acquiring firms using stocks for payment. Our paper tests whether pre-merger EM is related to the long-term market performance of Canadian acquiring firms.Few studies have examined EM by acquiring firms (Erickson and Wang, 1999; Heron and Lie, 2002; Louis, 2004; Botsari and Meeks, 2008). While Erickson and Wang (1999), Louis (2004) and Botsari and Meeks (2008) document upward EM by managers of acquiring firms in the periods preceding the deal, Heron and Lie (2002) do not find any evidence of such practice. None of these previous studies has taken into account the effect of the ownership structure on EM.Corporate ownership in Canada is characterized by a high level of concentration and the widespread use of control-enhancing mechanisms such as dual class shares and pyramidal structures (Morck et al., 2000; Ben-Amar and Andre, 2006; Bozec and Laurin, 2008). Although concentrated ownership is widely prevalent around the world, even in the USA as stated by Holderness (2009), to the best of our knowledge, this paper is the first to examine the link between the ownership structure and EM in an M&A setting.This study also sheds new light on the stock-financed M&A underperformance enigma by examining the consequences of pre-acquisition EM on acquirer long-term stock market performance. Indeed, research shows that the stock market efficiency hypothesis holds only in its semi-strong form. For instance, Sloan (1996), Xie (2001) and Kraft et al. (2006) document that stock markets tend to accept net accounting earnings as reported. This implies that positive EM tends to increase stock prices when M&A are announced, while the unavoidable reversal of EM triggers underperformance over the long run (Louis, 2004). Our study differs from Louis (2004) because we use the Fama-French three-factor model in calendar time to minimize problems related to the possible cross-sectional dependence of the returns.The results are consistent with the acquiring firms managing their earnings upward in stock-financed M&A. These abnormal discretionary accruals are subsequently penalized by capital markets in post-acquisition years. We also document that voting rights concentration and control-enhancing mechanisms are not associated with significant levels of EM. The alignment effect of ownership concentration, the need to maintain good relations with investors, and the legal and extra-legal protection offered to minority shareholders seem to attenuate entrenched owners' propensity to manipulate earnings.The remainder of the paper is presented as follows: Section 2 describes the theoretical framework and hypotheses. The Section 3 focusses on the methodological aspects. The results are reported in Section 4. Section 5 presents our conclusions and some avenues for future research.\n2. Theoretical framework and hypotheses: 2.1 M&A and EM\n3. Methodology: 3.1 Sample selection and data\n4. Results: 4.1 The effect of the payment method on EM\n5. Conclusion: This paper examines the relationship between the ownership structure and EM by acquiring firms prior to M&A and the subsequent long-term market performance. M&A offers an interesting setting in which to examine this issue given that controlling shareholders have incentives to manage earnings to avoid the dilution of their voting position in stock-for-stock transactions. Given the importance of corporate ownership concentration around the world, this study aims at better understanding the alleged controlling shareholders' motivations to use EM as a self-serving behavior at the expense of minority shareholders.Consistent with prior research, we document significant positive ADCA during the period preceding stock-financed M&A. We also find that the concentration of voting rights and the separation between control and ownership, through dual class shares or stock pyramids, are not related to EM behavior by the acquiring firms. These results suggest that the alignment effect dominates the entrenchment motives and acts as a deterrent mechanism to prevent controlling shareholders from managing earnings in stock-financed M&A.Our results may also be attributed to the good legal and extra-legal protection offered to minority shareholders in Canada and the motivation to maintain a good reputation in investors' view. Canada's legal setting could prevent dominant shareholders from engaging in opportunistic EM in stock-financed M&A even though they may have the theoretical motivation to do so to avoid the dilution of their controlling position. Dominant shareholders need to maintain good relations with investors to facilitate future equity issues and maintain a low cost of capital. Therefore, they may not engage in opportunistic EM out of fear of incurring increased financing costs.Finally, we relate pre-merger EM behavior to the long-term stock price performance of acquiring firms that have engaged in stock-financed M&A in Canada. Our results are consistent with firms managing earnings prior to the transactions and realizing substantial post-merger abnormal negative long-term returns. These results also suggest that the stock market penalizes opportunistic pre-merger EM over the long run.Similar to prior studies, this paper is not without limitations. First, we chose to use a balance sheet approach to measure accruals. Hribar and Collins (2002) and Ball and Shivakumar (2008) argue that using this approach may provide biased results toward the existence of significant positive EM. They recommend using accruals from the cash-flow statement to measure EM. However, Botsari and Meeks (2008) conclude that, despite the bias induced by the balance sheet approach, both methods produce similar results. Second, EM might be associated with low analyst coverage before the transaction for a number of firms within our sample. Future research should examine the link between analyst coverage, pre-merger EM and long-term abnormal returns.Third, we examine EM practices by acquiring firms involved in M&A transactions initiated by Canadian firms. Therefore, our results may not be valid for other jurisdictions. Finally, our tests on the relationship between ownership structure and EM are performed on a relatively small number of observations. We collect the ownership information from proxy circulars available on the SEDAR web site. Because this information has been publicly available on this web site only since September 1997, we could not obtain the ownership information for firms in the period 1990-1997. Given that corporate ownership concentration is a global phenomenon, future research should examine whether large shareholders manipulate earnings during M&A transactions in jurisdictions where minority shareholders' protection mechanisms are not as strong as in Canada.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: - The purpose of this paper is to investigate the link between ownership structure, earnings management (EM) preceding mergers and acquisitions (M&A) and the acquiring firm's subsequent long-term market performance.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - The authors measure the magnitude of discretionary current accruals using two methodologies, that of Teoh et al. and that of Kothari et al. The latter methodology is used to control for the presence of extreme performance prior to the event. The calendar-time Fama-French three-factor model was used to evaluate long-term stock performance and to minimize potential problems related to the cross-sectional dependence of the returns.\nFindings: - It was found that firms using stock as a financing medium exhibit significant positive discretionary accruals during the year preceding the M&A and during the year of the acquisition. It was also documented that voting right concentration and control-enhancing mechanisms are not associated with any significant level of earnings management. Finally, a negative association was found between EM and abnormal stock returns over a three-year period following the acquisition.\nResearch limitations/implications: - These results suggest that the concentrated ownership alignment effect dominates the entrenchment motives and acts as a deterrent mechanism to prevent controlling shareholders from managing earnings in stock-financed M&A.\nPractical implications: - The authors' results highlight the importance of maintaining good legal and extra-legal protection of minority shareholders. Regulators can play an important role in preventing dominant shareholders from engaging in opportunistic EM in stock-financed M&A.\nOriginality/value: - The paper extends prior literature by taking a closer look at dominant shareholders' motivations to manage earnings in stock-financed M&A. Large shareholders have strong incentives to manage earnings upward prior to stock-financed transactions to limit the dilution of their controlling position.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]

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