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What lies behind income inequality and income mobility in India? Implications and the way forward
|
[
"India",
"Income inequality",
"Income mobility"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: Over the last decades, the world has witnessed impressive average gains against multiple indicators of material prosperity. For instance, gross domestic product (GDP) per capita in low- and middle-income countries has more than doubled in real terms since 1990. Nonetheless, today's globalization is witnessing prosperity alongside growing inequality (Deaton, 2013). Based on the world development indicators database of the World Bank, in a span of two decades (between 1990 and 2009), while the percentage share of the top quintile in the total consumption got increased from 39.1 to 44.2 percent, the share of the bottom quintile population during the same period got decreased from 9.1 to 8.2 percent. The Gini index in the aforesaid period got increased from 30.8 to 33.9. Moreover, from regional perspectives, inequality differs considerably and an example of which is the case for South Asia which is found to be moderate by international standards. Gini coefficients of the most recent available years ranged between 0.28 and 0.40 in South Asian countries. But, this does not mean that there is no opportunity cost associated with it. As an example, a study by Oxfam International (2014) posits that if India stops inequality from rising, it could end extreme poverty for 90 million people by 2019. Reducing inequality by ten points, the equivalent of a 36 percent reduction, could almost eliminate extreme poverty altogether, by lifting up a further 83m people. There is an overwhelming number of working and non-working poor in India who are subject to multiple deprivations, and this is the root cause of social insecurity. These segments of population are most difficult to include, reach and provide for in the contemporary development process (Mishra, 2007; Mishra and Kar, 2017).\n2. Data, definition and methodology: 2.1 Data\n3. Levels, trends and inequality of income distribution: The typical mean household income per capita has increased from Rs 8,746 in 2004-2005 to Rs 23,831 in 2011-2012 (henceforth the year 2005 and 2012, respectively). On the other hand, the median household income per capita has increased from Rs 5,141 in 2004-2005 to Rs 13,860 in 2011-2012. Thus, overall, the mean and median household income grew by 24.6 and 24.2 percent, respectively, during the reference period. In terms of spatial income distribution by rural and urban areas, it is observed that whereas the average mean and median growth of household income per capita in the former case was 24.4 and 22.9 percent, respectively, the average mean and median growth of household income per capita in the latter case was 20.2 and 18.0 percent, respectively (Table I).\n4. Income mobility-trends and decomposition of income movement indices in India: We start this section by examining the extent of income mobility with the help of transition matrix that occurred during the aforesaid period. In each period, we cross-classify the sample into income quintiles from the bottom/lowest or poorest quintile (1) to the top/highest or richest quintile (5) with an equal number of people in each quintile. Each element of the income transition table denoted as Pij shows the fraction of sample in income quintile i in the initial period (here, 2004-2005) that occupies income quintile j in the final period (here, 2011-2012). Using this methodology, the study can determine the movement of a household along the income distribution over time. It also determines the existing immobility if any. Needless to mention, measurements of mobility, like those for inequality, are sensitive to where one falls along a distribution. By income or wealth, persistence is the norm within the bottom and top quintiles, but mobility is higher for the middle quintiles.\n5. Conclusions and policy implications: The paper examines the trends, levels, sources and factors of income inequality in India between 2005 and 2012. The paper also uses Gini as a measure of inequality and finds that income inequality in rural India has increased from 0.51 to 0.53 between 2005 and 2012. On the other hand, income inequality in urban India has increased from 0.48 to 0.50 during the same period.\n",
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"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to examine income inequality and income mobility, which have been central to understanding India's recent economic development.\nDesign/methodology/approach: This paper uses the first two waves of the India Human Development Survey data for the year 2004-2005 and 2011-2012 to analyze income inequality and income mobility using longitudinal data, and is the first to do so at a nationally representative level. In this research paper, we address three related research questions: How have been the patterns of income mobility in India? What are the trends, levels and sources of income inequality in India? and finally And What is the structure of household income mobility?\nFindings: The paper examines the trends, levels, sources and factors of income inequality and income mobility in India between 2005 and 2012. The results further show the case for high persistence at the top of income distribution but lower persistence at the bottom.\nResearch limitations/implications: Because of the chosen research approach, the research results may lack spatial analysis. Therefore, researchers are encouraged to test the proposed propositions further.\nPractical implications: The paper suggests that, in the end, the nature of longer-term well-being is crucial to designing policy interventions to effectively tackle inequality, and economic mobility can be seen as an avenue to long-term equality.\nSocial implications: This study can further be extended to look at polarization issues at the national and sub-national levels.\nOriginality/value: This paper shows the analytical framework of additive decomposition of income mobility out of two sources, namely mobility due to the transfer of income within given structure and mobility due to economic growth or contraction in rural and urban India.\n",
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Managing across a corporate and product brand portfolio: evidence from a large South African service organization
|
[
"Brand portfolio management",
"Corporate branding",
"Services branding"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: There is a growing body of evidence linking brands with both the building of competitive advantage and increasing the firm's value (Balmer and Gray, 2003; Keller and Lehmann, 2006; Rao et al., 2004; Wiles et al., 2012). The resource-based view of the firm recognises that both product and corporate brands can be seen as organisational resources that are valuable, rare, inimitable and non-substitutable (Capron and Hulland, 1999; Grant, 1995). It is therefore important for firms to develop capabilities that enable them to acquire, build and develop brands that build a firm's competitive advantage and increase its value to stakeholders. Building strong brands requires the development of management processes that are systematic and structured (Merrilees et al., 2011).\nLiterature review: The relative roles of corporate and product brands\nMethodology: In seeking answers to the research questions, the authors used a qualitative and interpretative research paradigm. A case study design was used because there is a lack of empirical research on addressing the questions developed (Yin, 2009). A search for a services organisation that had multiple brands, as well as an active focus on corporate brand management, resulted in the selection of the unit of analysis, namely, Tsogo Sun, and its approach to strategic brand management (www.tsogosun.com/Pages/default.aspx). This organisation was selected purposively, as the authors had access to rich quality information and because it was a critical case for the purpose of our study (Yin, 2009). The authors gained access to the company's facilities, archives and key informants.\nFindings: The relative roles of corporate and product brands\nDiscussion: In a multi-brand service context, RQ1 is considered.\nConclusion: The purpose of this research was to understand how a large South African services organisation manages its multi-brand portfolio alongside its corporate brand. Many of the principles in the literature were supported including the importance of the CEO's involvement in corporate branding (Abratt and Kleyn, 2012), the necessity to link organisational values to corporate brand communication, the need to adopt a multi-stakeholder perspective in corporate branding (Balmer, 2005), the strong roles played by employees in a services branding context (Melewar et al., 2012; Miles and Mangold, 2004) and the important role that the marketing function has to play in corporate brand management (Balmer, 2008).\nImplications: Theoretical implications\nLimitations: Given that this research addressed a single case study, care should be taken not to generalise results. Additional research could investigate corporate and product brand management across multiple service contexts to test whether these findings can be extrapolated to broader contexts.\n",
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"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this study is to understand how a large service organisation with a brand portfolio manages its corporate brand relative to its portfolio of product brands.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The authors use an interpretivist research paradigm to investigate four research questions concerning the relative roles of corporate and product brands, the role of the CEO, the structures and capabilities that support the development of brand equity (including the role of the marketing function) and the role of employees in building corporate brand equity. A case study design was used, and the Tsogo Sun, one of the largest hotel and casino organisations in Africa, was the focus of the investigation.\nFindings: The findings highlight the important role of both the CEO and the marketing department in optimising brand equity and managing across corporate and product brands. Employees were found to play a critical role and the need to clarify their relative roles as both recipients and expressors of brand identity across corporate and product brands emerged as an important theme.\nOriginality/value: Although the corporate brand has received much attention in recent years, much of literature remains conceptual. In addition to responding to calls for empirical research, the paper also contributes to deepening understanding about how to manage a corporate brand alongside a number of product brands.\n",
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Service role and outcome as moderators in intercultural service encounters
|
[
"Service quality",
"Service encounter",
"Intercultural",
"Perceived cultural distance",
"Service outcome",
"Service role"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: With rapid increase in international travel and migration in recent years, there is a rise in the number and importance of intercultural service encounters (ICSEs), which involve interactions between customers and employees from different cultures (Teng, 2011; Etgar and Fuchs, 2011; Wang and Mattila, 2010). In fact, in 2010 alone, about 980 million tourists traveled outside their home country, spending about US$919 billion (UNWTO, 2012) and about 214 million migrants lived outside their countries of birth (UNDESA, 2011). These two groups account for about 1.2 billion people (17.5 percent of world population) and billions of ICSEs.\nTheoretical background: Service role (customers vs employees)\nConceptual framework and hypotheses: IC\nMethodology: Sample and procedure\nData analysis and findings: We began with an assessment of the psychometric properties of all the scales, using confirmatory factor analysis with AMOS 22.0. The measurement model shows an excellent fit (kh2=110.58, df=71, kh2/df=1.56, CFI=0.97, NFI=0.95, RMSEA=0.043) with all the fit indices better than their cut-off values (CFI\nDiscussion and contribution: In this paper, we extend the growing research on ICSEs with a modified conceptual framework incorporating direct effects of PCD on IC and satisfaction, as well as the influence of IC on PSQ and service quality on satisfaction, for both customers and employees. We also hypothesize that there is a moderating influence of service role (customer vs employee) and service outcome (success vs failure) on the above relationships. Finally, we hypothesize that there is an interaction between these two moderators (service role and service outcome) as well.\nManagerial implications: Besides the above conceptual contributions, our research also offers many useful managerial insights. First, it shows that just like service customers, service employees may also experience the negative effect of PCD on their IC, PSQ and satisfaction. However, by showing that these effects are much stronger for the customers, we highlight the need to understand the customers' perspective in the ICSE, while paying attention to the views of the service employees as well. In other words, managers in service firms dealing with ICSEs would find it useful to track not only their employees' attitudes and behaviors toward customers with different cultural backgrounds but also to monitor similar differences in the expectations and perceptions among customers.\nLimitations and future research: Despite making several important contributions, our research also has some limitations. First, we used the adapted versions of well-established scales with a small number of items for each scale to minimize participant fatigue and ensure their high involvement. For example, we used a three-item scale to measure PSQ, but some may argue that it could be measured as the gap between customer expectations and their perceptions of the quality of service received by them. However, prior research using both expectation-based and perception-based scales for service quality shows their scores to be highly correlated (e.g. Zeithaml et al., 1996), hence it seems more parsimonious to use shortened scales in research such as ours.\n",
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"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to introduce a comprehensive framework incorporating service roles (customer vs employee) and outcomes (failure vs success) as moderators in the process by which perceived cultural distance (PCD) affects customers and employees in intercultural service encounters (ICSEs).\nDesign/methodology/approach: The authors used a 2x2x3 between-subjects experimental design with Chinese undergraduate students, manipulating service role (customer and employee), outcome (failure and success) and PCD (low, medium and high).\nFindings: Compared to service employees, customers perceive higher cultural distance and lower interaction comfort (IC), service quality and satisfaction; and stronger negative moderating effect of PCD in ICSEs. Compared to service success, failure results in lower IC; perceived service quality and satisfaction, and these effects are stronger for customers (vs employees).\nResearch limitations/implications: The authors used shorter versions of all the scales to minimize participant fatigue and to increase their involvement along with an experimental design with imaginary service scenario, both of which may restrict the generalizability of the findings.\nPractical implications: Service managers should focus on customer education and employee training to reduce the negative impact of PCD and prevent service failure rather than try to improve service quality and satisfaction beyond customers' expectations.\nOriginality/value: The authors extend prior research by exploring the moderating effects of service role (customer vs employee) and outcome (success vs failure) on the direct and indirect effects of PCD on IC, service quality and satisfaction.\n",
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Just benefits? Employee benefits and organisational justice
|
[
"Employee benefits",
"Compensation",
"Rewards",
"Organizational justice"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: In a time of prolonged wage stagnation in many industrialised economies, employee benefits are increasingly important to employees. Benefits have been growing as a proportion of remuneration since the 1990s, with estimates suggesting they represent 20-30 per cent of total compensation costs in the USA, UK and Australia, and 10-20 per cent in many Western European nations (Shields et al., 2016; Dulebohn et al., 2009; Tremblay et al., 1998). Yet there has been a significant paucity of scholarly attention afforded to benefits (Dulebohn et al., 2009; Deadrick and Gibson, 2009). This is perhaps because benefits have been viewed as a relatively unproblematic and inconsequential aspect of the employment relationship - a simple HR issue, rather than an increasingly important part of the reward-effort bargain. Alternatively, the dearth of empirical studies may be because benefits, like pay, is an area of employment practice that is relatively hidden, making data difficult to access (Dulebohn et al., 2009; Gupta and Shaw, 2014).\nEmployee benefits: Although a key aspect of the employment relationship and an issue of significant practitioner concern (Deadrick and Gibson, 2009; Gupta and Shaw, 2014), employee benefits remain neglected in the scholarly literature. Benefits are often briefly discussed in the \"total reward management\" literature, some of which explores the optimal mix of various reward components including benefits (Fuehrer, 1994; Kao and Kantor, 2004). This tendency to examine reward as a part of the bundle of high performance work practices has resulted in insufficient exploration of specific components of reward systems (Guest, 1997; Jiang et al., 2012). Additionally, the reward literature tends to focus on organisational-level issues such as fit with strategy and implementation (Armstrong, 2012; Gomez-Mejia et al., 2004), while neglecting analysis at the level of the employee.\nOrganisational justice: Organisational justice is defined as the perceived fairness of an organisation, most often from an employee's perspective (Greenberg and Colquitt, 2013). Employee perceptions of fairness at work merit in-depth examination due to their established influence on a range of outcomes for employees and organisations, including job performance, satisfaction and turnover intentions (Cohen-Charash and Spector, 2001; Colquitt et al., 2001).\nContext: The data reported are derived from a case study of the employee reward system in a large financial and insurance services company based in Australia. The company (hereafter referred to as FinCo) has a complex and well-established employee reward system with a range of individual and team rewards, including base pay, performance-linked incentive payments, an employee recognition programme and a variegated benefits system. The organisation considers benefits to include only non-wage compensation that is not contingent on performance.\nMethods: This study utilised a case study design to examine, through the lens of organisational justice theory, fairness perceptions of a benefits system in FinCo, an organisation with over 10,000 employees. The principles of theoretical sampling were used to identify FinCo as an exemplar case suitable to critically explore a benefits system in its real organisational context (Eisenhardt and Graebner, 2007; Yin, 2013). In line with calls for more qualitative employment relations research (Whitfield and Strauss, 2000; Edwards, 2005) and due to the lack of relevant prior studies, an inductive, qualitative case study methodology was selected to enable a detailed examination of employees' fairness perceptions about the FinCo benefits system (comprising specific types of benefits, as well as benefits-related policies, practices and communications). Following Brinkmann and Kvale's (2014) assertion that the perceptions of employees can only be adequately explored by examining their opinions in their own words, open-text responses to an organisation-wide survey regarding the benefits system were analysed to interrogate the source and type of justice perceptions of benefits. The study also drew upon a range of organisational documents (including the enterprise agreement, recruitment information and benefits communications) and data from in-depth, semi-structured interviews with benefits managers.\nFindings: Analysis of the survey responses provided insights into employee perceptions of the fairness of FinCo's benefits system. All four types of organisational justice were identified in the data, with distributive justice perceptions of the benefits system aligning primarily with employees' comparative access to benefits. Procedural justice concerns were expressed either in terms of inadequate policies, or a perceived disconnect between policy and practices. Informational justice emerged in comments about the adequacy of explanations and information provided by supervisors about access to the benefits available in policy. Interpersonal justice judgements centred on supervisors' perceived role in restricting access to certain benefits.\nDiscussion: The purpose of this study was to reveal insights into a highly under-examined yet important aspect of the employment relationship, which are the dimensions of benefits systems that influence a fair and equitable system. In terms of organisational practices, the findings may inform the design and management of effective benefits systems. Addressing RQ1, the study revealed that employee perceptions of benefits system fairness (or unfairness) are related to the relevant dimensions of justice described in the literature. Employees' fairness concerns about benefits systems emerge from first, perceived inability to access and use benefits; second, prosocial perceptions of inequitable benefits access for others; and finally, the transparency of benefits communications, policies, processes and decisions. Overall, the findings suggest that many employees in an organisation with a wide range of benefits and established policies believe the system is unfair. Considering the previous research which consistently indicates that negative employee justice perceptions about benefits undermine staff satisfaction and retention (e.g. Tremblay et al., 2000; Cole and Flint, 2005), this finding points to a need for additional research into specific actions organisations may take to improve the fairness perceptions of benefits. The results also contribute to the interactional justice literature concerning interpersonal and informational justice types. Employees distinguished between the fairness of interactions with their supervisor about access to benefits (interpersonal justice); information and explanations provided by their supervisor about benefits (informational justice); and benefits-related policies and procedures (procedural justice). The analysis thus supports the contested theoretical distinction between procedural justice and the two dimensions of interactional justice (Bies, 2005), showing that interpersonal and informational dimensions of justice are distinct, because they influence benefits fairness perceptions in different ways.\nConclusions: Adopting organisational justice as a theoretical lens, this study examined how the dimensions of the benefits system can influence employee's fairness perceptions. The results extend the existing scholarly literature in four key ways: by providing further evidence to support the theoretical distinction between interpersonal and informational justice; by showing how the concept of perceived usability of flexible work arrangements also applies to other types of benefits; through building knowledge of third-party organisational justice perceptions; and by furthering the limited pay transparency research to highlight the important role of clear and honest benefits communication.\n",
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"content": "Purpose: Employee reward is central to contemporary debates about work and employment relations; and in the context of ongoing wage stagnation, benefits represent a growing proportion of total reward value. Past studies have shown that when employees perceive benefits as unfair, this has a negative impact on engagement, performance and retention. Yet no previous studies have explored the components of a benefits system that influence employees' fairness concerns. Using organisational justice as a theoretical lens, the purpose of this paper is to examine how dimensions of an employee benefits system influence the fairness perceptions of employees.\nDesign/methodology/approach: This paper reports on a qualitative, inductive case study of the benefits system in a large finance and insurance company, drawing on three data sources: interviews with the company's benefits managers, organisational documents and open-text responses from a benefits survey.\nFindings: Three dimensions of the benefits system strongly influenced fairness perceptions - constraints on accessing and utilising benefits; prosocial perceptions about the fairness of benefits to third parties; and the transparency of employee benefits.\nPractical implications: The study informs organisations and benefits managers about the important role of supervisors in perceived benefits usability, and how benefits may be managed and communicated to enhance employee fairness perceptions.\nOriginality/value: This study makes a conceptual contribution to the benefits literature through a detailed exploration of the type of organisational justice judgements that employees make about benefits; and identifying for the first time prosocial fairness concerns about the impact of benefits on third parties.\n",
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Entrepreneurial learning - a social context perspective: evidence from Kenya and Tanzania
|
[
"Entrepreneurship education",
"Learning outcomes",
"Entrepreneurial learning",
"Social context"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Entrepreneurship is acclaimed as the engine of wealth creation, and entrepreneurship education (EE) is valued by stakeholders among which higher education institutions (HEIs) play a key role. As a field of study, EE is part of the general business discipline in a context where the competencies required to operate in the global marketplace are rapidly evolving (Chell, 2013; Unger et al., 2011). HEIs have a mandate to design a curriculum addressing the needs of the economy and fulfilling learners' potential (Leitch, 2006). Learning is an active process whereby students can make sense of the changing environment and educators can exhibit and share knowledge and understanding of the belief structures characterising the social context of learning (Krueger, 2007; Bechard and Gregroire, 2005). This represents the challenge facing HEIs, particularly business schools delivering EE based on compartmentalised knowledge. While this has been the dominant pedagogic approach, the reality of entrepreneurship increasingly points to a different model (Gibb, 2002, 2011).\nMethodology: The study adopted a multi-phased qualitative approach in order to achieve the main aim (Stakes, 2006; Glaser, 1978). Phase I consisted of a desk review of the curriculum used in HEIs based on Gibb's template as the standard for benchmarking. It entailed mapping the programme of study against specified learning outcomes (Gibb, 2002) using material available from various prospectuses.\nAnalysis and results: Desk review\nDiscussion: The study's main findings as summarised in Table II confirm the social nature of entrepreneurship as underpinned by literature and broaden the concept to encompass social perceptions of an entrepreneur and most importantly of entrepreneurial learning. The findings support the achievement of Objective 1 of the study. First, perceptions of the entrepreneur as a value creator are supported by the shared contention that entrepreneurs can be trained to become experts in what they choose to do (Fretschner and Weber, 2013; Krueger, 2007). What seems to give relevance to learning outcomes is the contextual understanding of such learning outcomes.\nConclusions: This study set out to examine, first, how EE is perceived broadly and in relation to contexts such as Kenya and Tanzania. It revealed that although the case for EE is a dominant topic among practitioners and policy-makers, an understanding of what makes an entrepreneur entails a contextual dimension that learners and stakeholders can relate to. Second, a conceptual model presented in Figure 1 underpins the multi-layered nature of entrepreneurial learning and illustrates the need for new pedagogical approaches to develop an entrepreneurial mind-set (Gibb, 2002, 2011). Equally, stakeholders' engagement with the learning context enhances learning outcomes. It is one of the greatest challenges and opportunities for HEIs therefore, to overcome the current limitations of behavioural pedagogic approaches and evolve processes that genuinely unleash entrepreneurial outcomes through appropriate provision of entrepreneurial learning from which entrepreneurs can benefit most (Gibb, 2002; Lobler, 2006). Third, and linking to Objective 3 of the study, the main findings support a model of EE where policies and curricula are aligned and learning can occur alongside the development of shared understandings of social structures and outcomes (O'Connorr, 2013). This model could be tested and refined in other countries with similar characteristics of high unemployment and a predominant informal sector.\n",
"role": "user"
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"content": "Purpose: Drawing on entrepreneurship as a social process, the purpose of this paper is to proposes a model of entrepreneurial learning where contextual social and economic structures gain relevance through experiential learning. Concrete experience underpins the emotions, values and interests that support the cognitive and conative processes required to develop an entrepreneurial mind-set. Empirical study undertaken in Kenya and Tanzania explores perceptions of entrepreneurship education (EE) and identify approaches to a social perspective of entrepreneurial learning that is applicable.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The study uses a multi-phase approach consisting of desk research, semi-structured interview and a participatory workshop. Entrepreneurship programmes in 18 universities are benchmarked against accepted standards and 68 participants are purposively selected within key stakeholders for the semi-structured interviews and participatory workshop.\nFindings: The findings indicate that entrepreneurship as a value creation process is a shared assertion but the social context informs a construct of learning outcomes, and specifically what characterises an entrepreneur. Entrepreneurial learning is multi-layered and its provision necessitates an engagement with the social context in order to gain relevance for the learners. The learning content should enable learners to develop an understanding of the world alongside knowledge of entrepreneurship. Learning tools should be flexible and action-based, to achieve learning for entrepreneurship as opposed to learning about the phenomenon of entrepreneurship. Ultimately, the value creation process can only happen when learning supports the individual and collective capabilities to transform the social context. Particularly in Kenya and Tanzania, meeting job creation and growth aspirations will require the providers such as universities to work closely with businesses of all sizes, including the informal sector, and the use of innovative learning techniques such as local languages where applicable. These findings have policy and practice implications for HEIs and policy-makers in curriculum design and inclusive learning methods.\nResearch limitations/implications: The study comes short on entrepreneurial orientation and its impact on learning outcomes. Further investigation could establish if necessity entrepreneurs differ from opportunity entrepreneurs in the way they learn, so that national policy and curriculum can respond accordingly. With high levels of unemployment in countries such as Kenya and Tanzania, entrepreneurship often presents the only choice for employment or a paid job.\nPractical implications: The study findings indicate the need for educators to develop learning approaches that are informed by the contextual realities of the learners. Policy-makers should also foster the development of curriculum informed by contextual realities, so that learners can make sense of their entrepreneurial world.\nSocial implications: Through the adoption of action learning as essential for the process of creation and transformation, the study makes the case for individual motivations in exploring the realities of the local context.\nOriginality/value: The study contributes to a deeper understanding of EE from a social context, and proposes a model of entrepreneurial learning which could benefit learners and the community. The informal sector is brought to light as a significant actor in entrepreneurial learning and a considerable source of new knowledge.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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Antecedents of attitudinal loyalty in a telecom service sector: the Nigerian case
|
[
"Nigeria",
"Attitudinal loyalty",
"Customer commitment",
"Service reliability",
"Telecom service"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: One of the greatest repercussions of capitalism is competition (Wells and Graafland, 2012; Meyer and Kirby, 2012). In a competitive business setup, the number of customers that firms can target is limited (Anderson and Simester, 2013; Rai and Medha, 2013). As such, building sales from the existing customer base becomes a source of enhancing profits (Edward and Sahadev, 2011; Lin, 2010; Ndubisi, 2007; Ball et al., 2004; Hallowell, 1996; Reichheld and Sasser, 1990) and sustaining competitive advantage (Rai and Medha, 2013; Keaveney, 1995) because it is far cheaper to retain existing customers than to attract new ones (Oghojafor et al., 2012; Edward and Sahadev, 2011; Gronroos, 1990; Reichheld and Sasser, 1990).\nGlobal system for mobile communications (GSM) services in Nigeria: \"Over the last few decades, huge investment in telecommunication technology has led to the proliferation of advanced digital applications such as wireless internet, high-speed data communication and mobile communications. Further, the fast adoption of social media particularly among the younger generation has created higher demand for more versatile mobile communication platforms. As a result, highly competitive conditions have emerged with firms in the rush not only to attract new customers, but also retain existing ones\" (Tarus and Rabach, 2013, p. 474). However, compared to developed economies, GSM communications in Nigeria is relatively young, just a little more than a decade old. However, irrespective of its young status, the Nigerian mobile market has boomed in the past years, supported by a successful full liberalisation of the sector in 1999 (Mawoli, 2009) as well as a positive political and economic environment (Pyramid Research, 2010). The sector generated $9.3bn in 2012 and mobile operators are expected to continue to invest in expanding their networks to offer better quality and services to their existing and potential subscribers (Pyramid Research, 2013). Within 12 years, the active mobile subscriptions in Nigeria have grown to over 120 million, surpassing the subscription rates of Egypt and South Africa (Okwuke, 2014). This implies that the Nigerian telecom sector is at present, the largest in Africa.\nHypotheses development: The antecedents of customer loyalty have been vastly studied (see, e.g. Noyan and Simsek, 2014; Russell-Bennett et al., 2013; Rai and Medha, 2013; Namukasa, 2013; Kuikka and Laukkanen, 2012; van Vuuren et al., 2012; Richard and Zhang, 2012; Dolnicar et al., 2011; Cater and Cater, 2009; Clottey et al., 2008; Ball et al., 2004; Smith and Wright, 2004; Jones and Sasser, 1995). Within the telecommunication sector, customer loyalty has equally been extensively studied (see, e.g. Tarus and Rabach, 2013; Kaur and Soch, 2012; Chen and Cheng, 2012; Edward and Sahadev, 2011; Lai et al., 2009; Sweeney and Swait, 2008; Gustafsson et al., 2005; Kim et al., 2004; Gerpott et al., 2001). Yet, research in this area is far from conclusive. One possible explanation for this is the likelihood that disparities across markets and contexts could cause variations in the antecedents of the construct. In a study of the determinants of service loyalty across five industries, significant variations of the determinants of the construct were found to exist per industry (de Rutyer et al., 1998). Thus, the determinants of loyalty in one industry cannot be generalised across other industries or even contexts (Tarus and Rabach, 2013). Second, disregarding the epistemological depth of loyalty led previous researchers to measure the construct unidimensionally (Richard and Zhang, 2012; Rundle-Thiele, 2005). Yet, measuring attitudes towards complex objects with single items is unrealistic because most attitude-based constructs are multidimensional (Bassi, 2011). Whilst some recent studies tend to have explored the concept of loyalty from two facets (see e.g. Han and Woods, 2014; Kuikka and Laukkanen, 2012; Kaur and Soch, 2012; Cater and Cater, 2009; Chen et al., 2009), little research examined the key drivers of the separate components of loyalty.\nResearch methodology: Measures\nAnalyses and results: Validity and reliability\nDiscussion and summary: This paper explored the antecedents of attitudinal loyalty in a nearly saturated telecom services market domain with a high collectivistic cultural ranking. It was established that the explanatory powers of service reliability and customer commitment as the antecedents of attitudinal loyalty is enormous and exceeds the predictive capacity of the generic antecedents (satisfaction, service quality, trust) of attitudinal loyalty as established in previous research (see for instance Chen and Cheng, 2012; Kuikka and Laukkanen, 2012). The finding that service reliability and customer commitment explains more variance in attitudinal loyalty confirms two possibilities. First, attitudinal loyalty can set in through other antecedents different from the ones identified in previous research. Second, what constitute the antecedents of attitudinal loyalty tend to be context-specific. Since the majority of past service researches examined western cultural contexts (Trompenaars, 1994), the outputs that emerged from this research are therefore not surprising since it has been argued that cultural peculiarities have the ability of differentiating how customer-firm relationships evolve in different contexts (Dabholkar, 1995).\n",
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},
{
"content": "Purpose: Although the benefits of customer loyalty are well researched and understood, a clear explication of how customer attitudinal loyalty evolves is lacking. Cultural discrepancies across contexts are also argued as restraining the search for universal and dominant antecedents of loyalty. As a result of the high collectivistic ranking of the Nigerian culture, the purpose of this paper is to explore the antecedents of attitudinal loyalty within the Nigerian telecom market.\nDesign/methodology/approach: This study is based on survey data obtained from 138 informants who are experienced users of telecommunication services in Nigeria. The cross-sectional data were examined for internal consistency using Cronbach a internal consistency measure whereas the proposed hypotheses were tested using a multiple regression technique after conducting series of validation tests to ensure that none of the assumptions of regression was violated.\nFindings: The results indicate that service reliability and customer commitment explains 65 per cent of the total variance in attitudinal loyalty. Additionally, customer commitment was established as a stronger predictor of attitudinal loyalty than service reliability.\nResearch limitations/implications: This study is limited to the extent that it used a convenience sampling approach which may not have allowed for a fully matched profile of the respondents. But the satisfactory fit of the regression model allows for the research to be a basis of a reliable comparison for future studies. Additionally, due to the limited evidence on how attitudinal loyalty evolves in the telecommunication sector, the results that emerged from this research should only be compared cautiously to the findings of previous studies.\nPractical implications: For users of telecommunication services to become attitudinally loyal, telecom firms must get customers to become committed to their brands and also deliver reliable services. Consequently, capacity building investments that enable reliable services to be delivered and creative pricing structure and information sharing as well as promise fulfilment which attract customers' commitment are therefore at the core of developing attitudinally loyal customers' pool.\nOriginality/value: Although studies on customer loyalty are not new, the fact that this paper examined how attitudinal loyalty evolves in a saturated telecommunication context with a high collectivistic cultural ranking makes it a significant contribution to customer loyalty research because of the concentration of most studies in the western markets, the likelihood of disparities across markets influencing the antecedents of the construct and the absence of such research in the Nigerian telecom setting.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Entrepreneurial capability (EC) environment in ASEAN-05 emerging economies: An empirical approach
|
[
"Stochastic frontier analysis",
"ASEAN-05",
"Entrepreneurial capability",
"Panel study"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: Recent studies have contributed to the development of the theoretical concept of entrepreneurship capabilities (EC; Cantu-Ortiz et al., 2017; Tofighi et al., 2017). To this end, a great number of researchers have focused on potential linkages between EC at the micro environment level and economic development, generally from the perspective of individual university students (Miranda et al., 2017). Most of these cases have explored entrepreneurial intention rather than factors affecting perceived capabilities of entrepreneurship (Siegel and Wright, 2015). Within this context, EC is used to describe the extent to which entrepreneurs are using their skills and knowledge to identify, categorize and exploit entrepreneurial opportunities within the university-industry-government complex (Nazaryeva, 2015; Sebjan et al., 2016; Nystrom, 2008). Such a topic has been the main focal point of the associated literature, namely, identifying the existing relationships between EC factors and entrepreneurial growth in the university-industry-government domain (Afzal et al., 2017; Antonioli et al., 2016).\n2. Entrepreneurship capabilities working framework: While other frameworks exist to explicate the factors related to EC, such as the resource-based framework and the entrepreneurial intention framework (Giuri et al., 2014), the current study follows the entrepreneurship perceived capability-based framework. Resource- and capability-based frameworks aim to explicate two distinct attributes that shape the overall capability of an entrepreneur; the resource-based opinion emphasizes the supply of and access to resources, while the capability-based framework has the skill and agency of entrepreneurs as its focal point (Audu et al., 2013). While only very few studies have adopted the capability-based framework, many researchers have suggested that the capability-based framework is a better indicator of factors that spur innovation and global business start-ups (Bergmann et al., 2014).\n3. Selection of countries: The ASEAN was formed in 1967 by Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore and Thailand to promote intergovernmental cooperation and facilitate economic, educational, military, political and cultural integration among the member countries and Asian nations. Subsequently, the membership of the organization has been expanded by the inclusion of Brunei, Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar and Vietnam. The major aim of ASEAN is the acceleration of economic growth in the region. To this end, in 2015, the combined nominal GDP of the organization was more than US$2,432 billion[1]; indeed, after China, Japan, France, Germany and the USA, ASEAN would be the sixth largest economy in the world if it were a country.1 Holding a variety of common attributes amongst them, ASEAN-5 countries (the founder nations of ASEAN) endeavor to uplift from efficiency-based to technology-driven economies (Afzal and Lawrey, 2014). These attributes are indistinguishably acknowledged from economic and social perspectives. For instance, the ASEAN Free Trade Area (AFTA) has been in operation since 1992 in an effort to decrease intra-regional tariff charges. Moreover, with the exception of the Philippines, the governmental education expenditure of ASEAN-5 countries lies close to 20 per cent of their total expenditure (ASEAN Secretariat, 2014). Likewise, with the exception of Indonesia, the primary export of ASEAN-5 countries is that of high-tech products (Capannelli, 2014), with the large majority of such exports consisting of integrated circuits (ICs) and computer data storage units (Simoes et al., 2016) certainly indicating the strong technological advancement of ASEAN-5. Indeed, the ASEAN Economic Community (AEC) is heading toward technology-driven production advantages as it endeavors to establish an economic region with a high level of competition. To accomplish this, wider economic policies must entail a competition policy structured on an advanced innovation system that takes into account the growth of the EC environment.\n4. Theoretical background: According to the Schumpeter (1942) entrepreneurship theory, within a given period, an entrepreneur has a new opportunity to attempt an innovation using his or her skill and knowledge. If the entrepreneur succeeds, the innovation will create a more productive version of the product or process than previous versions. Specifically, the production of the intermediate good in use will go from last period's value At-1 up to At = gAt-1, where g > 1. If the entrepreneur fails, then there will be no innovation at t, and the intermediate product will be the same one that was used in t-1; thus, At = At-1. To innovate, the entrepreneur must conduct research, a costly activity that uses the final good as its only input. While the success of the undertaken research is uncertain, as it may fail to generate any innovation, generally speaking, the more the entrepreneur spends on research, the more likely it is that he or she will be able to innovate. Specifically, the probability ut that an innovation occurs in any period t depends positively on the amount Rt of the final good spent on research, according to the innovation function ut = O (R/A*), where At* = UAt-1 is the productivity of the new intermediate product that will result if the research succeeds. The reason the probability of innovation depends inversely on At** is that as technology advances, it becomes more complex and, thus, harder to improve upon. Thus, it is not the absolute amount of research expenditure Rt that ultimately decides the success of the research, but the productivity-adjusted expenditure Rt/*At*, which we denote by nt. Here, nt consists of factors that improve the productivity of innovation from the entrepreneur's perspective. In this paper, we have classified these as factors affecting the environment that enhance entrepreneurs' capabilities, productivity and efficiency.\n5. Brief literature review: Various studies have been carried out with respect to aspects of entrepreneurship capabilities. These studies encompassed a variety of approaches adapted to exam entrepreneurship from diverse perspectives. For instance, some works have examined the territorial aspects of entrepreneurship (Wright, 2005), compared entrepreneurs in different geographical contexts (Klofsten and Jones-Evans, 2000) or even assessed entrepreneurship models based on a number of associated variables (Clarysse et al., 2011).\n6. Data and variable selection: This study considers one dependent variable and several independent variables. Empirical analysis of initial-stage entrepreneurship is often based on the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor (GEM) research database. In addition to GEM-2016 data, data gathered obtained from the World Competitiveness Yearbook (WCY) 2016 research database are also used in the present study. The only dependent variable of the current study entails the perceived capabilities of the entrepreneur (PerCa[2]). To this end, Venkataraman (1997) argues that entrepreneurs should possess the necessary skills and knowledge for the development of a new venture; according to Shane (2000), entrepreneurial skill is attained via acquisition of technological embodied knowledge. The fear of failure (FefRa[3]) variable has a powerful impact (generally negative) upon entrepreneurial venture creation and may hold back entrepreneurs from exhibiting their potential (Arenius and Minniti, 2005; Politis and Gabrielsson, 2009). This study also considers the state of entrepreneurship as a good career choice (EnGC[4]), a factor that is supported by several studies as an important explanatory variable (Davidsson, 1995; Krueger, 1993; Autio et al., 2001). Another independent variable is perceived opportunity (PO[5]). This variable takes into account the economic, cultural and social conditions perceived as favorable to create a new product or service and enables a prediction of the productive chances of the firm (Druilhe and Garnsey, 2004; Penrose, 1959). As transformation of knowledge paves the path for innovation and consequently, entrepreneurial activities developed through the innovation process (Afzal, 2013; Etzkowitz et al., 2000), knowledge transfer (KT[6]) is considered another independent variable in this study. Thomas and Carl (2001) argue that property rights help protect knowledge, and consequently aid in sustaining knowledge-based practice; as such, this study also considers IPR[7] as an independent variable. The standard of education provided by its universities directly influences the entrepreneurial activities in a given country. Therefore, another independent variable, namely, University Education of Entrepreneurs (UE) [8], is introduced to include a measurement of the educational levels of entrepreneurs. This activity also aids in the promotion of a competitive economy by fostering entrepreneurship at the tertiary level, thus contributing to the development of new generations of \"young\" entrepreneurs (Lockett and Wright, 2005; Siegel et al., 2003).\n7. Empirical methodology: 7.1 Conceptual idea\n8. Results and discussion: Generally speaking, before using the maximum likelihood procedure, the OLS results in Table I need to be verified. To this end, the negative sign of the skewness (-54.3475) of the residual indicates that the correct residuals of the sample characteristic prevailed for application of the maximum likelihood method in the consistent estimation of fixed-effects stochastic frontier model. This also indicates the variability of the attained results (Rashidghalam et al., 2016). Both Tables I and II present statistical analyses of internal and external factors that affect the entrepreneurial perceived capabilities environment in ASEAN-05 economies. Here, the dependent variable PerCa is explained by a set of independent variables in both models.\n9. Conclusion and contribution: This study presented two SFA models to estimate the current state of factors that generate an impact upon the entrepreneurial perceived capabilities environment in ASEAN-05. Accurate estimations of variables that influence the efficiency of a given regional or national EC environment can help guide improvements to the entrepreneurial ecosystem by providing important feedback to policymakers regarding gaps and deficiencies hindering the growth of entrepreneurship. The attained results of the current work certainly support that entrepreneurial perceived capability variables such as perceived opportunities in the country, EnGC, fear of failure, IPR, KT and overall university education system have significant impact on the production frontier. Moreover, internal variables such as perceived opportunities in the country for the entrepreneur, and views on EnGC were shown to play a larger role in determining the quality of the EC environment in comparison to the degree of fear of failure on the part of the entrepreneur. On the other hand, external variables such as the KT between university and industry as well as the overall university educational system in the country were shown to positively impact the EC environment in ASEAN-05. Indeed, it would seem that these two factors constitute the most important variables to consider for future perfections of the production frontier. Chiefly, the methodology described in this work is appropriate for evaluations of efficiency and coefficients of determinants of EC environments.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The entrepreneurial capability (EC) environment refers to the general social and economic settings of a given local/regional entrepreneurship environment. The primary purpose of this study is to uncover key indicators of the EC milieu and test these components empirically within the context of the Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN)-5 economies to elucidate the current state of their EC environments, at the regional and national levels. To this end, the aim of this study is twofold. First, this work endeavors to explicate the determinants of EC, with aims of elucidating its association to commercial opportunities in (ASEAN)-5 economies, namely, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore and Thailand. Next, this study applies the developed theory, including the identified determinants of EC to empirically test the efficiency and imperative coefficients of variables that have an impact on perceived entrepreneurial capabilities within a given environment.\nDesign/methodology/approach: This research applies two frontier models, namely, the consistent estimation of fixed-effects and linear transformation stochastic frontier models, to assess the coefficients of significant EC variables for the panel sample. Data corresponding to the assessed variables were retrieved from the databases of the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor (GEM) - 2016 and the World Competitiveness Yearbook (WCY) - 2016, for the period, 2010-2016.\nFindings: The attained results suggest that factors corresponding to the variables \"Entrepreneurship as a good career choice\" and \"perceived opportunities\" have played a significantly positive role on the EC environment of ASEAN 05, although findings suggest both factors may still be improved upon. Conversely, the \"fear of failure rate\" factor was shown to have exerted a negative impact on the efficiency of the EC environment of ASEAN 05. Other important variables - such as intellectual property rights, university education and knowledge transfer rate - were shown to generate a positive impact on the EC environment of these economies.\nOriginality/value: This study makes an important contribution to the entrepreneurship literature and can stimulate policymakers to rethink the EC settings of ASEAN-05 in their pursuit of an innovation-driven region.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
New frontiers in the use of intellectual capital in the public sector
|
[
"Public sector",
"Research",
"Intellectual capital",
"Third stage IC research"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: This Special Issue is inspired by our recent review of the intellectual capital (IC) literature in Guthrie et al. (2012, p. 74) in which we found that the public sector is one of the least addressed areas of IC research. This is surprising considering that the public sector contributes a significant proportion of GDP in most economies (Dumay et al., 2010; Guthrie et al., 2014b), and is strongly reliant on the generation and utilisation of capabilities and knowledge in its service delivery (Cuganesan et al., 2012). Broadbent and Guthrie (2008, p. 129) state that the delineation between the private and the public sector is becoming increasingly blurred as \"these public services now are significantly managed, delivered and governed by private and third sector organisations\". Thus, there appears to be a disproportionate lack of IC research about the public sector given the significant differences between it and other economic sectors. Thus, it seems that public sector IC research in an area worth exploring.\n2. Public sector measurement and IC practice: Since late last century, the debate on public sector reform has been marked by the emergence of theories, concepts and values around the paradigm of new public management (Broadbent and Guthrie, 1992; Guthrie et al., 1999), network governance and public services (Broadbent and Guthrie, 2008) and public value (Guthrie et al., 2014b). These reforms represent responses to two long-standing questions: what are the best ways to manage public services in order to optimise the relationship between resources, services and citizens?; and how do we account for performance and such relationships appropriately? However, how public sector performance is conceptualised and practised is a key question. Therefore, the contemporary debate has shifted on how the public sector can meet community expectations in regard to issues of fiscal crisis, austerity, sustainability and providing public services (Guthrie et al., 2014b).\n3. Papers included in this JIC Special Issue: This section will briefly introduce each of the papers in this JIC Special Issue.\n4. Summary and conclusion: In summary, of the eight empirical articles appearing in this JIC Special Issue, one is a literature review (Dumay et al., 2015), one develops findings from a survey (Massingham and Tam, 2015) and the remaining six articles develop their findings through case study research (Borin and Donato, 2015; Chiucchi and Dumay, 2015; Roos and O'Connor, 2015; Secundo et al., 2015; Vagnoni and Oppi, 2015; Veltri and Silvestri, 2015). All articles take some form of inspiration or grounding from what Guthrie et al. (2012, p. 69) identify as the third stage of IC research \"based on a critical and performative analysis of IC practices in action\". Similarly, as Dumay et al. (2015) found, of nearly all the public sector IC articles they analysed, the major difference between public sector and mainstream IC research is a complete lack of normative research. The articles in this JIC special issue continue that tradition.\n",
"role": "user"
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{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to present an overview of the articles presented in this special issue. The Special Issue is inspired by our recent review of the intellectual capital (IC) literature in Guthrie et al. (2012, p. 74), in which the authors found that the public sector is one of the least addressed areas of IC research.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The paper is based on a literature and published document review, experiential reflections and argument.\nFindings: The paper reveals that interest in public sector and IC is alive and well and the major difference between public sector and mainstream IC research is a complete lack of normative research. The papers in this Journal of Intellectual Capital (JIC) Special Issue continue that tradition.\nResearch limitations/implications: The authors call on public sector IC researchers to continue the third stage and fourth stage IC research tradition encouraging them to explore emerging issues alongside the changes in the social, political and economic realities impacting public sector IC in the future. Doing so will ensure that public sector IC research is timely, relevant, impactful and contributes to future practice, research, policy and above all, benefits the citizens who need and consume public services.\nOriginality/value: The paper presents a precise of current public sector research and encourages public sector researchers to continue developing research into how IC works.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
Evaluation for the conservation of historic buildings: Differences between the laymen, professionals and policy makers
|
[
"Evaluation",
"Historic buildings",
"Laymen",
"Professionals",
"Policy makers",
"Strategic evaluation",
"China",
"Building conservation"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Research shows that the public's and professional's perceptions of place qualities are highly variable (Pugalis, 2009) and differences exist between lay people's and experts' evaluation of historic sites (Coeterier, 2002). Whether a qualitative or quantitative approach is used, several fundamental issues concerning the evaluation of the significance of heritage places are often raised. Whose heritage is it? Who decides what is significant? What is the best process? Should the process be transparent? How to derive consensus? These issues are an important area for research.On the one hand, evaluation of historic buildings is often regarded as the experts' realm (Pendlebury and Townshend, 1999) and the general public's attitude and their contributions to determine what is worth conserving are often not concerned (Coeterier, 2002). On the other hand, there is a growing trend where citizens play a much larger part in deciding what to conserve. There are ongoing debates on whether designation by experts is always a good indication of the value of an historical building and site (Tweed and Sutherland, 2007; Dupagne et al., 2004; Yung and Chan, 2011), particularly in conserving familiar and cherished local scenes (Delafons, 1997; Lamei, 2005). However, how to strike a balance between the general public, which includes both laymen and professionals, and policy makers is always a topic of controversy.Conservation decisions have traditionally been dominated by experts and elites in Hong Kong (Cheung, 2011). There has been no official mechanism by which the public launches a request for designating a historic building a monument. The public is neither consulted before or after designation of monuments. In general, the extent of citizen participation in planning has been poorly rated (Ng, 2005) and is one of the flaws in urban planning (Fong, 2001). Due to the problem of land scarcity, intense development pressure and emphasis on economic growth, the conservation of historic buildings has been extremely difficult. Many of the buildings with significant heritage value have been demolished. With the growing efforts to understand, appreciate and assert a local identity in Hong Kong since 1997, heritage conservation has becoming increasingly an important source of identity (Henderson, 2001). The unprecedented protests that were voiced over the controversy of the Queen's Pier, in 2007, have not only showcased the differences between government policy makers and different groups of the public regarding evaluation standards of heritage conservation, it has also highlighted the importance of public preference and the wider socio-economic issues pertaining to heritage conservation (Henderson, 2008; Lu, 2009).This paper addresses a very important question: How do ordinary citizens evaluate the value of historical buildings for conservation when, more often than not, heritage preservation is controlled and implemented by policy makers and the public is excluded from this process. This paper underscores the importance of understanding the public's perception of what constitutes built heritage as a prerequisite for a better heritage conservation policy and sustainable urban conservation. It also calls for a rethinking of the discrepancies between the public and government officials, which is worthy of further study. As such, this study does not intend to develop an exhaustive list of criteria for the evaluation of historic buildings, nor obtain a large sample of the public and different stakeholder groups through the surveys. The case study provides an overview of the social, economical, environmental and political contexts of heritage conservation and questions whether it is only the difference in how heritage conservation is evaluated that leads to the tremendous oppositions in the conservation campaign.\nAims and objectives: This study aims to address the issues of difference in the evaluation criteria regarding conservation of historic buildings between the laymen, professionals and policy makers in a dense city. The objectives of this paper are to:* reveal the major differences between laymen's and professionals' preferences regarding conservation of historic buildings;* illustrate that laymen's evaluations are a reliable source of reference for decision-makers;* evaluate whether the importance of incorporating the public's preference regarding the conservation of historic buildings; and* address the major driving forces that may have cumulatively led to the unprecedented campaign for the conservation of the Queen's Pier.\nLiterature review: Importance of public's preference in heritage conservation\nResearch methods: This study adopts both quantitative and qualitative research methods. The questionnaire survey examines quantitatively the values used to evaluate the historic environment of laymen and professionals working in the built environment using a sample of historic buildings. It aims to determine whether there are any significant differences between the two groups and the policy makers' decision. The study adopts a multi-criteria evaluation survey as a possible method for obtaining the preference. Qualitatively, the paper also describes the controversial Queen's Pier campaign which provides a platform for discussion and elaboration of the policy makers' decisions. The background information of the case was obtained from local archives, newspapers, books and journals. Interviews with some conservation activists in the conservation campaign were also conducted.Identification of evaluation criteria\nData collection and analysis: The questionnaires were conducted through two means. A total of 50 questionnaires were conducted using face-to-face interviews in the streets with a stratified random sample of citizens living in Hong Kong during May, 2006. These surveys were conducted in two metropolitan districts, Mongkok and Causeway Bay. In this study, we stratified our sample as people living in Hong Kong for more than seven years and who are native Cantonese speakers. This is because this study does not focus on the multicultural issue which poses the complex phenomenon of \"whose heritage.\" Respondents would be ineligible to participate if they did not know the existence of any one of the buildings in the questionnaire. The other 50 questionnaires were conducted using face-to-face interviews with professionals who are currently working in the field of architecture, town planning and heritage conservation in Hong Kong. Invitation letters for interviews were posted and emailed to randomly-selected architectural and planning firms in Hong Kong. The sample size of 100 was not intended to draw conclusive findings which represent the public in Hong Kong. Instead, it represents statistically significant and proven results for a group of the public. Table III is a summary of the socio-demographics of all the respondents.Data analysis procedures\nFindings and discussion: Relative importance of the criteria\nCase study - the Queen's Pier: Background and the conservation campaign\nPolicy implications and recommendations regarding the conservation of historic buildings: The survey confirms the issue of difference between policy makers' decisions, the preferences of laymen and professionals in the architectural, planning and conservation disciplines concerning the conservation of historic buildings. It also shows that laymen are reasonably capable of understanding and evaluating the built heritage. The results show that the laymen indicate slightly different relative importance in the evaluation criteria and preference regarding what is worth conserving. The case study provides an example of the multi-faceted issues of heritage conservation in a dense urban city, one of them being how different stakeholders perceive the value of conserving historical buildings and how this apparently differs from that of policy makers. The case clearly confirms previous research that the designation of historic buildings, emerging from perceptions and interactions between people and the built environment rather than through organised lobbying, can better reflect the public's view than a designation determined by experts' evaluations (Rautenberg, 1998; Dupagne et al., 2004; Tweed and Sutherland, 2007).A number of possible recommendations are proposed in the following section. First, it is suggested that decision makers should incorporate more public perception and preference in the decision-making process in identifying, listing and designating historic buildings. In particular, the government should update the legislation and administrative framework in urban planning related departments to incorporate public evaluation into the conservation decision making process (Chan and Yung, 2004). Second, the public should be educated about heritage conservation and the government should share with its citizens the complex task of balancing the overall needs of society. Third, further exploration and incorporation of social factors that go into the evaluation of historic buildings and policy making through social research methods rather than primarily relying on architectural and historical research is recommended. In addition, the criteria for the evaluation of historic buildings should be specific to the context of the city, which may vary according to the types of the buildings and the changing sets of social, economic and political factors.Fourth, the case also addresses the importance of understanding and balancing the different interests of various stakeholder groups. In order to tackle these problems, the government should identify all the stakeholders involved in the conservation of a specific built heritage and understand their identities, roles and interests. In doing so, they will better understand the public's preference regarding conservation of historic buildings and develop systematic ways to analyse, resolve and balance the different interests of various stakeholders. In particular, the government should strike a careful balance between conservation and economic development, which has been one of the major obstacles in achieving the goal of sustainable built heritage conservation.\nConclusion: The study was not designed to present the wide range of stakeholders in heritage conservation, gather extensive data on different stakeholders' preferences regarding the conservation of historic buildings or to identify a robust list of criteria for the evaluation of historic buildings. Nor was it intended to derive any conclusive findings representing the preference of the general public as a whole. The case of Queens' Pier is contentious whether the conflicts that arose from the conservation campaign were primarily the result of the differences between the public's and the government's policy maker's preferences in heritage preservation, or whether it was the public's anger towards government top-down bureaucracy in overall decision-making or the opposition against economic development. The difference between the public's and the government's concerns and perceptions reinforces the importance of involving public preference in heritage conservation. Thus, the case vividly highlights the urgency for a proper and comprehensive public participation mechanism in formulating a robust heritage conservation policy. This study also initiates a broad examination of the laymen's and professionals' evaluation of historic buildings with survey data collected in Hong Kong and comparing it with the policy makers' actual decisions. The criteria for the evaluation of the significance of historic buildings could also change over time when the social, economical and political status of the society has changed. The validity of the method can be tested through further application in different characteristics of historic buildings. In addition, the numbers of sample historic buildings and the numbers of respondents from different stakeholders groups can be expanded in future studies. Hitherto, there is no unanimously accepted protocol being recommended for incorporating public opinions into the decision making process in relation to conservation issues. More in-depth case studies should be incorporated with the surveys to understand people's evaluation of historical buildings.The results of the surveys enhance the understanding of the laymen's and professional's evaluation of the important criteria associated with historic buildings in cities which face strong development pressures. It is of utmost importance that conservation practice should value the public's preferences which reflect the everyday experiences and interactions between people and the built environment, rather than solely relying on experts' opinions. The effective public participation mechanism becomes the complementary issue to address.This study provides insights for policy makers in formulating a more holistic approach to designating and listing historic buildings and to achieving a sustainable urban conservation framework. The recommendations suggested would also be applicable to other countries that face rapid urbanisation and development pressures, particularly in those compact dense cities where land supply is limited.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: - This study aims to examine whether there are significant differences between laymen's, professionals' and policy makers' evaluations of the conservation of historic buildings.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - The research began with interview surveys using a sample of laymen and professionals in the built environment and it examined their evaluation standards of a sample of 25 historic buildings in Hong Kong. The research also used the controversial Queen's Pier case to examine the extent to which different preferences of conservation between laymen and professionals and policy makers has led to its conservation campaign.\nFindings: - The results indicate that laymen and professional groups evaluate historic buildings based on slightly different criteria. The research also reveals that their preference for what is worth conserving is different from policy makers. The debate over the conservation of the Queen's Pier illustrates a wide range of issues other than differences of preference that may have stimulated the campaign.\nResearch limitations/implications: - The sample size of the respondents and the sample buildings are limited due to manpower resource and funding. Further study can expand the sampling size.\nOriginality/value: - The study is original research which illustrates the differences between laymen's, professionals' and policy makers' evaluation criteria and assessment of historic buildings. It recommends a greater understanding of all stakeholders' interests in heritage conservation and the incorporation of the public's view into legislative and administrative procedures in designating and listing historic buildings.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
The winery experience from the perspective of Generation Z
|
[
"Greece",
"Winery",
"Factor analysis",
"Importance-performance analysis",
"Generation Z",
"Wine tourism",
"Winescape"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: A significant rise in the number of tourists interested in wine has led many communities to develop wine tourism. In fact, wine tourism has emerged as a strong and growing segment of the tourism industry (O'Neill et al., 2002), with many destinations developing wine trails and wineries as major attractions (Santeramo et al., 2017; Xu et al., 2016). This trend might not be surprising, in light of the significant advantages for wine businesses from such visits:\nLiterature review: Wine tourism is gaining in importance both as an industry and as an area of research. The wine industry, which initially focused on wine production, has now extended its scope to the experiential and tourism aspects of wine consumption (Williams, 2001). Bruwer and Lesschaeve (2012) provided insight into the relationship between wine and tourism. They explained that wine is recognised as a lifestyle beverage and wine consumption itself can be considered as a sensual and pleasurable activity that may take place in a myriad of potential social experiences, including tourism. They go on to argue that \"the activity of wine tourism is an extension of the rather complex relationship between wine region as a tourist destination, wineries, and the visitor-consumer\" (p. 611). The engagement of people in wine tourism would therefore seem to represent a search for a better acquaintance with the product, and also for the elements of the wider tourism experience of a region. Wine tourism is thus related to both wine and tourism demand, representing a niche tourism product (Croce and Perry, 2017; Wu et al., 2016), When viewed from this perspective, wine tourism refers to:\nResearch methodology: The results for this research were gathered over a five-month period (February-June 2016) through the distribution of a questionnaire survey to a winery in the Achaia region of the Peloponnese, Western Greece. This winery was selected as the location for distribution because it regularly hosts field trips for student groups. Its manager also expressed interest in participating in this research and learning more about its methodology after hearing about its managerial implications. This provided the researcher with the opportunity to target 18-21-year-olds en masse - i.e. those Gen Z-ers over the legal age to buy and consume alcohol publicly in Greece. This convenience sampling process resulted in 306 valid responses. It should be noted that the winery visit for all students was part of wider field trips - i.e. wine was not the exclusive reason for their trip. However, for the purposes of this research, participants are referred to as wine tourists.\nResearch results: Respondent characteristics\nConclusions, implications, limitations and future research: To the authors' best knowledge, this is the first academic research to have focused specifically on the winery experience from the perspective of Gen Z. As such, and in line with its aims, the study contributes to existing literature by offering empirical insights concerning the desirable experience of this under-researched generational cohort and practical implications for winery managers.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to investigate the wine tourism experience from the perspective of Generation Z adults in Greece, following an actual winery visit.\nDesign/methodology/approach: Responses were obtained from a total of 306 respondents drawn from student groups visiting a winery in the Achaia region of the Peloponnese, Western Greece, using convenience sampling. A list of winescape attributes was adopted for testing and used to structure self-administered questionnaires. The data collected were analysed using a factor-analytic and importance-performance analysis framework.\nFindings: Five factors that promote understanding of the desired wine tourism experience of Generation Z adults were identified, namely, cost considerations and wine and entertainment both perceived to be important but the winery's performance on the same was poor, destination attributes and service staff both perceived to be important with good performance and learning about wine perceived to be unimportant with low performance.\nOriginality/value: This is the first academic study focusing specifically on the winery experience from the perspective of Generation Z. As such, it has provided new and useful insights for researchers and managers in the wine industry concerning the experience of this under-researched generational cohort.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
A mobile-based emergency response system for intelligent m-government services
|
[
"Emergency response systems",
"M‐government",
"Mobile‐based systems",
"Case‐based reasoning",
"Philosophy",
"Information retrieval",
"Mobile technology"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n__NO_TITLE__: M-government is the next inevitable direction of evolution of e-government. A mobile based emergency response system (MERS), as one of the important new services of m-government, is designed to provide help information to the government and citizens in an emergency situation through mobile communication. This paper presents an intelligent MERS framework, a text information extraction and aggregation algorithm to integrate information from multiple sources in the MERS system, and an ontology-supported case-based reasoning system for the MERS system. The result of this study will offer a new opportunity to the interaction between government, citizens, responders, and other non-government agencies in emergency situations, and therefore improve the services of the government in an emergence situation.\n1. Background and research results: This section will give the background of related research area of the study including research focus, m-government concept, m-government services, and CBR techniques1.1 M-government and m-services\n2. A mobile-based emergency response systems frameworks: This section presents the conceptual and technical framework frameworks of a MERS system (Amailef and Lu (2008)) under a m-government platform. The structure of the system developed includes three main parts: m-government dimensions, MERS project and end-users.2.1 A mobile-based emergency response system conceptual framework within m-government\n3. Text information extraction and aggregation algorithm: In order to describe the proposed algorithm, we will first give some related concepts. We will then present an algorithm to automatically extract information in an emergency situation from SMS text messages. The algorithm is based on ontology concept for unstructured information, and uses a maximum entropy statistical model with various predefined features and fuzzy rules.3.1 Named entity recognition\n4. An ontology-supported CBR system for the MERS system: In order to support and utilize decision support systems in an emergency situation, a system of combination of case-based reasoning (CBR) and ontology approach for the MERS is proposed in this study. This section provides the concept of the CBR-Ontology approach for a decision support system in the MERS.4.1 System architecture\nConclusion: This paper presents a mobile based MERS framework and its main components. The proposed MERS framework can offer a new opportunity to interact between government, citizens, responders, and other nongovernment agencies in disaster situations. This paper also introduced the components of information extraction and aggregation process. The proposed algorithm can extract many kinds of semantic elements of the emergency situation information such as disaster location, disaster event, status of disaster, etc. The algorithm used a maximum entropy statistical model for name-entity recognition and calculated message similarity based on fuzzy rules, which can improve the quality of the aggregation results. This paper particularly proposes a CBR-Ontology approach for a decision support system that has capability to improve the efficiency of decision makers in an emergency situation. To achieve this we use CBR approach combined with ontology. Ontology can provide a formal semantic representation of the objects for case representation. The proposed MERS has two main advantages:1. has ability to use ontology-based similarity measures in order to avoid synonym problems; and2. combines the CBR and ontology to integrate the whole knowledge of emergency situation cases.Further study will include implementing and validating the proposed algorithm and approach through software prototype development and case study.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: - The purpose of this paper is to present an intelligent mobile based emergency response system (MERS) framework, a text information extraction and aggregation algorithm to integrate information from multiple sources in the MERS system, and an ontology-supported case-based reasoning system for the MERS system.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - The paper explains the components of information extraction and aggregation process, and a CBR-Ontology approach for the MERS system.\nFindings: - The result of this study will offer a new opportunity to the interaction between government, citizens, responders, and other non-government agencies in emergency situations, and therefore improve the services of the government in an emergency situation.\nOriginality/value: - The paper indicates the need for usage of mobile technologies to assist the government to get information and make decisions in responding to disasters anytime and anywhere.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
The relationship between personal values, organizational formalization and employee work outcomes of compliance and innovation
|
[
"Creativity",
"Innovation",
"Compliance",
"Formalization",
"Conformity"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Managing employees' behaviors as indicated by their work outcomes has been one of the major issues in organizational behavior and human resource management (Prieto and Perez-Santana, 2014). This matter is not that simple given different employees are assigned to work in different jobs which are expected to produce different outcomes. In order to ensure that the job could well be done, managers need to understand the fit between the expected outcomes of employees and their personal values. Employee behaviors are guided and activated by personal values (Illies and Reiter-Palmon, 2008). Personal values are stable, individual characteristics that determine an individual's decision-making, problem-solving and behaviors (Suar and Khuntia, 2010). Drawing on Schwartz et al. (2012, p. 664) definition of values as \"trans-situational goals, varying in importance, that serve as guiding principles in the life of a person or group.\" He argued that values \"are organized into a coherent system that underlies and can help to explain individual decision making, attitudes, and behavior.\" As values differ across employees, understanding the link between values and behaviors is important for organizations seeking to pursue specific agendas. One such area of interest to the present study is organizations that are pursuing an innovative agenda require employees who have creative (or self-direction) values (Scott and Bruce, 1994).\nLiterature review: A large body of research has examined personal characteristics associated with creativity and innovative behavior (e.g. Breuer and Ludeke-Freund, 2015; Hutter et al., 2015; Oldham and Cummings, 1996; Sarac et al., 2014; Sousa and Coelho, 2011). Further, it has been demonstrated that intrinsic motivation is one of the strongest drivers of creativity and innovative behavior (Amabile et al., 1996; Devloo et al., 2015). This is because intrinsic motivation, which can be drawn from the individual's personal values, increases individual's propensity to take risks, be curious and be flexible in their approach to tasks (Devloo et al., 2015). Despite this evidence, very little research has examined the relationship between personal values and innovative behavior. This is surprising, as personal values are widely believed to be a key construct for understanding and predicting human behavior (Schwartz, 2007). Moreover, Roccas and Sagiv (2010, p. 30) argue that one of the core reasons to study personal values is their salient effects on individual behavior.\nThe influence of organizational formalization: Although some people may have a greater predisposition or motivation to be more creative than others, we argue that organizational characteristics may facilitate or inhibit their innovative behavior. Drawing upon work by George and Zhou (2001), Wang et al. (2014) and Woodman et al. (1993), an interactionist perspective views innovative behavior as the result of an interaction between environmental or situational influences (e.g. organizational characteristics) and individuals' characteristics (e.g. personal values). The interactionist perspective argues that the interaction between the employee and the environment is core to understanding workplace behaviors (Lee et al., 2014; Hon and Rensvold, 2006).\nMethod: Sample and procedure\nResults: Scale validity and reliability\nDiscussion: The purpose of this study was to examine the notion that personal values can be used as predictors of employee work behaviors. We also examined the affect the organizational context has on the relationship between personal values and behavior. In doing so, we extend the literature on personal values and how they influence work outcomes (Sousa and Coelho, 2011), provided empirical evidence for the cognitive evaluation theory (Zhou and Shalley, 2003), and expand the interactionist perspective by addressing formalization as a moderator of innovative behavior (George and Zhou, 2001; Woodman et al., 1993).\nConclusion: This research has extended previous studies on personal values and work behaviors by looking at the contextual factors that influence this relationship. The current research revealed that employees who value self-direction display greater levels of innovative behavior. Conversely, employees who value conformity display compliance behaviors. By understanding how personal values link to work behaviors, managers are able to create work procedures that are congruent with work behaviors the organization wishes to promote. Finally, formalized procedures weaken the link between self-direction values and innovative behavior. Therefore, it is imperative for innovative organizations to have low levels of formalization and to build a workforce that value self-direction.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to examine the interaction between personal values and the organizational context in influencing work behaviors. Specifically, it examines the relationships between two dimensions of personal values based on Schwartz's value theory - self-direction and conformity; and two work behaviors - innovation and compliance.\nDesign/methodology/approach: Survey data were collected from 187 employees in Australia. Multiple regression method was used to test the hypotheses.\nFindings: The results showed that organizational formalization moderated the relationship between self-direction values and innovative behaviors. As hypothesized, the positive effect of self-direction values on innovative behavior was strongest in less formalized organizations. the authors also found that conformity values predicted compliance behaviors, but no evidence of moderation by organizational formalization.\nPractical implications: It is important for organizations seeking particular work behaviors to ensure they are hiring employees with corresponding values and structuring the degree of formalization in the organization accordingly.\nOriginality/value: This research contributes to the interactionist perspective, demonstrating that formalization interacts with employee values to influence work behaviors. Further, the authors extend previous studies on self-direction values and creative behaviors by understanding how personal values impact innovative behavior.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Value relationships and effectiveness - pilot study in health
|
[
"National Health Service",
"Medical personnel",
"Temporary workers",
"Quality management",
"Customer service management",
"Wales"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: The aim of the paper is to explore the issues around: identifying stakeholder values (Freeman, 1984; Friedman and Miles, 2002), the effectiveness of the system, a view of the whole (Checkland and Scholes, 1999; Kast and Rosenzweig, 1985; Jackson, 2003; Weisbord, 1987) and \"sense making\" in relation to customers (Weick, 1995).To clarify the issues around stakeholder values within the system and to promote a different approach to that offered in the present NHS Trust environment we have drawn on the work of Moore (1995), Kelly et al. (2002), Burnes (1992) and Bozeman (2002).National Health Service\nThe research approach: Objective\nResults: Values\nConclusions: The system approach is holistic, multi-dimensional, towards improvement and focuses on macro management but is responsive to stakeholder groups and their desire to deliver a quality service. The research goes through a cycle of macro level analysis and then micro level detail. This link then enables the team to rationalise the transition when returning to a new agreed macro level.The research indicates a requirement for the reassessment of the pattern of demand. This could make the process easier to measure and control (identify abnormalities). To achieve this, a simplified process is generated that addresses issues such as standards and errors reduction. Whilst many points were already known, it was clear that the degree to which policies had somehow got \"stuck\" at the point of implementation was not. This research represented, inadvertently, a mechanism for feedback on policy effectiveness, further reinforcing the words of Sergeant (2003).To begin to validate whether the observations are idiosyncratic to the case under study or whether they were typical to the NHS we are currently undertaking a comparative study within another Trust to determine if there are any joint approaches which could provide a win/win for the patient, Trusts and staff, in addition to the WAG goal of reducing expenditure from the public purse.The research implications for the NHS are that expenditure on temporary staffing, in particular Agency nurses, could be reduced while increasing effectiveness of the service. It is our hypothesis that if demand for agency nurses decreases then cost will decrease, and if demand for agency nurses reduces then demand for bank nurses will increase. Finally, if more bank nurses are used to fill temporary vacancies then quality in service will increase.Research results indicate there is a gap between the management effort, policy and the deployment of resources within this system. Innovation is needed to reverse the current trend of increasing temporary staffing expenditure. This research helps to inform decision making around delivering what is considered \"value of the service\" (Wallace et al., 1999) and through collective stakeholder involvement, transparency of the system, and evaluation of interdependencies the participants develop \"legitimacy and confidence\" in analysing the system and making decisions for change. In the process allowing managers a broader view of a complex system and insight of how an aligned process that reflects the interests of the stakeholders (Moore, 1995) can deliver a more effective service improving quality in service, delivery and reduction in Trust expenditure. This is in line with Kelly et al. (2002) key values of service, outcomes and trust/legitimacy. The research highlights the need for accountability arrangements (Kelly et al., 2002) while taking into consideration the inappropriate narrow measure of basing decision making purely on cost and short-term performance. Perhaps this research will act as a lever for change in health services.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: - The research aim is to identify and evaluate \"value\" and \"effectiveness\" in the system of temporary staffing in one NHS Trust. Temporary staffing, known as Bank and Agency (B & A) staffing, is an increasing proportion of NHS expenditure (Bank staff are already contracted with the Trust and work extra shifts, while Agency staff are independently employed through the agency, costing more per shift). The system is reviewed in terms of quality, delivery and cost in relation to customers. The study assesses if unnecessary complexity, and poor standards significantly impact on effective performance.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - A diagnostic action research field based approach is taken with qualitative and quantitative analysis of the current system. This includes, cross-functional mapping, stakeholder value analysis and historical data collection. The theoretical perspective includes system theory, stakeholder theory and value.\nFindings: - Research results indicate that the requirement for temporary staffing is predictable (previously thought to be unpredictable). Consequently, agency staffing can more readily be replaced with bank nurses. This could improve the outcomes of quality in service, delivery and reduce Trust expenditure.\nResearch limitations/implications: - Research results could be idiosyncratic and contextual therefore a comparative study is underway to determine validity. Indications are NHS expenditure on temporary staffing, particularly agency nurses, could be reduced while increasing effectiveness of the service.\nOriginality/value: - This research analyses working practice and value relationships within the temporary staffing system. A potential future state system is developed, that indicates improved value, quality, delivery, a win for patients, wards and Welsh NHS secondary care Trust, having wider NHS applications.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
"I don't want trouble": Freedom of expression and use of backchannels in the wake of Typhoon Haiyan
|
[
"Disasters",
"Participatory communication",
"Backchannels",
"Freedom of expression",
"ICT for disasters"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Within the last 20 years, developments in communication technology have enabled people to participate more actively in disaster response, whether as distant observers or as survivors and victims. Focusing on disaster-affected people, technology has afforded them speed, scale, reach and visibility (Cottle, 2014) enabling them to share information among themselves, their peers, first responders, a global audience, and the media. The participatory potential of communication technology has led to the assertion that technology has enabled affected communities to be \"engaged participants and not merely as witnesses or recipients of aid\" (World Disasters Report (WDR), 2013, p. 9). Such assertion is particularly salient when looking at the Philippines, one of the world's most disaster-prone countries (Kreft et al., 2014) and a leader in social media use (GSMA Intelligence, 2014, p. 1). In recent years, Filipinos' advanced mobile and social media use has taken centre stage in the way they have used these platforms to respond to disasters. During Typhoon Ketsana (local name: Ondoy) in 2009, people took to Twitter and Facebook to post information about flooded relatives and friends and raise funds for affected communities (Morales, 2010). During Typhoon Bopha (local name: Pablo), the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (UNOCHA) was able to create for the first time a crisis map entirely based on Twitter photos and videos sent by digital volunteers (Meier, 2012). During Haiyan, Filipinos once again took to social media to ask or share information about family and friends, offer prayers and support and give updates on disaster response (Andrei et al., 2016; David et al., 2016).\nMethodology: On November 8, 2013, Typhoon Haiyan (local name: Yolanda) made landfall in the Philippines. It affected some 16 million people and left at least 7,000 dead, with an estimated loss to the economy placed at USD10 billion (Kreft et al., 2014). This paper is based on ethnographic fieldwork conducted in Tacloban City, Leyte and Sabay Island in the Visayas between April 2014 and January 2015 in the aftermath of Haiyan. Ethnography is a suitable approach for exploring the experiences of vulnerable populations such as disaster-affected people (Adams, 2013) in order to gain insights in what they find meaningful and important (Emerson et al., 2011), something often overlooked in disaster literature. Using snowball sampling, participant-observation and interviews were conducted with 101 participants from diverse socio-economic backgrounds. In all, 63 (62 per cent) informants were from low or very low income households, while 38 (38 per cent) come from the middle class. As to gender, 54 (53 per cent) were women, while 46 (46 per cent) were men. Part of the data also included 38 in-depth interviews with humanitarian managers and local aid staff, government executives, politicians, activists, NGO workers, representatives from telecommunications companies, as well as online ethnographic data.\nDisasters and freedom of expression: There is very limited research looking at disaster affected people and their right to freedom of expression. While their right to information is recognised, information being seen as a form of aid (Communicating with Disaster Affected Communities Network (CDAC), 2014; Hartmann et al., 2014), freedom of expression is rarely, if ever, taken into account in humanitarian efforts at all. Although it is both \"a right and a developmental objective and condition\", freedom of expression is generally taken for granted in disaster contexts because the focus is on urgent structural, material and psychosocial needs of affected communities (Article 19, 2005, p. 7). This is a serious oversight particularly in newer democracies where fundamental freedoms are often weakly protected and are constantly under threat. It was Jean Dreze and Amartya Sen (1989) who were the first to suggest the critical role of freedom of expression in the prevention of famines in Asia and Africa. The authors observed that criticism and dissent from political opposition, the public and the media served as an effective early warning system that encouraged the concerned governments in Africa and India to prevent the famines (Dreze and Sen, 1989, p. 189, 212-214). Indeed, disasters are inherently political as they accentuate and intensify inequalities in society (Cuny, 1983). Focusing on the Philippines, this paper seeks to broaden the discussion around this area by analysing how populations affected by Typhoon Haiyan preferred backchannels to express their views about the recovery rather than through formal government and humanitarian mechanisms. More importantly, it unpacks the reasons why most affected communities opted not to engage with formal feedback channels within the context of Philippine history and its contemporary sociopolitical environment.\nBackchannels and participatory communication: The study explored, among other themes, if affected residents used any of the feedback platforms offered by government and aid agencies to share their views about the recovery. Interviews would reveal that the majority chose not to use these mechanisms and preferred to keep their views to themselves. For those who voiced their concerns, they resorted to backchannels rather than the formal platforms that were made available to them at that time. \"Backchannel\" as broadly used in public policy, politics and media refers to unofficial, or informal means of communication, such as the use of intermediaries, online community message boards or social media. This is as opposed to \"frontchannel,\" official or formal communication avenues (McCarthy and Boyd, 2005; Palen, 2008; Sutton et al., 2008), such as dedicated hotlines run by government agencies or NGOs. In disaster contexts, backchannel communication is often used in information gathering, monitoring and coordinating during disasters and emergencies (Palen, 2008; Sutton et al., 2008). Having said that, backchannel communication is a useful analytical concept in understanding how power shapes the communication environment and its consequences for community participation in disaster risk reduction. It captures both the sociopolitical and socio-technical dimension of participation. On the one hand, it is attentive to communication processes and platforms through which people affected by disaster engage with government, humanitarian actors, local leaders and community members. On the other hand, it historicizes and contextualises digital and non-digital communication processes and platforms that facilitate or hinder participatory, inclusive and open communication. It is often the marginalised and vulnerable who are negatively impacted by disasters (Bankoff, 2007, p. 328) and are the main beneficiaries of government and NGO recovery programmes. Their precarious position as victims and aid beneficiaries under these circumstances, however, restricts the exercise of their right to free expression and to participate meaningfully in decision-making processes during the recovery period. It is within this context that backchannel communication, as the succeeding sections will elaborate, highlights the importance of public criticism in disaster recovery.\nFreedom of expression and disasters: Philippine context: The Philippines' poor record in disaster management has been linked to colonial policies, patronage politics, corruption, incompetence, and weak governance (Bankoff, 2002; Bawagan, 2015; Opulencia-Calub et al., 2017). Cultural traits have also been cited as a factor, among them Filipinos' sense of risk-taking and courage conveyed by the expression bahala na (come what may) which both serve to hinder them from minimising their risks and to give them confidence that things will be alright (Bautista, 2000 in Bankoff, 2002, p. 167). Their culture of gratefulness has also been identified as a value that has prevented a more critical engagement by the public in disaster recovery efforts (Ong et al., 2015).\nDigital media use after Haiyan: At the time the fieldwork began in April 2014, UNOCHA had set up Communicating with Communities (CwC) and Accountability to Affected Populations (AAP) technical working groups. Through the CwC/AAP, aid agencies put in place an extensive feedback campaign to enable affected communities to give their views about the various projects they were implementing at that time. The formal and highly visible feedback efforts consisted mainly of SMS/text hotlines and Frontline SMS, an open-source software used to collect and disseminate information via SMS. Different aid agencies had posters and tarpaulins (canvass banners) asking people to \"text\" their feedback plastered on barangay (village) bulletin boards, corner stores, and even trees, in Tacloban and Sabay. They also provided non-digital feedback platforms, among them were suggestion boxes, community consultations, and face-to-face meetings. The author and her colleagues have analysed humanitarian accountability and the work of CwC/AAP in relation to Haiyan in a separate article (Madianou et al., 2016) and will not be dealt here. In contrast to the humanitarian sector which set up an elaborate campaign to reach out to affected communities, the national government's efforts were chiefly in the form of internet-based websites specifically designed for information dissemination, reporting and monitoring (Opulencia-Calub et al., 2017, p. 18). Similarly, devolved national agencies such as the social welfare department, also did not actively seek people's views about their various recovery programmes. Local governments, meanwhile, engaged with the public mainly through public consultations. On the ground, aid agencies and government worked in close partnership so that feedback sent to aid agencies also covered issues relating to government projects and policies about the recovery (see CDAC, 2014, p. 13; Madianou et al., 2015).\nThe problem with expressing critical views in the Philippines: Cardina (2013) perceptively points out that silence is complex and is not necessarily the result of \"external coercion that erases subjects and communities\" (p. 257). Silence may also be an individual or societal choice as a consequence of trauma, conflict or existing conditions which repress particular narratives (Passerini, 2003). The accounts of informants in Tacloban and Sabay reveal that their widespread disengagement stemmed from fears of offending government authorities by giving critical feedback. Indeed, criticism of politicians is particularly dangerous in the Philippines; human rights activists and journalists have been killed with impunity in the past several years (Orante, 2016; Human Rights Watch, 2017). Closely related to this is they feared the possible consequences of making critical statements about the recovery to local officials. Many spoke about their concern of being reprimanded (pagalitan) by village officials and Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) staff and most crucially, of losing their aid entitlement if they complained. The DSWD is the lead government agency for disaster response.\nBackchannel communication after Haiyan: Informants' fear for their safety, of being reprimanded by authorities and the possibility of being denied aid have pushed people to keep their criticisms in the confidence of their family, friends and neighbours (see Hartmann et al., 2014, p. 13; Madianou et al., 2015) as the earlier discussions elaborated. Despite such widespread self-exclusion, 15 (15 per cent) out of 101 informants who chose not to give their feedback through formal means opted to express their concerns through backchannels, 4 (4 per cent) more than those who used formal channels. Backchannels here refer people's use of informal channels such as television, radio, social media and face-to-face conversations to convey their concerns to government and humanitarian staff. The paper does not attempt to make a systematic comparison between formal and backchannel use among informants but the data suggest that informants took advantage of backchannels more than the formal platforms made available to them. Lower and middle class informants used backchannels to reach out to government and aid agencies to question policies and what they perceived as slow progress in rebuilding their communities through a variety of platforms.\nConclusion: One factor which has shaped people's participation in the recovery efforts after Haiyan was the Philippines' culture of silence which stems from repressive policies from the colonial era but which continue up to the present times. The widespread self-censorship practised by disaster-affected communities puts into question one of the stated policies of the Philippine Disaster Risk Reduction Management Act which is to promote the participation of local communities in DRR efforts. Such policy recognises that everyone has the potential to contribute something to improve the way communities prepare themselves for and respond to disasters. Such policy also rests on the fundamental right to freedom of expression. Although formal feedback platforms were offered by aid and government agencies to affected people in Tacloban and Sabay, 90 per cent of informants preferred not to engage with these mechanisms and to keep their views to themselves. People's silence was not an indication of apathy or lack of opinion but rather of the deep-seated apprehension they felt about speaking out and its possible negative consequences. The findings highlight that disaster-affected communities feel that there is no room for dissent and criticism within the recovery process. Many lower class and some middle class informants expressed fears of offending authorities and of the prospect of losing entitlement to aid in the process. Some informants had also been threatened or discouraged by local leaders if they joined protests or expressed critical views while the majority felt their voices were not being listened to by those in power. Notwithstanding the value placed on community participation under the Philippine disaster law, government officials disregarded these provisions by delegitimising people's criticisms, labelling them as \"leftist\" or anti-government. By framing public criticism in ideological terms, affected people are assumed to be unable to reflect on their own situation and are merely being led by leaders on the political left, which is contrary to the idea of community participation.\nPolicy and research implications: The study's findings bring to the fore the importance of strengthening people's fundamental freedoms in societies vulnerable to disasters such as the Philippines. What appears to be more critical in efforts to involve affected communities, not only during the recovery phase but in disaster risk reduction more broadly, is an open and free environment which encourages public criticism and debate. Preventing new disaster risks and reducing existing disaster risks require people's capacity to participate meaningfully in decision-making processes. This can only be made possible when people are free to express their views without fear of being reprimanded by authorities or of losing their entitlement to aid.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: Studies which look at disaster affected people's use of communications technologies often fail to take into account people's communication rights in their analyses, particularly their right to freedom of expression. The purpose of this paper is to draw attention to this issue by exploring the link between freedom of expression, community participation and disaster risk reduction in the use of digital feedback channels offered by aid and government agencies in the aftermath of Typhoon Haiyan.\nDesign/methodology/approach: Ethnographic fieldwork was undertaken in the Philippines between 2014 and 2015 in Tacloban City and Sabay Island, both in the Visayas, which have been affected by Typhoon Haiyan. A total of 101 in-depth interviews were conducted with affected people, local and national officials, community leaders, civil society groups, telecommunications companies and humanitarian agencies.\nFindings: The interviews reveal that majority of disaster-affected Filipinos chose not to engage with formal feedback platforms offered by government and aid agencies out of fear of giving critical feedback to those in authority. They were concerned about the possibility of losing their entitlement to aid, of being reprimanded by government officers, and of the threat to their lives and of their loved ones if they expressed criticism to the government's recovery efforts. Nonetheless, 15 per cent used backchannels while 10 per cent availed of the formal means to express their views about the recovery.\nResearch limitations/implications: The paper sought to draw links between people's lack of engagement with the formal feedback mechanisms offered by government and aid agencies in the wake of Haiyan and the restrictive sociopolitical environment in the Philippines. Further research could be undertaken to examine how freedom of expression plays a role in disaster prevention and mitigation. Research into this area could potentially provide concrete steps to help prevent the occurrence of disasters and mitigate their impacts.\nOriginality/value: Freedom of expression and its place in disaster risk reduction is rarely explored in disaster studies. The paper addresses this oversight by examining the lack of engagement by communities affected by Haiyan with digital feedback channels provided by aid agencies and government. The findings suggest that despite the provisions for community participation in DRR under the Philippine Disaster Law, people are prevented to express criticism and dissent which puts into question the spirit and purpose of the law.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
A conceptualization of the perceptions and motivators that drive luxury wine consumption
|
[
"Wines",
"Consumer behavior",
"Consumer perception",
"Individual perception",
"Consumption behavior",
"Consumer motivation",
"Luxury wine"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: The value of the luxury market is estimated to range from US$80bn to US$263bn (Miller and Mills, 2012), with an overall growth of triple its worth from the early 1990s (D'Arpizio et al., 2014). The global wine market value is expected to reach US$303bn by 2016 (Plant and Food Research, 2013), with the premium and luxury wine segment growing steadily over the past 20 years (Sjostrom et al., 2014). Even with the consistent growth seen in both markets over the past two decades, there is relatively little literature on how consumers perceive, and why they purchase, luxury wine. Additionally, studies on wine and luxury wine have generally differentiated the two categories according to price (Reyneke et al., 2011; Lockshin and Corsi, 2012; Beverland, 2005). While variables such as authenticity and regionality are recognized as indicators of luxury wine, consumer perception of what constitutes a luxury wine is still relatively sparse. However, there are studies on luxury brands that offer a suitable starting point in conceptualizing luxury wine.\n2. Methodology: A thorough understanding of the existing literature in the area of study is necessary for any research contributing to the body of knowledge (Rumrill et al., 2010). In any systematic review, a crucial step is identifying the gaps in the existing literature and defining the research question clearly (Armstrong et al., 2011). Rumrill et al. (2010) list four types of systematic reviews by which literature might be reviewed: narrative literature review, empirical literature review, meta-analysis and scoping literature reviews. Armstrong et al. (2011) agree and specify that one of the defining characteristics of the first three types of systematic reviews is the information gathered, including clarification of definitions, gaps in understanding and how information is conceptualized, is often acquired in an ad hoc fashion. The first three reviews are used to reshape existing knowledge to offer new perspectives, analyze frequency of themes in the existing literature or create quantifiable data to understand trends in the existing literature. Scoping reviews, however, are growing in popularity as a way to collect and organize existing information to develop a picture of the current understanding of a particular subject area (Armstrong et al., 2011; Rumrill et al., 2010).\n3. Luxury conceptualized: There is no consensus regarding what attributes a product must possess to be classified as luxury in the existing literature (Miller and Mills, 2012; Berthon et al., 2009; Kapferer, 1997). The luxury in a luxury product is conceptualized using many different variables. In fact, the etymology and the different scales and conceptualizations of luxury show that it is multi-faceted. This is due in part to the fact that luxury can be at the same time a concept, a subjective impression and a tangible aspect of a good or service (Kapferer, 1997). Miller and Mills (2012) and other scholars describe luxury as old lux, with self-indulgent and hedonistic motivators (Kapferer and Bastien, 2009; Shukla and Purani, 2012), and Beverland (2005) and Preece (2015) view luxury products as the tangible manifestation of authenticity, whereas other researchers define luxury not by the tangible aspects of a product but by the individual experience of consuming it (Atwal and Williams, 2009; Garland, 2008; Ueacharoenkit and Cohen, 2011). However, despite these varying conceptualizations, a commonly held view is that luxury is any product with a high enough price (Kapferer et al., 2014; Dubois and Duquesne, 1993), particularly if this ensures that luxury remains exclusive to only a select few (Godey et al., 2009; Catry, 2003). This view draws on Kapferer's (1997) scale of luxury, which identifies three levels of luxury: the upper-range brand, the luxury brand and the griffe (pure creation, the idea the brand personifies). The griffe is the very essence of luxury, a unique work of art which cannot be duplicated; it is the luxury in the luxury brand. The more alluring the griffe, the more the associated brand is perceived as luxury. The upper-range brand and the luxury brand may have a high enough price to be perceived as luxury, but it is only the griffe that is exclusive to a select few. This scale is dependent on the consumer perceiving the brand and griffe as luxury. While this scale does not account for difference in motivation, it does allow for varying levels of perceived luxury by the consumer segment.\n4. Self-congruency and luxury wine consumption: The previous discussion would lead to a view that consumer purchase behavior may be explained by the self-congruency theory, which shows that consumers are more likely to purchase brands which they believe match their self-image (Ericksen, 1997; Hosany and Martin, 2012). When looking at luxury consumption as a way of signaling status, the theory of self-concept further explains this phenomenon. Grubb and Stern (1971) posited that self-concept is developed by individuals through their interaction with others in their reference group; the individuals use symbols to express something about themselves to the other members of their reference group and to identify with their reference group to outsiders.\n5. Conclusion: Based on a scoping review of extant literature on the consumption of luxury products, it is evident that while there is a rich stream of research in luxury branding and consumption, relatively little research has been done on luxury wine consumption that specifically relates to consumer perceptions, motivations and lifestyle characteristics. This paper proposes a framework that incorporates self-congruency theory in understanding the complex dynamics of luxury wine consumption. This paper argues that the motivation for luxury wine consumption is rooted in the self-identity of the consumer, whereby, the wine they consume, especially in the presence of their reference or aspirational groups, has to be congruent with the group's perceived norms. Thus, the significance of one's choice is crucial when conforming to the established norms.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: Consumer perceptions and motivation for luxury consumption are extensively investigated in the existing literature, although studies have largely focused on branded products with not much attention given to luxury wine. The wine category is distinctive, and luxury wine consumption is notably different from other luxury products. Over the past 20 years, the luxury segment of the wine industry has experienced steady growth, yet understanding of consumer perceptions and motivation for luxury wine consumption is still underdeveloped. Using self-congruency theory, the purpose of this paper is to develop a conceptual framework of the perceptions of, and motivation for, luxury wine consumption.\nDesign/methodology/approach: Using a scoping review approach, the current literature on luxury wine and luxury branded products is analyzed for existing gaps in understanding luxury wine consumption.\nFindings: The conceptualization of luxury wine along with the perceptions, motivators and indicators for wine consumption are currently underdeveloped. This paper proposes a conceptual framework for understanding what drives perceptions and motivators of luxury wine consumption.\nOriginality/value: Emerging from a scoping review of extant literature, this paper proposes a conceptual framework for understanding consumers' perceptions of luxury wine and motivations for consumption. This framework will enable a better understanding of the dynamics of luxury wine consumption.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Social values and health priority setting in England: "values" based decision making
|
[
"England",
"Social values",
"Health care",
"Health priority setting",
"Resource allocation"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Health technology assessment (HTA) has emerged as one of the ways of addressing the increasing tension faced by all health care systems when they are managing the introduction of new and often costly health technologies with finite healthcare budgets. HTA has been called \"the bridge between evidence and policy-making\", because it seeks to provide a range of stakeholders (typically those involved in funding, planning, purchasing, commissioning and investing in healthcare) with accessible, useable and evidence-based information that will guide decisions about technology and the efficient allocation of resources. It is a multidisciplinary activity that systematically examines the safety, clinical efficacy and effectiveness, cost-effectiveness, organisational implications, social consequences, legal and ethical considerations of the application of a health technology - usually a drug, medical device or clinical/surgical procedure.In the UK a national Health Technology Assessment programme was established as part of the new NHS Research and Development initiative (Smith, 1993). In 1999 in order to increase the impact of the resulting reports the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE) was established (Littlejohns, 2001). One of the key roles of the institute was to put HTA reports through a process of \"appraisal\" in order to convert them into formal guidance for the NHS. Not only was guidance issued through its appraisal programme but NICE also established a broader clinical guidelines programme. The remit of NICE expanded in 2005 to include guidance for public health (Littlejohns and Kell, 2006), and in 2010 it established dedicated programmes to identify and promote innovative diagnostics and devices that provide a significant quality and efficiency improvements in patient care. \"NHS Evidence\", a web-based portal giving access to high quality evidence was also established at that time. The current coalition government has proposed expanding the institute's remit to include social care and using NICE's evaluations of cost-effectiveness to inform \"value-based pricing\" of pharmaceuticals.As well as identifying what new inventions should be available on the NHS, NICE also provides guidance on what \"low value\" treatments\" should be withdrawn (Garner and Littlejohns, 2011). In 2006, NICE was formally asked to help the NHS \"reduce spending on treatments that do not improve patient care\" by supporting disinvestment. NICE has improved the visibility of the disinvestment recommendations from its guidance by creating a database summarising all the published NICE guidance that recommends complete discontinuation or stopping routine use of clinical practices/interventions. The NICE \"referral advice\" recommendations database seeks to reduce the number of inappropriate referrals from primary to secondary care by collating all the relevant recommendations from NICE clinical guidelines, cancer service guidance and public health guidance. In addition through NHS Evidence NICE has developed a collection of case studies from the field and opportunities from Cochrane reviews that highlight improvements in quality of care and provide potential productivity savings for the NHS's Quality, Innovation, Productivity and Prevention (QIPP) programme (Garner et al., 2012).More recently NICE's remit has expanded do develop Quality Standards. The programme started in 2009 and aims to provide sets of \"specific, concise statements that act as markers of high-quality, cost-effective patient care, covering the treatment and prevention of different diseases and conditions\". The Institute intends to develop a library of 150 by 2015 (Sharma et al. 2011).NICE has achieved its reputation in priority setting through the robustness of its technical analyses of clinical and cost effectiveness. However NICE is also aware that judgements of social value are required. (Rawlins and Culyer, 2004). Such values include justice, solidarity, respect for persons and dignity. Indeed, even scientific criteria such as clinical and cost effectiveness presuppose social values in the assessment of the quality of life that an intervention will deliver. Social values are also relevant to the policy processes by which priority-setting decisions are reached, since procedural values affect the perceived sense of legitimacy of decisions. Such procedural values include independence, transparency, inclusiveness, scientific rigour, contestability and timeliness (Faden and Chalkidou, 2011). Value for money in health care means social value for money in health care.This paper sets out the structures, mechanisms and values of the decision-making process in England and Wales in light of a framework developed for collecting and sharing comparative data on the content and processes of health priority-setting (Clark and Weale, 2012).\nHealthcare resource allocation for England and Wales: the contribution of the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE): What follows is a description of how decisions on health priority setting are made by NICE, using the two overall dimensions of \"process\" and \"content\" of decision-making as outlined in Clark and Weale's framework for analysis of social values (ibid.).Dimension 1: the processes of decision-making\nConclusions: Since its inception the NHS in England has provided universal care free to all at point of entry, based on the patient's need for treatment. This value of solidarity remains as strong as ever. However with the number and costs of potential interventions increasingly inexorably there is also a general acceptance that choices have to be made. While the term \"rationing\" still remains difficult for politicians to articulate considerable effort and public resources are being expended in identifying the value of interventions as determined by their cost effectiveness. NICE has become the focus of this debate and is perceived by key stakeholders such as government, industry, academics, professionals, patients and the public as a successful model to implement evidence based medicine on a routine basis and provide a forum for stakeholders to debate and influence policy. However there remains unease when this approach results in total exclusion of a treatment from use in the NHS and a number of mechanisms have been (and are being) put in place to ameliorate the need for this, e.g. value based pricing.The UK has been in the vanguard of addressing the challenge of being open and transparent in prioritising health care. This explicit approach to assessing \"value for money\" is only now beginning to be introduced in other European countries. For example in France Haute Autorite de Sante (HAS) was established in 2004 to evaluate drugs, medical devices and procedures scientifically, to authorise their reimbursement by health insurance, and to promote the use of best practice by health professionals. Economic evaluation was originally excluded from its activities, but new legislation in 2007 allowed its inclusion in the development of guidance and recommendations on the most effective strategies. One contribution to this approach has been the creation of the Economic and Public Health Specialist Committee. This committee comprises of 25 members including economists, social scientists and patient representatives as well as doctors. It gives advice, but final decisions are made by the minister of health. Reconciling science with economics has proved a struggle, because the prevailing view sees the two disciplines as in conflict. HAS has produced a guide to its methods of economic assessment. Its principles include: being transparent about assumptions and methodological choices; being explicit about the level of uncertainty and the robustness of results; justifying departures from standard cases and being explicit about the reasons for such departures; and reconsidering results when more evidence becomes available.HAS is now trying to make social values more explicit. A recent example was the cost of expensive growth hormone treatment for a number of conditions, including infants who are small relative to gestational age. At present, he cost of treatment is fully covered in France. The benefits of treatment include achieving normal adult height and a better quality of life. But there are uncertainties about the efficacy of treatment, and the possibility of an increased risk of diabetes and cancer. The institutions involved in making the decisions in cases like this are Haute Autorite de Sante (HAS) and the Transparency Committee (the committee that agrees reimbursement for drugs), both accountable to the Ministry of Health which makes the final decision on reimbursement. The Ministry of Health often follows the recommendations it is given, but does not have to. There is a debate in France over whether the ministry should be able to exercise this power. HAS's main responsibility is to establish the clinical effectiveness of the hormone and its cost, together with various other factors, none of which are explicit and are currently being debated. Social values not only inform the content of the decisions made, but have also influenced the way the process has been set up. For France this is a political rather than a technical decision - which is why the ministry is responsible for taking it. The process is relatively transparent by comparison with other systems in France. There is no public element in consideration of medical efficacy, but the broader assessment can include patients' views. There is also a period in which decisions can be contested. Decisions are informed by a consideration of the clinical benefits and a full cost utility analysis - though the definition of benefit in the case of growth hormones (number of centimetres of extra height) is the subject of disagreement. Is an extra 2 cm of height part of what it means to be a healthy person? And who should decide? There are social values being discussed here, but in the guise of judgements on effectiveness.Comparison of the French with the English system shows the differences in the way that social values are institutionalised, and this European variation is highlighted further in the paper on the system in Germany by Kieslich (2012) and commented on in the editorial (Littlejohns et al., 2012).It will be interesting to see how all these European systems develop in the future as the financial crisis in Europe deepens and health care budgets become even tighter. Will there be increasing differences or harmonisation of approaches? Will this new age of austerity herald a more open debate about the \"value\" of health care or will the political will to be rational about rationing diminish even further. However it is evident whatever happens, that there is an urgent need to undertake empirical research into how different countries are currently applying values in their assessments and to understand if there are better ways of achieving a fair allocation of health resources.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: - The purpose of this paper is to provide an overview of the organisational and procedural arrangements for priority setting in England and Wales. It describes the role of social values in the decision-making process.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - The processes and content of decisions made by the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence are analysed using the framework developed by Clark and Weale for identifying social values in health priority-setting.\nFindings: - While countries are seeking to achieve similar outcomes from their health prioritisation processes, each country has established different systems that reflect the social and legal framework underpinning their health systems. England is somewhat unique in being explicit about assessing \"value for money\" and using formal cost-effectiveness in developing policy.\nOriginality/value: - Many countries are now considering the use of formal health economic methodologies to assess the value and prioritise health care interventions. However there is increasing recognition of the importance of values other than efficiency (cost effectiveness) in making acceptable decisions. This is manifest in the range of potential new approaches being developed including multiple criteria decision analysis.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
Sales promotion influencing consumer brand preferences/purchases
|
[
"Marketing",
"Research",
"Brands",
"Preference",
"Consumer product"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nI. Introduction: In recent papers, Schultz and Block, (2013a, 2013b, 2013c, 2013d) have demonstrated that consumer brand preference (CBP) for fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG) brands in the USA has declined over a ten-year period (2002-2012). That was found using a nationally representative sample of > 1,100,000 consumers using self-reported brand purchases, promotional influence measures and the like. Using online consumer responses to a commercially developed and administered questionnaire (see customer intentions and actions [CIA]) and media behaviors and intentions (MBI; at www.Prosper.com), net promoter scores (NPS) were computed for 1,526 manufacturer product brands (MPB) in 73 FMCG product categories. NPS scores were also calculated for retail store brands (RSB) where the MPBs had been purchased. Those were used as the basis for the analysis along with customer-stated brand preference for each individual brand, consumer media preference and usage and several other factors.\nII. Evidence from the findings: In external reviews and comments on the papers cited above, other reasons for the findings were suggested which the authors are now investigating. Some reviewers posited that the decline in MBP simply mirrored the current economic malaise where consumers were intent on saving money on their purchases. Others suggested the observed decline was perhaps due to brand proliferation and brand extensions by the manufacturers. Several other factors were also suggested, one of which was the growth of sales promotion spending by both the MPBs and the RSBs. That is the topic of this paper.\nIII. Why is NBP increasing?: Schultz and Block have continued to explore this original consolidated data set, seeking to find reasons why CBP declined over the ten-year period, often in spite of record-setting media investments by many of the FMCG brand owners. (Kapferer, 2012; Shimp, 2013) One area which had not been studied was the potential influence of sales promotion and other promotional activities. They may very well have impacted MBP scores.\nIV. Sales promotional trends: Given the dominance of the top-ranked sales promotional tools in terms of customer influence (note: the top four were identified by roughly 50 per cent of all respondents), an investigation into the growth and use of these tools was conducted. That growth in consumer-reported influence over the study period is shown in Exhibit III.\nV. The growth and impact of shopper cards: Using data from the May, 2013 CIA files, additional analysis was conducted on the increase in the impact of store loyalty cards. That is shown in Exhibit IV.\nVI. Conclusions and next steps: What this particular paper, and the analysis conducted, seems to show is that manufacturer brands are in trouble with consumers. That is, their customer preference ratings are declining and have been doing so for some time. That does not bode well for the future, particularly when we also observe that the leading brands appear to be highly dependent on mass media advertising to maintain their market positions, particularly when their primary support vehicle, TV advertising, continues to decline in terms of customer usage.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: This paper aims to investigate whether or not ongoing sales promotion contributed to the declines in \"no brand preference\" (NBP). Part of an ongoing series investigating the growth of US consumer's responses of NBP for more than 1,500 frequently purchased consumer product brands. Data were drawn from responses to a very large (1.1 million) online longitudinal consumer questionnaire during 2002-2012.\nDesign/methodology/approach: Additional research, combining this data set with two other major US longitudinal studies, confirmed results. This study focused on determining reasons for NBP increase. Initial data set included use of and influence of 23 in-store promotional tools. These were investigated to determine impact and effect.\nFindings: Four leading sales promotional tools, based on consumer influence, were coupons, home samples, in-store samples and retail shopper cards. Shopper cards had most influence on purchase of secondary, not primary brands in categories. Shopper cards are a clearly underused promotional tool in building brand preference and sales.\nResearch limitations/implications: Limited to US consumer products only. No attempt made to connect media advertising and in-store media impact or effect.\nPractical implications: Future investigation should focus on other geographies, synergy between media advertising and promotional techniques. Also, the study is all aggregated data; individual brand investigations should be made. Shopper cards appear to be a major opportunity for secondary brands. More focus on cooperative activities between brands and retailers would benefit both.\nOriginality/value: Paucity of longitudinal customer-view research on shopper cards identifies both manufacturer and retailer opportunities, particularly secondary brands.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
Research rigor and the gap between academic journals and business practitioners
|
[
"University",
"Business",
"Research",
"Industry",
"Academic",
"Bridge"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: There is much criticism of the disconnection between the research activity of business schools and the real world of business (Starkey and Madan, 2001). Business school research is seen as an \"insulated and self-serving activity on the part of both school leadership and individual scholars\" with business schools becoming a \"paper production function\" (Tsui, 2015). It is suggested that business schools have followed the model of the sciences, increasingly measuring themselves primarily on the rigor of their scientific research (Bennis and O'Toole, 2005). However, as this research becomes less grounded in business practice it is becoming less and less relevant to practitioners (Bennis and O'Toole, 2005). Paradoxically, practicing managers play little part in the complex process of paper production and evaluation where the main players are academic writers, journal editors, and paper and school ranking agencies (Tsui, 2015).\n2. Business school research: Business schools place increasing emphasis on their research. There is evidence from the literature that academic research has significant impact on the standing of the institution but little impact on the practice of management. With respect to the latter, Mintzberg argues that business school teaching is divorced from the reality of business practice. With respect to the former, Armstrong and Sperry found a correlation between the prestige of a business school and the impact of that school's research. One justification made in support of research is that it enhances teaching; however, a meta-analysis of 58 studies found zero correlation between research productivity and teaching effectiveness, i.e. productivity in research neither enhances nor detracts from teaching (Hattie and Marsh, 1996). They conclude that \"the common belief that research and teaching are inextricably entwined is an enduring myth. At best, research and teaching are very loosely coupled\" (p. 529).\n3. Methodology: In order to measure the existence and extent of the gap between business school research and management practice, we conducted a survey of business practitioners to understand: what kind of professional publications managers read; if they are aware of academic journals; what the ideal academic journal would be like; what subjects they would be interested in seeing covered; and finally, suggestions to make academic journals more appealing to business professionals.\n4. Findings: Practically all the persons who participated in the survey declared that they read some sort of publication with only two out of 156 not reading any professional publication at all. The most popular publications are \"Daily newspapers\" and \"Sector specific newsletters,\" with about 56-57 percent of the respondents. They are followed by \"Magazines\" (half of the respondents) and \"Management books\" with 38 percent (see Figure 3).\n5. Discussion: It may well be the case that this separation of the observer from the world observed is greater for business school academics than for academics from other disciplines. First, businesses do not like their internals to be observed, written up and published to the wider world. The materials within the business may be commercially sensitive. Businesses may not wish to allow the resources behind their competitive advantage to be observed, recorded, codified, documented or published (Donaldson, 2002, pp. 99-100). It can therefore be difficult for academic observers to gain access to the world that they wish to observe. Academics may have no alternative but to use publicly available information: industry reports and company annual reports. These however are but a shadow of the real firm.\n6. Conclusion: There is a gap between two worlds: the academic journal on the one hand, and industry on the other. Business school research has been criticized for its disconnection from the world of business practice; research papers produced by business schools are criticized for having little or unclear value for business managers. This study found that the gap in the perception of academic research between academics themselves and their potential readership from the world of business continues to exist. However, this study also found that there remains a thirst for academic knowledge among practitioners. The challenge remains for business school academics to bridge the gap between the two worlds, or run the risk of society forcing the issue. This gap may be difficult to bridge without first tackling the academic reward system.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: This paper examines the engagement of business practitioners with academic business research. The purpose of this paper is to assess whether there is a gap between academic research and business people, and, if so, how to bridge this gap.\nDesign/methodology/approach: Over 150 senior business practitioners were interviewed, in order to capture their views on the usefulness of academic research to them in their roles as practicing managers. Survey questions covered both their current access and reading of business-related publications and what the ideal academic business journal should be, in terms of access and contents.\nFindings: Academic journals are not very well known among business professionals. If these professionals could choose, they would like academic journals to be written by experienced business people, to contain business cases and to be accessible on line. Existing academic business journal \"repositories,\" such as Google Scholar, are not mentioned in the survey results.\nPractical implications: The findings indicate that potential solutions to bridge the gap between academic journals and business practitioners should not be complicated to implement, and would greatly help bring these two communities closer, with mutually enriching results.\nOriginality/value: This paper takes a very pragmatic view of the gap between academic journals and business practitioners, and seeks to assess this gap in terms of how it can be bridged on an everyday basis, rather than take a theoretical approach. It begs for the definition of actionable next steps.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Does size matter? An investigation into the role of virtual team size in IT service provisioning
|
[
"Team performance",
"Partial least squares",
"Survey",
"Team size",
"Virtual team"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: Virtual teams composed of dispersed team members who are connected through technology are revolutionizing work environments and providing unprecedented levels of flexibility and agility to organizations (Powell et al., 2004; Fan et al., 2014). Given the global and inter-organizational collaborative characteristics of these teams, practices such as the provisioning of information technology (IT) services increasingly rely on such virtual teams (Siakas and Siakas, 2008; Saafein and Shaykhian, 2014). To provide the services required for the maintenance of day-to-day operations of a company's IT systems, virtual teams are leveraged and dismissed according to the need or activity, and the performance of these teams is dependent on the relationships among the team members (Heitlager et al., 2010; Saafein and Shaykhian, 2014).\n2. Literature review and the development of the hypotheses: This section presents the basic theoretical framework utilized to obtain the model of the relationships and hypotheses to be assessed subsequently with empirical data.\n3. Methodology: Based on the research objective and hypotheses generated from the literature review, this study utilizes a survey questionnaire to collect data to assess the proposed theoretical model.\n4. Results: Consistent PLS (PLSc) was used to test the theoretical model, because the measurement model is mostly composed by reflective constructs. PLSc represents an important advancement in PLS-SEM that overcomes the previous deficiencies of PLS and maintains its strengths. Among its main improvements, PLSc provides a correction for estimates when PLS is applied to reflective constructs by consistently estimating the path coefficients, construct correlations, and indicator loadings. This correction is required if a model uses reflective measurements, because the traditional iterative PLS algorithm typically underestimates the correlations of reflective indicators while creating proxies as linear combination of observed indicators. Additionally, PLSc provides a global assessment of the model's goodness-of-fit, which makes an assessment of global model fit possible (Dijkstra and Henseler, 2015a, b; Henseler et al., 2016).\n5. Discussion: Although the results extracted from the studied sample do not suggest any significant statistical relationships regarding the effects that the virtual team size may exert on team performance, some particularities must be carefully considered to obtain a better interpretation of the results.\n6. Conclusion: Given the challenges to generating superior performance in virtual settings, this study aimed to analyze whether managing the number of virtual IT service provisioning team member's aids in generating superior performance in terms of creativity, quality and speed of the work. To answer this research question, a conceptual model was developed and assessed using data from a survey and the latest PLS-SEM developments.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to investigate the potential influence of virtual team size on team performance by examining group processes in the context of information technology (IT) service provisioning. This paper proposes a theoretical model of the relationships and presents an empirical study to verify the model.\nDesign/methodology/approach: Utilizing a survey questionnaire as the data collection instrument, this study focuses on IT service provisioning professionals who are actively engaged in virtual work contexts to test the relationships proposed by the theoretical model. A consistent version of the partial least square structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) approach is used to assess the proposed hypotheses.\nFindings: Although the statistical analyses did not provide support for the hypothesized effects of team size on virtual team performance, the results provide novel insights that may help teams overcome the functioning challenges that they face, as reported in the previous literature on virtual team size. In addition, the results highlight the importance of specific group processes for obtaining superior team performance.\nOriginality/value: Currently, virtual teams are a reality in several organizations, especially in the IT service provisioning industry. However, despite its importance, the literature suggests that virtual team size has not yet been fully explored as a possible means of enhancing group collaboration in such contexts. This paper attempts to provide an empirical contribution to this field using the latest developments in PLS-SEM.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Tradition and innovation in Italian wine family businesses
|
[
"Innovation",
"Cultural identity",
"Tradition",
"Family businesses",
"Territory",
"Wine sector"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: The wine sector is one of the most representative economic activities in many countries in terms of employment and companies revenues (Bigliardi and Galati, 2013; Giacosa et al., 2014a; Menrad, 2004).\nLiterature: The wine sector\nMethodology: In order to achieve the aim of this research, and referring to the gap that emerged in the literature, the following hypothesis has been developed:\nCase study: Pio Cesare: The history of the company and the Pio Cesare family\nDiscussion: The role and approach of the combination of tradition and innovation in Pio Cesare\nConclusions, implications, and limitations: Pio Cesare is characterized by a strong combination of tradition and innovation in terms of products and processes. The highly innovative strategy is based on secular traditions in the wine sector over five generations, brought about by a strong connection to its territory.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to analyse how a strategy based on the combination of tradition and innovation can offer a competitive advantage to a medium-sized family firm operating in the wine sector.\nDesign/methodology/approach: This research focuses on one case study. The subject of the case study under analysis is Pio Cesare, an internationally recognized fine wine Italian company.\nFindings: Pio Cesare is characterized by a strong combination of tradition and innovation in terms of products and processes. Innovation and tradition are not opposites; on the contrary, a blend of the two has been crucial in achieving and maintaining a sustainable competitive advantage.\nResearch limitations/implications: The formalization of an effective blend of tradition and innovation, especially in a family business, and an effective dissemination of the company philosophy to future generations, calls for a more in-depth study. This study has some limitations, which determined by the applied methodology. Multiple case study method would be useful. In relation to the interview technique, the authors would set out to increase the number of interviews, by also questioning managers and employees working, as opposed to family members.\nPractical implications: Practical implications relate to different groups of stakeholders: for owners and management, for investors, for organizations and institutions working on a territory promotion and in the tourism sector, and for politicians and local authorities.\nOriginality/value: It identifies which business model a family winery business could be adopted in order to manage such strategies of innovation in respect to traditions, filling the gap in the literature.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Open innovation in the public sector: Resources and performance of research-based spin-offs
|
[
"India",
"Case studies",
"Open innovation",
"Resource-based view",
"Research-based spin-off"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: In recent years, managerial literature has confirmed both the positive relationship between open innovation (OI) and business performance as well as the widespread diffusion of OI in the economic system. The implementation of innovation processes has enabled enterprises to share the costs and risks of innovation with their external partners, gain access to new ideas and knowledge, open new markets and obtain new distribution channels (van de Vrande et al., 2009).\nTheoretical framework: OI practices in public sector organizations\nObjectives and methodology: Objectives\nResults from the analysis of case study: General information and stages of development of the Indian spin-off\nAnswers to research questions: The following considerations emerged in response to what changes did the resources undergo during the various development stages of the spin-off:\nDiscussion and conclusions: Discussion and implications\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to verify and improve the framework assessing the evolution and importance of the technological, human, social and financial resources of an Indian research-based spin-off (RBSO) throughout its four stages of development by Vohora et al. (2004).\nDesign/methodology/approach: The open innovation (OI) phenomenon is spreading among public organizations. One of the OI practices used by the public research centers to market their technologies is to set up new business entities called RBSOs. Many studies have focused on spin-offs but there are still some gaps. To overcome the existing limitations, the authors built a framework which they tested on three previous case studies.\nFindings: The results obtained show how a parent organization and its incubator can play fundamental roles in creating and developing a successful RBSO. This is done by supplying managerial staff and providing access to skills, funds and other material and immaterial resources.\nResearch limitations/implications: The limitations of this study are related to the sectoral and geopolitical factors of the single case analyzed. For this reason, the observations that emerge should be supported by other empirical analyses.\nOriginality/value: The findings of this study can offer a better understanding of the spin-off life to managers, researchers, public organizations and government agencies. They can learn how to improve policies and practices of technology transfer and strengthen the national industrial system.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
American gay and lesbian student leaders' perceptions of job discrimination
|
[
"United States of America",
"Students",
"Discrimination",
"Homosexuals",
"Sex and gender issues"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n__NO_TITLE__: Sexual orientation is a key part of who a person is; yet, it is an identity that is subject to a great deal of real and perceived stigma-based discrimination in the workplace (Croteau, 1996; Herek, 1996; Ragins and Cornwell, 2001a, b). Crocker et al. (1998, p. 505) explain, \"stigmatized individuals possess (or are believed to possess) some attribute, or characteristic, that conveys a social identity that is devalued in a particular social context\". Stigma-based workplace discrimination has been associated with negative work attitudes and fewer promotions for gay and lesbian employees who disclose their orientations. This discrimination is often the result of fear, stereotyping, and misunderstanding (Ragins and Cornwall, 2001b). Because stigma is socially defined, people within a culture tend to agree on stigmatized characteristics (Clair et al., 2005); therefore, this study is limited to an examination of perceptions about sexual orientation and stigma-based discrimination within the USA.\nInspiration for the research: This study began after I initially attended a two-day campus-based training session exploring potential discrimination directed toward GLBT students. It was at this training that I met a 23-year old lesbian student who was the president of Lambda (the GLBT student group at my university). With her encouragement I began attending the weekly meetings held by Lambda in an effort to build a relationship with the students and to understand their viewpoints and concerns about stigma and discrimination. At one of the meetings, during a discussion of career planning, she raised the key questions that led to this research. She asked, \"... once I am out of this very tolerant atmosphere [university] - will the work force be as understanding/accepting [of me]?\" She went on to state, \"I worry everyday that I will be discriminated against because of my lifestyle. If they do [discriminate against me for being a lesbian and listing my activities in Lambda on my resume], how will I ever know if that is why I didn't get that job if it isn't explicitly said, \"because you are gay\"?\"Her concerns led me to further explore university students' perceptions of discrimination when they are searching for their first professional positions during their last year in school. I explore how students who are out in a university environment (including being open about their memberships in university and community gay and lesbian organizations) present this information on their resumes when they look for full-time employment after graduation. I also examine the students' perceptions of discrimination they may face in the work environment, as well as the factors that shape their willingness to disclose or conceal their orientation on their resumes and when they are searching for, and employed in, their first professional positions.These are important concerns to explore because being stigmatized is harmful for individuals and often leads to stereotyping, status loss, and discrimination (Goffman, 1963; Link and Phelan, 2001). Additionally, stigma-based discrimination can stifle an individual's advancement and personal development opportunities and lead to social isolation in the workplace (Cox, 1993; Jagose, 1997). Lastly, while stigmatized differences may lead to difficulties in being hired, they may also lead to difficulties maintaining a job since job loss is a common concern for gays and lesbians (Woods, 1994; Woods and Harbeck, 1991).\nMethods and research questions: Using a qualitative research method of structured interviewing (Arminio and Hultgren, 2002; Fontana and Frey, 1994; Huberman and Miles, 1994), I conducted both phone and face-to-face interviews without gay and lesbian officers in GLBT student organizations on campuses all across the USA. I specifically wished to discover their expectations relating to discrimination and information about their job seeking behaviors through analysis of the participants' detailed oral descriptions of their viewpoints and experiences.Forty-five GLBT student organizations in 36 states were randomly selected via an Internet search. When contact information was available on the Internet, an email message was sent directly to the officers (the president, vice-president, or treasurer) of each student organization explaining the research and asking for participation. In some cases, the email was sent to the organization at large when specific contact information for individual officers was not available.As a result of the initial wave of email, 10 of the 45 student organizations were eliminated from the research because they were not organizations for undergraduate students. From the remaining 35 organizations, nine student officers responded and agreed to participate in the study. In a follow-up wave of email to the remaining organizations, six more individuals agreed to participate bringing the total number of participants to 15 GLBT student officers. Seven of the participants were gay men, eight were lesbians and none of the students identified themselves as bisexual or transgendered. Additionally, I asked each participant to send me a copy of his/her resume, of which seven of the students did so. The final 15 respondents represent 11 states from six regions of the USA: Pacific Northwest (Oregon), Mountain States (Nevada and Arizona), South Central States (Texas and Arkansas), South (Alabama, Florida and Tennessee), Northeast (Connecticut), and Great Lakes states (Michigan and Ohio).I conducted structured phone and in-person interviews with the officers who agreed to participate. While face-to-face interviewing provides the researcher with the richest form of verbal and non-verbal information (Fontana and Frey, 1994), due to geographic distance, phone interviews were utilized to collect data with participants more than a day's driving distance from my university. Each interview lasted approximately 1h. I collected data by asking three specific questions:1. (1) How much discrimination, if any, do you think you will face in your job search and career field;2. (2) Will you present information relating to your role as an officer in your campus GLBT student organization on your resume;3. (3) Do you plan to be out at work?Where appropriate, interviewees were encouraged to elaborate and give samples of their resumes. The author and a graduate student familiar with the literature analyzed the data. Each of us familiarized ourselves with the data and conducted a framework analysis to identify issues that emerged from the data. This analysis consisted of finding themes in the data and clustering the responses for each of the three structured questions (Huberman and Miles, 1994; Ritchie and Spence, 1996). As recommended by Heilman (1976), a collaborative analysis followed the initial independent analysis. After individually assigning the data to broad and general thematic categories, we came together to discuss the categories, identify points of agreement and disagreement, and reach a consensus about a list of common elements.\nFindings: The following section presents representative excerpts from the data, illustrating typical responses to each of the three questions asked during the interviews. This section is followed by a discussion of the findings. Please see Table I for a summary of the findings grouped according to whether or not the students will present information on their resumes relating to their role as an officer in campus GLBT student organization.How much discrimination, if any, do you think you will face in your job search and career field?\nDiscussion and analysis: The responses to the research questions revealed interesting patterns that are clustered into two categories based on themes that emerged during the analysis of the responses of all 15 subjects:1. (1) the significance of context and organizational climate; and2. (2) the importance of authenticity and honesty.Each theme will be discussed in light of the findings and the extant literature.The significance of context and organizational climate\nLimitations and further study: It is generally difficult to conduct empirical research in this area. Barriers to work in this area include the difficulty in collecting data and the scarcity of appropriate theoretical models (Klawitter, 1998). The main limitation of this study relates to data collection and the resultant small sample. However, given the sensitive nature of the data collected, individual interviews are currently the best way to examine such personal and sensitive information (Fontana and Frey, 1994).This study is limited to the exploration of the conditions in the US labor market and perception of American students. There is interesting work being conducted on discrimination and legislation in the European labor market, which is beyond the scope of the present study. For instance, Weichselbaumer (2003) found hiring discrimination against lesbians in the UK while Humphrey (2000) explored the experiences of gays and lesbians in public sector in the UK and identified existing organizational inequalities. Additionally, there are interesting discussions of the status of gays and lesbians in Finland (Lehtonen and Mustola, 2004) and across Europe (cf. ID Research, 2001). The British government, seeking to expand the country's non-discrimination law, is discussing current changes to the Gay and Lesbian Employment Rights of 1993. Sexual orientation and gender identity discrimination are illegal in employment and services, but a new bill would expand those protections to public accommodations like hotels, restaurants, and pubs (Human Rights Campaign, 2006b).Future research could explore other stakeholders' views, such as employers' and university career advisors' perceptions of the likely impact of outing oneself in the search for post-graduation employment. This would overcome the limitation of only focusing on student's viewpoints. It is hoped that this study will stimulate more theoretical and empirical work and an expanded set of counseling implications. Career counselors and faculty advisors could help students assess potential discrimination, to examine anti-discrimination policies, explore domestic partnership benefits, and investigate interpersonal climates of work environments through printed materials, Internet resources, and informational interviews (Croteau and Hedstrom, 1993).\nConclusion: US employers prefer job candidates who can demonstrate technical, managerial, and interpersonal skills, many of which are developed from serving in leadership roles in student organizations. Further, in today's competitive job market in the USA, applicants must demonstrate that they have skills in these areas in order to enhance their ability to pass the initial screening process (Powell and Jankovich, 1998; Sheetz, 1995). However, students who disclose their homosexuality, either directly or indirectly, on their resumes by listing leadership involvement in GLBT student organizations and community groups may not get jobs because of it (Human Rights Campaign, 2006a). Due to this potential discrimination, students may omit relevant extracurricular activities from their resumes at a time when these activities are more important than ever to obtaining employment (Chung, 1995; McMahan et al., 1998).In order to address these concerns, university career advisors need to be aware of the potential discrimination faced by gay and lesbian students. Career advisors would be well advised to understand the fears and risks associated with disclosing sexual orientation, including differences between various fields of study and different regions of the country. They also need to understand that expectations of discrimination vary from field to field and that a one-size-fits-all approach to counseling students is ill advised.Individuals, universities, researchers, and governments need to continue to address stigma-based discrimination as it is evident from the findings that there is much perceived discrimination facing gay and lesbian students. Organizations and governing bodies in the USA should look to their own policies and actions to see why there is both a perception of discrimination and actual discrimination in legal protection. Research needs to determine how much discrimination is actually occurring, where it is originating, and how it can be eliminated.The findings of this study may help us to understand the choices facing gay and lesbian students as they make hard decisions about how much to reveal about themselves in their search for employment. Examining university students as they make their way into their first professional jobs is of added interest because it coincides with the exploration phase of career development which includes crystallizing and implementing an occupational choice, a major developmental task in adult identity formation (Chrobot-Mason et al., 2001; Hall, 1989; Levinson, 1996; Super et al., 1996). For gay and lesbian job candidates there can be severe penalties for disclosing sexual orientation; therefore, decisions whether and how to identify one's self on a resume and during interviews are extremely important (McNaught, 1993).Disclosure and freedom of expression are important for organizations, as well as individuals, because they offer protection against homogenization and encourage differences and plurality, which benefits organizations and society as a whole (Cohen, 1996). In spite of the potential personal and organizational benefits of disclosure and inclusion, gay and lesbian individuals may fear rejection, ridicule, and stigma, and thus decide to keep certain parts of their lives private at work. We must see that the choice to disclose information about sexual orientation is a choice made freely, driven by personal goals and values and not a choice driven by fear.\n",
"role": "user"
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"content": "Purpose: - This research explores the extent to which expectations of discrimination affect American undergraduate officers in gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgendered (GLBT) groups.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - Using structured interviewing, I conducted both phone and face-to-face interviews without gay and lesbian student officers in GLBT student organizations on campuses all across the USA. I specifically wished to discover their expectations relating to discrimination and information about their job seeking behaviors through analysis of the participants' detailed oral descriptions of their viewpoints and experiences.\nFindings: - Overall, the data reveal that when students search for professional positions they often expect discrimination, but many will not let that fear force them back into the closet. It is interesting to note that while some students fear discrimination and hide their sexual orientation and leadership activities in GLBT groups on their resumes, many state that they will be out at work and risk discrimination in the long run because being true to themselves is worth the risk.\nResearch limitations/implications: - The main limitation of this study relates to data collection and the resultant small sample. Additionally, this study is limited to the exploration of the conditions in the US labor market and perception of American students.\nPractical implications: - The findings of this study help us to understand the choices facing gay and lesbian students as they make hard decisions about how much to reveal about themselves in their search for employment.\nOriginality/value: - For gay and lesbian job candidates there can be severe penalties for disclosing their orientation; therefore, decisions whether and how to identify one's self on a resume and during interviews are extremely important.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
Enhancing earthquake resilience of communities: an action by women's groups in Nepal
|
[
"Community",
"Capacity building",
"Disaster risk reduction",
"Earthquake risk mitigation",
"Resilience approach",
"Women’s empowerment"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nSummary: Nepal is exposed to frequent seismic events. There is increasing awareness that risk reduction needs to take account of smaller scale events as well as major ones. There is a felt need for promoting disaster risk reduction (DRR) action at community level, promoting existing community cohesion for use in disaster preparedness, and replication of positive experiences. Involvement of women and women's networks has been identified as one of the effective way to motivate and mobilize communities to reduce disaster risks and enhance disaster preparedness.\nContext: Important themes and issues\nThe case study: Background\nOutcomes of the activities: This initiative has been a step toward achieving a safer community through safer schools and safer houses, helping to acquire a better understanding of the process, scientifically and systematically.\nChallenges: The initiative is very new to the society and it takes time to get it accepted. It is still very difficult to convince house-owners on the importance of NSM. People don't want to fasten their cupboards and furniture, and freezers and gas cylinders to the wall or the ground, they feel that this technique will ruin their furniture and this is also the case with the school management committee. Some of the challenges identified during the process were as follows:\nReflecting on action: The Frontline process was designed in such a way that it did not only facilitate women to find out the top five threats but also the potential solutions to the threats. This initiative empowered the women's group with new technical skills, and new leadership roles in their community, as they actively contribute to mitigating earthquake risk. This work has been successful in attracting women, who are taking on a job traditionally done by men. Women have now been engaged in new income-generating activities apart from the regular sewing and crafting works. It has thus improved social recognition and the economic status of female community mobilizers.\nThe future: To achieve real transformatory change toward a \"non-structural hazard free community\" the need has to be felt; and that will require awareness, education and institutionalization at campaign level. It has reached at the individual level but it is still episodic now. It still depends upon person, chance, and availability of money. But now after recent local elections, it has created a potential for favorable environment and now if the new government and local governments want to do this, they can use the experience as an example: all the background work has been done. Therefore, it is critically important to build links with the government support system and to ensure that budgets are allocated in the municipality for DRR works.\n",
"role": "user"
},
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"content": "Purpose: Nepal is exposed to frequent earthquakes. There is a felt need for promoting disaster risk reduction action at community level, promoting existing community cohesion for use in disaster preparedness and replication of positive experiences. Involvement of women has been identified as one of the effective ways to motivate and mobilize communities to reduce disaster risks and enhance disaster preparedness. The paper aims to discuss these issues.\nDesign/methodology/approach: Frontline program was implemented in the four communities of Chandragiri municipality during 2015 with support from GNDR. Preparing the local risk profile and the action plans to reduce those identified risk was the main approach of the Frontline program.\nFindings: During the Frontline survey, the community identified earthquake as the top threat in the community and non-structural mitigation as one of the priority actions. The members of the women network started advocating for earthquake safe communities and implementing the risk reduction measures. This action has developed understanding of the process, scientifically and systematically, and boosted their confidence with important new technical skills and new leadership roles in their community to mitigate the earthquake risk.\nOriginality/value: This case study records the experience of the women's group in Nepal using their NSM learning in their own houses to reduce vulnerability. They started vulnerability reduction with their own kitchens and bedrooms by fastening their cupboards, frames, freezes, gas cylinders, etc. This led to implementing the mitigation measures in their locality and outside their community. This has been a step toward achieving a safer community through safer houses and schools.\n",
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Crossing disciplinary, epistemological and conceptual boundaries in search of better cultural sense-making tools: A review of principal cultural approaches from business and anthropology literatures
|
[
"Interpretivism",
"National culture",
"Corporate culture",
"Douglasian cultural theory",
"Functionalism",
"Transactional culture"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Business and anthropology literatures offer a wide variety of approaches for cultural sense-making. In this conceptual paper, we compare three such approaches: the National Culture Approach (NCA), the Corporate Culture Approach (CCA) and the Transactional Culture Approach (TCA). We outline the strengths and weaknesses of each approach and offer the Douglasian Cultural Framework (DCF) as a transactional tool for cultural sense-making. We argue that DCF not only overcomes some of the weaknesses of NCA and CCA frameworks, but also contributes towards enriching TCA. As such, our present paper builds on past literature in three ways: first, while Patel and Rayner (2012) reviewed NCA and TCA, our present work also includes CCA literature in the discussion, thereby offering a richer comparison between the three approaches and a more thorough overview of business and anthropology literature on culture; second, it grounds the three approaches in different epistemological standpoints, and third, it locates the three approaches at different positions on the unity-infinity continuum. We begin by outlining the varied definitions of culture and by presenting the unity-infinity debate.\nNCA: Proponents of NCA treat culture as being stable and homogenous within a nation, society, and/or geographic region. For instance, after studying 72 countries and regions, Hofstede (1980\\1984) identified four cultural dimensions as distinguishing members of one country from another: high vs low power distance, uncertainty-avoidance vs risk-taking, individualism vs collectivism, and masculinity vs femininity. Subsequent research led to the generation of another dimension labeled \"Confucian dynamism\" or \"long-term orientation\" (Hofstede and Bond, 1988). Scores were attributed to countries on afore-mentioned dimensions. For instance, India and France received scores of 48/100 and 71/100, respectively, for individualism, implying that India is more collectivistic than France. Hofstede's model has inspired several replication studies (Deshpande and Farley, 1999) and has been the framework of choice for many scholars (Meschi, 1997; Barkema and Vermeulen, 1997). Following Hofstede (1980\\1984), Trompenaars and Hampden-Turner (1997) offered seven cultural dimensions believed to distinguish societies and influence how businesses are conducted between them. The seven cultural dimensions are: first, universalism vs particularism; second, individualism vs collectivism; third, affective vs neutral in expressing emotions; forth, specific vs diffused relations; fifth, achievement vs ascription-oriented; sixth, sequential vs synchronic attitude to time; seventh, internal vs external locus of control. The GLOBE project is another study which offers nine cultural dimensions distinguishing societies from one another. These nine dimensions of societal culture are: first, uncertainty-avoidance; second, power distance; third, collectivism-I; forth, collectivism-II; fifth, gender-egalitarianism; sixth, assertiveness; seventh, future-orientation; eighth, performance-orientation; ninth, humane-orientation (House et al., 2004). Based on scores obtained on these dimensions, significant similarities within societies and significant difference between them were identified with regards to leadership effectiveness (House et al., 2004).\nComparing DCF with NCA/CCA frameworks: Comparing DCF with conventional NCA/CCA frameworks results in six interesting insights. First, while proponents of NCA/CCA frameworks ground their explanations of human behavior in national/societal origin and/or corporate affiliations, DCF scholars offer a richer understanding of people's behaviors by evoking four different kinds of rationalities. As Thompson (1996) explains members of the hierarchical culture follow a process-oriented rationality, and are guided in their behavior by rules and procedures. Following the communal and critical rationality, members of the egalitarian culture behave in ways that support communal interests of their members. The substantive rationality of the competitive culture encourages its members to behave in ways that optimize self-gains, even if this leads to compromising rules or communal interest. Finally, people adhering to the fatalistic rationality pay lip-service to whatever measure contributes to their self-preservation. Second, since DCF focuses on transactions, and since transactions occur at every level of human interactions, DCF can be used for cultural sense-making at the national, international, regional, and/or corporate levels. Thus, DCF allows researchers to transcend national, societal and corporate boundaries, making it an appropriate device to study complex business scenarios.\nTheoretical implications: We offer two main theoretical implications. Since proponents of most NCA/CCA frameworks assume cultural homogeneity within nations/societies/regions and/or companies, they consider cultural differences to be problematic (Meschi, 1997; Barkema and Vermeulen, 1997). While cultural similarity or lesser \"cultural distance\" between the national and/or corporate cultures of collaborating firms is considered a pre-requisite for sound inter-firm relations (Vanhonacker and Pan, 1997), a large \"cultural distance\" is deemed to have a negative impact on the viability of the relationship (Hallen et al., 1979; Hofstede, 1980\\1984). Since most NCA/CCA scholars ask questions in line with their \"difference-oriented\" lens, it is not surprising that the responses they get are also along the same lines (Ofori-Dankwa and Ricks, 2000, p. 173). This practice inadvertently feeds into reinforcing \"the symbolic production of a sense of difference\" (Ailon-Souday and Kunda, 2003, p. 1090). Conceptually speaking, these approaches are not very different from past approaches in comparative anthropology, wherein the \"procedure of comparison consisted of a morphological matching of forms so as to locate differences\" (Kapferer, 1976, p. 3). In contrast, using DCF for cultural sense-making draws our attention away from the dead-end argument of national/corporate culture differences and towards cultural transactions as an alternative cultural lens. Proponents of DCF show that cultural differences are not only inevitable, they are also required for the viability of social relations.\nConclusions, limitations and suggestions for future research: In recent years many scholars (Child and Tayeb, 1983; Angwin and Vaara, 2005; Ailon and Kunda, 2009) have expressed dissatisfaction with the way culture has been conceptualized in business literature. They have urged researchers to desist from using \"nation\" as a proxy for culture and have called for new angles in cultural research. Notwithstanding, business literature continues to be dominated by national origin/corporate affiliations based explanations of people's behaviors due to lack of alternative frameworks. By proposing DCF as an alternative tool for cultural sense-making, we partly address this void. We also address Leung et al.'s (2005) call for new ways of conceptualizing the dynamicity of culture. While these scholars rely on cognitive psychology, we draw on anthropology-based transactional culture literature to explain human behavior. Finally, following Barth (2007) we offer DCF as a generative model of culture which explains how cultures emerge - thereby countering the tendency among culture scholars to simply categorize cultures. Although DCF has enjoyed much popularity in anthropology (Thompson and Ellis, 1997), political science (Thompson et al., 1990) and public administration (Wildavsky, 1987), its use in business studies remains fairly limited. We hope that our present paper will partially redress this disequilibrium.\n",
"role": "user"
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"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to compare three cultural approaches from anthropology and business literature: National Culture Approach (NCA), Corporate Culture Approach (CCA), and Transactional Culture Approach (TCA). The author grounds these approaches in different epistemological standpoints and locate them at different positions on the unity-infinity continuum. The author outlines their strengths and weaknesses, and offer the Douglasian Cultural Framework (DCF) as a transactional tool for cultural sense-making.\nDesign/methodology/approach: Reviewing conventional NCA/CCA frameworks reveals that while their simplicity renders them attractive to users, their assumption of stable, internally homogenous and coherent cultures has its limitations. Conversely, reviewing anthropology-based TCA literature reveals that while TCA overcomes some limitations of NCA/CCA frameworks, it also has its weaknesses - it overemphasizes \"self-interest\" as the preferred form of rationality, and some TCA scholars render cultural comparisons impossible by supporting cultural infinity. Finally, examining DCF reveals that it overcomes some limitations of NCA/CCA frameworks, while simultaneously advancing TCA. Nevertheless, DCF too has limitations which are also exposed.\nFindings: Most NCA/CCA scholars support the \"unity\" argument of culture, while some transactional scholars support the \"infinity\" argument. DCF finds a perfect balance between the two through \"constrained relativism\". Also, since DCF focuses on human transactions, it is not limited in its applications to specific levels and scales. It can therefore be applied to scenarios spanning across levels and scales. Finally, it offers a compromise between the differentiation and fragmentation perspectives of corporate culture, and brings out the best of the interpretivist and post-modernistic traditions.\nResearch limitations/implications: The exposition of DCF opens up new avenues for research which have hitherto remained unexplored for want of appropriate frameworks, for instance the UN Peace Corps., NATO, Medecins Sans Frontiers, etc.\nOriginality/value: By focusing on human transactions, the paper allows for a much more dynamic conceptualization of culture as compared to static NCA/CCA frameworks.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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Servicescape interior design and consumers' personality impressions
|
[
"Gestalt",
"Design experts",
"Store interior",
"Personality",
"Wine",
"Consumer behaviour",
"Customer services management"
] |
[
{
"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: One of service and retailing managers' primary goals is to attract and retain customers (Babin and Attaway, 2000). Consumer-self congruity hereby assumes a key role as it links characteristics of the service environment with customer loyalty (Chebat et al., 2009). More specifically, consumers preferably shop environments matching their self-concept (e.g. Donovan et al., 1994; Sirgy et al., 2000; Yim et al., 2007). Previous research has focused on links between consumers' demographics and patronage motives (Pan and Zinkhan, 2006), but the design characteristics underlying self-congruity are not well understood. Since 2003, D'Astous and Levesque (2003) have called for research to examine the underpinnings of personality impressions related to service environments. In spite of their call, there appears to be no study that investigates design antecedents of consumer evaluations. This is all the more surprising because building and managing a distinctive personality plays a pivotal role in services brand management as a prerequisite for differentiation and for building brand equity (Brady et al., 2008; Chebat et al., 2009; Poddar et al., 2009). A more thorough understanding of how consumers infer personality from design should help managers better understand patronage of their outlets, and assist them in formulating marketing programs.Recently, Chebat et al. (2009), based on the brand equity literature (e.g. Brady et al., 2008), proposed a new conceptual model linking the service environment with consumer self-congruity evaluations and loyalty. The empirical results indicate that loyalty is significantly predicted by consumers' self-congruity; and that self-congruity, in turn, is significantly predicted by store image dimensions such as atmosphere, merchandise, price, and promotions. Yet, given the symbolic associations salient in a self-congruity context, the brand personality concept should be more relevant to brand equity than store image (D'Astous and Levesque, 2003; Helgeson and Supphellen, 2004). A fundamental yet important question arises, \"what is the potential role of servicescape design in creating personality impressions?\"To answer this question, our research addresses the ill-understood issue of how consumers' personality impressions relate to interior design. Specifically, based on Chebat et al.'s (2009) store-self-congruity framework and by integrating design perception theory (Berlyne, 1971; Koffka, 1922; Wertheimer, 1925; Veryzer, 1999) with personality theory (D'Astous and Levesque, 2003), we develop and test a model that explains how generic types of interiors relate to generalizable consumer impressions. Thus, adhering to a theory-building approach (Eisenhardt, 1989), the major contribution of this research is to conceptualize and empirically demonstrate systematic and differential relations between holistic types of interior design and servicescape personality as a basis for consumer self-congruity evaluations.\nConceptual framework: Servicescape personality and design\nResearch methodology: We closely follow approaches and procedures established and accepted in research on design (i.e. Henderson et al., 2004; Orth and Malkewitz, 2008). This method has the distinct advantage of integrating the managerial with the consumer perspective. Moreover, cycling between theory and data, the steps comply with Eisenhardt's (1989) criteria for building theory.Stimulus category\nStatistical analysis and results: Analytical approach\nDiscussion and implications: Enfolding literature\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: - The personality impressions evoked by service environments play a key role in attracting and retaining customers. This paper explores the interior design of service and retail environments, and links the designer perspective with the consumer perspective to assist managers in creating and managing interiors for achieving desired responses.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - The authors propose and test a conceptual model that relates types of interior design to consumer impressions of that environment's personality. Two studies establish holistic types of interiors based on design elements and factors with a sample of professionals, and then link those types to generic impressions evoked with consumers.\nFindings: - Store personality relates systematically to five holistic types of interiors. Minimal-shell interiors score high on unpleasantness, complex-shell designs score high on enthusiasm, genuineness, and solidity, moderate-shell interiors generate below-average impressions of sophistication, genuineness, and solidity, low-content interiors score high on enthusiasm and sophistication, and high-content designs score low on enthusiasm, and high on unpleasantness.\nResearch limitations/implications: - This research is limited to wine tasting rooms as an example category. Implications for interior design in general can be drawn from the holistic types of interiors identified and from basic relations to generic dimensions of consumer responses.\nPractical implications: - The findings reported in this research assist managers in more confidently using interior design for positioning and differentiating servicescapes.\nOriginality/value: - Integrating the designer perspective with the customer perspective is a unique approach yielding taxonomy for servicescape interiors, and a holistic perspective on their links with personality impressions.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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Winning ways: what the world's best poker players and entrepreneurs have in common
|
[
"Personal development",
"Training",
"Entrepreneur",
"Business skills",
"Poker"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n__NO_TITLE__: Regardless of whether we are a successful business leader, a middle ranking manager, or an apprentice learning the ropes, we all want to make good decisions and deliver good results. To achieve that we need the right knowledge, skills and attitude. And we do not just need those things once, we need them throughout the course of our lives and careers. In an age where many people do not want or expect a job to last more than a few years, the mantra of life-long learning has never been more important to ensure we remain employable. We are all, if you will, works in progress: we all need continual development if we are to perform at our best.\nSo what are these 13 skills?: winners are considerate and walk in the shoes of others;\nSkill 1 - Winners are considerate and walk in the shoes of others: Beginners tend to focus on their own hand, thinking things like: I have good cards. I got dealt pocket aces. I made a full house! But the smart player soon realises the value of his hand is not an absolute. It is only good or bad relative to his opponents' hands. The best players take the time to consider their competitors. What cards might they be holding, how are they behaving, what are they thinking and why? Then they imagine which cards their opponents think they themselves might have, i.e. looking at themselves through their opponent's eyes. Objective reflection is essential.\nSkill 4 - Winners choose the right game and are market-driven rather than ego-driven: The first decision in poker, as in business, is whether to even play the game. Before they play, the best want to know things like: How good are the opponents? Do they have a big enough stake? Then, if they choose to play and with cards in hand, they ask: How much money is in the pot and how much money is expected to be in the pot if I make my hand? What are the odds of catching the cards that will make me a winner? It is calculation after calculation. Bluffing is part of it but if they cannot calculate the odds of a certain card appearing and the possible return, they are going to lose.\nSkill 10 - Winners have tools to deal with emotion and manage tilt: Greg himself says, \"I can't teach you not to get mad. Heck, I can't teach me not to get mad. Human nature dictates that we are bound to get frustrated, angry, and emotional when things go against us. Therefore, winning is not about avoiding emotion and frustration; it's about managing it so that it's not detrimental to your business or bankroll\".\nThe end game: It is easy to see these same skills in first-class entrepreneurs like Richard Branson and Karren Brady: they are strategic thinkers, shrewd decision makers and they keep their cool. They do not always win but they learn from their mistakes and move on to bigger things. Virgin Cola was a disaster but it did not stop Branson. Birmingham City Football Club was virtually broke when Brady aged just 23 became managing director, but she turned it around and eventually sold it for PS82 million.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: Regardless of whether we are a successful business leader, a middle ranking manager or an apprentice learning the ropes, we all want to make good decisions and deliver good results at work. To achieve that we need the right knowledge, skills and attitude. And we do not just need those things once, we need them throughout the course of our lives and careers. We all need continual development if we are to grow and perform at our best. But when our existing options for improving our performance run dry, who can we turn to? Looking more deeply into how someone else improved their performance, and achieved their goals, can be a source of inspiration and practical ideas. Outliers are the obvious first choice. Their extreme level of success is likely by design, not by accident. Take the world's most successful poker players as an example. Believe it or not, their skills and attitude are worth serious consideration. Just like any successful person there is a reason they got to where they are: they have something the rest of us do not, or if we do have it then it is less well developed. There is much more to their success than meets the eye! The paper aims to discuss these issues.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The author reviewed Greg Dinkin's work and summarised the principles and results in the form of a useful article describing the skills shared between the most successful poker players and entrepreneurs.\nFindings: The best poker players and entrepreneurs share 13 skills, although this is not to imply these are the only common skills between these two groups. There could be more and the ones identified could also evolve over time.\nOriginality/value: The value of Greg's work is that it not only reveals the connections and common skill set shared between these two groups, but also that these skills are not difficult to understand or exclusive to those two groups: they could be learned by anyone with the determination and desire to.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
The power of peers: A new look at the impact of creativity, social context and self-efficacy on entrepreneurial intentions
|
[
"Creativity",
"Peer support",
"Entrepreneurial intentions",
"Entrepreneurial self-efficacy"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Supporting entrepreneurship has been widely recognised as a key strategy for socio-economic development, specifically targeted to reduce unemployment rates in both developed and developing countries (BarNir et al., 2011; Busenitz et al., 2003; Chou et al., 2011; Mastura and Abdul Rashid, 2008; Matlay, 2006; Mueller and Thomas, 2001; VanPraag and Versloot, 2007). Consequently, governments prioritise promoting youth entrepreneurship and making countries more entrepreneur-friendly. In Europe, college and undergraduate students are the major targets of such policies, as specified by the Strategic Framework for European Cooperation in Education and Training (ET, 2020), which aims to enhance creativity and entrepreneurship at all levels of education and training.\nLiterature review: The importance of creativity, defined as the process of generating novel and useful ideas or solutions to problems (Amabile et al., 2005), has been indicated by authors who argue that the future work environment will depend on youth creativity, especially if university graduates (Henderson and Robertson, 2000), for producing economic as well as social value (Dufays, 2014).\nTheoretical and conceptual framework: Creativity, social context, and entrepreneurial intentions\nMethod: Participants and procedure\nResults: All analyses were performed with SPSS 21. Table I shows descriptive analyses and correlations.\nDiscussion: The main purpose of the study was to understand, using a sample of young people, the mechanisms, or indirect effects (Hayes, 2015), linking creativity to entrepreneurial intentions, focussing specifically on the moderating role of social context (peers and family), and the mediation role of entrepreneurial self-efficacy.\nConclusions: To sum up, this paper investigated the role of creativity on youth entrepreneurial intentions by producing empirical evidence that: the role models of having parents or peers entrepreneurs are positively related with entrepreneurial intentions, peer encouragement of becoming entrepreneurs straightens the positive relationship between creativity and entrepreneurial intentions, and entrepreneurial self-efficacy acts as a mediator by explaining the surrounding mechanisms connecting creativity to intentions.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: Although the role of creativity in the entrepreneurial process has long been analysed, only recently scholars have begun addressing its influence on entrepreneurial intentions, showing that complex dynamics characterise this relationship. The purpose of this paper is to understand the surrounding mechanisms (moderation and mediation) that connect creativity to entrepreneurial intentions, with a focus on social context and entrepreneurial self-efficacy.\nDesign/methodology/approach: A structured questionnaire was administered to a sample of 507 students from 17 to 21 years old. The effect of creativity on entrepreneurial intentions and the moderating role of social context were tested with a three-step hierarchical regression, while the mediating effect of self-efficacy was tested by a multiple regression analysis based on the bootstrapping method.\nFindings: The results reveal that: peers who encourage entrepreneurship moderate the relationship between creativity and entrepreneurial intentions by strengthening this relationship, and entrepreneurial self-efficacy mediates the relationship between creativity and entrepreneurial intentions.\nResearch limitations/implications: In light of these results, institutions should draw attention to how creative potential in students differs in order to provide new educational programmes to strengthen self-efficacy in entrepreneurial students and support encouraging social context of peers in which entrepreneurial intentions can be fostered.\nOriginality/value: The study, by responding to the suggestions of conducting research on the interface between creativity and entrepreneurship (Shane and Nicolaou, 2015), brings new empirical details regarding the mechanisms that link creativity to entrepreneurial intentions. Furthermore, it casts light on the interaction between dispositional and social variables, showing the crucial role of peers in enhancing the interaction between creativity and intentions.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
Policy ideals for a reformed education: How police students value new and enduring content in a time of change
|
[
"Gender",
"Skills",
"Vocational education",
"Competencies",
"Police education",
"Police student"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Currently, numerous vocations are experiencing profound reorientations, wherein an emphasis on technical and operative skills is increasingly complemented by a demand for generic competencies and capacities, such as critical thinking, problem solving, reflection and theoretical knowledge (Beckett and Hager, 2013). Shifts such as these can be located within a broad contemporary discourse of professional and vocational education in a 'learning society' characterised by endemic transformations (Field and Lynch, 2015; Nikolou-Walker and Meaklim, 2007). For instance, European educational policy has highlighted the importance of vocational educational institutions fostering lifelong learners who are ready to handle complexity and volatile task environments through generic competencies.\nPolice education in flux: Three current developments relating to occupational training within the police landscape are shifts in police education curricula because of the need for new types of police competencies, shifts in the institutional arrangements of vocational educational training (VET) education and shifts in the groups of students who undergo police education.\nMethod and materials: This section begins with an outline of the empirical context of the study, followed by a description of the instrument used, the participants, the chosen variables and the analytical strategy.\nAnalysis and findings: Of the 320 participants, 301 responded to the question concerning their gender and age, whereas 19 respondents did not (6 per cent). The age distribution ranged from 22 to 43 years; 35 per cent of the respondents were female (n = 112) and 59 per cent were male (n = 189).\nDiscussion: The purpose of this study was to examine how police students value new and enduring content in formal curricula during a time of change. Using a quantitative measure, we examined whether variations could be identified in students' appraisals based on sociodemographic factors (gender and age) and educational factors (based on whether police training was university affiliated or not).\nConclusion: This study has added knowledge to the overarching question of how policy development and curriculum reform in occupational education may be met by students undergoing training. As specified at the beginning of this study, one issue of concern was whether police students disapprove of policy-driven skills, such as communication, flexibility and diversity. The results show that all police students valued these skills as important in police education. However, female police students desired more emphasis on these skills in educational settings. Because females valued the new competencies as more important, they may promote these skills in their future work life and police practice more than male police students. Women can therefore be seen more as agents of change if they have the support, space and acceptance to develop policy-driven skills and use them in practical police work.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: This study aims to examine how subgroups within a cohort of Swedish police students value different types of curricula content (i.e. new competencies versus enduring ones) in the context of the currently transforming landscape of basic police training.\nDesign/methodology/approach: Drawing on a Swedish national survey (N = 369), the study examined variations in how students value new versus enduring police curricula content based on sociodemographic factors. Specifically, factors such as student age and gender and the institutional arrangements of education were tested using an independent t test.\nFindings: The study identified differences in values based on gender. Female students valued competencies such as communication, flexibility, diversity and decisiveness as more important in an educational setting than did males. Fewer differences were found in relation to institutional arrangement, and in-house students valued flexibility and communication skill as more important for educational curricula compared to university-based students. No differences were found in relation to age.\nOriginality/value: This study adds knowledge to the question of how changes in occupational education policy develop in practice. More specifically, the study explored how students in educational programmes value new versus enduring competencies and whether differences can be identified based on sociodemographic factors. These questions are important because they expose sociodemographic conditions that influence how students value policy-driven skills versus enduring ones.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Radio frequency identification (RFID) in China: opportunities and challenges
|
[
"China",
"Supply chain management",
"Business environment",
"Retailing"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Radio frequency identification (RFID) technology was predicted to be one of the \"top ten\" technologies in 2004 and 2005 (Janz et al., 2005; CNN, 2003). The goal of RFID technology is to create an environment where every object can be automatically recognized, identified, tracked, and traced from the factory, through shipping and warehousing, and into the retail environment. RFID technology, which uniquely identifies every product and tracks its movements in a value chain, offers an unprecedented real-time view of assets and inventories throughout the global supply chain. This may result in radical changes to a number of industries, such as manufacturing, retail, transportation, health care, life sciences, pharmaceuticals, and government. Current RFID applications include airport baggage handling, electronic payment, retail theft prevention, library systems, automotive manufacturing, parking, postal services, and homeland security (Smith and Konsynski, 2003).McFarlane and Sheffi (2003) suggest that RFID helps to \"play the current game better\" through reduced costs and increased sales, and also \"facilitates new games,\" such as manufacturing customization and visibility extension. Gap, a wardrobe purveyor, achieved a 15 percent sales increase at its RFID-equipped store (McGinity, 2004). The initial estimated cost savings for Wal-Mart RFID-equipped stores include $6.7 billion in reduced labor costs, $600 million in out-of-stock supply chain cost reductions, $575 million in theft reduction, $300 million in improved tracking through warehousing and distribution centers, and $180 million in reduced inventory holding and carrying costs (Asif and Mandviwalla, 2005). Another important contribution of RFID is visibility at each and every point across the extended supply chain (Verisign, 2004). The visibility generated by RFID includes finished-goods inventory, production procedures, and assets (Byrne, 2004).A number of large companies provide RFID technology solutions, such as SAP, Oracle, IBM, Microsoft, Hewlett Packard, and Sun Microsystems. This makes RFID more feasible and practical to be widely deployed. The adoption of RFID is also being enhanced by mandates from large retailers, such as Wal-Mart. In addition, the US Department of Defense required their top suppliers to implement RFID technology in their supply chains by January 1, 2005 (Asif and Mandviwalla, 2005; McGinity, 2004; Boyle, 2003). In the future, companies may be required to use RFID, just as they now must use the internet (McGinity, 2004).A recent survey of 90 companies reported that 40 percent of manufacturers and 10 percent of retailers had target dates for phasing in RFID (US News, 2005). A Frontline Solutions' survey conducted in September 2004 reported that many organizations were trying to get ready for RFID, even if all the technology was not in place to support it (eWeek, 2004). Respondents cited costs (60 percent), the lack of standards (42 percent), an early or untested market (36 percent), and integration issues (30 percent) as the major challenges to RFID implementation (eWeek, 2004). Privacy and security also have been cited as concerns for RFID deployment (Smith, 2005; Shih et al., 2005).The purpose of this paper is to identify the opportunities and challenges of RFID adoption in China. Despite numerous opportunities, China faces a number of challenges for RFID adoption. In the following sections, we give a brief introduction about how RFID works. We then present the current status and opportunities and challenges of RFID in China. Finally, we present an example of RFID adoption in China and provide concluding remarks.\nHow RFID works: RFID technology, electronic product codes (EPC), and the EPCglobal Network were designed by the Auto-ID Center to replace to the barcode system. The Auto-ID Center partnership was founded in 1999 by five leading research universities and nearly 100 leading retailers, consumer products makers, and software companies (Kambil and Brooks 2002, Niemeyer et al., 2003). Similar to the barcode, the EPC is a unique number that identifies a specific item in the supply chain and is divided into numbers that identify the manufacturer and product type. However, unlike the barcode, the EPC uses an extra set of digits for a serial number to identify unique items. Where barcodes only distinguish among products, the EPC codes are unique to each unit and can provide more detailed information. EPC has a version number which defines the variety of EPC among a number of possible structures and can be used to express a wide variety of existing numbering systems, such as Global Trade Identification Number (GTIN), Serial Shipping Container Code (SSCC), GLN (Global Location Number), and Global Returnable Asset Identifier (GRAI).EPC, stored in the RFID tag, is superior to the barcode because its user does not need to know where an object is and does not need to get close to scan it (Smith, 2005). In a typical RFID system, RFID tags are attached to objects. The tags are powered and send out EPC information when detecting a signal from the tag reader. Once the EPC is retrieved from the tag, it can be associated with dynamic data such as its location of origin and the product movement along the supply chain. The data collected by the RFID reader will be sent to a middleware, Savant, which processes the data. The processed data will be sent to backend databases to be utilized by enterprise systems, like inventory management systems, production planning systems, and supply chain management systems (Bhuptani and Moradpour, 2005; Angles, 2005).To distribute EPC codes quickly and efficiently, the Auto-ID Center designed a network system - EPCglobal Network, using the Internet Protocol (IP). This network allows all parties in the supply chain to receive up-to-the-minute intelligence about product movement and product information. In this network, the manufacturer and trading partners create and store the serialized information about each and every product. The manufacturer manages and hosts the information about the generation of the product, while the trading partners manage and host information about the product's movement through the supply chain (Verisign, 2004).When any part of a supply chain requests product or product movement information, they send a request for particular EPC information to the Object Name Service (ONS). ONS provides a global lookup service to translate an EPC into one or more Internet Uniform Reference Locators (URLs). The URLs provide detailed information about production and movement of the product, which is stored with the manufacturer and/or trading partners (Asif and Mandviwalla, 2005) in a Product Mark Language (PML) format. PML is largely based on eXtensive Markup Language (XML) (Angles, 2005).\nMethodology: We used field interview for this study. The field interview was chosen because RFID adoption in China was largely in pilot study stage and the challenges and opportunities of RFID deployment were not clearly identified and formulated.In this study, we interviewed 13 middle-level or senior managers in areas of retailing, logistics, and supply chain management, with open discussions regarding opportunities and challenges of RFID adoption in China. The interview questions were open-structured and largely based on literature review about RFID adoption in western countries, like USA and UK. The questions were also revised on an on-going basis once an interview was completed.Based on the results of field interviews, we summarized and formulated opportunities and challenges of RFID adoption in China. Then the results were discussed in a panel discussion meeting with nine experts from academic, industry, and government. The details of opportunities and challenges of RFID adoption in China identified in the interviews and panel discussion are presented below.\nRFID in China: Current status\nOpportunities: RFID industry chain\nChallenges: Standards\nAn example of RFID adoption in China: To date, the most successful application of RFID in China is in the rail industry. The two areas selected for RFID adoption were in railway train scheduling and long-distance identification systems. The Ministry of Railway (MOR), with its own intelligence property rights, began developing this RFID technology in the mid-1990s as a solution of the Automatic Train Information System (ATIS). The RFID technology was finally deployed in 2004.Over 0.6 million railway wagons and locomotives are now equipped with RFID tags. Automatic Equipment Identification (AEI) devices, an RFID reader product from Transcore, are installed at all strategic points, such as railway junction points, yards, segment stations, super cargo stations, and boundary stations. When the train passes these strategic points, AEI collects the train's information, such as locomotive, wagon, and containers, which is stored in an RFID tag. This information is then relayed to the Central Processing System (CPS). The CPS works as a middleware, like Savant, to process the information collected by AEI and also manage AEI devices. The processing in CPS includes filtering, aggregating, storing, forwarding, etc. The processed information is then sent to the Train Management Information System (TMIS), a back-end system. The TMIS hosts accurate and real-time records, tracks and traces the status of all locomotives, wagons, and containers. It also controls the train traffic flow, and reschedules the locomotives and wagons if needed (Shen and Shi, 2005).The system can track the location of railway wagons and locomotives in real time. Formerly, the tracking of railway wagon and cargo, along with locomotive scheduling, was based on manual identifying and counting of trains. This was time-consuming and error-prone. After the adoption of RFID, identification and counting were automated to real-time, and the train and cargo can be dynamically tracked even when they are on the move. So the visibility of transportation is significantly improved. The estimated annual cost savings resulting from RFID adoption is estimated to be US$ 38 million (RFID China, 2005b).This system is the first nation-wide RFID-based network in China. Unfortunately, since this system is not based on open architecture, it cannot connect to other systems. If the system was designed with open architecture, it could provide the benefits of information and standardization for China's whole logistics industry (RFID China, 2005b).\nConclusion: RFID is part of a new generation of information technology known as \"Contactless communication\" and the foundation of the \"Silent business\" and \"Internet of things\". RFID may improve supply chain visibility, reduce costs and improve efficiency, but it may also cause security and privacy problems. Despite China's RFID adoption challenges and corresponding low adoption rates, Sheffi (2004) argued that RFID will follow the adoption path of other disruptive technologies, such as television, automobile, and refrigeration toward wide adoption.In this study, we used field interview and panel discussion to identify the opportunities and challenges of RFID in China. There are several challenges presented for RFID adoption, such as standardization, business environment, business models, and costs. However, there also are a vast number of opportunities, due to China's world-class manufacturing position, the rapid growth of logistics, and its rapid economic growth.Although companies with early implementation of RFID may find that their initial costs will be greater over the short-term, they can achieve significant long-term advantages. Those risk-averse companies that choose not to adopt RFID technology may risk the loss of market share to those companies that adopt RFID (Smith, 2005). Therefore, we suggest that Chinese companies positively face the challenges of RFID and actively adjust their business models to adopt RFID. RFID adoption is not only inevitable, but it can allow a company to reduce its costs and gain a competitive advantage over the long-term.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: - RFID has fundamental influences on today's retailing and supply chain management. This article seeks to formulate the opportunities and challenges of RFID adoption in China.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - Field interview and panel discussion were used to explore the opportunities and challenges of RFID adoption in China. An example of successful RFID deployment in China is presented.\nFindings: - Although Chinese companies are exposed to several challenges in the adoption of RFID, there are numerous opportunities for RFID deployment. Challenges include China's standards, costs, business environment, business models, and untested market. The opportunities include China's huge market size, advances of several industries, a rapid increase in logistics demand, and China's role as a world-class manufacturing center.\nOriginality/value: - This article represents a pioneer study of RFID adoption in China. Opportunities and challenges of RFID adoption in China were identified, which provide valuable guidance for RFID adoption for Chinese companies and foreign companies operating in China.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Corporate governance in China: a review
|
[
"Corporate governance",
"Ownership"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: Traditional research in corporate governance focuses on the system of principles, policies, procedures and clearly defined responsibilities and accountabilities used by stakeholders to eliminate or minimize conflicts. Corporate governance objectives include eliminating or mitigating conflicts of interest among stakeholders and ensuring that the assets of the company are used efficiently and productively in the best interests of investors and other stakeholders. An understanding of corporate governance practices in developing markets is important for a variety of reasons. For example, investors in emerging countries prefer companies with good corporate governance (Gill, 2001). Additionally, Stulz (2005) argues that understanding emerging market attributes are important for financial decision-making because there is the twin agency problem of state rulers and corporate insiders. A better understanding of corporate governance also helps to deter fraud in emerging markets (Li et al., 2006). Recently, Shi et al. (2015) examine China-based stocks and present empirical evidence implying that good corporate governance of firms leads to their attractiveness as investment vehicles for both the short and long terms. In general, the quality of corporate governance exhibits direct implications for the risks, value and sustainability of a corporation: an ineffective system of corporate governance often results in major accounting, asset, liability and strategic policy risks to the company and its investors. Clarke (2004) argues that continuous improvements in corporate governance are necessary to achieve improvements in corporate performance and accountability. Thus for these reasons, among others, it is important to study the quality of corporate governance practices.\n2. Corporate governance in China: In recent years, there has been increasing attention on China's economic growth. Given China's increasing importance in the current world economy and the globalization trend, a better understanding of China's economy and related corporate governance issues provides important implications to China's regulators and benefits both domestic and international investors. Specifically, a better understanding of Chinese corporate governance practices is important in light of the country's economic and legislative reforms. In a historical analysis, Kang et al. (2008) outline four stages surrounding China's corporate governance development. These stages include:\n3. Avenues for future research: Future research can further investigate corporate social responsibility in China. Recent empirical studies evaluate the ethics positions of senior business leaders in China. For example, Ramasamy and Yeung (2013) survey 256 senior managers from Mainland China in evaluating their ethics position and find that a sizeable portion of them are absolutist. Their study implies that a moral set of rules will be followed because it will more likely result in the best consequence for all involved. Woodbine et al. (2012) studied 612 Certified Public Accountants employed in four separate regions of China and found that the ethical tone within local accounting firms plays a significant role in forming ethical positions. Clarke (2000) links weak corporate governance to the Asian financial crisis of 1997 and delineates key objectives for developing robust corporate governance in East Asia. Such objectives include:\n4. Concluding remarks: This study examines China's corporate governance structures through the thematic lens of Kang et al. (2008):\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: This study aims to provide a review of corporate governance in China because effective and strong corporate governance is necessary for the efficient functioning and long-term sustainability of financial markets and corporations.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The author provides a literature review of corporate governance in China through themes such as the concentration of state ownership, the degree of independence among board directors, insider trading, quality of financial disclosures and the maturity of capital markets.\nFindings: The author reviews empirical work surrounding key corporate governance variables and identifies avenues for future research. The author finds that corporate governance mechanisms exhibit implications for firm performance, fraud, capital retention, financial constraints, institutional investors, auditing and the quality of financial disclosures. In addition, the author reviews evidence documenting the importance of independent board directors in regulation and ethical conduct.\nOriginality/value: The literature review contributes to the growing literature on responsible corporate governance and provides further understanding of the importance of business ethics for promoting the integrity and long-term sustainability of China's capital markets and corporations and to ensure that company assets are used efficiently and productively in the best interests of investors and other stakeholders. This study offers insights to policy-makers interested in enhancing the quality of corporate governance within their nation. In addition, it provides a macro-level perspective for executives of multinational firms to consider if they are considering making a direct investment in China.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
The Scottish Parliament and e-democracy
|
[
"Democracy",
"Parliament",
"Scotland",
"Citizen participation",
"Internet"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n__NO_TITLE__: The fact that the Scottish Parliament was established well into the age of the internet has given it a huge advantage in terms of incorporating new information and communication technologies into its practices and procedures. Although the Parliament was established as a result of the Scotland Act, passed by the UK Parliament in 1998, it was able to be created in an astonishingly short time because of the wealth of discussion and cross-party agreement that had taken place over many of the preceding years. Much of this prior planning was encapsulated in the work of the Consultative Steering Group (CSG), which was set up by the Secretary of State for Scotland in November 1997 under the chairmanship of Henry McLeish MP. Their report, Shaping Scotland's Parliament, was published in December 1998 and made detailed recommendations for how the Parliament should actually work (Scottish Office, 1998a).\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: - To describe the initiatives of the Scottish Parliament in the field of e-democracy and assess the prospects for future developments.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - Analysis and review.\nFindings: - The Scottish Parliament has always seen the internet as one of the major mechanisms for engaging Scottish citizens in the Parliament's business and activities. Its most successful initiatives have been the e-petitioning system, the webcasting of proceedings, the discussion forums and the MSP video diaries.\nResearch limitations/implications: - Relevant to parliaments and other representative institutions.\nPractical implications: - Simple implementable tools are described that have been shown to be effective.\nOriginality/value: - Few parliaments have been able to put theory into practice in a short time. Applicable to other small parliaments with limited resources wishing to enhance democratic participation by electronic means.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Exploring mechanisms of outstanding business leadership facing transitioning environment: a life-narrative perspective
|
[
"Outstanding leadership",
"Business leader",
"Life narrative",
"Qualitative"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Outstanding business leaders facilitate company growth and shape communities and broader social systems beyond organizational boundaries (Bedell-Avers et al., 2009). Outstanding leadership refers to one's capability of achieving high collective performance through exercising exceptional influence on others, which typically emerges during unusual situations such as crisis and change (Mumford et al., 2008). Despite the substantial progress on the theoretical frameworks specifying different patterns of outstanding leadership and their forming conditions (Bedell-Avers et al., 2009; Ligon et al., 2008; Mumford and Van Doorn, 2001; Mumford et al., 2008; Strange and Mumford, 2002; Strange and Mumford, 2005), a dynamic narrative delineating the generative mechanism of sustained outstanding leadership, particularly in a fast-changing business environment, is yet to be achieved. To fill this gap, this research seeks to identify those critical mechanisms of outstanding business leadership in a rapidly transitioning economy (i.e. China) and explore how it comes into being over time as a processual result of the continuous interplay among leaders' surrounding contextual elements, their decision-making at critical life moments and the consequences of their strategic decisions.Following rapid economic growth, the rise of emerging markets has created a turbulent and unstable business ecosystem in the Asia-Pacific region, where organizational leaders need to develop an effective combination of leadership capabilities distinct from their Western counterparts in order to survive, adapt and grow (Hout and Michael, 2014). Emerging leadership practices in these growing regions call for a strong need to investigate the context-sensitive elements in the local leadership phenomena, which contributes to the global knowledge of management (Tsui, 2004). Being a vast emerging market economy in a drastic transition, China has a typical East Asian business milieu different from many mature markets, providing fertile and informative contexts in many aspects for leadership studies (Roy et al., 2001). We may wonder: in such a transitioning market, why some business leaders managed to maintain their excellence for decades while many others failed quickly? Thus, our research question is: What are the underlying mechanisms contributing to the sustainable leadership performance in a transitioning environment over time? Considering the enormous quantity of business organizations driving Chinese economy, answers to this important question could have profound implications on both literature and practices regarding business leadership. Despite this research imperative, the underlying elements of outstanding business leadership in transition economy have not received enough scholarly attention in leadership literature.This paper responds to the aforementioned research question by exploring the contextual details of outstanding leadership development with qualitative evidence from top business leaders in contemporary China. We seek to reveal the critical mechanisms through which leaders can effectively lead their organization to a sustainable growth in a volatile environment. The following section presents China as a significant context for business leadership in emerging markets and reviews extant literature on outstanding leadership and life-narrative approach. Findings from a qualitative analysis reveal the behavioral components of outstanding leadership among successful Chinese business leaders. Next, contributions, implications for future research and limitations are then discussed.\nTheoretical background: Business leadership in China's economic and cultural transition\nData collection and analysis: This study adopted a multiple case design, which enables an in-depth understanding of the dynamic and interactive nature of leadership phenomenon among top leaders in a real-world context (e.g. Mumford and Van Doorn, 2001) and contributes to the robustness of theory building (Eisenhardt, 1989) by controlling for the peculiarities of individual cases. Following the principle of theoretical sampling (Glaser and Strauss, 1967), a general guideline was developed to target potential interviewees who are able to share experience of the outstanding leadership phenomenon as our research sample: The selected interviewees should be widely acknowledged among the top business leaders in their respective fields. For example, s/he has been leading one or more influential companies for decades or has been constantly receiving media exposure and rated by authoritative media sources as one of the most influential business leaders in China. Following this guideline, we reviewed biographic summary material based on information from media reports, websites and published texts and targeted 20 leaders from business organizations across various industries. These targeted candidates who were considered as representatives of outstanding leadership shared the following characteristics. First, all of them experienced significant decision-making moments, which led their organizations to expand and grow upward. Second, the organizations had all successfully evolved, under their leadership, from a small business to a large business group with a track record of sustainable development for two to three decades. Third, they had been receiving constant public attention via mass media reports and created substantial social impacts beyond their fields to the society as celebrity thought leaders. Finally, there were cross-case variances among leaders' demographic information regarding their age and career backgrounds.We contacted these targeted leaders, discussed our academic background and asked for their interview schedule. As a result, we successfully conducted semistructured interviews with 17 of them in their offices over a three-year period since 2016. Table 1 summarizes the profile of these leaders and their firms. They had an average age of 59 at the time of our interview. Among them, 11 of them (64.71%) were the organization founders (private sector) and the other six (35.29%) were appointed as the chairman or president of a state-owned organization. Most of them (16, 94.12%) had received tertiary education by the time of our interview. Most of their companies (14, 82.35%) were founded before 2000 and located in Beijing (9, 52.94%) and had been running business across various industries such as home appliances, petroleum, electronics, Internet and others.Before each interview, we had 1-h internal discussion among research team members to prepare a set of open questions to set the tone and for respondents to fully narrate their life events and business achievements. Using the life-narrative perspective, we prepared general questions for them to share their life experiences, such as \"Can you share with us your leadership achievements?\" and \"Can you recall additional significant life events which influence your current leadership style?\" We also devised customized questions for different leaders based on the past life events we collected about each business leader, regarding their strategic decision-making in these events and how that shaped their subsequent leadership behaviors. Other questions were directly related to their leadership behaviors, such as \"How would you describe your management and leadership style?\" and \"How do you perform your leadership in the organization?\" This interview approach allows for the mutual communication to stay on the main topics pertaining to our research question and leaves much leeway for respondents to narrate their life stories in an open manner, helping reveal crucial themes of leadership. Each interview was attended by two researchers and one research assistant and lasted for 2 h on average. As these interviewees were top-level executives in their fields, each time at least one senior professor joined our interviewer team to balance the power dynamics during the interview. We also alleviated the potential power imbalance through topic agenda setting in coconstructing the discourse in the interview (Karnieli-Miller et al., 2009). Permission to publish their life stories without revealing their identity was granted by interviewees at the beginning of each interview. Interview meetings were video-recorded and then verbatim transcribed into texts averaging approximately 20 single-spaced pages per respondent.We followed two steps to complete the data analysis. First, the transcription text of each leader was analyzed as a stand-alone case to allow unique patterns to emerge inductively. Important themes were identified and separated from tangential and unimportant ones. Second, cross-case analysis was conducted to diagnose case-level differences and distill generalizable themes (Eisenhardt, 1989). Two researchers independently read and coded these interview transcriptions into primary themes. Both researchers were sensitive to the idiosyncratic context of each respondent as each of them had experienced a unique life course along their leadership development. Any disagreements in assessment were further discussed to obtain additional insights and achieve final consensus. We proceeded the analysis in an iterative manner until saturation was achieved (Glaser and Strauss, 1967). Our analysis of the transcription resulted in the following four major themes pertaining to outstanding leadership in the contemporary China.\nFindings: Relationship with government: an art of balance\nDiscussion: This qualitative study adopts a life-narrative perspective to explore outstanding leadership among top Chinese business entrepreneurs. Grounded on interviews from top business leaders, the four aspects of leadership activities we identified construct the critical mechanisms through which outstanding leadership can be sustained in an ever-changing environment, that is, balancing relationship with government, leveraging market uncertainties, reinventing and consolidating the organization and self-regulation, learning and improvement. The success of their business leadership depended on their performance on these activities they were frequently involved in.Our research contributes to the existing leadership literature and leadership practices in contemporary Chinese society. First, our case analysis reveals the four major leadership activities effective leaders are involved in driving their organizations toward a long-term growth. This finding implies that the effectiveness of business leadership is driven by leaders' success on a range of critical dimensions, which further indicates the necessity for leaders to be dexterous over multiple tasks simultaneously. This is especially the case for organizational leadership in a fast-changing economy, where leaders are simultaneously involved in leveraging external uncertainties, building rapport with government, consolidating internal governance and conducting self-adjustment. This leadership multidexterity extends findings on mixed-type leaders (Strange and Mumford, 2002), as well as the research practice in extant literature (Ligon et al., 2008; Strange and Mumford, 2005), which characterizes a leader with only one a priori leadership category (i.e. either charismatic or pragmatic). The presumption of pure leadership styles may prevent the examination of mixed leadership and limits the generalizability of research findings. In fact, a pure leadership style can be deemed as a case in which the primary leadership component overrides other leadership elements at a certain point in one's life. In a broad sense, mixed-type leadership could be considered a more proper conceptualization approximate to the real-world situations in which leaders interact with numerous contextual influences.Second, by investigating outstanding leadership among Chinese top business leaders in an emerging market, our findings serve as an initial attempt toward developing an indigenous explanation of outstanding leadership as a culturally and contextually relevant theory suited to local organizational leaders. Our fourfold conceptualization of outstanding leadership mechanisms constructed by critical activities corresponds to the Chinese traditional philosophy of thinking that emphasizes a harmonious status achieved by constant adjustment to simultaneously accommodate heterogeneous elements (Fang, 2012). Chen (2002) also elaborated the Chinese \"paradoxical integration\" (i.e. both/and) mind-set that balances the tensions between various seemingly opposite forces as they consider every aspect of life as interconnected. Rather than lay emphasis on one or two activities, business leaders in our interview simultaneously operated maintenance and explorative activities both within and across organizational boundaries. This bidirectional ambidexterity in driving outstanding leadership contributes to the literature through an inside-out approach (Tsui, 2006), serving as an exemplar for more studies with similar approach to exploring context-specific issues in local leadership practices.Last, but not least, our findings generate practical implications for expatriate business leaders to understand leadership phenomena in China and then make informed decisions. Expatriates who adapt well to the local environment and stay attuned to their successful Chinese counterparts can be marked by those effectively involved in these critical leadership activities. Meanwhile, they may also bear in mind that the importance of these leadership activities is bound by China's fast-changing economic landscape. Along with the stabilization of economic environment and internationalization of market institutions, legal ambiguities would gradually diminish and business processes in Chinese companies may converge toward those in Western organizations. Thus, the relationship boundary with government and internal disciplines is expected to be clearly defined and standardized at the early stage of business development. Over time, foreign executives leading in Chinese market would be able to spare themselves from maintenance activities (i.e. balancing government relationship and consolidating organizational discipline) to focus more on explorative activities such as constructing market competitiveness, learning and adaptation.This research is not without limitations. First, caution is advised in extrapolating our findings to leadership in other markets. Since our findings are drawn from Chinese leaders in a specific economic and cultural macrocontext, and acceptable and effective leadership behaviors could vary by culture (House and Aditya, 1997), our findings may not directly match leadership activities in other emerging markets. When conducting leadership research in different societies with distinct social and cultural patterns, researchers may take a further step to examine whether alternative or additional indictors relate to outstanding leadership. Second, leadership as a complexity involves multiple layers, interactive processes and evolving dynamics (Avolio and Bass, 1995; Conger, 1998; Dinh et al., 2014). We recognize that looking backward can be dramatically different from looking onward (Lord and Dinh, 2014). In this regard, the four major leadership activities we revealed should better be interpreted as the foundation that leadership success can be built upon, rather than direct predictors for future organizational performance. Lastly, as we only investigate successful business cases, our findings may be affected by the potential trap of selection bias (Denrell, 2005). Further research is recommended to target both outstanding and nonoutstanding cases to explore leadership phenomena from different angles.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: Through a life-narrative perspective, this research seeks to reveal the underlying mechanisms driving and sustaining outstanding leadership among top Chinese business leaders in a transitioning environment.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The authors extracted primary thematic patterns of leadership activities by analyzing the qualitative data collected from in-depth semistructured interviews with 17 top business leaders in China.\nFindings: Results revealed four major activities through which leaders can effectively lead their organizations toward a long-term growth, that is, balancing relationship with government, leveraging market uncertainties, reinventing and consolidating the organization and self-regulation and adaptation.\nOriginality/value: The findings explain how outstanding leadership can emerge in a typical transition economy through multidexterity in critical leadership activities and shed light on developing a contextually relevant theory of outstanding leadership.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
Norbert Dentressangle delivers managers of tomorrow: Foundation-degree students impress course leader
|
[
"Management development",
"Logistics",
"Universities",
"Career development"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n__NO_TITLE__: The UK arm of a major European transport and logistics firm is delivering its managers of the future through a foundation degree in which work-based learning plays a central part.\nCentral role of work-based learning: Work-based learning is central to the ethos of the program and the course requires minimum levels of absence from the workplace. Typically the university provides a one-day workshop every two months. Each workshop can take place on the company's premises or location of preference.Courses cover topics such as personal-development planning, the management role, the effective manager, supervision and team leadership, managing health and safety, improving business operations, the recruitment and development of staff, budgets and financial control, sales and customer service, office management and facilities management.Delegates complete 12 courses during the two-year program.Assessment is by way of work-based projects that are relevant to Norbert Dentressangle and focus on improving day-to-day performance.The company has been closely involved in tailoring the qualification content to meet the specific needs of the business and to shape the detail at the point of delivery and assessment. The learning materials, in particular, are specifically designed to integrate academic theory with real-life work.Moreover, the program is believed to be the first in the UK to offer the ILM (Institute of Leadership & Management) level 5 extended diploma in leadership and management to middle managers as part of a foundation degree.Brian Murray, general manager at Norbert Dentressangle's Bellshill depot, is currently working towards the degree. \"With most of the modules being work based it has allowed me to put into practice what I have learned in the classroom,\" he said. \"Most importantly, I firmly believe that I will be a better leader as a result of what I have learned from being on this course.\"Mark Simmons, HR director at Norbert Dentressangle Logistics UK, commented: \"This is an excellent addition to our career-management offering in the UK logistics division. It provides a great platform for the continued development of leadership skills within Norbert Dentressangle, which directly supports our commitment to grow and invest in the talent in our business.\"Chris Dolby, Norbert Dentressangle's learning and development manager, enthused: \"Since beginning the course, three delegates have already been promoted to more senior positions.\"The feedback from students has been extremely positive and we are confident that we can replicate these achievements in future. Most importantly, the current participants have developed and applied knowledge that will enable them to deliver measurable business improvements, as well as enhancing their own career prospects.\"\nLearning and development center: Meanwhile, Norbert Dentressangle Logistics UK has invested in a new learning and development center and operational-training manager to provide certificate of professional competence (CPC) training at its head office in Northampton.New European Union legislation makes it mandatory for all heavy-goods-vehicle (HGV) drivers to obtain a driver CPC by 2014. To ensure its compliance, Norbert Dentressangle is designing and implementing its own in-house training program.The training will be accredited by the joint approvals unit for periodic training (JAUPT) and will mean that all new and existing drivers meet the periodic training requirements to ensure that their CPC remains current.The learning and development facility will become the central location for co-ordination of the program, which will then be introduced throughout the business. Chris Grey, the new operational-training manager, will be responsible for organizing this and ensuring that all the drivers receive the required amount of training.The bespoke program will also link with Norbert Dentressangle's safe-driving plan. Introduced almost 20 years ago in response to the group's commitment to road safety, it aims to reinforce to drivers the importance of defensive-driving techniques such as vigilance and anticipation.Chris Dolby commented: \"The in-house training is designed to confirm and expand on the existing knowledge and skills of each driver. Delivered in conjunction with our safe-driving plan, it will help to ensure that our drivers fulfil CPC requirements and continue to be safe, courteous and fuel-efficient drivers.\"Norbert Dentressangle, which acquired Christian Salvesen in 2007, has 29,600 employees at 370 sites across 14 European countries. The UK logistics division, which employs 6,400 people at 77 sites, is based in Northampton.\nNote: David Pollitt, Human Resource Management International Digest Editor, wrote this article.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: - Describes how the UK logistics division of Norbert Dentressangle has teamed up with the University of Northampton Business School to offer the two-year degree to the company's talented first-line and middle managers.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - Details the origins of the program, its content, the way it is organized and some initial results.\nFindings: - Reveals that participants have developed and applied knowledge that will enable them to deliver measurable business improvements, as well as enhance their own career prospects.\nPractical implications: - Stresses that work-based learning is central to the ethos of the program and the course requires minimum levels of absence from the workplace. Assessment is by way of work-based projects that are relevant to Norbert Dentressangle and focus on improving day-to-day performance. The company has been closely involved in tailoring the qualification content to meet the specific needs of the business and to shape the detail at the point of delivery and assessment.\nSocial implications: - Describes a very practical program that is helping to break down barriers between higher education and the world of work.\nOriginality/value: - Highlights how first-tier and middle managers, who may not have a degree, can become very successful higher-education students because of their commitment to study and the skills they have gained in the workplace.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
Simulation of goods delivery process
|
[
"Transportation",
"Freight forwarding",
"Goods delivery",
"Simulation",
"Agent‐based simulation",
"Behavioral modeling",
"City logistics",
"Environmental impacts"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1 Introduction: Urban goods distribution is vital for the prosperity of inner cities, especially for the shopping areas that fulfill an important role for the city. However, goods transport induces noise, air pollution, physical hindrance and a decrease in traffic safety. Freight transportation with electric powered vans is interesting thanks to the benefits on noise, energy and emissions. But when the fleet management is not optimized very well, problems remain. One problem, for example, is the congestion created by searching for one available parking place in order to complete the delivery.Reversely, the urban structure induces accessibility constraints as well as logistical efficiency problems to the urban goods transport system. This results in the increase of trip delays, a lower quality (reliability) and in some cases inefficient logistical systems by using more vehicles (vans) than necessary. No discussion can take place without an overview of the interactions between the urban spatial structure and the transportation network. For it, authorities require tools analyzing problems associated with city logistics.The main objective of these works is to build a prototype tool for local authorities of urban transport for optimizing the sharing of parking places between light cars and freight vans. For it, consequences of interactions between different actors of transportation system will be simulated and the environmental benefits will be pointed out.This paper is organized as follows. After the introduction, Section 2 treats about the interests and difficulties to manage a goods distribution system. In Section 3, the main principles of an agent-based simulation used for describing interactions between the network users are described. The main tools used for the evaluation of transportation and environmental impacts of new strategies are also presented. Section 4 presents a study case and Section 5 focuses on works in progress.\n2 Coexistence of light vehicles and vans for goods delivery: 2.1 State of art\n3 Simulation of the sharing of the parking places: 3.1 Choice of agent-based simulation\n4 The study case: Elcidis (at La Rochelle): 4.1 Interests of the electric van use\n5 Works in progress: 5.1 A three-dimensional simulation\n6 Conclusions and perspectives: The purpose of the paper is the framework development based on agent technology for simulating the impacts of the coexistence of light cars with vans for goods delivery.Because within urban areas are only limited opportunities to enhance physical capacity of road infrastructure at surface level, the retained idea is to analyze the impacts of a spatial and temporal dynamic booking of on-street stopping places (to park light cars or to deliver goods).This paper focuses on the management process of the parking places shared between car drivers and van drivers. For it, we have provided a framework to build easily the model of a system existing or future. The simulation tool is based on multi-agent paradigm. Several types of agents (private cars, freight vehicles, control, stopping) are built and their interactions generate the activity of roads and car parks. The drivers of private cars are agents able to decide and to learn, in agreement with a realist behavioral model. Their behavior is strongly dependent on the period of the day (peak or out-of-peak), of the type of activity to perform (work, shopping, etc.). The method for the design of behavioral model is the stated preferences methodology.One application is presented in order to propose the optimization of goods delivery process in urban area of La Rochelle by sharing the parking places between private cars drivers and vans drivers for goods deliveries.Several aspects are under development: a 3D ground for simulation able to capture perception of the agents in spatial scale and a more exhaustive behavioral model. For it, scenarios are built by using linguistic terms and pictures for capturing the attributes of the road.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: - This paper claims that the parking policy is one of the most obvious tools for reducing traffic congestion, pollutant emissions and conflicts between transportation network users. The purpose of this paper is to propose and implement a strategy, via a simulation tool, for the sharing of parking places between light cars and vans for goods delivery.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - Temporal and spatial dynamic booking of on-street parking places is described by using the multi-agent paradigm. Main agents concerned by the sharing of parking places, their rules and interactions are implemented. Behavioral models and learning process of cognitive agents based on stated preferences collected beside the network users are designed for capturing multi-agent interactions.\nFindings: - By coupling a 2D traffic simulation tool and the Copert III methodology, it is possible to simulate the traffic and environmental consequences of several scenarios for different infrastructures, occupancy rate of the places reserved for goods delivery and durations of the delivery process.\nResearch limitations/implications: - Several points are under development: a 3D environment will capture with more realism the behavior of agents in a larger spatial scale and in real time. The behavioral models will be designed by stated preferences obtained from surveys containing questions coupled with pictures of possible scenarios.\nPractical implications: - Applied in a real context, the sharing of parking places strategy shows benefits for traffic and for the environment. A decision maker can use this strategy for simulating scenarios, in the context of an urban area in particular.\nOriginality/value: - The paper demonstrates how a simulation tool based on strategy of parking place sharing can satisfy constraints of transportation network users.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
Two-way assessment of key performance indicators to vaccine supply chain system in India
|
[
"Balanced scorecard",
"Analytic hierarchy process",
"Immunization",
"Two-way assessment",
"Vaccine supply chain"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: One of the easiest and simplest ways to protect children right from their birth is to immunize them against various infectious diseases through vaccination. To achieve this goal, World Health Organization (WHO) established an expanded program on immunization (EPI) in 1974 so that children around the globe have access to six basic vaccines or essential vaccines. Since the inception of EPI, the development of additional vaccines has improved significantly, which doubles the total number of vaccines in the regular EPI program. Although the introduction of new vaccines in the EPI scheduled is saving lives, but there has also been a corresponding increase in the cost and complexity of the vaccine supply chain and vaccine delivery due to such vaccine introductions (Giersing et al., 2017). The difficulties in delivering vaccines to the health centers and communities are a concern for immunization programs in developing countries, especially in India who has been able to immunize only 65 percent children in the first half of their life and the increase in the immunization coverage has stabilized over the last five years, to an average of 1 percent every year (Ministry of Health India, 2018). In order to improve immunization coverage, one of the effective ways is the better management of the vaccine supply chain.\n2. Literature review: 2.1 Vaccine supply chain\n3. Methodologies adopted in the study: 3.1 Analytic hierarchy process\n4. Research framework: This study uses two-way assessment as a research tool to prioritize and measure the impact of performance indicators on vaccine supply chain performance improvement. Many researchers, for example Lee et al. (2013) and Moyano-Fuentes et al. (2018), have suggested that learning and growth dimension and internal process dimension of BSC have a positive influence on the customer satisfaction and financial performance. Therefore, the authors have given emphasis only on Learning and growth dimension and internal process dimension performance indicators related to the BSC of vaccine supply chain. Further, Camp (1995) suggests that after the linkage between the customer perspective and its key drivers, i.e. internal business and learning and growth perspective has been obtained, the next step will be to prioritize the drivers. According to Gustafsson and Johnson (2000), the regions in the business that may be visible as development priorities are the ones which are critical to customers and in which, on the same time, the company is performing poorly. They are of the opinion that managers have to identify the priority regions of high, medium, and low performance.\n5. Application of the methodology: Based on the research framework presented in Figure 10, an evaluation process to prioritize the impact of the performance indicators have been followed that is given below.\n6. Results and discussion: According to the results of Table VII, the current utility of the performance indicators is 724.42, which is above the threshold value, i.e. the optimum utility. Therefore, the results indicate that the identified performance indicators have an overall impact on improving vaccine supply chain performance. At the same time, the impacts in the ideal and worst case are also presented in Table VI. This will assist to investigate the effect relative to its maximum possible impact and worst possible impact. In addition, the results obtained from the two-way assessment are compared to the DEMATEL approach. Table VIII presents the final rankings of the KPIs of the vaccine supply chain obtained from DEMATEL. As it can be seen from the results that although the ranking of few KPIs has changed, there is not much difference in the ranking when compared to the original ranking obtained from Two-way assessment. This slight difference in the rankings is because the DEMATEL approach is a qualitative technique and the results obtained through DEMATEL is influenced by the perception of decision makers. Hence, using any qualitative technique one cannot guarantee that the results obtained will be the same in every case. Finally, based on the comparison of the results, we can conclude that the results obtained through two-way assessment are stable and reliable. From Table VII of two-way assessment it can be seen that \"Enhancement in employee work satisfaction (LG3=10.08 percent),\" \"Enhancement in professional vaccine supply chain managers and leaders (LG2=6.70 percent)\", and \"Improvement in planning and coordination in the supply chain (LG9=6.57 percent)\" are the three factors that have an impact of 23.35 percent on performance improvement. Therefore, these critical factors have a high impact on vaccine supply chain performance improvement. This indicates that the decision makers should give priority to these issues in order to improve the vaccine delivery performance. First in the list of critical factors is \"Enhancement in employee work satisfaction\" (LG3). Enhancement of employee work satisfaction and motivation are very crucial indicators for any organization. In this regard Jenkins and Thomlinson (1992) also point out that employees and working labors are considered as a wealth of each business enterprise. The effectiveness and performance of the business enterprise depend on the effectiveness and overall performance of the human force of that business enterprise. High spirit of an individual can cause effectiveness and efficacy of individual in an organization. Hence, it is important that an organization should consider employee work satisfaction as one of the KPIs to measure and improve its overall performance. In the case of healthcare organizations, today, the health workers are also under increased pressure due to tremendous pressure on healthcare organizations to provide quality services and satisfy customers. Hence, it is important that healthcare organization gives proper attention to its health workers. Shahnazi et al. (2014) additionally point out that work satisfaction is of essential and precious pillars of health promotion, and because of crucial obligation healthcare businesses have in prevention, care and treatment, work satisfaction is of high significance in the community. The job dissatisfaction among health workers not only reduces the caring work of patients qualitatively but also affects the quality of healthcare services. Bhatnagar and Srivastava (2012) indicate that healthcare managers who understand the importance of factors affecting the welfare of health workers are much more likely to get better performance from the different groups of healthcare workers. It is extremely important to take the opinions of the employees and to involve them in decision-making and problem-solving tasks. This will improve the satisfaction among employees and make them feel that they are part of the enterprise. Therefore, the policy makers of immunization programs should emphasize not only in satisfying their customers but also in the satisfaction of their employees because if the health workers are satisfied with their job (better salary, better benefits, etc.) they will be more engaged and motivated to do their job, which can result in higher productivity to improve immunization coverage.\n7. Conclusion, limitations and future scope: Better vaccine supply chain and logistics systems are crucial for the effective and efficient delivery of vaccines to the children who needs them. In many developing countries, however, various vaccine supply chain issues for example poor stock management, improper forecasting, cold chain failures, vaccine wastages, etc., contribute to the poor performance of vaccine supply chain, which results in a delay of vaccines to the children. The results are that many children in such countries are either left unimmunized or partially immunized with life-saving vaccines. It is important, therefore, that vaccine supply chain issues should be properly identified and addressed in developing countries like India so that vaccine supply chain performance can be improved. Improvement in vaccine supply chain performance can be considered as one of the important steps to improve child immunization coverage. This research paper contributes significantly in the field of vaccine supply chain performance improvement by presenting a framework that helps managers to identify and focus on the KPIs of the vaccine supply chain in terms of the BSC. By using two-way assessment, the KPIs are divided into three zones, i.e. high-impact, medium-impact and low-impact KPIs, which can help the decision makers to focus only in the critical KPIs in order to improve the vaccine delivery performance and child immunization coverage. From the analysis, it is identified that of 32 performance indicators of learning and growth and internal process dimension of BSC, \"Enhancement in employee work satisfaction,\" \"Enhancement in professional vaccine supply chain managers and leaders,\" and \"Improvement in planning and coordination in the supply chain\" are the three critical indicators of vaccine supply chain performance improvement. Therefore, UIP managers need to design such strategies that can be beneficial to improve and maintain the performance of three critical indicators for the overall benefit of vaccine supply chains and immunization programs. The obtained results were compared to the DEMATEL approach and the results show that there is not much difference between ranking in two methods, which implies the stability of the results using two-way assessment.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to identify the key performance indicators (KPIs) of vaccine supply chain of Universal Immunization Program (UIP) India, and measure their impact on vaccine supply chain performance improvement, so that results of this study can help the decision makers manage the activity and effectiveness of their resources in order to improve vaccine delivery performance and child immunization coverage.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The 41 KPIs in terms of four dimension of the balanced scorecard (BSC), i.e. financial, customer, internal process and learning and growth have been identified and validated from the literature and expert's opinions. Further, the impact of internal process and learning and growth performance indicators on the vaccine supply chain performance improvement have been evaluated using two-way assessment. The rankings obtained using two-way assessment are then compared to DEMATEL approach to validate the results.\nFindings: The results from the analysis reveal that \"Enhancement in employee work satisfaction\" (LG3=10.08 percent), \"Enhancement in professional vaccine supply chain managers and leaders\" (LG2 = 6.70 percent) \"Improvement in planning and coordination in the supply chain\" (LG9 = 6.57 percent) are the three critical performance indicators having maximum impact on vaccine supply chain performance improvement. The decision makers should give priority to these performance indicators to improve delivery performance and immunization coverage.\nSocial implications: This study focuses on the improvement in vaccine delivery performance, therefore, analysis and findings can be useful to government immunization programs of India to other developing nations to improve child immunization coverage.\nOriginality/value: To our knowledge, this paper is first to attempt to provide a direction to improve immunization coverage through vaccine supply chain performance indicators.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
A survey of AI in operations management from 2005 to 2009
|
[
"Operations management",
"Artificial intelligence"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1 Introduction and methodology: The field of operations management continues to provide a fertile ground for researchers, with ever-increasing pressures for organisations to become more competitive, to meet global challenges, to become more eco-friendly and to comply with increasing legislation. The use of AI, with its ability to evolve solutions, handle uncertainty and perform optimisation seems to be the primary means of tackling these challenges. The number of publications and studies utilising AI for operations management appears to be growing rapidly. For example, in our survey in 2004 (Kobbacy et al., 2007), we identified over 1,200 papers in the field. The danger with so many publications is of course, that researchers find it difficult to keep track of what has been done, what has worked, what has proved not to work well and what really needs to be addressed. Ultimately, there is a danger that although the publications increase, much of it may be similar and we do not actually build upon previous results to make substantial progress. Hence, whenever, we have organised the European Conference On Intelligent Management Systems in Operations, the fourth of which was held in July 2009, we have carried out a survey in the hope that it will help to raise awareness of the current status of the field, what has been published, and identify trends and scientific gaps.The methodology and framework, we use is similar to that adopted in our previous survey. In carrying out the survey, we have used the following areas of operations management, with one of the authors (KAHK) assuming responsibility for process planning and control and quality, maintenance and fault diagnosis and the other author (SV) assuming responsibility for the areas of design and scheduling. Likewise, we have retained the areas in our previous survey but added the data mining (DM) to represent methods such as association rule mining and decision tree learning which is a growing area of interest:* case-based reasoning (CBR);* genetic algorithms (GAs);* neural networks (NN);* knowledge-based systems (KBS);* fuzzy logic (FL); and* DM.The Science Direct database was used to search for references using fairly obvious keywords. So for example, the terms \"CBR\", \"case-based reasoning\" and \"scheduling\" are used to identify papers on CBR and scheduling. Further filtering and some judgement are, of course, needed to remove irrelevant papers, and to avoid double counting of papers. However, in most cases, it was possible to make a classification based upon the title and abstract of a paper.The paper is organised as follows. Section 2 of the paper gives a flavour of the publications in each category and Section 3 provides the quantitative data and concludes the paper.\n2 Survey and representative research: 2.1 Design\n3 Conclusions: This paper has surveyed the use of AI in operations management with a view to identifying trends, gaps and directions for future research. The survey uses the same methodology, the same categories of operations management and AI methods considered in our previous work in order to facilitate comparison and identification of trends over a longer time period. An additional AI methods, that of DM, is added to this study to recognise its growing use in many applications.What are the major uses of AI in operations management?\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: - The use of AI for operations management, with its ability to evolve solutions, handle uncertainty and perform optimisation continues to be a major field of research. The growing body of publications over the last two decades means that it can be difficult to keep track of what has been done previously, what has worked, and what really needs to be addressed. Hence, the purpose of this paper is to present a survey of the use of AI in operations management aimed at presenting the key research themes, trends and directions of research.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - The paper builds upon our previous survey of this field which was carried out for the ten-year period 1995-2004. Like the previous survey, it uses Elsevier's Science Direct database as a source. The framework and methodology adopted for the survey is kept as similar as possible to enable continuity and comparison of trends. Thus, the application categories adopted are: design; scheduling; process planning and control; and quality, maintenance and fault diagnosis. Research on utilising neural networks, case-based reasoning (CBR), fuzzy logic (FL), knowledge-Based systems (KBS), data mining, and hybrid AI in the four application areas are identified.\nFindings: - The survey categorises over 1,400 papers, identifying the uses of AI in the four categories of operations management and concludes with an analysis of the trends, gaps and directions for future research. The findings include: the trends for design and scheduling show a dramatic increase in the use of genetic algorithms since 2003 that reflect recognition of their success in these areas; there is a significant decline in research on use of KBS, reflecting their transition into practice; there is an increasing trend in the use of FL in quality, maintenance and fault diagnosis; and there are surprising gaps in the use of CBR and hybrid methods in operations management that offer opportunities for future research.\nOriginality/value: - This is the largest and most comprehensive study to classify research on the use of AI in operations management to date. The survey and trends identified provide a useful reference point and directions for future research.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Taxpayers' perceptions on tax evasion behaviour: an empirical study in Malaysia
|
[
"Tax evasion behaviour",
"Tax fairness",
"Tax knowledge",
"Taxpayers’ attitude"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: The tax system and taxes are fundamental components of any attempt for a developing country such as Malaysia (McKerchar and Evans, 2009). Tax is a means of financing government expenditures and is an important component in a government's revenue (Tabandeh et al., 2013). Tax compliance has always been an area of concern to policy makers, tax administrators and society in general (Isa, 2014). Tax resistance can happen through either tax evasion or tax avoidance (Kasipillai et al., 2003). Tax evasion is different from tax avoidance. Every Malaysian has his/her own right to tax avoidance, while tax evasion is generally viewed as unacceptable on the grounds that it is illegal, as it involves intentional non-compliance of tax law. Taxpayers' compliance has a positive linkage with their perceptions of the tax system (Kogler et al., 2013; Schwartz, 2014). Acceptability perception can be defined as a person's moral or duties on a particular thing.\nLiterature review: Tax mentality is established with tax morale and tax discipline, the combination of attitudes and approval or agreement of tax non-compliance and perceived the behaviour as a social norm (Kirchler, 2007; Nerre, 2008). Tax morale is defined as the willingness and motivation to comply to tax laws (Torgler, 2002; Torgler and Murphy, 2004; Calvet and Alm, 2013; McKerchar et al., 2013). However, tax discipline is the action of taxpayers that reflects their attitude on tax evasion (Nerre, 2008). In other words, the fiscal psychology model includes the components of tax mentality, tax morale and tax tension which explain human behaviour (McKerchar and Evans, 2009) Figure 1.\nResearch methodology: To know the perceptions of the taxpayers, a questionnaire delivery and collection method was adopted. to ensure that the data were reliable and unbiased, the entire process of responding to the questionnaire was monitored. All questionnaires were collected once respondents completed the questionnaires to avoid loss of data. Besides, it enabled the respondents to clarify their queries on the spot to avoid biased results. Thus, it helped increase the reliability of the survey responses. This method allowed the respondents to provide results with higher accuracy as the questionnaire survey form was completed anonymously. The information disclosed by respondents was kept strictly confidential, and there was no concern about their privacy being violated.\nData analysis: After the data were processed, these were analysed in SPSS, version 16.0. SPSS carried out the reliability test and inferential analysis.\nImplication of the study: The above ranking shows that the most effective way for the Inland Revenue Board and related taxation units in Malaysia to improve taxpayers' attitude towards tax morality is to furnish them with sufficient tax knowledge for ensuring that taxpayers' tax knowledge is maintained at a high level. To achieve a high standard of tax knowledge, the Inland Revenue Board management must enhance the performance of their employees. Regardless of position, whether they are from the front office or back office, employees are encouraged to provide taxpayers with the general knowledge and education on how to file a tax return and the importance of paying taxes. Besides, the Inland Revenue Board and related units need to conduct seminars or talks for taxpayers who do not have any knowledge about filing and paying taxes. Besides, tax education is important for inexperienced taxpayers because they do not have any knowledge on tax-deductible items or programmes. Therefore, the correct information will help them to complete the tax return process smoothly and familiarize themselves with the tax system in Malaysia.\nLimitations of the study: There are few limitations in this study. A small sample of 400 respondents was targeted to complete the survey through purposive and snowball sampling techniques. This small sample size may not be convincing enough to interpret the actual taxpayers' attitude towards tax morality and perceptions on tax evasion in Malaysia. Additionally, most respondents were mainly from Selangor, Johor and Perak States. Only a small number of respondents completed the questionnaires from other states. This will be the limitation with respect to the small amount of respondents from other states such as Penang, Perlis, Selangor, Kelantan, Terengganu, Pahang, Negeri Sembilan, Sabah and Sarawak. Thus, the result could barely represent the whole of Malaysia because there could be different opinions or responses from different states.\nRecommendations for future study: Following suggestions and recommendations are proposed to overcome the limitations of this study. Firstly, it is recommended that future research on a similar topic can be conducted to improve data accuracy and integrity by engaging a larger sample size. Additionally, future research can widen the sampling frame to include other preferred locations extensively, not only in Malaysia. Besides, other sampling methods such as cluster sampling techniques are recommended while doing the research that is related to this study. Future researchers can divide the population into few different income-level groups and then, a simple random sample cluster is selected from the population. Cluster sampling method is better and more appropriate, as it is cheaper in terms of travel expenses and administration costs (Answers Corporation, 2013).\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The success of self-assessment tax system is voluntary compliance with the tax laws. When tax evasion is seen as unacceptable, taxpayers will tend to evade tax less. Hence, the understanding of taxpayers' attitude on tax morality towards a tax system has to be enhanced to minimize tax evasion cases. The purposes of this study are to examine the relationship between tax fairness, tax knowledge, enforcement level and social exchange towards taxpayers' attitude of tax morality under the self-assessment system in Malaysia and also to identify the relationship between taxpayers' attitude of tax morality and taxpayers' perceptions on tax evasion.\nDesign/methodology/approach: Data were collected from 400 taxpayers through a questionnaire and analysed.\nFindings: From the analysis, it has been found out that tax knowledge is the most important tax system characteristic that affects taxpayers' attitude of tax morality. In addition, taxpayers' attitude of tax morality is significant to taxpayers' perceptions on tax evasion in Malaysia.\nOriginality/value: The findings of this study would be useful for the government to further improve the present tax system to increase voluntary tax compliance.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Motivation exchange rate: the real value of incentives
|
[
"Motivation",
"Organizational behaviour",
"Quantitative methods",
"Motivation exchange"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: In organizations, incentives are provided to motivate employees. According to Deci and Ryan (1985), work motivations can be classified into two basic categories: extrinsic factors, such as salaries, bonuses, and health insurance; and intrinsic factors, related, for instance, to enjoyment derived from the job. When given opportunities to have the same workload, therefore, employees will tend to maximize every type of incentive (e.g. higher salary, more interesting job). In many cases, however, employees must sacrifice one type of motivation for another. For example, to work at an enjoyable job, an individual may have to accept a lower salary. Conversely, individuals may choose to work at an unpleasant job in exchange for better pay.\n2. Literature review and hypothesis development: Work motivation can be defined as \"a set of energetic forces that originate both within as well as beyond an individual's being, to initiate work-related behavior and to determine its form, direction, intensity, and duration\" (Pinder, 1998). In business contexts, this motivation is triggered by something, an incentive or a reward, that employers provide to their employees in exchange for their work. The most common incentive is money, organizations may introduce other forms of incentives, such as promotion, job tenure, and health benefits operation. The enjoyment derived from doing a job is itself a form of motivation, which Deci and Ryan (1985) classified as intrinsic motivation.\n3. Methodology: Observation data were collected by an anonymous online survey powered by Google Docs. Approximately 2,000 e-mail invitations were distributed between April 2013 and January 2014. The target population was contacts at the Institutional Review Board (IRB) at Texas A&M International University, Twitter followers of WorldAcademic, employees at CAZL LLC. and the Journal of Risk Analysis and Crisis Response. Although affiliated with these institutions, subjects were anonymized and unidentifiable. In total, 330 valid responses were returned (response rate 16 percent).\n4. Model assessment: Descriptive statistics and sample characteristics are set out in Table I.\n5. Results and conclusion: PLS path coefficients and statistical significance levels are shown in Figure 2. The symbol ** refers to p<0.01; * refers to p<0.05. Figure 2 shows only the key variables in the research model; the control variables are hidden. Table VII shows all the path coefficients, including the control variables.\n6. Discussion: The current study proposed that individuals evaluate and compare different incentives in a similar way as they would currency exchange rates. The exchange rate between two incentives is referred to here as the MER.\n7. Limitations: The measurement of the MER may be affected by omitted-variable bias. The current study assumes that individuals have no intrinsic motivation for a job that they have never done before and have no knowledge of the associated duties. This may not apply to individuals with high openness to experience, a personality identified in the five-factor model (FFM) (McCrae and Costa, 1985).\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to describe how individuals compare the value of different types of incentive. This is similar to comparison in the financial field for currency exchange. The proposed exchange rate between incentives is referred to here as motivation exchange rate (MER).\nDesign/methodology/approach: Survey-based empirical data were analyzed to test for the existence of MER, based on 330 samples collected from a number of organizations. Partial least square-based structural equation modeling was applied to test the research model, specifically examining the exchange rate between intrinsic motivation and monetary incentives.\nFindings: Individuals place their own value on job enjoyment. The present analysis suggests that MER exists between intrinsic motivation and monetary incentive and varies among individuals.\nOriginality/value: The motivation literature has shown that individuals have their own preferences for different types of incentives. When studying employees' working behavior, scholars have traditionally focused on preferred incentives. However, the present study reveals that these predominant incentives may change when employees are sufficiently compensated by other types of incentive; how much is \"sufficient\" depends on MER, as elaborated here.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Chief Synergy Officer
|
[
"Corporate strategy",
"Senior managers",
"Diversification",
"Business development",
"Value analysis"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n__NO_TITLE__: What did Winston Churchill say about democracy? \"The worst system, except for all the others.\"\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: - Chief strategy officers (CSOs) or other executives in similar roles have a range of responsibilities in the organization, often including communicating corporate strategy to key stakeholders, promoting decision making that sustains change and engendering commitment to strategic plans. This paper aims to suggest that the CSO often adds the most value to the organization by identifying and helping to capture synergies from different products and services the company can provide. In essence, playing the role of chief synergy officer.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - In this paper a number of case examples of businesses that have been able to unlock new sources of value by changing the scope of how the company meets customer needs are considered. Example businesses cited in the paper include automated vending services, travel agency, financial services and social networking. The paper then draws lessons that can be applied broadly across any business seeking to increase efficiency and value by changing the scope of services offered.\nFindings: - Executives with responsibility for strategy should not assume that the role of increasing the firm's efficiency is only the job of those with operating responsibilities. CSOs can support this objective through business synergies that come from changing the scope of what the company does. Often this can come from expansion into new activities where overlapping functions (sales, contracting, sourcing, research and development, etc.) can be shared, thereby spreading indirect costs across multiple products, customer groups, channels or parts of a vertically integrated firm. The paper also provides a number of lessons for achieving this successfully.\nOriginality/value: - Business managers that have responsibility for strategy should not think of themselves as only documenting and communicating strategic plans. Instead they should emphasize identifying ways to improve the efficiency and value of the firm by changing the scope of its activities, and capturing untapped synergies between functions and business lines\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Contextual framing for school leadership training: Empirical findings from the Commonwealth Project on Leadership Assessment and Development (Co-LEAD)
|
[
"Commonwealth",
"Schools",
"Principals",
"Training needs",
"Educational context",
"School leaders",
"Needs assessment",
"International comparative approach"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction or why does school leadership training matter?: In view of the complex and changing context of education, school leadership has gained growing attention by educational policy makers. School leadership issues have become increasingly debated and explored in an international and comparative context. This is mainly due to research evidence produced so far that the principal's role is indeed crucial for improving students' academic achievement (Marzano et al., 2005). These societal changes and changes in the way education systems are managed have inevitably transformed the school environment into a more dynamic and complex one than in the past (Crow, 2006). The individual school is regarded as the central operating unit which will interact with other actors on the same level (other schools in networks) or with actors at the macro level (for reasons of accountability).As a result, the various stakeholders have increased their expectations from school leaders demanding, for instance, higher academic results and performance standards. Apart from individual countries, international organizations are beginning to realize the key role of school leaders in providing access to quality education for all (EFA) students. This ascertainment has led to a growing recognition that the professional development of school leaders could contribute significantly to the improvement of their practices. For instance the EFA report of 2009 entitled \"Overcoming inequality: why governance matters\" states, that an effective learning environment relies on basic infrastructure, professional leadership (our emphasis), motivated teachers, sufficient instruction time and resources, the use of performance enhancing monitoring and evaluation, and adequate funding (UNESCO, 2008). In any case, there is a broad international agreement about the need for school leaders to have the capacity needed to improve teaching, learning, and pupils' development and achievement. At the same time, a growing number of countries all over the world (regardless of their international organizational affiliation) are struggling to attract well-qualified applicants to take on leadership roles. Also, despite the changing roles and higher expectations of school leaders, it seems that most receive little formal or structured preparation for the job. There is a wide agreement about the need to have school leaders who exhibit the capacity to improve the quality of teaching and learning that takes place in their schools. School effectiveness as well as school improvement research have demonstrated the importance of the role of the leader in school life. At the same time school leaders' roles and responsibilities have been (or need to be) reconceptualised. For instance, the (once) limited functions of a bureaucratic administrator are increasingly defined by a new, far larger and more demanding set of roles, such as enhanced administrative and managerial tasks. Furthermore, today's school leaders need to handle financial and human resources; manage public relations and build coalitions; engage in quality management and public reporting processes; and provide leadership for training their staff. Therefore, there is a need to recruit and develop a new generation of school leaders with the knowledge, skills and dispositions best suited to meet the current and future needs of education systems (OECD, 2008b). But if school leadership is so important, then we should also be concerned with how leaders learn to do their jobs in ways that contribute to student learning (Crow et al., 2008). However, the support and training they receive seems to be insufficient for all the aforementioned tasks that they are expected to perform. Under the light of this concern, a global focus on leadership development has begun to evolve.\nWhat do school leadership support systems look like so far?: In fact, many countries have come to realize the importance of investing in school leadership support systems. Policy makers in mainland Europe, North America, and Austral-Asia have launched programs designed to support leadership development in education (Hallinger, 2003). First, the USA, compared to other nations, responded early to the call for school leadership development. More specifically, even since the 1980s, a Master's degree in Educational Administration should have been acquired in most American states before applying for a leadership position. In the UK, inspection evidence produced by The Office for Standards in Education has guided the government's work on identifying and preparing prospective principals, developing experienced ones and establishing the National College for School Leadership (Southworth, 2002). The latter has introduced the National Professional Qualification for Headteachers for prospective principals and the National Professional Qualification for Serving Headteachers for the development of practising principals (Weindling and Dimmock, 2006; Briggs et al., 2006). Additionally, in Hong-Kong prospective principals should acquire a Certification for Principalship in order to meet the requirements for the specific position while serving principals are required to undergo a continuous development programme for about 50 hours per year during a three-year cycle. In Ontario, Canada prospective school leaders have to follow the Principal Qualification Program offered by ten universities in Ontario (Huber and West, 2002). Moreover, in the York district of Ontario, principals receive an annual amount of US$800 to spend on conferences and training (Bush and Jackson, 2002). These are only but a few examples of the increasing attention granted to school principals' development worldwide.\nWhat kind of professional development do principals need?: It is essential to review the literature on every one of these aspects in order to gain a holistic picture of what kind of professional development principals really need: in other words an analysis of the major issues and challenges in redesigning the roles and responsibilities of school leaders and in attracting, developing and supporting capable people to fill those roles. Based on the existing body of literature on the professional development needs of school leaders a number of relevant questions as well as suggestions arise, as can be seen in the following subsections.To what extent are context and training needs related?\nThe Co-LEAD project: Purpose of the project\nFindings with regards to contextual factors/settings of school leaders: By regrouping the selected Commonwealth countries according to their mean contextual balance scores, they could be subdivided into four main clusters with regards to their contextual predisposition for introducing and shaping school leadership development and assessment. Interestingly enough, the new country groupings, which were revealed through the cluster analyses, can be identified (to some extent) as similar to the Commonwealth Secretariat regional clusters based on geography and can therefore be considered appropriate. In essence, what we are suggesting here is that the groupings of Commonwealth countries based primarily on geographic criteria are probably the most suitable one. Certainly diversity in geography is reflected in those contextual arrangements at the system level. Apparently, ethnic-make up, culture and history (as there are remarkable differences in history, even in recent times) might also be reflected in those contextual arrangements and they are certainly very important to consider when offering various trainings and assistance to Commonwealth countries. Furthermore, \"enhancing all stakeholders' awareness of their roles and responsibilities as right-holders and duties-bearers\" should be an important variable at least to bear in mind (UNESCO, 2007, p. 51).Furthermore, based on the cluster analysis, the training and development of school leaders in the Commonwealth calls for an integrated, cross-sectoral approach to educational planning. Ineffective structures at the system level (inconsistencies in planning, neglect of framing antecedent variables stemming from historical traditions, social structures and economic conditions) will not turn out to be advantageous when it comes to the envisaged training and development of effective school leaders if appropriate institutionalized learning opportunities for those leaders are not in place. There might also occur problems in target setting for school leadership training. Unrealistic and inconsistent target-setting is a common problem and there is often a mismatch between goals, strategies and financing commitments when it comes to the planning and provision of school leadership preparation. Therefore, it is important to contextualise school leadership policies. Of course there is no single model of leadership that could be easily transferred across different school- and system-level contexts. The specific contexts in which school leaders' work may limit school leaders' room for manoeuvring or provide opportunities for different types of leadership. Depending on the contexts in which they work, school leaders face different sets of challenges. System-level context variables which demotivate and discourage current and potential school leaders will have an impact on the quality of the school. Why? Not motivated and committed school leaders (either by lack of intrinsic or extrinsic motivation) will not play a key role in improving school outcomes by influencing the motivations and capacities of teachers, as well as the environment and climate within which they work. If an effective systemic framing fails, effective school leadership cannot be developed, as the co-production of institutional and pedagogical turns out to be two distinct units of actions which point into different directions. Making leadership training a prerequisite or a strong asset can contribute to improved schooling through greater professionalization of the position, to greater satisfaction of principals in their jobs and possibly to increased numbers of candidates for positions. Especially in-service training can respond to need and to context. There is no standard way of providing leadership development opportunities, but a wide range of possibilities that may focus on particular contextual factors at a national, regional, local or school level.\nFindings with regards to school leaders' needs assessment - the field work: Quantitative part of the study-questionnaire description\nSummarizing the main areas of needs for training: In a nutshell, it seems that the expressed needs for leadership training and improvement for school principals around the Commonwealth are highly contextualized and therefore, training should be region and country specific. We should be especially careful about decontextualizing this training. In any case, a word of caution is warranted at this point: our results should not be interpreted and discussed as if they are representative of the Commonwealth. The sampled countries and the numbers of principals participating in this study do not allow us to do that. However, the results do provide us with a strong basis on which to form opinions and interpretations such as the ones that follow.It becomes obvious from the above analyses and discussion that there is an irreducible core for all the Commonwealth and that revolves around the areas of instructional leadership and human resource management; relations with parents and the community; and professional growth and recognition of staff. Then, there appears to be a more country and/or context specific need for training in the areas of administration and fiscal/facilities management; student management; and school climate and school improvement. Apparently, these areas are more context-dependent based on the degree and level of centralization/decentralization of the educational system of a specific country as well as on the accountability and evaluation mechanisms in place and the ability of parents to choose schools for their children. In summary, the greatest needs for leadership improvement and training are in the following three areas:1. Trust building and collaboration:* Relations with parents and the community:-promotion of cooperation with other organizations and businesses from the community so that students' needs are addressed; and-initiation of trust building activities within the local community.2. Encouraging instructional leadership and human resource development:* Instructional leadership and human resource management:-effective integration of all special programs with the regular program;-systematic monitoring of instructional and managerial processes to ensure that program activities are related to program outcomes;-promotion of the interconnection of learning experiences in the school with practices which are followed outside the school; and-articulation of sound recommendations relative to personnel placement, transfer, retention and dismissal.* Professional growth and recognition of staff:-provision that refresher course activities of teachers are in accordance with the teaching goals of the school; and-provision of rewards to teachers for their special contributions to the school.3. Initiating school improvement and development:* School climate and school improvement:-appplication of research fidnings to facilitate school improvement.* Administration and fiscal/facilities management:-development of budgets based upon documented program needs, estimated enrolment, personnel and other fiscal needs.* Student management:-provision of opportunities to students to participate actively in school management issues.\nSynthesized conclusion: When preparing school leader training programmes, it should be borne in mind that all 46 items in the instrument were considered to be very important for the effective operation of the schools, since responding school leaders indicted that each one of these items should be present (with a mean of about 3.80 or more in most cases, on the scale from 1 to 5) in an effective school. Furthermore, the expressed needs for leadership training and improvement for school principals around the Commonwealth seem to be highly contextualized and therefore, training should be region and country specific. Moreover, special attention could be placed on the clusters of countries that evolved through our analyses.Finally, more research concerning the needs of educational leaders within a specific cultural context is definitely necessary in order to prepare school leaders in the best possible way. This kind of research should be intensive, diagnostic, and developmental in nature, in order to predict the needs, and develop new approaches to educational leadership. It should also be critical and evaluative in order to place existing theories under scrutiny and extract functional ideas and practices which can become operational at the individual school level. In closing, we would argue that nobody can afford to be inactive in this important endeavour of training school leaders, because, as one teacher unionist from Barbados put it (during our on-site visitation to this country in March 2009),\"one ineffective leader can destroy generations of potential good leaders\". Finally, as one of the teacher union representatives in Tanzania very eloquently put it, \"not every tall black guy is a Massai\", meaning that not everyone who currently holds the position of a school principal is necessarily a school leader.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: - The purpose of this paper is to present the findings of (Co-LEAD) (Commonwealth project on leadership in education assessment and development), the overall purpose of which was to find out school leaders' training needs around the Commonwealth in order to provide some answers with regards to the professional development needs of school principals.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - A mixed methods approach (e.g. both qualitative as well as quantitative) was utilized in order to carry out this study. The questionnaire consisted of 46 statements which make reference to the main functions of school leadership, such as, School Climate and School Improvement, Instructional Leadership and Human Resource Management, as well as Relations with Parents and the Community. The gap analysis method was used for the questionnaire items. Finally, complimentary to the questionnaires, it was decided to have on-site visitations and interviews with \"real people\" on the ground.\nFindings: - Based on the authors' analyses and interpretations, it seems that the greatest needs for leadership improvement and training are in three areas: Trust Building and Collaboration which includes Relations with Parents and the Community, promotion of cooperation with other organizations and businesses from the community so that students' needs are addressed and initiation of trust building activities within the local community; Encouraging Instructional Leadership and Human Resource Development which includes Instructional Leadership and Human Resource Management and systematic monitoring of instructional and managerial processes to ensure that program activities are related to program outcomes; and Initiating School Improvement and Development which includes the application of research findings to facilitate school improvement, the development of budgets based upon documented program needs, and the provision of opportunities to students to participate actively in school management issues.\nOriginality/value: - This piece of research extends knowledge with regards to the expressed needs for leadership training and improvement for school principals. It documents that if such an endeavor is to be successful, it has to be contextualized and therefore, training should be region and country specific.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Supply chain quality management and organizational performance: Empirical evidence from telecom industry in the UAE
|
[
"Quality management",
"Supply chain",
"Organizational performance"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: Collaboration among business partners has long been known to benefit all the stakeholders and shareholders in a business. This close relationship between entities was named as supply chain management (SCM) at the end of the last century. This term is defined to be the close relationship between all the entities that play a role in the process through procuring raw material, processing subassemblies to packaging finished products (Drake et al., 2013). Although the term seems a perfect fit for manufacturing industry, more and more researchers are investigating this vital association among the partners in a service supply chain, such as Akkermans and Vos (2003).\n2. Literature review: The intrinsic culture plays a vital role in the readiness and implementation of TQM practices in an organization. Ahire (1996) studied the impact of ten quality constructs on the performance of 181 small firms in auto parts and electronics industry. He found that adaptation of a formal TQM strategy results in superior quality, whereas the presence of unions negatively impacts the implementation of quality constructs. Baird et al. (2011) demonstrated that there is a positive association between organizational culture (outcome orientation, teamwork/respect and innovation) and the extent of the use of TQM practices in manufacturing and service organizations in Australia. Mehra and Ranganathan (2011) showed that job characteristics such as autonomy, overload and enrichment have an impact on job satisfaction, and that TQM practices impact the employee environment in an organization. They suggested that a group of senior managers must be formed to customize the TQM practices according to the business environment in an organization. Al-Swidi and Mahmood (2012) also studied the impact of organizational culture on Yemeni banks and suggested that organizations should foster quality and entrepreneurial culture for the effective implementation of TQM and entrepreneurial orientation. Gimenez-Espin et al. (2013) proposed a mixture of adhocracy and clan cultures in an organization that fosters TQM. Their empirical study of 451 companies indicated that whereas adhocracy culture has a positive impact on TQM, clan culture does not have any significant impact.\n3. Model variables and hypotheses: The conceptual framework of this research has been derived from the work of Lin et al. (2005), Green et al. (2008), Ou et al. (2010) and Chong et al. (2011). The reason for choosing their works is that they have introduced and validated established frameworks related to SCM, TQM, IP and OPP. Table I presents five latent variables and their respective indicators of the proposed model. It can be seen that each latent variable is comprised of number of constructs; for example, SCQM practices are represented by management support and commitment, supplier participation, SS and customer focus.\n4. Research methodology: The research is designed using an empirical study of selected telecom companies in UAE. Primary data are collected through a survey distributed to a sample of selected companies (the population frame of telecom companies in UAE). Secondary data are obtained from an extensive literature review of SCQM. The key research question is to assess the impact of SCQM practices on OP of Telecom industry of UAE. To answer this research question, a comprehensive research framework is developed. The proposed research methodology includes research design, survey design and distribution, and analysis of collected data using SEM technique. A software tool (AMOS 16) has been used for this analysis.\n5. Data analysis and results: A total of 47 items of the instrument measure the five constructs. A minimum of three indicators are used for measuring each of the five latent constructs, and for measuring each indicator, a minimum of two items are used. Each indicator represents the mean of the responses of the items pertinent to that indicator.\n6. Discussion and conclusion: This study intended to develop and validate a structural equation model for investigating the impact of SCQM practices on the performance of telecom companies in the UAE. Service supply chains today are recognized as good sources of comparative advantage. Indeed, services provide the single largest opportunity for revenue generation and maintaining margins (Brechbuhl, 2004), and they continue to provide a pivotal role in the next cycle of economic development. The service sector in the UAE, where this study is positioned, accounts for approximately three-quarters of the economy's output, and Telecom sector is positioned among the top service providing companies.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: Supply chain quality management (SCQM) has gained less attention in the Arab world, and there is a clear dearth in existing research on this topic, particularly in service organizations. Therefore, the purpose of this paper is to propose a conceptual framework for investigating the impact of SCQM and associated indicators on organizational performance (OP).\nDesign/methodology/approach: Empirical data have been collected through a survey distributed to a sample of major telecom companies in United Arab Emirates (UAE). To test the conceptual framework, structural equation modeling (SEM) has been used to analyze the data collected from 248 respondents of telecom companies.\nFindings: The empirical data showed that SCQM practices are significantly correlated with innovation and operations performance. Statistical analysis through SEM also revealed that customer satisfaction has highest direct impact on OP.\nResearch limitations/implications: External factors (government regulations, policies and culture) also affect the SCQM practices. Hence, future work should incorporate these parameters as well.\nPractical implications: This is a contribution to the continuing research into SCQM, giving supply chain managers and designers a practical way for measuring and implementing SCQM practices across service supply chains.\nOriginality/value: The contribution of this research, through successive stages of data collection, measurement analysis and refinement, is a set of reliable and valid framework that can be subsequently used in conceptualization and measuring quality of service supply chains.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Consumer values, fashion consciousness and behavioural intentions in the online fashion retail sector
|
[
"Online shopping",
"Consumer behaviour",
"Values",
"Instrumentalism",
"Fashion consciousness",
"Fashion retailing"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: Across the globe, the luxury fashion consumption has grown exponentially in the last two decades (Giovannini et al., 2015; Jain, 2017). India has emerged as the largest economy in the world (Paul and Mas, 2016; Wealth X, 2018) which led to rise in disposable income levels and, in turn, boosted the appetite for lifestyle oriented fashion consumption, e.g. luxury brands (Li et al., 2012; Roy et al., 2016; Saran et al., 2016). Miller and Mills (2012) proposed the Brand Luxury Model across three specific fashion categories. Luxury is far more than just the materialistic attribution oriented possessions (Berthon et al., 2009; Sanyal et al., 2014). Kastanakis and Balabanis (2012) examined the relationship between interdependent self-concept and bandwagon consumption mediated by the level of a consumer's status-seeking predispositions, susceptibility to normative influence, need for uniqueness and consumers' propensity to engage in the \"bandwagon\" type of luxury consumption. Paul (2015) also explains the same phenomenon of marketing luxury goods to the mass by embracing the social meaning namely, prestige goods hold conspicuous and societal worth to reach out to the mass. Later on, in order to define, and re-conceptualise the phenomenon, Paul (2018) developed two theoretical models for brand management to measure the \"masstige\" (mass prestige) marketing. In general, consumers have different orientations when making purchasing decisions for different types of products. Pino et al. (2017) asserted that consumers with a higher status consumption tendency are more willing to purchase prominently branded luxury products than subtly branded ones in the emerging markets like India as compared to mature markets. Assocham claims, the Indian luxury fashion market, are set to grow $30bn by the end of 2018 (ET, 2018), and Indian e-commerce is poised to thrive amidst voluminous global fashion brands (Colla and Lapoule, 2012; Kautish, 2016; Roy et al., 2018).\n2. Theoretical background: 2.1 Human side of consumer values: terminal and instrumental values\n3. Methodology: 3.1 Sample profile\n4. Data analysis and results: 4.1 Screening and refinement\n5. Discussion and implications: 5.1 Summary of the study\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to study the underlying relationships among two distinct forms of consumer values, namely, instrumental and terminal values, fashion consciousness and behavioural intentions in the context of online fashion apparel retail sector.\nDesign/methodology/approach: A conceptual model and subsequent measurement scale were developed, grounded on in-depth review of the extensive literature and validated with customers engaged in online shopping of fashion apparels. The model was empirically examined, and a total of 395 responses were gathered from an online survey administered at a northeastern university in India. The model was validated using structural equation modelling, and a two-step approach suggested by Anderson and Gerbing (1988) was used to evaluate the measurement and structural models for the research.\nFindings: The results of the study indicate that instrumental and terminal values significantly affect fashion consciousness, and fashion consciousness has a significant impact on behavioural intentions as well. The research brings out that fashion consciousness acts as a partial mediator between instrumental/terminal values and behavioural intentions. It is noteworthy that compared to terminal values instrumental values display a greater influence on both the variables fashion consciousness and behavioural intentions.\nResearch limitations/implications: The conclusion of present research will notably assist the fashion retailers, online marketing researchers and experts understand the importance of terminal and instrumental values in increasing fashion consciousness, leading to strategically design campaigns for promoting and instigate consumers' positive behavioural intentions in the best interest of the online fashion retail sector.\nPractical implications: The study results provide suggestions for competitive marketing strategies for online fashion companies operating in the emerging markets like India.\nOriginality/value: The present study is first of its kind attempt to use Rokeach's (1973) two-dimensional measure of human values, in order to discover the terminal and instrumental values relationship and their influence on fashion consciousness and behavioural intentions in the online fashion retail industry.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Corporate governance as a determinant of corporate values
|
[
"Corporate governance",
"Business policy",
"Stakeholder analysis",
"Corporate ownership",
"Boards of Directors"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: For the past decades or so there has been a virtual explosion in calls for \"new\" corporate values under headings like shareholder value (Rappaport, 1986, Copeland, 1994, Jensen, 2000), stakeholder interests (Freeman, 1984), balanced scorecards (Kaplan and Norton, 1996), customer value (Morgan and Hunt, 1994), business ethics (Velasquez, 1998, Fort, 2001), corporate social responsibility (Carroll, 1999), environmental sustainability (e.g. Tisdell, 1993, Tenbrunsel et al., 2000) or citizenship (Bolino, 1999). But the genesis and determinants of corporate values have attracted relatively little interest among researchers (exceptions include Jones (1995), Mitchell et al. (1995), Rajan and Zingales (2000) and Tirole (2001)).To begin to fill this gap this paper proposes a theoretical framework to explain variations in values between companies and tests it on a pilot study of 72 Danish companies. Corporate values (as expressed by board chairs in a questionnaire) are found to vary considerably in ways that are partially related to ownership, board and stakeholder structure. When taking these factors into account, corporate values have no significant impact on profitability.\nTheory framework: This paper defines corporate values in a classical sense as \"beliefs that help companies make choices among available means and ends\" (Rokeach, 1973). This definition emphasizes that meaningful corporate values must be \"part of the organizational decision programme\" (Thyssen, 2003) and influence company behaviour. More specifically the paper therefore measures corporate values by the weight which corporate decision makers attach to alternative goals when making their decisions.The paper examines the determinants of such values drawing on a previously proposed theory framework. The traditional view appears to be that corporate values are based on the ethical standards of managers and other employees. This may be true or not, but it raises the question of why these people rather than others with different ethical standards are employed in the organization. Clearly, the decision to hire and fire managers or other employees is not made at random, and therefore corporate values are not exogenously given. The license to define corporate values belongs to the board and ultimately to the owners of the company. Ownership and board structure are therefore be important determinants of corporate values in addition to the influence exercised by employees, customers and other stakeholders. Since ownership and board structures as well as stakeholder influence vary across firms, industries and nations the prediction is that corporate values will vary correspondingly.The proposed theory framework models the formation of corporate values as a three-stage process.First, in stage 1, the ownership decision allocates ownership rights across the relevant parties, i.e. the company's present and potential owners. This is a matching problem in which potential owners with specific characteristics are matched with firms, which have their own specific characteristics. Owner characteristics include access to information, capital and knowledge. For given firm characteristics, the economic theory of corporate ownership (Hart, 1995; Hansmann, 1996) predicts that ownership will be allocated to minimize transaction costs. But regardless of the actual determinants, ownership has material consequences for the values and behaviour of the firm (Hart, 1995; Hansmann, 1996). This leads to proposition 1 (P1).P1. The identity of the dominant owners will influence corporate values. A larger ownership share will increase the influence of the respective owners on company behaviour.\nEmpirical testing: The theoretical framework is intended to guide empirical research on determinants and effects of corporate values. But since companies do not systematically articulate their values, there are measurement problems (just as in measuring other soft \"constructs\" like culture, image, social capital or reputation). As a consequence most research in this area has used structural proxies like ownership and board structure and examined the impact of these variables on company behaviour and performance. But as Herbert Simon (1982, 1983), Dearborn and Simon (1958) and others (e.g. Starbuck and Milliken, 1988; Walton and Dawson, 2001) have persuasively argued, it may not be possible to predict action solely by describing the decision environment and structure. It may be necessary to understand the mindsets of the managers to predict how they will act.This may be one reason why studies of ownership and board structure often find insignificant or ambiguous effects on company behaviour and performance (Johnson et al., 1996; Demsetz and Villalonga, 2001).Some information may be gathered from charters and articles of association, but in most cases the articles provide too little structure to guide the company's activities in any significant way (Ferran 1988, p. 10). More information is found in mission, vision and value statements (e.g. Westley and Mintzberg, 1989), best practice codes or ethical principles, although these documents often appear to be manufactured for public relations and most often avoid articulating trade offs between alternative goals (Lencion, 2002). Some values may be revealed by regularities in past behaviour, but since a prime goal of studying corporate values is to explain behaviour, this is not a very useful approach, particularly if values may change over time (Ajzen, 1987, p. 41).An alternative approach is to ask the decision makers directly. One possibility is to rely on interviews and case studies (e.g. Westley and Mintzberg, 1989), but this will tend to focus attention on few companies. Another possibility is to use questionnaires to ask managers what goals they perceive to be important (e.g. Agle et al., 1999; Key, 1999; Walton and Dawson, 2001). This research strategy is explored in this section, which reports on a pilot study of values in 72 Danish corporations. The testing is provisional both in the sense that the reliability of the questionnaire has not been validated by previous research and in the sense that only one individual per organization (the CEO) was questioned at a single point in time (a cross section), while an ideal study would involve several respondents per organization over a period of time (a longitudinal data set). The aim is therefore not to provide definite empirical testing, but to develop the framework by working out potential empirical implications.A preliminary data set\nDiscussion: Corporate values have largely been neglected in recent research, but there is an enormous practical interest in the subject. This paper has made a new start by proposing a theoretical framework to explain the formation of corporate values as a function of ownership structure, board composition and stakeholder bargaining power. Moreover, the paper explored the potential for empirical testing. A pilot study of 72 Danish companies found that the expressed values were partially related to proxies for governance and stakeholder structure, but had no significant impact on subsequent profitability.The main theoretical contribution of the paper is a generalized view of how corporate perspectives are determined endogenously along with ownership, board and stakeholder structure that are normally treated separately in agency and stakeholder theory and other theoretical disciplines. The implication is that firms emphasize certain values over others not because these values are inherently better in a universal sense, but because of their governance structure, which is ultimately derived from the nature of their activities. Moreover the framework explains why corporate values will tend to vary across companies (as a description) and why imposing universal values could actually be harmful (as a normative statement).Empirically, the paper has demonstrated that the framework is applicable to measure and analyse variations in corporate values. The expressed values were found to vary with proxies for governance structure, but no systematic link was found between values and performance (profitability), which is not inconsistent with an equilibrium, where value-maximizing agents endogenously determine values and governance.A key priority for future empirical research in this area is clearly to examine the robustness of corporate value measures. For example, there is a need to check the validity of the values that the CEOs state on behalf of their corporation: to what extent would other managers in the same company express the same values, and to what extent are values stable over time? Further empirical work will also benefit from more detailed information on ownership and board structure and from a closer examination of the link between values and company behaviour.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: - This paper aims to test the impact of corporate governance structure on corporate values.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - The paper employs factor analysis and three-stage least squares to identify and explain variance in corporate values.\nFindings: - In accordance with the proposed theoretical framework ownership, board and stakeholder structure are found to influence corporate values. When value determinants are taken into account there is no significant relationship between values and profitability.\nResearch limitations/implications: - This is a pilot study of 71 Danish firms. Further research needs to address measurement of corporate values and to test hypotheses on larger datasets.\nPractical implications: - One practical implication is that corporate values should be grounded in the company's ownership, board and stakeholder structure. Real changes in corporate values may require real changes in governance structure.\nOriginality/value: - The paper tests a new approach to the study of corporate values which connects values to governance. It thereby establishes empirical foundations for current discussions about corporate values. This should be important both to practical work on company missions, values and responsibilities and to academics who search for an operational approach to the study of corporate values.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
The human capital-economic growth nexus in SSA countries: what can strengthen the relationship?
|
[
"Human capital",
"Economic growth",
"Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) countries",
"Foreign direct investment (FDI)",
"Government spending",
"Urbanization",
"C13",
"C23",
"C51",
"J24",
"O47"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: As the world economy is currently transitioning into the fourth industrial revolution, the role of human capital specialization within industrial organizations and labour markets has been of global priority. International organizations such as the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank (WB) are placing increasing emphasis on the importance of human capital development in achieving a sustainable future, especially in the sub-Saharan African (SSA) region. In 2018, the WB launched the Human Capital Project, which is essentially a global effort designed to accelerate and strengthen the accumulation of human capital by encouraging more effective policies and investments (World Bank, 2018). Indeed, the theme of the 2019 World Development Report (WDR, 2019) is \"The changing nature of work\", which emphasizes on investing in human capital through public policy as a means of addressing the changing skills requirements and new business models dictated by accelerated innovations in technology. More recently, the World Bank (2019) reported success stories for a handful of SSA countries (i.e. Ethiopia, Lesotho, Madagascar, Zambia, Mali, Mauritania, Mozambique and Tanzania) which have achieved recognisable improvements in health facilities, education quality, school nutrition and fertility control.In view of these acclaimed success stories for SSA countries, it is quite disconcerting to observe that the fruits of these human development projects have not translated into higher economic growth rates. According to the IMF's regional outlook, the SSA region has been the worst performing region globally, with average economic growth reducing from approximately 4.75% in 2010 to 2.4% in 2018 (IMF, 2019). Against this background, the purpose of this paper is to answer the following research question: What can aid human capital development to spur economic growth in SSA countries? Whilst the literature is flourished with academic studies conducted for industrialized economies on the subject matter (Ljungqvist, 1993; Tallman and Wang, 1994; Lee and Lee, 1995; Fernandez and Rogerson, 1996; Agiomirgianakis et al., 2002; Dias and Tebaldi, 2012; Ramos et al., 2012; Qadri and Waheed, 2014; Teixeira and Queiros, 2016; Fan et al., 2016; Ahsan and Haque, 2017; Siddiqui and Rehman, 2017; Zhu and Li, 2017; Diebolt and Hippe, 2019), to the best of our knowledge, the studies of Gyimah-Brempong and Wilson (2004), Hakeem (2010), Ogundari and Awokuse (2018) and Ibrahim (2018) suffice as the only available empirical works that have attempted to address this research question for SSA countries.Gyimah-Brempong and Wilson (2004) employ an augmented Solow model for a panel of 21 SSA and 22 OECD countries and employ three measures of human capital (ratio of healthcare expenditure to GDP, child mortality rate and average years of educational attainment) in their analysis. The authors uncover a positive and significant relationships between all human capital measures and economic growth amongst both groups of countries. On the other hand, Hakeem (2010) investigates whether financial development (proxied by private credit, domestic credit, liquid liability and broad money) can stimulate the existing relationship between human capital (proxied by educational attainment) and growth in 14 SSA countries. Interestingly enough the authors find that whilst financial development has had little effect on economic growth by itself, its interaction with human capital is what has stimulated economic growth in these SSA countries. More recently, Ogundari and Awokuse (2018) investigate the human capital-growth nexus for 35 SSA countries using a host of proxy variables for health (proxied by life expectancy) and education (proxied by average years of schooling and government expenditure on schooling). The authors show that despite all human capital proxies exerting a positive and significant effect on economic growth, the contribution of the health proxies are larger than that of the education counterparts. In similarity to Hakeem (2010), the work presented by Ibrahim (2018) investigates the interactive effect between financial development and human capital in stimulating economic growth in 29 SSA countries. Using the teacher-pupil ratio to proxy human capital, the authors uncover a negative relationship between human capital and growth and this relationship turns positive once an interactive term between human capital and financial development is introduced in the estimated regressions.Our study contributes to this growing literature by examining the relationship between human capital and economic growth for 16 SSA countries and is distinguishable from previous works in two ways. Firstly, our study goes beyond investigating the enhancing impact of financial development on human capital contribution to economic growth and further considers other plausible \"interactive variables\" such as government size (Lin, 1998; Jung and Thornecke, 2003; Annabi et al., 2011; Dissou et al., 2016), foreign direct investment (Noorbakhsh et al., 2001; Cleeve et al., 2015; Yu and Liu, 2016) and urbanization (Coulombe, 2003; Bertinelli and Zou, 2008; Kumar and Kober, 2012; Fluckiger and Ludwig, 2018). Secondly, our study goes beyond the traditional use of schooling (Hakeem, 2010; Ahsan and Haque, 2017; Siddiqui and Rehman, 2017), life expectancy (Kunze 2014; Ogundari and Awokuse 2018) and expenditure on health (Gyimah-Brempong and Wilson, 2004; Aka and Dumont, 2008; Wang, 2011; Piabuo and Tieguhong, 2017) as measures of human capital and uses the recently released human capital index (HCI) provided by the Penn State World tables which is considered a superior measure in capturing multidimensional facets of human capital (Feenstra et al., 2015). To the best of our knowledge, no other study has employed this index in investigating the human capital-growth nexus hence reflecting the novelty of our study. Moreover, no other study, as far as we are concerned, has examined the interactive effects of government size, external capital inflows and urbanization on human capital contribution to economic growth. Consequentially, our study offers a fresh policy perspective on the subject matter, not only for SSA countries, but towards the general literature as a whole.We structure the remainder of the study as follows. The next section provides an overview of human capital development in the SSA region. The empirical framework of the study is outlined in Section 3 whilst the empirical findings of our study are presented in Section 4. The study is concluded in Section 5 along with the associated policy implications derived from our findings.\n2. An overview of human capital development in the SSA region: Despite boasting high returns to education, the sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) region has a predominantly weak human capital base, which is a result of the low school enrolment rate, high pupil teacher ratio and high adolescent dropout in many countries in the region all which contribute to low human capital development. Table 1 shows the average enrolment rates for primary, secondary and tertiary education in SSA and other regions. As can be observed, SSA countries have the lowest overall school enrolment rate averages compared to other regions at all levels of education. Note that school enrolments are lower for higher levels of education (secondary and tertiary) in comparison to primary education. Many poor African families find it difficult to support their children, particularly girls, beyond the basic level of education which is reflected in the wider gap between enrolment rates in primary, secondary and tertiary levels of education in African countries.Table 2 further presents comparative statistics between SSA and other global regions with regards to number of years to complete high school, teacher-pupil ratio as well as secondary school drop-outs. From 2007 to 2017, the average number of years to complete secondary schooling in SSA was estimated on par with Pacific and OECD members and slightly lower than European Union and South Asia. This implies that the SSA population tends to complete high school quicker in comparison to other more developed regions. However, the average pupil-teacher ratio for both primary and secondary as well as the average secondary school drop-out are much higher compared to other global regions. High pupil to teacher ratios compromise the quality of education as the teachers and available teaching tools and equipment tend to be overstretched by high number of pupils and students. Countries in sub-Saharan Africa also face the challenge of high rates of school dropouts, which is often associated with the problem of poverty (UNESCO, 2012)In 2018, the World Bank via its Human Capital Project of the World Bank devised a human capital index which measures the productivity of next generation works relative to survival, education and health. The World Bank (2018) currently ranks SSA countries as having the lowest averages of human capital development and attribute this as the reason to why SSA economies have low levels of economic development. Figure 1 presents a time series plot between the human capital development index and economic growth for the SSA region between 2007 and 2017. The data depicts a downward trend in GDP growth rates over the 10-year period, with the initial plummet in GDP growth rates corresponding to the 2007-2009 global financial crisis. The human capital index, on the other hand, follows an upward trend which reflects the partial success of the African Development Bank's (AfDB) human capital development strategy, especially between 2012 and 2014. Figure 2 presents the scatter plot between the human capital index (HCI) and economic growth in SSA countries with a linear regression line being fitted to the data. A negative correlation is observed between human capital development and economic growth for the SSA regional averages between 2007 and 2017, which is contrary to conventional economic wisdom. Our study is concerned with empirically investigating this counter-intuitive observation between the human capital and economic growth.\n3. Empirical framework: 3.1 Theoretical model\n4. Data and empirical results: 4.1 Empirical data and unit root test\n5. Conclusions: The objective of this paper was to examine possible avenues in which policymakers in SSA countries can align themselves with the World Bank's agenda of developing human capital for a sustainable future. Using the newly developed human capital index of the World Penn State Tables 9.0, we provide panel estimates of augmented growth regressions for 10 SSA countries using annual data collected between 1980 and 2014. Our baseline regression estimates provide very weak evidence substantiating the positive effect of human capital on economic growth for our sample of SSA countries. In expanding on our analysis, we further augment our growth regressions with three interactive terms representative of government expenditure, foreign direct investment and urbanization effects on human capital. Out of the three interactive terms, only the one between urbanization and human capital produces a positive and significant effect, whereas the remaining two interactive terms are either produce a negative (government spending) or insignificant (foreign direct investment) effect.Three main policy insights can be drawn from our study. Firstly, the sole pursuit of human capital projects in SSA countries may not prove to be fruitful in terms of stimulating future economic growth in the region. Whilst improvements have been generally noticed in human capital development in the SSA region over the last couple of years, without building proper supporting structures these improvements will not translate to sustainable future growth. Secondly, current government spending structures in SSA countries, though significant for economic growth, nevertheless appear to \"crowd out\" human capital contribution to economic growth. Developing stringent public policy expenditure projects aimed at improving the future productivity capacity of human capital needs to take priority within SSA countries. Thirdly, policymakers within the SSA countries need to focus beyond depending on spillover effects from foreign direct investment towards human capital in their mission improve economic growth rates in the region. Lastly, governments in SSA countries need to place increasing emphasis on developing urbanized populations which can support human capital development objectives.One of the main limitations of our current study is our failure to consider the possibility of a non-monotonic relationship between human capital development and economic growth. It is possible that African economies may need to attain a certain level of development before reaping the rewards of human capital development hence insinuating an asymmetric relationship between human capital development and economic growth. Investigating the possibility of such as asymmetries can serve as an avenue for future research. Moreover, future studies can further disaggregate measures of human capital development into male and female categories. Identifying possible \"gender-gaps\" in human capital development is important for policymakers in SSA and other developing countries in their efforts to eradicate gender inequality in these regions.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this study is to examine the impact of human capital on economic growth for a selected sample of nine SSA countries between 1980 and 2014 using a panel econometric approach.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The authors estimate a log-linearized endogenous using the fully modified ordinary least squares (FMOLS) and the dynamic ordinary least squares (POLS) applied to our panel data time series.\nFindings: The empirical analysis shows an insignificant effect of human capital on economic growth for our selected sample. These findings remain unchanged even after adding interactive terms to human capital, which are representatives of government spending as well as foreign direct investment. Nevertheless, the authors establish a positive and significant effect of the interactive term between urbanization and human capital on economic growth.\nPractical implications: The results emphasize the need for African policymakers to develop urbanized, \"smart\", technologically driven cities within the SSA region as a platform toward strengthening the impact of human capital-economic growth relationship.\nOriginality/value: This study becomes the first in the literature to validate the human capital-urbanization-growth relationship for African countries.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Corporate Robespierres, ideologies of management and change
|
[
"Change management",
"Organizational change",
"Ethics"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n__NO_TITLE__: To ask what the field of organizational change management can learn from the infamous figure of Maximilien Robespierre seems inappropriate, if not downright outrageous. However, as Zizek (2007) recently noted in an essay on the \"Jacobin paradigm\" of change, this period of the French Revolution contains an unsettling truth that most of us would prefer to (and actually do) close our eyes to when it comes to accomplishing successful (transformational) change: it doesn't seem to work without terror. Too often, according to Zizek, whether in theory or practice, do we content ourselves with \"decaffeinated\" modes of change, with changes that ultimately ensure that everything will effectively remain (roughly) the same. This is the kind of change celebrated so widely in contemporary management literature (including obligatory references to Heraclitus' \"panta rhei\"), of which we do not need to worry that it will ever really upset our comfortable post-modern life-styles. For isn't it exactly by emphasizing the constancy of change that we lure ourselves into believing that we do not have to do anything drastic to bring it about, that it will happen anyway and we are not really responsible for it? From this perspective it is no wonder that Robespierre, with his uncompromising and un-pathological radicalism, is often portrayed as the personification of political evil, as the proverbial wolf-in-sheep's-clothing who behind his gentlemanly demeanor hid the character of an ice-cold tyrant, or - more recently - as the rather more pitiful, overzealous change agent who \"believed too much\" in his revolutionary ideals and eventually (luckily, one is eager to add) fell victim to his own \"fatal purity\" (Scurr, 2006).\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: - The purpose of this paper is to provide an introductory overview of this special issue highlighting some of the distinctive features of Zizek's Lacan-inspired thought relevant to the role of ideologies in organizational change management.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - The approach used aims to show how ideological and ethical ramifications of Zizek's recent analysis of a \"Jacobin\" change paradigm can affect thought on everyday change practices in business and management.\nFindings: - Some parallels are drawn between current change practices and narrative tactics employed by Robespierre during the Jacobin reign of terror to \"extort\" the commitment of participants in the change process.\nPractical implications: - This paper/special issue invites reconsideration of our late capitalist intellectual/practical \"reflexes\" in change management, i.e. to reassess their ideological mechanism.\nOriginality/value: - Zizekian/Lacanian approaches to organizations and change are especially suitable for this purpose but have only recently begun to emerge.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
How real are virtual experiences? For a better understanding of virtual experiences and their impact on consumers' real life
|
[
"Consumer behaviour",
"Projective techniques",
"Virtual reality",
"Album-on-Line",
"Virtual experiences"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Virtual environments are increasingly present in consumers' lives. Because the real life is sometimes not flexible enough to bend to their will, consumers use the virtual to escape reality, learn, to play, increase their power of imagination or simply communicate (Holbrook et al., 2008). Researchers in sociology and psychology have studied the virtual, its components and its implications (Mantymaki and Islam, 2014; Wu, 2014; Mantymaki and Salo, 2015). The internet has increased the number of opportunities to live virtual experiences. These experiences are unique as they do not necessitate the physical and logical structure that men need, such as the body and other material artifacts (Ensslin and Muse, 2011). In virtual environments, the imagination is stimulated by a multitude of activities, seemingly heterogeneous: viewing movies or videos, listening to music, simulator training, enjoying painting, photography, images or even going on a simple reverie that transport individuals in an ideal world, modeled according to their wishes (Green, 2001; Liarte, 2005; Grumbach, 2007).\nLiterature review: The virtual, beyond digitization\nMethodology: Methodological difficulties in studying virtual consumer experiences\nResults and discussion: In the literature, researchers have focused on the electronic virtual environment and the antecedents of virtual experiences on the internet and online purchase intention (Hsu et al., 2014). This has allowed them to identify several components of the online experiences. In this research, we study offline and online virtual environments. The analysis of the qualitative data collected from participants' stories and selected images allowed us to note some differences from previous work. Our results highlight new experiential aspects that are increasingly sought after by consumers and likely to influence their behavior.\nConclusion: Compared to previous work, we have been able to better understand the components of the virtual experience by considering the virtual in the broadest sense of the term, as defined by the multidisciplinary literature. The use of the AOL technique allowed us to get a closer look at the specificities of the virtual experience in the eyes of those who live it. By getting participants to tell the story of their experience through visual metaphors, we have shown that it is an experience that is both utilitarian and emotional. It also makes it possible to enter an extraordinary world that can be very customizable and to escape the real life. Our results also explore the links between the different components of the virtual experience. Flow seems to be the consequence of several components of the experience: the individual enters in a state of total detachment from reality after appropriating the experience. This appropriation is achieved if the individual perceives the experience as useful and feels supported by those who live the same experience.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: This paper aims to explore the virtual experience to understand its components and its effects on consumers' real world.\nDesign/methodology/approach: Our approach relies on a rarely used projective method: \"Album-on-Line\" (AOL). This technique allows identifying consumers' representations of their experience. It uses images to immerse participants in a virtual experience and to lead an individual reflection, then a group reflection.\nFindings: Virtual experiences have utilitarian, hedonic, psychological and social dimensions. When immersing in virtual experiences, consumers' perception and consumption of products and services change. A projection occurs leading to an identification to virtual characters. This projection also leads to a consumption aiming at finding back the excitement and challenge lived during virtual experiences.\nResearch limitations/implications: The main limitation of this research relates with the fuzzy distinction between the virtual and the electronic in consumers' minds and even in the literature. Future work should propose a multidisciplinary definition of the virtual experience, considering its specificities and components.\nPractical implications: This research offers companies a better understanding of consumers' motivations to live virtual experiences. It may bring insights on how to provide a more customized offering and a more adapted communication.\nOriginality/value: Compared to previous work, the present research offers a better understanding of the components of online and offline virtual experiences by considering the virtual in its broadest meaning. The use of the AOL technique enabled a closer look at the specificities of the virtual experience as perceived by consumers. It was also possible to explore the \"post-experience\" stage by understanding the effect of virtual experiences on consumers' perceptions and consumptions.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Enron, fair value accounting, and financial crises: a concise history
|
[
"Enron",
"GFC",
"Politics",
"Fair value accounting",
"Standard setting"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: Fair value accounting (FVA) is a constellation of techniques that periodically revise financial values, particularly those of financial assets such as shares, options, swaps and other tradeable items. This constellation broadly divides into a rigorous \"mark-to-market\" version of FVA, that uses verifiable market data of-the-moment as a reference point for these updates, for example quoted stock market prices; and an alternative \"softer\" collection of techniques called colloquially \"mark-to-model\" FVA, which allow management to estimate and revise the prices of assets using financial mathematics calculations and assumptions about the asset's future conditions and prospects (see Table I for a further elaboration on these).\n2. Background - FVA and Enron: FVA was re-introduced into the US Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB) and International Accounting Standards Board (IASB) accounting standards in the 1990s. Following the stock market crash and subsequent economic depression of the 1930s, for 60 years FVA (or earlier systems resembling the intention of FVA) had scarcely been practiced. The 1930s crash had been partially blamed on the overvaluation of assets by FVA-like techniques, which had been practiced haphazardly (Barlev and Haddad, 2002; Healy, 1938; Zeff, 2007). Between the 1930s and the 1990s, the USA (Zeff, 2005), UK (Georgiou and Jack, 2011) and most other countries (Bushman and Piotroski, 2006) relied almost completely upon historical cost accounting, a traditional conservative method, in which upward revaluations of assets were prohibited or strictly controlled. If they were allowed at all, upward revaluations were generally not recorded as distributable period income but needed to be sequestered in an owners' equity reserve. By the 1960s, however, academics considered the resurrection of a more \"scientific\" approach to the constant re-measurement of assets (Burton, 1971; Chambers, 1966; Edwards and Bell, 1961; Sprouse and Moonitz, 1962; Sterling, 1967, 1970, 1975; Wyatt, 1963). Some of these were eventually deployed as experimental \"inflation accounting\" systems (Baskerville, 1996) although the purpose for which they were originally designed encompassed much more than general inflation adjustments.\n3. FVA and the Enron hearings: After the company's collapse in late 2001, US Congress became, for a time, obsessed with Enron. Between December 2001 and December 2002, US congressional committees examined the Enron disaster in 42 separate hearings (Library of Congress, 2014). These hearings are summarized in Table II. The hearings were all of a large-scale and in each of them, Enron was either discussed extensively or was the only topic of discussion (in almost all the hearings \"Enron\" is part of the title). Transcripts of these hearings run to some 16,800 pages (including supporting documents and written reports) and involve the testimony of hundreds of expert witnesses from the highest levels of accounting, finance, legal and bureaucratic establishments. It seems evident that, notwithstanding that these were in some degree political meetings, beliefs held toward Enron, in 2002, may have been fairly well represented within the transcripts of these hearings.\n4. The Enron effect, the fair value world view in the mid-2000s, and the GFC: The limited (or hidden, or fragmented, or confused) understanding of FVA's role in these corporate collapses perhaps helps to explain the tangent that preoccupied the literature in the early 2000s. Instead of seeing Enron as a fair value problem, accounting issues were summarized as a \"rules versus principles problem\" (Nelson, 2003). The IASB had taken the moral high ground after Enron by insisting that its standards were superior because they were based on \"principles\" rather than rules (Tweedie, 2002, p. 110). In prior decades, the IASB had been seen as less powerful, and subservient to the FASB (Flower, 1997; Haswell and McKinnon, 2003; Zeff, 1998). After the Enron scandal, US accounting lost some of its prestige and credibility. FASB was forced into a cooperative pact with the IASB in which, officially at least, the two were more or less equal collaborators. Announcements were periodically made of intentions to \"harmonize\" the two regimes (Bhimani, 2008; Carmona and Trombetta, 2008; Chiapello and Medjad, 2009; Chua and Taylor, 2008; De Lange and Howieson, 2006). After a short time, some commentators were pointing out a phony aspect to the rules and principles debate, as rules and principles were not that easy to distinguish (Schipper, 2003). IFRS also had standards that were full of voluminous implementation guidance, or \"rules.\" The financial instruments standard, IAS 39, with several hundred pages of fair value guidance, and the subject of numerous complaints about its over-complexity (Bryer, 2004), was a prime rules-infested suspect (Nobes, 2005).\n5. Conclusion: This paper argues that the response of standard setters and their supporters to the GFC can be seen as part of an FVA continuum, as summarized and depicted in Table III. FVA began as a piecemeal remedy for historical cost financial reporting problems of the 1990s. These problems had arisen in conjunction with the rise of financial asset trading, so a remedy based on FVA was thought to be timely and modern. This initial FVA (now called, colloquially, \"mark-to-model\" FVA), however, proved to be manipulable, with loose estimates and assumptions of future conditions. Enron and others manipulated mark-to-model FVA for their own corrupt purposes. A study of the Enron hearings of 2001-2002 shows that regulators, standard setters, professionals, and most commentators, in general, either did not understand sufficiently the consequences of FVA and how it was prone to manipulation, or, if they did understand it, chose to remain silent.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: While the debate about fair value accounting (FVA) and the global financial crisis (GFC) of 2008-2009 has been explored in the academic and professional literature, there has been little debate about the consequences of FVA being implicated in the crash of Enron around 2001, and the effect of this on later FVA developments and the GFC. The purpose of this paper is to examine how well regulators, political actors, and other commentators may have understood the use, misuse, effects and consequences of FVA at the time of Enron, and to examine how this collective understanding (or lack thereof) has influenced later accounting policy, especially that going into and arising from the GFC.\nDesign/methodology/approach: Using content analysis, the commentary about FVA is traced through documents, primarily the US Congressional Hearings' examination of the collapse of Enron that took place between December 2001 and December 2002. An assessment of the knowledge of and attitudes toward FVA is made from these and is then traced through later developments including policy responses before, during and after the GFC.\nFindings: Links are found between the collapse of Enron and adjustments to FVA in the mid-2000s, which in turn became implicated in the GFC. These linkages are explored in the context of a fair value world view held by global standards setters in the mid-2000s. During the timeline from the 1990s to the mid-2000s, those advocating and adopting FVA as part of this world view, may have had collectively an insufficient understanding of the consequences or effects of FVA technology.\nOriginality/value: The study provides evidence of a direct link between Enron, the response of global standard setters, and the GFC controversy.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
Structure and evolvement of leadership: a study based on Book of Changes
|
[
"Leadership",
"Book of Changes",
"Qian hexagram",
"Evolvement",
"Leaders",
"China"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: A long history and an immense territory have left China with plenty of wisdoms of management. History books like Zuo's Commentary (Zuo Zhuan), Strategies of Warring States (Zhan Guo Ce), Historical Records (Shi Ji), History of the Han Dynasty (Han Shu), History of the Three Kingdoms (San Guo Zhi), and Comprehensive Mirror for Rulers (Zi Zhi Tong Jian) recorded tons of practices and cases of management and leadership in ancient China. The famous four books, which are Great Learning (Da Xue), Doctrine of the Mean (Zhong Yong), Analects of Confucius (Lun Yu), and Words of Mencius (Meng Zi), also have a lot of profound insights and thoughts on management. But in all of the ancient texts, Book of Changes - I Ching in Chinese - is not only the oldest, but also one of the most influential books in Chinese history. Even after near 3,000 years from its birth, Book of Changes still shapes Chinese people's ways of thinking and doing. Confucius once said:One can escape falling into great errors, if learning I Ching after his 50 (Yang, 2006).Basically, I Ching is a system of cosmology and philosophy that subsequently became intrinsic to Chinese culture. It centers on the ideas of the dynamic balance of opposites, the evolution of events as a process, and acceptance of the inevitability of change (Wikipedia, n.d.). There are 64 hexagrams in its text, which are very profound. Based on the re-interpretation of the first and also the most important one, Qian hexagram, this article tries to dig into the practical wisdom for management from I Ching, and set up a framework for analyzing the structure and the evolvement of leadership.\n2. Book of Changes and its hexagrams: In I Ching, man is linked with heaven and with earth to form a trinity of the primal powers. I Ching uses symbols to present situations. By the combination and the movement of symbols, this book describes the changes of situations, and provides the wisdom for man to deal with the changes (Fu, 2007).The book of I Ching has two parts. One is the text, including the images and the words of 64 hexagrams. The other is the commentary of the text. The origin of I Ching goes back to mythical antiquity. Fu Hsi, King Wen, and Confucius are said authors of I Ching. Fu Hsi is a legendary figure representing the era of hunting and fishing. He is designated as the inventor of the linear signs. The collection of 64 hexagrams originated with King Wen, progenitor of the Chou dynasty. The commentary is the work of Confucius (Wilhelm and Baynes, 1967; Fu, 2007).I Ching believes the origin, the development, the change, and the ending of things are from the dualistic powers, Yin and Yang. Yang represents yes, positive, man. Yin represents no, negative, woman. From signs, Yang is indicated by a simple unbroken line (--), and Yin by a broken line (- -). By combining these two lines, eight trigrams are originated (Figure 1), each of which is composed of three lines (Huang and Zhang, 2000; Fu, 2007).These eight trigrams are combined with one another, whereby a total of 64 hexagrams are created, which indicate 64 kinds of situations. As each hexagram consists of six lines, either positive or negative, there are in total 384 different situations (Fu, 2007). It is quite dizzying, but still not as complicated as the real life. Thus, when I Ching tries to help man to deal with a specific situation, it also shows that the underlying idea of the whole is the idea of change. In discerning with its help the seeds of things to come, we learn to foresee the future and understand the past (Wilhelm and Baynes, 1967). In this way the hexagrams serve as patterns for timely action in the situations indicated.It is widely agreed that both of the two branches of Chinese philosophy, Confucianism and Taoism, have their common roots from I Ching. Indeed, not only the philosophy of China but its science and statecraft as well have never ceased to draw from the spring of wisdom in the I Ching. Even the common-places of everyday life in China are saturated with its influence (Wilhelm and Baynes, 1967).\n3. The leadership structure based on Qian hexagram: 3.1 Qian hexagram\n4, Evolvement of leadership in different situations: Qian hexagram takes the dragon as a metaphor of good leader. From the view of Chinese, the dragon can fly and swim, just like an excellent leader who knows what to do in different situations. There are six lines in Qian hexagram to represent six typical situations that a leader may face. Based on the basic strategic suggestions in I Ching, we discuss the proper leaderships that may meet the challenges from different situations, which will finally show a picture of the evolvement of leadership with the development of an organization. Here proper leadership means the ideal combination of the four virtues of leadership, which is not static, and could help leaders to effectively handle changes and challenges emerging from different situations (Figure 5).4.1 Hiding dragon: humble stage\n5. Conclusion: Chester Barnard, one of the great leadership thinkers of the twentieth century, spoke of leadership as the art of sensing the whole (Naughton et al., 2010). Based on the interpretation of I Ching, specifically the Qian hexagram, this article presents a structured and dynamical view of leadership, which is trying to sense the whole.The leadership system developed in this article is composed of the four virtues of Qian (with the meaning of heaven, force), which are as following: Yuan (creation and origination), Heng (cooperation and development), Li (achievement and sharing), and Zhen (firmness and perseverance). And then, this article builds an evolvement rout of leadership according to the six different situations set by the Qian hexagram, which are humble stage, emerging from hiding, trying your best, going up or down, reaching excellence, and starting to fall.According to the typological study by Pearce et al. (2003), there are four broad level types of leadership, which include directive leadership, transactional leadership, transformational leadership, empowering leadership:Directive leadership refers to behaviors that are primarily associated with the leader giving orders on how work is to be done. Transactional leadership refers to the behaviors that establish the conditions of the exchange relationship between leader and follower. Transformational leadership refers to behaviors that define and sustain vision, elicit inspiration from followers, and stimulate change. In contrast, empowering leadership is mainly aimed at the development of followers, eventually molding them into effective self-leaders that are capable of initiative, creativity, and acting on their own (Pearce et al., 2003, p. 300).The leadership system developed in this article does not fit into any of the four types above. It provides a broader and more comprehensive view on leadership, which includes not only four key elements of leadership (that is Yuan, Heng, Li, and Zhen), but also the evolvement of leadership according to the change of situations. We believe leadership is not static, and it is changeable because the environment and the requirement are changing. Quinn (1988) and Quinn et al. (1990) recognized that leaders could engage in multiple types of leader behavior either simultaneously or sequentially. Doty and Glick (1994) also argued that the purpose of a typology is not the definition of mutually exclusive categories, but rather the identification of interrelated sets of phenomena. This research provides a route-map that facilitates leaders to build their leadership and change their leadership. I ching is Book of Changes. The leadership system developed in this article is trying to help leaders manage changes, which are usually the key challenges for leaders.There are things unchangeable in this leadership system. Leaders' success depends on their creativity, cooperation, fairness, and perseverance. In I Ching, it is said:Men should improve themselves perpetually (Huang and Zhang, 2000).Leaders' success, at the same time, depends on the timing of their action and the positions they put themselves in.This article is also instructive for the management education. First, courses like leadership shall let students realize that leadership is not static. There is no one leadership that can fit all situations. One of the biggest challenges that leaders face is how to manage changes. Second, related lectures shall be developed based on I Ching in business schools, which will help managers to view and think leadership from a new perspective, enrich their understanding of leadership, and facilitate them to handle challenges at the different phase of their organizations. But for the profundity of I Ching, this is not an easy job. Some of the top business schools in China have tried to introduce the traditional Chinese wisdom, like I Ching and Taoism, to their curricula. But what they could do at present is pure philosophical lecture. Less developed research in re-interpretation of I Ching and connecting I Ching with modern management has hampered the spread of its wisdom in business world.According to the knowledge of the authors, this article is the first one trying to set up a leadership system based on I Ching, especially Qian hexagram. The implications provided by this article would be very helpful for leaders to more successfully evaluate their situations, change their leaderships according to the different challenges they may face, and at the same time stick to the key virtues.But further researches are needed to improve the understanding and the practice of the leadership system based on I Ching. According to the situational leadership model, the most effective leadership style is determined by the \"readiness level\" or \"maturity\" a follower exhibits (Hersey and Blanchard, 1969; Hersey et al., 2001; Paperworth et al., 2009). Future studies should try to include the \"readiness\" of the followers into the leadership system. Case studies and empirical tests are also needed to improve the theory development in this field.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: - By the re-interpretation of the Book of Changes (I Ching), this article aims to build a framework for analyzing the structure and the evolvement of leadership.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - There are 64 hexagrams in Book of Changes. This article focuses the discussion on Qian hexagram, which is the first and the most important one in all the hexagrams. By using metaphysical concepts, this article builds a dynamic leadership system. This leadership system is composed of the four virtues of Qian (with the meaning of heaven, force), which are as follows: Yuan (creation and origination), Heng (cooperation and development), Li (achievement and sharing), and Zhen (firmness and perseverance). Based on this framework, by using the metaphor of dragon, this article develops an evolvement route of leadership according to the six situations set by the Qian hexagram, which are humble stage, emerging from hiding, trying your best, going up or down, reaching excellence, and starting to fall, and discusses the proper leadership in different situations.\nFindings: - There are four elements or virtues in leadership. The importance of each virtue and the key points in each of them change as an organization or a venture evolves from one situation to another. Leaders should match their leadership with the specific situation they are in.\nOriginality/value: - According to the knowledge of the authors, this article is the first one in the world trying to set up a leadership system based on Book of Changes, especially Qian hexagram. The implications provided by this article would be very valuable for leaders to more successfully evaluate their situations and change their leaderships according the different challenges they may face.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
The equity consequences of school-based management
|
[
"Equity capital",
"Income",
"Educational administration",
"Israel"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nBackground: What is the effect of the financial autonomy granted to schools through the introduction of school based management (SBM) on income equity among schools of different socio-economic backgrounds? Although SBM has become a central theme of the restructuring efforts in many western centralized educational systems (Devos et al., 1998; Robertson et al., 1995), little is known about its direct effects on educational equity in terms of the financial resources that schools manage to generate. By employing a longitudinal research design, the following study, which focuses on the Israeli educational system, analyzes the annual financial reports of schools, attempting to determine whether SBM implemented in a centralized system, as a top-down restructuring initiative is beneficial for educational equity.School-based management and equity\nMethod: Sample\nFindings: A Gini Coefficient computed to measure income inequity shows that the overall inequity among the schools in the sample has slightly decreased over the years (see Table II).The analysis indicates that inequity among schools slightly decreased, from 19.4 per cent in 1999 to 16.3 per cent in 2002. A closer look at the various income components that are used in the analysis reveals that incomes coming from parents (in Israel, an annual sum of money for enrichment activities) and from self-generated sources are the main contributing sources for the inequity among schools: Parental payments contribute about 28 per cent on average whereas incomes from self-generated sources contribute on average 70 per cent to the total inequity among schools. However, as Table III shows, these two incomes differ in terms of their relative share in the schools' budget:It is evident that the relative share of income coming from parental payments in four years is 47.5 per cent on average of the total school income (N=31) which may be rather surprising considering that public education in Israel is free by low. Conversely, it is evident that school income from self-generated sources comprises on average only 6.3 per cent of their total income. This last finding reflects that contrary to the theoretical assumption inherent in SBM, the increase in schools' financial autonomy did not significantly change school conduct in terms of self-generated resources or enhance significantly the share of self-generated income of the total school income.This is also evident when self-generated incomes are compared between schools of high and low socio-economic backgrounds. A comparison of incomes between these two groups of schools between 1999 and 2002 reveals that incomes from self-generated sources in schools of low socio-economic backgrounds increased from 4.4 per cent in 1999 of the total income to 8.8 per cent in 2002 and in schools of high socio-economic backgrounds, decreased from 6.6 per cent in 1999 to 5.0 per cent in 2002 of the total income. These figures indicate that the share of incomes from self-generated sources of the total school income is in general low, and that no statistically significant differences are found between schools of different socio-economic backgrounds regarding self-generated incomes that schools manage to obtain. Hence, although the Gini Coefficient indicates that the biggest differences among schools are found when self-generated sources are considered, the relatively small amount of income coming from these sources of the total school budget allows the conclusion that these incomes change little in schools' financial status and are therefore less significant in creating income gaps among schools.However, the differences between schools of high and low socio-economic backgrounds are more strongly evident when parental payments are considered.It is evident that schools of high socio-economic backgrounds generate parental payments about two times more than do schools of low socio-economic backgrounds both in 1999 [F (1,14)=5.11; p<0.05] and in 2002 [F (1,14)=5.39; p<0.05]. Over a period of four years, an average of 52 per cent of the total school income was generated by schools of high socio-economic backgrounds from parental payments whereas only 34 per cent of the total income was generated from parental payments by schools of low socio-economic backgrounds. Moreover, the figures show that during this period of time, schools of high socio-economic backgrounds increased their incomes from parental payments by 10 per cent, whereas schools of low socio-economic backgrounds increased their incomes by only 2.2 per cent.How then can the Gini Coefficient indicating an overall decrease in the inequity among schools of different socio-economic backgrounds be explained? The answer lays in the LEA's financial conduct (see Table IV and Figures 1 and 2).While, in 1999, schools of high socio-economic backgrounds received relatively more funding from the LEA than did schools of low socio-economic backgrounds, it is evident that this tendency has been replaced since 2000 by the opposite, which favors schools of low socio-economic backgrounds. It is evident that while the average income from the LEA remained unchanged over a period of four years in schools of high socio-economic backgrounds, incomes coming from the LEA have increased by 13.7 per cent in schools of low socio-economic backgrounds, mainly through additional incomes that the LEA allocated to these schools. In considering that the incomes from the LEA make on average about 46 per cent of schools' total income, this shift seems to provide compensation for the differences between schools of high and low socio-economic backgrounds and may be the reason for the overall decrease in the inequity found among schools. In considering that the basic income per pupil is a fixed sum of money for all schools regardless of their socio-economic backgrounds, it may be understood why the LEA is using additional incomes, which are rather \"soft budgets\", as means for decreasing the gaps among schools of different socio-economic backgrounds.\nDiscussion: The purpose of this study was to assess the impact of SBM on the inequity among schools in terms of schools' income. Based on the Gini Coefficient obtained for the 31 schools that were studied over a period of four years, it is evident that the inequity among schools has slightly decreased. However, this decrease is hardly influenced by schools' financial initiatives since schools, regardless of their socio-economic backgrounds, have failed to create new self-generated financial resources over the years to an extent that could significantly increase their annual budget. Also, the decreased inequity may not be attributed to parental payments since in spite of the free education law, parents' payments are a main financial source and a central factor in creating inequity among schools, ranging on average between 30 per cent to 50 per cent of the total school income in schools of different socio-economic backgrounds.Rather, the decreased inequity in schools' incomes seems to be a result of the change in the LEA's conduct regarding resource allocation to schools, which grants schools of low socio-economic backgrounds a larger budget in comparison to the budget allotted to schools of high socio-economic backgrounds. This is achieved through additional incomes, which vary significantly between schools of different backgrounds. Therefore, although it is difficult to establish firm generalizations based on data coming from a single LEA, it may be concluded that the centrally oriented intervention of the LEA studied in resource allocation to schools is the main contributing factor for the decrease in income inequalities among schools.This interpretation gains additional support considering that the inequity among the schools that were studied was rather moderate from the beginning. The 19.4 per cent Gini Coefficient obtained in 1999 (which was the first year of schools' financial autonomy) may be the outcome of centralized efforts devoted for many years to ensure equity in the Israeli educational system, which may be evident in the compensating formula employed that differentially allocates financial resources to schools.Hence, although schools need more than money in order to ensure equity, money is essential (Porter, 1994). Our findings point at the potential danger inherent for equity in SBM when introduced in an educational system comprised of schools of various socio-economic backgrounds if a compensating formula is not employed. Moreover, the findings suggest that a compensating formula may prove to be mostly effective in decreasing income inequalities among schools if it is computed based on the amount of payments that parents pay to school de facto rather than just on the socio-economic characteristics of the social community that school serves. This statement may be explained in considering the share of parental payments of the total school income is the main contributing factor for the income inequity among schools. Therefore, changing the compensating formula in this direction seems essential, if SBM is expected to promote the learning opportunities for all children rather than to widen social gaps and increase inequity among schools.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: - The purpose of this paper is to examine the extent to which the introduction of school-based management (SBM) affects schools' incomes and educational equity?\nDesign/methodology/approach: - An analysis of financial reports coming from 31 SBM schools during a period of four sequential years reveals that the overall inequity among schools has slightly decreased, although significant differences are found between high and low socio-economic schools.\nFindings: - The findings show that significant differences exist between schools of low and high socio-economic backgrounds in the relative amount of incomes coming from parental payments. An analysis of the income provided to schools by the LEA suggests that the differences and inequalities between schools are moderated by the LEA, which provides relatively more funds to schools of low socio-economic backgrounds following the introduction of SBM in schools.\nOriginality/value: - The study points to the danger inherent in SBM for educational equity and highlights the significance of a compensating formula that will take into account mainly parental payments de-facto in previous years.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
The effects of corporate social responsibility (CSR) on employee well-being in the hospitality industry
|
[
"Job satisfaction",
"Corporate social responsibility (CSR)",
"Overall quality of life (QoL)",
"Quality of working life (QWL)"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: Recent studies have devoted specific attention to corporate social responsibility (CSR) in different types of industries, including the tourism and hospitality industry (Bohdanowicz and Zientara, 2008; Eraqi, 2010; Hendersen, 2007; Lee et al., 2012). A number of organizations recognize the necessity of balancing profitability and the development of a positive image through environmental and social responsibility (Lee and Heo, 2009; Mozes et al., 2011). About 60 per cent of surveyed industry professionals perceived that their customers expect them to be involved in CSR activities (Musgrave, 2011). As people's concern for CSR activity increases, firms are under pressure from regulators and auditors, and they find themselves in urgent need of assistance (Fu et al., 2014). According to Tsai et al. (2012), \"in the context of the hospitality and tourism industry, the concerns on CSR are a response to the guidelines established by the World Travel and Tourism Council and the United Nation World Tourism Organization (UNWTO), as well as the environmental awareness raised by the Green Hotels Association\" (p. 1143).\n2. Literature review: 2.1 Corporate social responsibility\n3. Methodology: 3.1 Sampling and data collection\n4. Results: To achieve the purpose of this study, confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) and structural equation modelling (SEM) with the maximum likelihood (ML) technique were adopted using AMOS 20.0 software. Before data analysis, distribution of all variables was checked by investigating the skewness and kurtosis of data. Also, the result of a multivariate normality check indicated that relative multivariate kurtosis (1.352), which showed normal distribution of all combinations of variables. In addition, missing values and influential outliers were checked. The results of zero-order correlations of the constructs indicated that legal, ethical, philanthropic and economic CSR were all correlated significantly to QWL. Moreover, the correlation between QWL, job satisfaction and overall QoL turned out to be significant. Cronbach's reliability coefficients reflect the internal consistency of each construct (Hair et al., 2010). The reliability coefficients ranged from 0.73 to 0.94 in this study.\n5. Discussion and conclusion: 5.1 Conclusion\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this study is to examine hotel industry employees' perceptions of corporate social responsibility (CSR) and the influence of these perceptions on their quality of working life (QWL), job satisfaction and overall quality of life. By applying need satisfaction theory and bottom-up spillover theory, the study hypothesizes that employees' overall quality of life is affected by QWL and job satisfaction. CSR serves as an antecedent to the hypothesis.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The target population for this study consisted of hotel industry employees working for companies in which CSR practices are conducted. The data collection method involved distributing a survey questionnaire. Using a sample drawn from employees in upscale hotels in South Korea, 442 usable responses were analyzed using a SEM approach.\nFindings: The results revealed that philanthropic and economic CSR positively affected QWL, while legal and ethical CSR did not affect QWL. The study also confirms the need satisfaction theory, which suggests that employees' QWL and job satisfaction affect their overall quality of life.\nOriginality/value: Despite the importance of CSR perception, most of the previous studies in this area have examined company and customer perspectives, while only limited research has examined employees' CSR perceptions. The results of this research enrich knowledge of the outcome of CSR from the employee perspective. Information about employees' perceptions of CSR activities is valuable for hotel management as it is the employees who turn CSR statements to actions.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Satisfaction and trust on customer loyalty: a PLS approach
|
[
"Customer satisfaction",
"Customer loyalty",
"Trust",
"Service quality",
"Complaint handling",
"Partial least squares",
"Structural equation modelling",
"Malaysia"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: The concept of customer satisfaction has received much research attention in recent years. Satisfying customers is a business challenge in today's competitive marketplace. Today, firms have realized how important it is to understand, meet and predict customers' needs. Customers have also become increasingly conscious of their value to their banks. Due to the highly competitive nature in the banking sector, customers will be the key factor in determining the success of the enterprise. In short, under such intense competition, the bank that has the largest customer base and the highest customer retention rate will be a market leader in the industry. Hence, knowing customers' needs how they feel about the company and their expectations have become critically important for maximizing customer retention.Studies have shown that the long-term success of a firm is closely related to its ability to adapt to customer needs and changing preferences (Takala et al., 2006). However, there are instances when satisfying customers is just not enough. Recent evidence shows that customers may switch some or all of their businesses to other suppliers even when they are fully satisfied (Buttle et al., 2002). There are many reasons why customers are likely to change to other firms. Process improvements, the advent of new technology in banking, change in customer's priorities, customer personalization and improved quality of service provided by competitors are just a few examples.Research has shown that there is a positive relationship between customer satisfaction and financial performance (Fornell et al., 1996). Another important issue is that customer loyalty is increasingly being recognized by American businesses as a path to long-term business profitability (Mittal and Lassar, 1998). Some business analysts have suggested that the cost of recruiting a new customer is five times more than the cost of retaining an existing customer (Reichheld and Sasser, 1990; Lam and Burton, 2006). Customer loyalty is also deemed as critical to the conduct of business in today's competitive marketplace and banks are no exception (Ehigie, 2006). Studies have shown that there is a positive relationship between customer satisfaction and loyalty in the banking sectors (Hallowell, 1996; Lam and Burton, 2006; Ball et al., 2006). These studies have shown that customer satisfaction is a leading factor in determining loyalty. In other words, the degree to which customers are satisfied with their banking experience plays a central role in their loyalty to the bank. However, there are also studies that suggest trust is more important than satisfaction in ensuring loyalty (Ranaweera and Prabhu, 2003; Caceras and Paparoidamis, 2007).Most banks outsource projects on customer satisfaction to survey companies while some carry out their own small scale customer satisfaction surveys to improve their services. However, most banks do not place emphasis on studying the level of trust and loyalty of their customers. According to Reichheld (1993), satisfied customers are more likely to concentrate their business with one bank. Studies by Kish (2000) and, Duncan and Elliot (2002) showed links between customer loyalty and organizational profitability, thus implying that any organization with loyal customers has considerable competitive advantage. Hence, in studies on customer satisfaction, trust and loyalty are essential and useful for banks in developing their strategies for better customer retention. In order to gain competitive advantage and overcome the problem of customer switching or defecting, it is imperative that banks measure their customer satisfaction, trust and loyalty level. There are several variations of the CSI model. The objective of this paper is to test a proposed CSI model and re-examine the interrelationships between service quality, satisfaction, complaint handling, trust and loyalty. The proposed conceptual model is given in section 2. A description of the research methodology is presented in section 3 while the findings are discussed in section 4. The conclusion in section 5 highlights the aims achieved, limitations of the paper and further possible research.\n2. Conceptual foundation: 2.1 Review of CSI models\n3. Research method: 3.1 Research setting and subjects\n4. Results: 4.1 Demographic profile of respondents\n5. Discussion: This study proposed a CSI model which is adapted from the ESCI model. This model re-examines the relationship between satisfaction, trust and loyalty by proposing satisfaction as an antecedent of trust. The results of this study support the findings in the literature that service quality has a positive effect on customer satisfaction (Caruana, 2002; Levesque and McDougall, 1996). This study also provided empirical evidence that satisfaction has a positive effect on trust and this trust will eventually has a positive influence on loyalty to the bank (Hallowell, 1996; Bendall-Lyon and Powers, 2003; Lam and Burton, 2006; Ball et al., 2006). Complaint handling is found to have a significant effect on satisfaction, trust and loyalty (Johnston, 2001; Hansemark and Albinsson, 2004; Levesque and McDougall, 1996). Therefore, banks should not take complaint handling lightly as poorly handled complaints may be viewed by consumers as banks' incompetence and lack of care towards their customers.5.1 Implications\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: - The purpose of this paper is to test some antecedents and outcomes of satisfaction in the banking sector in Malaysia.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - A research model based on the customer satisfaction index (CSI) was developed and tested using structural equation modeling technique with the use of partial least squares (PLS) approach. Data was analyzed using 239 bank customer responses.\nFindings: - The results showed that satisfaction has a positive effect on trust and this trust leads to loyalty to the bank. Good complaint handling by banks will also elevate satisfaction, trust and loyalty.\nResearch limitations/implications: - This work contributes to the existing literature on CSI models by introducing customer satisfaction as an antecedent of trust. The findings are limited by the constraints of the number of measures and the participation of banks in this study.\nPractical implications: - Banks should focus on building credibility trust and benevolence trust with their customers. Commercial service is of the utmost importance, and hence banks should develop strategies and train officers in delivering efficient communication and administrative service, as this will elevate customer satisfaction.\nSocial implications: - This work contributes to the understanding of customer behavior, needs and preferences, which can help banks to improve customer satisfaction, trust and loyalty.\nOriginality/value: - This paper adds to the existing literature on service satisfaction antecedents and outcomes in a developing country setting. Although there has been some research works on the same issue, their number has been very small in comparison to the literature appearing based on developed countries.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Technical efficiency and its determinants in the Indonesian micro and small enterprises
|
[
"Technical efficiency",
"Data envelopment analysis",
"Micro and small firms",
"Indonesian manufacturing industry",
"L10",
"L60",
"M20"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: Micro and small enterprises (MSEs) in the manufacturing industry contribute significantly to the Indonesian economy. Data from Indonesian Bureau of Central Statistics (2017) revealed that the average contribution of the MSEs to the total number of firms in the industry reached about 99 per cent, and the rest belonged to medium and big enterprises during the period 2010-2015. The MSEs also absorbed employment about 63 per cent in the industry while the remaining 37 per cent were absorbed by the medium and big enterprises during the period 2010-2015, on average. Despite its significant contribution to the employment, the average output contribution of the MSEs was about 10 per cent to the total output in the Indonesian industry during the period 2010-2015. The MSEs still had no significant output contribution to the Indonesian industry compared to the medium and big firms which contributed about 90 per cent to the total manufacturing output during the period 2010-2015, on average.\n2. Literature review: Research about TE in the Indonesian economy has been frequently investigated, but the research mainly concerned on the TE of medium and big firms (see Margono and Sharma, 2006; Ikhsan, 2007; Setiawan et al., 2012, 2013). There were few studies investigating the TE of the Indonesian MSEs on specific industries and locations. A research estimating the TE of the Indonesian MSEs based on comprehensive relevant subsectors at the national level is hardly found. For example, Tan and Batra (1995) investigated the TE of 62 small firms in 1992. Hill and Kalirajan (1993) investigated the TE of 2,250 small firms in Garment industry. Also, Setiawan et al. (2016) only investigated TE of general MSEs in Bandung area.\n3. Modelling approach: This research uses data envelopment analysis (DEA) to estimate TE score at the first stage. TE is defined as the ability of a decision-making unit (a micro or a small firm) to minimise the use of input in the production of a given bundle of outputs, or the ability of the firm to produce the maximum output from a given bundle of inputs (see Kumbhakar and Lovell, 2003; Setiawan et al., 2012). The DEA estimation is applied using firm-level data in each subsector for every single year. Using the TE score estimated at the first stage, the second stage investigates the determinants of TE.\n4. Data: This research uses firm-level data to estimate TE scores in each subsector of the Indonesian micro and small firms. The TE scores of the firms are estimated based on each subsector, since each subsector can have different characteristics with other subsectors in the production. Thus, estimating the TE score without grouping the firms into the proper subsectors may not be valid.\n5. Results: Table III shows the average TE score of firms from all subsectors in the period of 2010-2015. The average TE scores of subsectors including all micro and small firms during the period 2010-2015 were 0.504, 0.503 and 0.498 for the subsectors with MSEs located in all regions, subsectors with MSEs only located in Java and subsectors with MSEs only located outside Java, respectively. This indicates that the MSEs in those subsectors could still expand the output by 49.6, 49.7 and 50.2 per cent with the same level of input, respectively. Table III also shows that the average TE of small firms was larger than the average TE of micro firms in all groups of regions. The subsectors in Java also had slightly higher average TE score than those outside Java, except for the subsectors with MSEs including only small firms. For example, the average subsectors including only small firms which were located in Java had the average TE of 0.523, and the ones located outside Java had the average TE of 0.527. This might have a relation with the larger number of small firms located outside Java compared to those within Java, which could be an indication of a better development of the small firms outside Java. From Table III it is also seen that the average TE in 2013 was much lower compared to the average TE in other periods. This could be an indication that samples of the MSEs taken by BPS in 2013 might have lower performances in both inputs and outputs compared to the samples taken in other periods[12]. In spite of this, there was an increasing trend on the average TE during the period 2010-2015 in all groups of the MSEs.\n6. Conclusion: This research investigates the TE of MSEs and its determinants in Indonesia during the period 2010-2015. TE is estimated using DEA with a bootstrapping approach. The truncated regression model is applied to estimate the effects of firm size, location, export, level of technology, education level, and firm age on the TE.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to investigate the technical efficiency (TE) of micro and small enterprises (MSEs) and its determinants in the Indonesian manufacturing sector covering comprehensive subsectors.\nDesign/methodology/approach: This research uses the data from the micro and small industry survey sourced from the Indonesian Bureau of Central Statistics for the period 2010-2015. The TE is estimated using data envelopment analysis (DEA) with bootstrapping approach. The TE is also estimated at the firm-level survey data, classified at the five-digit level of the International Standard Industrial Classification system. In addition, a truncated regression model is applied to estimate the effects of the determinants on the TE.\nFindings: This research finds that there is a low average TE of the MSEs for the subsectors investigated. It is also found that the TE is associated with firm size, location, export orientations on domestic and world markets, firm age, level of technology, and owner education.\nOriginality/value: The literature investigating the TE of the MSEs and its determinants is still rare in Indonesia. Most of the previous research limited the studies for specific subsectors and/or specific small regions. Therefore, this research has a contribution in measuring the TE of the MSEs for comprehensive subsectors as well as its relation with the determinants in the Indonesian manufacturing sector. Also, the DEA with bootstrapping approach is applied to estimate the TE of the firms based on each relevant subsector, which is rare in the previous research of the Indonesian MSEs.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
The effects of customized site features on internet apparel shopping
|
[
"Customization",
"Internet shopping",
"Clothing",
"Buying behaviour"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: The apparel product category has been ranked fifth in the dominant sales categories on the internet (US Census Bureau, 2005). However, internet apparel sales represents less than 2 percent of all apparel sold and apparel sales seem to be growing with less speed than other product categories on the internet (Bulgan and Vuruskan, 2004). The major inhibitor of apparel sales growth on the internet may be that apparel purchasing on the internet may include a high level of purchase risk.Apparel, termed \"high touch\" merchandise, varies by size, texture, and color and these variables tend to create a perception of purchase risk on the internet (Andrews and Haworth, 2002). Since many apparel consumers' purchasing decisions are motivated by their senses (e.g., touching, feeling, trying on or observing the product first-hand) (Tehrani, 2001; Underhill, 1999), being unable to touch or try on apparel through the internet increases consumers' purchase risks (Kwon et al., 1991).Furthermore, since apparel is visible, worn in public, and subject to changing fashion trends, the concern of the inappropriate selection of apparel may lead to a high level of purchase risk (Kwon et al. 1991; Laurent and Kapferer, 1985; Prasad, 1975). High purchase risks may lead apparel consumers to spend more time searching for product information and to demand a more interactive shopping experience than they would from other product categories. However, the limited nature of internet apparel shopping experiences (e.g., inability to fully evaluate apparel) may discourage consumers intent to purchase apparel on the internet and, turn in, make them visit brick-and-mortar stores.Recognizing the limited consumer shopping experiences on the internet, electronic-retailers have implemented customized site features to renegotiate and interact with consumers on the internet. Since customized site features can aid in developing a high level of interactivity with consumers, provide customized alternative information availability, and allow visual apparel examinations by using virtual models, customized site features can enhance the shopping experience and reduce purchase risk on the internet. Moreover, customized site features may substitute for the interactivity with salespeople in brick-and-mortar stores, satisfy consumers' needs and wants for alternative product information offerings, and deliver better shopping experiences than competing sites without customized features.When consumers are aware of purchase risks, it will consequently affect the consumer purchasing decision process (Bauer, 1960). If consumers perceive that customized site features are effective in assisting their purchase decisions, the consequent effect of purchase risks on the consumer purchasing decision process will be mitigated and will positively affect consumers' attitudes toward internet apparel shopping. In this regard, it is viable to explore whether customized site features positively affect consumer purchasing decision aids and consumers' attitudes toward internet apparel shopping. Thus, the aim of this study is to examine the effects of customized site features on consumers' purchasing decision aids and consumers' attitudes toward internet apparel shopping. Exploring whether customized site features positively affect consumers' attitudes toward internet apparel shopping will subsequently allow for the identification of benefits provided by customized site features for consumers and electronic-retailers.\nLiterature review: Customized site features\nMethodology: Measures\nAnalyses and results: Demographic description of sample\nDiscussion and conclusions: Customized site features are predicted to mitigate consumers' apparel purchasing risks on the internet and they may change the pattern of consumers' internet apparel shopping. This study makes a meaningful contribution to the body of knowledge by identifying the benefits of customized site features in terms of aiding purchasing decisions and impact on consumers' attitude toward internet apparel shopping. Moreover, this study provides an initial approach to conceptualizing the effects of customized site features on consumer attitude toward internet apparel shopping. Further, the recognition of customized site features that positively affect consumers' purchasing decision aids and attitude toward internet apparel shopping may be utilized for apparel marketing strategies on the internet.This study found that three customized site features, interactivity, virtual experiences, and customized alternative information availability, positively affected consumers internet apparel shopping. In addition, the results showed that interactivity on the internet aided consumers' purchasing decisions and it may reduce apparel purchase risk on the internet. Customized site features may increase the consumers' patronage to the site and boost apparel sales on the internet. Further, customized marketing using customized site features will increase the benefits of customer loyalty and decrease the costs of retention for the marketer (Kline, 1998).Based on the findings, this study suggests e-retailers need to focus on how to effectively interact with consumers in aiding consumer's purchasing decision through customized site features. Efficient interactions between consumers and e-representatives will be a pressing challenge for e-retailers operating customized apparel marketing. Further, e-retailers need to explore and develop easy-to-use web interfaces with customized site features to enhance the usability.The sample drawn from an opt-in-e-mail marketing company was purposive and convenience-based. Since most consumers are not accustomed to using customized site features, the sampling was limited due to the slow emergence of customized site features on existing websites. Thus, the findings may not be generalizable beyond this study.Despite these limitations, exploring customized site features on the internet has added to the body of knowledge by providing insights into how to interact and renegotiate with consumers through customized site features. Few, if any, studies exist concerning customized site features; therefore there is a need to develop and diffuse customized site features to facilitate internet apparel shopping and reduce apparel purchase risks. Future research should consider measuring the effects of customized site features on consumers' apparel purchase risks on the internet.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: - The purpose of this paper is to examine the effects of customized site features on consumers' purchasing decision aids and consumers' attitudes toward internet apparel shopping.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - The research model was developed and tested using structural equation modeling to identify the effects of customized site features on internet apparel shopping. Participants were members of an opt-in-e-mail marketing company and were required to experience the customized site features at a given web site prior to the survey. A sample of 107 participants was used for the analysis, totaling a 34 percent response rate.\nFindings: - Interactivity of customized site features indicated a significant direct effect on consumers' purchasing decision aids and an indirect effect on positive attitude toward internet apparel shopping. Virtual experience and customized alternative information offerings showed significant direct effects on positive consumer attitude toward internet apparel shopping.\nResearch limitations/implications: - Direct measures of the effects of customized site features on consumers' apparel purchase risks on the internet are suggested for future research.\nPractical implications: - E-retailers should explore and develop the easy-to-use web interface of customized site features to enhance site usability and they should diffuse into their own retail web sites.\nOriginality/value: - Examination of the effects of customized site features on internet apparel shopping is an area of research that has not been fully explored. The study provides e-retailers with the insights to renegotiate the interaction with consumers regarding apparel shopping on the internet.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
The effect of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act on firm productivity
|
[
"Sarbanes-Oxley",
"Productivity",
"Capital",
"Labor",
"Output elasticity"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: This paper examines the impact of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act (SOX or Act hereafter) on firms' productivity. In the wake of corporate scandals and accounting irregularities that rattled the US capital markets, Congress passed and President George W. Bush signed the SOX into effect on July 30, 2002. The Act was enacted to enhance protection for investors by improving the accuracy and reliability of corporate disclosures made pursuant to the securities laws. The Act dictates improved corporate governance and increased accountability of officers and boards of directors of publicly traded companies. However, criticisms of the Act have intensified/increased[1] with some suggesting that it is \"quack corporate governance and SOX's mandates were seriously misconceived because they are not likely to improve audit quality or otherwise enhance firm performance and thereby benefit investors as Congress intended (Romano, 2005). Romano argues that:\n2. Research hypotheses: The SOX aims to deter corporate frauds by improving corporate governance and making top executives accountable for their managerial activities. Specifically, it requires that audit committee members be fully independent and financially literate (Section 301). Section 407 further requires that at least one audit committee member has to be a financial expert. These requirements aim to strengthen the monitoring function of the audit committee. Section 301 also requires audit committee to set up procedures for employees to file complaints about accounting procedures and internal controls. This requirement provides an alternative venue for enhancing the internal control and minimizing the risk of fraud. Two sections specifically targeting the internal control of a firm are Sections 302 and 404. Per Section 302, top executives are required to endorse periodic financial reports and assess the internal control systems of their firms. Further, auditors have to evaluate the internal control systems and audit the management's internal control assessments, in addition to auditing the financial reports (Section 404).\n3. Measurement of productivity: In this section, we discuss how we construct our measures of productivity, output elasticity of labor and output elasticity of capital. In its simplest form, a production function y = f(x1, [...] [...] xn) relates an output measure y to input resources x1, [...] .xn. If the output is homogeneous across different firms, the output measure y is the quantity of such output. In most other cases, the output measure y is structured to represent the monetary value of the output such as total sales[7]. Deriving from this production function, a firm's productivity measured by its total factor productivity (TFP, th) can be defined as the output per unit of total input:\n4. Data and sample: 4.1 Sample selection\n5. Regression analyses: 5.1 Estimation model\n6. Conclusion: The SOX was enacted to protect investors by improving the accuracy and reliability of corporate financial reporting. However, opponents of the SOX criticize that the Act diverts management's effort from the important strategic planning and day-to-day operations of the firm toward mere compliance work, leading to a decrease in firm value and performance. In this paper, we directly test this claim by examining the impact of the SOX on firm productivity initially. Contrary to the criticism, we observe that, although the SOX has a negative impact on firm productivity, it is associated with improved productivity over time. The SOX also has a positive effect on the output elasticity of labor but a negative impact on the output elasticity of capital. In other words, there is a shift in the contribution from capital toward labor in the post-SOX period. While compliance with the SOX can be costly, \"it is not without corresponding benefits\". In this regard, we find an improvement in firm productivity over time post-SOX, possibly due to the enhancement in overall corporate governance and the internal control system. In fact, we find that firms with an improvement in their internal control systems experience significantly larger improvement in their productivity.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: This paper aims to examine the effect of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act (SOX), which was signed by President George W. Bush and came into effect on July 30, 2002, on firm productivity.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The authors use the total factor productivity (TFP) as our measure of firm productivity.\nFindings: Analyzing annual firm-level data from the Compustat database for the period of 1991-2006, the authors find that firm productivity increases at a higher rate in the post-SOX period. The results indicate that, although firms incur significant costs in complying with the requirements of the SOX, they also benefit from these requirements as evidenced by the improved productivity over time post-SOX. There is also a shift in the output elasticities from capital toward labor. The SOX has a positive effect on the output elasticity of labor but a negative impact on that of capital.\nResearch limitations/implications: The results have the following important implications. The SOX is a value-enhancing regulation in that it not only strengthens a firm's corporate governance but also improves its productivity. However, compliance with the SOX can impose a long-term cost on firms: the decrease in the capital investment, leading to a decline in the output elasticity of capital. If this decline in the capital investment continues, it can have an adverse effect on firm productivity in the long term.\nOriginality/value: This paper extends the literature along the line of the actual operational effects of the SOX regulation by examining its effect on the productivity of firms.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Computer-based approach to material and process selection
|
[
"Materials management",
"Software tools",
"Internet",
"Operations and production management"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1 Introduction: Selection of materials and manufacturing processes for industrial applications is a long-standing, complex decision-making problem with potential impact on entire life cycle of a product including manufacturing, distribution, consumer use, recycling, and disposal. Materials and processes selection may indirectly influence widely varying aspects of company management, such as company policies and the availability of facilities and trained personnel (Lovatt and Shercliff, 1998). Such selection is also integral to every product development process since deciding how a product should be made relies heavily on the nature of the materials selected. Typically, materials account for as much as 50 percent of the overall cost of manufactured goods (Ullman, 2002, p. 3) and it is estimated that there are between 40,000 and 80,000 materials available today with at least 1,000 different ways to process them (Ashby et al., 2004). Such vast number of materials and processes and variety of requirements in the design process is the root of difficulty of the selection problem (Brechet et al., 2001). The problem is further compounded by rapid technological changes, increasing level of sophistication and growing volume of technical data both in materials and processes.Data sources can be classified into three categories:1. hard copy (e.g. data in handbooks, datasheets, etc.);2. computerized knowledge bases; and3. computer-aided databases (Ermolaeva et al., 2002).The primary source of data for material and process selection has traditionally been hard copy, requiring the employment of literature searches to identify data in printed handbooks and data sheets. This method is usually time consuming, tedious, and may not be effective considering the vast number of materials and processes from which to choose, and the multifaceted nature of the selection task.Computerized knowledge base systems (KBS) provide expert knowledge and interactive capabilities which assist the user in solving various problems and queries (Sapuan, 2001). KBS improves the material and process selection (MPS) task by using a rating criteria to rank alternative materials and processes (Giachetti, 1998). These systems are typically composed of a search engine and a basic database that can be expended by the users.Computer-aided databases have advantage over printed sources which have several drawbacks as they often outdated and difficult to be indexed for finding answers (Sapuan, 2001). Since early 2000s, several online and offline material and process databases systems have emerged. Most online materials databases have been developed by industrial materials suppliers, such as Du Pont (2007) and GE (2007). These databases typically serve a particular sector of the manufacturing industry compared to general purpose databases which provide users with a wider breadth of data. However, among existing databases, only a few of them can be qualified as material or process selector per se due to their interactive search and optimization capabilities. The need for such capabilities is rapidly growing considering first, in most cases the selection of the best material/process for a particular product can be a challenging task due to vast variety of available materials and processes. Second, with an ever increasing pressure to reduce time-to market on products, there is a demand for systematic MPS approach which produces results in a reliable, repeatable and quick manner. Therefore, given the nontrivial task of MPS, it is important that product managers and designers to employ a software tool to handle the best fits between design requirements and material/process characteristics.The purpose of this study is to provide a perspective of computer-aided MPS systems and to present a practical approach for performing such selection. The author first, reviews the general characteristics of MPS systems with their associated criteria and constraints. Second, a systematic material/process selection approach will be discussed along with a resource-based cost modeling to examine the implication of selected material or process on overall product cost. Finally, a case study is presented to explore the capabilities and limitations of an emerging MPS software tool.\n2 Characteristics of material/process selectors: Computer-aided material and process selectors can be divided into two sub-categories of web-based and off-line systems. At the present time, the only general purpose web-based material selector is MatWeb (2007), developed by Automation Creations, Inc. MatWeb is intended for use by industry subscribers who are interested in quick data retrieval and material selection.The off-line MPS systems are usually available on CD-ROM. One of the most widely publicized off-line systems in recent years was developed by Ashby (1999) and commercialized by Granta Design Limited as Cambridge Engineering Selector (CES). Originally conceived as an educational tool, CES's evolution into a user-friendly software system, combined with the quantity of technical data it offers, allows for its application to any industrial situation (Ferrante et al., 2000). It also provides graphical selection and ranking methods as well as an in-depth analysis tool for research and education.MatWeb and CES share two major features:1. material property data for metals, polymers, ceramic, and composites; and2. material selection using multiple attributes.In addition to these features, CES provides a process selector module and ecology/environmental screening functions.These functions allow the evaluation of material impact on its environment during its entire life cycle from initial extraction to eventual disposal and recycling stages. Table I lists the general characteristics of computerized MPS systems and the various capabilities and functions of the two selector systems, as well as their commonality and differences.To compare the results of a material search using the two selector systems the author applied a three-attribute material search case: density<=0.09 lb/in3; tensile strength, yield>=9,500 psi; and hardness, Vickers>=80. As can be seen in Table II, MatWeb generated a list of 20 materials, all magnesium in various grades and treatments. CES generated data for 68 materials including 10 aluminum composites, 12 beryllium alloys, 16 magnesium alloys, 10 ceramic composites, and several magnesium composites. The sharp contrast in selection results produced by the two selector systems can be attributed to the fact that each database covers certain material types and grades, which may not be included in the other system.2.1 Interrelated selection criteria\n3 Case study: In this section, the application of the MPS method previously presented is exemplified through a case study. This case involves the selection of material and process for a new design of an oil pump (Figure 5). This pump is part of driving system of a construction equipment and includes a new spur gear that is the focus of this case study. From a user's standpoint, the desirable attributes of this component are good wear resistance, high fatigue strength, good corrosion resistance, and moderate cost. From a manufacturing standpoint, it is desirable to choose a material that can be shaped easily with minimal equipment and energy costs. Figure 5 displays a number of application requirements including physical, mechanical, and environmental requirements for the spur gear under study.The questions of interest to the management include what are the material options, how a new material affects the product cost, what are options for a production method and how the choice of such method affects the product cost as well as the capital cost.3.1 Material selection\n4 Observations and conclusion: In this study, a deductive MPS approach was employed to examine the capabilities and limitations of an emerging computer-aided material and process selector. Several observations can be made from this study. First, while computer-aided MPS software tools can be an effective tool at the early stages of product development and business planning, the decision makers must be aware of the limitations of these tools. One such limitation is the breadth of data coverage. Although there is some overlapping of information in material selectors, most focus on specific types and grades of materials.Second, currently there are only a few MPS systems with manufacturing process searching capability. Application of these systems to complex product development projects can be a challenging task. For instance, a product with sophisticated design requirements may need multiple manufacturing operations on different equipment. As a result, it may require numerous screening stages for reaching to a final solution. In this kind of applications, the use of a software tool must be coupled with the user's expertise for effective search and screening functions.Finally, while computerized process selectors can be used as a searching tool for finding an appropriate process, they are not equipment selectors. As it was shown in the case study, the capital cost of final selection, powder pressing process, ranges from $25,000 to $200,000. This wide price range indicates the availability of a wide range of equipment in the market. However, more specificity in type of equipment and a narrower range of cost might be needed for business/management decision making on variety of issues including budgeting, facility planning, operator training, waste, and environmental management. Therefore, the use of MPS systems must be complemented with additional technical and cost/benefit analyses before a final decision on acquiring a specific piece of equipment is made.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: - The purpose of this paper is to provide a perspective of computer-aided material and process selection (MPS) software tools for product development purpose and present a practical approach for manufacturers and other decision makers involved in MPS.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - A multi-criteria deductive approach for MPS is applied to a case study by taking into account the technical performances and environmental constraints. A resource-based cost modeling is also deployed to examine the implication of selected material and process on overall product cost.\nFindings: - The paper demonstrates the capabilities and shortcoming of existing computerized MPS software tools in assisting product managers and designers for handling the growing volume of material/process data.\nResearch limitations/implications: - Applying computer-aided MPS approach to complex shape products with multiple features is not a straightforward task and requires further development in existing MPS software tools.\nPractical implications: - Computer-aided MPS systems can assist decision makers in solving many material/process selection problems by following a systematic process.\nOriginality/value: - Given today's rapid technological changes, it is important for decision makers to understand the capabilities of computer-aided MPS software tools in handling a growing volume of data. Very limited research has been done to explore the capabilities and limitations of existing material/process selectors. It is the first in the literature that demonstrates the application of multi-criteria deductive approach in MPS using a software tool.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Geographical cues: evidences from New and Old World countries' wine consumers
|
[
"Systematic literature review",
"Wine consumers",
"Wine's extrinsic cues",
"Risk-reduction strategy",
"Place of origin"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: In the wine industry, geographical cues become distinctive signals between New World and Old World wine-producing countries. According to Anderson and Pinilla (2018), Old World countries comprise Greece, France, Italy, Spain, Germany, Portugal, Austria and Hungary, while, the US, Australia, New Zealand, Chile, South Africa and Argentina fall within the New World producers. The competition between the two wine producing regions has increased in recent decades, although until recently, the Old World recorded the greater market shares in worldwide wine sales (Galati et al., 2017a). The direct consequence of high competition has led wine managers to better frame their marketing strategies with consumer preferences and specific profiles in these two different markets, and to consider contextual factors when seeking to understand consumer behavior (Petruzzellis et al., 2017; Vrontis et al., 2016), as well as alternative strategies to ensuring visibility when entering in new markets, as properly suggested by Moon and Oh (2017). Several strategies have been implemented, such as measures to strengthen the association of territory to wine (Makrides et al., 2019; Scorrano et al., 2018, 2019), new digital-marketing strategies and social media tactics (Chierici et al., 2018; Galati et al., 2016, 2017b; Bresciani et al., 2016a; Capitello et al., 2014) as knowledge sources (Bresciani, 2017; Glavas et al., 2019) to be exploited by wineries to launch more customer-centric campaigns (Iaia et al., 2019; Bresciani et al., 2016b) and new product (Vrontis et al., 2016; Santoro et al., 2017, 2019). Other efforts, however, have focused on strengthening the tourism and wine's linkage (Viassone et al., 2016) and on the introduction of organic and more sustainable wine production methods to meet new consumers' expectations (Galati et al., 2019; Sogari et al., 2015) also to positively impact on wine brand equity (Antonazzo et al., 2014).The geographical attribute is less regulated with the New World producers, whereas in the Old World, a more accurate regulatory framework exists. The reference is on Regulation (EC) No. 2081/92, which introduced the protection of designations of origin (PDO) and protection of geographical indications (PGIs) and, updated several times, led to the approval of Regulation (EC) No. 1234/2007, through which the wine sector also entered into this recognition system (Agostino and Trivieri, 2016; Galati et al., 2015; Winfree and McCluskey, 2005).The presence of geographical cues, reflecting cultural and ethnic origin, and identifiable through terms like country of origin (COO), region of origin (ROO), place of origin, designations of origin (DO) has inspired much research to obtain useful information for managers to reduce risk in consumers' buying decisions. In this context, recent literature has been on single country studies, mainly performing quantitative analysis on consumer samples and their ethnocentric tendencies that effect behavior (Barbarossa et al., 2018), and economic analysis of export/import data (Agostino and Triveri, 2016). Schaufeleand Hamm (2017) and Lockshin and Corsi (2012) attempted a review of wine consumers, providing an adequate picture of the current situation, but geographical cue effects were not covered in detail. Therefore, which are the consumers' opinions about wines produced in the Old and/or New World about geographical cues? What local and international marketing strategies can be suggested to managers for positioning geographical cues? What do consumers understand about terms like PDO and PGI? What is known is that, in general, geographical cues are relevant, but there exists an in-depth knowledge lack about what consumers who belong to the two worlds think about geographical cues, and how geographical cues can be used in new marketing strategies. To fill this gap, this study aims to provide a systematic review of the extant research from 2009/2019. It will synthesize the findings into a conceptual framework, stimulate future lines of research on this topic and suggest valuable insights for wine managers for framing marketing strategies.The work is organized as follows. The first section explains the methodology applied for the review; the second one presents a thematic analysis of the findings and a conceptual framework; the last section concludes with implications of this study.\n2. Methodology: In order to perform the present review, the systematic literature methodology was applied, following the positive results highlighted by several scholars as regards the quality performance of this method both in terms of synthesis capability, being able to ensure more knowledge is gathered on a specific topic (Dada, 2018; Thorpe et al., 2005; Tranfield et al., 2003), and reduced loss of scientific information, which allows the results to guide new research efforts on areas less explored (Vrontis and Christofi, 2019; Denyer and Neely, 2004). For data analysis, manual content analysis was employed (Prasad, 2008; Stemler, 2001). 2.1 Conceptual boundaries of the review\n3. Overview of the selected studies: 3.1 Descriptive analysis\n4. Data synthesis: 4.1 Consumer's wine knowledge as the main challenge for New World producers\n5. Discussion and conclusions: The present review was aimed at better knowing consumers' behaviors and preferences affecting wine buying decisions, with a specific reference to the role that geographical information plays. The focus was on consumers in Old and New World wine producing countries. The review was limited to the years 2009-2019, because the main intention was to assess if the EU's regulation on PDO and PGI, which entered into force in 2009 and was concretized in the introduction of such information on wine labels, has further affected consumers' behaviors and preferences. Although the limit linked to the application of a systematic review method, results are of strategic importance and able to guide other researchers in identifying other works on this topic.Results suggest that, although New World producers are making efforts to compete with Old World producers regarding origin cues and the related importance consumers give to appellations, it remains a challenge. At the same time, Old World wine producers should work further on improving communication campaigns to increase New World wine consumers' knowledge about EU PDO and PGI, to make them more aware about label content. Indeed, while in Europe, consumers' perception of wine quality is widely associated with the wine mainly coming from Old World producers, and, accordingly, this factor is able to influence the WTP, the situation is not the same in the New World where consumers pay little attention to the wine belonging to their territory (Guidry et al., 2009). As a consequence, a further investment addressed to protect, recognize and then promote origin cues is necessary to gain a competitive advantage over Old World producers in these new markets. Less weight is attributed to appellation, but to this shortcoming several solutions have been proposed, such as adopting conjunctive labeling, as proposed by Atkin et al. (2017), or targeted alliance \"brand/origin\" and/or \"brand/grape/origin\", as suggested by Viot and Passebois-Ducros (2010, p. 14).In the New World context, just promoting a COO attribute is not enough. New strategies should be arranged, such as starting from consumers' preferences and arranging targeted marketing strategies with the support of other stakeholders (hospitality practitioners, tourism staff and so on) (Pucci et al., 2018). Kustos et al. (2019), aware of the challenge to compete with the COO on Old World bottles, suggest to target strategies towards hospitality staff and managers to better skill them in properly advice clients about New World high quality wines. This is also an implication for institutions which should support targeted informational campaigns so consumers learn more about the wines produced in their own countries.Also important is strengthening COO as a brand, in this way intercepting not only foreigner consumers but also those characterized by higher ethnocentric tendencies (Bernabeu et al., 2016). Hence, in this effort, a shared commitment is recommended, joining region's winemakers and public administrations to form communication strategies whose effects will also be recorded at the domestic level, as strongly suggested by Garcia Gallago et al. (2015). Espejel et al. (2011) suggested that wine managers involve stakeholders more by taking into account the importance of factors like the place of origin and the winemaking tradition of specific regions, because they are increasingly valued by consumers. As a managerial implication, this review of the selected articles addressed the strengthening of marketing strategies that are better targeted to specific consumer segments according to age and the country where they live. New marketing campaigns should also give consumers access to wines and inform them about intrinsic cues by arranging alternative marketing occasions where consumers can taste wines in both New and Old World contexts. In so doing, wineries will also improve customers' knowledge about PDO and PGI wines, and reinforce consumer commitment through, for example \"wine clubs\" and wine tasting sessions (Espejel et al., 2011). Therefore, it is important to add that wineries, recognizing the high heterogeneity currently existent among worldwide consumers, should experiment diversified promotional campaigns according to consumer groups' characteristics (age, nationality and habits), framing more accurate and profiled messages and designing wine labels which are more customer centric, based on real consumers' expectations. To this end, the results discussed here represent a starting point for further work.A common result arising from this review is that geographical cues alone are not enough of a factor in a purchasing decision. Hence, depending on the specific consumer profile, it is time to rethink the wine label, the most important risk mitigation tool at a consumer's disposal, with special attention not only to the text but also to the images. This is particularly relevant to attract the younger population who is more interested in other extrinsic cues, without forgetting the origin cue. Carsana and Jolibert (2017) also suggested the wine label is essential for consumers who purchase wine in shops, like supermarkets, where there is a lack of staff ready to properly support wine consumers' buying process. With a specific reference to consumers in the New World, Corsi et al. (2012) and Atkin (2012) said that winemakers should also start to include any awards or medals that, together with the COO/ROO, are becoming widely accepted by consumers from the New World as well as by Millennials in the Old World.The present review has presented solid research that exists on the effect of geographical cues on consumer's preferences. According to the works reviewed, new directions for future researches can be set. In particular, it would be interesting for future research to investigate the differences between older and younger consumers as these two groups have two very different reactions to geographical cues. To support new marketing strategies, it is necessary that such distinction is always well defined, given the increasing relevance these two segments are acquiring. Also, within this scope, it would be interesting to carry out a comparison among current labels and check the consumer WTP according to the labels' contents. There is no magic formula for a winning label, and therefore, a testing phase could be of interest. Moreover, targeted case studies on wineries are welcome, specifically focusing on the marketing strategies to publicize PDO or PGI designations. Indeed, as the review reveals, there is a lack of information on the efficacy of such a strategy, given the low level of awareness among consumers. Since PDO and PGI references are absent from most of the articles reviewed which were relevant to the New World, it would be necessary to learn what knowledge those consumers possess about these denominations, exploiting its potential and then arranging appropriate strategies.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: This systematic review aims to investigate how geographical cues affect wine consumers' behaviors, with reference to the New and Old Worlds, and accordingly, how are recent consumption patterns and new consumer profiles modifying roles of geographical cues?\nDesign/methodology/approach: This work employed a systematic literature review methodology on the extant literature published from 2009 to 2019.\nFindings: Results, summarized in a conceptual framework, emphasize five thematic areas on how geographical cues should be considered for future research and for new marketing strategies to capture consumers of New and Old World wines. Consumers' wine knowledge, socio-ethno-demographic factors, consumption settings, labeling strategies and the use of medals and awards on labels emerged as relevant factors to deal with consumer's risk-reduction strategies.\nResearch limitations/implications: The main limit is the adoption of a systematic review method.\nPractical implications: Results suggest that wine managers should invest in acquiring more knowledge about consumers' profiles in both Worlds for their marketing campaigns, labeling and advertisement strategies. Although geographical cues are considered relevant in consumers' buying decisions, extrinsic cues are also increasingly acceptable, and there should be more investment in publicizing geographical attributes around the world.\nOriginality/value: This is the first review focusing exclusively on the role of geographical cues on consumer's behavior toward New and Old World wine producers.\n",
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] |
Ink makes its mark with iceberg thinking: Sales team encouraged to make the most of every second at work
|
[
"Sales team",
"Incentives",
"Remuneration",
"Time management",
"Travel industry"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n__NO_TITLE__: A firm that specialises in connecting companies with travelers is to reform the system of incentives for its global sales teams by rewarding the way they sell rather than simply the sales they make.\nWin-win situation: Simon Leslie, head of publishing at Ink, claims that this is \"a win-win situation\". As before, the teams will be remunerated on the sales they make, but only if they have carried out the sale properly. Additionally, if the teams fulfil the sales process, Ink will guarantee to remunerate them even if those commitments do not lead to business or sales.\"This is a complete departure from the industry's traditional commission-based sales structure and has the potential to revolutionize the way media sales are managed and rewarded in future,\" said Simon Leslie. \"We firmly believe in our culture and supporting our people to perform to the very best levels that they can. The new emphasis will be on delivering exceptional customer service across the globe and ensuring our sales teams focus on helping our advertising customers to grow their businesses.\"The sales teams will receive guaranteed commission based on each of them delivering an agreed minimum daily commitment that will reflect the number of quality calls made to a decision-maker. \"They will also have to deliver a value-sales proposition rather than a commodity-sales approach,\" said Simon Leslie.\"The word 'iceberg' literally means 'ice mountain',\" he continued. \"Typically, only one ninth of the volume of an iceberg is above the water; the bulk and mass lies below the surface. The same can be said for the fundamental challenges that affect businesses.\"The expression 'tip of the iceberg' is used to illustrate a problem or difficulty that is only a small manifestation of a larger problem. Often, what we can see and therefore focus on is not always where we should be looking. Below the water-line, and influencing the results, are feelings and behaviors.\"Think of it like this; the way you feel influences your behavior and your behavior influences your results. If you wake up late one day, have no clean clothes to wear, all the food in the fridge is mouldy, the weather outside is wet, you get splashed by a car in the street, the bus is full, you have to stand next to a smelly person, you go to the cash machine and have no money in your bank account and eventually you arrive work and your boss scolds you for being late. How does that make you feel? Lousy, depressed, sad and angry. And how will that influence your behavior? Badly. Therefore, your productivity, attitude, and ultimately your results for that day, will be negative.\"However, if you wake up and the birds are singing, all your clothes are clean and ironed, your favorite breakfast has been prepared, the weather is glorious, there are seats on the bus, the cash machine lets you withdraw money as your bank account is full and arriving to work your boss greets you with champagne and says you are brilliant - how do you feel now? Motivated, happy, enthusiastic and energized. And how is that going to influence your behavior? Passionately - and therefore your results, productivity and attitude will be positive.\"We know that this is an extreme example. While we cannot control the weather or public transport, we need to focus on the real things that influence us, our teams and the results - the way we feel and behave.\"Iceberg thinking helps us to examine what is below the surface in a way that ensures that all key factors, behavioral influencers, touch-points and barriers to success are addressed.\"\nMillion-second-thinking: To emphasize the change in key performance indicators for commission, Ink is also scrapping its traditional 12 monthly targets in favor of 26 fortnightly targets. This is based on so-called \"million-second-thinking\". A million seconds runs from a Monday morning to the Friday afternoon of the following week, and in future all Ink sales tasks will be linked to this timeframe.Gerry Ricketts, managing director of Ink in Singapore, explained: \"We have found, through our experience, that in business the task expands to fill the time we have allocated to achieve it. By changing the way we manage our time, we will raise the bar in our people's performances and the level of customer service we deliver. We have installed huge million-second clocks in each of our offices to remind our teams that time is precious and good time management is needed to succeed.\"Million-second-thinking is not just a theory; it is a real business strategy with real business outcomes that we can control. We believe this is the right way to run any sales team, regardless of the industry.\"\nThe search for exceptional candidates: Ink is recruiting at all its offices, including Atlanta, London, New York and Singapore. However, the company is looking for very specific people that \"buy into\" the company culture and who want to be challenged and developed.\"We are looking for exceptional candidates,\" said Simon Leslie. \"We want people who are passionate about delivering a five-star customer experience and who want to realize their performance potential. We are looking for bright, clever and creative leaders.\"In return, we promise to share our 'happinkess [correct] and dreams' initiatives that help staff to fulfil some of their life's dreams and goals as well as provide an exciting and challenging work environment.\"Ink works with more than three dozen airlines, produces media in 17 languages, and sells advertising in over 100 countries. Its travel clients include Air France-KLM, Air Macau, Bangkok Airways, bmi, easyJet, Eurostar, Germanwings, Gulf Air, Scoot, Jetstar, Ryanair, South African Express, Thai Airways, Tiger Airways, TurboJET (the ferry from Hong Kong to Macau), United Airlines, PrivatAir and Wizz Air.Ink is the owner of the Airline Retail Conference in Europe and Asia and the China Travel Retail conference in Shanghai. It produces the Airline Passenger Experience Media Platform in association with Apex, the Airline Passenger Experience Association. It also publishes CNBC Business magazine and Time Out Singapore.\nNote: David Pollitt, Human Resource Management International Digest Editor, wrote this article.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: - This paper aims to describes how Ink, a firm that specializes in connecting companies with travelers, is to reform the system of incentives for its global sales teams by rewarding the way they sell rather than simply the sales they make.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - The paper explains the background to the so-called \"iceberg thinking\" system of incentives and how \"million-second-thinking\" can help employees to make the most of the time they spend at work.\nFindings: - The paper reveals that teams will be remunerated on the sales they make, but only if they have carried out the sale properly. Additionally, if the teams fulfill the sales process, Ink will guarantee to remunerate them even if those commitments do not lead to business or sales.\nPractical implications: - The paper explains that iceberg thinking removes the risk for sales people as long as they focus on, perform and deliver the correct behaviors that will be the basis for delivering strong results.\nSocial implications: - The paper claims that iceberg thinking is a departure from the industry's traditional commission-based sales structure and has the potential to revolutionize the way media sales are managed and rewarded.\nOriginality/value: - The paper describes a new way of thinking that enables companies to examine what is below the surface in a way that ensures that all key factors, behavioral influencers, touch-points and barriers to success are addressed.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
An analysis of stock market impact from supply chain disruptions in Japan
|
[
"Japan",
"Supply chain disruptions",
"Event studies",
"Stock market impact"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: Supply chain disruptions could affect a company's operational effectiveness. Disruptions may indicate poor planning and management and thus signal potential reduction in the profitability potential of a company. The financial consequences of disruptions are observed with stock market decline following announcement of a supply chain disruption (Hendricks and Singhal, 2003). The extent of decline, however, is affected by factors such as growth potential of a company, market economic cycle (Bull vs Bear), and company domicile (Filbeck et al., 2016). Organization culture and national culture plays a vital role in supply chain disruption planning and response (Dowty and Wallace, 2010). Given the cultural, organizational, and stock market differences, it could be argued that companies in different parts of the world may experience different impact from disruptions. Most studies related to implications of disruption on stock market focus specifically on the US market and companies. We study the impact from disruptions on the stock market in Japan with the objective of understanding the role of national and organizational cultural differences.\n2. Literature review: A comprehensive survey of various issues in supply chain disruptions management could be found in Ellis et al. (2011) and Craighead et al. (2007). Our research is in the domain of estimating the value of effective supply chain management by observing the financial consequences when supply chains experience disruptions. Within this domain, we focus on exploring country differences between the USA and Japan in terms of the stock market reaction to supply chain disruptions.\n3. Research questions: Supply chain management is sometimes considered as the next big source of creating competitive advantage. Operationally and financially, companies benefit from adopting and improving supply chain management practices. Cultural factors based on the location of a company affect business decisions. Social and cultural factors also affect supply chain decisions (Dowty and Wallace, 2010). Pagell et al. (2005) indicate that operations decision making in business organization is affected by national culture. Attributing to uncertainty avoidance and long-term orientation, Japanese companies are expected to be better at managing and mitigating disruptions (Kumar, Liu, and Caliskan-Demirag, 2015). Other country-related factors might help Japanese companies in managing disruptions. Some of these factors include collaborative spirit, trust, capability sharing, supplier association and Keiretsu (Sheffi, 2007; Whitney et al., 2012). Using anecdotal evidence, popular supply chain and operations management literature also seem to support better disruption mitigation abilities of Japanese companies. Inventory policies based on JIT and pull affect a supply chain's vulnerability to disruptions (Snyder and Shen, 2006)\n4. Data and event study methodology applied to supply chain disruptions: 4.1 Sample data\n5. Empirical results: Hendricks and Singhal (2003) analyze disruptions and its stock market consequences for the US market. Since the results for the US market are presented in their paper we focus on Japan. We use the US market data and results to contrast between Japan and the USA.\n6. Conclusion and implications: According to efficient market hypothesis asset prices should reflect all value-relevant information. Past research has documented stock impact from various value-relevant events such as new major orders (Galy and Germain, 2007), bankruptcy announcements (Lang and Stulz, 1992), new product introductions (Chen et al., 2002), and earnings announcements (Eshleman and Guo, 2014). Since supply chain disruptions are value-relevant events, the information about such events should affect the stock returns. In this paper, we studied stock market reactions to supply chain disruptions for companies in Japanese stock market. An analysis of disruptions data collected from Japan reveals that disruptions result in a statistically significant stock decline for companies in Japan. Operations and supply chain management literature seem to indicate that Japanese companies have superior disruptions planning and mitigation abilities. From stock market perspective, we did not find evidence to support this. Qualitatively, Japanese companies fare better (than the US companies) when a disruption occurs, however, statistically there is no difference between stock market consequences of disruptions in the USA and Japan.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to explore the stock market impact of supply chain disruptions for public companies in Japan. The impact in the USA and Japan are also compared.\nDesign/methodology/approach: Using event study on a data set comprising of disruptions announced by Japanese and US companies during year 2000-2013, the authors measure the stock price reaction to supply chain disruptions.\nFindings: The study finds that the Japanese companies, in an 11-day window around disruption announcement, witness an average abnormal return of -0.61 percent, which is statistically significant. In comparison to the USA, this stock decline is qualitatively smaller, yet statistically indifferent. The abnormal return is found significant in the two days before disruption announcement. However, a follow-up study with a refined data set (where the event date is the earlier of the announcement or disruption date) does not find any significant abnormal return prior to the event date. This difference from US market suggests the possibility of insider trading. Factors such as book-to-market ratio, industry type, and market capitalization did not affect the stock decline.\nResearch limitations/implications: The research is limited to a data set from Japan and the USA. Further generalization of findings may need studies focused on other countries.\nPractical implications: The results are of interest for supply chain managers. The results should also help global investors in making investment decisions.\nOriginality/value: Most supply chain disruptions management research is focused on companies in western countries. The paper is the first to test the impact of supply chain disruptions in Japan.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Measuring energy heating performance of apartment buildings in Kosovo built after 2003
|
[
"Energy efficiency",
"Energy performance",
"Building structures",
"Prishtina",
"European Union",
"Energy management",
"Kosovo",
"Apartment buildings",
"Heating energy performance"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: The international construction industry is facing major changes over the past decade, as drivers such as oil crisis, sustainable development (Brundtland, 1987), concerns about peak oil (Bentley, 2002) and climate change (Stern, 2006) highlighted the need for energy-efficient buildings (Sawyer et al., 2008). This also relates to the constantly changing levels of expectation and consideration about the health, comfort and energy efficiency of the building, perceived by the occupants (Roulet et al., 2006; Love and Bullen, 2009). Adding to this list the constantly raising percentage of the energy spent by the facilities over the years (Jager-Waldau, 2004), the need for energy-efficient buildings is considered a must in the modern era. Many of the types of research, which are included in the following parts, give justification according to the importance of building materials in the overall energy performance of the buildings.\n2. Literature review: Building energy performance is the result of the interaction of an engineered system with operation and maintenance (O&M) practices and with occupant demands and behaviour (Goldstein and Eley, 2014).\n3. Research method: The literature review illustrated that there has been a vast amount of research on the relevance of energy performance of the buildings and especially the need to reduce both operational and embodied the energy of the buildings and proper selection of building materials to achieve the energy efficiency of the building.\n4. Results of the study: The present study uses URSA software to calculate the data for NARTEL apartment structure, which is then scaled further to the whole apartment block. The results of the calculations are further compared with the passive house standard and also compared with the average energy performance requirements for apartment buildings in 28 member states of the EU and also with the average actual energy performance of apartment buildings in 28 member states of the EU. In addition, the comparison is then further made with the selected European countries with similar climate conditions as in Kosovo such as Greece, Spain, Italy, Croatia, Serbia, Albania and Montenegro.\n5. Discussions: The purpose of this study is to quantify the heating energy performance of apartment buildings in Kosovo built after 2003 and compare it against the passive house standard and heating energy performance of buildings in 28 member states of EU and in selected European countries.\n6. Conclusions: This paper presents a study of the heating energy performance of a building structure of Kosovo, built-in Kosovo climate conditions that belong to the third construction period built after 2003 as categorized by Hoxha et al. (2013) study.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this study is to quantify the energy heating performance of apartment buildings in Kosovo built after 2003 and compare it against the energy heating performance of buildings in member states of EU and selected European countries.\nDesign/methodology/approach: This paper takes a case study approach focussed on the assessment of the heating energy performance of the building. This approach facilitated a detailed calculation of the selected materials' energy performance used in a representative building structure in Kosovo comparing with passive buildings standard and energy heating performance of buildings in member states of EU and selected European countries.\nFindings: Results of quantitative research find that the energy heating performance of apartment buildings in Kosovo built after 2003 is far higher than that of passive buildings standard and is better than the average annual energy heating performance of apartment buildings in member states of the EU and selected European countries.\nResearch limitations/implications: The research provides new knowledge regarding energy heating performance in new residential buildings in Kosovo and compares the findings with earlier research and energy consumption in other selected European countries. The research provides great benefits for researchers and practitioners working in the field of energy management as it compares the energy performance of residential buildings across Europe.\nOriginality/value: This paper provides a perspective on investigating the energy performance of a building structure of a residential apartment building in Prishtina, Kosovo. By unveiling the level of energy consumption of a residential apartment building in Kosovo representative of the new construction period can help the facility managers to acknowledge the standards they must achieve to refurbish the old building stock to achieve at least the same standard as the buildings in the new construction period.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
Knowledge sharing and knowledge effectiveness: learning orientation and co-production in the contingency model of tacit knowledge
|
[
"Knowledge management",
"Relationship marketing",
"Partnership",
"Industrial marketing",
"Learning organizations"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n__NO_TITLE__: An executive summary for managers and executive readers can be found at the end of this article.\n1. Introduction: Effective knowledge management is critical for organizations seeking to gain and sustain strategic competitive advantages (Davenport and Prusak, 2000). Clearly, as organizations usually turn to external partners for new products and for processing technologies, the knowledge transferred from these partners potentially becomes an important source of synergy. However, the availability of knowledge should not be equated with knowledge effectiveness. The inability of knowledge recipients to absorb new knowledge is one of the impediments to knowledge transfer (Cohen and Levinthal, 1990; Lane and Lubatkin, 1998, Lane et al., 2001). In other words, knowledge effectiveness occurs only when knowledge is utilized by recipients and when this utilization improves their performance. A successful realization of knowledge sharing across organizations plays a significant role in the receipt of useful knowledge. Generally, knowledge sharing facilitates the receipt of useful knowledge, thus leading to the development of new and innovative ideas (Ambrosini and Bowman, 2001). Thus, organizations need to develop knowledge management to facilitate knowledge sharing (Gold et al., 2001). Given the increasing importance of knowledge sharing in inter-organizational settings, research on this phenomenon should be expanded. Accordingly, the current study explores how knowledge is shared and received effectively across organizations.\n2. Conceptual model and hypothesis development: 2.1 Conceptual framework\n3. Methodology: 3.1 Data collection and sampling\n4. Analysis and results: The proposed model was tested through a structural equation model using LISREL 8.52 to explore the direct effect of knowledge sharing on knowledge effectiveness, the indirect effects of knowledge sharing on knowledge effectiveness through learning orientation and co-production, and the moderating effects of tacit knowledge.\n5. Discussion: This study aims to understand the process of receiving useful knowledge across organizations. However, knowledge sharing across organizations is a dynamic process in which knowledge senders identify the specific knowledge that can be shared until it is eventually applied by the knowledge recipients (Minbaeva et al., 2003). Knowledge effectiveness is clearly influenced by several factors such as structure, processes, information technology, social networks, and organizational learning. Therefore, a better understanding of the dynamism of the knowledge sharing process is required. Other questions relate to how organizations effectively share both explicit and tacit knowledge and what key factors enhance the sharing process. Table II and Figure 2 show that all hypotheses were supported except H2. Specifically, H2 indicated that knowledge sharing had an indirect positive effect on knowledge effectiveness through learning orientation. However, the results indicated that this mediating effect was not significant. Although H2 was rejected by the SEM model, H5 was supported. H5 indicated that knowledge sharing had an indirect positive effect on knowledge effectiveness through learning orientation, which increased as tacit knowledge increased. Interestingly, the same mediating effect became significant when we included the contingency factor of tacit knowledge into our model. Thus, any failure to incorporate tacit knowledge may lead to a misunderstanding of the roles of knowledge sharing, co-production, and learning orientation. Sharing high tacit knowledge requires a richer context that goes beyond mere codification, documents, and blueprints (Daft and Lengel, 1986). Thus, we emphasize co-production and learning orientation, and shift the focus from the direct effect of knowledge sharing on knowledge effectiveness to the indirect effects of knowledge sharing via co-production and learning orientation on knowledge effectiveness under the context of tacit knowledge.\n6. Managerial implications: This study has several practical implications for management. Managers need to develop mechanisms that support and foster effective external knowledge sharing and co-production as well as learning orientation in which knowledge effectiveness will be highly enhanced. Evidently, the receipt of useful knowledge is a complex process. The findings of this study reinforce the notion that knowledge effectiveness is highly dependent on the willingness of the senders to share knowledge. In fact, the decision not to share is usually rational and well justified from the perspective of the knowledge sender (Minbaeva, 2007). However, when knowledge senders have a high perception that the knowledge recipient will reciprocate their knowledge sharing, the positive effect of motivations tends to intensify. In addition, higher-level managers should design incentive schemes that can induce a high level of effort from knowledge senders and can mitigate their protection and hidden behavior (Nan, 2008). Finally, knowledge sharing requires information systems that support sharing processes. For example, a knowledge platform should encourage information sharing and should reduce barriers to information flow between knowledge senders and recipients.\n7. Research limitations and directions for future research: This study should be interpreted with caution, given its several limitations. First, this study took place in a specific geographic area. Knowledge sharing in Taiwan may be handled in a different cultural context than that in European or North American countries. As a result, the findings of this study may not be generalized for other countries. For cross-validation, additional exploration of the relationships should be extended beyond the sample reported here.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: This study focuses on the relationship between knowledge sharing and knowledge effectiveness. By learning orientation and co-production, this study demonstrates the indirect effects of knowledge sharing on knowledge effectiveness. Moreover, the direct and indirect effects of knowledge sharing - which vary with the different levels of tacit knowledge - on knowledge effectiveness are examined.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The proposed model is tested using a structural equation model that involves LISREL and multi-group analyses.\nFindings: Knowledge sharing increasingly affects knowledge effectiveness under the condition of explicit knowledge. The mediating roles of learning orientation and co-production in the process of tacit knowledge sharing become apparent.\nOriginality/value: Knowledge sharing across organizations can be regarded as a dynamic process. In view of the increasing importance of knowledge sharing across organizations, this study provides insight into the method of receiving useful knowledge across organizations.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Location, industrial concentration and the propensity of small US firms to export: Entrepreneurship in the international marketplace
|
[
"Entrepreneurialism",
"Small enterprises",
"Learning organizations",
"Exports",
"United States of America"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: In 1999, McDougall and Oviatt cautioned that while scholars, business experts and governments advised all firms \"including new and small businesses\" to internationalize, empirical support for this recommendation was largely absent (McDougall and Oviatt, 1999). This question of \"whether\" firms should go international from research in entrepreneurship stands in contrast to the perspective of research in international marketing, which tends to assume an affirmative answer to the question of \"whether\" and addresses issues of \"when\" and \"how\" internationalization should occur. Given the divergent perspectives of these two traditions, much in the way of international engagement by entrepreneurs remains unexplored. We need to know more about who is an international entrepreneur, how they organize themselves to take advantage of international opportunities, and whether and how the environment affects their decisions, relative to larger, more structured organizations.Entrepreneurship in the international context can mean many things. It may mean new and small businesses that are \"born international\" specifically to engage the international marketplace (McDougall, 1989; McDougall and Oviatt, 1999); it may mean firms engaged in the international marketplace that reflect the general characteristics of entrepreneurs - innovators, organization creators, value creators focused on growth, who are owner-managed (Gartner, 1990) seeking international opportunities; or it can be defined in terms of the products, systems and managerial control of firms (Roper, 1998) that seek international opportunities. Given these complexities, this paper posits that scholarship in international entrepreneurship should address a broad set of questions related to whether and how entrepreneurs seek opportunities in an increasingly globalized market. This is important research since the orientation, structure and size of new ventures likely require different approaches to international opportunities than those used by large, highly structured and well-financed organizations. In particular, environmental factors will likely play a different role for the entrepreneurial venture in the international environment as compared to a corporate approach.The purpose of this paper is to examine the effects of geography, especially urbanization and industrial concentration, on the propensity of firms to export, and in particular smaller firms. While being small is not synonymous with being entrepreneurial, there are common characteristics that lead us to think of them together. Smaller firms possess flexible structures, tend to be owner-managed and face resource constraints, as do entrepreneurs. More importantly, small and entrepreneurial firms face similar challenges in the international marketplace. Additionally, although larger organizations like IBM or 3M encourage an entrepreneurial spirit, they do so within a larger risk structure than is afforded smaller firms. Thus, while entrepreneurship is an orientation, it tends to manifest itself in smaller, more flexible organizations, rather than their larger counterparts. To this end, we are interested in whether and how external scale economies affect firms of differing sizes in the international marketplace, and from this we hope to learn lessons beneficial to entrepreneurs.Scale economies are the lens through which the effects of size and location are addressed in this research. Scale economies are reductions in unit costs that result from an increased scale of operation. Internal (or production) scale economies result from increases in plant size or improvements in process, while external scale economies are increasing benefits accrued to a firm because of its location in a metropolitan area, or near other firms in the same industry (Berry et al., 1997). While internal scale economies are a cornerstone of corporate business globalization practices (Levitt, 1983), their benefits are largely beyond the reach of most smaller, entrepreneurial firms. Further, while scholars have devoted some energy to the issue of firm size and exporting, little is known about the effects of location on the propensity of firms to engage in international activity, be they large or small. Most of the marketing and international business literature on firm size has focused on the process rather than the propensity of exporting, and even less has examined the effects of size simultaneously with the effects of location. This research intends to address whether the location of firms affects the propensity to export, and whether the effects of location vary, depending on whether firms are larger or smaller.Recent research on firm size and exporting indicates that large firms are more likely to export than small ones. Mittelstaedt et al. (2003) examined 46 industries and found that in each one firms with fewer than 20 employees (and in most firms with fewer than 100 employees) were less likely to export than the average firm in their industry. They offered five possibilities for these observations. First, global standardization benefits larger firms over smaller firms for two reasons: larger firms are better able to capitalize on scale economies of production than smaller firms; and larger firms can more easily absorb the costs associated with ISO certification. Second, variable trade costs such as tariffs and quotas have been replaced by non-tariff barriers (NTBs) that are applied equally but not proportionally, favoring larger producers over smaller ones (Lincoln and Naumann, 1991). Third, if exporting is a process to be learned, large firms move through the learning process more quickly than small firms, capitalizing on experience curve cost reductions. Fourth, large firms are more hierarchical in their organization, allowing them to more easily capitalize on the opportunities of falling trade barriers. Fifth, small firms may be integrated into trade networks and participate in exporting indirectly rather than directly. While these are challenges facing small firms in general, they are all particularly appropriate to entrepreneurial firms.In a similar vein, Wolff and Pett (2000) and Pope (2002) found that the export decision process is different for larger firms than it is for smaller firms, since the advantages, disadvantages and options for international trade differ for large and small firms. As is the case in other venues (Bell et al., 2002; Levinthal and March, 1993; Meeus et al., 2004; Simonin 2004; Rothaermel and Deeds, 2004), it appears that the organizational learning patterns of organizations vary by size, and that this affects the ability of small, entrepreneurial firms to engage in the global economy. While international engagement comes in many forms, exporting is still the most viable option for most small firms.To date, however, no study in international entrepreneurship, international marketing or international business has evaluated empirically the effects of location in the presence of shifting firm size. The importance of location and industrial concentration has been of interest to theorists of what is called the new trade theory and the new economic geography (Fujita et al., 1997) but these effects have not been tested empirically when the size of firms varies. By examining the export choice of 43,707 manufacturing firms, in the Southeastern USA, this paper measures the effects of firm size, urbanization and industrial concentration on decisions to export. Results indicate that the external economies of location and concentration affect the export propensity of manufacturers, and that these effects vary depending on firm size.The format of this paper is as follows. First, the relationship between firm size and the benefits of exporting are explored. Second, the renaissance in economic geography is discussed, along with its consequences for export decisions. Three models are developed to measure, simultaneously, the effects of internal (size) and external (geography) scale economies on export decision-making. Results are reported, and conclusions are drawn concerning the effects of firm size and location on exporting. Third, limitations and directions for future research are addressed.\nSize, location, concentration and the benefits of exporting: While research in entrepreneurship has been concerned with the role of the international entrepreneur, international business scholars have focused on the role of firm size on the performance of exporting and export success from two perspectives. On the one hand, international business scholars have focused on understanding the factors necessary for export success, and on understanding the process by which firms learn to export. On the other hand, international marketing scholars have viewed exporting through the lens of marketing strategy, and focused on firm and environmental factors that shape export marketing success. Firm size has played a role in both of these literatures. Geography has been less important in both traditions.Firm size in the international business literature\nMeasuring the effects of scale economies on trade: The purpose of this study was to measure the effects of external scale economies such as location and industrial concentration on export decisions of manufacturing firms, by size. Manufacturing firms in the Southeastern USA were used to test both internal (size) and external (urbanization and concentration) scale economy effects. In this section, we describe the data used in this research and the models developed to test the hypotheses.The data\nResults: Three sets of regressions were conducted. Initially, regressions were conducted to assess the effects of internal and external scale economies on export decisions. Next, the effects of urbanization and localization were examined for micro, small, medium and large firms. Finally, industry specific effects for 87 different three-digit industries were examined. The findings are reported below.Means and standard deviations of independent variables are reported in Table II. While correlations among firm size, urbanization and concentration are significant, they are low. Tests of variance inflation indicated that multicollinearity was not a problem.Internal and external scale economies\nFindings and conclusions: What can we conclude? Consistent with the previous international marketing, international business and small business literatures, and the expectations of this paper, there is a significant, positive relationship between firm size and the propensity to export. The larger the firm, the higher the likelihood that it will choose to engage in exporting. While most of the literature on the effects of firm size on exporting focuses on export performance or export intensity, the results here indicate that firm size affects the ability of firms to make exporting a part of a firm's business strategy. This is an important finding because factors affecting choice precede factors affecting success.Consistent with the predictions of the new economic geography, the likelihood of exporting increases as urbanization increases, indicating that the centripetal force of urbanization outweighs its centrifugal force, at least in terms of export decision-making. These results are monotonic across size categories. For micro and small firms, reliance on external business services is most important. For medium firms, however, the advantages of external scale economies appear to be internalized, and for these firms the benefits of urban location disappear or become a detriment. For large firms, urbanization creates diseconomies of scale.Localization also affects export decisions. The greater the geographic concentration of an industry, the higher the likelihood that firms will export. This is true, especially of micro and small firms. Again, the results are monotonic across size categories. Consistent with the expectations of new economic geography, concentrated industries generate forward and backward linkages that benefit smaller firms. Micro and small firms benefit from the presence of specialized labor and services, and this makes them more likely to export. Medium and large firms apparently internalize many of these external scale economies.While there were no hypothesized effects of industry specific factors, we recognize that such factors are important, and we observe that the effects vary substantially among industries. These observed differences reflect capital and labor intensity differences among industries, government policies affecting export attractiveness, and global competitiveness differences among US industries.The practical implications of this research vary with size and location. Managers of very small manufacturing firms considering export markets should learn from this research that they are better positioned to succeed in exporting if they are located in urban areas, and if they are located near other firms in their industry. For these firms, the ability to export depends on opportunities to externalize scale economies, both in terms of general business services and channel specific services.As firms become larger, external scale economies become less important to export propensity. As firms grow in size they are able to internalize scale economies important for export decisions. Firms with 20-100 employees appear to be able to internalize scale economies more rapidly than their smaller counterparts, but less well than larger firms. Urbanization effects appear to be irrelevant or negative for export decisions for manufacturers with more than 100 employers, while localization effects have no impact on exporting. Consistent with the findings of Wolff and Pett (2000), the decision processes of larger and smaller firms to export appear to be affected differently by geography. Indeed, location matters more for smaller firms than larger ones in a globalizing economy.What does this mean for small, entrepreneurial organizations wishing to engage the global economy? Geography affects how and when large and small firms export, but in different ways. Smaller exporters are more dependent on their environments than their larger, more bureaucratic counterparts. Because of this, the learning process of small, entrepreneurial firms will tend to be externalized more than that of larger firms, which can internalize the costs of learning and use it as a competitive advantage. Larger firms have the resources to internalize the benefits of learning, while smaller firms do not. Absent an environment in which it could learn (i.e. high concentrations of talented labor and/or high concentrations of industry-specific talent), the smaller firm lacks the means to become part of the international economy.\nDirections for future research: Several limitations to this research should be noted, since they point to directions for future research in this area. First, the data are all from Southeastern USA, and caution should be exercised when generalizing findings to other geographic areas. However, results of this study are consistent with previous findings, including those of Zhao and Zou (2002), suggesting an emerging consensus on the effects of location on export decisions. There now exists a need to replicate these findings across other geopolitical locations.Second, this research focused only on the propensity to export, and not on the effects of location on trade intensity. This is an important distinction, since studies like Zhao and Zou (2002) indicate that factors affecting trade intensity are different from those affecting the propensity to export. Hence, conclusions regarding trade intensity should not be drawn from this study. Future research is needed to examine, directly, the simultaneous effects of internal and external scale economies of production on export intensity.Third, economic theory argues that while there are external scale economies from which businesses can benefit, there are also external diseconomies of scale that must be considered. The diseconomies of congestion, rents and labor costs in large, urban areas should serve as centrifugal forces, encouraging firms to exit urban areas for rural locations (Krugman and Livas Elizondo, 1996; De Robertis, 2001). The inclusion of major metropolitan areas in the Southeast, such as Atlanta, Miami and Jacksonville, reveal some of the diseconomy effects on exporting, but may not reflect the impact of much larger metropolitan areas. Additional research in more heavily congested areas is needed to find the limits of the results observed in this study.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: - To examine the effects of urbanization and industrial concentration on the propensity of firms to export, and to determine whether these aspects of geography affect smaller firms differently than larger ones.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - Based on expectations from economic geography and organizational learning theories, logistic regression was used to assess the effects of firm size, urbanization and industrial concentration on the export choices of 43,707 manufacturing firms located in the Southeastern USA.\nFindings: - Results indicate that geography affects choices to export, and that these choices differ with firm size. The smallest manufacturers (fewer than 20 employees) were most likely to export from urban areas and in concentrated industrial sectors. Industry-specific differences were also found.\nResearch limitations/implications: - Results from the Southeastern USA are consistent with findings from China, though caution should be used in generalizing from these findings. The findings suggest that both internal and external scale economies must be considered in order to understand the export success of small firms.\nPractical implications: - These findings suggest that factors external to the firm affect the learning and decision process of smaller firms in very different ways than larger firms. Small firms are more dependent on their geographic environments than larger firms, when engaging the global economy.\nOriginality/value: - This is the first paper to examine the simultaneous effects of internal and external scale economies on the propensity of firms (and particularly small firms) to engage in export activities.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
Management control systems and research management in universities: An empirical and conceptual exploration
|
[
"Research",
"Universities",
"Management control systems",
"Symbolic violence",
"Performance management systems",
"Performance measures"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1.Introduction: The aim of this paper is to consider the development of management control systems in the general context of the University and the specific field of academic business and management departments (Business Schools hereafter), in response to the use of research assessment in the UK (via the Research Assessment Exercises (RAE) now the Research Excellence Framework (REF)). In particular, this paper explores the extent to which institutional attempts to manage the externally imposed demands of REF[1] have in turn generated tighter internal management control systems in Business Schools than those demanded by the REF. Our argument is that research assessment is an external technology of management control that is internally operationalised through a changed performance management and measurement regime within universities. We focus on how the use of journal ranking guides, such as the Association of Business Schools (ABS) Academic Journal Quality Guide, have been used to define the nature of what might be seen as \"good\" publication outlets for academic papers, and thereby becoming part of university performance management practices.\n2. What do we know about management control systems design and their implementation in universities?: 2.1. Management control systems and performance management systems: an introduction\n3. Conceptual underpinnings and research approach: 3.1. Conceptual frameworks\n4. The UK REF context - external and internal contexts of management control systems in universities: 4.1. External regulation: a transactional management control system\n5. Concluding discussion: Management control systems are intricately linked with organisational change processes, intended as they are to affect the behaviour of people within organisations in order to ensure the particular aims of that organisation are fulfilled. We have argued in this paper that the context in which control systems are developed remains important. That context includes the disturbances caused by the external regulatory environment, the organisational context, as well as the actions taken by individuals working within the organisation. Management control systems are not just developed in response to the requirements of the external regulatory environment but may be developed by organisations and/or their members in ways that make some internal controls unnecessarily tighter than the external regulatory controls necessitate.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to examine the management control systems developed by universities and groups within them, to manage research within UK University Business and Management Schools. Specifically, the paper analyses how universities develop their internal management control systems in response to an externally imposed regulatory system. It also provides an agenda for future research.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The paper uses a middle range approach to consider the UK Research Excellence Framework (REF) and the previous Research Assessment Exercises. It uses the language provided by a number of conceptual frames to analyse insights from the lived experience, and builds on previous literature that has recognised the perverse outcomes of such performance measurement systems.\nFindings: The study finds that the internal management control systems developed by academics themselves amplify the controls imposed by the REF. These internal control systems are accepted by some academics although they encourage a movement away from previously held academic values.\nOriginality/value: This study contributes to debates about the dysfunctional impacts of the use of performance measures to manage research. Its originality lies in explaining that the management control systems developed to resist the imposition of external performance measurement systems may lead to symbolic violence where participants become involved with their own subjugation.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
The governance of collaboration in complex projects
|
[
"Project management",
"Standardization",
"Governance",
"Inter-organizational collaboration",
"Complex projects"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: Collaboration is increasingly seen as a preferred way of delivering complex projects involving multiple partners, suppliers and customers (Acha et al., 2004; Davies and Hobday, 2005). Collaborative competence amongst partnering firms is a necessity to successfully manage large-scale, multi-organisation projects (Davies, 2004). Collaboration is defined in this paper as \"the commitment to working together with two or more parties to create value by striving to achieve shared competitive goals and operational benefits through a spirit of mutual trust and openness\" (Institute for Collaborative Working, 2016). Collaboration can be challenging in temporary, project-based settings, especially when the involved organisations lack prior experience of working together: \"one of the biggest risks to large-scale infrastructure projects is conflict emerging between consortium partners who have not co-operated before\" (The Financial Times, 2016). Collaborative culture, norms and practices take time to develop; this implies challenges in the context of time-limited projects (DeFillippi and Sydow, 2016; Jones et al., 1997). Accordingly, collaboration in complex projects is often considered particularly challenging, and needs to be governed effectively.\n2. Literature review: In the first subsection of the literature review, collaboration is discussed in the context of complex projects. The second subsection reviews the literature on exchange governance mechanisms, whilst the third focuses on institutional influences in the governance of collaboration in complex projects.\n3. Research methods: The governance of collaboration in complex projects is an understudied and emerging topic, hence it necessitates an approach that can elicit rich empirical insights into the actual practices used (Meredith, 1998). It was therefore decided to study in a qualitative fashion the real-life practices applied by organisations that deliver project-based combinations of products, services and technologies in collaboration with their partners (Miles et al., 2013). This exploratory qualitative approach entailed 29 qualitative interviews (Denzin and Lincoln, 2000; Strauss and Corbin, 1998) with key informants employed by the studied companies or acting as advisors/facilitators of collaboration on behalf of these organisations. The interview data were complemented by analyses of secondary data, including the international standard for collaboration, ISO 44001, and the industry-level contracts that facilitate inter-firm collaboration, as well as primary data obtained from participation in events and meetings. Regarding the collaboration standard, the British Standard for Collaboration BS 11000 was introduced in 2010 and was recently ratified as international standard ISO 44001.\n4. Findings: governance of inter-firm collaboration in complex projects: Inter-firm collaboration in complex projects is managed by contractual and relational governance mechanisms whose design and implementation is influenced by the standard. The emergence of the standard for the governance of collaboration has been an understudied area compared to the use of contracts and relational mechanisms. All three mechanisms are interlinked and concurrently enacted within the studied complex projects in order to proactively govern inter-firm collaboration amongst project partners. These findings are elaborated in the following subsections.\n5. Discussion and conclusions: This section discusses the main findings by means of three working propositions that stress the emerging role of collaboration standards and their impact on contractual and relational governance mechanisms in complex projects. It also elucidates research and managerial contributions as well as limitations and avenues for further research.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: Inter-organisational collaboration is becoming increasingly important in complex projects; some project customers even formally require evidence of collaborative competence from potential providers. The purpose of this paper is to explore the governance of collaboration and the ways in which it is enacted in practice for complex projects.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The study is based on a qualitative analysis of 29 semi-structured interviews, primary data from meetings and events supported by secondary data, including standards and industry-specific contract templates.\nFindings: The paper identifies how collaboration can be effectively governed in complex projects through the emerging role of the collaboration standard and its impact on contractual and relational governance mechanisms. The standard sets higher-level institutional guidelines that affect the way in which collaboration is governed in complex projects. It helps formalise informal relational practices whilst also providing guidelines for building flexibility in contracts by including coordination- and adaptation-oriented provisions conducive to collaboration.\nOriginality/value: The paper demonstrates the emerging role of the collaboration standard and its influence on contractual and relational mechanisms deployed in complex projects. It shows how the standard can formalise and codify informal collaborative practices and help transfer related learning across projects, thereby contributing towards the dual requirement for standardisation and flexibility in project settings.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
The relationship between organizational learning capability and business performance: The case of Vietnam firms
|
[
"Business performance",
"Organizational learning capability",
"Management commitment to learning",
"System perspective"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: Organizational learning is not only the notion of one of the biggest breakthroughs in business and management thinking, but also is one of the few management ideas which is sustainable (Mintzberg et al., 1998; Garratt, 1999):As our world becomes more complex and uncertain it is crucial that the capability of both individuals and organizations to learn regularly and rigorously from their work is encouraged so that they may adapt rapidly and continuously to their changing environments.(Garratt, 1999, p. 203)\n2. Literature review and research hypotheses: 2.1 Organizational learning\n3. Research methodology: A questionnaire was developed based on research from literature review with some small modifications for the questionnaire to be suitable with Vietnamese context. The structure of the questionnaire survey includes three parts: Part 1 with demographic information, Part 2 about company's performance, Part 3 about four dimensions of organizational learning capability. A seven-point Likert-type scale was applied to measure items used in the questionnaire developed for this study.\n4. Results and discussion: This research used confirmatory factor analysis to refine the initial measures of each construct and test for the internal consistency of scales for organizational learning capability and business performance constructs.\n5. Conclusions: It is argued that \"the ability to learn faster than your competitors may be the only sustainable competitive advantage\" (De Geus, 1988, p. 71). Theoretically and empirically, organizational learning has been shown to contribute positively to business performance. This study found a direct positive relationship between organizational learning and business performance, not an indirect relationship as found in Akgun et al. (2007) study. It confirmed findings from previous studies in this field like those of Real et al. (2006), Garcia-Morales and Llorens-Montes (2006), Jimenez-Jimenez and Cegarra-Navarro (2007), Skerlavaj et al. (2007) and Pham (2016).\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to explore the relationship between organizational learning capability and business performance of Vietnamese firms.\nDesign/methodology/approach: Based on the literature review, the authors proposed five hypotheses covering the relationships between different dimensions of organizational learning capability and business performance. Data collected from a survey of 160 Master of Business Administration students working in different firms in Vietnam were analyzed to test the proposed hypotheses.\nFindings: The results confirmed that organizational learning capability has positive effect on business performance. Moreover, two out of four dimensions of organizational learning capability are having positive relationship with business performance (management commitment to learning and \"knowledge transfer and integration\").\nPractical implications: The paper gives some suggestions for firms to improve their business performance through enhancing organizational learning capability.\nOriginality/value: This study provides important insights into the recognized yet under-researched relationship between organizational learning capability and business performance and confirms that organizational learning capability has a positive impact on business performance in Vietnam context.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
Corporate social responsibility and corporate governance in Malaysian government-linked companies
|
[
"Corporate social responsibility",
"Corporate annual reports",
"Corporate governance",
"Disclosure",
"Government‐linked companies",
"Financial reporting",
"Malaysia"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Corporate social responsibility (CSR) disclosure can be defined as the provision of information regarding human resource aspects, product and service, involvement in community projects including philanthropic activities and environmental matters. Research on CSR can be traced back to the 1980s (see for example Guthrie and Mathews, 1985; Gray et al., 1987; and Guthrie and Parker, 1989). Since then a number of studies have examined CSR in both developed (e.g. Hackston and Milne, 1996; Gray et al., 1995, 2001; Coffey and Wang, 1998; Adams et al., 1998; Newson and Deegan, 2002; O'Dwyer, 2002) and developing countries (e.g. Singh and Ahuja, 1983; Andrew et al., 1989; Tsang, 1998; Williams, 1999; Abu-Baker and Naser, 2000; Kuasirikun and Sherer, 2004; Haniffa and Cooke, 2005; Lim et al., 2008). These studies have examined the nature, extent and factors influencing CSR disclosure in annual reports.In recent years the interests in CSR have been partly contributed by the increased awareness on corporate accountability. In Malaysia, following the 1997 Asian financial crisis, the Malaysian Institute of Corporate Governance was established in 1998 and subsequently the Malaysian Code on Corporate Governance (the \"Code\") was released in 20001. One of the best practices in corporate governance included in the Code is that the board should receive information that is not only financial-oriented but other performance indicators such as customer satisfaction, product and service quality, and environmental performance. This requirement could be expected to put some pressure on company management to engage in more socially responsible activities and hence disclosure in annual reports. In addition, Bursa Malaysia (BM, formerly known as the Kuala Lumpur Stock Exchange) as part of its efforts in promoting CSR, has introduced a CSR Framework and Guideline in 2006. The CSR Framework is essentially a set of guidelines for Malaysian public listed companies (plcs) to assist them in CSR practices2.A number of studies including Teoh and Thong (1984), Andrew et al. (1989), Mohamed Zain et al. (2006), Janggu et al. (2007), Mohd Ghazali (2007) and Said et al. (2009) have examined CSR in Malaysia. However none of these studies has focused specifically on CSR in government-linked companies (GLCs). The present study extends prior studies on CSR by examining if there had been changes in the extent of CSR disclosure in Malaysian GLCs and determining whether corporate governance attributes influence CSR disclosure in Malaysian GLCs. Examining CSR in Malaysian GLCs would give some indication on whether efforts and guidelines implemented in enhancing CSR have had some positive impact on corporate social activities.GLCs as defined by the Putrajaya Committee for GLC High Performance3 are companies that have primary commercial objective and in which there is a major ownership and direct controlling stake by the Malaysian Government. This definition includes companies where the GLCs themselves have a controlling stake in it, i.e. subsidiaries or affiliates. Due to having a major ownership, the government has the power to appoint the board members, senior managements and make decisions for GLCs either directly or through government-linked investment companies (GLICs).GLCs have evolved into an important national institution, and many companies have become well-recognized corporate names regionally. GLCs constitute a vital part of the Malaysian economy and make up for nearly 49 percent4 of the market capitalization of Bursa Malaysia. A significant amount of efforts has been put into promoting CSR among the GLCs. As one of the steps towards promoting CSR disclosure, the government takes a proactive role through the implementation of the GLC Transformation Program 2005/06. Under this program, CSR issues are being stressed in The Silver Book (2006), one of the initiatives included in the GLC Transformation Manual. The Silver Book, which was launched in September 2006, provides a strategic framework for GLCs to proactively contribute in a socially responsible manner. It guides GLCs to establish an effective contribution program, minimize the cost of any social obligations and transmute these obligations into positive social contributions. As a starting point, the Silver Book recommends that GLCs evaluate the effectiveness of their contributions to society program using a self-assessment scorecard. To ensure an effective contribution to society program, GLCs are to develop a comprehensive policy that are aligned to the GLCs' overall business strategy and their stakeholders' expectations. Being a business where the government has a major ownership and control, GLCs are expected to lead others in good corporate practices including CSR practices.It has been suggested that corporate governance and CSR are two sides of the same coin (Bhimani and Soonawalla, 2005). That is because both CSR and corporate governance emphasize on companies to discharge their duties and responsibilities to the stakeholders (Jamali and Rabbath, 2007). Additionally CSR and corporate governance also stress on the importance of achieving long term value which in turn will assist in promoting a business continued acceptance and existence. In is noteworthy that the Silver Book has included in the guidelines for evaluating \"contributions assessment index\"5 the role of the Board of Directors as part of the assessment factors. The index asks whether there is a formal Board supervision that sets the overall direction of the contribution program and regularly monitors the management of the contributions to society. The inclusion of the Board in the index shows that the government expects company directors to be involved in planning, implementing and assessing corporate social activities.The research questions of this paper are as follows:1. Has there been a change in the extent of CSR disclosure among Malaysian GLCs after the introduction of the Silver Book?2. Do corporate governance attributes influence CSR disclosure in Malaysian GLCs?This paper contributes to the existing literature on CSR disclosure in a number of ways. First, it provides evidence that regulatory efforts have some impact on corporate social disclosure. Examination of annual reports of 27 GLCs revealed that the extent of CSR disclosure was higher in 2007 than in 2005. This implies that the introduction of the Silver Book in 2006 have had some positive impact on CSR in Malaysian GLCs. The finding implies that regulatory efforts designed to promote CSR in Malaysian GLCs have proved to be fruitful. Second, the finding also shows that corporate governance has some influence on CSR. The multiple regression analysis showed that board size was significantly associated with the extent of CSR disclosure. The positive association suggests that GLCs with more board members disclosed more CSR information in their annual reports. It would appear that larger board size will stimulate healthier corporate discussions and consequently engagement and disclosure of CSR activities in Malaysian GLCs. With more board members of diverse experience, knowledge and skills these companies appeared to better appreciate the importance of being good corporate citizens.The remainder of the paper is organized as follows. The next section reviews relevant literature to develop the research hypotheses. The research method including sample selection and collection is then explained. Findings and analysis are then provided before concluding the paper with limitations and suggestions for future research.\nDevelopment of hypotheses: Six hypotheses are developed in this study. The first relates to the extent of CSR disclosure. Two corporate governance variables, namely board size and independent directors on the board are investigated to determine whether these factors which are included in the Code have any association with CSR disclosure in Malaysian GLCs. Company size, profitability and leverage are included as control variables.The extent of CSR disclosure\nResearch method: Data\nConclusions, limitations and suggestions for further research: This paper has examined the extent of CSR disclosure in Malaysian GLCs with the expectation that after the introduction of the Silver Book in 2006 which provides guidelines to GLCs to proactively engage in CSR activities, more CSR activities would be undertaken and hence disclosed in company annual reports. The research also investigated whether corporate governance attributes have an impact on CSR disclosure in Malaysian GLCs. Consistent with expectations, the paired-sample t-test revealed that there was an increase in the extent of CSR disclosure of Malaysian GLCs in 2007 as compared to 2005 and the increase was statistically significant at the 1 per cent level. This finding implies that the introduction of the Silver Book has had some positive impact in terms of encouraging GLCs to engage in more CSR activities and hence disclosure of those activities in the annual reports. Additionally the multiple regression analysis showed that board size was a significant factor influencing the extent of CSR disclosure in annual reports. It would appear that GLCs with a larger board size disclosed significantly more CSR information than others. This finding suggests that boards with more members with diverse experience and backgrounds are more exposed to healthier and livelier discussion on corporate social activities and hence investment in those activities.Limitations of study\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: - The purpose of this paper is to investigate whether there has been a change in the level of corporate social responsibility (CSR) disclosure and to determine whether corporate governance attributes influence CSR disclosure in corporate annual reports of Malaysian government-linked companies (GLCs).\nDesign/methodology/approach: - The annual reports of 27 GLCs for two years (2005 and 2007) were analysed using content analysis. Multiple regression analysis was performed to identify factors influencing CSR disclosure in annual reports.\nFindings: - Consistent with expectations, the paired-sample t-tests showed that there was an increase (significant at the 1 percent level) in the extent of CSR disclosure. The multiple regression analysis revealed that board size was positively associated and statistically significant (at the 1 percent level) with the extent of CSR disclosure.\nResearch limitations/implications: - The regression model reported an R2 of 33.9 percent, which means that almost 66 percent of factors influencing CSR disclosure in Malaysian GLCs have not been captured by the model. These other factors may perhaps be identified through other research methods such as questionnaire surveys or interviews.\nPractical implications: - The findings appear to suggest that the government efforts in promoting CSR among GLCs through the introduction of the Silver Book in 2006 have had some positive impact on CSR disclosure in annual reports. The results also imply that larger board size through wider exchange of ideas and experience could lead to better appreciation and involvement in corporate social activities and hence disclosure in annual reports.\nOriginality/value: - This paper is one of the few studies to examine CSR disclosure and corporate governance attributes in GLCs after the introduction of new initiatives to promote CSR.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
User-driven efforts in creating knowledge graph information system
|
[
"PhD students",
"Information seeking",
"Information needs",
"Interviews",
"Knowledge graph",
"Tacit knowledge",
"Interdisciplinary education",
"User personas"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: While the PhD student population is growing exponentially (Cyranoski et al., 2011), attrition rates from PhD programs remain high owing to a variety of factors. Some of the central issues preventing students retention in PhD programs are attributed to departmental culture (interactions of students with colleagues), degree and quality of the relationship between doctoral students and their advisors or choosing an appropriate topic (Bair and Haworth, 2005). In this article, I examine a way to address aforementioned issues faced by PhD students by offering them a systematic solution, allowing them to make better-informed decisions by uncovering the latent relationships to information resources available to them, as well as the academic paths of their predecessors and peers. This paper reports on a study that will inform the design and development of a knowledge graph-based information system, intended to support data exploration and decision-making. The case taken for this research is an interdisciplinary PhD program and the main user population is students of that program.\nResearch purpose: The problem that this study addresses is facilitating the discovery of not only relevant information on resources that are considered as necessary for the success of a PhD student (finding an appropriate supervisor, thesis committee members and collaborators) but also information on relevant courses, projects, conferences, labs, grants and other resources that might help with promoting good scholarship. This problem is going to be addressed by designing a prototype of an information system based on a knowledge graph, intended to support students' decision-making processes in choosing among the available resources. The term knowledge graphs, has been closely associated with Semantic Web technologies and was popularized by Google in 2012 (Ehrlinger and Woss, 2016). According to Paulheim (2016), a \"knowledge graph (i) mainly describes real world entities and their interrelations, organized in a graph, (ii) defines possible classes and relations of entities in a schema, [and] (iii) allows for potentially interrelating arbitrary entities with each other; and (iv) covers various topical domains.\" (p. 2)\nLiterature review: Considering that the research reported here is a part of the larger study, the relevant literature draws from three pertinent areas:\nIntroduction to the case: The case taken for this research is an interdisciplinary PhD program located in the USA. Currently, there are about 30 PhD students and candidates (out of which 5 are distant learners), as well as over 100 alumni.\nTheoretical implications: I am using activity theory as a grounding framework, as this study seeks to understand the actions of information seeking for fulfilling program requirements, which is related to the overall goal of obtaining a PhD degree. The activity theory perspective has been used in human computer interaction (HCI) research with the primary concern on the tool mediation, while investigating the ways in which technologies are appropriated by individuals and groups. Activity theory has also been used to inform how interactive tools should be designed to make a positive impact on human activities (Kaptelinin and Nardi, 2012). Five main constructs that are an integral part of this theory are activity, object-orientedness, tool mediation, internalization/externalization and development. In the case of this study, students (actors) are motivated to fulfill each of the program requirements (objects), for example, take courses/exams, publish a paper and choose committee chair and members. For that reason, they are taking certain actions toward achieving these goals. The progress in the program is considered as a developmental process, while the ultimate object of the study (activity) is to finish the dissertation and leave the program with a PhD degree. The information system that is going to be designed will be a technical mediation/tool intended to support decision-making (internalization) for each of these steps, that would result with the decisions and actions taken toward the goal, resulting in the changes in the environment and consequently the representation of the setting in the graph (externalization).\nStudy design: This study was motivated by an interest in understanding the personal perspectives and experiences of being a PhD student at the program in question. Described above, this particular program is fairly unique and based on their interests' students may navigate across four unrelated departments, providing a particularly compelling case study to investigate information seeking for decision-making related to their studies.\nData analysis: Interview and usability study data were transcribed and coded in NVivo based on the categories that are considered relevant to the research questions, as well as program requirements outlined in the program policy document. Furthermore, exploratory coding identified the categories that emerged as relevant to this sample that might not have been anticipated beforehand.\nDomestic (US) student: Petra is an international student from the Czech Republic. She has always wanted to study in the USA, so she found a program in a great location that fits her interdisciplinary background. She is there to learn, explore different areas and courses, and expand her experience- both academically and personally. She is single. Also, she is certain about the topic that she wants to do for her research and would like to find a professor to support her. The bureaucracy and the customs in this foreign land are still strange to her, sometimes overwhelming. Petra is not on the fast track and is not in a hurry to finish the program. While working part time as a graduate assistant, she is taking it one step at a time and doing her best to fulfill the program requirements. She is very reliant on people (especially other students) when it comes to information discovery and looks for a leader in a supervisor that will help her with her goal.\nInternational student: Petra is an international student from the Czech Republic. She has always wanted to study in the USA, so she found a program in a great location that fits her interdisciplinary background. She is there to learn, explore different areas and courses, and expand her experience- both academically and personally. She is single. Also, she is certain about the topic that she wants to do for her research and would like to find a professor to support her. The bureaucracy and the customs in this foreign land are still strange to her, sometimes overwhelming. Petra is not on the fast track and is not in a hurry to finish the program. While working part time as a graduate assistant, she is taking it one step at a time and doing her best to fulfill the program requirements. She is very reliant on people (especially other students) when it comes to information discovery and looks for a leader in a supervisor that will help her with her goal.\nInformation seeking and information sources: The research information seeking practices of PhD students is a topic that has been thoroughly covered (Catalano, 2013; Spezi, 2016). My research suggests that domestic students tend to start the search for sources relevant to their topic with the library website, while using Google to refine search terms. On the other hand, three out of four international students went straight to Google Scholar.\nThe importance of time: Another theme that emerged as significant from the data is the difference in perceiving time-pertinent issues. This influences perceptions and behavior that brings about information needs and seeking. For students to remain in good standing, it is crucial for them to fulfill the program requirements in the given timeframe, as shown in Table I. Therefore, information needs and seeking activities are dependent on the point in time or the stage of progress in the program, as well as motivation of the students and their projected timelines. On the one hand, Brian was looking at the requirements for at least one semester ahead. He said:\nThe importance of social connections: One of the surprising issues that emerged from the data, and noted by all of the interviewees, is the need for more opportunities to connect with other people from the program. Scholarly community plays an important role in the socio-psychological well-being of PhD students, and they depend on support from the faculty and their peer network (Gardner, 2007; Stubb, et al., 2011). Similarly, the results of this study show that community is vital as the means to get needed information. Findings discussed in this section could potentially be valuable for other interdisciplinary programs (i.e. iSchools) where several departments are contributing to the education of interdisciplinary researchers.\nPrivacy concerns: As mentioned in the Introduction, this study was conducted to gather requirements for designing an information system that would serve this community. So, when the participants were asked about different functionalities of the system and their preferences, four students (three of who were international students) expressed their concern about privacy issues. The program in question is a small one and the students do not always feel safe expressing their honest opinions on the courses or professors in writing because of the possibility of identification. The same goes for the aggregated ratings (i.e. star rating) or reporting on exams, where identities could still be assumed. When asked about aggregated statistics regarding success rates of particular exam areas, Petra commented the idea as:\nDiscussion and implications for the system design: The preliminary qualitative study reported here was performed to identify user needs and current information-seeking practices, as well as study participants' interaction with the main online source of the program related information - the program website. All of this was with the goal to address those needs with particular features of the proposed information system. Not only was this study conducted with the objective to gather requirements to inform the aforementioned information system design but also to inform the modeling of the graph database.\nFuture steps: It is crucial to implement the viewpoints of the user group when designing the system, so the findings of this study may be validated during future participatory design workshops. In this approach, participants' interpretations are taken into consideration throughout the project, to envision better outcome, while reshaping and transcending the current situation (Spinuzzi, 2005). Also, it is crucial to include the values and ethical norms of the group, to be in line with the value-sensitive design principles (Centivany, 2016).\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: This paper presents the results of a qualitative study that involved students of an interdisciplinary PhD program. The study objective was to gather requirements to create a knowledge graph information system. The purpose of this study was to determine information-seeking practices and information needs of this community, to inform the functionalities of a proposed system, intended to help students with relevant resource discovery and decision-making.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The study design included semi-structured interviews with eight members of the community, followed by a website usability study with the same student participants.\nFindings: Two main information-seeking styles are recognized and reported through user personas of international and domestic (USA) students. The findings show that the useful information resides within the community and not so much on the program website. Students rely on peer communication, although they report lack of opportunities to connect. Students' information needs and information seeking are dependent on their progress through the program, as well as their motivation and the projected timeline.\nPractical implications: Considering the current information needs and practices, a knowledge graph hosting both information on social networks and the knowledge produced by the activities of the community members would be useful. By recording data on their activities (for example, collaboration with professors and coursework), students would reveal further useful system functionalities and facilitate transfer of tacit knowledge.\nOriginality/value: Aside from the practical value of this research that is directly influencing the design of a system, it contributes to the body of knowledge on interdisciplinary PhD programs.\n",
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] |
Menu labelling and healthy food choices: a randomised controlled trial
|
[
"Foodservice",
"Restaurants",
"Intervention",
"Nutrition information",
"Food choices"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: The term menu labelling can be used in different contexts as a synonym for calorie information (Roberto et al., 2013; Brochu and Dovidio, 2014), for nutritional information (Yoon and George, 2012; Auchincloss et al., 2013), for the coloured traffic light system (Gerlach, 2013; Morley et al., 2013) or for food and nutritional information (Thunstrom and Nordstrom, 2011; Feldman et al., 2013). For the purposes of the present study, menu labelling refers to all calorie information, nutritional information (such as calories and nutrients) and food information (e.g. ingredients list, highlighted symbols to designate \"vegetarian\" and phrases like \"contains gluten\"), as well as the traffic light system plus guideline daily amounts (TLS+GDA).\nMethod: Study design\nResults: Recruitment and retention\nDiscussion: The more qualitative menu labelling format (IL+S) was positively associated with healthy food choices. These results indicate that visual information on ingredients and components of dishes can quickly and effectively help consumers compare different options and select the healthier ones when deciding what to eat in a restaurant setting. A possible explanation for the effectiveness of this menu labelling format is the fact that it is a simple, easy to understand informative format which demands little time to be evaluated.\nConclusions: Results of this study indicated a menu labelling format presenting food information with ingredients list and highlighted symbols on the presence of gluten, lactose, trans fat, GMO, as well as on being organic and/or suitable for vegetarians was positively associated with healthy food choices in a real setting.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to examine the effects of different menu labelling formats on healthy food choices in a real restaurant setting.\nDesign/methodology/approach: This cross-sectional, randomised and controlled parallel-group trial was conducted in Brazil in 2013. In total, 313 university students were randomly assigned to one of three parallel groups with different menu labelling formats. Of these, data from 233 students were analysed. The others did not attend and were excluded. Intervention Group 1 (n=88) received information in the form of a traffic light plus guideline daily amounts, while Intervention Group 2 (n=74) was presented with ingredients list plus highlighted symbols (IL+S). The control group (n=71) received a menu with no menu labelling. Data were collected on one weekday in a restaurant setting. Trial outcomes were assessed by healthy food choices.\nFindings: Healthy food choices of students who received the menu showing IL+S were significantly higher when compared to the other groups. This same menu labelling format positively affected healthy food choices in women, not overweight participants and in participants who often ate out more than twice a week.\nOriginality/value: Menu labelling format presenting ingredients list and highlighted symbols was positively associated with healthy food choices among the university students in Brazil. This type of labelling could be adopted in future legislation on menu labelling in Brazil and around the world.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
Can an opportunity to learn at work reduce stress? A revisitation of the job demand-control model
|
[
"Workplace learning",
"Stress",
"Individual development",
"Italy"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Globalised competition and rapid technological development combine to create change in the nature of work. As a consequence, workplace skills development is essential. An integral part of this new workplace environment consists of growing demands on employees to develop new knowledge and skills (Paulsson et al., 2005). Reorganisation and organisational development, together with rapid developments in technology, require employees to develop their competences so that they can cope with workplace changes (Sugarman, 2001). At the same time, these changes have increased exposure to workplace stress and have impacted on the health and safety of workers (Cox et al., 2000; Kasl, 1998; Theorell and Hasselhorn, 2005; Kompier, 2005). The more rapid and widespread the changes, the greater the need for organisations to switch to forms of organisational learning (Argyris and Schon, 1978, 1996), by which is meant the \"ability to gain insight and understanding from experience through experimentation, observation, analysis, and a willingness to examine both successes and failures\" (McGill et al., 1992).However, the links between workplace stress and employee learning are relatively unexplored. As a consequence, it is important to examine the impact of these changes on workers' health and the role of workplace learning in the relationship between increasing demands and well-being.A theoretical model widely used by studies on occupational stress is the \"job demand-control\" model (Karasek and Theorell, 1990). This states that the most adverse job-related strain reactions are to be expected in jobs characterised by high job demands and low control. By contrast, other authors maintain that, on equal terms, an high control increase workers' levels of motivation and learning development, with positive effects on well-being.Starting from this model, this paper focuses on the stress-buffering hypothesis of the job demand-control model. In particular, it examines not only the control variable, but also the role of personal development at work in diminishing workers' exhaustion in a sample of middle managers and clerical workers at the district court of a region in Northern Italy.As stated by the Ministry of the Civil Service (Direttiva del Ministro della Funzione Pubblica sul miglioramento del benessere organizzativo nelle pubbliche amministrazioni, 2009) one of the main obstacles to well-being in Italian public organisations is the rapidity of changes in norms and laws, and in the types of services to be rendered to citizens. For this reason, it may be useful to identify factors, such as workplace learning, that are able to buffer the effect of demands on district court employees in stressful situations.\nTheoretical context: The job demands-control model\nResearch questions: In line with other studies (van der Doef and Maes, 1999; Paulsson et al., 2005; Parker et al., 2010), this research aims to gain insights into the buffer hypothesis of the job demand-control model by examining whether the relationship between job demands (workload) and strain is moderated not only by control but also by L&D opportunities.In an attempt to explore this relationship, the present study considers the need for recovery as a measure of strain (van der Hulst et al., 2006), conceptualising it as a depletion of resources that leads to negative load effects (e.g. fatigue) and, ultimately, to the absence of recovery, exhaustion and physical and mental impairment (Sonnentag and Zijlstra, 2006).According to the job demand-control model (Karasek and Theorell, 1990), the present study sought to test the following hypotheses:H1. Job demands (workload) have a direct effect on workers' need for recovery.H2. The effect of job demands (workload) on the need for recovery is moderated by control. More specifically, higher perceptions of job demands will produce less strain when employees have greater control.In order to extend the stress-buffering hypothesis of the job demand-control model, analysis of the impact of L&D opportunities on the demand/strain relationship was carried out.We hypothesised that:H3. L&D opportunities buffer the impact of job demand (workload) on the need for recovery. More specifically, a higher perception of job demands will be stress-buffering if workers perceive greater L&D opportunity.\nMethodology: Participants\nFindings: Table I displays the descriptive statistics and zero-order correlations among all variables.Workload and job control were not correlated, which is indicative of independence between these two aspects of the employees' perceived work environment. Interestingly, L&D opportunity was positively related both to demand and control variables. The employee strain variable (need for recovery) was positively associated with demand and negatively linked to control and L&D opportunity.Main effect of job demand\nDiscussion and conclusion: The Karasek and Theorell (1990) model indicates that a high degree of employees' control over their work combined with high workload results in an active job characterised by growth, high motivation to learn, and less strain.Several of the main propositions of Karasek's (1979) JD-C model were supported. In particular, our findings showed that increased job demand (i.e. workload) was associated with higher levels of need for recovery only when workers were not allowed to solve problems, adjust their pace, and decide how to perform a given task.Based on the JD-C model, this study has explored the role of opportunities to learn in the relationship between demand and high-strain work. It is interesting to note that demand is not related to control but is associated with L&D opportunity. High demand increases the stimulation to learn.The results show that the effect of job demands on the need for recovery is moderated by L&D opportunity.This finding can be considered an extension of the stress-buffering hypothesis of the JD-C model overcoming one of the limit of this theoretical framework - that is, the oversimplification of work context with only one variable (control) able to buffer the effect of demand on employees' health. Particularly, these results suggests that opportunities to learn within the organisational setting exert positive effects on the quality of work life by enhancing positive outcomes. Opportunities to develop abilities and learn something new from work activities enable people to avoid negative load effects, and they prevent exhaustion and a lack of satisfaction.In accordance with other research (Parker et al., 2010), employees with high possibilities to learn are able to cope with high demands. These individuals may also be more likely to \"take advantage\" of competitive work and high demand, with positive consequences on their health. By contrast, individuals who do not have opportunities to learn seem to suffer the consequence of workload and are less resilient. Other authors have emphasised that a safe work environment is characterised by situations in which there are concrete opportunities for learning and competence development is a part of work time (Lee, 1998).The concept of opportunity of learning could be connected to the self-determination theory, which focuses on the social-contextual conditions that facilitate the processes of self-motivation and healthy psychological development (Deci and Ryan, 1985). Particularly, there are three needs - i.e. competence, autonomy, and relatedness - which, when satisfied, enhanced self-motivation and mental health and, when thwarted, lead to diminished motivation and well-being (Deci and Ryan, 2000). In this sense, the workplace learning could allow workers to be self-determined and, consequently, more able to deal with an increased workload and to utilise control opportunities available in the environment as an antidote to stressors.The active learning of individuals can have also an impact on organisation learning. Although the organisational learning process does not exactly match the individual learning process, the entire body of research and professional debate (see Senge, 1990; Kim, 1993; Argyris and Schon, 1996) shows that the two processes are closely related. In particular, one can argue that jobs rich in L&D opportunities are a necessary (although not sufficient) condition for the development of an organisational learning process.In particular, the opportunity to learn at work is a process involving the knowledge, abilities and attitudes of workers which enables them and the organisation to adapt positively to changes without developing stress. If a work context gives workers an opportunity to learn create practices that allow developing competences and guarantees to organisations to improve adjustment capacities to external changes.Supporting and valuing a culture of learning in the workplace is important because ongoing learning is needed to survive at a time of increasing competition, with positive consequences for workers' well-being. Moreover, with the aim of skilling and upskilling employees for continued employability, organisations can play a vital role in promoting the quality of work life.Extending the JD-C model of Karasek and according to other perspectives (Lazarus and Folkman, 1984; De Jonge and Dorman, 2003), the opportunity of learning is a resource that has a role in the evaluation of the imbalance between environmental requests and personal abilities to cope with these requests. This factor could activate workers' coping strategies and diminish the negative impact of demands preventing the psychological experience of strain.This aspect may have important implications for human resources management, which should take account of the possible impact of promoting learning in order to reduce turnover, inefficiency, and to increase satisfaction and participation in health risk assessments.With regard to personal development and wellbeing, the workplace is the key site for the development of generic skills such as communication, problem-solving, teamwork, information technology and customer service skills. These skills, particularly those concerned with employability, are critical in today's workplace and the workplace culture should support individuals in developing these skills.As recent studies have shown (see Leiter and Maslach, 2000), burnout (as worker de-motivation) and disengagement are major problems in modern organisations. Among the most powerful factors inducing de-motivation and disengagement (other factors held equal) there are meaningless jobs or jobs which reduce worker autonomy and control. Opportunities for L&D appear to furnish HRM mangers with very useful means to counteract this tendency, especially at a time of such rapid changes: job and organisational redesign could be undertaken on considering that personal learning and development may make the difference for both worker satisfaction and organisational performance.Large public organisations are currently wondering in Italy about their ability to attract and retain motivated, engaged, and skilled workers (in regard to the Italian Department of Justice, related organisational issues are discussed in the 2006 Special Issue of Quaderni di Giustizia e Organizzazione (COMIUG, 2006)). In particular, justice in Italy is a highly complex organisational puzzle. On the one hand, organisational workload reaches the highest levels: by way of example, the World Bank (2009) has reported that commercial trials in Italy last 1,210 days on average, while the OECD average is 273. On the other hand, the laws and norms that dictate procedures in the public sector change very frequently, so that workers are required to cope with a baseline uncertainty. As stated in an official document on organisational well-being issued by the Ministry of the Civil Service (Direttiva del Ministro della Funzione Pubblica sul miglioramento del benessere organizzativo nelle pubbliche amministrazioni, 2009):This document arises from the need to assess the organisational impact of law reforms in recent years, and changes due to the introduction of new technologies, on civil service workers. This document also seeks to make managements more responsible for HRM in public organisations.The current study has also some limitations that should be mentioned. Firstly, data from this study derived from self-report questionnaires increasing the chances of common method variance effects. It would be interesting to use other-ratings in future research to avoid this problem. Furthermore, to collect other-ratings data could allow control of the variables related to the specific and contingent work context, which can interfere especially with opportunities for learning and development.Second, another limit concerns the cross-sectional design of the study, which prevents us establishing the direction of the hypothesised causal relations or reversed causal hypothesis. Particularly, some studies have shown that job characteristics and well-being outcomes seem to influence each other, which shows that it is important to think in terms of reciprocity. There is consequently a need for more longitudinal studies so that reciprocal relationships can be further investigated in the context of the JD-C model.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: - This paper aims to extend the stress-buffering hypothesis of the demand-control model. In addition to the control variable, it seeks to analyse the role of an opportunity for learning and development (L&D) in the workplace as a moderator variable between increased demands and need for recovery.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - A questionnaire was administered to 199 employees (middle managers and clerical workers) at the district court of a region in North Italy during a period of training activities on stress management.\nFindings: - The results show that control and personal development perform a moderating role in the relationship between workload and the need for recovery by reducing exhaustion.\nResearch limitations/implications: - The first limitation concerns the cross-sectional design of the study, which does not make it possible to establish the direction of the causal relations hypothesised. Moreover, further research will be necessary to identify organisational strategies able to develop the personal competence of workers and manage learning at work.\nPractical implications: - The understanding of the importance of learning at work has practical implications for strategies of human resources management. Organisations that encourage personal learning by workers at the same time modify themselves, so that they become better able to adapt to changes and external demands.\nOriginality/value: - The paper shows that the importance attributed to learning opportunities has a role in promoting work satisfaction and, specifically, in enhancing the quality of work life.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Exploring and expanding students' success in software testing
|
[
"Gender",
"Learning",
"Education",
"Strategy",
"Empirical study"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: With the establishment of software engineering (SE) departments in various universities all over the world in the last decade, the need for having software testing courses has also emerged. Testing is considered as an important skill for SE graduates, a fact that the academic community has come to realize. Nevertheless, only a handful of papers have been published describing the insights and experiences of teaching this course effectively. On the other hand, there has also been increasing expectation by the software industry to instill this important skill into SE graduates as the economic impact of inadequate testing is still a major concern within the industry.\n2. Literature review: There is lack of proper education in software testing in university SE programs (Chan et al., 2005). Software development organizations rely mainly on in-service software testing training by providing either internal training courses (61 percent), external training courses offered by commercial organizations (65 percent), or self-study by staff (39 percent) (Chan et al., 2005).\n3. Research methodology: 3.1 Course details\n4. Results and discussion: The results indicate that students outperformed in automated testing compared to structural and functional testing techniques. This might be because of the affinity with tools; students find automated testing easier, more interesting, and worthwhile compared to manual testing. Another reason might be that automated testing is the post-activity of other testing techniques where one simply uses the test cases derived previously using structural, functional, or other testing technique. They only need to be familiar with the testing tool and its environment in order to perform automated testing effectively. Moreover, the test functions available in the testing tools are generic in nature, and students merely need to utilize these functions according to the tested program. Once familiar with the automated testing environment, its script, how to write test cases, test suites, etc., it does not require much extra effort to test different programs as students only need to know the test cases which have been already derived before using some testing techniques as well as the choice of appropriate test functions to test a given program.\n5. Practical implications: The present study has the following implications.\n6. Conclusion, limitations, and future work: These findings are based on the analysis conducted using three years of data collected while teaching a course in software testing. In general, students who are successful in a particular testing technique are found to be strong in other testing techniques as well. They generally performed better in automated testing compared to manual testing. It can also be concluded that strong programming background can positively affect success in the software testing course. Additionally, there is no difference between the performance of male and female participants. Moreover, it is advisable to introduce teaching concepts one at a time because students find it difficult to grasp the ideas otherwise.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: Testing is one of the indispensable activities in software development and is being adopted as an independent course by software engineering (SE) departments at universities worldwide. The purpose of this paper is to carry out an investigation of the performance of learners about testing, given the tendencies in the industry and motivation caused by the unavailability of similar studies in software testing field.\nDesign/methodology/approach: This study is based on the data collected over three years (between 2012 and 2014) from students taking the software testing course. The course is included in the second year of undergraduate curriculum for the bachelor of engineering (SE).\nFindings: It has been observed that, from the performance perspective, automated testing outperforms structural and functional testing techniques, and that a strong correlation exists among these three approaches. Moreover, a strong programming background does help toward further success in structural and automated testing, but has no effect on functional testing. The results of different teaching styles within the course are also presented together with an analysis exploring the relationship between students' gender and success in the software testing course, revealing that there is no difference in terms of performance between male and female students in the course. Moreover, it is advisable to introduce teaching concepts one at a time because students find it difficult to grasp the ideas otherwise.\nResearch limitations/implications: These findings are based on the analysis conducted using three years of data collected while teaching a course in testing. Obviously, there are some limitations to this study. For example, student's strength in programming is calculated using the score of C programming courses taken in previous year/semester. Such scores may not reflect their current level of programming knowledge. Furthermore, attempt was made to ensure that the exercises given for different testing techniques have similar difficulty level to guarantee that the difference in success between these testing techniques is due to the inherent complexity of the technique itself and not because of different exercises. Still, there is small probability that a certain degree of change in success may be due to the difference in the difficulty levels of the exercises. As such, it is obviously premature to consider the present results as final since there is a lack of similar type of studies, with which the authors can compare the results. Therefore, more work needs to be done in different settings to draw sound conclusions in this respect.\nOriginality/value: Although there are few studies (see e.g. Chan et al., 2005; Garousi and Zhi, 2013; Ng et al., 2004) exploring the preference of testers over distinct software testing techniques in the industry, there appears to be no paper comparing the preferences and performances of learners in terms of different testing techniques.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Does firm performance increase with risk-taking behavior under information technological turbulence? Empirical evidence from Indonesian SMEs
|
[
"Firm performance",
"Small business",
"Pricing capability",
"Risk governance",
"Risk-taking behaviour",
"Information technological turbulence"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: It is widely undisputable in business research and practices that risk governance contributes to firm performance by a combination of risk and return (Stein and Wiedemann, 2016). However, it is often difficult to encourage the decision makers at the firm level with a strong entrepreneurial orientation to pursue the high-risk strategies to achieve the best performance (Covin and Wales, 2012). Under information technological turbulence, many managers believe that they are not ready to take a risk by allocating resources to the social media (IBM, 2016).\nLiterature review: From risk governance to risk-taking behavior in small and medium enterprises\nResearch method: This study proposes a structural equation model to determine the relationship between risk-taking behavior, which emerged from both measurement and fundamental literature. This study uses a multivariate statistic method to determine the relationships of the latent variables. In designing the model, this study draws upon previous studies, while the measurements come from a survey that was used to collect primary data.\nResults: Table I shows that the most respondents consider their firms as risk takers. For firms with asset less than IDR50m, 79 per cent respondents believe that their firms are risk takers. Similarly, there are 63 per cent respondents, which belong to the criteria of asset IDR50 and IDR500m and 77 per cent respondents with firms' asset more than IDR500m.\nConclusion: This study gives an account of entrepreneurial behavior and provides empirical evidence to confirm that risk-taking behavior positively affects firm performance. Given that risk governance is not confined to the traditional practices, this study advances the previous works on risk-taking behavior at the firm level in IT turbulence. This study likes to point out that the various conditions of IT turbulence lead to the different impact of risk-taking behavior on firm performance. The results also support the claim that the initiative to adopt risk-taking behavior sets off a strong pricing capability, which brings about firm performance. Using risk governance as the conceptual lens, this study pertains the mediating role of pricing capability to a better understanding of the complicated relationship between risk-taking behavior and firm performance.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: This paper aims to contribute to the risk management studies in small and medium enterprises (SMEs) by examining the complicated relationship between risk-taking behavior and firm performance.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The study conducted a survey of the Indonesian SME owner-managers and used partial least square structural equation modeling to examine the mediating effect of pricing capability and moderating effects of information technological turbulence.\nFindings: The results do not only confirm the positive impact of risk-taking behavior on firm performance but also identify that impact of risk-taking behavior on firm performance is more effective at the low information technological turbulence than at the high one.\nResearch limitations/implications: This study relied on information from the owner-managers in SMEs, which may bias against the perspective of their employees and the business partners.\nOriginality/value: This study advances the risk-taking behavior research in SMEs context by introducing the effect of pricing capability and information technological turbulence.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Forward-looking intellectual capital disclosure in IPOs: Implications for intellectual capital and integrated reporting
|
[
"Agency theory",
"Intellectual capital",
"Content analysis",
"Integrated reporting",
"Intellectual capital disclosure",
"Information asymmetry"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: IC disclosure is widely debated in accounting literature and has become more topical because of its inclusion, along with other related capitals, in the latest integrated reporting (<IR>) guidelines (International Integrated Reporting Council (IIRC), 2013, p. 2). In its current form, <IR> is seen as a direct response to the global financial crisis (GFC) because of the perceived shortcomimgs of regulated forms of financial reporting (Adams and Simnett, 2011; Abeysekera, 2013; Dumay et al., 2016). However, it is not possible to study the impact of IC and non-financial disclosures in <IR> because the International Integrated Reporting Council (IIRC) only released the final <IR> guidelines in December 2013. Thus, there is not a sufficient corpus of intgrated reports available over time to enable any longitudinal studies examing the impact of IC and other non-financial diclosures on the value creation and/or the price of a firm's equities. At the same time the question of whether financial markets react or reflect a value premium in any way based on <IR> is also a key issue (de Villiers et al., 2014). We argue that <IR> and its association with value creation has important implications for managing companies and how managers disclose information to investors. Additionally, the findings contributes to the IC disclosure and <IR> literature from an information asymmetry and agency theory perspective.\n2. Literature review: The issue of voluntary IC and/or non-financial disclosure has received significant attention in the accounting literature with over 110 studies published from 1999 to 2013 (Dumay and Cai, 2014, p. 273). However, as Dumay and Cai (2014, p. 279) outline, their \"analysis found many conflicting research findings\", suggesting that the literature does not deliver any conclusive and consistent evidence relating to the benefits of IC disclosure. Companies voluntarily disclose IC and non-financial information in a variety of reports, including annual, IC (see Mouritsen et al., 2003), sustainability (e.g. Global Reporting Initiative, 2013), corporate social responsibility (e.g. United Nations Global Compact, 2009) and integrated reports (IIRC, 2013). Moreover, Atkins et al. (2015) argue that social and environmental reporting is starting to merge with private financial reporting because of <IR>. Specifically, from an IC perspective, there has been renewed interest in disclosing information about \"capitals\" in the latest development in corporate reporting - <IR>, which promotes the \"creation of value over the short, medium and long-term\" (IIRC, 2013, p. 2). Additionally, <IR> essentially links IC and forward-looking information because it has \"a combined emphasis on conciseness, strategic focus and future orientation, the connectivity of information and the capitals and their interdependencies\" (IIRC, 2013, p. 2). This firmly connects to the argument that including forward-looking information about how a company develops its IC is linked to future value creation. Additionally, investors are interested in any information that can assist them in assessing the value of the firm for making informed investment choices (Swartz et al., 2006).\n3. Data collection: To answer the research questions we analyse information technology (IT) companies listed on the NASDAQ because companies in industries such as IT and healthcare are more willing to disclose IC than others (Dumay, 2012, p. 11). Additionally, according to Bukh et al. (2005), Cordazzo (2007) and Rimmel et al. (2009) there are differences in IC disclosure content in IPO prospectuses, varying from 10 to 40 per cent in different industries, with higher disclosure levels for IT and R&D companies where arguably IC plays a more important role in value creation. In this case, technology companies make up the research sample companies because \"intellectual capital is regarded as being especially important in high-tech industries\" (Rimmel et al., 2009, p. 4). Johnson et al. (2001) support a single industry analysis, arguing that this provides for a sound analysis uninfluenced by other industry based factors. Therefore, IT companies would be useful to examine because they already have an IC disclosure track record.\n4. Methodology: 4.1 Content analysis methodology\n5. Results: 5.1 Results of content analysis\n6. Conclusions and implications: 6.1 Implications for practice\n",
"role": "user"
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{
"content": "Purpose: This study contributes to intellectual capital (IC) disclosure research. Focussing on reducing the information asymmetry associated with agency theory, the purpose of this paper is to investigate the extent to which managers and owners disclose IC in initial public offering (IPO) prospectuses. In particular, it examines the influence on post-issue stock performance based on the IPOs of technology companies listing on the NASDAQ from 2002 to 2013. Parallels are drawn to integrated reporting (<IR>), which was developed after the global financial crisis (GFC) because of the perceived shortcomings of regulated forms of financial reporting.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The authors apply a two-stage methodology, using content analysis of prospectuses to determine the extent of IC disclosure, then combining this data with market data using regression analysis to determine the influence of IC disclosure in IPO prospectuses on post-issue stock performance.\nFindings: According to the content analysis results, these IPO prospectuses contain significant amounts of IC disclosure for the subsequent analysis. The authors find that after the GFC technology companies disclose more IC information. The econometric analysis also reveals that IC disclosure has a higher influence on post-issue stock performance after the GFC than before.\nResearch limitations/implications: The research shows how IPO prospectuses are a valid form of disclosure to investigate the impact of reducing IC information asymmetry because they contain significant amounts of forward-looking non-financial information about the company's development. Additionally, the results are relevant to discussions about the impact of <IR>. If IC and non-financial disclosures contained in an integrated report are forward-looking and reduce information asymmetry then <IR> may have value relevance to a firm.\nPractical implications: The research confirms that more IC disclosure information in prospectuses may positively influence companies' post-issue stock performance, especially in the long run. However, the authors caution that disclosing IC information to investors is not the panacea for increased post-IPO share performance.\nOriginality/value: This paper is novel because it shows the value relevance of IC disclosures to reduce information asymmetry through its focus on prospectuses, which helps to understand of the potential impact of <IR>.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
Assessing quality relationships in public housing: An empirical study
|
[
"Quality",
"Housing",
"Hong Kong",
"Construction industry"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Quality is a term difficult to define. The meaning of quality in building is even more difficult to explain precisely and meaningfully (Low and Goh, 1994). During the last decade, quality systems have been developed as an integral part of construction management, which is structured in accordance with the standards contained in the ISO 9000 series. ISO 9000 is a series of standards established by the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) which was first published in 1987. It outlines the requirements for quality management systems in manufacturing and service organizations (Erel and Ghosh, 1997). The successful application of ISO series in the manufacturing and electronics industries has aroused attention to improve the quality of the construction process (Arditi and Gunaydin, 1998). The Hong Kong Housing Authority (HKHA), being the largest developer for residential buildings in Hong Kong, required all its construction contractors to be ISO9000 certified before 31 March 1993. Otherwise the contractors would be deprived of the right to tender for HKHA's projects. The HKHA further introduced a performance assessment scoring system (PASS) to monitor public housing quality. PASS is an assessment system which provides a systematic method of inspection for assessing contractors' performance in both quality of works and construction safety. It facilitates the management of the approved contractors' list: if contractors repeatedly score a poor or below-average result in PASS, they will be temporarily suspended from the tender list. This stipulation encourages contractors to improve their quality performance. Despite the introduction of the PASS, public housing quality in Hong Kong is still under severe criticism. The HKHA has been put under great public pressure from quality-related incidents in recent years (Table I).There is a need to identify factors that show a strong correlation to good quality and establish how these factors affect the quality outcome of a public housing project. This paper, being based on early studies by Chan et al. (2002a, 2003a, b, c, 2004a), aims to identify the factors affecting the quality outcome of a public housing project, using PASS scores as a yardstick, and to explore how these factors affect quality.The reminder of this paper is organized as follows. First, factors affecting quality and measures for quality assessment are described. Then, both the methodology and the results of the survey are analysed and presented. The results are discussed next. Finally, conclusions and closing thoughts are given.\nFactors affecting quality: the independent variables: The literature is abound with a number of variables supposedly influencing the quality of a building project (Chan, 1996; Chan et al., 1997; Chan and Tam, 2000; Abdel-Razek, 1998; Arditi and Gunaydin, 1998; Tay, 1994; Low and Tan, 1996). Review of previous research results suggests some common threads of variables as affecting the quality of a public housing project. These factors are grouped under the headings of client, project nature, project team leaders, project procedures, training in quality, project management, and quality culture (Chan et al., 2003a).The client\nMeasurement for quality assessment: the dependent variable: Evaluating the quality of construction requires some kind of measurements. Oakland (1993) stresses the needs for the measurement of quality. These include:* the provision of standards for establishing comparisons; and* the enabling of visibility or a \"score board\". Many other authors such as Bendell (1993) and Formoso et al. (1994) also acknowledge the importance of measuring quality.The Hong Kong Government, being the largest construction client in Hong Kong, operates one of the most extensive public housing programmes in the world. Today, over half of the Hong Kong's population lives in public housing, either in rental or sold units. The HKHA now manages 153 rental estates and 189 sold estates built under the home ownership scheme (HOS), the private sector participation scheme, buy or rent option scheme and tenants purchase scheme (HKHA, 2000a).The emphasis of HKHA in the past was to produce enough housing for people in need. The quality of public housing is sometimes overlooked. With the changing aspirations of the community and the realization of expensive remediation for poor quality products, the HKHA has put more emphasis on quality aspects by introducing the concept of quality assurance into public housing development at the beginning of the last decade. The initiatives include ISO 9000, the PASS and the maintenance assessment scoring system.Bates (1993) asserts that PASS can provide an objective measurement of quality and it is possible to compare contractor with contractor, site with site, and to explain where non-compliances are occurring.Since its introduction in 1991, PASS has been used as the basis to assess the quality of public housing projects. It is used to measure contractors' performance against the defined standards and to compare between individual contractors. The assessment system has been recognized as a standard method of measurement for building quality (Chan et al., 2003b).PASS has the following objectives and functions (HKHD, 1996), to:* provide a systematic method of inspection in assessing the contractors' performance in both quality of works and construction safety;* facilitate the management of the contractor lists (Figure 1); and* encourage contractors to improve performance.Contractor's performance is measured by a set of assessors' rating. The assessors are made up of the HKHA's in-house project team. PASS is used to identify substandard works for remedy and evaluate contractors' performance for reward purpose rather than to provide information for preparing development plan to prevent non-conforming works. Therefore, this performance measure is detection-oriented rather than prevention-oriented (Lai, 1999).PASS has been put under constant review to provide an objective means to assess quality standards of end products and safety standards during construction for improving building contractors' performance. Having regard to the contractors' feedback on the objectivity and sampling coverage of PASS (1997 edition); a new version of PASS (called the \"New PASS\") was introduced in 2002 to enhance its representation and coverage. For the New PASS, the outcome will be derived objectively through a three-tier system: including daily site inspection records from site staff, monthly reports from project professionals and quarterly reports from an independent team (HKHA, 2000b). As the New PASS has not captured sufficient data at the date of writing this paper, the evaluation is based on PASS (1997 edition), which still serves the purposes of quality assessment.The PASS (1997 edition) is divided into three components of measurement: \"input\", \"output\" and \"maintenance\" assessment. The input assessment measures contractors' management capabilities in planning, programming, coordination, and progressing. The output assessment mainly deals with the standard of building works. The maintenance assessment is carried out during the maintenance period, which is aimed at inspecting how the building functions after occupation. The input and output assessments are combined using the weighting of 75 and 25 per cent, respectively, giving a project composite score, which will be used for consideration of tender opportunities. Maintenance assessment is used as a supplementary tool for decisions to penalise contractors. Among these three measurements, the output assessment is considered to be the most important and direct measure of building quality (Tam, et al., 2000). PASS score is, therefore, used as a proxy in this study to assess the quality of public housing projects.\nResearch methodology: Research model\nResearch samples: Contractors' participants in public housing projects were the main target respondents of this survey. Both completed and on-going public housing projects commenced within the last five years were selected. A list of public housing projects was developed based on information obtained from HKHA's annual reports.During the period from January to March 2002, 140 structured questionnaires were sent to prospective respondents working for the said projects. 57 questionnaires (including 54 answered questionnaires; one unanswered questionnaire; and two returned mails because of unclear address) were received. The total response rate for all returned mails is 40.7 per cent and the response rate for the answered questionnaires is 38.5 per cent, which is considered acceptable for research project of this nature.About the respondents\nResults of the study: Factor analysis result\nDiscussion of results: Multiple regression analysis has identified that six out of the 17 postulated factors were significantly associated with the quality performance measure, which is the PASS score. Appointment of a project manager with extensive experience in running public housing projects, adopting proactive quality culture, increased usage of direct skilled labour, enhanced comprehensiveness of subcontracting inspection system, better competency of site labour and increased client's emphasis on quality, safety and environment can help achieving higher PASS score.Project manager's experience in running public housing projects\nConclusions: Public housing in Hong Kong has come a long way from satisfying the basic need of providing shelters, to the provision of quality housing. The quality of the housing units is recognized as equally important to their quantity. Although the HKHA has implemented a series of quality management systems including ISO 9000 and PASS, it has been commented that quality appears far better on paper than it does on site (Tam et al., 2000).The HKHA has adopted the PASS system as the measurement tool for building contractors' performance for more than 10 years. PASS, being the unique tool to measure the quality performance of contractors in public housing construction at the moment, plays a critical role in driving quality improvement. This research provides insights into the critical factors that show a strong correlation to good quality and establishes how these factors affect the PASS scores of public housing projects.Through factor analysis, 17 critical factors were extracted, on 72 variables which were developed through a synthesis of empirical studies. These factors formed the basis of evaluating the quality of public housing. Multiple regression analysis has identified that six out of the 17 postulated factors were significantly associated with the dependent variable, which is the PASS score. The PASS score, and hence construction quality can be improved by:* appointing a project manager with extensive experience in running public housing projects;* fostering a proactive quality culture;* increasing usage of direct skilled labour;* adopting a comprehensive inspection system on subcontractors' work;* increasing competency of site labour; and* the client's emphasis on quality, safety and environment.A predictive model for quality performance has been developed. Project managers can use this model to predict the quality level of a public housing project in terms of the project composite score. Prediction of likely project outcomes can enable necessary corrective actions to be initiated before the problems are crystallized. The findings can assist project managers to better manage public housing projects and achieve higher quality performance.In closing, it is hoped that the picture presented will help international companies doing business in or with Hong Kong to gain a better understanding of the quality situation in the Hong Kong public housing sector. Although the empirical results were based locally in Hong Kong, the lessons learnt are generally applicable and the methodology adopted can be replicated elsewhere.\n",
"role": "user"
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"content": "Purpose: - Quality management in construction has received increasing attention in recent years. Numerous studies have been carried out which have highlighted the factors affecting quality of construction. Each study has contributed to identifying factors affecting quality. However, there is little published work that comprehensively addresses the factors specifically affecting the quality of Hong Kong public housing, which has long been criticized as having poor quality performance. This paper aims to identify the factors affecting the quality outcomes of public housing projects.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - Potential quality attributes affecting quality performance was identified from the literature. A five-page questionnaire was then developed to determine how these identified factors affect the quality scores of public housing projects. Factor analysis and multiple regression analysis were used to examine the data obtained from the questionnaire survey.\nFindings: - Analysis of 54 cases indicated that the project manager's experience in running public housing projects was the most important factor affecting the quality scores. Other important factors include a proactive quality culture; the extent of using direct skilled labour; a comprehensive subcontract inspection system; the competency of site labour, and the client's emphasis on quality, safety and environment.\nResearch limitations/implications: - The empirical results were based locally in Hong Kong, however, the lessons learnt are generally applicable. For future research the methodology adopted can be replicated elsewhere to facilitate international comparison of quality practices.\nOriginality/value: - A predictive model for quality performance has been developed. The findings can assist project managers to better manage public housing projects and achieve higher quality performance.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Twenty-five years' contribution of "Benchmarking: an International Journal" to manufacturing strategy: a scientometric review
|
[
"Manufacturing strategy",
"Literature review",
"Benchmarking",
"Bibliometric and content analysis",
"Future research"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: Manufacturing is thought to be capable of doing everything well. This, in turn, led \"the conventional factory to do too many conflicting tasks\" (Skinner, 1969). Manufacturing is a complex process due to high fluctuations in customers' requirements in the form of demand and lead time, manufacturing constraints and uneven state of machines (Park and Kremer, 2013). Manufacturing plan or a manufacturing strategy (MS) is a need for companies to have an organized structure in such a complex environment (Miltenburg, 2005). The way manufacturing is organized impacts the firm's performance and its competitive advantage in the marketplace (Hayes and Schmenner, 1978; Miltenburg, 2005). The essence of MS is to effectively plan manufacturing decisions for achieving company's long-range advantage (Miltenburg, 2005). A marketing strategy and MS should be linked with each other to gain a competitive advantage (Skinner, 1969; Dangayach and Deshmukh, 2001; Miltenburg, 2005). A failure in this linkage results in saddled and non-competitive manufacturing system (Dangayach and Deshmukh, 2001). The hierarchy of strategic levels is shown in Figure 1. A well-formulated MS gives manufacturers a competitive advantage to utilize the uniqueness of manufacturing functions viz. \"low-cost manufacturing, high-quality production, and manufacturing flexibility\" (Swamidass, 1986). This is why MS plays a significant role in achieving the overall strategy of a firm (Chatha et al., 2018).MS has attracted huge attention from researchers and practitioners leading to a variety of studies on the themes of MS (Dubey et al., 2015). Searching \"Manufacturing Strategy\" keyword in title/keyword/abstract generated more than 1,500 results on the search engines like Web of Science, ProQuest, J-GatePlus, etc. Different journals so far have contributed to the studies on the themes of MS (see section 3). Since the advancement of MS in the early 90s, BIJ is one of the most contributing journals in publishing relevant studies on the MS domain. The role of \"Benchmarking: An International Journal (BIJ)\" previously known as \"Benchmarking for Quality Management and Technology (BQMT)\" to expand this field is irrefutable. BIJ is a bimonthly peer-reviewed journal that majorly aims to publish studies on the field of quality management. The journal started in 1994 and published by Emerald Group Publishing.The purpose of this study is to review the articles on the themes of MS published in BIJ and investigate the trends of MS publications over the last twenty-five years (since 1994 till 2019) to highlight the significant future research opportunities in BIJ concerning the MS field. This work is motivated by Kumar et al. (2019). Authors in their article reviewed the literature published in BIJ to highlight the historical contribution of the journal over 25 years. To the best of author's knowledge, the current study is the only review study in MS domain which is focusing on one specific journal, i.e. BIJ. To accomplish the purpose of the present study following research questions (RQ) are considered:RQ1. What is the trend of MS publication over the years in BIJ?RQ2. What are the main topics/themes published in BIJ on the MS domain?RQ3. Which are the highly cited articles on the MS field published in BIJ?RQ4. What is the citation and co-citation pattern of MS studies published in BIJ?RQ5. What type of research has been done so far for conducting MS research?RQ6. What tools/techniques/methods have been used for doing MS studies?RQ7. Which industries so far have been covered in MS studies?Readers, the editorial board of a journal, researchers and practitioners are expected to have a certain advantage through this study. Considering readers for instance, this study can clarify the different topics on the MS domain covered and the types of studies that have been accepted from the first publication till date in this journal. Benefits concerning the editorial board, they can develop new policies to target the type of studies that have not been covered yet. Researchers who are willing to publish their work into BIJ could get an idea about the themes of studies accepted and the research gaps remain in the MS domain to be filled. For practitioners, this study gives insight into the new approaches used in the MS for practical implementation and further coining new methods and tools for the research gaps provided.Further, the paper is organized in the following sections as: Section 2 provides an overview of the previous MS literature. A literature review methodology for conducting the current study is discussed in section 3. Section 4 provides a bibliometric and content analysis of reviewed literature. In section 5, the discussion on the findings from analyses, research gaps and future research opportunities are provided. The concluding remarks are given in section 6.\n2. Literature review: Skinner (1969) did the pioneering work on MS and referred MS as \"exploiting properties of manufacturing function as a competitive weapon.\" Further, Skinner (1985) stated that if an MS is aligned with the company's corporate strategy, it will make manufacturing a competitive weapon and results a firm in achieving competitiveness at the market (Chatha et al., 2018). MS has been understood, explained and defined by various researchers. Table 1 provides the definition and meanings of MS by various researchers.As manufacturing affects the corporate strategy and vice-a-versa (Skinner, 1969), MS should support the overall business strategy which in turn aid the corporate strategy to achieve the competitive advantage (Dangayach and Deshmukh, 2001). A well-aligned MS with the firm's overall corporate goals resulted in gaining the manufacturing performance to retain market competence (Corbett, 1998; Narkhede, 2017). A number of literature reviews are published in the area of MS to highlight the significant contribution in MS field. Some of the literature review articles with their contribution are given in Table 2.In this review, the articles published in the MS domain were searched and collected at first. Further, the articles from BIJ are shortlisted for review. Then the bibliometric and content analyses are carried on the shortlisted articles using VOSviewer(c) and VantagePoint(c) to find out the trends of publication, type of studies, scope of the journal and research gaps for providing the future research directions. The detailed review methodology used for conducting a literature review is explained in section 3.\n3. Review methodology: A literature review methodology is considered most appropriate when the purpose of the research is to determine the recent trend of studies (Easterby-Smith et al., 2001) and identify the conceptual works for providing the future research agenda (Agrawal et al., 2015; Meredith, 1993). As the purpose of the study is to identify the trend of MS publication in BIJ to determine future research opportunities, this study adopted the literature review methodology. A five-stage approach proposed by Prakash et al. (2017) is used to search, locate, select, review and analyze the articles. Figure 2 shows the stages, steps and processes used to conduct a literature review. 3.1 Stage 1: article collection\n4. Bibliometric and content analysis: 4.1 Bibliometric analysis\n5. Discussion: As evidence of an analysis carried out on the studies published by BIJ in the area of MS, certain research gaps have identified which may be pursued for future studies in BIJ. Based on the analyses, the scope of the journal and research gaps are presented below: 5.1 Research gaps\n6. Conclusion: This paper gives a comprehensive review of the articles on the MS field published in BIJ. A total of 57 shortlisted articles over twenty-five years' period from 1994 till 2019 are selected, reviewed and analyzed. The results from the analyses (bibliometric and content analysis) can be helpful to researchers willing to publish in BIJ to understand the type of research, themes of accepted papers and the research gaps for doing further research. A total of 57 selected articles are analyzed and categorized. Using a bibliometric analysis of keywords, the clusters of frequently used keywords are created as subject areas and the articles are categorized into those keyword clusters. The majority of articles falls under MS subject (34%), followed by benchmarking (27%) and strategic planning (14%). Content analysis is carried out on the 57 selected articles, and the classification of studies is done based on (1) the type of research, (2) tool/method used and (3) the type of industry where the study is conducted using content analysis.The statistics show that most articles published in BIJ are of empirical (49%) followed by case study (30%) and conceptual (10%) type. The statistical tools are widely used (more than in 16 articles) covering the various industries like automobile, energy production, telecommunication, electrical, aerospace, electronics, education, consumer product, food, furniture, garment, musical instrument manufacturing, piping, motorboat and software. Only 5 out of 57 articles are found which do not cover conceptual framework, survey, industrial or case analysis. Out of which 4 are a literature review, and one is an interview. Roughly from this analysis, BIJ has strong tendencies in publishing practical industrial cases or case-based research, which is one of the scopes of BIJ.Thus, the study initially started with the introduction of the MS domain. Further, a review and analysis were carried out on the 57 selected articles on the MS domain published in BIJ. The study underwent bibliometric analysis considering year-wise publication trend, publication from the different geographic locations (i.e. country-wise publication) and also highlighted the most contributing journals in the MS domain. The articles were classified according to the keyword clusters developed from a bibliometric analysis. The content analysis is carried out to categorize the paper based on the type of research, tool/method used and the type of industry where the study is conducted. The research implications to the researchers and practitioners are given from the present literature review study. The research gaps are also provided for gaining knowledge about the different aspects of MS that remained unaddressed in BIJ. Finally, recommendations for conducting future research are provided based on bibliometric and content analysis.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: This study aims at reviewing the articles on the themes of manufacturing strategy (MS) published in \"Benchmarking: An International Journal (BIJ)\" and investigating the trends of publication for future research.\nDesign/methodology/approach: Five-stage methodology to conduct a literature review is adopted comprising: (1) article collection, (2) inclusion/exclusion criteria, (3) reviewing the articles, (4) analyzing the articles and (5) future research directions. A total of 57 articles specific to MS domain published in BIJ are reviewed. Further, a bibliometric analysis comprising keywords co-occurrence, citation and co-citation using a VOSviewer(c) software followed by content analysis to analyze the type of research, type of industry and type of tool/method used is carried out.\nFindings: The study helps to find the scope of the journal and research gaps in the MS domain to provide future research directions. Most of the work found is survey-based or case-based in nature. However, there is a need for empirical research to be done in the field of MS.\nResearch limitations/implications: The study facilitates researchers willing to publish in BIJ to understand different themes of accepted papers concerning MS domain. The identified research gaps and future research direction can motivate researchers and practitioners to coin new approaches in the MS domain.\nOriginality/value: A comprehensive review and analysis of the MS literature published in BIJ has been provided. To the best of authors' knowledge, the current study is the only review study in MS domain focusing on one specific journal.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
Information and contemplation: a call for reflection and action
|
[
"Contemplation",
"Contemplative studies",
"Information science",
"Information behavior",
"Philosophy",
"Wisdom",
"Libraries",
"Museums"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n__NO_TITLE__: \"Reading seeks for the sweetness of a blessed life, meditation perceives it, prayers ask for it, contemplation tastes it.\"- Guigo II, Ladder of Monks, twelfth century\nIntroduction: There is evidence of a contemplative turn in North America, including the emergence of a \"contemplative class\" of individuals (Duerr, 2011). Participation in contemplative practice (CP) is burgeoning; the U.S. National Center for Health Statistics reports increases in yoga and meditation among American adults from 2002 to 2012 (Clarke et al., 2015), numbers that have continued to rise (Clarke et al., 2018). In health settings, meditation modalities such as mindfulness-based stress reduction (MBSR) are being validated and growing in popularity (Bakhshani et al., 2015). Organizations such as the Contemplative Society, the Center for Contemplative Mind in Society, and the Association for Contemplative Mind in Higher Education, among many others, have emerged and their memberships are growing rapidly. Daily news outlets regularly make reference to CPs. Memes such as neuroplasticity and mental fitness have captured the public imagination. In the sphere of information technology, dozens of websites and apps (e.g. Headspace, Calm, and Flower Garden) related to CP are in use. Wisdom 2.0, the first information technology conference to focus upon information systems and contemplation, was launched in 2010 and continues annually. Interestingly, Google designed and offered to its employees a wellness program entitled Search Inside Yourself; due to its success, it has become an independent enterprise with services for individuals, organizations, and wellness professionals (Duerr, 2011).Scholarly research into CP has grown by leaps and bounds. On a search for the topic \"contemplative\" or \"contemplation,\" the Web of Science Core Collection returns: 178 articles from 1980 to 89; 498 from 1990 to 99; 1,173 from 2000 to 09; and 2,808 from 2010 to 18. Contemplation-related research centers are appearing, such as the Saron Lab at the University of California, Davis, which carried out the Shamatha Project, the largest and most comprehensive attempt to study changes brought about by meditation (Saron, n.d.). These developments in academe have set the stage for the formation of an interdisciplinary nexus known as Contemplative Studies (CS), which will be discussed in Part 1.All these developments should motivate information scientists to explore the domain of contemplation, if for no other reason than to remain current with the zeitgeist. In this paper, we lay the groundwork for such exploration. We present and discuss some of the central questions and concepts of CS, and we map the intersections between CS and Information Studies (IS). This work identifies CS as a verdant frontier for IS research and as a priority for professional practice in information institutions. We hasten to note that one need not be \"a contemplative\" to participate in this field, though proponents seem to agree that practicing contemplation for oneself helps in the study of contemplation.Another way to envision the topic of this paper is to consider the Tree of Contemplative Practices (Figure 1) from the Center for Contemplative Mind in Society (CMind; http://www.contemplativemind.org). The Tree depicts the roots of contemplation as communion, connection, and awareness, suggesting that CP has both social and individual dimensions. Then, large branches of the tree illustrate related forms of CP that entail stillness; are generative, creative, activist, or relational; involve movement or follow ritual/cyclical patterns. More specific manifestations of CP appear as the smaller branches. The tree is not comprehensive, and other frameworks for CPs exist, such as the PEACE Framework developed by Stanford (see https://contemplation-stanford-edu.pitt.idm.oclc.org). On that note, CMind produces a blank version of the Tree, encouraging people to define their own forms, expressions, and organization of CP.Additional inspiration for this paper comes from a long-standing (though not untroubled) framework used in IS, the so-called data-information-knowledge pyramid (see Figure 2), which arranges epistemic concepts in order of processing or filtering (see Bawden and Robinson, 2016; Fricke, 2009; Ma, 2013; Yu, 2015). Different areas of IS have been concerned with different levels of the pyramid. To illustrate, at the risk of oversimplifying: bibliometrics is based on data; information behavior is centered upon information; and knowledge management concerns itself with knowledge. In its seminal formulation by Ackoff (1989), this pyramid also included the concepts of understanding and wisdom. These levels were discarded by information scientists, precisely proving Eliot, 1934 message in Choruses from the Rock: \"Where is the wisdom we have lost in knowledge?\" Eliot's poem is often credited as the origin of the DIK(UW) pyramid, and in this paper we suggest that IS would do well to revisit those conceptual origins. Questions of understanding wisdom--and even poetry--are becoming ever more relevant to the theory and practice of IS (Gorichanaz, 2017; Kari and Hartel, 2007). By extending IS into the capstone of the DIKUW pyramid, that is, to the higher things in life (Kari and Hartel, 2007), our field takes more responsibility for understanding CP and contemplative experience (CE). With this upward movement, our field can possess holistic--and therefore more powerful--coverage of, and relevance to, the entire human experience as expressed in the pyramid.Theoretical frameworks aside, have not we all been shaped or struck by documents, experts, and sundry media as well as by a sunset, poem, or moment of quiet reflection? Based upon such parallels and the evidence outlined earlier, it seems clear that the relationship between information and contemplation merits attention from IS researchers and the practitioners of information institutions, too. To that end, this paper: introduces CS and its major concepts; locates contemplative topics within the intellectual history of IS and its recent literature, concepts, and applications; and proposes conceptual points of departure for a research frontier at the crossroads of IS and CS.\nPart 1: contemplative studies and its major concepts: For this section, the authors conducted a hermeneutic literature review of major definitional statements pertaining to the emergence and current status of the field of CS. These writings reside across multiple disciplines and can be located through cited reference searches of the scholar seen as a founder, Harold D. Roth, and a later visionary, Louis Komjathy, author of Introducing Contemplative Studies (Komjathy, 2018). Another helpful vantage point to CS is The Journal of Contemplative Inquiry, published by CMind. Finally, a fascinating resource used for this paper is the video archive of a think-tank sponsored by the Mind and Life Institute and held at Brown University in September, 2017: Building Contemplative Studies Programs, Practices, Priorities and Problems (Brown University, 2017).What is contemplative studies?\nPart 2: the crossroads of information and contemplation: This part selectively surveys the research literature of IS to reveal points of contact with CS. These intersections are thematized as history, theory, methodology, information institutions, and information behavior. Organized in this way, the reader may be surprised at the many intersections and overlaps of information and contemplation.History\nPart 3: Information and contemplation: three key crossroads: This paper calls attention to the points of contact between IS and CS and between information and contemplation. We hope that in the future these intersections will be fertile sites for research. To that end, we begin a translation process at three key crossroads: the discipline, the central phenomena, and the institutions. From these new conceptualizations, scholars of IS can more readily conduct research into information and contemplation.The discipline\nConclusion: In this paper, we have presented the central concepts in the emerging field of Contemplative Studies (CS), and we have reflected upon points of synergy between CS and our field, Information Studies (IS). Our field has a lot to learn from CS. And conversely, we believe that the rich perspectives that have accumulated in IS over the years position our field to be a strong contributor to CS. There is an abundance of possibility for information scholars if we join hands with CS. Thus, this paper serves as a call to action.We opened this paper with a quotation from Guigo II: \"Reading seeks for the sweetness of a blessed life, meditation perceives it, prayers ask for it, contemplation tastes it.\" The paragraph continues, \"Reading, as it were, puts food whole into the mouth.\" To be sure, eating is not just about seeking and encountering food, just as reading is not just about seeking and encountering information. As he says next, \"meditation chews it and breaks it up, prayer extracts its flavor [...] contemplation gives us delight in the sweetness which we have found.\" Eating is a whole experience--at least it can be if we let it. Eating can be about expecting, tasting, chewing, extracting, pausing, swallowing, and feeling. At its best, eating is imbued with contemplation, and we suggest that information can be, too. Take a seat at the table.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: Americans increasingly feel a sense of wonder at the universe; meditation and yoga are on the rise; and a field known as Contemplative Studies has emerged. These indicators, among others, suggest a groundswell of interest in contemplative practice and contemplative experience and raise intriguing questions for information and Information Studies. Against this backdrop, this paper asks: How might Information Studies contribute to these developments? What is the relationship between information and contemplation? What can be explored on this research frontier?\nDesign/methodology/approach: This conceptual paper is based upon a synthesis of recent writings from the field of Contemplative Studies as well as conceptual analysis of selected papers and themes in Information Studies. It draws from discussion that occurred at a Session for Interaction and Engagement at the 2018 iConference, entitled \"Contemplating Information in the Pleasurable and the Profound\" (Latham et al., 2018). The authors' creative thinking and personal contemplative practices also infuse and fortify the work.\nFindings: Popular and academic contemplative movements are afoot, and Information Studies has an opportunity to participate or be left behind. The field of Contemplative Studies has established the foundational concepts that can serve as contextual material for information research into contemplation. Upon closer inspection, Information Studies has already broached the topic of contemplation at various points in its history, theory, institutional practices, and information behavior research. The conceptual points of departure for a research frontier are articulated.\nOriginality/value: Beyond data, information, and knowledge are deeper and more profound aims, such as wisdom, which is related to contemplation. This paper supplies a rationale, scholarly community, conceptual resources, historical precedents, and guiding questions for bridging information and contemplation.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
Theory of advice as an information object targeted at an unmade decision
|
[
"Decision support systems",
"Environmental uncertainty",
"Advice",
"Advice document",
"Advice interaction",
"Advice theory"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: The paper synthesizes and extends advice theory to reveal more about the nature of advice and expose its relationship to documents, information and knowledge. It addresses several questions. What is advice, and what are advice documents? What is the purpose of advice? What types of advice exist?\nBackground: Foundational concepts related to advice\nResearch questions: The previous section gave a broad conceptual foundation for what follows. To examine several issues raised above in more detail, these three research questions were addressed:\nMethods, materials and analytic approach: A systematic literature review helped answer three research questions. The review identified prior works that conceptualized advice or advice interactions in a theoretical manner, or which described models or types of advice. The review's scope covered four broad scientific domains. Two scholarly books about advice were included in the review (Jureta, 2011; Salacuse, 2000).\nResults: Results are presented sequentially by research question:\nConclusion: This study examined advice and advice theory to conceptualize advice better. Advice was analyzed using insights from document theory and information theory along with results from a systematic literature review. Published advice studies tended to focus either on human-human, machine-machine or ICT-mediated advice interactions. Synthesizing these previous works, it is posited that advice is an information object targeted at an unmade decision.\n",
"role": "user"
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"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to advance an understanding of the concept of advice and its relationship to documents, information and knowledge.\nDesign/methodology/approach: A conceptual analysis of a sample of 48 relevant advice studies and two books, directly informed by documentation and information theories, was conducted to find out how researchers have approached advice conceptually since 1940. Further gains in understanding advice came from analyzing its relationship with environmental uncertainty.\nFindings: Researchers have studied advice in the context of human-human, machine-machine and information and communication technology-intermediated interactions. Advice has been conceptualized and categorized in many different ways. Over time, conceptualizations of advice have broadened and become more general. In this light, it is theorized that advice is as an information object targeted at an unmade decision. This conceptualization of advice permits situated and momentary advice documents. A newly developed content-based framework of advice leads to an advice typology with four content-based categories of best possible advice: correct answers, probabilities, possibilities, and acknowledgments of the unknown.\nResearch limitations/implications: The refined advice theory, content-based advice framework and related typology of advice contributed here are small steps toward improved clarity about the nature of advice. These findings are limited in their focus to advice theory and advice categorization.\nPractical implications: Scholars, practitioners and information system developers may reconsider advice theory and make use of the content-based framework and related advice typology in their work. These contributions will help advice-givers and the developers of advice-giving information systems and advice networks to provide better advice.\nOriginality/value: This paper fills a need for a clear and straightforward overall conceptualization of advice that accounts for advice documents and is informed by how advice has been previously conceptualized in multiple scientific fields.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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Complementarity merger as a driver of change and growth in higher education
|
[
"Higher education",
"Merger",
"Complementarity",
"Educational institutions",
"Programmes"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: While the mergers and acquisitions (M&A) literature focuses largely on corporate combinations, environmental and economic forces have made the strategy more common in non-profit and higher education arenas. This paper considers mergers within a higher educational system and examines a successful case as an example for other combinations of educational institutions.\nBackground and theoretical framework: Mergers and competitive advantages\nMethodology: When studying mergers or other change processes, methodologies rely largely on qualitative research or a mix of qualitative and quantitative research and are largely structured in a case study approach, often reviewing the individual organizations or entities before, during and after the merger processes. Dasborough et al. (2015) in their study of employees' during a merger of higher education departments used phenomenography to better understand change in their interpretative study. Other qualitative methodologies used in change research include using content analysis to examine roles of individuals using social identity theory, in a pre-merger and post-merger series of semi-structured interviews (Jay, 2014).\nContext and participants: Mergers in the USG\nAnalysis: Pre-merger\nFindings: A complementarity merger\nDiscussion: Narrative and implications\nLimitations and directions for future research: The presented findings in this exploratory, qualitative case study should be considered in light of several limitations. Observer bias should be considered due to the close relationship of the observers with UNG, although one of the observers had not been employed with either school either before or after the consolidation. Two of the observers were closely involved in the merger implementation. The use of a single case study for analysis may limits the generalizability of the findings. The location of the sample institutions chosen for study may limit the generalizability of the results. However, there is a dearth of literature for colleges and universities as they consider merger strategies. While macro-environmental factors support and even encourage further consolidations, there is limited data on their frequency and successes. There is a lack of research on the characteristics of successful mergers as well as best practices for implementation. The business literature on mergers suggests there is not one best way to accomplish a merger. Research has explored how mergers may fail at various intervals during the process. Further study into the characteristics of successful and less-than-successful college and university mergers is needed.\nConclusion: The USG BORs has begun to consolidate several universities and colleges across the state for cost savings and academic access purposes. In this single case exploratory study, the merger of North Georgia College and State University was merged with Gainesville State College to form the UNG. The complementarity nature of the merger has created a comprehensive university with a full range of academic degrees and programs. The UNG merger increased academic and geographic accessibility in the region and the result has been high growth at a time when many universities are facing declining enrollment.\n",
"role": "user"
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"content": "Purpose: Mergers in higher education seem to be more common as academic institutions work to control costs and avoid program duplications in challenging economic times and adopt the more common cost saving measures often espoused from business mergers. The purpose of this paper is to highlight successes from a complementarity-based merger of two institutions in the University System of Georgia (USG) and present results over time.\nDesign/methodology/approach: A case study methodology was employed to explain why a particular merger resulted in greater growth compared to other system-wide academic mergers. This research focuses on a single merger of two institutions in Georgia, one of seven such mergers in the USG institutions to date, involving Gainesville State College and North Georgia College and State University to become the University of North Georgia. Observations are made and complimented by secondary data to rank growth among the seven USG consolidations.\nFindings: The case findings highlight the success from the complementarity of these institutions. While the two were unique institutions, the success of the merger was linked to the underlying complementarity issues.\nOriginality/value: Using the strategic issues inherent in mergers from the business literature, the merger of the two institutions is profiled and discussion and recommendations are provided along with areas for future research.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
Researcher vs advocate: ethnographic-ethical dilemmas in feminist scholarship
|
[
"Activism",
"Advocacy",
"Ethnographic methods",
"Feminist scholarship",
"Gender theory"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n__NO_TITLE__: Every social justice movement that I know of has come out of people sitting in small groups, telling their life stories, and discovering that other people have shared similar experiences. Liberation does not come from outside\n\"Good\" ethnographic practice: The textbook ideal of \"a completely unobtrusive observer, with no interaction, and therefore no participation\" has long been hailed as the gold standard for \"purity\" of qualitative data (Nason and Golding, 1998). Emotional detachment and distance are conventionally preferred to collect unbiased, value-free data, and for a \"necessary\" balance between insider-outsider status (Gephart, 2002; Gill and Johnson, 2002, p. 147; Glaser and Strauss, 2006, p. 226; Golden-Biddle and Locke, 2007, p. 30). Yet, because the concerns of organisational ethnography are to uncover and explicate the ways in which people understand and make sense of their work, aligned beliefs with participants, or impressions thereof, are understood to aid data collection (Van Maanen, 1979, 1998). The \"good\" researcher is one who abides by these norms and practices as strictly as possible.\nFeminist scholarship, advocacy, and action research: Feminist scholarship\nMethodology: Autoethnography: a very brief introduction\nContext: The site for this research was an urban, private K-12 school in the capital city of New Delhi in India. The school had been gender coeducational since their founding with a balanced sex ratio of over 6,000 students and more than 120 teachers. They followed the nationalised curriculum, their fee structures were publicly available, and they were accredited by the central board of education. Although located at another end of the city, it was not too dissimilar from the school I attended growing up in New Delhi. Selection of such a site and setting offered me a \"point of entry into a critique\" based on my own experience (Bannerji, 1992, p. 67) and thus, was consistent with requirements of researcher's ability for \"rejection identification\" (Branscombe et al., 1999). Selection of such a setting also allowed cognisance of the historical muting of gendered subaltern outside the west (Spivak, 1985; Banerjee and Prasad, 2008) whilst being cautious of disentangling the unexamined privilege of those who represent, research, or write about them (Ozkazanc-Pan, 2012). My cultural positionality ensured comparatively easier access to this setting than to another site in the west (Holvino, 2010). Given my a priori immersion in this specific, historically contingent setting before the study commenced and given research objectives, the discrete period of \"going native\" could be considerably minimalised and critical participation could have begun as soon as I was able to identify conservative elements within the dominant social fabric (Ybema et al., 2009).\nFindings: I worked as a substitute teacher with grade 3 conducting participant observations with students and teachers and interviewing school leaders. A male principal was head of the school and the primary school from grades 1-5 was led by a headmistress. Most teachers were women and male teachers were restricted to the sports and music departments. \"I was a relatively younger, unmarried woman which came to influence the power dynamic between some of my respondents and I\". With an analysis of two experiences with different groups of respondents, I hope to illustrate the nature of ethnographic and ethical dilemmas I encountered. For much of the first experience, I adopted conventions of feminist research wherein critical observation was restricted to my analysis and critical participation was low. I tried to identify with participants' beliefs as far as possible to understand their perceptions and document their sensemaking. Yet, unconscious critical participation resulted from incomplete identification with respondents' beliefs leading to emergence of gender politics during the course of the interview. The second experience involved conscious action-oriented feminist interventions as a way of critical participation with students.\nDiscussion: Ethnographers aim to be reflexive on several ethical dimensions. Given the nature of my research objectives, I found most of my reflexive energies focused on considerations of feminist ethics. Concealing a feminist identity while investigating prejudice and discrimination can be emotionally and cognitively exhausting for the researcher affecting her research approach and data collection processes (Yassour-Borochowitz, 2012). If feminist beliefs are concealed, the researcher may also be accused of deception whereas if she reveals these beliefs, she risks both identity threats as also criticism of overstepping her research boundaries.\nThe feminist researcher-advocate: Standards for objectivity shift with availability of new technologies for observation. For example, introduction of photography enabled the notion of mechanical objectivity. Thus, objectivity has a history in social sciences and so its universal validity is a myth (Daston and Galison, 2007 as cited in Harding, 2015). Through greater efforts to subject methodological designs to critical, reflexive perspectives, researchers could devise novel combinations of different fieldwork approaches and maximise objectivity. An illustrative summarisation of prevalent methodologies based on the degrees of critical participation and critical observation they allow is produced in Figure 1.\nTackling the dilemma: Beyond sweeping recommendations to be reflexive and critical, issues of conducting feminist research have largely been relegated to the researcher's private life. Because I found myself unable to address the ethnographic-ethical dilemmas I encountered in any performatively determinate way, I had to resort to practical strategies of personal and cultural expressions. These strategies sustained a motivation to continue fieldwork and also helped navigate political ambiguities with respondents.\nLimitations and further research: Although the discussion in this paper is culturally and organisationally specific and hence limited by it, it is hoped that contextual variants will emerge for readers through this text. It is important to clarify here that my own individual pursuit of feminist work is motivated in part by identification with associated gender stigmas but also sustained by self-interested professional objectives of educational qualifications, employment, and income. Therefore, my aim is not to claim higher moral ground compared to my respondents, but to recognise the pervasiveness of discriminatory behaviours. Acceptance of one's privilege need not detract from greater openness to calling out or being called out on them.\nConclusion: There is a clear paradox in the working lives of feminist researchers with their larger fight for women's rights and freedoms even as they sometimes have to relinquish their own freedom to determine their mannerisms of dress, speech, and action whilst conducting research. Could these be dismissed as a small price to pay for the larger goals? Or could both be redressed through feminist researcher-advocate roles in the field? What does a thriving time for women to conduct feminist research look like?\n",
"role": "user"
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{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to explore the nature of dilemmas that emerge at the theoretical and practical interfaces of ethnographic fieldwork and feminist advocacy. This is done by examining the researcher's role in the field and the complex relationships between the researcher and the researched.\nDesign/methodology/approach: Critical self-reflections and autoethnographic analyses of fieldwork experiences in the author's home country in South Asia are used to explore these dilemmas.\nFindings: Using situated examples from a typical organisational setting involving both the oppressive and the oppressed, the researcher's participant observation is found to be conflicted between critical participation and critical observation. Conscious and/or unconscious critical participation through enactment of feminist ethics by combining researcher and advocacy roles allows a route to assuage these conflicts. Practical strategies used to accomplish this are also discussed.\nResearch limitations/implications: Although the practical strategies discussed in this paper are culturally and organisationally specific and hence limited by them, it is hoped that suitable variants will emerge for readers from their discussion. Further research is needed to investigate the variety of ways in which the researcher-advocate positionality proposed in this paper can be strategically adopted conditional on cultural and organisational contexts, feminist research questions, and researchers' abilities and constraints.\nPractical implications: This paper seeks to shed light on the dilemmas of feminist ethics faced by critical feminist researchers conducting ethnographic fieldwork. It also discusses ways to enable researchers to circumvent these dilemmas in both epistemologically productive ways by collecting rich data and in ontologically enriching ways by allowing some enactment of feminist ethics. To this end, a positionality of the feminist researcher-advocate is conceptualised that does not enforce constraints of extreme positionalities of either a conventional ethnographer or an action researcher.\nSocial implications: Besides illustrating the need to stretch beyond traditional boundaries of participant observation, the researcher-advocate positionality also allows feminist researchers to make small, but directly tangible impact towards gender equality in their field setting. Implications for researchers' emotional, and cognitive safety are also discussed especially when they identify with one or more minority identities.\nOriginality/value: This paper contributes to discussions on the theory of methods by highlighting the benefits of enacting feminist ethics as a way of critical participation in research settings.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
A conceptual framework to identify spatial implications of new ways of learning in higher education
|
[
"Higher education",
"Comparative floor plan analysis",
"Learning spaces",
"New ways of learning",
"Space management"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: In the literature and the practice of facility management, there has been an increasing interest in the educational sector (Amaratunga and Baldry, 2000; Price et al., 2003; Duyar, 2010; Kok et al., 2011). In the past few decades, the educational sector has undergone substantial changes (Collis and Van der Wende, 2002; Johnson et al., 2011). Developments in learning, educational theories and information and communication technologies (ICT) have resulted in new ways of teaching and learning - anytime, anyhow and anywhere (Simons et al., 2000; Punie, 2007; Beckers and Van der Voordt, 2013). Despite the growing attention for the educational sector, Temple (2007) draws attention to the limited research investigating the relationship between teaching, learning and physical space in higher education. Learning spaces in higher education remain an underresearched topic (Temple, 2007, 2008; Boddington and Boys, 2011). Marmot (2012) highlights that there is a need to understand how new learning spaces are used to support an effective pedagogical transition. Boddington and Boys (2011, p. 18) conclude that there must be a shift in the way we think about learning spaces \"from solution to illumination\":\nPurpose, process and place in higher education: Purpose\nConceptual framework: The development of the above-mentioned four learning theories can be characterised by two shifts in ways of learning. First, the development from behaviourism to cognitivism implies an increase of self-regulation in learning (Zimmerman, 1989; Chen, 2002):\nAn explorative study at Dutch higher education institutes: According to the framework of Figure 2, it is expected that changes in the purpose and process of learning, i.e. the shift towards new learning theories and a growing use of ICT, will be reflected in the learning space design in practice. More particularly, that a shift might be expected to occur in the ratio between different types of learning settings, with less traditional classroom space and more space for interaction and informal learning. To test this proposition, a comparative floor plan analysis (CFA) was conducted at four buildings of Dutch higher (professional) education institutes (HEIs), also indicated as Universities of Applied Sciences. The Netherlands has 39 of such institutes with 421,560 students (2012). The ten largest institutes together represent 73 per cent of all students. In the period of 2010-2011, six of these ten institutes constructed new school buildings. To explore spatial reflections of developments in learning and teaching three new buildings were selected and compared with an older school building.\nResults: Building A (1998), Arnhem\nDiscussion: The present study shows that in modern school buildings, developments in education are expressed in a lower proportion of classroom space and a higher proportion of space for informal learning, self-study and collaborative learning in small groups. This finding is consistent with experiences from the Saltire Centre case (Watson, 2007) and other research in seven HEIs in the UK that concluded that institutions need to remodel their existing space to cope with new teaching and learning methods, the use of new technologies and new social expectations (Space Management Group, 2006). Our study shows that despite the apparent shift in learning settings, the floor plans of the new school buildings in Dutch higher education are still characterised by a large number of classrooms. The development towards modern learning centres, as presented in the guide for twenty-first century learning space design (Joint Information Systems Committee [JISC], (2006), in the design patterns of Nair and Fielding (2005), and the visions on learning environments of Marmot (2006)), goes well beyond the studied higher education buildings. A justified question is what is needed for further developments in learning space design. Jessop et al. (2012) state that the push to make fundamentally or radically different choices concerning learning and teaching spaces in universities must come from students.\nConcluding remarks: The \"purpose-process-place\" framework was shown to be useful for linking learning settings to learning theories and educational processes, and the CFA was shown to be a useful method to explore the relationship between purpose, process and place. The combination of the conceptual framework and CFA contributes to a better understanding of how different learning theories may influence the physical learning setting but does not yet explain completely the use of those spaces to a full length. Other research methods are needed as well to understand the motivations of students to use certain types of space.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to explore the spatial implications of new learning theories and the use of information and communication technologies (ICT) in higher education.\nDesign/methodology/approach: Based on a review of the literature, a theoretical framework has been developed that visualises the spatial implications of developments in higher education. To further explore spatial configurations that support changes in education, a comparative floor plan analysis was carried out at four Dutch institutes of higher education.\nFindings: The findings show that the traditional classroom space is progressively being replaced by a variety of learning settings to support contemporary learning activities.\nPractical implications: The research findings contribute to a better understanding of the alignment of learning space to the evolving needs that come from new ways of learning, supported by advanced ICT, and can be used to support space planning in higher education.\nOriginality/value: This paper builds upon findings from different disciplines: Facilities Management and Corporate Real Estate Management (suitability of floor plans) and Theory of Education (the pedagogical approaches and pedagogical assumptions those floor plans convey).\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
The team absorptive capacity triad: a configurational study of individual, enabling, and motivating factors
|
[
"Knowledge integration",
"Micro-foundations",
"Qualitative comparative analysis",
"Configurational approach",
"Individual absorptive capacity",
"Knowledge-intensive teams"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Knowledge-intensive teams are key to innovations and competitive advantage (Grant, 1996b; Taylor and Greve, 2006). Although in principle all teams use knowledge to some extent, knowledge-intensive teams are characterized by highly qualified individuals who use creativity, ideas and concepts to solve complex tasks (Alvesson, 2004; Chung and Jackson, 2013; Perry-Smith and Shalley, 2003; Starbuck, 1992). Typical examples of knowledge-intensive teams are research teams, product development teams and strategic planning teams (Alvesson, 2004; Chung and Jackson, 2013).\nTheoretical background: Team absorptive capacity and its micro-foundations\nHypotheses: Individual characteristics of team absorptive capacity\nMethod: Research setting and design\nResults: H1, H2 and H3: fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analysis results\nDiscussion: This study sought to inform managers and scholars about how knowledge-intensive teams can improve their ACAP to be more innovative and sustain competitive advantage. We took a configurational approach to examine the interrelationships of the micro-foundational factors of team ACAP. We found that high individual team members' ACAP is a necessary condition for high team ACAP. Furthermore, the results show multiple paths of combinations with social integration mechanisms to team ACAP and its underlying dimensions of recognition, assimilation, transformation and exploitation. This implies equifinality in solutions, which confirms Eisenhardt and Martin's (2000) argument that similar dynamic capabilities can be developed from different starting points. Yet, they also argue that there are some commonalities across these different paths that characterize capabilities. In our study, we suggest that these commonalities are found in the combinations of enabling and motivating integration mechanisms, which are sufficient conditions for high team ACAP. Our study also empirically shows that knowledge-intensive teams have higher team ACAP levels compared to less knowledge-intensive teams. Taken together, these findings suggest that knowledge-intensive teams can increase their ACAP by a triad of factors. Team ACAP depends on high individual ACAP complemented by knowledge integration enabling mechanisms as well as motivating mechanisms.\nLimitations and future research: Our study results should be considered in relation to its limitations. We chose to study functional teams, as this enabled us to distinguish knowledge-intensive teams from more routine-oriented ones, which was appropriate to this study. However, knowledge-intensive firms often use cross-functional or project teams. As the characteristics of cross-functional or project teams differ from those of functional teams (Holland et al., 2000), future research is needed to explore the triad of team ACAP in more heterogeneous teams.\nConclusion: Managers who seek to improve knowledge-intensive teams' performance are advised to take a holistic approach and to consider the triad of team ACAP: team members' individual ACAP, mechanisms that enable knowledge integration and mechanisms that motivate knowledge integration. Furthermore, this study shows how a configurational approach deepens understandings of the micro-foundations of team ACAP.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The paper aims to understand how knowledge-intensive teams can develop and enhance their team absorptive capacity (ACAP) level, by exploring whether individual and organizational factors are complements or substitutes for team ACAP.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The study applies a configurational approach using fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analysis to identify combinations of individual and team factors that are associated with team ACAP. Data were gathered through a survey among 297 employees of four medium-sized Dutch firms, working in 48 functional teams.\nFindings: The primary finding is that knowledge-intensive team ACAP depends on a triad of complementary factors: team members' individual ACAP, factors that enable knowledge integration and factors that motivate knowledge integration. Underdevelopment of one or more factors leads to lower team ACAP.\nResearch limitations/implications: The study contributes to the discussion on the locus of knowledge-creation and enhances understandings of why knowledge-intensive teams differ in knowledge processing capabilities. It suggests future research on cross-functional teams in new ventures and large firms.\nPractical implications: The paper informs managers and team leaders about the factors that determine knowledge-intensive teams' ACAP, enabling them to develop team-specific strategies to increase their teams' performance.\nOriginality/value: The study takes a holistic perspective on knowledge-intensive team ACAP by using a configurational approach. It also highlights the potential of team-level research in the knowledge management literature for both researchers and practitioners.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
The role of crisis typology and cultural belongingness in shaping consumers' negative responses towards a faulty brand
|
[
"Culture",
"Negative emotions",
"Brand crisis",
"Negative response towards the brand"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: From Toshiba in Japan (Farrell, 2015) to Nike and Abercrombie & Fitch in the USA, several highly reputable organisations have suffered from negative events that demonstrate a lack of due concern for the environment or society, which can be interpreted as a sign of corporate social irresponsibility (CSI). One example is the 2015 Volkswagen \"dieselgate\" scandal: one of the world's largest vehicle manufacturers admitted to programming approximately 11 million of its vehicles to detect when they were being tested and to alter the performance of their diesel engines to conceal the true record of polluting emissions. Recent crises involving brands such as Volkswagen in Europe and Firestone and Coca-Cola in the USA have created consumer and media awareness as well as sensitivity to such crises. Throughout such situations, companies face consumer negativity towards their brands and products as an inevitable consequence of their misconduct. Scholars suggest that CSI and perceived wrongdoings by companies induce negative responses in consumers' behaviour and attitude in a wide range of contexts (Klein et al., 2004; Micheletti, 2003; Sen et al., 2001). Understanding consumers' negative responses towards brands during a negative event or crisis can help companies to respond effectively. The seriousness and frequency of brand crisis contrast with the relatively fragmented research in this area.\n2. Brand crisis typology: behavioural and affective response: Brand crises and CSI scandals are unexpected events that threaten a brand or product's perceived ability to deliver expected benefits, thereby weakening brand equity (Ahluwalia et al., 2000; Dawar and Pillutla, 2000; Dawar and Lei, 2009; Roehm and Tybout, 2006). Akin to corporate scandals, a product-harm crisis is usually a form of corporate crisis that creates an unexpected threat to a firm's stability and performance (Seeger et al., 1998). Certainly, if a sudden, unforeseen negative event takes place, financial, relational or reputational damages may quickly destroy a firm's accumulated intangible assets, such as brand equity, brand image and reputation (Ahluwalia et al., 2000; Dawar and Pillutla, 2000; Dawar and Lei, 2009; Pullig et al., 2006; Roehm and Tybout, 2006). Corporate crises often result in negative publicity, threatening brand equity and affecting consumer attitudes and future purchases (Griffin et al., 1991). An extensive literature base focuses on how consumers deal with negative information concerning a brand or company during a reputational crisis (Ahluwalia et al., 2000; Griffin et al., 1991) and how consumers are influenced by blame attributions (Weiner, 2000; Dutta and Pullig, 2011; Klein and Dawar, 2004). Moreover, existing evidence suggests that the perceived severity of a crisis, as well as any blame attribution inferred, influences consumers' reactions (Bradfield and Aquino, 1999; Gregoire et al., 2010). The existing literature supports the assumption that perceived severity should influence the appraisal of CSI (Lange and Washburn, 2012), and scholars have observed that higher harm severity is related to stronger emotional reactions and subsequent motivation to retaliate against the firm (Bradfield and Aquino, 1999; Gregoire et al., 2010). After a negative event results in the harm of a third party, individuals experience intense negative emotions (Kim and Cameron, 2011; Vassilikopoulou, et al., 2011), and anger has been recognised as an important emotion associated with brand or product crisis events. According to the literature, attribution of blame positively affects consumers' feelings of anger during brand misconduct (Jorgensen, 1994; Coombs and Holladay, 2005; Coombs, 2010).\n3. Methodology: 3.1 Materials\n4. Results: Manipulation checks: Participants rated the performance-related nature of the crisis (Mchild labour = 2.52 vs Mtoxic dye = 6.01; t (1, 228) = 9.76; p < 0.05) and values-related nature of the crisis (Mchild labour = 5.89 vs Mtoxic dye = 4.20; t (1, 228) = 11.36; p < 0.05) in line with the expectations, which were also consistent with the pre-test results. No significant differences have been found between the collectivistic (Filipino) and individualistic (Italian) samples. Also, the perceived severity was not different for the two crises (Mchild labour = 5.41 vs Mtoxic dye = 5.14; t (1, 228) = 0.75; p = ns.). Moreover, Filipino consumers perceived the child labour scandal to be as severe as the toxic dye allegation (Mchild labour = 5.34 vs Mtoxic dye = 5.21; t (1, 112) = 0.62; p = ns.) in line with the perception of the Italian consumers (Mchild labour = 5.32 vs Mtoxic dye = 5.42; t (1, 113) = 0.55; p = ns.). Finally, the blame attribution to the brand was also not significantly different for the two crises (Mchild labour = 5.25 vs Mtoxic dye = 5.31; t (1, 228) = 0.86; p = ns.) or significantly different between the two samples (MFilipino = 6.05 vs MItalian = 5.91; t (1, 228) = 0.56; p = ns.).\n5. Discussion: This study aims to provide a deeper representation of consumer response to corporate irresponsibility, and a wider comprehension of this phenomenon within a cross-cultural framework. From a theoretical perspective, our findings corroborate previous research focused on emotional (Kim and Cameron, 2011; Vassilikopoulou et al., 2011) and behavioural (Jeon and Baeck, 2016; Roehm and Brady, 2007; Klein and Dawar, 2004; Grappi et al., 2013) reactions to brand scandals.\n6. Managerial implications and further research: These findings also have interesting implications for the business community, as negative consumer reactions can be extremely harmful to companies and are difficult to recover from (Coombs, 2010). Globalisation and social network development favour great visibility of brand crisis in terms of speed, reach, and progression; as such, the need to develop effective global strategies for brand crisis remains urgent. The \"cultural lens\", even if it is not an element under the control of companies, is an increasingly relevant variable that should be taken into consideration by brands. As brand crises spread faster all over the world due to globalisation, digital communication and consumers' increasing concern, cross-cultural insights might provide useful suggestions for companies. The present study recommends that companies carefully plan the timing and boundaries of their communications in cases of scandals. First, it is recommended that they promptly reply to negative events throughout the geographical boundaries of a crisis, as the reach of the effects may spread beyond the area involved. For example, collectivistic people may be sensitive to unethical practices all over the world, as in-group harmony might decline for all human beings. Companies tend to focus their recovery activities on their headquarters country or main destination markets without considering that a values-related crisis might become a global matter.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: Previous research on brand crisis has introduced the difference between a values-related crisis and a performance-related crisis. However, little remains known regarding consumers' varying negative responses towards these two different types of brand misconduct. This paper aims to investigate and compare consumers' affective and behavioural negative reactions (i.e. negative word of mouth and purchase intention) towards a faulty brand during a values-related crisis and a performance-related crisis by testing the mediation of negative emotions and introducing the moderating role of cultural belongingness (collectivistic vs individualistic).\nDesign/methodology/approach: The authors tested a model of moderated mediation in a cross-cultural investigation on a sample of 229 Italian and Asian consumers. The study is a 2 (cultures: collectivistic vs individualistic) x 2 (crisis: performance-related vs values-related) between-subjects experimental design. The moderated mediation model shows that consumers' negative reactions (negative word of mouth and negative purchase intention) towards a faulty brand involved in different crisis typologies is explained by the mediating role of negative emotions, and that this mediation depends on a consumer's cultural belongingness.\nFindings: The results suggest that consumers belonging to a collectivistic culture (e.g. Asian culture) tend to react in a more severe and strict manner when faced with a values-related brand crisis event then when faced with a performance-related crisis. The arousal of negative emotion towards a brand represents the mediating variable in behavioural responses (i.e. negative word of mouth and purchase intention).\nOriginality/value: The present study extends current knowledge in the field of consumers' negative response to brand irresponsibility behaviours while introducing the role of crisis typology and cultural belongingness. In particular, individualistic people are more sensitive to a values-related crisis in comparison with a performance-related one. The findings of this study have strong managerial implications for defining effective response strategies to negative events involving brands in different markets.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Logistics flexibility: a systematic review
|
[
"Performance",
"Systematic literature review",
"Postponement",
"Uncertainty",
"Logistics flexibility"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: Propagating volatility, turbulence, and uncertainty throughout supply chains lead to inefficient processing and non-value adding activities (Gosling et al., 2012). In a dynamic market environment, customers demand more variety, better quality, and service, including reliability and faster delivery (Duclos et al., 2003). Therefore, supply chains need to improve their dynamic capabilities to achieve new forms of competitive advantage by renewing competences to achieve congruence with changing business environments (Chiang et al., 2012; Teece and Pisano, 1994; Teece, 2007).\n2. Logistics flexibility: Logistics flexibility seems to have been a missing link in the flexibility literature. It has either been prone to a variety of vaguely defined terminology used interchangeably or confused with supply chain flexibility. Therefore, its sub-components of have lost their fit within the framework of logistics flexibility. A reason might be the different perceptions and conceptions of logistics and SCM among scholars from different backgrounds (see Halldorsson et al., 2008). Therefore, it is noteworthy to precisely define the boundaries of logistics and how it fits within SCM.\n3. Method: In order to synthesize the literature on logistics flexibility a systematic approach to reviewing the literature has been taken that is generally considered as \"a specific methodology that locates existing studies, selects and evaluates contributions, analyses and synthesizes data, and reports the evidence in such a way that allows reasonably clear conclusions to be reached about what is and is not known\" (Denyer and Tranfield, 2009). Mulrow (1994) contends that by applying systematic literature review, researchers can \"identify, justify, and refine hypotheses; recognize and avoid pitfalls of previous work; estimate sample sizes; and delineate important ancillary or adverse effects and covariates that warrant consideration in future studies.\"\n4. Findings: In the first step of the data synthesis, a timeline analysis was carried out to identify the temporal characteristics of the publications. The first relevant recorded article in the databases has been that of Germain (1989); surprisingly, no relevant article was found since that article until 1998. The highest record of papers has been in 2012 with a total of 16 articles. The results of the timeline of the articles since 1998 are provided in Figure 3. The graph clearly shows a general ascending trend in the total number of articles published per year. The initial contention of a growing interest among the researchers in the field is thus substantiated.\n5. Concluding remarks: This paper presented a much timely review on logistics flexibility. It used a systematic method for literature review employing clearly described steps, which could be used as a tool for similar literature reviews or as a pedagogical tool. The results show that there is a wide array of definitions used in the existing literature to refer to what can be framed as \"logistics flexibility.\" Also, as the reach of flexibility has spanned to various industrial settings over the years, the definitions have also widened. Depending on the level of analysis, various definitions have been presented in the literature. This study lists some of the definitions at the firm, dyad, and supply chain/network levels. Although much of the theory on flexibility pertains to manufacturing settings, this review shows that other industries are being studied regarding to logistics flexibility at various levels. The existing empirical studies employ different methodological tools and study designs; however, still quantitative studies using surveys followed by qualitative case studies are the most common ones. Some of the common measures used mainly in quantitative studies are discussed in Section 4.4 using the framework presented in Figure 1.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: There is a lack of consensus in conceptualizing and defining logistics flexibility as a distinct construct among supply chain scholars. The purpose of this paper is to systematically analyze the existing literature on logistics flexibility.\nDesign/methodology/approach: By taking a systematic approach to literature review, a total of 100 academic articles were content analyzed. As a general framework, the classification broadly provided by Zhang et al. (2002, 2003, 2005, 2006) was applied in order to increase the consistency and validity of the review.\nFindings: The results show that logistics flexibility has gained an increasing academic attention in the past two decades in terms of the number of published articles. First, the various terminologies often used in relation to logistics flexibility are explored. Second, the definitions of logistics flexibility at various levels of analysis are presented along with methodological considerations of the current literature. It is shown that most of the existing articles claim to study the matter at the chain level. The main methodological tools used in studying logistics flexibility are revealed as well as the fact that the majority of the empirical studies correspond to the manufacturing industry. Moreover, a synthesis of the principal measures used to gauge logistics flexibility is provided. Finally, current and emerging themes in logistics flexibility research are highlighted. The study also underlines the main measures used in studying logistics flexibility.\nResearch limitations/implications: This paper only focusses on academic articles published in journals and does not include other contributions such as books, etc. The systematic literature review facilitates further conceptual and empirical studies; however, more narrative literature reviews could complement the results of this study.\nOriginality/value: This paper is unique in the sense that it specifically reviews the literature on logistics flexibility in a systematic fashion. The content analysis has been carried out using NVivo 10 enabling the systematic nature of the review as well as increasing the pedagogical value of the method.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
A cross-level study of procedural justice perceptions
|
[
"Procedural justice",
"Interactional justice",
"Power distance",
"Management power",
"China",
"Organizational structures"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n__NO_TITLE__: Past justice studies have shown that procedural justice perceived by employees associates with a wide range of positive attitudes and behaviors within the organization (e.g. Moorman et al., 1998; Organ and Moorman, 1993). The social exchange explanation indicates that employees demonstrate positive behaviors in return for fair treatment from the organization (Organ and Moorman, 1993). In the workplace, employees perceive the extent of justice in large part through their direct supervisors (Hon and Lu, 2010; Yang and Mossholder, 2010). Social exchange and learning between supervisors and subordinates suggests an association of justice perceptions between the parties. We address the interesting question of whether and under what boundary conditions that supervisor-perceived procedural justice (thereafter supervisor-PJ) is related to subordinate-perceived procedural justice (thereafter subordinate-PJ).\nTheory development and hypotheses: The trickle-down approach of procedural justice\nMethod: Sample and procedure\nDiscussion: The study results provided empirical evidence to the observation that fairness perceptions at a higher organizational level can be related to that at a lower organizational level (Masterson, 2001; Tepper and Taylor, 2003). We based our argument on the cognitive social learning theory (James et al., 1978, 1990). We find empirical evidence for the positive relationship between the procedural justice perceived by the supervisor and the procedural justice perceived by the subordinates. Furthermore, we examined the moderating role of subordinates' perceptions of interactional justice and their power distance value. Specifically, our results show that high interactional justice perceived by the subordinate and the high level of power-distance value held by the subordinate make stronger the direct relationship between supervisor-perceived procedural justice and subordinate-perceived procedural justice. We contribute to the literature by demonstrating that the cross-level relationship of procedural justice perceptions is most salient when the subordinates perceive a high-level interactional justice and/or when they hold a high power-distance value in the Chinese context. Theoretical and practical implications of these findings are discussed below.Implications\nConclusions: The results of the present study suggest the usefulness of a cross-level approach in studying the antecedents to employees' justice perceptions. The relatively large sample size (n=509) across various industries provides strong empirical evidence for the application of the cognitive social learning theory and the cross-level justice relationship in a social exchange context. Specifically, employees' perceptions of procedural justice were found to be associated with supervisors' perceptions of procedural justice. Furthermore, we found that perceptions of interactional justice and power distance values are important conditional variables that have a bearing on the relationship between the supervisor's and the subordinate's procedural justice perceptions. The cross-level relationship was most salient when employees perceive high-level interactional justice or when employees endorse high power-distance values.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: - The purpose of this paper is to examine the relationship between supervisor-perceived procedural justice and subordinate-perceived procedural justice. The moderating roles of the subordinate-perceived interactional justice and power-distance value are also to be examined.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - Survey data were obtained from 509 supervisor-subordinate dyads in mainland China. Hierarchical linear modeling was used to test the research hypotheses.\nFindings: - Results revealed that: supervisor-perceived procedural justice is positively related to subordinate-perceived procedural justice; the direct relationship is stronger when the subordinate perceives higher rather than lower interactional justice from the supervisor; and the direct relationship is stronger when the subordinate holds a higher rather than lower power-distance value.\nResearch limitations/implications: - The data collected in the present study reside at two hierarchical levels, namely, the employee level and the supervisor level, and the sample size is relatively large. The results are thus less likely subject to common method bias. However, future longitudinal research will be helpful to lend stronger support for the hypothesized causal relationships.\nOriginality/value: - The paper uses cognitive social learning theory in a social exchange context to explain the cross-level relationship of procedural justice perceptions in organizations, and to identify its boundary conditions. Results support that fairness perceptions at a higher organizational level can be related to lower-level perceptions along the organizational hierarchy.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Presbyter takes Knight
|
[
"Risk analysis",
"Uncertainty management",
"Bayesian statistical decision theory"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n__NO_TITLE__: In his influential 1921 treatise, Risk, Uncertainty, and Profit, American economist Frank H. Knight (1885-1972) distinguished between the concepts of risk and uncertainty as follows (Knight, 1921):[...] Uncertainty must be taken in a sense radically distinct from the familiar notion of Risk, from which it has never been properly separated. The term \"risk,\" as loosely used in everyday speech and in economic discussion, really covers two things which, functionally at least, in their causal relations to the phenomena of economic organization, are categorically different [...] The essential fact is that \"risk\" means in some cases a quantity susceptible of measurement, while at other times it is something distinctly not of this character; and there are far-reaching and crucial differences in the bearings of the phenomenon depending on which of the two is really present and operating [...] It will appear that a measurable uncertainty, or \"risk\" proper, as we shall use the term, is so far different from an unmeasurable one that it is not in effect an uncertainty at all. We shall accordingly restrict the term \"uncertainty\" to cases of the non-quantitative type.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: - The purpose of this editorial is to explore the usefulness of distinguishing between \"risk\" and \"Knightian uncertainty.\"\nDesign/methodology/approach: - The paper presents a representative, insurance-based model of Knightian uncertainty arising out of potential major structural changes (without historical precedent) in liability claim settlements. It then considers whether or not formal statistical forecasting and decision making are possible in this context.\nFindings: - For real-world settings, it is found that a Bayesian statistical framework is sufficiently comprehensive to permit forecasting and decision making in the presence of Knightian uncertainty. The paper then shows that the Bayesian approach fails only if the sample space underlying the potential structural change is truly nonmeasurable.\nOriginality/value: - It is argued that, under a Bayesian worldview, the distinction between risk and uncertainty is necessary only in highly abstract epistemological modeling.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Transmission of family businesses in France
|
[
"Family firms",
"Small to medium‐sized enterprises",
"Entrepreneurs",
"Entrepreneurialism",
"France"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n__NO_TITLE__: Family businesses occupy an increasing part of economic activity (Fletcher, 2002; Griffeth et al., 2006), and they account for a high percentage of the employment, revenues and GDP of most western countries (Shepherd and Zacharakis, 2000; Fletcher, 2002). For these reasons in particular, both researchers and practitioners have taken a greater interest in them. Yet despite a considerable amount of research on these companies, the survival rates of family businesses are alarmingly low (Poutziouris, 2000; Wang et al., 2000, 2004; Ibrahim et al., 2001). Studies have shown that only 30 percent of these businesses survive the first generation of change and many fail after the second generation (Davis and Harveston, 1998; Handler, 1990, 1992).\n1. Theoretical background: 1.1 The specific characteristics of the family business\n2. Research methods: 2.1 Interpretative phenomenological research\n3. Results: The thematic analysis highlighted five main motives for the cultural and psychological resistance of the former directors: the loss of power and influence, the risk of deconstruction, the loss of professional and social legitimacy, the loss of references and meaning, and the refusal of old age and death.3.1 The loss of power and influence\n4. Discussion and conclusion: Our results show that transmitters search for connections, shared points of anchor, and affinities with successors in the hope of finding elements of continuity or extension of their personalities (Catry and Buff, 1996; Duchenaut, 1996; Guidici and Coulaud, 2008). We particularly note the importance given to cultural proximity (experience, both professional and personal, and training) and previous professional relationships (whether or not the transferor and successor know each other). These criteria are interpersonal and thus deeply imprinted on the transferor's most intimate desires and motivations, including the main desire, which is to remain a powerful presence within his company and thus ensure the permanence of his values in the organization. Our results are in line with the works of Harvey (1999): the director of a family business wants to prolong his relationship with the company, given the role it has played in the family system context.Takeovers are an essential period in the life of a company, as well as in the lives of the transferor and his successor. A good understanding of the psychological context in which they occur and the underlying behavioral logic is thus important to evaluate the risks associated with a transfer, beyond the economic and legal aspects. This analysis of former directors' reactions to the prospect of seeing their companies in the hands of someone else offers future purchasers greater insight into the process and perhaps equips them to manage it more successfully. Misunderstandings and resistances need to be carefully dealt with, as negative effects may endure long after the completion of the transfer. This aspect is even more delicate and strategic as the director's ambivalence during the \"cohabitation\" period does not always make it possible to evaluate the risks involved for the company and the successor.Generally speaking, the interviews revealed that the successor's experience and legitimacy were important factors to reduce the ambivalence noted in the former directors. During a takeover, the transferor finds himself in a delicate situation. His role is to \"entrust\" someone with what has been for many years his most precious possession and the thing of which he is the proudest. This pride needs to be preserved during the takeover and the successor must, in the eyes of the transferor, show himself to be \"worthy\" of the company. The transferor thus analyzes the successor in the same way he would analyze a candidate for a managerial post. Whether or not he is a working director, he feels attached to this status and cannot prevent himself from acting and reacting as such (cognitive reflex linked to his representation of his environment). This is even more difficult for him if the boundary between his professional life and his personal life was never clear. Finally, as the link between the departing director and the company is strong, the transferor feels that he alone is capable of judging the man who will replace him and who will thus be capable of exemplifying the specific characteristics of his company.For the departing director, this attitude seems perfectly legitimate and there is no question of abuse or influence. Who else could find his successor, if not he who created the company and succeeded in developing and managing it for so many years? This leads logically to the desire to reproduce the same thought patterns, to favor the same profile, as a mean of ensuring continuity, which is, after all, a factor for success. Thus, the error the departing director may make is to search for someone who conforms to his expectations and hopes, and not someone capable of bringing something new to the company. The link between the profile of the successor and that of the company can thus be neglected in favor of a search for proximity between the departing and the new director.The successor cannot ignore this risk. Although he must remain true to himself and above all satisfy the needs of his new company, he must also try to show that, despite differences, certain elements of a symbolic or structural nature will be preserved in terms of corporate culture, management style and certain management criteria. Many successions fail, generally because the managerial process has been insufficiently prepared. One way of reducing this risk is to gain the departing director's approval by engaging a legitimation process that demonstrates proximity in the management and development of his company. Most departing directors are able to come to terms with the idea of transferring their company. Similarly, they can ultimately admit the differences between themselves and their successors and even, in certain cases, want some differences to be there. On the other hand, their keen sensitivity to proximity, as defined by the way successors perceive their profession (vision) and intend to develop the company (mission), expresses their fear that the transfer is synonymous with a loss of identity or with personal or professional doubts. For this reason, successors should avoid radical changes and instead build bridges between the present and future while avoiding clashes with the founder's beliefs and values. Such an attitude is not simply a sign of respect; it is a solid guarantee that the company is optimally positioned to evolve in a context of harmony and shared vision.The contribution of this paper is to propose a psychological approach to understanding the transmitter during the transfer of his family-run business. This work allows us to identify and understand some of the barriers to the transmission of family businesses. We identified five cultural and psychological factors that explain the resistance on the part of the former director: first, the loss of power and influence, second, the risk of deconstruction, third, the loss of professional and social legitimacy, fourth, the loss of reference points and meaning and finally, the refusal of old age and death. The difficulties in transferring a family business are not due only to unclear transmission plans, weakly prepared or incompetent successors, and family rivalries (Handler, 1990, 1992, 1994): they are also related to cultural and psychological barriers. The advantage of adopting a psychological approach to analyze the transmission of family firms is that the irrational aspects of the process are taken into account. The success of transmission depends in great part on the transmitter's reactions and behaviors, many of which may be hard to control.Although this study provides a response to our research question (why do transmitters erect resistances and barriers to the actual transfer of their enterprises?) by presenting new data on the cultural and psychological barriers of the transmitter, some questions remain unanswered and further research is needed. This study should be replicated on a larger scale, particularly regarding intergenerational transfer, in order to compare the results and provide greater external validity for our findings. In addition, a larger database would permit us to identify new variables and study their impact on the transmission process. Last, we suspect that the psychological notions we have used remain underexplored in the context of enterprise transmission. This field seems particularly rich for future research.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: - The purpose of this research paper is to show to what extent psychological, cultural and behavioural factors can influence on the succession process in the particular case of family-run businesses?\nDesign/methodology/approach: - Data on 12 directors of family-run SME were grouped together on the basis of questions derived from the research question. To do this, the authors operated using a principle guided by cross referencing responses, that is, finding the incidence of elements that make it possible to justify substantively the existence of the category and the common existence of these elements within the cases studied.\nFindings: - The thematic analysis performed made it possible to highlight five main motives for cultural and psychological resistance in former directors: the loss of power and influence, the risk of deconstruction, the loss of professional and social legitimacy, the loss of references and meaning, and the refusal of old age and death.\nOriginality/value: - The results show that transferors search for connections in the aim of identifying common points of anchor, affinities on to which they can project themselves as an element of continuity or an extension of their personality. The paper can in particular note the importance given to cultural proximity and to previous professional relations with the transferor. These criteria, unlike personal factors, are of the interpersonal type and thus deeply imprinted on the transferor's most intimate desires and motivations, including the main desire, which is to search for all that can make possible an extension of himself within his company and thus ensure the permanence of his values and his time at the organisation.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
ICT for logistics and freight transportation: a literature review and research agenda
|
[
"Information and communication technology",
"Freight transportation",
"Intelligent transportation systems",
"Third‐party logistics service providers"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1 Introduction: Freight transportation has progressively developed into a dominant issue facing logistics processes today. It represents a major cost item - transportation costs vary from around 25 percent (Lancioni et al., 2000) to upwards of 50 percent of overall logistics costs (Swenseth and Godfrey, 2002), depending on the source - and it is also a key factor in providing good customer service affecting delivery punctuality, timeliness, accuracy and the ability to offer tracking information.The process of freight transportation is marked by significant complexity, as it includes a variety of players (Crainic and Laporte, 1997), each with its own particular characteristics and requirements. The framework as a whole comprises structured third-party logistics service providers (3PLs), couriers and express couriers, small transportation companies, multi-modal transport operators, rail and sea carriers, as well as dispatchers and receivers - not to mention port and inter-modal terminal infrastructures. This eco-system of intertwined players requires complex information networks and managerial procedures to work as a coherent unit in the eyes of the final customer. And when it fails to do so, the consequences are higher costs and poor service performance.Over the past few years, the transportation industry has experienced increased competitiveness (Bowersox and Daugherty, 1995; Davies et al., 2007). In the first place, new international players have entered the competitive arena thanks to ever-increasing globalisation and internationalisation (Lemoine and Dagnaes, 2003). Moreover, players consider leading factors like cost compression and service level when choosing their providers. Lastly, environmental concerns (e.g. reduction of traffic congestion and improvement of safety and security requirements) have taken on renewed importance (Bander et al., 1998; Loebbecke and Powell, 1998).In this scenario, i.e. increasing complexity of logistic and transportation networks and stronger competition on costs and service performance - information and communication technology (ICT)-based applications could be seen as a primary key enabler (Bowersox and Closs, 1996; Closs et al., 1997; Bharadwaj, 2000; Spanos et al., 2002; Golob and Regan, 2002a; Giannopoulos, 2004). Following Marchet et al. (2009), the main types of ICT applications available for logistics and freight transportation companies can be classified as follows:* Transportation management (TM) applications, i.e. according to Mason et al. (2003), decision support tools in transportation planning, optimisation and execution, with typical functionalities including carrier load tendering, routing and scheduling, shipment tracking and tracing, and freight payment and auditing (Gilmore and Tompkins, 2000; Tyan et al., 2003).* Supply chain execution (SCE) applications, designed to manage and automate information exchange and real-time management during the actual execution of a distribution schedule (Giaglis et al., 2004).* Field force automation (FFA) applications, enabled by mobile technology and supporting the integration between remote workforce and corporate business processes (Rodina et al., 2003).* Fleet and freight management (FFM) applications, mostly being used both as reporting tools by logistics managers who need to know vehicle travel times, service times, delivery points visited and other parameters (e.g. load temperature), and as real-time input to dynamic vehicle management functions to efficiently manage a fleet of vehicles during the execution of distribution plans.From both the practitioner and the research community perspective, the topic of ICT to support logistics and freight transportation processes has brought about growing interest. Indeed, many contributions on this theme can be found in the extant literature, sometimes under the label \"intelligent transportation systems\" (ITS) (Wootton et al., 1995; Leviakangas and Lahesmaa, 2002; Iguchi, 2003; Panou and Bekiaris, 2004). However, there are yet a surprisingly low number of studies addressing the level of adoption and many focus on the public transportation field alone (Cohen et al., 2002; Giannopoulos, 2004). It is nonetheless interesting to note that those papers assuming a \"private\" (i.e. company) perspective have progressively increased, thereby exposing the need to call attention to ICT suitability and profitability within companies that carry out freight transportation activities. An initial attempt to summarise and create a review on the subject may prove particularly beneficial.To the best of the authors' knowledge, there is no literature review on the role of ICT in logistics and transportation taking the company perspective. Actually, on a more limited scope, we found a review of current tracking systems for multi-company networks by Karkkainen et al. (2004). From a broader (i.e. supply chain) perspective, we found a review of software applications and their functionalities and benefits in relation to supply chain management (Helo and Szekely, 2005). However, such review focussed specifically on software solutions, thus excluding other various ICT applications that are currently available for logistics and transportation activities. On a different scope, we found an invited review on ICTs in the field of transport (Giannopoulos, 2004). The above-mentioned paper offered an overview on the available ICT applications by dividing them into the following headings: operation and management of networks (all modes), information and guidance to the users (of the transport systems), and operation and management of freight transport systems. However, even though the focus was on both freight and passenger transportation, the discussion was mainly developed from a public and institutional perspective, rather than focussing specifically on the freight transportation company needs.Consistently with the above analysis, the paper aims to provide a complete review of the contributions on ICT for logistics and freight transportation taking the private perspective with two main objectives:1. classify research on this topic on the basis of the main themes and methods as a guide for practitioners and academics; and2. propose directions for future research, mainly for academics.The paper is organised as follows. The next section provides the methodology adopted within this review. The third section presents and discusses the review results, and the fourth illustrates the identified gaps, as well as highlights potential directions for future research in this field. In the final section, conclusions are drawn and research limitations are identified.\n2 Methodology: 2.1 Scope of analysis\n3 Summary of review and discussion: We report a comprehensive table (Table I), based on Natarajarathinam et al. (2009), in which we summarise the content and features of each paper. Papers are listed in chronological order, to reflect the evolution of ICT adoption issues for logistics and transportation companies over time, as well as the applications and technologies progressively available on the market and of interest to the academic community. In the following sub-sections, the examined papers are analysed in terms of both research method and key theme(s) tackled.3.1 Research methods\n4 Identified gaps and directions for future research: Although different studies have been conducted so far on ICT adoption in the freight transportation industry and several facets have been deeply investigated, a number of themes are still under-represented or missing as emerged from the reviewed literature. In order to provide some insights leading to further research, we list the main shortcomings.(i) There is no up-to-date overarching taxonomy of available ICT applications for freight transportation companies\n5 Conclusions: In this paper, we examined 44 research contributions, published between 1994 and 2009, on ICT for logistics and freight transportation. The papers have been analysed with a two-pronged approach, i.e. research method(s) adopted and paper contents.Our contribution is twofold: first, the development of a structured review that provides a guide to earlier research on the subject of ICT for logistics and freight transportation; and second, the identification of research issues for future investigation.In general, we found a number of interesting themes in literature. We specifically analysed in-depth the current ICT adoption level among companies performing transportation activities, the decision-making process of ICT adoption and motivations for adoption, the benefits achieved, the criticalities and barriers to adoption. We observed that the topic of ICT has been tackled so far by several authors, thus highlighting the rising interest that researchers have in this theme. While contributions from the \"public\" (i.e. institutional) perspective are generally older, papers focussing on the \"private\" (i.e. company) perspective are relatively more recent, and their number has progressively increased. Additionally, in recent years researchers have also started to examine the decision-making process of ICT adoption, highlighting criticalities and barriers that may emerge, as well as potential benefits coming from ICT implementation. As far as the methodology is concerned, our review revealed that many of the examined articles are empirical studies (i.e. mostly based on surveys, or else on case studies or interviews), and also a number of conceptual papers have been analysed. We found very few contributions based on simulation and mathematical modelling.This review has revealed that several important areas are under-represented. In general, what has emerged is the substantial lack of an up-to-date taxonomy that classifies the available ICT applications and functionalities for companies performing freight transportation activities. Moreover, the subject of integration among different application types is not adequately addressed. Similarly, empirical research has yet to consider some types of players in the logistics and freight transportation arena, especially multi-modal operators, and to analyse the crucial role of technology providers in the adoption process. Finally, from the point of view of the research methods, the under-representation of certain research methodologies, i.e. mathematical modelling and simulation, suggests opportunities in future research.This study has one major limitation which has to be considered. Indeed, while efforts were made to be all-inclusive, as Boone et al. (2007) recognised in their review of postponement, relevant research efforts may have been inadvertently omitted. However, we believe that this review is an accurate representation of the body of research on ICT for logistics and transportation companies published during the specified timeframe, and therefore we feel that confidence may be placed on the resulting assessments.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: - The purpose of this paper is to classify research on information and communication technology (ICT) for logistics and freight transportation on the basis of the main themes and methods and proposes directions for future research.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - The review is based on 44 papers published from 1994 to 2009 in international peer-reviewed journals. The academic papers are analysed and classified according to the research methodology adopted and the themes addressed.\nFindings: - While there are many contributions taking the \"public transportation\" perspective (i.e. the viewpoint of public stakeholders), papers focussing on the \"private transportation\" perspective (i.e. the viewpoint of the private companies offering logistics and transportation services) are fewer and relatively more recent. Additionally, even though in recent years researchers have also started to examine the decision-making process of ICT adoption, many themes are under-represented in literature, such as the subject of integration among different application types, empirical research on ICT adoption and the role of technology providers in the adoption process. As far as the methodology is concerned, the review revealed that many of the papers examined are either conceptual papers or empirical studies (i.e. mostly based on surveys, or else on case studies or interviews), while simulation and modelling are rarely present.\nResearch limitations/implications: - While efforts were made to be all-inclusive, significant research efforts may have been inadvertently omitted. However, the authors believe that this review is an accurate representation of the body of research on ICT for logistics and transportation companies published during the specified timeframe, and feel that confidence may be placed on the resulting assessments.\nOriginality/value: - The paper offers a guide for the review of previous research on this topic and identifies the most important issues that need to be addressed in future research.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
Organizational commitment among high school teachers of India and Iran
|
[
"Job satisfaction",
"Teachers",
"India",
"Iran"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: A sound educational system is considered to be the backbone of a developing country and the teacher is the pivot around which the entire educational system revolves. The success of any educational system depends on the quality and capability of teachers who are indispensable to the system and, thus, an important force in the development of a society.\nTheoretical framework: Organizational commitment is critical to retain and attract well-qualified personnel. In recent years, organizational commitment in schools has become a major pre-occupation throughout many countries. This has led to a considerable increase in the number of public policies and programs aimed at addressing the problem as well as many empirical studies of such.In addition to being a theoretical focus for most conceptions of transformational leadership, teacher commitment has been identified as a key aspect of a school's capacity for reform and renewal through insights hard wrung from research and experience with innovation failure dating back to the 1960s (Geijsel et al., 2003). Research approaches to commitment tend to focus on commitment to the organization but people may have multiple commitments. Employee commitment to the workplace may not be adequately explained by organizational commitment alone in view of the coalitional nature of organizations (Park et al., 2005).Over the past four decades, organizational commitment has become a much-researched subject. The early conceptualizations of the construct were one-dimensional with commitment defined as a consistent line of activity due to a recognition of costs associated with quitting (Becker, 1960) or, more popularly, as an emotional attachment to the organization (Mowday et al., 1979). Mowday proposed that commitment includes at least three factors:1. A strong belief in and acceptance of the organization's goals and values.2. A willingness to exert considerable effort on behalf of the organization.3. A strong desire to maintain membership in the organization. Committed people are more likely to remain with the organization and work toward its goals (Mowday et al., 1982).Organizational commitment is of considerable interest to psychologists because there is strong evidence of links between high levels of commitment and favorable organizational outcomes. It is a form of psychological contract, which employees make in response to the benefits provided by the organization (Angle and Perry, 1983). Employees are regarded as committed to an organization if they willingly continue their association with the organization and devote considerable effort to achieving its goals (Raju and Srivastava, 1994). Yu et al. (2002) have shown that transformational leadership was significantly related to teachers' commitment components.Over the years, the increasing interest in the area added to the lack of consensus on the definition of organizational commitment. While inhibiting a meaningful accumulation of research, this state of affairs underlined the multidimensional nature of commitment. Indeed, although several alternative models of commitment were proposed in the 1980s and early 1990s, multidimensionality was common to all (Meyer and Allen, 1991; O'Reilly and Chatman, 1986). Of these multidimensional conceptualizations the model by Meyer and Allen (1997) has gained substantial popularity. They proposed a three-component model of organizational commitment:1. Affective commitment that involves the employee's emotional attachment to, identification with and involvement in the organization.2. Continuance commitment that is based on the costs that the employee associates with leaving the organization or on a perceived lack of alternative employment opportunities.3. Normative commitment that involves the employee's feelings of obligation to stay with the organization.Affective commitment\nMethod: Objectives\nResults: Table II presents mean scores on various sub-scales of organizational commitment as registered by teachers in various age groups in Bangalore and Sanandaj together with the results of MANOVA. Table III shows mean scores on various sub-scales of organizational commitment registered by teachers with arts and science backgrounds in Bangalore and Sanandaj with the results of MANOVA.Main effects\nHypotheses: Null H1 was rejected in part. With regard to the three individual components of organizational commitment, significant differences were detected between Indian and Iranian teachers. However, no significant differences were identified between the total organizational commitment scores.Null H2 and H3 were accepted as there were no differences between teachers according to age groups and subject background.\nDiscussion: The main findings of the present study are:* Indian and Iranian teachers did not differ in their total organizational commitment.* Indian teachers displayed better organizational commitment in the affective and normative components.* Iranian teachers displayed better organizational commitment in the continuance component.* Age and subject taught (arts and science) were not related to organizational commitment in total or its components.* In the normative component as Indian teachers increased in age mean values also increased linearly, whereas the reverse occurred with Iranian teachers.To conclude, educational organizations such as schools, colleges and universities should have individuals who are committed to their organization, profession and well-being of their students. The vitality of all educational organizations lies in the willingness of teachers to contribute to the development of their organizations. Teachers strong in organizational commitment find it easy to be interested in whatever they are doing and can involve themselves wholeheartedly. In the process, there will be all round development of the institution, teachers and students, if teachers working in schools seriously consider commitment factors.A prominent outcome of the study was that Iranian teachers had lower scores in the affective and normative components and higher scores in the continuance component. The differences in salaries and their inferior facilities may provide some of the reasons for such. Another is the lack of appropriate positions for those who have Bachelor degrees in some subjects such as social science, literature, mathematics, and physics. In India, job security is high. If teachers in Iran leave their job it becomes very difficult for them to be hired by another employer. For many Iranians taking up teaching occurs only when they cannot find other positions. In India, once teachers take up a position they seldom contemplate alternative employment. Most of them retire from their teaching jobs.The literature reveals that most research shows there is a positive relationship between age, experience and organizational commitment. Mathieu and Zajac (1990), for example, have shown that commitment has been positively related to personal characteristics such as age. Meyer and Allen (1991) concluded that those who are older have a strong affective commitment towards their organizations because of the fact that they are more mature and have longer experience in them. Rivera (1994) indicated that personal demographics play a role in organizational commitment. Salancik (1977) indicated that age and length of service appear to have positive relationships with organizational commitment. Park et al. (2005) found that teachers with eight or more years of service at their current school showed higher levels of team commitment and coordination.Nevertheless, some research has been unable to show a significant link between age and organizational commitment. For example, Hawkins (1998) in a study of the affective commitment levels of 396 high school principals found a non-significant correlation (r=-0.004) between age and affective commitment. Colbert and Kwon (2000) in a study of 497 college and university internal auditors failed to show any reliable relationship between age and organizational commitment. Overall, age seems to have an inconsistent moderate correlation with affective commitment.The result reported herein suggest that Indian high school teachers tend to be more committed to their organization when compared with their Iranian counterparts. This suggests that, at the very least, Iranian authorities might examine the Indian administration policy concerning teachers' welfare with a view to duplicating its essential characteristics.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: - This paper aims to investigate the organizational commitment of teachers in India and Iran. It is an attempt to understand how these perceptions vary by demographic variables such as age and subject taught by teachers.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - Data were collected from 721 high school teachers in Bangalore (India) and Sanandaj (Iran). They were asked to responsed to the Meyer and Allen questionnaire. Data were analyzed via SPSS version 11.0.\nFindings: - Results revealed that Indian teachers had better organizational commitment in the affective and normative components and Iranian teachers were found to have better organizational commitment in the continuance component. In both countries age groups and subject taught by teachers did not have any influence over their organizational commitment.\nResearch limitations/implications: - This research was limited by the relatively restricted sample of high school teachers in both countries. Future research should test initially confirmed associations in different school contexts with substantially dissimilar teacher demographics, and include consideration of dispositional antecedents that may affect teacher perceptions.\nOriginality/value: - This is the only study comparing Indian and Iranian organizational commitment in schools. The study provides an initial understanding of the possible effect of cultures on the organizational commitment of teachers in two different countries.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
Towards successful adoption of Halal logistics and its implications for the stakeholders
|
[
"Halal branding",
"Interpretive structural modelling (ISM), Shariah",
"Toiyyab",
"Halal logistics (HL)",
"Halal supply chain (HSC)"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: Halal is now in the domain of modern business and exchange and is emerging as a new paradigm for assuring quality and affecting the way of living by changing people's attitude, tastes and values (Lada et al., 2009). Halal word is a \"Quranic\" term that deciphers legal, allowed, accepted or permitted. Further, the antonym of Halal is \"Haram\", that implies unlawful as per the Islamic religious belief. Thus, Halal symbolises hygiene, safety, integrity, ethical practices and is not only a religious matter. Halal consumption is turning into a worldwide phenomenon with the improved disposable income of Muslims (Adams, 2011), the recognition of Halal products by non-Muslims who are health conscious and care about the environment (Aziz and Chok, 2012; Bonne and Verbeke, 2008a) and the increase in acknowledgement that products labelled as Halal could be safer, healthier, cleaner and tastier (Burgmann, 2007).\n2. The concept of HL: 2.1 Introduction\n3. HL: understanding its CSFs: 3.1 Introduction\n4. Major CSFs for adopting HL: CSFs assures that the successful adoption and implementation of HL can help in mitigating food threats in the modern world. With the help of expert's opinion, extensive literature review and idea engineering workshop, critical CSFs for adoption and implementation of HL were identified and are enlisted in Table I. We have also provided references for better clarity.\n5. Solution methodology: As mentioned in the above sections the objective of this research is to understand and analyse the importance of CSFs in the adoption of HL. In this study, we develop a hierarchal model using interpretive structural modelling (ISM). The input to ISM is expert's opinion and the available literature.\n6. Identifying major issues in the implementation of HL through the ISM model: 6.1 Introduction\n7. Discussion of the results and findings: HL plays an important role in keeping the integrity of Halal products. This is facilitated through dedicated processing, warehousing, transportation and handling till the product reaches its destination. Despite increasing market share of the Halal products, LSPs are somewhat reluctant to adopt HL, and specifically in preserving the HI of a food product (Ngah et al., 2015).\n8. Managerial implications and future action plan: Different stakeholders, who are responsible for channelizing Halal goods to cater to the increasing consumer demand, need to develop a proper guideline on the processes, standard and codes according to which logisticians should be trained, with robust ICT as a backbone of the HSC.\n9. Conclusions: Halal food has gained importance with the changing global economic and socio-political-religious environment. This paper is an attempt to explore the new upcoming area of HL, with whatever literature is available. Expert's opinion and visits to factories have also helped us in maturing the CSF identification. The structural model and MICMAC analysis have given new thoughts to the academicians for future research and action plans for various stakeholders and policy planners. The finding of the study undertaken would play a key role in the body of knowledge of HL adoption. The result of this study has shown that the change in the pattern of consumption is the main driver for the adoption of HL.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to understand the major critical success factors (CSFs), which are instrumental for effective adoption and implementation of Halal logistics (HL) in Halal supply chain (HSC) environment.\nDesign/methodology/approach: In total, 15 CSFs/CSF clusters were identified and used to develop an interpretive structural modelling-based hierarchal and structural model. Further, analysis categorises driving and dependence power of factors. MICMAC has been undertaken to analyse how these CSFs and their hierarchies relate, with paths and levels.\nFindings: It was found that there is a need to develop proper guidelines, standards and codes, to train the Halal logisticians. Robust ICT and its appropriate implementation seems as the backbone of the HSC. HL emerges as a key component for the Halal industry to succeed, and the same is required to extend the integrity of the Halal products from the farm to the fork. That's to develop Halal as an intrinsic characteristic. Thus, organisations should have support from specific CSFs. The paper provides managerial implications, recommendations for effective implementation of HL and further in identifying the pull effect of HL.\nResearch limitations/implications: The model so developed is contextual and based on the perception of qualified experts, and they can have biasness of Halal meat supply chain.\nOriginality/value: An academic research taking views from different stakeholders with findings valuable to researchers and the policy planners.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Revisiting "big ideas in services marketing" 30 years later
|
[
"Branding",
"Convenience",
"Service quality",
"Value",
"Generosity",
"Services marketing precepts"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n__NO_TITLE__: Thirty years ago, I wrote \"Big Ideas in Services Marketing[1]\", which was published in the inaugural issue of The Journal of Services Marketing (Berry, 1987). When the current editors invited me to write a retrospective essay on this article, I first reread it to refresh my memory of the ideas I had proposed then. Frankly, I was surprised to discover how well these ideas have stood the test of time. After all, the world in general and the market place in particular have changed dramatically since 1987. And I have learned and developed as a services researcher.\nThe original list: Briefly, the seven ideas in the 1987 paper include:\nWhat I would change: My original \"Big Ideas\" list focuses on the make-or-break role of front-line service providers; refers to concepts that have become well known as internal marketing, relationship marketing and service recovery; includes technology (before the Internet rose up to change our lives and revolutionize marketing); and makes the case that services, not just manufactured goods, need to be branded. These concepts were a foundation for a still immature field in 1987. (For a discussion of the development and evolution of the services marketing discipline, see the study conducted by Berry and Parasuraman, 1993).\nWhat I would add: I have learned a great deal about services marketing since publishing the 1987 article. In 1987, A. Parasuraman, Valarie Zeithaml and I were still in the early stages of our Marketing Science Institute study of service quality that spanned five phases over a 12-year period. And I had yet to author three books based on in-depth field studies of excellent service organizations (Berry, 1995, 1999, 2008). Nor had I embarked on my work in health services research that dates back to 2001 when I spent a sabbatical leave studying service at the Mayo Clinic. For the past several years, I have conducted primary research on how to improve service quality in cancer care and have begun to publish on this topic (Berry et al., 2015). I am far more prepared now to write the kind of paper I wrote in 1987. I have chosen four additional ideas that reflect the primary intention of the original paper - to propose ideas that would strengthen the foundation of the field.\nA dynamic discipline: Services marketing has come into its own in the past three decades; it is now a recognized dynamic field within the marketing discipline. The seven fundamentals outlined in 1987 remain basic, but a cadre of bright, diligent scholars and researchers have contributed new precepts. Their work has enriched the discipline and taken it in new directions. My career in services marketing as a professor and researcher has been rewarding and I am excited about my current studies. In retrospect, I am impressed by our history and remain as I was in 1987 - exuberant about our future.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: \"Big Ideas in Services Marketing\", published in 1987, identified seven precepts fundamental to the just emerging field; this paper aims to explore the relevance of these ideas three decades later and discuss what should be changed and what should be added.\nDesign/methodology/approach: Deep reflection on the central ideas proposed in a paper written 30 years ago through the lens of the author's personal research and learning journey was the basis for preparing this retrospective essay.\nFindings: The seven ideas presented in the original paper have stood the test of time although one of the seven \"services branding\" was incompletely developed. After 30 years, four more ideas need to be added, i.e. competing on value, meeting and exceeding customers' expectations, saving customers' time and effort, and generosity.\nOriginality/value: The proposals in the 1987 paper offered an early framework for consideration by scholars who have produced a worthy body of work and brought services marketing into its own as a legitimate discipline.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
What makes users willing or hesitant to use Fintech?: the moderating effect of user type
|
[
"Continuance intention",
"Perceived risk",
"Fintech",
"Perceived benefit",
"Net valence framework",
"User type"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: Advances in information technology (IT) have led to the rapid expansion of new and innovative financial services, often called financial technology (Fintech), an emerging field that is attracting a significant amount of attention. Fintech is a portmanteau combining the words \"financial\" and \"technology.\" According to the Accenture report (Skan et al., 2014), worldwide investment in Fintech companies and start-ups increased dramatically from $4.05 billion (USD) in 2013 to $12.2 billion (USD) in 2014. Fintech provides new opportunities to empower people by increasing transparency, reducing costs, eliminating middlemen, and making financial information accessible (Zavolokina et al., 2016a). Fintech companies are currently expanding their business scope beyond the online platform into the mobile platform (e.g. mobile payment, mobile remittance). The traditional online-banking system, provided by traditional financial institutions, is also changing into innovative and differentiated financial services offered by non-financial providers.\n2. Theoretical background: 2.1 Fintech\n3. Research model and hypotheses: This study proposed a framework of benefit and risk by integrating the positive and negative factors related to the Fintech usage decision. Previous studies applied the multi-behavioral belief constructs to determine the overall perceived benefit and risk, as well as the subsequent continuance intention of Fintech. Three major factors of perceived benefit were discussed: economic benefit, seamless transaction, and convenience. Four major factors of perceived risk were illustrated: financial risk, legal risk, security risk, and operational risk. Consequently, this study assumed that positive and negative factors influence the overall perceived benefit and risk, which significantly affect the Fintech continuance intention. This study also hypothesized that different Fintech user types (i.e. early adopters and late adopters) have various expected benefits and risks. The proposed model is summarized in Figure 1.\n4. Research methodology: 4.1 Measurement\n5. Analysis and results: In this study, the PLS method was chosen to examine the proposed model and its hypotheses for several reasons. The PLS is recommended for predictive research models, with emphasis on theory development (Fornell and Bookstein, 1982). Given that this study was an initial attempt to advance a theoretical model that determines the benefit and risk factors influencing Fintech behavioral intentions, PLS was chosen due to its appropriateness for exploratory science (Chin, 1998).\n6. Discussions and implications: 6.1 Discussions of findings\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to better understand why people are willing or hesitant to use Financial technology (Fintech) as well as to determine whether the effect of perceived benefits and risks of continuance intention differs depending on user types.\nDesign/methodology/approach: Original data were collected via a survey of 243 participants with Fintech usage experience. The partial least squares method was used to test the proposed model.\nFindings: The results reveal that legal risk had the most negative effect on the Fintech continuance intention, while convenience had the strongest positive effect. Differences in specific benefit and risk impacts are found between early and late adopters.\nOriginality/value: This empirical study contributes to the novel understanding of the benefit and risk factors affecting the Fintech continuance intention.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Antecedents to internet use to collaboratively consume apparel
|
[
"Trust",
"Attitude",
"Materialism",
"Apparel",
"Collaborative consumption",
"Previous experience with CC"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n__NO_TITLE__: During the past decade, a shift has occurred wherein in place of purchasing goods, \"consumers want access to goods and prefer to pay for the experience of temporarily accessing them\" (Bardhi and Eckhardt, 2012, p. 881) as well as avoid their care, cleaning, and storage (Kelly, 2009). Several terms have been used to describe a desire for access to goods including access-based consumption (Bardhi and Eckhardt, 2012), the mesh (Gansky, 2010), and pro-sumption (Ritzer and Jurgenson, 2010) among others. The term collaborative consumption (CC) was adopted for this research (Belk, 2014; Botsman and Rogers, 2010; Leismann et al., 2013) along with Belk's (2014, p. 1597) definition of CC as \"people coordinating the acquisition and distribution of a resource for a fee or other compensation.\"\nRelated research: Researchers interested in online CC have studied motivations for participation in CC, attitudes, and behavioral intentions concerning CC. For example, Nelson et al. (2007) studied members of Freecycle. Freecycle is a nonprofit organization made up of a local group of people who are giving items to each other for free. Its purpose is to keep items out of landfills. Groups organize based on location. Items are posted on the Freecycle website and groups are moderated by local volunteers. These researchers identified four categories of motives for participation: decluttering, economic purposes (e.g. saving money, obtaining bargains), environmental concerns, and interest in helping others/desire for social bonding. Later, Ozanne and Ballantine (2010) explored motivations for participating in toy borrowing libraries in New Zealand. They identified four groups of participants (i.e. socialites, market avoiders, anti-consumers, passives) with somewhat differing motivations. The socialites enjoyed the social benefits of participation. The market avoiders also appreciated the social and community benefits and were the least materialistic of the groups. The anti-consumers held strong anti-consumption, frugality, and sharing values and the passives were neither socially involved nor did they hold anti-consumption values.\nTheoretical approach and hypotheses formulation: Theory of reasoned action (TRA)\nMethod: Data collection\nResults: Participant characteristics\nDiscussion and implications: Unlike Hamari et al. (2013) who found a positive but small effect size for the relationship between attitude toward CC and behavioral intentions, our participants' attitudes toward CC of apparel online were strong predictors of their behavioral intentions. This difference in results may be due to the nature of the Hamari et al. research wherein attitudes and behavioral intentions were directed toward CC in general and not toward a category of specific products (i.e. apparel). While actual behavior was not measured and behavioral intention was used as a proxy, this interpretation is consistent with Kraus (1995) who found in his meta-analyses of 88 attitude and behavior studies that attitudes and behavior measured at the same level of specificity demonstrate strong relationships.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to investigate attitude, subjective norm, perceived integrity of participants, materialism, and previous experience with collaborative consumption (CC) offline as antecedents to the CC of apparel facilitated by the internet.\nDesign/methodology/approach: Survey research with convenience sample of consumers from within the USA.\nFindings: Attitude toward CC of apparel was significantly related to intention to collaboratively consume apparel online as was subjective norms. Previous experience with CC of apparel offline was significantly related to both attitude and behavioral intention. Perceived integrity of CC participants was related to previous experience with CC of apparel offline and attitude. Materialism was significantly and negatively related to previous experience with CC of apparel.\nResearch limitations/implications: Research limitations include the use of a convenience sample of consumers and the research was limited to one form of CC.\nPractical implications: As a means to foster sustainable consumption, for those interested in promoting CC, consideration should be given to having existing participants of CC invite other family members and friends to try it as this might be more effective than targeting random members of the consuming public.\nOriginality/value: An investigation of CC of a fashion item (apparel) that identifies predictors to participation.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Influence of inter-organisational integration on business performance: The mediating role of organisational-level supply chain functions
|
[
"Information systems",
"Business performance",
"Supply chain management",
"Australia"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: Increasingly, organisations are using inter-organisational relationships to leverage supply chain partners' resources and capabilities, to cope with perceived environmental uncertainty and to enhance their competitive advantage (Bhatt and Trout, 2005). Most supply chain partners have realised the importance of using supply chain relationships and structures to facilitate fast response to customer needs and requirements (Defee and Stank, 2003). Supply chain relationships and integration enable organisations to overcome resource constraints through increased innovation and reduced costs, and uncertainties (Coviello and McAuley, 1999). Research suggests that inter-organisational integration is a vital governance mechanism in inter-organisational relationships (Narasimhan and Das, 2001; Ragatz et al., 2002). Integration between partnering organisations' activities and information systems is an important strategic tool in supply chain management (O'Callaghan et al., 1992; Soliman and Janz, 2004), and that significantly influences relationship between supply chain members (Johnston and Vitale, 1988).Research suggests that the implementation of inter-organisational information systems (IOIS) influences not only the performance of individual businesses but of the supply chain as well (Cousins and Menguc, 2005; Kettinger et al., 1997). Implementation of IOIS enhances lead-time (Bhatt, 2000; Power and Sohal, 2002) and communication (Gracia-Dastugue and Lambert, 2003), and reduces lost shipments and cost inefficiency (Frohlich and Westbrook, 2002; Lancioni et al., 2002). However, the full potential benefits of IOIS could be attained when organisations integrate their inter-organisational information systems and activities with supply chain partners (Fearon and Philip, 1999; Kim et al., 2006). Further, Bhatt and Trout (2005) state that, inter-organisational integration enables supply chain partners to respond dynamic challenges in the marketplace.Whilst there is a substantial body of research on the benefits of IOIS implementation, limited attention has been paid to investigating the outcome of benefits that could be accrued from IOIS and IOA alignment and integration (Frohlich, 2002; Kim et al., 2006; Wu et al., 2003). Further, there is also a lack of empirical work on the effects of IOIS and activities integration on supply chain performance (Golden and Powell, 2004). Therefore, the present study examines the effect of IOIS and IOA integration on the performance of retailing organisations, and also investigates the mediating role of organisational-level supply chain functions on the relationship between inter-organisational integration and business performance.The paper begins with an overview of literature on inter-organisational integration, supply chain performance and business performance. The methodology used to test the hypotheses is outlined, followed by a presentation of research results and discussion. The paper concludes by outlining implications, limitations and areas for future research.\n2. Literature review and hypotheses: 2.1 Inter-organisational integration\n3. Methodology: The data were collected from the Australian food and hardware retailing firms. Simple random sampling technique was used to select the respondents from a sampling frame that was supplied by the Australian Centre for Retail Studies (ACRS). The questionnaire package consisting of an explanatory statement, questionnaire and self-addressed reply paid envelope was sent to 2000 respondents. A total of 231 usable responses were received resulting in a response rate of 11.6 per cent.The measurement items for the construct IOIS integration were adapted from Kim et al. (2006) and inter-organisational activity integration measures were borrowed from Rai et al. (2006). Supply chain-related organisational performance measures were adapted from Power (2005) and business performance was measured by looking at customer responsiveness (Wu et al., 2003) and financial performance.Separate confirmatory factor models were used to assess convergent and discriminant validity, so as not to violate ratio-to-sample (Hair et al., 2005). Measurement items had standardised factor loadings ranging between 0.78 and 0.92 for the major constructs, above the recommended 0.5 cut-off point (Bagozzi et al., 1991) (see Table I). The results also indicated t-values ranging from 13.29 to 23.71, were well above the 2 cut-off point and significant at p<0.05. The reliability coefficients were between 0.64 and 0.92 and exceeded the 0.60 cut-off point suggested for exploratory analysis (Nunnally, 1978) (Figure 1).Tests for multicollinearity, linearity and normality indicated non-violations of the assumptions. Following the tests of validity and reliability, regression analysis was used to test the relationships hypothesised in this study. Baron and Kenny's (1986) and MacKinnon et al.'s (2007) mediation analyses were performed to investigate the mediation role of supply chain related organisational performance on the effects of IOIS and IOA integration on business performance and customer responsiveness.\n4. Results and discussion: As hypothesised, IOIS integration (b=0.278; t=6.81; p<0.001) and IOA integration (b=0.318; t=4.25; p<0.001) had significant positive influence on organisation-related supply chain performance, providing support for H1 and H2. The proposed association between inter-organisational integration and business performance dimensions were also supported as IOIS integration (b=0.232; t=4.29; p<0.001) and IOA integration (b=0.339; t=3.43; p<0.001) had significant positive association on customer responsiveness. Thus the results provided support for H3a and H4a. As predicted IOIS integration (b=0.187; t=2.47; p<0.05) and IOA integration (b=0.454; t=3.27; p<0.01) had a significant effect on financial performance of organisations and provided support for H3b and H4b. Organisation-related supply chain performance had a significant positive influence on customer responsiveness (b=0.633; t=9.48; p<0.001) and financial performance (b=0.505; t=4.07; p<0.001). Thereby, H5a and H5b were supported.To investigate whether the relationship between inter-organisational integration and business performance was mediated by organisation-related supply chain performance, the procedure suggested by Baron and Kenny (1986), and MacKinnon et al. (2007) were used. First the results indicated significant relationship between the independent variables (IOIS integration and IOA integration) and dependent variables (customer responsiveness and financial performance). Second, the relationship between the independent variables and mediating variable (supply chain related organisational performance) also indicated significant effect. Third, the mediating variable (adjusted for the independent variables) regressed with the dependent variables and indicated a significant relationship. Thus, the results supported Baron and Kenny's (1986) condition for mediation effects. Finally, the differences in regression coefficient between the direct and indirect model was estimated to test the significance of mediation effect (MacKinnon et al., 2007). The relationship between IOIS integration and customer responsiveness indicated that the regression coefficient for direct effects (b=0.232; t=4.29; p<0.001) was higher than the indirect effects (b=0.103; t=1.97; p<0.05), and the differences were significant at p<0.05 and providing support for H6a. For the relationship between IOA integration and customer responsiveness, the regression coefficient for direct effects (b=0.339; t=3.43; p<0.001) was higher than the indirect effects (b=0.192; t=1.99; p<0.05) and the difference was significant at p<0.05, and thus provided support for H7a. Considering the relationship between IOIS integration and financial performance, the regression coefficient for the direct effects (b=0.187; t=2.47; p<0.05) was high compared to the indirect effects (b=0.141; t=2.06; p<0.05), and the difference was significant at p<0.05. Thus H6b was supported. The relationship between IOIS integration and financial performance indicated that, the regression coefficient for direct effects (b=0.454; t=3.27; p<0.01) was higher than the indirect effects (b=0.111; t=1.98; p<0.05) and the difference was significant at p<0.05, and thus provided support for H7b. Thus, the mediation effects of organisation-level supply chain performance on the relationship between inter-organisational integration and business performance was supported.The results of this study provide some insight into the role of organisation level supply-chain performance on the link between IOIS and activity integration, and business performance within the Australian retailing context. Consistent with prior literature (Bhatt and Trout, 2005; Kim et al., 2006), the study indicated positive relationship between inter-organisational integration and supply-chain related organisational performance. The integration of IOIS and IOA with supply chain partners helps organisations to attain supply chain benefits such as just-in-time delivery, warehouse and on-shelf inventory reduction, cost minimisations, supply chain flexibility and traceability. The IOA integration promotes the development of trust and commitment between supply chain partners and encourages sharing of strategic information. Information sharing between supply chain partners facilitates the supply chain efficiency and effectiveness. The results of the mediating effects suggest that, facilitating supply chain activities at organisational levels helps integration of information systems and activities could improve customer responsiveness and financial performance. IOIS and IOA integration enhances timely, accurate and detailed information sharing and data that is crucial for supply chain performance, customer responsiveness and financial performance. Therefore, IOIS and IOA integration facilitate supply chain management functions and enable organisations to quickly and effectively respond to customer needs, queries and complaints and improves business performance.\n5. Limitations and future research: This study has certain limitation that can be addressed in future research. First, as the study employed a cross-sectional research design, there could be a time lag between the organisations integrating information systems and the realisation of tangible benefits. A longitudinal research design could provide more insight into the relationships investigated in this study. Finally, data for the study was collected at the retailing level of the supply chain and the model may not be invariant across industries and stages of the supply chain. Thus, the results may not be generalisable to other levels of supply chain and other industries.Though IOIS and inter-organisational activities significantly influence the organisations' level supply chain or logistics performance, and customer responsiveness, it is not clear at what level of integration can maximum benefits is achieved. As supply chain members integrate their information systems and activities to different levels, future research could focus on assessing the influence of level of integration at the basic, intermediate and advanced integration stages. Finally, future research could replicate the model at different stages of the supply chain and different contexts.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: - The purpose of this paper is to investigate the mediating role of organisational level supply chain activities on the effect of inter-organisational information systems (IOIS) and activity (IOA) integration on business performance of retailing organisations within Australia.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - The study followed a causal research approach and survey methodology to collect data from the managers of food and hardware retailers. Multiple regression and MacKinnon et al.'s mediation analysis were used to investigate the hypothesised relationships.\nFindings: - The results suggest that inter-organisational information systems (IOIS) and activity integration have positive effects on customer responsiveness and financial performance of organisations. Organisational-level supply chain functions mediate the relationships between IOIS and activity integration and customer responsiveness, as well as financial performance.\nResearch limitations/implications: - The research focused at the retailer level of the supply chain. Large-scale cross-sectional studies that include other levels of supply chain are required for generalisability.\nPractical implications: - The research suggests that organisations need to integrate their inter-organisational information systems and activities with supply chain partners to enhance supply chain and business performance.\nOriginality/value: - The results extend the body of knowledge on inter-organisational information systems, inter-organisational integration and supply chain management. The study also provides some empirical insights into management practices in the retailing sector.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Doctors' experiences with a quality assurance programme
|
[
"Clinical governance",
"Continuous quality improvement",
"Health care quality",
"Qualitative research",
"Training",
"User involvement",
"Quality assurance",
"Norway"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: A large number of quality assurance programmes for health care services have been implemented worldwide during the last decades (Loeb, 2004). A major challenge for all such programmes is that health care services, as all other services are complicated phenomena (Gronroos, 1988). Services are difficult to quantify (intangible), they represent a series of activities rather than things, they are produced and consumed simultaneously, and the customers, at least to some extent, participate in the production process (Gronroos, 1988). Most quality assurance programmes for health care services have been based on technical outcome parameters and less attention has been given to the patients' views of health care quality and their evaluation of the health care services (National Directorate for Health and Social Affairs, 2005).This was also the case within the field of gastroenterology. Several studies in the 1990s and the following decade demonstrated that the quality of gastrointestinal endoscopy services, especially colonoscopy services, was dissatisfactory at many centres (Kaminski, 2010; Ball, 2004, Bretthauer, 2003). Quality assurance programmes for gastrointestinal endoscopy services were therefore recommended by international gastroenterological societies. In Norway, a quality assurance programme for outpatient colonoscopy services (Gastronet) was launched in 2003 (Hoff et al., 2006). In the programme, patient satisfaction reports were included in the registrations in addition to quality indicators related to the technical aspects of the registrations (Seip et al., 2010a).Gastronet was initiated by Norwegian gastroenterologists (endoscopists) and nurses working in outpatient clinics (endoscopy centres) providing care for patients with gastroenterological complaints. It was voluntary for the endoscopy centres and endoscopists to participate in the program. In an attempt to include all members of the endoscopy team in the quality assurance programme, both the leaders of the endoscopy centres and the participating endoscopists were provided with performance data.Although doctors are key stakeholders of many quality assurance programmes, it has been found that many of them doubt the usefulness of such initiatives (Gagliardi et al., 2008). To achieve quality improvement, a more committed involvement by doctors is important, but knowledge of how this may be achieved is scarce (Gagliardi et al., 2008; Thor et al., 2010). Our aim was therefore to explore endoscopists' experiences with participating in Gastronet, their opinions about the programme, and their views on how it could be improved.\nMethods: A detailed description of the Gastronet programme and results from the first years of registrations has been published elsewhere (Hoff et al., 2006; Seip et al., 2010b). Two forms were used to collect data in the programme. A one-page colonoscopy report was filled in on site by the endoscopist or the endoscopy nurse, on the day of the examination. Both background information about the patient (age, sex, and previous operation) and procedure-related data (visual aids, sedation, completeness and findings) were collected. The primary quality indicators were \"caecal intubation rates\" and \"patient satisfaction\" with emphasis on \"rate of moderately or severely painful colonoscopies\" (in the following called \"painful colonoscopy\"). A one-page patient satisfaction questionnaire, with emphasis on feedback on pain during and after the examination was filled in by the patient at home on the day after the examination, and returned to the Gastronet administration hub in a pre-paid return envelope. In the feedback reports to the endoscopists also other outcome variables were reported such as \"rates of sedation-free and pain-free colonoscopies\" and \"caecal intubation time\".Interviews\nEthics: Ethical approval was obtained from the Norwegian Regional Committee for Medical Research Ethics.\nResults: We have organised our findings in four categories: views on factors related to high-quality colonoscopy, views on the use of sedation, views on the quality indicators, and the use of feedback-reports.Views on colonoscopy quality\nDiscussion: Principal findings\nConclusions: The \"high-quality colonoscopy\" concept might be ambiguous, and it is important to clarify what \"quality\" means when implementing a quality assurance programme for gastrointestinal endoscopy. Workshops and educational meetings facilitate two-way communication between leaders and participants in the quality assurance programme, and may build ownership and increase motivation among participants.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: - The purpose of this paper is to explore doctors' experiences with participation in a quality assurance programme for gastrointestinal endoscopy (Gastronet).\nDesign/methodology/approach: - An explorative and qualitative approach was used, and data were generated through semi-structured interviews with eight doctors (endoscopists) in Norway.\nFindings: - The respondents' notion of a \"high-quality colonoscopy\" included being able to communicate with the patient while performing the technical procedure. They were reluctant to use analgesics to improve their score on the rate of painful examinations due to the negative effects of analgesics on the communication with the patient. The individual feedback reports on colonoscopy quality had been read by most respondents and some respondents described they had used the reports actively to monitor performance. There was some reluctance towards the programme among the respondents since some performance measures were thought to have a negative effect on the atmosphere in the endoscopy suite.\nResearch limitations/implications: - The small sample size and the homogenous cultural setting limit the generalisability of the results to other countries.\nPractical implications: - The concept of \"high-quality colonoscopy\" might be ambiguous, and it is important to clarify what quality means when implementing a quality assurance programme for gastrointestinal endoscopy. Workshops and educational meetings facilitate two-way communication between leaders and participants in the quality assurance programme, and may build ownership and increase motivation among participants.\nOriginality/value: - In addition to quality indicators, it is important to agree upon the meaning of \"quality\" when initiating a quality assurance programme.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Organizational support on knowledge sharing: a moderated mediation model of job characteristics and organizational citizenship behavior
|
[
"Organizational support",
"Knowledge sharing",
"Moderated mediation model"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n__NO_TITLE__: Research has shown that organizational support in the workplace is positively related to knowledge sharing (Bock et al., 2005; Cabrera and Cabrera, 2005; Lin, 2006). Although the overall link between organizational support and knowledge sharing is valuable, theoretical and empirical evidence suggests that this relationship is best conceptualized as a multidimensional mechanism with different relationships with various mediating and moderating variables. Research thus far, however, has failed to provide a comprehensive understanding of how an organization's support induces an individual to share knowledge or which variables intervene in that relationship, even though perceived organizational support (POS) is a critical source of employee behaviors in the workplace and typically serves as the primary means through which employees interact with their job characteristics (JCs) and climate (Eisenberger and Stinglhamber, 2011). For example, previous research focusing on the mediating role of organizational citizenship behavior (OCB) has either failed to show empirical evidence in a model (Cabrera and Cabrera, 2005) or has neglected to concurrently study the interaction effects of JCs.\nLiterature review: This section reviews the concept for each construct and the constructs' influential relations, along with the theoretical foundation for the conceptual framework used in this study.\nMethods: This section describes the research approach and method-related procedures, including the research context, sampling process and data collection, instrumentation and strategies for data analysis.\nResults: Descriptive statistics\nDiscussion: This study contributes to the literature on knowledge management at large, specifically to the literature on the knowledge sharing process in organizations. As suggested by Bock et al. (2005) and in practice, employees' implicit and explicit knowledge sharing activities significantly affect the performance of organizations by helping them achieve their missions. This study confirms the combined effects of POS, OCB and JCs on employees' KSI, which ultimately influence organizational performance. A top management team (TMT) can thus strategically nurture a culture of knowledge sharing. For instance, if the TMT supports its employees by encouraging them to actively participate in pivotal communities of practices (CoPs) both inside and outside the company, the employees will learn from the CoPs and could improve their knowledge and performance levels. More specifically, a company can design a promotion and evaluation system to stimulate employees' CoP engagement (Cabrera and Cabrera, 2005) and motivate them to share what they learn within the CoPs. Tacit knowledge is embodied in individuals and embedded in contexts. It is also inseparable from collectively held group processes. Thus, tacit knowledge is difficult to transmit in formal learning practices and instead emerges from social interactions among individuals. In this sense, a CoP can provide an effective means by which organizations can increase the sharing of tacit knowledge by supporting situated learning and building internal member networks (Bettiol and Sedita, 2011). We showed that OCB has a mediating effect that is moderated by JCs and plays a significant role in the relationship between POS and KSI. These results indicate two potential benefits of CoPs. First, sharing knowledge can facilitate individual and group learning and build both the common knowledge and collective identity of a CoP. Second, knowledge sharing can underpin innovation processes and improve organizational performance (Hansen et al., 2005). CoPs support and encourage the creation, acquisition, interpretation and dissemination of knowledge. The benefits of a CoP in enabling knowledge sharing processes are based on shared values and trust-based relationships. This study highlights some of the features that create the conditions in organizations that build OCB and identifies the JCs that allow employees to perceive organizational support.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: This paper aims to study the effects of perceived organizational support (POS) on employees' knowledge sharing intention (KSI). More specifically, this study examined whether these effects are moderated by job characteristics (JCs) and are mediated by organizational citizenship behavior (OCB).\nDesign/methodology/approach: Data for 426 employees were collected via an online questionnaire from four IT companies in South Korea. Combined effects in the variable set were analyzed using conditional process analyses (Hayes, 2013).\nFindings: The results indicate that POS positively affects OCB and KSI, and that JCs moderate the relationship between POS and OCB. Also, the relationship between POS and KSI is mediated by OCB, and the hypothesized moderated mediation model is confirmed.\nOriginality/value: This study is novel in empirically establishing how employees' KSI is affected by POS as an integrative construct bringing together JCs and OCB. This paper intends to fill a methodological gap and nurture future research by adopting conditional process analyses assessing whether JCs moderate the relationship between POS and OCB and mediate the effects of OCB on KSI.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
Implementation of a strategic planning process oriented towards promoting business process management (BPM) at a clinical research centre (CRC)
|
[
"Strategic alignment",
"Strategic planning",
"Action research",
"Business process management",
"Clinical research center",
"Clinical trials management"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: Business process management (BPM) has increased performance for companies of all sizes and industries. BPM programs aim to shift the management orientation of the firm from a functional perspective to a process perspective. Gebczynska (2016) highlights that process-oriented firms outperform functional-oriented ones, since the latter, among other factors, respond to changing market requirements more rapidly. According to Harmon (2007), BPM programs provide a systematic way for companies to achieve strategic goals.\n2. Literature review: The literature review covers the relevant topics for this work. BPM is first presented, including a brief analysis of life cycle models. Secondly, the literature on strategic planning and BPM is discussed. Third, contributions from the literature on clinical trials management are shown to adequately understand the specific context in which the action research project is applied.\n3. Method: This section describes the method used, and is divided into two parts. First, the methodological approach is presented, and the phases of the project are broadly defined. Action research was chosen as the methodological approach for this work, as it aims to solve practical problems while generating scientific knowledge simultaneously. In the second section, the phases are detailed, including the presentation of specific steps taken in each phase.\n4. Results: The results are presented in the same sequence of phases contemplated in the method section. Each phase yielded different results. The combination of results leads to the overall output of the action research.\n5. Discussion, model proposal and comparison with existing approaches: 5.1 Discussion\n6. Final remarks: The promotion of BPM is not a novelty in many sectors. However, no significant references on comprehensive BPM programs at Clinical Research Centers (CRCs) were found in the literature. The need for operational improvements in CRCs was highlighted, and the organization in focus for this action research project reflected such need. This work bridged important gaps found in the literature, granting significant contributions. The first one is specific to the literature on process improvement initiatives designed for CRCs. The detailed action research project may be replicated in other research centers, as the results were positively evaluated by the CRC's managers. As before mentioned, there are many benefits to the implementation of process improvements techniques to clinical research. The specificities of clinical trials pose significant challenges for operations management in CRCs, and managers need a comprehensive model to help them integrate strategic and operations management inside their research centers to assure the success of process optimization efforts. This research meets this requirement by presenting a model that details the integration of complimentary methods and approaches, typically lacking in research in the field of CRC management.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: This work explores the potential benefits of aligning the strategic planning process with a BPM program in a clinical research center (CRC). The purpose of this paper is to define a process for executing strategic planning oriented towards the promotion of a BPM program.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The method applied is action research. This allowed the solution of a practical problem and at the same time the proposition of a new approach to promote BPM in alignment with strategy, which was synthesized in the model presented.\nFindings: The analysis and structuring of the strategic planning process, with the assessment of the as-is situation, were adequate as a preparation step for the first cycle of a BPM program in the CRC. Based on lessons learned along the research project, a model was proposed for the strategic planning process oriented towards promoting BPM.\nResearch limitations/implications: The model was conceived from a single application at a CRC, through a cycle of action research. This is one of the limitations of this work. The model was not yet sufficiently tested in other contexts. This represents opportunities for future research.\nPractical implications: The evaluation step in the action research cycle revealed that the organization in focus was satisfied with the results. New management practices in the organizations in focus were implemented as a result of this work.\nOriginality/value: Process improvement initiatives are a novelty in the CRC context, and this work may serve as a reference for CRC managers seeking to improve overall performance. The proposed model in this work indicates that a BPM program should start with strategic planning. An initial assessment of the as-is situation of the organization in focus was performed based on the analysis of the undesirable effects in the organization's management practices, using a technique of the Theory of Constraints. The use of this technique facilitated the identification of solutions to the root causes identified in the assessment. The level of the assessment was deeper in comparison to results obtained with traditional tools used in strategic planning processes. The assessment supports the definition of actions oriented to solving the majority of the management dysfunctions of the organization in focus.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Debt policy and firm performance of family firms: the impact of economic adversity
|
[
"Performance",
"Capital structure",
"Recession",
"Debt financing",
"Family businesses",
"G30",
"G32",
"M41"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: The influence of debt policy on firm performance is important to achieve a suitable capital structure, to maximise shareholders wealth and to deal with its competitive environment (David and Olorunfemi, 2010).\n2. Literature review and hypotheses: 2.1 Debt and performance\n3. Data and methodology: 3.1 Sample\n4. Results: 4.1 Descriptive statistics\n5. Conclusions: The present study focusses on the relationship between debt policy and performance among FF, providing evidence on whether FF differs from NFF in what concerns this relationship. In addition, it focusses on the possibility of asymmetrical debt policy effects on performance between periods of stability and economic adversity.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to analyse the relationship between debt policy and performance among family firms (FF), providing evidence on whether FF differ from non-family firms (NFF). It also focusses on the possibility of asymmetrical debt policy impact on performance between periods of stability and economic adversity.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The paper employs panel data regression, considering a sample of Portuguese listed firms for the period between 1999 and 2014.\nFindings: Overall, the author find evidence that debt contributes negatively to firms' performance, which is consistent with the pecking order prediction, and that the relationship between debt and performance do not differ significantly between FF and NFF. After addressing the endogeneity issue, the author conclude that firms' performance is negatively influenced by both short- and long-term debt. Considering the total debt, the negative relationship between the two variables differs from family and non-family companies. The results show that age and size influences positively, and the independence of the board directors influences negatively the firms' performance. The empirical findings suggest that under economic adversity, the firms' performance is negatively affected. Finally, the author conclude that return on assets appear to fit better than return on equity or MB when you want to relate debt and firm performance.\nResearch limitations/implications: A limitation of this study is the small size of the Euronext Lisbon that results in a small sample.\nOriginality/value: This paper offers some insights on the relationship between debt policy and firm performance from a country with weak protection of minority shareholders, concentrated ownership and a significant family control. It also gives the opportunity to analyse whether firm performance differs according to market conditions.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Gender discrimination and firms' profit: evidence from Brazil
|
[
"Brazil",
"Gender discrimination",
"Firms’ profit"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: Discrimination within any society can lead to the distortion of resources allocation, and may discourage economic growth. Authorities including the World Bank (2001) claim that gender inequality causes damage not only to women but also to the entire society, and hinders economic development, particularly in low-income countries.\n2. Literature review: Many researches into male-female wage discrimination have been conducted using the human capital approach. According to this approach, discrimination against women is considered to exist whenever the relative wage of men exceeds the relative wage that would have prevailed if men and women had been paid equally according to the same criteria (Oaxaca, 1973), with the market discrimination coefficient being defined as the percentage wage differential between two types of perfectly substitutable labour (Becker, 1971). Blinder (1973) and Oaxaca (1973) developed a simple means of decomposing wage differentials into the proportion of the differential arising from differences in productivity and discrimination. Blinder-Oaxaca decomposition has been employed in many empirical studies on gender discrimination (see Altonji and Blank, 1999 for more details). Focusing on the Brazilian labour market, Lovell (2000) estimated the monthly wages of white, black, and mixed-race women and men working in the states of Sao Paulo and Bahia using a sample of 1991 census data. She found that discrimination did indeed exist in Brazilian labour market, with women and blacks working in Sao Paulo experiencing greater discrimination compared to their counterparts in Bahia, but that occupational and wage distributions were more equal in Sao Paulo. Using data collected by the National Household Survey (PNAD) of 1992 and 1998, Loureiro et al. (2004) also tested for the existence of racial and gender discrimination, accounting for sample selection bias by simultaneously estimating the labour market participation function and the wage function following Heckman (1979). Even after controlling for sample selection bias, they found that more than 50 per cent of the male-female wage differential could be attributed to discrimination, with the discrimination differential being larger in urban areas.\n3. Theoretical background: We based our method on the employer discrimination model proposed by Becker (1971), who assumed that an employer working for a firm prefers to maximize his or her utility instead of the firm's profit taking wage and product price as given.\n4. Empirical strategy: 4.1 Determinants of profit\n5. Data: We obtained the data that we analysed in this paper from the World Bank Investment Climate Survey, which used standardized survey instruments and a uniform sampling methodology to analyse firm performance and the business environment of developing countries[3]. The available survey of Brazil covers the reference years of 2002 and 2007, in which contain 1,641 and 1,802 firms, respectively. The 2002 survey was sampled only from nine manufacturing industries, while the 2007 survey was sampled from nine manufacturing (1,505 firms) and seven services industries (297 firms)[4]. Among the two-year surveys, there was a panel sample that consisted of 452 firms. After excluding observations with missing values, 1,456 firms in 2002 and 1,090 firms in 2007 were used as our working samples.\n6. Empirical results: 6.1 Proportion of female employees and firm's profit\n7. Concluding remarks: Brazil has recently experienced very rapid economic growth, especially after the implementation of the Real Plan in 1994. Nevertheless, income inequality remains a serious concern, one that has been attributed to discrimination against women and racial minorities. As such, discrimination impedes fair competition and confounds equality of opportunities and outcomes, it likely distorts resource allocation and hinders economic growth, negatively impacting not only women and discriminatory employers but also Brazilian society as a whole.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: This paper investigates discrimination against women within the Brazilian labour market using firm-level data from the World Bank Investment Climate Survey. The purpose of this paper is to determine whether the female employees in the Brazilian labour market are paid less than their productivity warrants due to the existence of discrimination.\nDesign/methodology/approach: Based on employer discrimination model proposed by Becker (1971) that considered the proportion of female employees as a proxy for the extent of discrimination, the authors estimate the profit function using OLS analysis, and regress it on the proportion of female employees and other firm characteristics. To address the endogeneity problem caused by unobservable productivity shocks, the authors employed the methods proposed by Olley and Pakes (1996) and Levinsohn and Petrin (2003), respectively.\nFindings: The results indicate that the proportion of female employees has positive effect on firms' profit in 2002, but has no effect in 2007. This finding gives evidence of the existence of discrimination against female employees within the Brazilian labour market in the early 2000s, while the gender discrimination was reduced overtime.\nOriginality/value: This paper's main contribution is to provide an approach that differs from that of previous research to determine whether discrimination exists within the Brazilian labour market. This paper also provides policy insights for Brazilian labour market.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Managing intellectual capital through a collective intelligence approach: An integrated framework for universities
|
[
"Stakeholders",
"Intellectual capital",
"Intellectual capital management",
"Collective intelligence",
"Entrepreneurial university"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: Although the intellectual capital (IC) concept was first developed as a framework to analyse the contributions of intellectual resources in for-profit enterprises, it has been extended to public and non-profit organisations (NPOs) (Mouritsen et al., 2004; Kong and Prior, 2008). Among NPOs there is growing interest in applying an IC approach to managing universities, since the main goals of universities include the production of knowledge (research), the diffusion of knowledge assets (teaching) and investing in human resources (Veltri et al., 2014; Leitner and Warden, 2004; Sanchez et al., 2009).\n2. Theoretical background: This section examines what IC is in the context of universities, the rationale for proposing IC management for these institutions and the evolution of IC research towards the fourth stage.\n3. Research methodology: The research approach of this study is based on the third and fourth stages of IC research (Dumay and Garanina, 2013), as outlined in the previous section. The entrepreneurial university and its vocation to achieve the third mission requires a focus on ecosystems (fourth stage) where intangible assets and IC are created and developed on a wider scale, because these stages connect IC with strategy. When dealing with IC in the public sector the gap between theory and practice is very broad. The benefits of IC approaches advocated by the literature and policy recommendations are clear but clash with the daily life and the reality of these institutions. What is needed are frameworks that address what Guthrie and Dumay (2015) call the \"practice turn\" because to develop practice it is necessary to use normative frameworks that help to implement IC and which can be tested in practice.\n4. A framework for managing IC in the entrepreneurial university: The review of theoretical approaches suggest a set of requirements for creating and managing IC and provide the necessary components for building an integrated framework for IC practice in the entrepreneurial university. Thus, the purpose of this section is to introduce the framework developed for the strategic management of IC within the university intended as a collective intelligence system, starting from an introduction about the university's plan for a collective intelligence system and moving towards the description of the framework's main components related to management and measurement of IC.\n5. Discussion and conclusion: The last decade has seen increasing relevance for IC in higher education and universities (Siboni et al., 2013) thanks to the greater adoption of qualitative decision-making models based on IC widely adopted in the public sector. Additionally, since the late 1980s, the European university system has undergone a profound change, led by the structural transformations driven by the Bologna Process aimed at increasing research quality and making universities more comparable, competitive, dynamic and transparent (Siboni et al., 2013). This process has resulted in the creation of a European dimension for higher education in which universities are moving from traditional academic organisations to new organisational forms called the entrepreneurial university (Clark, 1998) in which innovative academic and administrative management are required (Weber, 2006). Therefore, universities need to take into account new IC management strategies for identifying, measuring and valuing intangibles as part of an overall management perspective. The creation and management of IC is an operational priority to evaluate the alignment between the strategic orientation and the performance of universities contributing to regional and economic development.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to provide a new framework for managing intellectual capital (IC) inside a university considering the collective intelligence perspective.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The research method uses the fourth stage of IC research and adopts the collective intelligence approach. The underlying assumption behind the framework is to consider the university as a collective intelligence system in which the tangible and intellectual assets are coordinated towards the achievement of strategic goals.\nFindings: The conceptual framework for IC management harnesses the power of IC, collectively created by the engagement of multiple stakeholders inside the university network. The main components are the final goal of a university (what); the collective human capital to achieve the goal (who); the processes activated inside the university (how); and finally the motivations behind the achievement of the goal (why).\nResearch limitations/implications: The research is exploratory and the framework offers opportunities for refinement. Future research is needed to verify the application of the framework to other organisations in the public sector intended as collective intelligence systems. A new perspective for managing IC in universities adopting the collective intelligence approach is developed. Contribution to the fourth stage (ecosystem) of IC research is highlighted, expanding the concept of IC value creation beyond the university into wider society.\nPractical implications: The framework can be used to manage IC strategically in all the systems interpreted as collective intelligence systems in which the role of IC creation from multiple actors is relevant. This makes possible the understanding of how IC helps create value for the society and the region in which the university operates.\nOriginality/value: The originality of the paper is in bringing together issues usually dealt within the literature in separate domains, such as IC management and collective intelligence perspective. The concept of collective intelligence remains an unexplored field in relation to IC management in the public sector. The collective intelligence approach provides a novel contribution to managing IC and is intended to inspire future research.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
Network centrality and innovation performance: the role of formal and informal institutions in emerging economies
|
[
"Innovation",
"Social cohesion",
"Entrepreneurial firms",
"Institutions",
"Marketization",
"Network centrality"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: Innovation is primarily a function of a firm's capability to acquire and combine novel knowledge (Wang et al., 2014; Zhou and Li, 2012). Social network ties help firms to seek novel information from other firms (Ahuja, 2000; Burt, 2004; Phelps et al., 2012; Rodan and Galunic, 2004). In particular, a firm's network centrality refers to the extent to which it occupies a central position and describes the firm's capability to access timely, diverse and non-abundant knowledge (Gulati et al., 2000; Owen-Smith and Powell, 2004). Hence, network centrality can improve innovation performance through the attainment of novel information (Bell, 2005; Owen-Smith and Powell, 2004).\n2. Theory and hypotheses: 2.1 Effects of network centrality on innovation\n3. Methodology: 3.1 Sample collection\n4. Results: 4.1 Baseline results\n5. Discussion: 5.1 Summary of findings\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The impact of network centrality on innovation performance is inconclusive. The purpose of this paper is to examine how formal and informal institutions affect the influence of network centrality on firms' innovation performance in emerging economies by integrating social network theory and institutional theory.\nDesign/methodology/approach: Multisource and lagged data from 234 technology-based entrepreneurial firms listed on the Chinese Growth Enterprise Market were leveraged to test a proposed research model.\nFindings: Results suggest that formal institutions (marketization) positively moderate the relationship between network centrality and innovation performance, whereas informal institutions (social cohesion) negatively moderate this relationship. Moreover, formal and informal institutions have a strong joint impact on such relationship, that is, the effect of network centrality on innovation performance is most positive when marketization is high and social cohesion is low.\nOriginality/value: This empirical research provides new insights into whether and how firms can grasp the innovation benefits of network centrality by exploring institutional contingencies. It further sheds on light the scope of the network centrality-innovation issue by extending its research context to Chinese entrepreneurial firms.\n",
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] |
Confusion in internet retailing: causes and consequences
|
[
"Internet retail process",
"Online shopper confusion",
"Online store design",
"Shopping cart abandonment"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Current figures affirm the importance of online shopping for every industry. In 2013, 191.1 million US citizens shopped or browsed products, compared prices, and purchased goods online at least once. Business-to-consumer customers spent US$ 322 billion online in 2013, with the majority of this figure accounting for retail e-commerce sales (US$ 210.6 billion) (Statista.com, 2014). In general, companies strive to generate additional profit through online stores; however, many e-shops fail in this objective (Hausman and Siekpe, 2009). According to the website analytic provider Fireclick.com (2014), conversion rates are 3.8 percent, with a cart abandonment rate of 70 percent.\nLiterature review and model development: Ample studies in internet retailing have explored the role of attitude in predicting online shopping usage. Most of these studies draw on the technological acceptance model (TAM) (Davis, 1986), which represents an advancement of the theory of reasoned action (Fishbein and Ajzen, 1975). The two main constructs of the TAM are perceived ease of use and perceived usefulness, both of which predict attitude toward a new technology and, in turn, usage intentions and actual use (Davis, 1986). For example, Childers et al. (2001) report that online store characteristics affect ease of use, perceived usefulness, and enjoyment. The importance of these constructs for determining attitude toward interactive online shopping varies depending on the shopping context (hedonic vs utilitarian). Another study (Ha and Stoel, 2009) confirms the importance of these three constructs in determining attitude toward online shopping and, in turn, online shopping intention. In addition, the authors emphasize the relevance of website design as a predictor of e-shopping quality, which reflects an antecedent of trust, ease of use, and enjoyment. In confirmation of this result, Al-Debei et al. (2015) reveal that website quality (defined as \"the extent to which the web site design and processes are simple, smooth, reliable and effective,\" p. 710) determines the attitude toward online shopping. Accordingly, research has recognized the importance of website design in determining online shopping acceptance. More recently, studies exploring consumers' online shopping behavior have successfully employed Mehrabian and Russell's (1974) stimulus-organism-response (S-O-R) model as a theoretical framework (Koo and Ju, 2010; Li et al., 2012). In contrast with the TAM, the S-O-R model does not explore consumers' acceptance of new technologies in early adoption stages (Al-Debei et al., 2015), but rather explains why shoppers react with approach or avoidance behavior to certain internet environments. Thus, Mehrabian and Russell's environment psychological model offers an appropriate theoretical foundation to explore the construct online shopper confusion.\nConsequences of online shopper confusion: In contrast with an interesting or a complex website design (which might result in positive responses at moderate levels; Mai et al., 2014), confusion implies nothing positive about a website, causing negative consumer reactions (see Figure 1). Consumers tend to dislike confusing physical service or retail encounters (Bitner, 1992), resulting in low revisit intentions (Garaus and Wagner, 2016). Revisit intentions are related to actual purchase behavior, and hence reflect an important determinant of internet retailing (Zheng et al., 2017). Negative experiences influence behavior more strongly than positive experiences (Baumeister et al., 2001), so shoppers will likely not return to a confusing online store because they neither enjoy the online shopping experience nor fulfill their shopping trip efficiently.\nMethodology: From an epistemological perspective, this research follows a positivist research approach. In line with this paradigm, the overall objective of the empirical studies is to generate reliable and valid results. Particular effort is devoted to the minimization of the subjective influence of the researcher (Becker and Niehaves, 2007). To achieve this aim and avoid inherent method biases (Davis et al., 2011), the methodological part of the research employs a sequential mixed-method design using within- (Study 1) and across-method triangulation (Study 2 and Study 3) (see Jick, 1979). Such a research design benefits from strong and robust results with a high degree of external validity (Davis et al., 2011). In addition, the mixed-method design offers a holistic understanding of the phenomenon of online shopper confusion (Jick, 1979).\nDiscussion: While various studies have demonstrated the effect of physical surroundings in brick-and-mortar stores, the research on the influence of online store design on consumer behavior is still at the beginning stage. Considering that online retailers have operated only for 20 years (e.g. Amazon.com), compared with traditional retailing, which has existed for more than 100 years, the lack of knowledge on online shoppers' responses to specific online store elements is not surprising. The current study attempts to contribute to a better understanding of consumers' mental states and behavioral responses during the internet retail process.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to introduce the new construct online shopper confusion and to identify online confusion causes and consequences.\nDesign/methodology/approach: Data obtained from a projective technique and a quantitative study were analyzed to identify online shopper confusion causes. Two experiments employing different stimulus materials tested the conceptualized consequences of online shopper confusion.\nFindings: Confusing online store elements are classified into three online confusion causes. Data yielded from two experiments using fictitious and real shopping scenarios as stimulus material show that a confusing internet retail process leads to negative consumer reactions.\nResearch limitations/implications: The resulting taxonomy of confusing online store elements offers guidance on the creation of non-confusing online shopping trips, and highlights the relevance of a non-confusing internet retail process. Online shopper confusion is linked to negative behavioral reactions. Consequently, this research offers an explanation for undesirable consumer reactions in internet retailing.\nPractical implications: The findings provide practitioners with concrete insights into how the internet retail process confuses shoppers which help to assess the confusion potential of their existing online stores and consider confusion issues in the development of new online stores.\nOriginality/value: This research is the first to explore confusion during the internet retail process. The multi-method approach offers highly valid insights into the causes and consequences of online shopper confusion.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
Egyptian patients' perceptions of using personal health records (PHRs): an exploratory study
|
[
"Egypt",
"Privacy",
"Surveys",
"Public hospitals",
"Personal Health Records",
"Patients’ perception"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n__NO_TITLE__: PHRs have the potential to enhance consumer empowerment, consumer-provider communication, access to data in emergencies, chronic disease management, and behavioral change (Kim and Nahm, 2012, p. 1).\nIntroduction: The great industrial and technological progress currently witnessed in the world has been accompanied by significant advances in many sectors, including the health sector; both in patients and in health systems. This refers not only to the evolution of theories and tools but also diagnosing patients and the handling of personal medical records. This has necessitated the creation of efficient systems to save and retrieve information optimally. One of the most important of these systems is the so-called \"Personal Health Records\" (PHRs), referring to information about the person's health that is managed by a medical platform, whether by a hospital, a specialized medical clinic or any health center. PHRs may contain a history of medical conditions, treatment, measures, aversions, medications, immunizations, results of health tests, X-rays, scans and similar information. Such records retain a detailed overview of everything that a patient may want to know to manage his/her health well. The goal of PHRs, as stated by Househ et al. (2014), is to encourage patients and health-care consumers to assume individual accountability for their health and to engage in the health-care process. The emergence of PHRs has made individual health information more readily accessible to a wide range of users, including patients, physicians and health-care providers. According to Mossaed et al. (2015), PHRs have the potential to enable and empower patients by providing them with access to their medical health records. Such access, as stated by Wiljer et al. (2008), offers great promise for improving patients' health and satisfaction with their care, as well as improving regulatory and professional procedures in health care. Giving patients power over their own PHRs may reflect the responsibility of vigorous participation in the management and accuracy of one's own personal health-care information and health. This may also help patients understand, manage and share health data more effectively. However, increased accessibility of PHRs also threatens the confidentiality, security and the privacy of private health information. Therefore, the need for robust and reliable forms of verification is a big concern (Bonney, 2011).\nProblem statement: The PHR is considered a vital part of improving patient outcomes. When physicians do not have access to patients' documentation, as seen by Ewing (2007), there may be an increased possibility of receiving the wrong medication or treatment. However, the rate of adoption by the vast majority of Egyptian patients still remains very low. Despite the potential benefits and widespread use of electronic medical records (EMRs) in other countries (especially developed countries), their use is still weak among patients in Egypt and similar emerging economies. Thus, this study represents serious research to investigate how Egyptian patients perceive such potential benefits and use, as well as to determine the perceived barriers to using them.\nPurpose and significance of the study: The basic purpose of this exploratory study is to investigate the perception and concern of Egyptian patients using governmental hospitals or health centers or clinics about the use of PHRs, as well as the benefits of, barriers to and use of these medical records. Understanding such perceptions will significantly aid in eliminating barriers and accelerating the adoption and use of these records to improve patient care. In recognition of the significance of its subject and area, this study, which is considered the first of its type and scope not only in the Egyptian environment but also in the Arab world, attempts to investigate the use and non-use of PHRs by Egyptian patients. In fact, there are limited studies in this area. Most of the studies conducted on this subject were conducted mainly in countries with leadership in this area, such as the USA and Europe.\nObjectives of the study: The four key objectives of this study are:\nDefinitions of terms: Personal health records\nPersonal health record's components: The patient's medical record may consist of the following components:\nTypes of personal health records: According to Waegemann (2005), PHRs could have five types, as follows:\nBenefits of personal health records use: The increasing focus on PHRs offers significant benefits to patients. As stated by Kim and Nahm (2012), the following are the top five benefits of to using PHRs, as follows:\nLiterature review: Despite knowledge that increased access of patients to their PHRs has a positive impact on their health, there are few studies conducted to investigate the usability of these medical records from patients' perspectives. Despite the significant attention paid, worldwide, regarding the use of PHRs, the interest in this topic remains weak in the Egyptian context. Through a deep chronicle review of the literature, this research found a large number of studies on PHRs; however, unfortunately, these did not include any studies from either Arab or Egyptian researchers. In one example, Kim and Huber (2017) surveyed 202 participants, identifying three groups with different levels of familiarity with Personal Health Information Management (PHIM) in terms of their demographics, health knowledge, technological capability and information sources, as well as obstacles. The findings showed that the most advanced group was the youngest, and the basic group contained the highest number of males, whereas the intermediate group was the oldest and contained the fewest males. The advanced group was significantly more likely to engage in provider- or hospital-initiated PHIM activities, such as communicating with providers, seeing test results online and getting summaries of hospital visits through the use of emails or websites, than the other groups. The basic group had significantly lower information management skills and internet use than the other two groups. Both the advanced and basic groups showed noteworthy differences with regard to several information barriers.\nResearch questions: In accordance with its four objectives as well as the questions contained in its questionnaire, this study was designed to answer the four following research questions:\nMethods/design: This study aims to explore the perception of Egyptian patients using government hospitals to treat diseases to perform necessary medical examinations or even to check their medical records for a specific purpose. To meet this goal, the study used a survey, which did not in any way mean the identification of any category or groups of patients, as well as their size. It was limited to Egyptian patients in public hospitals to identify their knowledge and use or non-use of PHRs. As far as possible, the study attempted to survey a large number of patients, but the researcher was unable to obtain an adequate response from many patients who received a copy of the questionnaire. This study may be the first of its kind and hopes that future studies will achieve greater patient representation and participation. The survey was undertaken from January to February 2018. Survey research, as stated by Trochim (2006), is one of the most important areas of measurement in social research. The survey instrument of this study was a self-administrated questionnaire, which was specifically designed in Arabic to collect basic data from the study community covering patients in public hospitals.\nSampling size and representation: As Table I shows, the selected patients for this study represent the four geographical sections of Egypt (North, Delta, Greater Cairo and Upper Egypt). The researcher sought to reach as many Egyptian patients as possible across a range of existing government hospitals and outpatient clinics, but because of the vast size of Egypt, it was difficult to represent all patients with access to PHRs. The sample taken for this research, therefore, was generated using a purposive sampling technique, as suggested by Alston and Bowles (2003). The researcher reached 119 patients who were willing to answer the questionnaire of the study. Seven of the responses were not usable and hence were excluded. Therefore, the number of valid questionnaires, which were coded with the help of Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS), version 21.1, was 112. Analysis of variance (ANOVA), a statistical model, which tests if there are any significant differences among means or not, has been used.\nGeneral findings of the study: Based on the order of the items listed in its questionnaire, the findings of this study are systematized. They are also handled in terms of the answer of the four study questions. The sample of the survey consisted of valid responses from 112 patients. Of this number, 45 patients were found to use PHRs representing 40.2 per cent of the total sample, and 67 patients were found to not use them representing 59.8 per cent of the total sample.\nThe profile of egyptian patients using personal health records: Regarding the answer to RQ2, the findings showed that the highest percentage of PHRs users (55.6 per cent) showed that they had been using these records from 6 to 15 min, followed by less than 5 min (31.1 per cent), from 16 to 30 min (8.9 per cent) and over 31 min (4.4 per cent) (Table VI).\nDiscussions and conclusions: Patients' medical information plays an important role in their lives. Access to this information helps them manage their health well. One of the key factors in the empowering of patients is to provide them with proper access to information relating to their health. The medical records that preserve this information also play an important role in the management of patients' health.\nThe limitations of the study: This study has some limitations to consider in terms of the interpretation of findings. One of these considerations is the small sample size, although it is represented by the four administrative divisions comprising Egypt (North Egypt, Delta Egypt, Middle Egypt and Upper Egypt), which does not imply or reflect any bias by the researcher. In addition, this study only focuses on those Egyptian patients that are currently using PHRs. Any findings and conclusions resulting from this study are limited in scope to only those patients that actively use PHRs. As it is an exploratory study, the results of this study cannot be used for generalization outside of its own research environment.\nRecommendations for further research: This study has identified a range of issues and factors that deserve further consideration and research. Such issues may be used as a foundation for researchers who are interested in exploring how to best use medical records among Egyptian patients. As far as possible, the researcher tried to reveal all issues, factors, characteristics as well as concerns that affect the use and non-use of PHRs by Egyptian patients. However, there are some issues and other factors that require further research. Once addressed, this may lead to a better understanding of the use of these medical records, which, in turn, would increase the awareness and willingness of Egyptian patients to adopt these records along with increasing interest in them. In fact, despite the widespread interest in PHRs in developed countries, interest in developing countries, such as Egypt, has not yet received proper attention. In line with Erasmus (2014), patients with poorer socioeconomic backgrounds should be examined with a view to identifying the problems related to their demography to work toward solving them, or at least minimizing their effects and consequences. As the PHR non-users investigated in this study lacked awareness and knowledge about the potential benefits of these medical records, along with some other influential problems and barriers, they should be provided with a suitable environment to endorse their use. Supported by Showell (2017), better understanding of how the effect of barriers is established, how that effect can be refuted and how planning and implementation of PHR initiatives can grant patients more access to adopt and use their PHRs, with proper actions to alleviate the effect of those barriers is highly needed. Further research is also needed to detect the differences between PHRs users and non-users to consider and work on and to solve the barriers to adoption. Regarding this matter, decision and policy makers and officials of the Egyptian health sector should understand the reasons that led to the existence of such differences and the perceptions of both patients and doctors. Supported by Hargreaves (2010), as PHRs hold great promise to enhance patients' access to health information, government, vendors and insurance companies should persuade health providers and patients to implement PHRs. Similarly, patients need to become more aware of PHRs and their capacity to recover health outcomes. Consistent with Horden et al. (2011), policy initiatives should address issues related to the use of PHRs, including peer-to-peer online support groups, self-management/self-monitoring applications and the use of the internet to ensure that the consumer e-health services can be effective and safely accessed. In agreement with Wiljer et al. (2008), health-care professionals, as well as medical organizations, should consider the potential benefits and risks of patient access when designing strategies for using EHRs. Flexible solutions should be integrated to engage patients as partners in their health care.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: This paper aims to investigate the perception of Egyptian patients about the use of personal health records (PHRs).\nDesign/methodology/approach: A quantitative research methodology was adopted in the form of a survey.\nFindings: Over one-third of the selected sample was found to use PHRs. The study found that the use of PHRs by Egyptian patients was moderate. All PHRs users confirmed that they were very interested in the doctors' notes and the laboratory reports recorded in their records. A very large number of PHR users confirmed that their use of these records was at least fairly easy for them and all of them confirmed that the use of these records was at least fairly useful. Above two-third of PHR users answered at least \"somewhat yes\" that their PHRs were accurate and over half of them answered at least \"somewhat yes\" that their PHRs were complete. The highest percentage of PHR users agreed that the use of PHRs would enhance their trust in their doctors and nurses. Close to half of PHR users expressed some concern about sharing their records. Violation of privacy in the use of these medical records, followed by the complexity of using them, as well as lack of awareness about them, was also significant to PHR users.\nOriginality/value: Understanding Egyptian patients perceptions of using PHRs may significantly aid in eliminating barriers and accelerating the adoption and use of these records to improve patient care.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
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