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Pedagogical reforms within a centralised-decentralised system: A Singapore's perspective to diffuse 21st century learning innovations	[ "Innovation diffusion", "Twenty-first century learning", "School autonomy", "Centralised-decentralisation", "Ecosystem carryover", "Pedagogical reforms" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: The education system in Singapore has over the years accorded increased autonomy to schools. However, centralisation has not been repudiated. The government still espouses that schools remain rooted to the system of central coordination by the Ministry of Education (MOE) to ensure that the education ends are met (Ng, 2010). Centralisation forces are thus concomitantly coupled to school autonomy initiatives. This unique quality is what Ng (2008) terms as \"centralised-decentralisation\". School autonomy in Singapore does not mean being given a carte blanche in having a free reign in implementing reforms. Rather, the Singapore system has been described as having a \"tightly coupled\" network, where the three key bodies of Education, namely, the MOE, National Institute of Education (NIE) and schools, share responsibility and accountability in a unified manner (OECD, 2011).\n2. Historical trajectory of school autonomy in Singapore: In the following sections, attention will be drawn to a central ideology of a \"tight-loose-tight\" system of policies and execution strategies that, despite many years of adjustments, have never wavered in its pragmatic approach of educating \"a child to bring out his greatest potential so that he will grow up into a good man and useful citizen\" (Goh and the Education Study Team, 1979).\n3. System's responses to twenty-first century learning: The MOE recognises the complications in negotiating the tight/loose; centralised/decentralised boundaries. On the one hand, reforms will have limited effectiveness and poor sustainability, if they are insufficiently flexible to take advantage of local opportunities while accommodating certain \"unmovable local constraints\" (Thompson and Wiliam, 2008). On the other hand, a reform has to conform to its central principles, if there is to be any hope of realising its desired outcomes. MOE has made attempts to negotiate these boundaries when executing their policies, in particular for twenty-first century learning.\n4. Lessons learned from history and current developments: Overall, an important lesson that can be learned from the history of Singapore's educational policies is that a centralised system which has promoted efficiency in the past may impede, albeit unintentionally, on innovation in the present context. When standardised didactic instruction was the norm, it lent itself well to the top-down roll-out approach. However, such an approach would probably not sit well when it comes to the cultivation and facilitation of twenty-first century process-oriented skills which are contextualised and emergent in nature. Concomitantly, new technologies which are often touted as having the potential to transform the interaction of the teacher and learner (OECD, 2003) often add unpredictable complexities due to their protean nature that should be best tackled and addressed at the ground level of schools.\n5. Two case illustrations of leveraging pedagogical autonomy for twenty-first century learning innovations: Both NLS and CS are considered \"intrinsic\" (Stake, 1995) cases as they have a decade-long experience of harnessing technology to create twenty-first century learning environments. These schools have gained local and international accolades for their seemingly successful integration of technology into their curriculum, pedagogy and assessment and re-organised resources from within the school to help other schools adopt the innovation during the propagation endeavour (Toh et al., 2014). Data for the two qualitative case studies is drawn from interviews of school leaders, middle managers and teachers as well as observations of lessons, professional learning communities and dialogues with stakeholders.\n6. Common ecosystem carryover effects observed in the two illustrations: 6.1 Structural carryover effects\n7. Discussion and implication: The two case illustrations exemplify the tight-loose-tight and middle-out framework at play. Both leveraged on MOE's loose policies of 21 century competencies. The \"tight\" aspects of LxC innovation are expectations of fidelity to the spirit of inquiry-based learning and the technical configuration of common suite of technological tools. The \"loose\" aspect refers to the flexibility given to teachers in terms of the actual enactment of the co-designed lesson plans as well as the pace of innovation diffusion within respective participating schools. Such a distributed leadership approach requires the cultivation of teacher leaders at the middle-out level to perform the desired roles and functions. The tight accountability aspect can be seen from the school's efforts to monitor learning gains by working closely with university researchers and to constantly present evidence of students' learning gains not just in content mastery but in twenty-first century learning process-oriented outcomes. The role of champion teacher (Jacklyn) from NLS is the \"middle\" actor who oversees the centralised orchestration of pedagogy through the PLCs that she facilitated. For CCT, the \"tightness\" is manifested through the professional development courses organised by the school's nation-wide academy for digital-age learning and the common mobile-based learning application that linked the schools together. It is \"loose\" in terms of the implementation by schools (from MOE's system perspective) and \"tight\" again when it comes to evaluating the impact of innovation based on the school's internal rubrics. MOE's stance is not to micro-manage schools but to put in place mechanisms and accountability structures and processes. In both case studies, the cluster platform and the middle managers act as a strong pedagogical, socio-technological and financial brokers outside the formal collaborative structures organised by the MOE. Such a \"middle-out\" approach resulted in boundary-spanning linkages and multiplier effects in terms of knowledge spillovers, suggesting the levelling up of teacher capabilities where new knowledge remains as a critical ingredient of innovation. As NLS adopts a longitudinal co-design model, the perils of dependency and the use of quick fixes associated with the notion of partnerships (Muijs, 2015) are mitigated.\n8. Conclusion: The Singapore system is currently witnessing the maturing of the centralisation-decentralisation dialectics where the middle layer has become increasingly instrumental in engendering reforms, which is promulgated by decentralisation efforts centred on pedagogical enactment. There is nascent effort to conceptualize how centralised-decentralisation efforts to provide schools with more autonomy can lead to the spread of school-based innovations in this paper. We have also provided some preliminary empirical evidence of how the co-production of knowledge has been engendered within, across and beyond individual Singapore schools through the four ecosystem carryover effects. We articulated that the middle out approach needs to be complemented by centralised socio-cultural infrastructures so that the embodied knowledge of innovations which is originally residing at the micro level of individuals or meso level of schools can be consolidated at the broader levels of network or systems. The synergy between individual schools, clusters of networks and the system can be discerned by looking at whether knowledge co-creation exists across the various subsystems. It is through the alignment of enabling connections that the diffusion of twenty-first century learning can happen in a concerted fashion. Herein, the unit of analysis is the whole innovation ecosystem in order for us to gain a holistic understanding of how innovations travel in Singapore's context. The establishment of lateral networks within, across and beyond schools shows that a buoyant innovation ecosystem is one that engages in symbiosis. It is not about transforming one component but all the components in the ecosystem in a coherent manner.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to illustrate the dialectical interplay between centralisation and decentralisation forces so as to understand how schools leverage on its autonomous pedagogical space, influence the diffusion of innovations in the educational landscape of Singapore and how a centralised-decentralised system supports (or impedes) pedagogical reform for twenty-first century learning.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The paper first outlines the evolutionary stance of Singapore's decentralisation from its past to present trajectories, thus providing a broader social-historical interpretation to its tight-loose-tight coupling of the education system; followed by situating the context of reform within the national narrative of Ministry of Education's (MOE) twenty-first century competencies framework. The authors examine how school autonomy should be accompanied by systemic enabling mechanisms, through two case illustrations of whole-school reforms.\nFindings: There are four carryover effects that the authors have observed: structural, socio-cultural, economic and epistemic. Middle managers from the two schools act as a pedagogical, socio-technological and financial broker outside the formal collaborative structures organised by the MOE. Such a \"middle-out\" approach, complemented by centralised mechanisms for \"coeval sensing mechanism\", has resulted in boundary-spanning linkages and multiplier effects in terms of knowledge spillovers.\nResearch limitations/implications: Socio-cultural context matters; and what constitutes as co-learning between policymakers and practitioners in Singapore may be construed as policing that stifles innovations in other contexts.\nOriginality/value: In addition to the conceptualisation of how school autonomy may lead to school-based innovations, the paper provided some preliminary empirical evidence of how the co-production of knowledge has been engendered within, across and beyond individual Singapore schools through the mechanism of innovation diffusion. The unit of analysis is innovation ecosystem.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Revisiting learning outcomes from market led ICT outsourcing	[ "Outsourcing", "Process management", "Project management" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1 Introduction: Information and communication technology (ICT) is a set of products offering data and value-added services including remote access, desktop management and public switched telephone networks (Ojiako, 2005). ICT plays a significant role in the global economy (Ojiako et al., 2005), and within organisations, it serves as a core intellectual component of the organisation's resilient infrastructure (Maguire and Ojiako, 2007). ICT also enables business transformation; supports re-design initiatives and also enable organisations to deliver flexible services in step with constantly changing customer demands (Maguire and Ojiako, 2008). This means that the ability of an organisation to link its business goals and ICT implementation goals is essential for the survival of majority of organisations (Maguire, 2002, 2004; Ojiako et al., 2004).Over the last few years, there has been an increase in academic and business research on the perceived role of ICT and the role of ICT on business performance (Leek et al., 2003; Melville et al., 2004; Tallon, 2007). Primarily, this has been by organisations which have recognised that they lack the necessary competence and capabilities to leverage their ICT infrastructure (Pai and Basu, 2007). For most organisations seeking to leverage their technology competencies (Tippins and Sohi, 2003; Gonzalez-Alvarez and Nieto-Antolin, 2005), ICT outsourcing has continued to appear as an attractive option (Allen et al., 1998; Austin et al., 2001; Aubert and Croteau, 2005; Pai and Basu, 2007). Overall, the organisations should ensure that the ICT they develop is \"market-led\" otherwise their staff will be disappointed with the service that is provided by either internal ICT or outsource vendors (Maguire and Ojiako, 2008). ICT outsourcing often involves many parties and stakeholders. As a business process, outsourcing is a complex process (Baldwin et al., 2001), involving more than simply transferring resources and functionalities. Usually, there are other factors which have to be taken into consideration. These include legal (Pai and Basu, 2007), and management factors (Gottschalk and Karlsen, 2005). Other factors include organisational structure (Barthelemy and Geyer, 2005), security (Power and Forte, 2005; Hunter, 2003; Karabulut et al., 2007; Kennedy and Clark, 2006; Khalfan, 2004; Todd et al., 2006) and cultural (Barthelemy and Geyer, 2000; Aubert et al., 2005).A development from the world of electricity power generation (Austin et al., 2001), ICT outsourcing as a concept is not new. It has existed since around the 1960s when organisations began to explore the possibility of procuring their ICT products and services from outside their firms. It was very common for firms to outsource payroll when hardware and software were expensive. Sparrow (2003) highlights that as early as 1963, companies such as Frito-Lay and Blue Cross were already outsourcing parts of their ICT service provision to EDS. In this paper, through an exploration of various constructs in ICT outsourcing we will attempt to reflect on the full complexity of ICT outsourcing through the re-examination of the critical success parameters of 11 ICT outsourcing projects within the service sector.\n2 Literature review: For ICT projects, changes in the business environment, both on a project level and at an organisational level, have had a major impact on how organisations think about their future resource management. There is now an increased acceptance that global markets have undergone regulatory changes. This means that the once familiar models of public monopoly have given way to an open competition market.Within the ICT industry, for the larger service providers and suppliers, there was now a major emphasis on reducing the transaction cost of projects especially with more aggressive competition from smaller software organisations (the majority created during the dot.com boom of the late 1990s) who are recognised as having smaller overheads. As a result, in order to remain competitive, the big ICT providers are now getting involved in major ICT projects which are often recognised as being cutting edge and difficult to implement.\n3 ICT outsourcing: The basic purpose of outsourcing is to create value (Samuel, 2004). Its underlying theory is primarily driven by work conducted by Porter (1985), who suggested that firms should manage their resources by optimizing transaction cost involved in outsourcing. In effect, ICT outsourcing works on the premise that there is a potential to reduce overall cost of ownership, take away the difficulties of running non-core ICT functions, while introducing new, high value functionalities which will enable user efficiency and business agility (Ojiako, 2005).The ability of an organisation to outsource it ICT infrastructure depends on various factors (Gottschalk and Solli-Saether, 2005; Oh, 2005; Claver et al., 2002a, b). These factors include for example the organisation's culture (Allen et al., 2002; Graf and Mudambi, 2005), its ability to manage customer-vendor relationships (Lee, 2001; Kedia and Lahiri, 2007; Goo et al., 2007), security capabilities (Power and Forte, 2005; Hunter, 2003; Karabulut et al., 2007; Kennedy and Clark, 2006; Khalfan, 2004; Todd et al., 2006) and people management (Jensen et al., 2007).To an extent, it appears that the question of outsourcing relates to the firm's existence itself (Nellis and Parker, 2002; Hafeez et al., 2007). Another perspective is provided by Lonsdale (1999), who suggested that the old issue of defining a firm's boundary is a critical component of outsourcing. This is especially true as the firm's very existence depends on the managers' perception on what is to be produced internally, what is to be acquired from the external market and the organisational competencies required to support the required transformation. Firms may outsource any activity where transaction cost is lower than the in-house production cost (Nellis and Parker, 2002). They will also consider outsourcing their ICT infrastructure and supporting processes where there is clear evidence of a lack of ICT competency (Tippins and Sohi, 2003; Ritter and Gemunden, 2004). In effect, ICT outsourcing has to be driven by a need to achieve organisational efficiencies.There are various reasons why ICT outsourcing is popular. For example, Udo (2000) highlights a realisation amongst companies that ICT outsourcing provides an opportunity for organisations to access cheap and skilled resources. Chen and Soliman (2002) suggest that some firms view ICT outsourcing as a means of coping with a fast changing technology, while Tiwana and Keil (2007) point to organisations recognising the advantages of specialisation which is enhanced by removing non-core activities from the focus of the organisation's operations. Other reasons have been identified by scholars such as Florin et al. (2005), Tafti (2005), Gonzalez et al. (2005a, b) and Kshetri (2007).It is however important to note that not all ICT outsourcing initiatives are successful (Hirschheim and Lacity, 2000), with as many as 44 per cent of ICT outsourcing customers actively considering changing their vendors (Cox et al., 2005).\n4 Theoretical framework and data collection: The research follows exploratory, descriptive methods of case study approach. Here, each ICT outsourcing project was regarded as a case unit of research. Using this approach, data were collected from the various cases by interviewing managers responsible for the delivery of each of the projects in question. The research employs the analysis of current practices (exploratory) against the existing theory (descriptive) to explain what is happening in practice (Collis and Hussey, 2003). Since the prospective cases were global in nature, participative enquiry and action research were not seen as practical. During the case study, a cross-case analysis was conducted in order to identify the patterns across various cases by analyzing the similarities and differences between various cases (Collis and Hussey, 2003).It was seen as feasible to use multiple cases as no attempt at statistical generalisation was being attempted. As a result, there was no reason to use a single generalised case in our study.A total of 11 senior managers working across ICT outsourcing projects were interviewed to gleam as much information possible. The interviews were carried out over a three-month period. Table I provides the details of the cases.The following section interprets the key findings from the 11 research cases. A total of ten parameters (Figure 1) are presented.These themes are based on top critical success factors identified by scholars such as Kini (2007), Pai and Basu (2007), Tafti (2005), Power et al. (2004), Claver et al. (2002a) and Zhu et al. (2001). The parameters include as follows.4.1 Business objectives\n5 Conclusions: In this paper, we present the results of a re-examination of the critical success parameters of ICT outsourcing. The parameters are revisited by conducting a detailed analysis of data collected from both questionnaires and interviews. Two themes emerged. In the first place, we found that the critical success parameters associated with ICT outsourcing are a little different from those which are applicable from other ICT-based implementation projects. In addition, we found that in some cases, there appears to be major differences between presented theory and actual industry practice as relates to ICT outsourcing. In other cases, similarities between presented theory and actual industry practice were found. The problem however was that both scenarios were not clear cut, so an impression of conformance between theoretical knowledge and actual practice was often accompanied by caveats.The final point relates to slight contradictions in the results from the cases and the need for organisations to attempt to reconcile these differences. We however recognise that to an extent, this rekindles the debate on the relationship between theory and practice, and perhaps fundamentally, whether theory should influence practice, or whether practice should influence theory, and possibly crucially, what happens in cases where there appears to be contradictions between the two. The contradictions are detailed in Table II, while the overall lessons learned are detailed in Table III.One example of this is in the area of customer value. A failure of the customer to engage with the vendor at an early stage can lead to major problems later on in the relationship. This research has been able to focus on the interface between the customer and the vendor. Even though the original signing of the contract is an important stage, it is crucial that the relationship is developed and nurtured by both parties for the good of the project. The slight contradictions between theory and practice identified in the study calls for further work to be conducted in this area. Further research using a wider study sample will need to be conducted in order for management lessons that emerge to be applicable across a wider business perspective.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: - Today's global business is heavily dependent on information and communication technology (ICT). The reality for most organisations is that the rate of technology change has been extremely fast. To cope with these changes, some organisations are committing a large amount of resources. Such challenges make it difficult for some companies to invest in ICT, resulting in a need to re-think their business models. One such approach which has proved popular over the last few years is to outsource ICT. However, not all ICT outsourcing projects have been totally successful. The paper aims to explore various constructs in ICT outsourcing.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - The aim is achieved by conducting studies on 11 ICT outsourcing projects within the service sector.\nFindings: - In future, customers will be looking for value-added services while focusing less on outsourcing as a cost-cutting exercise. There is also an added pressure on the customers and vendors to ensure that the original business case to justify outsourcing is robust.\nResearch limitations/implications: - The research is conducted with a limited sample of ICT outsourcing projects. For this reason, many of the conclusions in this paper are generalisations. Further research will need to be conducted in order for the lessons that emerge to be applicable across a wider business perspective.\nOriginality/value: - The paper takes a longer term perspective on the interface between customers and vendors in outsourcing projects. However, globally, this sector is very fluid and it is crucial that organisations understand the complexity of the relationships. This paper does not specifically seek to add to the existing body of knowledge on ICT outsourcing, but rather it serves as an opportunity to reflect on the full complexity of ICT outsourcing.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Current state and perspective of water management policy in terms of climate change: Case study of the Velika Morava River	[ "Climate change", "Hydrological projections", "Integrated water management", "Serbian water policy", "Velika Morava river" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: Water management parties are continuously facing many challenges related to the future water demand and availability. Problems related to the impacts of climate change on water resources are the most important issues today, which involve scientists (particularly hydrologists, experts in environmental sciences, as well as experts in social and related scientific areas), decision-makers, stakeholders and the affected population. Considering climate change, the perception of the people located in certain areas corresponds to observed increasing long-term temperature trends, while the perception of decreasing rainfall does not match records because they do not show any clear pattern (Sada et al., 2014).\n2. Regulation of water management: 2.1 Legal framework of water management in the EU\n3. Case study of the Velika Morava River Basin (Serbia): The research addressed the Velika Morava River Basin which represents the major river system in Serbia, located in South East Europe (Figure 1). The Velika Morava River is the longest tributary of the Danube, with a total length of 493 km and a basin area of 37,444 km2, which is 42.4 per cent of the land area of Serbia. The specific water yield for the Velika Morava River Basin is 6.27 l/s/km2, while that of the Zapadna and Juzna Morava is 7.15 l/s/km2 and 6.08 l/s/km2, respectively. One should note that the distribution of water yield in the Velika Morava River Basin is non-homogeneous, with a decreasing gradient from the west to the south.\n4. Recommendations for integrated water management as impacted by climate change: The hydrological projection for the Velika Morava River indicates a significant change in the annual flow pattern and seasonal flow distribution (Table I, Figure 3). The decreasing future flows and precipitation, on one hand, and increasing air temperature, on the other hand, might have some consequences on the water demand and ecological functioning of aquatic ecosystems. Thus, there is a need to involve measures to enhance water management practices, with particular emphasis on water-use efficiency in agriculture and households (Bates et al., 2008).\n5. Conclusion: The paper provides a detailed comparative analysis of international and national legislation in the water sector. In water regulation, Serbia follows the EU policy trends in the field of water management introduced by the WFD. Integrated water management is established by the Water Law (2010), but climate change impacts on water management are not addressed directly. Moreover, the adverse effects of climate change on the water sector have not been considered in the National Water Management Strategy (Strategy, 2016), although the impact of activities in the water sector on environmental protection has been analysed and presented in the report on strategic environmental assessment (2015). Additionally, a summary review of adaptation measures in selected sectors (water resources, agriculture, forestry and biodiversity) due to climate change is provided in the draft version of Serbia's First National Adaptation Plan (2015). The integrated water management policy could be interpreted as an adaptive water policy that could include impacts of climate change on water resource management, particularly the issue of water quality and quantity standards and water pollution control.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to set out the policy guidelines and recommendations to harmonise the Serbian water legislation with European Union standards in the area of water system management as impacted by climate change.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The EU Water Framework Directive is analysed in the context of implementation of the integrated water management policy presented in the Serbian Water Law (2010), as well as the National Water Management Strategy (2016). It has been found that the water management legislation that deals with the impact of climate change on water resources is incomplete. Although there are numerous challenges related to research of climate change and water systems, water policy and legal aspects cannot be neglected. The so-called soft law instruments represented in a form of strategy documents could be a valuable response in terms of an adaptive and integrated water policy approach.\nFindings: The research is applied to a case study of the Velika Morava River Basin, at Ljubicevski Most hydrological station. Long-term projections suggest a decrease in annual precipitation levels and annual flows up to the year 2100 for climatic scenarios A1B and A2, accompanied by a rapid increase in air temperatures.\nOriginality/value: This study proposes a water management policy and provides recommendations for the Velika Morava River Basin as impacted by climate change, according to the European Union legislation.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Customers' attitudes toward insurance frauds: an application of Adams' equity theory	[ "Attitude", "Equity theory", "Deductible", "Insurance fraud", "Premium" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Perceived fairness refers to a person's judgment of whether an effort vs the outcome obtained is acceptable, reasonable, and just (Ajzen et al., 2000). Previous research has shown that perceived fairness is one of the most important factors that affect the human exchange (Huppertz et al., 1978; Bolino and Turnley, 2008). It was found that a fair distribution of resource may increase people's trust and loyalty to the exchange. An unfair outcome distribution, on the contrary, could lead to very negative consequences (Singer et al., 2006; Cohen et al., 2007; Fisek and Hysom, 2008). Some commercial studies also indicated that perceived unfairness held a negative impact on customer satisfaction and purchase intentions (Tax et al., 1998; Homburg et al., 2005), and researchers further found that an unfair treatment (such as unfair pricing or price collusion) can lead to customer switch and customer revenge (Lapidus and Pinkerton, 1995; Bolton et al., 2003).\nLiterature: Perceived fairness and customer reactions\nMethodology: Many studies examining ethical decision making relied on questionnaire designs (O'Fallon and Butterfield, 2005). This study also designs randomized questionnaires in which three types of deductible-premium ratios are controlled in the scenarios. A modification of the scenario used by Miyazaki (2009) was employed (see Table I). In the scenarios, we use a market premium (we keep this premium the same across all questionnaires) as a reference point for calculating a fair deductible in the insurance market. We also keep the fraud size unchanged in the scenarios. The deductible-premium ratio is the only experimental intervention in the research design, and therefore if significant differences are found between the groups, it would be plausible to conclude that it is the deductible-premium ratio which made the difference (noticed that 30 NT dollars is about 1 US dollar in January of 2012). To ensure that participants are blind to the manipulations, participants are assigned to the control (Version A) and experimental groups (Versions B and C) and receive the intervention (the deductible-premium ratio) in the scenario randomly.\nResults: Means and standard deviations\nDiscussions: Conclusions\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: Although research on insurance frauds has found that deductible amount influences customers' attitudes toward insurance frauds, very little work has further investigated the roles of deductible-premium ratios and insurance experiences. Building on the foundations of Adams' equity theory, the authors examined the impact of the deductible-premium ratios on customers' attitudes toward insurance frauds. The authors also studied the relationship among the experience of applying claims, the reasons customers accept insurance frauds, and customers' intentions to carry out frauds. The paper aims to discuss these issues.\nDesign/methodology/approach: Survey was used, and the sample of this study comes from the full-time civil servants at the Agricultural Research Institutes in Taiwan.\nFindings: The results showed that the deductible-premium ratios may relate to the responders' perceptions of insurance frauds. In addition, the reasons customers accept frauds were also the influential predictors of the customer frauds.\nOriginality/value: Previous studies found that an unfair treatment by an insurer (e.g. an unfair deductible amount) may enhance customer insurance frauds. However, the \"fairness and fraud\" problems should involve the consideration of insurance premium because a high deductible amount is usually associated with lower premium. The other discussions of perceived fairness also accept that perceived fairness was often rooted in a social comparative situation. Based on the literature gap, this is the first time that Adams' equity theory is applied in the customer insurance fraud research.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Instant messaging: observations from two small e-commerce businesses	[ "Communication technologies", "Small enterprises", "Communication management", "Information systems", "Electronic commerce" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Small businesses are an important and integral part of every nation's economy. In the USA, small businesses account for almost one-half of the gross national product, create two-thirds of new jobs, and invent more than one-half of the technological innovations (US Small Business Administration, 2001). Faced with intensified competition, small businesses strive to extend their reach to a larger market and the operations of small businesses start to span over organizational and geographical distances. They are increasingly active in international markets (Etemad and Wright, 1999; Kleindl, 2000). Communication technologies are needed to cooperate efficiently with other organizations, reach more customers and make timely decisions. It is important for small businesses to develop sound communication technology management strategies (Southen and Tilley, 1999).However, small businesses are likely to be limited in financial, management, human, and information resources (Hussin et al., 2002). The exponential growth and the non-proprietary nature of the internet have made internet-based communication technologies (ICT) a good communication platform for small businesses. Among a variety of ICTs, instant messaging (IM) has become one of the leading communication forms. IM is a low-cost communication tool that is easy to implement and use. Many popular IM systems are available for free distribution, including Yahoo! Messenger, Microsoft Network Messenger, ICQ, etc. In addition, targeting business customers, software vendors also provide higher-priced enterprise version IM tools, such as Effusia, Jabber, Lotus Sametime, etc., which are often integrated with other enterprise applications such as workflow systems and go beyond the scope of traditional IM.IM has unique features such as real-time exchange of text, file and graphic icons, a contact list, presence awareness, \"pop-up\" recipient notification, and polychronic communication (simultaneous involvement with more than one conversation at the same time) (Rennecker and Godwin, 2003). Freely available IM comes with these features and is a natural choice for small businesses with limited financial resources and technical expertise. The use of IM might open up real-time communications internally and also externally with customers and partners to make an organization more responsive and possibly more competitive. In an initial estimate (July 2005), 85 percent of all enterprises in North America were reporting IM use and over 387 million IM users worldwide sent 13.8 billion IM messages per day (Symantec, 2006). Understanding the impact of IM to businesses and the best management practices are imperative for researchers and important for business managers, especially those of small businesses. However, very few studies have investigated how IM is used in small businesses and how small businesses should manage IM usage in order to gain and maintain organizational benefits. This paper aims to answer these two questions.The paper first reviews the existing literature from both the small businesses research field and the instant messaging field. Based on the literature review a case study research method is proposed. Then, two case studies are presented. The results of the case studies are compared and a cohesive picture of how small business can explore the use of IM is developed. The paper concludes with a discussion of the study in terms of contributions and limitations.\nLiterature review: Small business IS research\nResearch method: This paper adopts a two-case comparative case study approach. Previous small business IS research has largely deployed the quantitative method, which generalizes patterns from questionnaire data. It is rigorous in terms of statistical analysis but lacks the richness of contextual information to explain why a pattern exists (Mason and Mitroff, 1973). To understand the unique situation of IS in small business, qualitative and inductive method should be used (Swartz and Boaden, 1997).Benbasat et al. (1987) suggest three reasons of using a case study method for a specific research question. All three reasons exist in this research project and further justify the research method of this paper.First, case study method can be used when it is hard to study the phenomenon of interest outside of its natural setting. The purpose of this paper is to identify how small business can best exploit the potential of IM. It requires examination of managerial processes and organizational factors. It explores the question \"why\" and \"how\" by going beyond merely describing specific outcome variables. It aims to investigate the use of IM in the real settings of functioning small businesses to gain deep understanding of the complexity of this issue. It is almost impossible to study the plethora of issues, which might exist in real organizational settings, through a controlled study. Second, the study should focus on contemporary events and learn about the state of the art. Third, the case study is appropriate for a field where there is no established theoretical base. Instant messaging is an emerging technology. Few studies have been conducted to explore this issue. In addition, due to the unique technical, managerial and organizational characteristics of small businesses, theories developed in large corporation context cannot be automatically applied to the small business context (Swartz and Boaden, 1997). Small business IS theory is still in its formative stage and case study method should be used to induce more generalizable knowledge from the myriads of complex facts.The comparative case study fits well with the exploratory nature of the research question of this paper. In comparative case study, data are collected from each study site. The qualitative data collected can be analyzed through comparative analysis. This approach helps systematically derive important issues for different categories of organizations, or other entities of interest and generalize pattern across categories. Previous IS studies which adopted this approach found it effective (Blanton and Watson, 1992).Research sample selection\nResults: Overview of IM usage\nDiscussion: This study confirmed the potential of IM as a particular internet-based communication technology in productivity enhancement, knowledge sharing, relationship building and customer support. These benefits are associated with unique features of IM. For example, presence awareness can be used to monitor employee work hours; the multi-conversation feature of IM improves productivity; and the emotional icons sent in real time in conversation help build personal relationships. This finding contrasts with the general perception of IM as part of teenager pop culture (Drucker, 2000). However, it is not a very surprising finding in light of some CSCW studies which found that, compared to high-technology special purpose installations, teams may be better supported by relatively modest technologies accessed from desktop (Carletta et al., 2000). In the global economy, IM should be welcomed by small businesses, which needs low-cost yet productive communication technologies to communicate with more dispersed partners.This study found that the use of IM is more an organizational and managerial issue than a technical one. To fulfill the innovational opportunities of IM usage, creativity of the management is required and managers need to carefully examine their organizational situation and set an IM communication strategy. Vintin (1999) has confirmed the importance of a communication strategy for the small businesses. A more informal organizational culture and dispersed organizational structure will be a good environment to foster IM communication practices. This is an important finding in that traditionally the resource-constraint of small businesses focus on the costs of adopting new technologies in terms of technical support, user training and infrastructure. Low-cost, easy-to-use ICTs fit the simpler structure and smaller scale of operations of small businesses. When costs are no longer the number one concern, many other factors can be of deterministic importance to the successful utilization of information technologies. Managerial strategies and measures towards IT adoption and exploitation should receive due attention, in integration with a study of the unique small business environment.Another interesting finding of this study is that in small businesses, the single owner-manager makes decision about technology management and his/her experience or knowledge of that technology has great impact over company policy. For example, in Company B, the negative perception of the owner manager about IM seriously limited the use of IM in this company. This observation lens support with the existing small business organizational research in that small business often relies on one or two managers and that owner-manager is important driver for IT adoption in SME (Feltham et al., 2005; Beckinsael and Levy, 2004). Therefore, the attitude and perception of the owner managers plays an important role in IT management in small businesses. To software vendors and governmental agencies, it implies the importance of educating small business managers the utility of information technologies.In big corporations, strategic IT planning is usually conducted first before IT implementation to support business strategy and opportunities in order to realize IT benefits (Andresen et al., 2000). In the small businesses in this study, IM had already entered the organizations before any plan or policy was created. The small business management follows more a sense-and-respond way of dealing with IM management. For example, the manager of Company B ordered his employees not to use IM after he found one employee installed IM software. Managers in Company A originally used IM just for text messaging but gradually cultivated other IM potential benefits as their knowledge and experiences in IM use accumulated.In the literature review, it was found that there are security concerns with IM usage and increased IM usage may increase communication workload and thus result in productivity loss. The study did not find data related security concerns and increased communication load from IM usage. However, this may be due to the limited study sites of this study.It should be noted that, in this study, due to the limited research site availability, random sampling was not possible and two very small businesses with international operations were studied, but they may not represent many other types of domestic small businesses well. This reduces the generalizability of the research findings. Although the study informs managers of many small businesses which are seeking expansion in the globalizing economy , the findings of the study should be tested in more varied types of organization.\nConclusion: This study employs a comparative case study approach and provides a preliminary account of how IM can be used in various ways in a small business for organizational benefits. In the global economy, benefits of IM include low-cost yet productive communication technologies to communicate with more dispersed partners. The results suggest that small business managers play an important role in creating a constructive and creative communication strategy to achieve such benefits as productivity enhancement, knowledge sharing, relationship building and customer support. Small business managers should focus on the benefits of IM while remaining aware of the disadvantages of IM (i.e. security concerns, increased communication workload). In addition, managers should guide their employees with clear company policy as to how and where IM can be used to achieve the maximum benefits. The insights from this study should provide a practical guidance to small business practitioners regarding how to manage and guide IM use in a constructive manner. In addition, from the research perspective, it adds to the knowledge regarding how IM can be used in real business context. This study also sheds light on how IM management in small businesses may differ from that in big corporations:* IM is especially attractive to small businesses due to its low-cost nature;* owner-managers of small businesses play a critical role in IM management; and* IM management strategies are constructed after or while IM is already used in small businesses in contrast to the often proactive nature of IT planning in big corporations.In addition, this study raises important research opportunities for future IM research as it would be meaningful to test the findings of this study in more varied organizational contexts. The comparative case study approach in this study contrasted IM management in two small businesses and identified how one small business gained benefits while the other failed to do so. This way it draws lessons from two different situations at the same time and is therefore useful in finding the factors that constitute successful IM management. In future IM studies, comparative case studies could be conducted to contrast IM management in small businesses with that in big corporations in order to further our understanding on IM issues in real-world businesses.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: - Platform-independent low-cost instant messaging (IM) may allow small businesses with limited financial and technical resources to communicate and collaborate internally and externally. Little research has been done investigating IM in the small business context. This study seeks to address this research gap and to investigate how small businesses respond to and actively exploit the opportunities brought by IM.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - Two comparative case studies were conducted with two US small businesses. The research sites were selected based on the companies' IM usage pattern. Multiple data collecting methods were used including observation, interview, and IM transcripts. Open coding and qualitative data analysis were employed to get rich descriptive findings about IM usage.\nFindings: - IM was found beneficial to small businesses in several ways. The IM usage management is more a managerial issue than a technical one and a set of organizational and managerial factors were identified critical to the achievements of these benefits.\nOriginality/value: - This paper addresses a research gap and investigates the under-researched IM management issue. The study shows that creative and constructive usage of IM could bring a variety of organizational benefits to small businesses. The findings of this study provide guidance to IM researchers and small business practitioners as to how small businesses can manage IM to exploit its benefits. The comparative study method employed by this study also identifies situations where the utility of IM usage could be limited.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Trust and reputation in new ventures: insights from an Indian venture capital firm	[ "Developing countries", "Entrepreneurship", "Trust", "Reputation", "Venture capital" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n__NO_TITLE__: New ventures are considered risky, making traditional forms of investments inaccessible to them.\nXYZ VC Firm: a backdrop: XYZ was founded in 2009. Two successful entrepreneurs Alan and Brett were having a conversation about giving back to the Indian entrepreneurial ecosystem. Alan came up with the idea of a venture capital cum angel investment firm, where they would raise money from external investors and invest their own money in promising start ups. Their philosophy was that, some very early stage firms needed a much lesser amount of capital to kick start things. This would not normally be of interest to a regular venture capital firm, where a certain minimum amount of investment was necessary to make economic sense. Beyond the actual business idea or concept, they learned that two key criteria needed to be in place in order for them to be confident enough to invest: initial trustworthiness and reputation.\nTrust: Our major concern is whether the person can be trusted. He may have a great idea, an excellent team, everything. But we are more worried about the entrepreneur as an individual: what sums him up? - Brian.In the early stages of venture creation, uncertainty is very high. There is minimal information about the venture or the entrepreneur and not much of inkling about the future of the venture. In such dynamic situations, a vital question plagues VCs: how to decide whether to invest or not?In late stages, more information about the venture is available. Therefore, it is easier to make an invest/not invest decision. If past performance has been good, and there is no negative news about the venture, it becomes a suitable candidate for VC investment. A detailed contract can also be drawn up to cover future contingencies and any other areas about which the VC is concerned. However, in the early stages of a new venture the environment is extremely dynamic: there are few facts available on which to base decisions or draw up contracts and it's very risky to predict the future. Also, drawing up contracts is often not economically feasible since the amount invested is usually in the range of a million dollars. In order to overcome these difficulties, the VCs are now emphasizing on the trustworthiness of an entrepreneur.So, how does the VC decide whether an entrepreneur is trustworthy?Small signals act as indicators about an entrepreneur's trustworthiness, e.g. his attitude, whether he keeps promises, arrives on time, does whatever he says, is forthcoming about his limitations/failures etc. VCs, by virtue of their past entrepreneurial and investment experience, have, over years, developed an intuitive feeling, which warns them against fake or opportunistic behavior. They work towards developing this gut feeling and are therefore, not always \"rational\" in the manner through which they select/reject ventures. As Alan puts it quite bluntly:We always have a choice. The choice to not invest! If we somehow feel uneasy about the venture, we back off. It might seem irrational, but in hindsight, it has always worked.\nReputation: Reputation plays a key role here. The career of an entrepreneur or for that matter any individual is heavily dependent on his reputation - Alan.In India, and other developing economies where the legal system is yet to catch up with the rapidly growing VC-entrepreneur ecosystem, it becomes very difficult to legally enforce any contracts. Also, in the early stages, it can be too much of an economic burden on the venture. This is where reputation plays an important role.An entrepreneur's reputation has a deep correlation with his future success/failure. A good reputation can open up more opportunities, increasing the entrepreneur's probability of success by allowing him to raise future rounds at higher valuations and, increase his credibility in the market. However, when an entrepreneur behaves opportunistically, the cost of defection in terms of reputation damage is very high. Add to it, the extensive networks of the VCs, and the entrepreneur's career may well be over. After behaving opportunistically, in case the entrepreneur decides to launch a new venture or work in a job, reference checks by future potential investors (or indeed employers) can lead to unraveling of the entrepreneur's past behavior. The highly networked world of today facilitates these checks and can easily magnify any untoward behavior.In the pre internet era, people mainly relied on rumors. But, in today's heavily connected society, it's quite easy for us to check on people. One leaked e-mail, one inconspicuous yet revealing comment in a social networking site and in no time the news is out in the open - Alan.\nRecommendations for entrepreneurs and VCs: Recent instances of bad corporate governance practices and frauds in Indian entrepreneurial ventures have forced VCs to take notice of and assess an entrepreneur's credibility and reputation, which were earlier ignored. Based on this evolution in the VC's thinking, entrepreneurs should take care to develop their personal and work ethics, along with working on their ventures/ideas as well. They should refrain from unethical (yet still accepted in certain contexts) practices, e.g. paying bribes, lying, cheating etc., even though it appears advantageous to the venture in the short term. They should be extremely careful in protecting and managing their online/offline reputation by maintaining a clean background and fostering a transparent and open approach in dealing with stakeholders. Alan and Brett, as examples of the new breeds of VCs, are emphatic that they will only invest in \"trustworthy\" entrepreneurs. Having a good idea or a great team may not be sufficient to raise VC funding today. The entrepreneur has to depict enough credibility and commitment to persuade the VCs to consider investing in them.The VCs, in all stages, should take a cue from this case and put more emphasis on relationship building with the individuals in their portfolio companies. This will not only reduce their contracting costs, but will also reduce their monitoring costs. The probability of success of the venture will increase, as constructive, rather than monitoring and checking involvement from the VC's side will lead to value add through transferring of expertise, strategic advice and access to their networks. The VCs should also invest in developing their networks as this may help them in avoiding untrustworthy entrepreneurs and curb their possible opportunism.\nConclusion: Until recently, VCs have emphasized contractual mechanisms and traditional form of investment criteria to assess their investment choices. However, relying on these mechanisms only has led to varied instances of entrepreneur opportunism. This has led to a bad name for entrepreneurs at large, reducing their chances of raising VC money, in an already difficult financial market. Both parties therefore, have to take steps to develop their credibility so that the VC-Entrepreneur market in developing economies can become more efficient. The VCs can do their part by inculcating relationship management mechanisms in their investment behavior and entrepreneurs can do so by maintaining and presenting a clean track record, in addition to working hard towards developing their venture. It may seem a lot of effort on both sides, but the long term benefits for both parties far outweigh the costs incurred today.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: - This article aims to explore the importance of trust and reputation in new ventures that are raising venture capital.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - The article is based on an interview with founding partners of an eminent Indian venture capital firm, conducted by an independent interviewer.\nFindings: - Venture capitalists are moving from a more formal approach for investing to a more relational one. Other than traditional methods of selecting and protecting their investments, the venture capitalists are resorting to trustworthiness of entrepreneurs and reputation as vital deterrence mechanisms.\nPractical implications: - The findings can be utilized to reduce contracting costs and develop a more efficient venture capitalist-entrepreneur relationship.\nOriginality/value: - The article proposes new criteria which the entrepreneurs should be aware of before trying to raise venture finance.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Exploring the rationales for ERP and knowledge management integration in SMEs	[ "Manufacturing resource planning", "Knowledge management", "Small to medium‐sized enterprises", "Intellectual capital" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: During the last decade, the global economy has entered a new era where the future of enterprises will essentially be determined by their ability to use knowledge wisely. Knowledge is a precious global resource that is the embodiment of human intellectual capital and technology. The knowledge-based economy places great importance on the diffusion and use of information and knowledge, as well as its creation. In this new global economy, SMEs, being a vital part of any national economy, are obliged to focus on maintaining and enhancing their knowledge capital in order to innovate, and their ability to learn, adapt and change becomes a core competency for survival (Perry, 1999).In today's business environment, the success of a small business or a SME can be linked to how well they manage their knowledge (Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development, 2000; Desouza and Evaristo, 2003); knowledge to represent know-how, expertise, skills, ideas, intuitions and insights. SMEs compete on their know-how and hence have to use knowledge to their advantage, even more than traditional resources. SMEs normally do not have deep pockets to spend on resources such as land, labour and capital; they must do more with less. The knowledge kept in a SME must be leveraged so that goals can be achieved in an effective and efficient manner. Research (Nonaka, 1991; Rollo and Clarke, 2001; Bhatt, 2001) has shown that a knowledge-based company possesses information and knowledge that confer a special advantage, allowing it to manoeuvre with intelligence, creativity, and occasionally cunning.On the other hand, new information and communication technologies (ICT), expeditious data processing models, configurable platforms, networking and the internet have facilitated enterprises to gain access to external sources of knowledge and have provided them with the opportunity to foster intra/inter-organizational integration with the aim at achieving higher efficiency, effectiveness, better quality of services and minimisation of costs. In this context, enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems have been shown to be powerful ingredients in the success of enterprises (Davenport, 1998; Alsene, 2007). ERP is a strategic IT tool that helps a company to gain competitive advantage by integrating business processes and optimizing the resources available. Although ERP has been initially directed for use from large-scale enterprises, recent research has shown that SMEs have started adopting ERP solutions in order to gain competitive advantage and improve their position in the market (Maguire et al., 2007).In this framework, this paper examines these two important concepts - KM and ERP - in terms of their evolution and current development in SMEs, explores the rationales for their integration in SMEs by analysing key issues and problems, and presents a conceptual model for their integration.The paper is articulated into five further sections. The following two sections present a state of the art literature review on ICT and KM in SMEs, respectively. Section four discusses the rationales for their integration in SMEs by analysing key issues and problems and presents a conceptual model for their integration, while in section five conclusions and suggestions for further research undertakings are provided.\nSMEs and ICT: An overview\nSMEs and KM: An overview\nERP and KM integration in SMEs: The rationale\nConclusions and further research: It is widely acknowledged in the academic milieu that all enterprises, both large and small, require efficient KM in order to maximise their competitiveness and survival chances in the current knowledge-based economy. The success of a small business or a SME can be linked to how well they manage their intellectual capital and knowledge; knowledge to represent know-how, expertise, skills, ideas, intuitions and insights. On the other hand, research and studies have shown that modern ICT tools like ERP systems can support SMEs in minimising costs, improving the quality of products and services, and increasing customer satisfaction. The integration of ERP and KM is proven to be a necessity for SMEs in the near future.The conceptual model that this paper proposes should be regarded as a basis for future research. The proposed model has to be tested, refined and improved. The main emphasis of the model is that SMEs should use the advances of geographically open boundaries and the power of knowledge management to gain a competitive advantage in those areas that once belonged to large firms with significantly greater financial resources. In this context, the applicability of this model in a SME seeking to gain a competitive advantage needs to be explored. Practitioners should use this model in order to develop new platforms and extended ERP modules. The present author would recommend a case study project, based on a SME attempting to utilise this conceptual model as a \"prototype\". This will achieve a better understanding of SMEs and their heterogeneous nature and complexity, including owners/managers and their employees' attitudes towards knowledge management.On the other hand, what we should not forget is that in order to apply an appropriate KM environment in a SME, cultural and behavioural issues need to be tackled before even considering technical issues. Apart from models and systems, organisational culture is an imperative factor for successful KM. Before applying the proposed model, SMEs should ensure that their KM initiatives fit into their organisational culture, or else they should be prepared to change it. Further studies in this field should focus on the former issues in order to close the gap between theoretical propositions and the reality of practice.Concluding, we should stress that the new market demands a distributed knowledge network, which necessitates the participation of the entire value chain from customer to supplier, and in some cases, even that of competitors. This requires synergetic relationships between ERP and KM within one system, the basis of which is the proposed model.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: - To survive in the global economy, SMEs have to improve their products, services and processes, exploiting their intellectual capital in a dynamic network of knowledge-intensive relations inside and outside their borders. This paper aims to explore the rationales for the integration of knowledge management (KM) and ERP in SMEs and to present a conceptual model for their integration.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - A wide range of academic and practitioner literature related to ICT and KM adoption from SMEs is reviewed. On the basis of this review and analysis, a conceptual model is designed.\nFindings: - The proposed model is regarded as an adaptable solution, where an SME with a traditional business structure uses existing IT applications and builds on them. Before applying the proposed model, SMEs should ensure that their KM initiatives fit into their organisational culture, or otherwise they should be prepared to change it.\nResearch limitations/implications: - The applicability of this model in an SME seeking to gain a competitive advantage needs to be explored. Practitioners should use the model in order to develop new platforms and extended ERP modules.\nPractical implications: - The model can be used in any area of information and knowledge management.\nOriginality/value: - Using the model, SMEs can achieve the integration of ERP and KM, which is proven to be a necessity for them in the knowledge economy.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Student writing: gender and visibility; then and now	[ "Critical discourse analysis", "Gender representation", "School magazines" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nContext: Dynamon[1] State College is an inner-city government school in Queensland, Australia. Since its opening in 1961, the college demography and image have altered with the inner-city's changing profile. There have been times of unfashionable crowding and proximity to small business, and of modernization and gentrification. The college website currently emphasises links with nearby tertiary institutions and industry precincts and consequent learning opportunities. Although representing itself as unique on the basis of its location, in many ways such as size, student composition and curriculum offerings Dynamon has much in common, both historically and currently, with neighbouring schools and those near other cities.\nIntroduction: That schools are sites where ideas about the world and about gender are re/produced and sometimes contested is attested by multiple studies. Steedman (1980), Davies (1992, 2003), and Dyson (2003) are among those whose works on schooling, storytelling and socialization are considered seminal. Additionally, specific and recent research has been undertaken in relation to topics such as the gendered nature of textbooks (Amerian and Esmaili, 2014), reading lists (Berridge and Thomas, 2013), classroom writing tasks (Dobson, 2015) and classroom and playground interactions (Hilliard and Liben, 2010).\nTheoretical framework: Feminist and poststructuralist principles underpin this study. In summary, the research affirms and advocates both the feminist standpoint that power relations that exist between females and males are inequitable and unjust, and the poststructuralist understanding that knowledge is not an objective phenomenon but is always situated and socially construed. Particularly influential have been the articulation and development of these views by Weedon (1997) in Feminist Practice and Poststructuralist Theory, and by Mills (1995, 2012) in works such as Feminist Stylistics and Gender Matters: Feminist Linguistic Analysis. Accordingly, the research presented here arises from an understanding of gender inequality as a socially situated and constructed phenomenon, which it is possible and desirable to change.\nResearch design: Sampling\nFindings: Frequency/visibility\nDiscussion: There have been 53 years of social and educational policy change between the two data sets of Figure 3. Yet, it appears from initial analysis that the increased visibility of females in student creative writing published by Dynamon College is not matched by an overall increased representation of females as having agency in real or imagined external worlds. The findings discussed align with and are illuminated by the work of feminist scholars (Ringrose, 2007; Yates, 2008; Keddie, 2009 and Skelton, 2010) regarding the impact of second-wave and liberal feminism upon educational practice and policy-making, as well as on broader societal attitudes in first world countries.\nConclusion: Having identified broad trends, a more nuanced analysis is needed to address complexities of meaning production and potential. Future papers will examine the trends in depth through qualitative CDA of student texts. Nonetheless, for English teachers, these findings already highlight an important, if subtle, area for action in the modelling, teaching and critiquing of language use. As female representation increases, and as assumptions of the kind that scientists and doctors must be \"he\" grow less common, it becomes more necessary to consider the underlying nature of the processes in which increasingly visible females are represented. The distinction between Relational and Material processes is particularly meaningful because, if narratives assert that \"Samantha was intelligent and capable\", while \"Samuel discovered a cure\" or that \"Samantha is heroic\", while \"Samuel rescues his partner and builds a shelter\", it is only Samuel who changes the world; Samantha merely wears her supposedly empowering properties like a shop-window dummy.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to examine a selection of creative writings by students at one Australian secondary school over a period of 50-plus years, charting the frequency with which key markers of gender appear in student storytelling over this period and sampling the types of gendered representation demonstrated in these stories.\nDesign/methodology/approach: Taken from a larger study, and grounded in feminist and poststructuralist reading practices, the research draws on Critical Discourse Analysis and quantifies verbal processes relating to gender using Halliday and Matthiessen's Systemic Functional Linguistics (SFL) (2004).\nFindings: The research finds the visibility of females in the selected corpus has increased considerably, yet the nature of female and male participation in these texts remains comparatively unchanged when measured by the process types of Halliday and Matthiessen's SFL (2004).\nOriginality/value: If past decades of (pro)feminist choices are only challenging gendered patterns of representation at the level of quantity but not type, this has significant implications for teachers of English. The paper's conclusion considers what more might be done in present and future teaching to assist students to problematise their own, as well as others', representations of gender.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Examine the cognitive and affective antecedents to service recovery satisfaction: A field study of delayed airline passengers	[ "Service recovery", "Perceived justice", "Consumption emotions", "Trust", "Customer satisfaction", "Behavioural intentions", "Consumer behaviour" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Service companies strive to provide zero-error service in order to enhance customer satisfaction and develop long-term customer relationship, but even for the best firms it is difficult to avoid mistakes completely during the service delivery process. As a result, effective service recovery lies at the heart of companies' efforts for customer retention and relationship building. Studies (Bitner et al., 1990) showed that most customers can tolerate some service mistakes and mistakes alone do not lead to dissatisfaction. Refusal to take service recovery measures is the primary reason for customer dissatisfaction. Therefore, it is important that when mistakes happen, service firms take effective remedial measures to turn unhappy customers into happy ones (Gursoy et al., 2007). Many studies indicate that a company's failure in service recovery is an important reason for customer loss; while successful service recovery can decrease customers' \"hopping\" rate and increase customer satisfaction and retention (e.g. Maxham and Netemeyer, 2002).Both researchers and managers realize the importance of service recovery. Much research has been conducted on the effectiveness and features of service recovery and their influence on customers. Earlier studies often use critical incidents analysis to analyze customers' service consumption experience and summarize attributes of service recovery (e.g. Bitner et al., 1990). In recent years, scholars (e. g. Tax et al., 1998; Smith et al., 1999) started to examine customers' assessment of service recovery using justice theory in social psychology. Justice theory has provided a strong theoretical basis for service recovery research, and important findings have been derived from these studies. Perceived justice is found to be a key influence in the formation of customers' evaluative judgments of the recovery process.While earlier research emphasized the cognitive antecedents (e.g. perceived justice) to customer evaluations, consumption emotions in recent years have been shown to play a key role in satisfaction judgment (Bagozzi et al., 1999). However, there have been only a few studies examining emotional influences on satisfaction evaluation in a service failure and recovery context (Menon and Dube, 2004; Zeelenberg and Pizters, 2004). This is somewhat surprising for two reasons. First, it has been argued that the study of consumers' emotional responses seem particularly relevant to negative service encounters (Smith, 2006). Second, given the characteristics of service (more experiential in nature, and having high human involvement in the process), emotions clearly have a crucial part in consumers' evaluation of service recovery encounters. A few more recent studies (Schoefer and Ennew, 2005; Rio-Lanza et al., 2009) focused on the relationship of customer perceived justice and consumption emotions in the context of service recovery. Based on the affect control theory and cognitive appraisal theory and supported by their empirical studies, these authors suggested that customers' judgment of justice to the service recovery will have a significant impact on their emotional responses which in turn affect their satisfaction with service recovery (SSR).The current study sought to extend the existing literature by not only analyzing the effects of perceived justice and consumption emotions on satisfaction with service recovery (SSR), but also investigating how customer SSR would influence their sense of trust for the company and their behavioral intentions. A comprehensive conceptual model was proposed to explain the impact of perceived justice and consumption emotions on customer satisfaction, customer trust, and their behavioral intentions within service recovery settings.In addition, many prior studies adopted experimental/scenario-based methods (e.g. Schoefer and Ennew, 2005) and post-survey methods (e.g. Rio-Lanza et al., 2009). Experimental/scenario-based methods can control the impact of irrelevant variables and have reliable internal effectiveness. However, these methods lack external validity and the research results lack universal applicability. As for post survey methods, since recalled descriptions are very different from actual conditions, it is difficult to acquire customers' true evaluation of the service recovery. In the existing literature, on-the-spot investigation methods were not often used to study customers' evaluation of service recovery. To overcome some of the problems stated above, this study tested the conceptual model using data collected from airline passengers whose flights were delayed in one of the busiest airports in the world - Baiyun International Airport, located in Guangzhou, China. Findings from this study would be relevant for the airline industry, especially during the precarious current state of the industry. Service failures in airlines such as flight delays are inevitable; however, with a trend towards low cost and minimal frills in the industry, many airlines no longer provide any hospitality when flights are delayed (De Coverly et al., 2002). How would this affect customer satisfaction and their subsequent behavior and loyalty? This study could provide some answer to this important question.\nReview of literature: Perceived justice in service recovery (service recovery justice)\nMethodology: Survey instrument\nResult: Analysis of measurement model\nDiscussion: Limitations\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: - Drawing on consumer behavior and service marketing literature, the aim of this paper is to empirically examine how customers' justice judgment and consumption emotions affect customer relationships and their post consumption behaviors in a service recovery context.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - Structural equation modeling (SEM) was adopted to test the conceptual model, using a sample of nearly 600 delayed airline passengers.\nFindings: - Perceived justice and consumption emotions are important elements affecting customers' evaluation of service recovery. The three dimensions of service recovery justice and customers' positive and negative emotions have direct or indirect influence on customers' satisfaction with service recovery (SSR), customer trust, and their repurchase intentions and word-of-mouth recommendations. Theoretical and managerial implications were drawn based on the findings.\nOriginality/value: - The current study sought to extend the existing literature by not only analyzing the effects of perceived justice and consumption emotions on satisfaction with service recovery (SSR), but also investigating how customer SSR would influence their sense of trust for the company and their behavioral intentions. In addition, many prior studies adopted experimental methods and post survey methods. Those methods have various validity problems. This study attempted to overcome those problems by using on-the-spot investigation methods to study customers' evaluation of service recovery in real service failure situations.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Freedom of choice requires availability of choice options	[ "Health policy", "Certificate of need licensure", "Health insurance", "Reproductive rights" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n__NO_TITLE__: Healthcare coverage for individuals expanded under the Obama administration's Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA; www.hhs.gov/healthcare/facts/timeline/). ACA requires employers to either provide healthcare insurance plans to their employees or pay a fine and then let their employees choose their own coverage from state health insurance exchange options. Exemptions for non-profit religious organizations exist regarding protection of women's freedom of choice in reproductive rights; ACA neither requires insurance plans to include abortion services nor states to legalize abortion (it explicitly permits state law to ban abortion coverage and in 2010 five states enacted a ban, some with exceptions and some without; more have enacted bans since; www.aclu.org/maps/bans-insurance-coverage-abortion). However, contraception and abortion availability concerns have recently been brought before the courts for two reasons. First, consolidation of hospital ownership has been reducing the number of different providers, and corporate owners of hospital chains include religious organizations, so in states where abortion is legal public concern has arisen about potential future restriction of services. Second, beyond established exemptions for non-profit religious organization employers, conservative religious owners of for-profit corporations argue that they should not be compelled to offer their employees a healthcare plan that includes certain forms of contraception.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to describe divergent recent developments in provision of reproductive health services to North Americans.\nDesign/methodology/approach: Narrative review.\nFindings: Two North American countries with very different histories present similar governance challenges today. The challenge is to provide all women with the full range of reproductive health options to which they are legally entitled now. In Canada, those contraception and abortion options are covered under the medical service plan insurance but not always available in convenient locations. In USA, those options are not uniformly covered under health insurance plans due to statutory limitations. In Canada, where federal law limiting abortion was struck down as unconstitutional, the leader of one of its three major federal political parties sees the way forward being to limit his party to pro-choice candidates. In USA, where new laws limiting abortion have been introduced at an unprecedented rate, the judiciary is being asked to define the way forward.\nOriginality/value: Clinical governance needs to balance the moral beliefs of individual providers against the rights of patients to have their lawful choices available within reasonable convenience. Progress has been made but needs are still not adequately met, in these North American examples.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Predicting bankruptcy in resort hotels: a survival analysis	[ "Bankruptcy", "Business failure", "Survival" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: Business survival analysis has rarely been applied to the hospitality industry even though this type of research is important given hotel bankruptcies' negative consequences for society. In addition to costs for stakeholders, business failures generate losses affecting society at large (Branch, 2002) and harming economies by eliminating the benefits firms provide to most stakeholders. These include shareholders, employees, creditors, suppliers, customers and government agencies (Shuai and Li, 2005; Wu, 2010).\n2. Literature review and hypothesis development: 2.1 Theoretical models of bankruptcy\n3. Materials and methods: The current research sought to specify the time until Spanish resort hotels' failure occurs. Survival analyses can be used to answer this kind of question by modelling time to event data based on two relevant variables: a dependent variable that indicates the time elapsed until the event of interest and another variable that designates if the event has occurred (Esteve-Perez et al., 2008; Jenkins, 2008). This approach requires that researchers estimate the time elapsed until a specific event based on other explanatory variables. The above method has been widely used in biomedical research to study the evolution of diseases in groups of patients, including the time that passes until death and the chances of survival for a given period.\n4. Results: Table II presents the results of the non-parametric duration analysis using the Kaplan-Meier estimator to estimate the hazard and survival functions. The log rank, Breslow and Tarone-Ware statistics were calculated to compare the equality of survival distributions for different factor levels. The results suggest that overall survival depends on size, location and business cycle. Of the different variables used to explain size, the results for working capital - validated by all three statistics - and legal form - validated by the log rank statistic - are significant. The relationship between location and survival was validated by the three statistics for the Community of Madrid variable. For the business cycle variable, the periods of expansion are significantly related to survival.\n5. Discussion: This study produced important findings since, when compared with previous research, the results are consistent with the expected results only in some cases. Regarding variables that indicate size, two types of results were obtained. The initial assumption was that large hotels outlive smaller hotels (i.e. H1). The Kaplan-Meier estimator indicated working capital and legal form are significant variables. These findings were validated by the Cox regression.\n6. Conclusions: This study analysed the factors influencing the survival of Spanish resort hotels opened from 2003 to 2009. Specific variables were defined and their effects examined, including size, location, cost structure, good management practices, financial structure and business cycle. Both specific company factors and external factors were considered in analyses of firms' survival. The research conducted is the first study on resort hotels' survival in Spain using this selection of variables affecting survival.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: This study aims to examine variables influencing resort hotels' survival in Spain, which had not previously been analysed. In this country, determining whether the reasons resort hotels close are different from other hotels could be imperative to resort hotels' survival.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The survival analysis used Cox's semi-parametric proportional hazards regression to determine which variables influence hotel closure and how much each variable increases risk of closure.\nFindings: Resort hotel closure depends on hotel size, location, executive management and the business cycle. Survival is not affected by hotel type or financial structure.\nResearch limitations/implications: While this methodology is common in business survival analyses, it has seldom been applied to hotels and has never been used to study the survival of resort hotels.\nPractical implications: Companies need to rethink the location of new hotels. For already-built facilities, good management practices are strategically important for resort hotels' survival.\nOriginality/value: This paper explores the reasons why resort hotels survive. The study's selection of variables and methodology and its conclusions are unique.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
The role of service fairness in the service quality - relationship quality - customer loyalty chain: An empirical study	[ "Relationship marketing", "Customer loyalty", "Service quality", "Relationship quality", "Service fairness" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: In today's highly competitive environment that is characterized by rapidly changing customer needs, losing customers is costly. Maintaining strong; sustainable, and mutually beneficial relationships with customers lies at the heart of the contemporary marketing paradigm and is considered to be a significant competitive advantage for firms (Wong et al., 2007; Athanasopoulou, 2009, 2012). In services, the trend is even more evident. Service providers have switched their focus from transaction-based strategies that can be easily copied by competitors, to more relational-based ones (Rust et al., 2004; Nguyen and Mutum, 2012). When customers develop relationships with providers they usually spend more; are enthusiastic advocates of firms; spread positive word-of-mouth; refer service providers to family and friends (Harris and Goode, 2004), and steadily support the profitability of firms (Hayes, 2008). Research has shown that relationship quality can even replace service quality and customer satisfaction as the key superior performance driver (e.g. Palmatier et al., 2006; Rauyruen and Miller, 2007). On the other hand, various recent studies have questioned the linear effects of strong relationships on customer loyalty and positive/negative word-of-mouth generation, raising the issue of the dark side of relationships (Ranaweera and Menon, 2013). For example, Raimond et al. (2008) find that as relationship equity increases, older customers are more loyal than newer customers, while as satisfaction increases older customers are less loyal than newer ones. Also, Homburg et al. (2003) arrive at the same result regarding the impact of relationship age on the satisfaction-loyalty relationship for business customers. Ranaweera and Menon (2013) find that when satisfaction increases older customers generate less positive referrals about their own service provider than newer customers and when satisfaction decreases older customers generate more negative referrals about their own service provider than newer ones. Other variables that affect the nature of the relationship between satisfaction and negative customers' referrals generation are the recommendations received about competitors and the presence of critical incidents during previous service encounters (Ranaweera and Jayawardhena, 2014). However, although the effects of relationship quality on different customer responses may differ with the presence of certain variables, the direct effects of relationship quality on market responses, such as customer loyalty; word-of-mouth and referrals continue to be very important for firms' survival and prosperity.\n2. Literature review, conceptual background, and research hypotheses: In this section we will analyze all relevant concepts and develop appropriate hypotheses.\n3. Research methodology: 3.1. Research setting\n4. Empirical results: 4.1. Sample profile\n5. Discussion and managerial implications: The main objective of this paper was to extend the well-established nomological network of service quality-relationship quality-customer loyalty by introducing service fairness, as a distinct service evaluation concept. Specifically, the aim was to assess the direct and indirect interactions between service fairness, service quality, and relationship quality and their combined effects on customer loyalty in a no failure/recovery context. The study's contribution is threefold. First, it uses a hierarchical modeling approach and integrates relevant concepts into a structural model, empirically tested using data collected from the automobile after-sales services market. Few studies to date have considered the simultaneous presence of service quality and fairness as antecedents of relationship quality and customer loyalty in an integrated hierarchical model. Moreover, the conceptualization and operationalization of most concepts as higher order constructs enhance theoretical parsimony and reduce the model's complexity (Edwards 2001; MacKenzie et al., 2005). Second, the results revealed that the effect of service fairness on relationship quality is of almost equal importance as this of service quality. Third, findings suggest that relationship quality partially mediates the relationship between service fairness and customer loyalty.\n6. Limitations and suggestions for further research: This study, despite the significance of its findings, has a number of limitations. First, the industry-specific sample may affect the generalizability of findings. Therefore, it is necessary to test the proposed model in other relevant service settings before the interrelationships among service fairness, service quality, relationship quality, and customer loyalty are fully clarified. Second, the findings of this research were based on a cross-sectional study. This reduces the ability of the study to reflect the temporal changes in the research constructs. As a result, longitudinal studies are needed to clarify the effects of temporal changes. Finally the use of PLS-PM utilization presents some limitations that need to be mentioned. According to Barclay et al. (1995), factor loadings and path estimates in PLS are consistent when the sample size is large and there are a large number of indicators per construct. When these two conditions are met, then the PLS estimates approximate those of covariance-based SEM. Otherwise, the method overestimates the factor loadings and underestimates the structural path coefficients. However, communality is another factor that needs to be considered (Chin, 1995). As suggested by Widaman (1993), in high communality situations (factor loading 0.8) three to seven indicators are enough to accurately factor loadings estimation. The average factor loading in the current study is 0.89 indicating high communality.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to extend the well-established nomological network of service quality-relationship quality-customer loyalty by introducing service fairness - a distinct service evaluation concept. Specifically, the study aims to investigate the impact of service fairness on relationship quality as a complementary to service quality driver, and the direct and indirect effect of service fairness on customer loyalty in the presence of service quality and relationship quality in a no failure/recovery effort service context.\nDesign/methodology/approach: A telephone survey of a random sample of 408 customers of auto repair and maintenance services was implemented using a structured questionnaire with established scales. Data were analyzed with partial least squares path methodology, a structural equation modeling methodology.\nFindings: Interactional fairness is the most important formative determinant of customers' overall fairness perception, followed by procedural and distributive fairness. Relationship quality measured as a higher order construct, made of satisfaction; trust; affective and calculative commitment, is the main determinant of customer loyalty. Also, it partially mediates, along with service quality, the relationship between service fairness and customer loyalty and fully mediates the effect of service quality on customer loyalty. Finally, service fairness has the highest overall effect on customer loyalty.\nResearch limitations/implications: The sample is industry-specific and this may affect generalizability of findings. Also, the cross-sectional design adopted does not reflect temporal changes.\nPractical implications: Interactional fairness is of utmost importance to customers of the investigated industry. So, customers should be fairly treated at every point of contact. Also, service quality is heavily affected by service fairness. Thus, fair service leads to high-perceived service quality. Third, service quality affects customer loyalty only through relationship quality. Only when service quality is coupled by long-term quality relationships, signs of customer loyalty appear. Finally, service fairness influences customer loyalty mainly through service and relationship quality and has the highest overall effect on customer loyalty. So, fairly treating customers is crucial for developing long-term relationships that lead to customer loyalty.\nOriginality/value: The role of service fairness in the service quality-relationship quality-customer loyalty chain is investigated and using a higher order construct for relationship quality.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Promoting interaction in online distance education: designing, implementing and supporting collaborative learning	[ "Instructional design", "Collaborative learning", "Interaction", "Distance education", "Online education", "Computer-supported collaborative learning (CSCL)" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Active participation during learning activities and even more so interaction between learners are essential for learning (Chi and Wylie, 2014). Though this is true for learning in both face-to-face and online settings, one additional benefit of interacting with others online is that interaction fosters social presence (Kim et al., 2011), that is, learners' perception of having contact with \"real\" people (Aragon, 2003). Social presence, in turn, is positively associated with satisfaction and retention in online courses (Levy, 2007; Richardson et al., 2017). Against this background, teachers might want to consider incorporating collaborative learning into their online courses to promote interaction between learners within their online courses.\nCollaborative learning: Collaborative learning can be defined as \"a situation in which two or more people learn or attempt to learn something together\" (Dillenbourg, 1999, p. 1). This broad definition takes into account various learning settings, which have in common that learners are not simply presented with information but actively construct knowledge by interacting with other learners. Collaborative learning can, for example, take place in pairs (dyads) of students (e.g. in reciprocal teaching, Rosenshine and Meister, 1994), in small groups of around four learners (e.g. in a jigsaw puzzle, Aronson, 2002) or with the whole course (e.g. using a wiki-writing approach, Larusson and Alterman, 2009).\nDesigning for effective collaboration: Assigning learners to a group does not automatically lead to productive interaction (Kreijns et al., 2003). To provide the opportunity for this interaction to occur, teachers can use designated instructional design to develop tasks that require learners to interact and thus construct knowledge together.\nSupporting students in monitoring and promoting productive interaction: Though instructional design sets the stage for interaction that promotes learning, research suggests that groups require additional support to engage in productive interaction (Rummel and Spada, 2005). Therefore, we present two approaches to supporting collaborative learning in online settings: GATs facilitate monitoring and regulating the collaboration implicitly by providing groups with visual feedback and collaboration scripts explicitly guide learners how to engage in productive interaction (Bodemer, 2011).\nFinal considerations: Online education can benefit from collaborative learning, as this teachin strategy not only fosters social presence but also promotes learning of new content knowledge and of collaboration skills (Radkowitsch et al., 2020). Educators can leverage these benefits by carefully designing learning activities and providing learners with additional support that helps them engage in productive interaction. It is important to note that these instructional means are no guarantee that productive interaction between learners occurs. However, they greatly increase the probability that students will engage in beneficial interaction, which ultimately promotes learning (Strijbos et al., 2004). Besides fostering productive interaction between learners, educators should also be aware of typical challenges during collaboration that reduce the effectiveness of interaction and cause frustration among students (Strauss et al., 2018; Hadwin et al., 2018, for overviews). To design for productive interaction and mitigate typical risks, we described steps for designing collaborative tasks and support. However, the design process comprises a number of specific design choices which we were not able to cover exhaustively in this brief paper. A more detailed account of design dimensions for collaboration support can be found in the framework presented by Rummel(2018). Also, we presented GATs and collaboration scripts as two broad yet separate classes of collaboration support. These approaches to support collaboration are complementary and can potentially be combined (Strauss, 2019). GATs provide groups with information on their collaboration (foundation, Rummel, 2018) but do not specify if and how groups should adjust their collaboration so that it becomes productive again. Collaboration scripts can provide additional scaffolding for these processes (directivity, Rummel, 2018). For example, groups that struggle to interpret the visualization in a GAT can receive explicit guidance that helps them to make sense of the GAT and receive hints how they can regulate the collaboration.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: Against the background of empirical research on computer-supported collaborative learning (CSCL), the purpose of this paper is to advocate implementing collaborative learning activities into online distance education courses to engage learners in interactive knowledge construction. This study uses empirical evidence to illustrate how educators can integrate collaborative learning and designated collaboration support into their instructional design.\nDesign/methodology/approach: This study presents a general review of research literature from the field of CSCL to highlight productive interaction between learners as key learning mechanisms, summarize core features of collaborative tasks, which promote interaction between learners and present group awareness tools and collaboration scripts as two complementary approaches to support groups during collaborative learning.\nFindings: Empirical research suggests that collaborative learning is an effective learning activity and that incorporating collaborative learning into online courses benefits learners in terms of learning and social aspects such as social presence. However, to leverage the potential of collaborative learning, careful instructional design that promotes productive interaction between students is necessary.\nOriginality/value: This paper provides an overview on the topic of collaborative learning and how meaningful interaction between learners can be fostered. Specifically, this study details how collaborative tasks can be designed and how collaboration support can be used to provide students with opportunities for interaction that fosters acquiring new domain-specific knowledge as well as collaboration skills. To allow educators to design and incorporate collaborative learning activities into their own online teaching, the authors provide a theoretical basis for understanding the mechanisms behind effective collaborative learning as well as examples and practical considerations.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Food safety knowledge, self-reported practices and attitude of poultry meat handling among Slovenian consumers	[ "Consumer", "Food safety", "Knowledge", "Campylobacteriosis", "Poultry meat", "Self-reported practice" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Since 2005, the most commonly reported zoonotic disease in the European Union has been campylobacteriosis, with a statistically significant increasing trend over the eight-year period of 2008-2015, reaching the prevalence of 65.5 per 100,000 people (European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) and European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC), 2016). The Slovene campylobacteriosis prevalence in 2015 was 64.4 per 100,000 people (EFSA and ECDC, 2016). Despite the efforts of the industry to ensure that poultry meat is free of Campylobacter (Lin, 2009), the prevalence of these bacteria is high (Kurincic et al., 2005; Gruntar et al., 2015). Broiler meat is considered to be the largest single source of human campylobacteriosis. According to EFSA and ECDC (2016), over 90 per cent of reported campylobacteriosis cases originate from domestic environments, and they occur sporadically.\nMaterials and methods: Sampling plan\nResults and discussion: Respondents' characteristics\nConclusion: Consumers mistakes regarding food safety knowledge or self-reported practice happen somewhere along the line between buying and eating because of carelessness, distraction, ignorance, but some are made by chance. In our study, we obtained information about the knowledge and habits regarding the microbiological risk of poultry meat preparation at home. The results revealed that consumers are aware of food safety issues and have some basic knowledge on proper food handling. However, it was found that a substantial part of consumers still lacks knowledge of the microbiological risk (e.g. only 57.4 per cent knew that retail poultry meat can be contaminated with potentially pathogenic bacteria, and over 80 per cent did not know about Campylobacter and its importance) and have poor habits in domestic poultry meat preparation (e.g. use of the same cutting board for the poultry meat and other foods, not assuring cold chain during transport, inconsistent storage of poultry meat, thawing of poultry meat at room temperature). Men, people with lower educational attainment, young adults, and seniors showed less knowledge and awareness than others did.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to investigate Slovenian consumers' knowledge and self-reported practices in poultry meat handling during purchase, transport, and preparation in home kitchens and to assess the awareness of the microbiological risk associated with poultry meat, with an emphasis on Campylobacter.\nDesign/methodology/approach: A cross-sectional study of consumers' food safety knowledge, self-reported practices, and awareness of the microbiological risk was conducted from March to April 2015 at supermarkets in different parts of Slovenia. A convenience sample of 560 consumers was obtained. Gender and age distribution were controlled by 28 interviewers, each of whom distributed 20 questionnaires. The questionnaire included 33 questions divided into four parts.\nFindings: The results revealed consumers awareness of food safety issues. Respondents have some basic knowledge about proper food handling. However, a substantial number of consumers still lacks knowledge of the microbiological risk and has bad habits in domestic poultry meat preparation.\nResearch limitations/implications: The research did not reflect a representative sample of Slovenian consumers.\nPractical implications: The results indicate some gaps in consumers' food safety knowledge and self-reported practices. Current Campylobacter preventive strategies regarding retail poultry meat contamination are not yet sufficiently successful.\nOriginality/value: The study provides valuable insight into consumers' food safety knowledge and self-reported practices in poultry meat handling from shopping to eating. Opportunities for improvement in consumers' formal and informal education and training should be offered.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Research, development and transfer of environmentally sound technologies in Brazil	[ "Technology transfer", "Spin-offs", "Patent", "Public research organizations", "Science and technology institutions (STIs)" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: Highly industrialized countries achieved economic development by stimulating technological activities (Mazzucato, 2013). New technologies created through these incentives not only result in products and processes with higher perceived value in consumer markets but also increase national autonomy, thus reducing the need for external acquisition of essential technologies (Gnidchenko et al., 2016).\n2. Literature review: 2.1. Management of innovation in STIs\n3. Methodology: We used patent information and data on research groups to empirically examine ESTs developed by Brazilian STIs, and the mechanisms used in this process, with a focus on academic partnerships, knowledge transfer and IP transfer.\n4. Results: We identified 1,939 research groups related to EST R&D. In addition, we found 702 patent applications and granted patents related to these technologies, although only six had inventors from the research groups, as shown in Table I.\n5. Discussion: The most obvious result of this study is the identification of a small set, consisting of only six patent applications, which can be associated with groups related to EST R&D. In this group, we could identify technology transfer associated with just one of the applications.\n6. Conclusions: The results achieved in this paper show a mismatch between EST development by STIs in Brazil, and the transfer of these technologies to companies, to be used in new products or processes.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: Most research and development (R&D) activities in Brazil are performed by science and technology institutions (STIs). The purpose of this research was to determine whether environmentally sound technologies (ESTs) developed by these organizations were transferred to companies, either through cooperation during research or through mechanisms such as licensing agreements or spin-offs.\nDesign/methodology/approach: In total, 1,939 research groups and 702 patent registers, identified from the same set of words related to ESTs, using semantic search in open-access databases, covering a period from 2005 to 2014, were examined. The two data sets (patents and research groups) were overlaid, and it was possible to associate inventors' names with researchers' names.\nFindings: The results showed that only six patents could be related to the 1,939 identified research groups. Of the six patents, only one was the object of a licensing agreement, and no spin-off was identified.\nPractical implications: This study evidenced that it is necessary to expand the mechanisms of knowledge transfer, directed not only from STIs to companies but also in the opposite direction, given that companies recognize potential market opportunities.\nOriginality/value: This study shows that improvements in the Brazilian National Innovation System are necessary, as ESTs research groups demonstrated a weak association with technologies transferred to companies, with only one case of technology transfer in the form of a licensing agreement.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Entrepreneurship education: A mechanism for engaging and exchanging with the small business sector	[ "Entrepreneurialism", "Small enterprises", "Technical services", "Management skills", "Educational institutions", "Ireland" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: A common theme emanating from the analysis of the various definitions of entrepreneurship education is that entrepreneurship education is not just about educating people to start a business, rather effective entrepreneurship education programmes equip graduates with the knowledge, skills and competencies to engage in a more enterprising, innovative and flexible manner in a changing workplace environment. In particular, this change is evident in the composition, profile and size of firm. On a European wide scale there is an increasing emergence of the small firm as a key component of the industrial profile of countries where Ireland is no exception. In 2003 it was estimated that the number of small firms in Ireland was approximately 186,114, an increase of 16,114 over a three-year period since 2000 (Revenue Commissioners Statistical Unit, 2003). This figure continued to increase where the Small Business Forum (2006) suggested that there were approximately 250,000 small firms in Ireland (inclusive of both manufacturing and service firms).Overall, these firms account for more than 99 per cent of all enterprises in the State and contribute to 68.4 per cent of private sector employment. (Given the importance of small firms as part of the industrial base in Ireland there is a need to ensure graduates are familiar with and are prepared to work effectively in such a workplace environment either as an employer or employee.) Small firms have distinct characteristics that set them apart from the larger firm necessitating an understanding of the job of the owner/manager. Muir and Langford (1994) and O'Gorman et al. (2005) found what they referred to as a \"multi-role behaviour\", where owner-managers assume a myriad of roles in starting and managing a new business. Central to having the ability to perform a number of roles was the need for the owner-manager to have three basic skills sets to sustain and grow their business: technical skills, human skills and conceptual skills. However, it is suggested that rarely will the owner/manager come equipped with all these skills sets when starting a new business. Generally, the bias is towards technical or product/service knowledge. These other process, people and strategic thinking skills need to be acquired by the graduate to contribute in a meaningful manner in the workplace and for the owner/manager to effectively capitalise on potential business growth opportunities.So how can the skills of both groups be best addressed? While the authors agree that the range and sophistication of entrepreneurship programmes on offer has increased and are important catalysts for the encouragement of enterprising activity, they contend that greater synergies can be obtained from these programmes not only at student level but for other internal and external stakeholders. In this paper we suggest an alternative entrepreneurial approach where the design, delivery and assessment of entrepreneurship initiatives are guided by the potential to satisfy simultaneously a number of stakeholders. From an internal educational perspective the initiatives devised benefit the students in the first instance but also the academics and the educational institution itself. Furthermore, education must extend outside the classroom into the business, not only through interaction with academics as lecturers but through interaction with them in a researcher and/or advisor role. On an external perspective the entrepreneur starting the business or the owner/manager of the established firm benefit through input in the delivery of the initiative and in a direct manner though participation and the accumulation of learning which can be practically applied either in a technical and or business manner to the establishment and growth of their business. Through involvement in research projects, they can also benefit from the implementation of new processes and technology within their organisations. Finally, other external stakeholders who benefit from engagement in these entrepreneurship initiatives are Government policy makers. In essence, we promote an interactive approach to entrepreneurship education centred on engaging and exchanging between internal and external stakeholders for mutual benefits.\nEntrepreneurship education - understanding and meeting the needs of the workplace: A responsive higher education sector is necessary to create and exploit knowledge and to produce quality graduates necessary to support the knowledge economy emerging in Ireland where the small firm is a key component (Enterprise Strategy Group, 2004). Entrepreneurship education should be a key component and a means of equipping students with the knowledge, skills and competencies to exploit opportunities in this knowledge environment. With this purpose in mind the definitions of entrepreneurship education put forward by Kourilsky (2005) was considered relevant. Kourilsky (2005) defined entrepreneurship education as \"opportunity recognition, the marshalling of resources in the presence of risk, and building a business venture\" (Kourilsky, 2005). In a similar manner, a number of authors suggest that entrepreneurship education involves the creation of entrepreneurial attitudes and skills and not simply training for business start up (Martin, 2004; DfES, 2002; Audretsch, 2002) and in developing enterprise capacity (DfES, 2002; NCIHE, 1997). Entrepreneurship education according to Rand (2004) is about developing a student's mind and preparing them for the needs of the workplace in a more enterprising and innovative manner. Finally, entrepreneurship education is viewed an effective means of preparing graduates to move from education into work where the emphasis is not solely on knowledge acquisition but on skills and competency development according to Matlay and Westhead (2005). In summary, Galloway et al. (2005) suggested that educators \"have an obligation to meet students' expectations with regard to preparation for the economy in which they will operate\".A common theme emerging is the need to equip all graduates for a changing workplace - this includes those graduates who have not studied entrepreneurship. This highlights the need to ensure that entrepreneurship education is not confined to the business disciplines as is frequently the case in educational institutions. It is important that students of various disciplines should have an appreciation of entrepreneurial opportunities and be supported in developing the skills required to explore these across diverse programmes, particularly in areas like the sciences, technology and engineering disciplines where business skills would not traditionally have been given the attention that they now merit (Hynes and Richardson, 2007). The importance of such integration was also reinforced by Hytti and O'Gorman (2004). In their assessment and evaluation of a number of entrepreneurship programmes they found that the better or more successful programmes had the ability to integrate learning across the general educational experience of the student and those introducing enterprise education into other non-business disciplines.Since an emphasis of entrepreneurship education is on skills and competency development with a diverse group and profile of stakeholders the delivery of entrepreneurship education programmes pose challenges in a pedagogical sense to ensure delivery is oriented towards \"doing\" more than \"thinking\" and providing an environment that encourages and facilitates practical experiential learning by all involved. The effective delivery of programmes requires the need to encourage experiential, practice-based, action learning modes and to create different learning environments and opportunities for participants (Hannon, 2005). This was further developed by Binks in 2005, who suggested the inclusion of different activities to encourage \"integrative learning,\" i.e. rich intentional learning characterised by the individual student's ability to make deep level connections between the processes of academic learning, reflective self awareness/personal development and experiential learning in a range of practical contexts. Through this approach, participants should be able to integrate the benefits, knowledge, realisations and understanding gained in different aspects of learning which can be applied to different work situations for the graduate and the owner/manager.Essentially, there is considerable scope for the educational system to foster a culture that is open to and encourages entrepreneurial activity by its staff which is reflected on to students and to encourage the inclusion of owner/managers in the design and learning process. The role it can play ranges from instilling a positive attitude to entrepreneurship among graduates, via the promotion of positive role models and presenting failure as a prerequisite for success, to providing the enabling or prerequisite skills needed by the owner/manager in key functional areas of the small business. These enabling skills range from an understanding of business, financial marketing and legal issues, to generic or soft skills such as team-working, communication and inter-personal skills, all of which are viewed as necessary to start and grow the business. In the adoption of these issues in entrepreneurship education then it can be seen as a positive strategic response of educational institutions to contribute in a more relevant manner to a constantly changing and demanding business environment within which it operates.\nEngaging and exchanging with external stakeholders - alternative approaches for industry collaboration: It is suggested that entrepreneurship education should be viewed as a process, involving a series of stages and a number of stakeholders who need to be an active part of the process. We argue that as the emphasis and focus extends beyond the Business school into the non-business disciplines it should be further extended into industry where the owner/manager can be a beneficiary as well as a participant in the entrepreneurship education process. This has been suggested by Doyle (2006) who argued that entrepreneurship education was fundamental for fostering lifelong learning for both students and for those already in business.The central focus on entrepreneurship education usually concentrates on students. However, we encourage the inclusion of the entrepreneur and owner/manager of the small firm, who themselves are a critical mechanism for communicating their vision with students as to the reality of what entrepreneurship is about. They also can have their own learning needs and we consider that these needs, often not very different to the student should be harnessed and accommodated for by entrepreneurship education programmes.There is a need for third-level institutions to adopt a more proactive and strategic enterprise focus, both in terms of satisfying the knowledge and skills requirements of graduates and thus satisfying business and industry needs, as well as fostering new business start-ups. Galloway et al. (2005) suggested the need for universities to develop as entrepreneurial institutions, to become more pro-active in addressing the needs of employers and the business community when devising courses thus exploiting their creative potential and enterprising behaviour. We suggest that educational institutions have greater potential to be relevant and applicable to the entrepreneurial society, particularly the small firm while at the same time benefit the educational institutions and its students, educators and researchers. The challenge for educational institutions is to become more entrepreneurial in their ethos and practices as was promoted by Formica (2002), who suggested that \"in the knowledge economy, entrepreneurial universities will be as important as entrepreneurial businesses\". He suggested that this entrepreneurial university fostered interaction and networking in a relevant manner to a number of stakeholders in their community. This interaction between higher education institutions (knowledge producers) and industry (knowledge users) can be nurtured in the non-technical areas. These can be achieved through the development of business support and consultancy services, the establishment of networks and collaboration in sourcing funding. Complementing this is the ongoing need for technology transfer of scientific knowledge, resulting from research in the third-level institutions, which firms can apply to the innovation and development of their products, services and processes.It is becoming increasingly important to ensure that the knowledge within educational institutions is transferred directly to industry. Allowing for graduates to carry out osmotic technology transfer is inefficient as it is dependant on the employing of graduates into influential positions within the organisation. Through focused technology transfer and research, educational institutions can become linked more closely with industry, and for research purposes, may be able to obtain real industry settings in which to validate their research. This approach will allow for a two-way exchange of research between third-level institutions and industry - where third-level institutions provide technology transfer to the industry and, in exchange, the third-level researcher has access to a \"test-bed\" where tools, techniques and methodologies can be assessed. The added value of the linkages lies in the ability to provide technical support, business supports and skills development for both the student and the owner/manager.Research completed by Forfas (2007) found that while there has been some success to date, higher education-industry collaboration still operates at a very low level in Ireland and that structures in place to encourage and support the process have failed to achieve significant results. Collaboration is also more prevalent in the medium-large companies sector indicating a need to increase the number of small firms undertaking collaborative research projects with educational institutions. Furthermore, the research identified a lack of a supply of applied research capability available for the small firm in educational institutions. This gap exists in the technology transfer of product/process development, research and development, software innovations and in the business skills domain such as the functional areas of marketing, people management, finance and general management knowledge and skills enhancement. All of these are required for successful business development, sustainability and growth. So how can the gap be addressed?\nMethodology: The focus of the paper is to present a number of examples of alternative entrepreneurship education approaches implemented at the University of Limerick to foster relevant and practical linkages to a number of stakeholders. These activities integrate a tripod of teaching, outreach and research activities. Teaching emphasises the provision of knowledge plus the development of a repertoire of personal transferable skills including creativity, teamwork, leadership, problem solving, communication and achievement motivation skills necessary to engage in an enterprising manner in the workplace either as an employer or employee. Outreach activities involve close synergy between faculty and the small firm sector, local development agencies and community groups through the provision of consultancy and advice, the design and delivery of training and development programmes, mentoring initiatives and membership by faculty on boards of local development agencies. The research agenda focuses on an integrated suite in both the technical and business areas including understanding the entrepreneurial process, the economic and social significance of the small firm sector, the impact of the intervention agencies, growth and strategy development in the small firm, new product/service development and technical innovation. This tripod of activities provides the University with a strong research base complimented by ongoing practical insight into the real needs of the small firm sector which in turn lead to more relevant and targeted programme development.This paper describes a range of initiatives in operation at the University of Limerick in Ireland that serve as effective mechanisms to ensure that research outcomes translate into real benefits for the knowledge providers and knowledge users. The discussion describes the content, delivery and assessment mechanisms of each programme and then details how each one benefits the various stakeholders.Initiative one - business consulting\nConcluding comments: At a strategic level, the third-level education system needs to become more engaged with industry and in particular the growing small firm sector. Curricula need to be developed and reviewed on an ongoing basis, academic research must be more closely aligned to industry and educational institutions must increase flexibility and openness to ensure that courses keep the pace of change with the workplace. This requires a paradigm shift in educational institutions to ensure that these initiatives are embedded in a comprehensive and long-term oriented strategy for educational, research and enterprise industry linkages. This should result in sustainable changes in structures and the behaviours of individuals with those structures. The merits of such interactions have been demonstrated through a description of various initiatives that benefit a number of stakeholders, namely students, academics, the broader educational institutional and the small firm sector can be achieved through the provision of entrepreneurship education.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: - The focus of this paper is to highlight the synergies and mutual benefits associated with a range of entrepreneurship education initiatives for a combination of internal and external stakeholders.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - The paper provides a description of four entrepreneurship education initiatives in operation at the University of Limerick, Ireland. Detail on the objectives of the initiatives, the content, delivery, assessment and benefits of these initiatives is provided.\nFindings: - Entrepreneurship and enterprising activity are widely regarded as instrumental for economic growth, for balanced regional development and for the creation of jobs. Educational institutions need to ensure that graduates are capable of acting in an enterprising manner in the workplace either as an entrepreneur or as an intrapreneur in paid employment. This double objective can materialise through the provision of entrepreneurship education, within either a business or a technical course. Additionally, these same programmes can also be an effective mechanism for the provision of targeted training programmes for skills enhancement in the owner/manager and the creation and facilitation of linkages and working relationships with the small business community. Involvement in technology transfer and industry-based research activities also provides benefits to the small firm.\nPractical implications: - The paper presents challenges for educators and educational institutions on how they perceive and address the needs of their stakeholders by extending the traditional paradigm of what constitutes the role of an educational institution. The need to engage with external stakeholders in programme design and delivery requires commitment by educational institutions and requires educators to change their knowledge and teaching perspective. The findings have implications on how entrepreneurship education initiatives are designed, delivered and assessed to meet the needs of different stakeholders.\nOriginality/value: - This paper and its conclusions add to the debate on the importance of linking educational institutions and industry, especially the small firm sector, by suggesting a number of methods of collaboration which mutually benefit a number of stakeholders.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Tourism ' s destination dominance and marketing website usefulness	[ "Tourism", "Marketing", "Web sites" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: Though the relationship between actual and perceived information usefulness of an e-tourism website is unlikely to be extremely high, the study in this report builds from the assumption the depth and breadth of actual information coverage of a commercial e-tourism website affects customers\n2. Tourism destination dominance and website information: The first sub-section provides a discussion about alternative metrics for measuring tourism destination dominance and metrics of an additional antecedent (DMO competency) that is likely to influence the quality and quantity of website information. The second sub-section describes alternative theories of antecedent influences on the quality and quantity of website information.\n3. Method: This exploratory empirical study of the three theories of TDD and WIU relationships examines four sets of three destination websites for quality and quantity of information usefulness. This section describes the metrics in the study and the methods of analysis.\n4. Findings: Figure 2 shows the findings from the analysis. The findings support initial evidence of an asymmetric or inverted-U relationship rather than a symmetric relationship between TDD1 and WIU. Thus, findings support H2 and H3 rather than a symmetric relationship (H1). The competitor highest in TDD1 are high in destination WIU while all but one of competitors with relatively moderate to low TDD1 are moderate to low in WIU.\n5. Conclusions, limitations, and implications: DMOs do appear to vary substantially in providing useful website information to potential visitors. Relatively simple metrics (e.g. number of languages available on the website) to complex metrics (see Table I) support this conclusion.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: The purpose of this article is to propose and test empirically tourism\nDesign/methodology/approach: The following ratio defines tourism\nFindings: The study\nResearch limitations/implications: The usefulness of a destination\nOriginality/value: Providing a discussion of alternative tourism destination dominance metrics, confirming the view that destination marketing websites vary in their usefulness for potential visitors and offering a metric for testing usefulness are the valuable contributions of the study.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Social enterprise in the public sector. MetService: thinking beyond the weather	[ "Public sector organizations", "Entrepreneurialism", "New Zealand", "Government" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1 Introduction: Traditionally the role of government has been viewed as one focused on policy and administration: implementing appropriate legislation and regulations, and ensuring such rules are duly applied and enforced to provide a framework for a stable, progressive society (Moe, 1994). With the advent of the global economy and a heightened awareness of competition, governments are increasingly looked upon to serve another function; that of fostering entrepreneurial development (Reynolds et al., 2004; Teske and Schneider, 1994). Thus, the role of government becomes one of balancing social and economic objectives. To consider the issue of how governments may achieve this task, the concepts of policy, privatisation, and practice are reviewed, before examining the operations and associated underlying factors of one such organisation which is effectively addressing this issue.\n2 Entrepreneurship: Entrepreneurial activity is widely recognised as an important tool for economic development (Longenecker et al., 1988; Morris and Kuratko, 2002; Timmons, 1999). From a microeconomic perspective, fostering entrepreneurship is viewed as a potential source of wealth creation for individual organisations (Hitt et al., 2001; Ireland et al., 2003). From a macroeconomic perspective, fostering such activity is increasingly associated with national economic development and growth (New Zealand Government, 2002; OECD, 1998; Reynolds et al., 2004).While the economic benefits of entrepreneurship are widely accepted, less so are elements which define entrepreneurship and entrepreneurial activity. Entrepreneurship has been presented from various perspectives including bold risk-taking individuals (Mintzberg, 1973) new business creation (Glancey and McQuaid, 2000), and firms of all sizes (Hitt et al., 2001). Recurring themes do, however, suggest emerging consensus regarding a number of elements central to entrepreneurship. Such elements include opportunity identification (Kirzner, 1979; Shane and Venkataraman, 2000), innovation (Drucker, 1985; Schumpeter, 1934), acceptance of risk (Busenitz and Barney, 1997; Sarasvathy et al., 1998), flexibility to act quickly (Bhide, 1994; Eisenhardt et al., 2000), vision to see what is and what might be (Hamel and Prahalad, 1994) and reward through growth both financial (Hitt et al., 2001) and non-financial (McClelland, 1961).\n3 Government and entrepreneurship: Within the domain of government organisations, entrepreneurship has also been presented from a number of different and at times conflicting perspectives. Linden (1990) associates entrepreneurship within government with a deliberate search for innovative change. Bellone and Goerle (1992) refer to the generation of new revenue sources and provision of enhanced services through the involvement of citizens. Osborne and Gaebler (1992) suggest on-going innovation to achieve increased efficiency and effectiveness. Other approaches to government entrepreneurship in both theory and practice include promoting democracy (Shockley et al., 2002), downsizing staff and operations (Gore, 1993), refocusing the efforts of existing staff towards purposeful objectives (Osborne and Gaebler, 1992), selling government assets through privatisation (Savas, 1987; Zahra and Hansen, 2000), employing government assets in more efficient and effective ways to establish new revenue streams (Bellone and Goerle, 1992), operating with a strong customer focus under competitive market forces (Cullen and Cushman, 2000), adopting an entrepreneurial role through creative and risk-taking activity (Lewis, 1980) versus maintaining an administrative role which aids entrepreneurship within the private sector (Moe, 1994). Thus, a diverse range of perspectives from which to view government and entrepreneurship present a number of issues and complexities. Such complexities, however, also reveal avenues or opportunities for social enterprise within the public sector.Social enterprise has been associated with a range of organisations, often characterised by radical innovation (Emerson and Twersky, 1996), valued results and outcomes (Abrahamson, 1996), a strategic approach to address pro-social missions (Dees et al., 2002). As the scope of social enterprise broadens to encompass profit and non-profit organisations, both public and private (Dart, 2004; Harding, 2004); there is perhaps a tendency to view government's role as one of facilitator rather than direct provider of social and economic needs. In view of the empirical support (Harding, 2004) for the financial and social benefits of social enterprise, this paper re-examines the role of the public sector and considers its potential as a strong foundation for social enterprise through a review of three basic management principles: policy, privatisation, and practice.Policy\n4 Research method: In order to address this question an interpretive approach was taken using qualitative methods to explore the issues and underlying constructs of entrepreneurial practice within government organisations. Case studies were constructed on activity recognised as entrepreneurial within three SOEs operating in New Zealand, one of which, Meteorological Service of New Zealand Limited (MetService) is examined in this paper. Given that limited research has been conducted in this area, with a distinct lack of empirical investigation, this approach was deemed appropriate (Cohen et al., 2000). This method effectively provided the opportunity for inquiry from the inside (Evered and Lewis, 1981), investigating both the relationships within the phenomena of entrepreneurship and social enterprise, and the relationship between these phenomena and the context of SOEs (Yin, 2003).Data collection involved interviews with a senior executive of each SOE, including John Lumsden, Chief Executive of MetService since its incorporation as a SOE in 1992. Interview data were analysed and compared with observation and texts such as publicly available data from web sites and annual reports, as well as documentation within MetService regarding recent entrepreneurial projects undertaken. Such data were collected in two phases over a six month period in order to identify the developments and changes within each activity over time, thereby providing a valuable longitudinal perspective (Low and MacMillan, 1988).The analysis procedure followed aspects of the inductive approach, although not fully developing theory from data as happens within grounded theory (Glaser and Strauss, 1967). The data were compared to theory both during the data collection and analysis process. Thus, theory evolved from the data while simultaneously recognising and highlighting existing suppositions. As such, the analysis process facilitated an evaluation of existing theory while also providing the opportunity for reconceptualisation (Eisenhardt, 1989). As a result, analysis of individual case studies together with cross-case comparisons was essentially an iterative process, revealing and reinforcing a number of themes. Case study details and findings pertaining to MetService are presented below, following a brief summary of the contextual background.\n5 MetService: thinking beyond the weather: Contextual background\n6 Overview of MetService: Since, incorporation in 1992, MetService has gained increasing recognition as an innovative and entrepreneurial organisation, transitioning \"from science to business; from taxpayer funded government department to self-funding state owned enterprise\" (Donoghue, 2003). In 2003, the New Zealand Parliament's Commerce Select Committee called its representatives for discussion for the first time in 12 years, in response to MetService's annual report and the \"extraordinary story\" of the organisation's international success in highly competitive markets (Donoghue, 2003).Following incorporation, MetService's senior management worked together to consider how someone in the future would describe the organisation; \"what we would like an intelligent observer to say about us\" (Lumsden, 2004). \"We had a rough idea of what we intended to do\" (Lumsden), and an awareness of core strategic issues such as a commercial imperative, a secure future for the organisation, and the development of qualified staff. The outcome of the meeting was formalisation of MetService's vision to be a recognised leader in weather and information presentation services, profitable and well managed, and growing worldwide through customer appreciation (MetService, 2004a).Actions taken and recognition gained in addressing this vision include obtaining ISO 9001 certification in November 1995, and being the first national meteorological service to do so; winning numerous contracts for weather information and presentation services in competitive international markets; and achieving profit after tax of $2.9 million for the year ended 30 June 2004, $1.491 million of which was paid to the government in dividends. Other accolades include winning the Business to Consumer category of the TUANZ (e)-Vision Awards in 2003 and 2004 (MetService, 2004b).While positive recognition exists, MetService is not without criticism. In the mid 1990s allegations of predatory pricing were made against MetService with respect to its operations within New Zealand (Hunt, 1996a). With respect to MetService's operations in Australia, similar allegations were made by the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission against the (Australian) Commonwealth Bureau of Meteorology, effectively forcing MetService out of the Australian print media market (Hunt, 1996b). Lumsden reflects on the experience as a learning process; finding out what MetService does well, and avoiding markets where it must confront established competitors or can easily be copied. Further criticism arose from claims that more than half of the organisation's revenue for 2004 came from government contracts (Gorman, 2004). In its defence MetService noted that it had halved the net cost of public weather functions provided to the New Zealand government, user complaints had decreased tenfold, and there had been an overall improvement in the quality of weather forecasts (Henson, 2002).Within MetService, there is a feeling of both development and growth as the organisation establishes itself within a competitive international market. Outside the organisation, MetService is also gaining increasing recognition as a successful, innovative, and entrepreneurial organisation (Pullar-Strecker, 2001; Talbot, 2004). Examples of recent innovative and entrepreneurial products and services include turbulence forecasting over the Himalayan mountains for Qantas, low cost weather systems for isolated areas using mobile phone technology, heat stress and pasture growth indices for New Zealand's agricultural industry, energy forecasts for various power stations based in the United Kingdom, and a three-dimensional weather graphics software package which has been licensed to numerous television networks throughout the world including the British Broadcasting Corporation. This latter project in particular has provided substantial recognition for MetService.\n7 Discussion and findings: An initial review of MetService's operations such as the above-mentioned projects reveals a range of elements commonly associated with entrepreneurial activity. Such elements include opportunity identification (Shane, 2003), innovation (Schumpeter, 1934), acceptance of risk (Bhide, 1994), vision (Drucker, 1985), and reward through growth (McClelland, 1962). Table I summarises the relevance of these elements within MetService's operations, highlighting the organisation's focus on entrepreneurial activity.Collectively these elements have provided a valuable pathway for MetService to meet its requirements under New Zealand's SOE Act (1986), effectively addressing both social and economic objectives. While the organisation's core function remains forecasting and communicating weather related information, MetService has looked for opportunities to address that function and apply its core skills in diverse and innovative ways. This change in focus from a traditional government department to a SOE accountable for its \"double bottom line\" (Emerson and Twersky, 1996) has involved a change in perception to evaluate, accept, and manage risks; as well as a broadened vision to see further opportunities and possibilities within the scope of its operations. Such opportunities extend to MetService financially and non-financially, the general public of New Zealand both as taxpayers and users of weather information, and the Government of New Zealand as customers and shareholders.Closer examination of these projects and MetService's approach to business in general, however, also reveals several underlying factors which have contributed to its success in developing these projects and establishing itself as an entrepreneurial government organisation. As such, these factors represent the foundations on which entrepreneurial activity has been developed or established, and are considered briefly below.Operational excellence\n8 Conclusion: A brief review of MetService suggests entrepreneurial practice does have a place within government organisations. Further, in the context of SOEs, the application of entrepreneurial activity effectively presents a mechanism for social enterprise, such that the public sector directly addresses both social and economic objectives. Underlying factors which have contributed to MetService's success include operational excellence, cost minimisation, transfer and application of knowledge, confidence, a focus on people (both internal and external), and branding. These factors effectively serve as a foundation for entrepreneurial activity: identifying opportunities, developing innovations, accepting and managing risk within the scope of the organisation's vision, to provide a pathway for future growth.Thus, a government's approach to fostering entrepreneurship should not be limited to policy-making, but rather encompass both policy and practice. While market deregulation may not be a viable solution in all situations (e.g. developing countries which may not have the resources to be competitive), arguably the notion of deregulation as an alternative to privatisation should at least be considered such that opportunities to adopt social enterprise within the public sector are not overlooked. As noted by Easton (1999) \"if privatisation is the answer, very often one has misunderstood the question\". Certainly a comparison of the costs and benefits associated with deregulation as an alternative to privatisation suggests the notion deserves some attention.This study has briefly examined only one government organisation in limited depth. Further analysis of similar organisations in greater detail is necessary to develop an enhanced understanding of how entrepreneurial activity can be developed within government as a mechanism for addressing social and economic objectives, and the underlying elements which serve to support this. Further studies will also provide the opportunity to develop a clear role for social enterprise within the context of new public management, such that social enterprise becomes a core feature within public sector management.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: - The purpose of this paper is to consider the role of government in fostering entrepreneurial activity and economic development, thereby balancing social and economic objectives.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - Case studies on state-owned enterprises (SOEs) in New Zealand, one of which is examined in detail, are analysed and compared. Triangulated data from interviews, texts, and personal observation were collected and analysed in two separate phases, examining effective pathways for social enterprise in the public sector and related themes.\nFindings: - Findings suggest the role of government is not limited to policy-making. Examination of activity which aims to balance social and economic objectives identifies several factors which have contributed to successful and entrepreneurial operations within SOEs.\nResearch limitations/implications: - Although limited to a single case, this paper reveals the nature and importance of entrepreneurial activity within government organisations.\nPractical implications: - Deregulation as an alternative to privatisation is examined and evaluated.\nOriginality/value: - Evidence is provided to support entrepreneurship within the public sector as a strong foundation for balancing both social and economic objectives.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
"The Bug Investigators": Assessment of a school teaching resource to improve hygiene and prudent use of antibiotics	[ "Schools", "Education", "Diseases", "Antibiotics" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: The use of antibiotics is widespread and invaluable for treatment of infectious diseases. However, overuse and misuse have led to increasing antibiotic resistance (Department of Health, 1998). European surveillance has shown a link between higher outpatient antibiotic prescribing rates and higher antibiotic resistance rates (Goossens et al., 2005). Pathogenic bacteria are emerging that are resistant to cheap and effective \"first-line\" drugs (Woodford et al., 2004). The problem is at its worst in some of the most common human infections: respiratory tract infections and urinary tract infections, for which most antibiotics are prescribed, and is related to antibiotic use (Donnan et al., 2004; Guillemot et al., 1998; Department of Health, 1998).The European Commission's \"Community Strategy Against Antimicrobial Resistance\" (Bronzwaer et al., 2001) supported educational campaigns directed at professionals and the public to encourage the prudent use of antibiotics. The British Standing Medical Advisory Committee (SMAC) report \"The Path of Least Resistance\" made recommendations to minimise antibiotic resistance in the population and recommended a National Advice to the Public Campaign (NAP) to educate the British general public about the importance of preserving their normal bacterial flora (Department of Health, 1998). They also recommended that education aimed at children should be included in the National Curriculum. In response to this a microbiology teaching element, including information about good and bad bugs and promotion of good hygiene to reduce transmission of infections, was included in the National Curriculum by the Healthy Schools Programme (Department for Education and Employment (DfEE), 1999). In a previous study, educational sessions about micro-organisms, hand-washing and antibiotics were conducted by a consultant medical microbiologist with children aged eleven years in a single primary school. Use of an assessment questionnaire before and after teaching demonstrated that children's knowledge increased regarding the prudent use of antibiotics (McNulty et al., 2001). These workshops helped to inform the design of the \"Bug Investigators\" educational school resource pack. The \"Bug Investigators\" school resource pack, sponsored by the Department of Health (DH), reinforces and builds on this teaching and implements the NAP campaign in primary schools. It encompasses classroom, homework and optional web-based educational elements (www.buginvestigators.org.uk). It teaches about infections, how they are spread, and, raises awareness about the appropriate use of antibiotics and the drawbacks of over-use (Plates 1, 2 and 3). It links into the Science National Curriculum for nine to 11-year-olds and aims to educate children about the effect of antibiotics on pathogenic micro-organisms and our body's natural flora (Department for Education and Employment (DfEE, 1995). A total of 6,000 copies have been issued free, on request, to primary school teachers in the UK.\nAims of the study: This study aimed to determine the effectiveness of the \"Bug Investigators\" pack as a teaching resource in primary schools by measuring children's knowledge of micro-organisms and antibiotics and hygiene before and after use of the pack. The study involved ten and 11-year-old children, across a sample of schools, who were taught by their class teacher rather than a medical professional. The findings are intended to inform future modifications to the junior school teaching resource and provide information on the potential value of using a similar resource in senior schools and across other countries.\nMethods: Setting and participants\nResults: School recruitment\nFactors associated with knowledge improvement scores: Table II gives the estimated difference in the percentage of correct responses after teaching compared to that seen prior to the teaching. However, these knowledge improvement scores will not necessarily apply to each school, school year, or science SAT score Level 4. Evidence for when the improvement scores differed, depending upon the school, school year, or the percentage science SAT score of Level 4 in the school was assessed by means of an interaction test in the regression model. Those statements where the interaction test had a p value of less than 0.01 are described in the following.Effect of school\nDiscussion: We found that the \"Bug Investigators\" pack was an effective teaching resource leading to improvements in children's knowledge in all topic areas. The greatest increase in knowledge was in the topic \"what do antibiotics do and how they should be taken appropriately\". There were particularly good improvements in knowledge about activity of antibiotics against coughs and colds, our good bacteria, and viruses. Teachers reported that they found the activities on the size of microbes, hand washing, coughing and sneezing, and how bacteria multiply and spread the most helpful. Teachers advised that the packs should be promoted widely via the ASE and advanced science skill teachers, and reported that the activities needed to be simplified so that material fitted closely to the National Curriculum.\nLimitations: The response rate to assess the pack from teachers was low (31 percent) despite initial high interest and a nine-month period given for assessment. This would suggest that teachers found it difficult to add activities to their teaching plans if they are not part of the National Curriculum, and the teachers who participated are probably more enthusiastic about this subject than many. When used more widely, improvement in knowledge may not be as good. This study measured the effectiveness of the pack in schools in Gloucestershire with relatively high Level 4 science attainment, and teachers were recruited from a convenience sample who were attending science workshops. This could affect the generalisability of findings. However, higher SAT scores were not always associated with greater knowledge improvements. Knowledge was not assessed in control schools where pupils were not taught with the pack, therefore we cannot tell how much the pre teaching questionnaire may have increased knowledge. This study did not measure changes in hand washing techniques and compliance, carers' knowledge, antibiotic use, or health outcomes such as absenteeism. In future, assessments should include control schools and, if practical, assess these other outcomes.\nOther work in this area: The value of hand washing campaigns has been proven. A meta-analysis has shown that effective hand washing with soap and water in the community can halve the risk of diarrhoea in both developed and developing countries (Curtis and Cairncross, 2003). Studies in children in the community and school setting, using hand washing campaigns or hand sanitizers, have also shown that these can reduce illness and school absenteeism due to diarrhoea and lower respiratory tract infections (Luby et al., 2005; Master et al., 1997; White et al., 2001). The aim of this educational pack is that teaching about respiratory and hand hygiene becomes part of the curriculum, rather than a \"one off\" campaign, which may not be sustainable.There have been very few educational resources about prudent antibiotic use aimed at children. Several studies have investigated children's views of microbes and the role of medicines in treating infections. Milandri found that 46 percent of 12-year-old Italian children believed that antibiotics were the absolute weapon against bacteria and viruses (Milandri (2004). This is similar to the knowledge shown by our English children before use of the pack. Newell and Norris used qualitative methods to explore children's knowledge about how microbial diseases are spread (Newell and Norris, 2004). They found that, like our English children, New Zealand children had excellent knowledge about spread of microbes and they identified coughing and sneezing as the most important mode of transmission. Both Newell and Milandri suggested that primary school children should be educated about appropriate antibiotic use, particularly for common upper respiratory tract infections (URTIs), so that the future generation can be equipped about how to use medicines wisely (Milandri, 2004; Newell and Norris, 2004). The knowledge gained by children using the \"Bug Investigators\" pack administered by teachers was similar to that obtained in the pilot study in which a consultant medical microbiologist used microbiological cultures as demonstration aids and an ultra-violet glow box to demonstrate effective hand washing (McNulty et al., 2001).Many English adults currently have similar misconceptions to their children about the value of antibiotics in coughs and colds (Parsons et al., 2004) and these findings are echoed in most other European countries (Branthwaite and Pechere, 1996). A quarter of Israeli parents who took their children with an URTI to a physician expected antibiotics and only 37 percent thought antibiotics would not help (Shlomo et al., 2003). Across Europe there is a relationship between increasing knowledge about prudent use of antibiotics and decreased use (Branthwaite and Pechere, 1996). Lower community use of antibiotics is, in turn, associated with lower rates of antibiotic resistance (Goossens et al., 2005). Several education campaigns to improve the prudent use of antibiotics have been aimed at the adult population in Europe and the USA (Belgian Antibiotic Policy Co-ordination Committee (Belgian Antibiotic Policy Coordination Committee (BAPCOC, 2003); Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC, 2003); Department of Health Standing Medical Advisory Committee, 1998) and patient expectations for antibiotics have fallen in some surveys (Belgian Antibiotic Policy Coordination Committee (BAPCOC, 2003)) but not others (Parsons et al., 2004)).\nImplications: Educating children about antibiotics and hygiene will, hopefully, make them more informed about the value of their normal flora, infections and more prudent users of antibiotics in the future. Improved hygiene will also reduce the spread of infection, especially during gastrointestinal and respiratory outbreaks. Educating children will reinforce the adult education campaigns aimed at reducing parental expectations for antibiotics, especially for their children. Some of the activities in the pack encouraged children to discuss with their family members common illnesses and how they are treated. We suggest that in any future modifications worksheets should be designed to facilitate shared learning at home: this would reinforce the antibiotic education campaigns.When the packs are reviewed contents will need to be simplified, where necessary, and matched closely to the National Curriculum; this will ease the implementation across schools. The long term effects of these educational messages, in reducing antibiotic resistance in the community, depends upon children's retention of the key messages. It is difficult to judge how permanent the immediate increased awareness brought by education with the pack will be. A spiral curriculum would be a good way to reinforce the messages and allow pupils to revisit the topics as they develop and make future decisions (Bruner, 1960). To attain this, the pack should be modified for older age groups to integrate teaching about antibiotics and spread of infection into several stages of the curriculum. The pack is now listed as a recognised teaching resource on the TeacherNet web site (Department for Education and Skills) and it will be important to obtain this recognition for any modified packs. Dissemination of the pack across Europe has been funded by, and is in line with, the European Commission's strategy, which encourages coordination between member states. A common school education package will enable key messages about use and inappropriate use of antibiotics to be disseminated across European member states.Production of the packs is only the first hurdle. Many teachers found implementing the new material time-consuming. The packs will need to be promoted and marketed widely through the ASE, other national and local teachers' meetings, and advertising in the educational press. School nurses, and local and national public health teams should also promote the packs.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: - The aim of this study is to measure the effectiveness of the \"Bug Investigators\" pack in improving children's knowledge about micro-organisms, hygiene and antibiotics when it is used within the National Curriculum in junior schools.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - Teaching, using the \"Bug Investigators\" pack, was given by Gloucestershire primary school teachers. Children's general knowledge about hygiene, micro-organisms and antibiotics was measured by questionnaire before and after lessons using the pack. A sample of 198 children aged 10 and 11 years in eight primary schools completed the questionnaires before and after teaching. A focus group was held with teachers to explore their views after using the pack.\nFindings: - Children's knowledge improved in all topic areas. Improved knowledge was most significant for what antibiotics do and how to use them and the value of our own good bugs (27, 31 and 16 percent improvement respectively). Knowledge about how bugs spread and hand hygiene was excellent (88 and 90 percent) before the education, but there was still 4 percent improvement in these topics. An exploratory discussion with teachers disclosed that some worksheets on viruses and resistant bacteria were too advanced for junior schools.\nResearch limitations/implications: - The study in this paper was undertaken in schools with relatively high-level four-science attainment, which could affect generalisability of findings.\nOriginality/value: - The \"Bug Investigators\" teaching pack was effective at improving knowledge about micro-organisms, hygiene and antibiotic use; it should be used more widely by junior schools. It is now a recognised teaching resource. Increased awareness of hygiene and prudent use of antibiotics should lower school absenteeism and improve antibiotic use in this generation of future adults.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Reliability and relative validity of short-food frequency questionnaire	[ "Reliability", "Iranian adults", "Relative validity", "Short-FFQ" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Epidemiological interest currently focuses on examining the association between disease and individual foods, food groups, food patterns and healthy eating indices (Willett, 2008; Willett and McCullough, 2008). Several factors such as biological and behavioral issues, cultural aspects and socioeconomic status affect food patterns and these factors complicate not only the reporting of food consumption but also data interpretation (Silva et al., 2013). So, having localizedand accurate assessment tool to evaluate dietary intake is important to examine associations between food intake and risk of chronic disease (Silva et al., 2013).\nMethods and materials: The data for this study were collected in 2015 as a part of the major LPP conducted in the districts of East Azarbaijan (urban and regional parts), one of the largest provinces of Iran. This study conducted by probability proportional to size (PPS) multistage stratified cluster sampling through which 150 clusters selected. In PPS sampling, the selection probability for each element is set to be proportional to its size measure. The sampling frame of this study was based on the postal code frame of the national post office, which is updated yearly. The clusters were selected in this system based on postal code. Each address in this system was summarized in a ten-digit postal code number. In urban areas, clusters comprise one to several blocks or parts of blocks. Blocks were usually attached buildings. After determining the cluster start point, enrollment and data collection was started. In each cluster, 20 participants (15-65 years) were enrolled (3,000 participants). This began from the household at the cluster start point and continued toward the other households until the required number of participants enrolled. Consecutive households were selected based on the geographical location of buildings to the right-hand side of each building. Research survey and examination teams visited households, according to previously arranged appointments. The large sample size and the sampling design and framework mean that the sample was representative of the study population.\nResults: There was an equal distribution of men and women in the study. The mean age of 169 participants was 38.2 +-17 years and the mean BMI was 28.3+-6 kg/m2. No significant differences were observed in the mean daily intakes of energy, food groups and most of the nutrients between the reference tools and the two semi-quantitative SH-FFQs (not shown). The SH-FFQ tended to overestimate intake compared with the reference tools, especially in women, with the largest discrepancy being seen for vitamins E and C in women and for vitamins D and C in men. In comparison with FFQ1, FFQ2 overestimated the intake of snacks, nuts and legumes in women and underestimated the intake of oil and pickles in men (p<0.05).\nDiscussion: In this study, the reliability of a semi-quantitative SH-FFQ was established by comparing two administrations of the SH-FFQ while relative validity was established against one day 24hR and a two days food record.\nConclusion: We concluded that the relative validity and reproducibility of the developed SH-FFQ were reasonably good in estimating food groups and nutrients. In addition, it is applicable for ranking population based on food groups consumption and may be utilized in population-based studies to assess dietary patterns of Iranian adult's population as well as community trials, which evaluate the NCDs prevention interventions.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to describe reliability and relative validity of the short-food frequency questionnaire (SH-FFQ) used for assessing food groups and nutrient intakes of Iranian adults.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The food list used in the SH-FFQ was elaborated based on a dietary survey of a sample of 60 individuals aged between 15 and 65 years. A total of 180 subjects (93 males and 87 females) were included in the study. All participants completed two SH-FFQs with one month interval, a single 24 hours recall (24hR) and two food records for three non-consecutive days.\nFindings: No significant differences were observed in the mean daily intakes of energy, food groups and most of the nutrients between the reference tools and the two semi-quantitative SH-FFQs (p>0.05). The mean energy-adjusted reliability coefficients for all variables were 0.54 and 0.55 in men and women. The mean energy-adjusted and deattenuated correlation coefficients for all items between the SH-FFQ and reference tools were 0.54. Also, the mean percent misclassified into opposite quartiles for all food groups and nutrients was 12.6 percent.\nOriginality/value: The designed SH-FFQ developed for the Life style Promotion Project has reasonable reliability and relative validity for food groups and nutrient in Iranian adults.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Family ownership and dividend payout in Malaysia	[ "Malaysia", "Dividends", "Agency problem", "Family ownership" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: Family firms have received increasing attention in the economics and finance literature because prior studies showed that families directly control most publicly traded firms around the world (Bennedsen et al., 2007, 2011; Faccio and Lang, 2002; La Porta et al., 1999). Does family ownership of shares in public firms influence dividend payouts in an observable pattern? Are minority and other shareholders able to compel firms with family ownership to pay higher dividends due to expropriation concerns? Agency theory-based explanations are mixed in terms of the moral hazard problems that arise as a result of family ownership of firms. The rate at which these firms pay dividends provides some perspective on expropriation by insider or controlling shareholders and the ability of minority shareholders to force for higher dividends when faced with expropriation risk.\n2. Prior studies and hypotheses development: 2.1. Family ownership of shares\n3. Research methodology and sampling procedure: 3.1. Model specification and measurement of variables\n4. Empirical results: 4.1. Univariate analysis\n5. Conclusion: This study evaluates the association between family share ownership and dividend payout in Malaysia. Overall the results provide evidence with statistical significance, suggesting that at low or dispersed levels of family ownership, minority and other shareholders are possibly less likely to be concerned with expropriation, exert less pressure and results in lower dividend payout. In other words, the results indicate that at the 0-5 percent family ownership level, Type 2 agency problems may not be severe, based on the negative association with dividend payout. However at higher levels of family ownership, minority and other shareholders possibly anticipate possible expropriation by the former, exert more pressure and as a result experience higher dividend payout. Further examination of the hypotheses by partitioning firms according to size, debt and growth opportunities reveal that the observed results are stronger for smaller firms and significant for firms with low debt or low-growth opportunities, in line with the expectations of prior studies. A final test of the effect of family ownership on investment decisions of firms which experience high-growth opportunities reveals no significant results. Despite the existence of an alternative explanation in the extant literature that identifies dividends payout as a means by which firms' resources are expropriated, the results produced in this study, when taken together provides weak indication of this motive. One policy implication that can be drawn from this study is the need to further strengthen the institutional and regulatory architectures that would enhance the power of minority and other shareholders of public listed firms in Malaysia. The findings of this study have relevance for other East Asian markets, which are largely characterized by the prevalence of family-controlled public listed firms.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to investigate the effects of family ownership on dividend payout from the perspective of agency costs in Malaysia.\nDesign/methodology/approach: Annual financial, board and family ownership data of 160 firms listed on the Bursa Malaysia are collected for the period 2005-2010. Analyses are carried out using descriptive statistics, kh2 tests, Tobit regression and three-stage least square regression analysis.\nFindings: The empirical results suggest that family share ownership at the dispersed level from between 0 to 5 percent is negatively associated with dividend payout and positively associated from the 5 to 33 percent level with dividend payout. Consistent with the extant literature, the observed relationship between family share ownership and dividend payout is stronger in firms with smaller total assets (size), low debt and low-growth opportunities. Further examination of investment decisions lends support to arguments which attribute higher agency costs as a result of family ownerships.\nResearch limitations/implications: The observed results at the different family ownership levels are attributed to the possible expropriation in family-owned firms and accordingly, to the proportional pressure by minority and other shareholders for dividend payout.\nPractical implications: For policy makers, findings from this study could serve to justify initiatives to further strengthen the institutional and regulatory architectures that would enhance the power of minority and other shareholders of public listed firms in Malaysia.\nOriginality/value: This study contributes to the growing literature on dividend policy and family firms. Particularly, it provides further understanding of the effect of family ownership on dividend policy.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Rethinking compassion fatigue	[ "Organizational culture", "Organizational behaviour", "Healthcare", "Psychoanalytical theory" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n__NO_TITLE__: What is notable at the outset is the way compassion fatigue means one thing in the context of health care and social work, and the reverse in relation to the media and politics(Campbell, 2012, p. 7).\nIntroduction: There is little question that healthcare professionals often suffer under the weight of their work (Rothschild, 2006). Compared to other industries, healthcare has higher rates of absenteeism (Belita et al., 2013), turnover (Parry, 2008) and burnout (Lumb, 2016), not to mention higher incidents of substance abuse, depression and suicide (Center for Disease Control, 2008). The concept of \"compassion fatigue\" has come to capture these negative effects of helping others. Commonly defined as \"the cost of caring\" (Boyle, 2015), compassion fatigue is believed to affect anywhere from 16 to 85 percent of the healthcare workforce (Slatten et al., 2011; Potter et al., 2013; Smart et al., 2014) and cost the economy billions of dollars in lost productivity each year (Dewa et al., 2014; Spielberger et al., 2003; Stewart et al., 2003). Unsurprisingly, compassion fatigue has catapulted to the top of concerns of healthcare managers (Slatten et al., 2011), policy makers (Newdick and Danbury, 2015) and professional associations alike (Canadian Nurses Association, 2010).\nHistory of a concept: \"There is little confidence in tackling large problems,\" observes sociologist Stjepan Mestrovic (1997) in his widely acclaimed book Postemotional Society (p. 124). Writing at the close of the twentieth Century, Mestrovic (1997) was lamenting a growing tendency among Americans to turn away from global hardships and toward more domestic matters:The American dream in the 1990s is mean-spirited towards immigrants, have-nots, and the disadvantaged. It has also become stingy: Americans questioned why the USA should spend any money to reconstruct war-shattered Bosnia when that money could be used to reconstruct tattered American cities [...]. The more common reactions include exasperation and \"compassion fatigue,\" captured by the refrain \"America is not the world's policeman\" (p. 124).\nPsychodynamics of compassion fatigue: Psychoanalysis is unique among the various approaches to studying organizational behavior in virtue of its focus on the unconscious, and specifically the unconscious motivations that drive behavior (Gabriel, 1999). Oftentimes, these motives are inconsistent with accepted norms or self-images, leading to denial and repression. Freud's thoughts on altruism offer an intriguing starting point for understanding the unconscious motivations involved in compassion fatigue. In \"Totem and taboo\", for instance, Freud (1913) writes: \"The tender altruistic trait of the neurosis therefore merely compensates for the opposite attitude of brutal egoism which is at the basis of it [...]. Each of these over-good persons had a period of badness in his childhood\" (pp. 831, 898; italics in original). For Freud, these displays of being \"over-good\" serve a defensive function, guarding against the anxiety provoked by a prior \"period of badness\" that threatened the child's primary relationships.\nConcluding reflections: Ideally, anxiety caused by work would not be defended against but contained by the organization (Bion, 1961). Containing anxiety, rather than defending against it, affords the worker an opportunity to calibrate his or her unconscious with reality, and thereby enjoy greater access to emotions at work. As it stands, however, healthcare remains an industry largely \"repressed.\" The anxiety endemic to healthcare work gets reinforced by rigid bureaucratic structures and near-impossible standards of excellence rather than frankly acknowledged. The healthcare industry as a whole appears reluctant to explore the deeper forces at play that inhibit its workers; forces that, ironically, require true compassion to accept and understand.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to argue for a revision of the concept of compassion fatigue in light of both its history and psychodynamics.\nDesign/methodology/approach: This paper calls into question conventional interpretations of compassion fatigue and the assumptions underlying them. As an alternative, a psychoanalytic interpretation is offered that sheds light on the phenomenon's unconscious and organizational dynamics. This interpretation also aligns with the concept's historical use in media and politics.\nFindings: In contrast to the assumption that compassion fatigue arises from too much compassion, historical use of the term suggests just the opposite: compassion fatigue is the result of too little compassion. Healthcare literature on compassion fatigue has not only failed to account for this opposing view, but also the underlying psychodynamics at play. By attending to these neglected dimensions, healthcare scholars and practitioners can gain new insights into compassion fatigue and devise more sustainable interventions.\nOriginality/value: This paper reveals hidden dimensions to compassion fatigue that call into question conventional interpretations and offer novel perspectives on a core concern of healthcare work.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
To buy or not to buy? A case study of Western books at Peking University Library	[ "Collection development", "China", "Interlibrary loan", "Western books", "Peking University Library" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: When an interlibrary loan request is received, librarians face the decision of whether to turn the Interlibrary Loan (ILL) request into an internal collection development request, which means using ILL requests as one of the criteria to build the internal collection. This acquisition method is known as \"ILL-related purchase-on-demand (POD)\" (Tyler, 2011; van Dyk, 2011).\nStudy limitations and methodology: Study limitations\nDescription of data: Holdings of Western books\nData analysis: Data analysis in this study included analysis of four elements. First, the authors compared ILL data and circulation data across three factors - publication year, frequency of usage and patron category - and looked for any relationships between the utilization of the internal collection and ILL requests. Finally, the authors performed a comprehensive analysis of relationships between holdings and circulation and between holdings and ILL before offering proposals for collection assessment and development.\nDiscussion: to buy or not to buy?: ILL aims to satisfy an individual patron's demands quickly. However, library collection building is focused on acquiring high-quality collections to fulfill patrons' education and research needs from a long-term perspective. There are multiple approaches to provide a justification and foundation for collection building by using ILL request data.\nConclusion: In recent years, libraries outside China have been discussing and investigating whether to replace ILL services with POD in some instances. Whether this is applicable to domestic libraries in China depends on specific circumstances within each library:\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to develop a decision-making model for buy vs borrow selection decisions.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The authors conduct a statistical analysis of circulation transactions and Interlibrary Loan (ILL) request data related to Western books as well as the overall subject content of local collections. They compare the relative costs and delivery times for obtaining materials through interlibrary loan channels vs purchase from domestic or foreign publishers. Based on this analysis, they make recommendations for buy vs borrow decision-making model relevant to the Western books collection at the Peking University Library.\nFindings: For materials available domestically, requesting through ILL is the preferred acquisitions strategy because of the low cost of domestic service and the comparable speed of delivery. Materials that can only be obtained from foreign libraries are best acquired through a combination of purchase-on-demand and ILL.\nOriginality/value: This paper adds to the corpus of professional literature on buy vs borrow collection development models but adds a unique perspective by applying this model to a Western book collection in a Chinese academic library.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Personal web usage and work inefficiency	[ "Internet", "Worldwide web", "Communication", "Electronic commerce" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: The advent of the internet as a main source of communication both within and outside the organizations have given rise to the use of the internet extensively for communication as well as for business activities. Sharma and Gupta (2003) have argued that the internet is cost-effective and may be faster than other communication media thus making it easy for employers to coordinate their global activities of customers and suppliers. Realizing this, the internet has found a place as a backbone of communication infrastructure in many organizations (Sharma and Gupta, 2003).In many ways, the internet has made the employees more efficient and has improved communication channels in many an organization. However, the internet has also opened up new areas of concern such as its effect on workers' productivity. Employees are spending time surfing on the net or communicating with their friends, relative and counterparts during working hours (Ferris, 2000). More employees are checking their stock prices, shopping for travel bargains and exchanging personal e-mail via the internet while at work - even though their companies prohibit these activities (Marsan, 2000).Personal web use is defined as voluntary online web behavior during normal working hours using any of the organization's resources for activities outside current customary job/work requirements (Anandarajan and Simmers, 2002). Such activities can include reading news, making travel arrangements, online purchases, downloading files and music, and searching for jobs.Work inefficiency on the other hand means bad work performance such as low productivity, sloppy work, and lateness. Employees' efficiency could suffer when employees use their internet access for personal reasons which in turn leads to serious loss of productivity and clogged networks (Anandarajan, 2002).The problem of pervasive personal web usage in the workplace has become an issue to be tackled in the ever growing inter connected world of today. An American online survey of 1,000 respondents reported that 44 percent of the respondents were trawling the internet during office hours spending on average 2.09 hours goofing off. This in turn has cost employers US$759 billion a year losses. Although there is another view which says clamping down on web use at work may not be in a company's best interest (Rosencrance, 2003). \"The line between work and personal life is blurred and total segregation of work from personal activities might result in a net decline in work performed, as well as lower workplace morale\" as expressed by Ronald Rust, director of the Center for E-Service at the Robert H. Smith School of Business.Although this may hold in some instances, experience has shown otherwise. Thus the purpose of this paper is to assess the extent of this problem and to gauge whether the extensive use leads to work inefficiencies. The work inefficiency in turn leads to lower productivity and it gets translated into lower performance.\nLiterature review: A Websense, Inc. survey conducted by Harris Interactive of 500 employees and 350 IT managers revealed how prevalent corporate internet access for personal surfing is. Just over half (51 percent) of the surveyed employees admitted to spending between one and five hours per week using the corporate internet connection for personal surfing, averaging about 2 hours per week (Greenspan, 2004). The more interesting finding from research was that 27 percent of the employees believed that personal web surfing makes them more productive in the office, while 57 percent do not recognize an impact on productivity. The five most popular non-work related websites accessed were news (84 percent), travel (64 percent), personal e-mail (56 percent), shopping (55 percent) and online banking (53 percent). With this information and also based on the work of Mahatanankoon et al. (2004) four personal non-work related usage were identified as downloading, information research, communication, and e-commerce. A research model was developed as shown in Figure 1.Based on the model, four hypotheses were developed to be tested as follows:H1. Personal downloading will be positively related to work inefficiency.H2. Personal information research will be positively related to work inefficiency.H3. Personal communication will be positively related to work inefficiency.H4. Personal e-commerce will be positively related to work inefficiency.\nMethodology: The population of this study consisted of all employees working in the Penang Free Trade Zone with access to the internet at their workplace. A structured questionnaire consisting of seven parts (demographic characteristics, personal web use and beliefs, personal downloading, personal information research, personal communication and personal e-commerce, work inefficiency) was used to collect the data for this study using a convenience sampling. The convenience sampling was deemed appropriate as this was a preliminary study only. The instruments used were adopted from Mahatanankoon et al. (2004) and Anandarajan et al. (2000). A total of 126 responses were received from a total of 500 questionnaires distributed which gives a response rate of 25.2 percent which is acceptable for the drop-off and pick-up method. Before doing the data analysis all responses were checked for completeness and accuracy.\nFindings: Table I presents the profile of the respondents. The profile matches the profile of the workers in the study areas that was predominantly Chinese although the Malaysian population generally has more Malays but in the state of Penang, the majority is Chinese. We had equal representation in terms of gender, with most having some form of tertiary education and drawing salary of at least RM 2,000 (USD 600).Table II presents the personal web use statistics and beliefs. It can be seen that about 90 percent of the respondents indicated that they accessing internet for personal use at least a few times a week with about 60 percent accessing internet for personal use at least once a day. About 84 percent believe that it is acceptable for people to use the internet for their personal use during breaks while another 70 percent agreed that it is okay to use the internet for personal searches at the workplace. Employees are most likely to access arts and entertainment websites followed by travel and leisure, living and consumer and to a lower extent sports and news which points to the value of internet as an entertainment source.The respondents on average spent 2.04 hours on the internet per day to access materials for personal use which amounts to about 25 percent of the daily work time (Table III). This is a major point to consider as it leads to waste of productive time doing unproductive work which is against the company's rules and regulations. The respondents were also asked how many hours per day would be acceptable for them to use the internet for personal use and the average was 1.5 hours. Again this shows the ignorance of the employees that what they are doing is wrong and is counter productive.After all the preliminary analysis we proceeded to establish the goodness of measure of the instruments used in this survey and the results are presented next.\nGoodness of measures: A factor analysis with varimax rotation was done to validate whether the respondents perceived the four constructs of personal web usage to be distinct. The results showed a four-factor solution with eigenvalues greater than 1.0 and the total variance explained was 72.18 percent of the total variance. KMO measure of sampling adequacy was 0.644 indicating sufficient intercorrelations while the Bartlett's Test of Sphericity was significant (Chi square=525.023, p<0.01). The criteria used by Igbaria et al. (1995) to identify and interpret factors were used in this study which was: each item should load 0.50 or greater on one factor and 0.35 or lower on the other factor. Table IV shows that result of the factor analysis. Further to that Cronbach's Alpha was chosen to analyze the degree of consistency among the items in a construct. The general rule of thumb is 0.70 nevertheless the minimum Alpha value for this study is 0.70 for personal communication. However, Hair et al. (1998) indicated that values of 0.70 and lower can be considered if the study is exploratory in nature as in this case which a preliminary study is.Table V presents the mean, standard deviation and intercorrelations between the major variables in the study. All the constructs were positively correlated but there was no cause for alarm as all the correlations were low to moderate only indicating no problem of multicollinearity.A multiple regression was run to test the relationship between personal web use and also work inefficiency and the results are presented in Table VI.The results in Figure 1 shows that extent of personal downloading (b=0.315, p< 0.01), personal information research (b=0.259, p<0.01) and personal e-commerce (b=0.280, p<0.01) were positively associated to work inefficiency whereas personal communication was not significantly related to work inefficiency. Thus H1, H2, and H4 of this study are supported whereas H3 is not supported. We can see that the most significant predictor of work inefficiency is personal downloading followed by personal e-commerce and then followed by personal information research. It was surprising to note that personal communication is not significantly associated with work inefficiency.\nDiscussion: The results of the study have shown that personal web usage among employees in the workplace is prevalent as indicated by the likelihood of the employees accessing the personal websites and also based on the average time spent which was about two hours per day. In percentage terms 25 percent of the work time is spent cyber loafing or for unproductive purposes. Another key finding of the research is the ignorance of the employees about the rules and regulations of the company which forbids them from using the internet for personal use during office hours. This was evident when the sample indicated 1.5 hours as the acceptable time for personal internet use during office hours which is clearly against existing company policies.The results of the study confirm the notion that personal web use will lead to inefficiency. Three out of the four personal web uses were positively related to inefficiency indicating that the higher extent of use of these three personal web usages would lead to higher inefficiency. Personal downloading and personal e-commerce was found to be the two most significant predictors of work inefficiency with personal information research coming in third. This indicates that the improper usage of the internet for personal downloading and personal e-commerce has actually impeded the productivity of the employees which is worrying.It is indeed a surprising finding that personal communication was not a significant predictor of work inefficiency. This again can be explained by the fact that Malaysians like to actually talk directly to the other person as compared through the e-mail as they find it very impersonal (Ramayah and Lee, 2005).\nConclusion: This preliminary research has shown that the problem of personal web use during office hours at the workplace is a prevalent problem that needs to be tackled to reduce the negative impact on productivity. The company's should embark on a campaign to promote a policy of acceptable use in their respective companies so as to minimize the abuse due to ignorance. The employees must be told what acceptable use is and what is not acceptable during the working hours so as not to stifle productivity of those who genuinely need to do so as part of their jobs.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: - This study looks at the usage of the internet for personal use during office hours. The study hopes to establish whether this unauthorized usages leads to work inefficiency.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - A sample of 126 employees from the Penang Free Trade Zone area was conveniently selected to respond to a structured questionnaire. As this is only a preliminary study, a proper sampling frame was deemed not necessary. The purpose of the study was to get a feel of the current situation before proceeding on a larger scale.\nFindings: - The results indicate that the problem of personal web use during office hours is prevalent and this leads to work inefficiency. The personal web use was divided into four categories (personal downloading, personal information research, personal communication and personal e-commerce). The regression results indicate that three of the usage are positively related to work inefficiency. Personal downloading (b=0.315, p< 0.01), personal information research (b=0.259, p<0.01), personal e-commerce (b=0.280, p<0.05) whereas personal communication (b=0.038, p>0.05) was not significantly related to work inefficiency. This finding empirically confirms the previous notion that personal web usage leads to work inefficiency.\nResearch limitations/implications: - The research shows gross ignorance on the part of the employees about what is acceptable and what is not in terms of acceptable internet usage in the work place. The main limitation is that the sample was limited to a certain state in Malaysia and future research may want to cover a bigger geographical area.\nPractical implications: - The employers have to embark on a campaign to educate the employees on the policy of acceptable use in their respective companies to arrest this phenomenon.\nOriginality/value: - Not many papers have been written looking at this issue and especially in the context of a developing country like Malaysia.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Influence of managers' mindset on leadership behavior	[ "Leadership", "Leadership Practices Inventory", "Mindset", "Growth mindsets" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Developing managers as leaders is a strategic priority for organizations (Aragon and Sanz, 2013; Clarke, 2012). Leaders and how they behave directly impact their organization's ability to attract and retain talent, an essential component to gaining competitive advantage in the marketplace (Gallup, 2017). According to Gallup (2017), only \"21% of employees strongly feel their performance is managed in a way that motivates them to do outstanding work\" (p. 6). The continued need to increase leadership effectiveness and leadership development initiatives has implications for a firm's bottom line and is reflected in American corporations' annual expenditure of more than $14bn on improving leadership effectiveness (Gallup, 2013, 2017; Kaiser and Curphy, 2013). The economic consequences of poor leadership in corporate America are estimated to annually cost $450 to $550bn (Gallup, 2013). However, the investment in leadership development programs (internal and external) have yet, for a variety of reasons, to produce significantly improved leadership effectiveness (Gurdjian et al., 2014).\nMindset, context and consequences: The study of mindset evolved from examining children's response to failure (Diener and Dweck, 1978; Dweck and Leggett, 1988). Two major patterns of cognition-affect-behavior states were delineated. When faced with challenges and obstacles, children responded by either increasing effort, defined as adaptive or mastery-orientation, or withdrawing and decreasing effort, termed maladaptive or helpless-orientation (Dweck, 1999, 2006). Interestingly, the two types of response to failure were unrelated to the children's actual abilities. The children who believed that the setback was due to their lack of effort demonstrated adaptive behaviors by exerting effort to learn and engage in problem-solving strategies (learning-oriented goals), whereas those who believed that the setback was due to their intelligence demonstrated maladaptive helpless behavior patterns (performance-oriented goals) by withdrawing from challenges and limiting their learning and growth (Dweck and Leggett, 1988).\nMethod: Participants\nResults: Table I shows the results from t-test analyses of the average scores of those managers with a fixed mindset and those managers with a growth mindset on each of the five leadership practices. While the pattern of responses (rank order) of the two groups was relatively similar, those managers with a growth mindset reported engaging in all five leadership practices more often than did those managers with a fixed mindset. The differences on Inspire, Challenge and Enable were statistically significant at the p<0.01, the difference on Model was significant at the p < 0.05 level, and the difference on Encourage approached statistical significance (p < 0.06).\nDiscussion: In examining the theoretical construct of mindset with leadership, the hypothesis was that a difference would be found between fixed and growth mindset managers on the frequency of engaging in leadership behaviors. An examination of the influence of fixed and growth mindset on managers' assessment of how frequently they engaged in the five leadership practices showed that those with a growth mindset engaged in all five leadership practices more often than did managers with a fixed mindset, with Model, Inspire, Challenge and Enable reaching statistically significant levels, and Encourage nearly achieving statistical significance. In addition, demographic and organizational characteristics of the managers were not found to significantly affect mindset or account directly for any significant amount of variance around leadership behaviors. These findings are consistent with previous research conducted primarily in educational settings (Esparza et al., 2014; Gutshall, 2014; Paunesku et al., 2015; Rattan et al., 2012), and extend those findings to managers in corporate settings. Further, these results lend support to previous research findings regarding the limited influence of demographic and organizational factors on both mindset (Dweck, 2006; Heslin et al., 2006) and leadership (Posner, 2016, 2018).\nLimitations and future research: Several limitations to the current study should be acknowledged. Foremost is the reliance on self-report data for assessing leadership behaviors. Future research should examine leadership behaviors by gathering data from their colleagues, direct reports and supervisors to get a bigger picture of how managers behave from the perspective of their constituents, those who are most impacted by the managers' behaviors. It would be useful to know how other observers rate the leadership behaviors of fixed and growth mindset managers and if those assessments are significantly different from those of the managers themselves.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to focus on exploring the link between managers' mindset (fixed vs growth) and their choice of leadership behaviors.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The sample was drawn from a proprietary database provided by a global organization that offers 360-degree online leadership surveys. Individuals in management positions provided an assessment of their mindset orientation as well as how often they engaged in various leadership behaviors.\nFindings: Growth-minded managers consistently displayed more frequent use of leadership behaviors than did their fixed mindset counterparts; and this relationship was independent of demographic or organizational factors.\nResearch limitations/implications: The findings are consistent with previous mindset research but prominently extend those results to managers in corporate settings; and supports previous research regarding the limited influence of demographic and organizational factors on both mindset and leadership.\nPractical implications: Managers' mindsets influence how much they engage in various leadership behaviors, and improving leadership competencies is more likely to occur when managers hold a growth mindset that abilities can be developed through effort as compared to fixed mindset managers who believe that abilities are inherent and unchangeable. The mindset of managers is predictive of the behavioral choices they make about exercising leadership, and has practical significance since studies have shown that managers are generally more effective in direct relationship to how often they are seen as engaging in leadership.\nOriginality/value: This study extends the significance of mindset from the educational to the corporate environment, using a robust sample of managers, and finding that the relationship between mindset and leadership is independent of various demographic and organizational characteristics.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Consumer acceptance of product-service systems: Designing for relative advantages and uncertainty reductions	[ "Services", "Consumer behaviour", "Consumption" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1 Introduction: Products may be both a blessing and a curse. They may assist the individual consumer in fulfilment of needs, reflect identity and elicit joy. However, they can also imply entrapment as the piles of no longer used goods grow high while the user is busy with maintenance chores, or cursing over a complex interface. For mankind, the current consumption system is not sustainable. While it provides jobs and material wealth, it also threatens our very future. According to United Nations (1992), \"Agenda 21\": \"the major cause of the continued deterioration of the global environment is the unsustainable pattern of consumption and production\".One of the more desirable visions for a future alternative consumption system is Stahel's (1995) ideas about the functional society; which optimises the management of resources to create goods and services with the economic objective \"to create the highest possible use value for the longest possible time while consuming as few material resources and energy as possible\".Continuing this line of thought, concepts such as functional sales, product-service systems (PSS) and eco-efficient services have been proposed as a way of approaching sustainable consumption. A shift from ownership towards co-consumption, eco-leasing, etc. is expected to provide incitements to create products that are upgradeable and maintainable. Furthermore, economic transactions tied to need fulfilment rather than shifts in ownership of goods, could change the focus of producers from refining materials to creating value for customers.These potential changes are in this paper viewed from a consumer perspective and the conditions for finding acceptance are discussed. More specifically, it revisits three studies on PSS for private consumers, and elaborates on these in relation to user[1] acceptance and innovation diffusion. The goal is to identify characteristics that may increase the likelihood of diffusion of such solutions. The perspective taken rests on a tradition of user-centred design and consumer research (Rosenblad-Wallin, 1983; Dahlman, 1986; Karlsson, 1996; Engelbrektsson, 2004) in which development and adaptation of technology is founded in knowledge about humans. Focus is on enabling learning about users and their requirements, e.g. through studying the problems people face when using products and addressing these in the development process.1.1 Functional sales and PSS\n2 The studies: This section revisits key results from three studies in which participants were presented with hypothetical PSS offers. To identify factors underlying consumers reasoning about PSS offers, a series of focus groups (study 1 and 3) and individual interviews were hosted. The open approach taken was chosen over a close-ended method (e.g. questionnaires) because it allows exploration grounded in factors brought up by participants.2.1 Study 1: consumption without ownership\n3 Consumer acceptance of PSS: This section introduces theory from the area of user acceptance and innovation adoption. Furthermore, an activity perspective is promoted and the foundations of the activity scheme are discussed. Finally, the central challenges of relative advantages and uncertainty reductions are elaborated.3.1 Frameworks for user acceptance\n4 Implications and recommendations: In this section, the most central characteristics of PSS solutions likely to influence consumer acceptance are summarised. Furthermore, procedures for managing these characteristics during conceptual development of PSS are proposed.4.1 Preconditions for designing PSS for consumer acceptance\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: - Product-service systems (PSS) could potentially benefit consumers, but empirical studies of business-to-consumer PSS solutions have been scarce. The purpose of this paper is to identify conditions for consumer acceptance, and propose a methodology for PSS development.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - Factors influencing consumer acceptance of PSS are investigated through focus groups and individual interviews, and elaborated in relation to theory from user acceptance and innovation adoption literature. Procedures for conceptual development of PSS are then proposed, based on methodology adapted from user-centred design.\nFindings: - The two factors \"impact on everyday life\", and \"uncertainties\" in anticipating such consequences were repeatedly brought up by participants. PSS affect consumers through practical implications for the activities they engage in. This goes beyond the service encounter, is highly complex and case specific why development processes should include iterative studies with consumers.\nResearch limitations/implications: - The studies use hypothetical PSS offers. Validation and refinement of the proposed methodology would require application in commercial development projects.\nPractical implications: - The proposed methodology is expected to support requirements elicitation, and facilitate early stages of PSS development.\nOriginality/value: - This paper presents empirical findings regarding consumer acceptance, and provides a detailed analysis of factors that are central to PSS acceptance. It also introduces methodology for description and analysis of the complex consequences a solution may have from a consumer perspective.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Process innovation in milling stage in olive oil sector: Evidence from an empirical analysis in Umbria (Italy)	[ "Innovation", "Knowledge acquisition", "Extra virgin olive oil", "Umbria" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: This paper focuses on process innovation in the olive oil sector as an important driver of productivity and competitiveness enhancements (Alarchon and Sanchez, 2013). According to Utterback and Abernathy (1975), the olive oil sector can be thought of as being in a systemic stage of process innovation, in which selective improvement of process elements becomes increasingly difficult, costly and slow. Scholars shed light on olive oil innovation spanning from technological (Servili et al., 2015) to institutional areas (Vazquez, 2005), but a comprehensive framework on process innovation is still lacking. This paper aims at contributing to this field, focusing on the organizational dimensions of innovation. It is important to investigate the process innovation because it provides a basis for improving production system capabilities. Various agents contribute to technological knowledge creation (Easterby-Smith et al., 2000). Process innovation posits multidimensional requirements, which the agents must fulfill through technological knowledge development and organizational decision making (Davenport, 2013; Teece, 1996). The objective of this study is to investigate if and how the modes of organizing technological knowledge acquisition influence the decision to innovate the process in the milling stage. We concentrated on process innovation at the mill level in Umbria (Central Italy). The main contribution of the paper relates to the relationships between the ways of organizing knowledge acquisition and its finalization until the decision to innovate is made. Second, the study also investigates the relationship between specific difficulties in building up a process view (Davenport, 2013) and the conclusive decision to innovate the process.\n2. Conceptual framework: 2.1 Technological knowledge acquiring and transaction governance\n3. Strategy of empirical analysis and model: In order to respond to the research questions, we carried out an empirical analysis based on a survey concerning the milling stage in the olive oil sector. The preliminary field research showed that in many cases the decision to innovate is associated with the decision to invest in machinery, equipment and/or dedicated software. We then modeled the decision to innovate according to the possibility that the decision to invest is made or not made jointly with the decision of investing.\n4. Empirical analysis: 4.1 Data\n5. Conclusion: This study has investigated the influence of organizational modes on the decision to innovate the production process in the olive oil sector. The conceptual framework proposes an integrated view in which the modes of organization are expected to influence the decision of innovating because they concern different sources of technological knowledge. This implies that one has to expect the transaction attributes - especially asset specificity and uncertainty - vary among the different sources. On the other hand, the complexity of knowledge creation influences the adoption of different sources of knowledge. Moreover, our study shows how the sources of information also have a variable influence on the decision to innovate: while this deals with the complexity of the knowledge creating process (Nonaka and Takeuchi, 1995), our results also show that this influence varies with the difficulty of elaborating an accurate vision of process.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to investigate the role of the modes of organizing the technological knowledge (make, buy and hybrid organization) in the decision to innovate the production process.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The study first develops a conceptual framework drawing the concept of mode of organization from the Transaction Cost Economics. The three research questions are coherently formulated which concern: the influence of the modes of organization on the decision to innovate and to invest in supporting instruments; the variability of this influence and the complementarity degree between the decision to innovate and to invest. The empirical analysis is carried out with respect to the olive oil sector considering a representative sample of olive millers (Umbria, Central Italy) and a complementary accidental sample drawn from an existing database.\nFindings: The main results of the study provide evidence for the role of modes of organization in the knowledge acquisition finalized to the process innovation. The role of the \"buy\" option is important, while the collaboration - the \"hybrid\" organization - seems to influence strongly the innovation and the related investment decision. The important role of the information sources appears effective and articulated. Finally, despite the great economic importance of the quality requirements, the millers appear to be more sensitive to the difficulties to build up a clear process vision in terms of technology.\nResearch limitations/implications: The main limitation of the study is that it refers to a specific supply system including small enterprises and does not account for the pattern of innovation in other olive oil production systems. Moreover, one of the samples that was observed and analyzed is accidental in nature and does not allow a clear and robust comparison for the representative sample.\nPractical implications: The findings of this study can contribute to the identification of organizational constraints to the rate on process innovation.\nOriginality/value: The originality of the study is based on the main focus, i.e. the attention to the role of the modes of organization in the decision to innovate, which provides complementary information to the extant literature on the choice of modes of organizing the technological knowledge acquisition. Moreover, the conceptual framework and findings are connected to the current research on the variety of the agribusiness organizations which is still a partially explored field of inquiry.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Fuzzy FMEA with a guided rules reduction system for prioritization of failures	[ "Failure modes and effects analysis", "Risk analysis", "Fuzzy control", "Production processes" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1 Introduction: Failure mode and effect analysis (FMEA) is an effective problem prevention methodology that can easily interface with many engineering and reliability methods. By the broad influence in the representation of potential product/process failures and of planned responses to these failures, FMEA establishes an effective risk management environment (Ireson et al., 1995).According to Chrysler Corporation et al. (1995), FMEA can be described as a systemized group of activities intended to recognize and to evaluate the potential failures of a product/process and its effects. Besides, FMEA identifies actions which can eliminate or reduce the chances of potential failures from recurring. It also helps users to identify the key design or process characteristics that require special controls for manufacturing, and to highlight areas for improvement in characteristic control or performance (Ireson et al., 1995).From the literature review, a number of investigations have been conducted to enhance the FMEA methodology using artificial intelligence (AI) modeling techniques. A method to automate the FMEA process was proposed by Hunt et al. (1993). In Lee (2001), use of the Bayes belief network in FMEA modeling and analysis was examined. Application of expert systems to FMEA was suggested in Russomanno et al. (1992). A method of using causal reasoning for automating FMEA was presented in Bell et al. (1992).Fuzzy logic has also been applied to improve the failure risk evaluation and prioritization abilities of FMEA (Bowles and Pelaez, 1995). Application of the fuzzy Cognitive Map to FMEA was explored in (Pelaez and Bowles, 1996). Use of fuzzy reasoning and grey relation with FMEA for marine industry has been proposed to overcome the traditional FMEA weaknesses in failures risk evaluation (Pillay and Wang, 2003). A fuzzy assessment of FMEA for engine system has been proposed in Xu et al. (2002). Besides, a pure fuzzy logic system has been applied to FMEA of an auxiliary feed water system in a nuclear power plant for risk ranking enhancement purpose Guimaraes and Lapa (2004).In this paper, we focus on the use of fuzzy inference techniques as an alternative to overcome the weaknesses associated with the traditional FMEA system. Traditional FMEA uses the risk priority number (RPN) ranking system to evaluate the risk level of failures, to rank failures, and to prioritize actions (Ireson et al., 1995). Comparing with traditional FMEA, the fuzzy approach allows failure risk evaluation and prioritization to be conducted based on experts' knowledge.In this paper, a generic approach of fuzzy RPN function modeling is first introduced. However, similar to other fuzzy models, the fuzzy RPN model suffers from the combinatorial rule explosion problem (Jin, 2000). This causes the Fuzzy RPN model (a three inputs fuzzy model) often has a large number of rules and it is tedious in getting a full set of rules. In this paper, we propose guided rules reduction system (GRRS); a generic approach of rules reduction in the fuzzy RPN model by guiding users on which rules is actually required and which rules can be ignored. Performance of the proposed approach is evaluated using three real-world case study relating to a semiconductor manufacturing environment.\n2 Failure mode and effect analysis: 2.1 The traditional FMEA procedure\n3 Fuzzy production rules: In a fuzzy inference system (FIS), experts' knowledge is represented with a rule base comprising fuzzy production rules (FPRs) (Jang et al., 1997; Lin and Lee, 1995). Each FPR consists of two parts: an antecedent (input) and a consequent (output). Generally, an FPR has the form:If X1 is F1 AND ... Xn is Fn, Then Y is Gwhere Xi and Y are the inputs and output of the FIS, Fi and G are input and output linguistic variables/fuzzy sets, respectively.Firing strength (Jang et al., 1997; Lin, 1999), also known as the degree of fulfillment, is defined as the degree to which the antecedent part of a FPR is satisfied. The firing strength may be the result of an AND or an OR operation, and it shapes the output function for the rule.Let premise 1 (fact): X1 is F1' AND X2 is F2'.Premise 2 (rule): If X1 is F1 AND X2 is F2 then Y is G.Consequence (conclusion): Y is G'.The fuzzy rules can be transformed into a ternary fuzzy relation Rm based on the Mamdani fuzzy implication function, as follows: Equation 2 The resulting G'is expressed as G'=(F1'xF2')[?](F1xF2-G). Thus: Equation 3 Figure 2 shows the concept of firing strength, W, graphically.\n4 Fuzzy FMEA: Figure 3 shows the flow chart of the fuzzy FMEA approach. As compared with the traditional procedure, fuzzy FMEA replaces the RPN with a fuzzy RPN function. As shown in Figure 4, an FIS is employed in fuzzy FMEA to replace the product function of the traditional RPN.4.1 Generation of the fuzzy RPN function\n5 A guided rule reduction system: Fuzzy modeling of high-dimensional inputs systems has been a challenging problem (Yen and Wang, 1999). The fuzzy RPN model typically constitutes a large number of rules, thus it is a tedious task to obtain a full set of rules. The larger the number of rules, the higher the accuracy of the model prediction increase since the probability of having a \"hole\" over the rule base decreases.As the number of rules required increases, ease of use of the model decreases since users need to provide much information for the modeling process. Nevertheless, not all the rules are actually required in the fuzzy RPN model. Eliminating some of the rules is not going to give a significant change in the model output. However, some of the rules are vitally important and cannot be ignored.Over the years, a lot of research work has been done on methods to reduce the complexity of fuzzy systems (Jin, 2000; Yen and Wang, 1999; Lin, 1999; Song and Smith, 2000). An important issue in complexity reduction of fuzzy modeling is the approach to select a set of important fuzzy rules. Generally, a firing strength matrix is used together with some measure index to detect the rules that should be retained and eliminated (Yen and Wang, 1999).We propose an enhancement to the fuzzy RPN model using a GRRS. The GRRS provides guidance to users which rules are actually required and which can be eliminated. By doing so, users need not give all the rules but only the important and significant ones when constructing the fuzzy RPN model.Figure 9 shows the function of the proposed GRRS in the fuzzy FMEA procedure. The GRRS will study the need of each rule and give guidance to FMEA users which rules are necessary and which can be ignored.Figure 10 shows use of the GRRS in the fuzzy RPN model GRRS. Instead of supplying all the rules, users need to provide only the required rules as guided by the GRRS.Similar to other rules reduction approach, the GRRS works on a firing strength matrix, as follows.Lets IN; where N = 1, 2, 3... n be the possible inputs to the fuzzy RPN model with severity (SN), occurrence (ON), and detect(DN). Matrix, I, can be constructed as follows. Equation 5 The firing strength can be viewed as a measurement of correlation between a single input data set with a particular rule/antecedent. The firing strength is ranged from 0 to 1; the higher the firing strength value, the higher the correlation between the input data set to the particular rule/antecedent.LetmSX(S); where X = 1, 2, 3, ... , n be membership function/linguistic term of severity (input);mOY(O); where Y = 1, 2, 3 ... , n be membership function/linguistic term of occurrence (input);mDZ(D); where Z = 1, 2, 3, ... , n be the membership function/linguistic term of detect (input);mRW(R); where W = 1, 2, 3, ... , n be the membership function/linguistic term of the RPN (output);Note that RXYZ (mSX(S), mOY(O), mDZ(D), mRW(R)) is the fuzzy rule of the combination mSX, mOY and mDZ using the grid partition, and mRW is the mapped output linguistic term, mRW(R). The fuzzy rules; RXYZ can be transformed into a ternary fuzzy relation based on the Mamdani fuzzy implication function, as follows: Equation 6 FNXYZ is the firing strength, which acts as the measurement of correlation between a single input data set IN and the rules RXYZ, where: Equation 7 Thus, the correlation between the single input IN and all the rules can be represented as a 3D matrix, FN.The importance index, SXYZ, is created as a measurement of importance of rule RXYZ to the fuzzy RPN model. Here, we define the SXYZ as: Equation 8 Similar to FN, S can be represented as a 3-D matrix comprising SXYZ.A rule, RXYZ, is selected based on the importance index, SXYZ, associated with the rule. Those rules with a SXYZ value that is lower than or equal to a prescribed threshold, l are believe to be inactive and will be deleted. This can be represented as follows:Rule RXYZ is selected if SXYZ >= l where 1>=l>=0In general, as l decreases, the number of rules selected increases, and model precision improves. If l is set to zero, all the rules will be selected.\n6 Case studies: A series of experiments to evaluate the applicability of the proposed approach were conducted on three semiconductor manufacturing processes, i.e. test handler process, wafer mounting process, and underfill dispensing process. In each experiment, the potential failures, their causes, effects, and solutions, as well as assessment of the three input scores (severity, occurrence and detect) were first identified/accessed by experts. Risk level of each failure was then evaluated using the traditional and fuzzy RPN approaches. In addition, use of the fuzzy RPN model with and without the proposed GRSS (with l=0.1, 0.2, 0.25) was evaluated.6.1 Background of the process\n7 Conclusions: In this paper, a fuzzy RPN model has been described. The proposed approach has been evaluated using three real-world case studies relating a semiconductor manufacturing process, i.e. test handler process, wafer mounting process, and underfill dispensing process. Comparing with the traditional methodology, the advantages of the fuzzy approach are two-fold:1. it allows failure risk evaluation, ranking, and prioritization to be conducted based on experts' knowledge, experiences, and opinions; and2. it allows the failure risk evaluation function to be customized based on the nature of a process.In addition, a rules reduction system for the fuzzy RPN model has been devised. The experimental results positively demonstrate that the GRRS can effectively give guidance to FMEA users on which rules are essential, and which are not. Hence, the number of fuzzy rules has been reduced significantly while maintaining the ability of the fuzzy RPN model in risk evaluation, ranking, and prioritization in agreement with experts' knowledge. Thus, the time-consuming and tedious process in acquiring rules from domain users in building the fuzzy RPN model can be avoided. Besides, the GRRS simplifies the complexity and, at the same time, reduces the computational load of the resulting fuzzy RPN model.In this work, the Gaussian membership function has been implemented. It would be interesting to investigate the use of other types of membership function (e.g. triangular/trapezoidal) and to compare the results with those obtained from the Gaussian function. Further research will also focus on rule minimization in the fuzzy RPN model. The success of rule minimization in the fuzzy RPN model will minimize the burden of FMEA users. With the GRRS, the percentage of rule reduction is mainly regulated by the threshold value, l. Further work on determining the optimal value of l while maintaining the ability of the Fuzzy RPN model to predict in accordance with experts' knowledge can be conducted. In addition, evolutionary optimization techniques such as Genetic algorithm (Ishibuchi et al., 1993) and Symbiotic Evolution (Jamei et al., 2004) constitute a good direction of further work for selection of fuzzy rules and determination of the optimal l values in an automated manner for the GRRS-based Fuzzy RPN model.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: - To propose a generic method to simplify the fuzzy logic-based failure mode and effect analysis (FMEA) methodology by reducing the number of rules that needs to be provided by FMEA users for the fuzzy risk priority number (RPN) modeling process.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - The fuzzy RPN approach typically requires a large number of rules, and it is a tedious task to obtain a full set of rules. The larger the number of rules provided by the users, the better the prediction accuracy of the fuzzy RPN model. As the number of rules required increases, ease of use of the model decreases since the users have to provide a lot of information/rules for the modeling process. A guided rules reduction system (GRRS) is thus proposed to regulate the number of rules required during the fuzzy RPN modeling process. The effectiveness of the proposed GRRS is investigated using three real-world case studies in a semiconductor manufacturing process.\nFindings: - In this paper, we argued that not all the rules are actually required in the fuzzy RPN model. Eliminating some of the rules does not necessarily lead to a significant change in the model output. However, some of the rules are vitally important and cannot be ignored. The proposed GRRS is able to provide guidelines to the users which rules are required and which can be eliminated. By employing the GRRS, the users do not need to provide all the rules, but only the important ones when constructing the fuzzy RPN model. The results obtained from the case studies demonstrate that the proposed GRRS is able to reduce the number of rules required and, at the same time, to maintain the ability of the Fuzzy RPN model to produce predictions that are in agreement with experts' knowledge in risk evaluation, ranking, and prioritization tasks.\nResearch limitations/implications: - The proposed GRRS is limited to FMEA systems that utilize the fuzzy RPN model.\nPractical implications: - The proposed GRRS is able to simplify the fuzzy logic-based FMEA methodology and make it possible to be implemented in real environments.\nOriginality/value: - The value of the current paper is on the proposal of a GRRS for rule reduction to enhance the practical use of the fuzzy RPN model in real environments.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Commentary: exposing a research bias or a relic of research practice	[ "Qualitative research", "Quantitative research", "Marketing research", "Grounded theory", "Conceptualisation", "Trends", "Experimental design", "Surveys" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Over a decade ago, Hanson and Grimmer (2007) addressed the mix of qualitative and quantitative approaches in the marketing discipline by exploring research published in a sample of 1,195 articles from three journals, Journal of Marketing, European Journal of Marketing and the Journal of Services Marketing (JSM), during 1993-2002. Based on the results of a content analysis, the authors concluded that 75 per cent of research articles published in these three journals used quantitative research. Further, the authors concluded that JSM had the highest proposition of articles containing qualitative or mixed research (19.6 per cent of articles for JSM); followed by the European Journal of Marketing (15.9 per cent) and the Journal of Marketing (11.5 per cent). These results led the authors to conclude that academic marketing has a bias toward quantitative research.\nMethod: We performed a content analysis on 1,268 articles (e.g. including research papers, viewpoints and commentaries), which have been published in JSM since its inception (1987-July and 2019). This figure is slightly more than the 1,176 articles that were analyzed by Valtakoski (2020). The authors' auto-imported abstracts of all JSM papers from the Web of Science database into a Microsoft Excel file for analysis. These papers were then matched with submission information on authors, reviewers and paper outcomes, including revision, rejection or acceptance, from JSM's manuscript central submission system. Revised versions of the same paper were removed from the analysis. The ability to combine internal data from the manuscript central with published data is a unique approach and one that is not available to non-editorial authors.\nFindings: The findings report the analysis and address the two research questions raised in response to Valtakoski's (2020) paper.\nDiscussion: Despite the dominance of published quantitative articles in the journal, it is the JSM editor's contention that this observable research stance is a relic of research practice rather than emulating from an explicit or implicit, editorial bias. Indeed, the journal remains adamant in its mission of publishing articles, including research papers, case studies, literature reviews, viewpoints and so forth, that contribute to service theory and managerial practices. Valtakoski (2020) acknowledge the citation rates of JSM qualitative papers and note that the 2018 best paper award was given to a qualitative paper (Heinonen and Medberg, 2018) as did the 2017 (Hollebeek et al., 2017) and 2015 (Harwood and Garry, 2015) awards. The decrease in word count from 12,000 to 9,000 words in 2014 with the change in editors has not affected the likelihood of qualitative research being published, quite the opposite occurred with a higher proportion of qualitative papers being accepted between 2014 and 2019.\nConclusion: This commentary has provided a useful opportunity to examine the method composition of submissions and published papers in JSM since 1987 and has revealed some interesting findings. The limitations of the paper relate to the lack of information about submissions from an internal perspective prior to the mid-2000s when papers went online via the manuscript central system, the ability to effectively code the paper contents based on the abstract only and the constraints of author and reviewer profiles on manuscript central whereby not all profiles contained method expertise.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: This paper aims to represent a response to issues raised in the continuing quantitative-qualitative debate by Valtakoski (2020). Which appeared in a Journal of Services Marketing (JSM) special issue on qualitative research in service-oriented research.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The authors performed a content analysis of 1,268 papers that were published in JSM (1987-2019). In addition, the authors had data that is held in JSM's manuscript central submission portal.\nFindings: The analysis shows that while there is a dominance of quantitative methods in the journal, the proportion of qualitative papers is growing. During 2014-2019, 83.4 per cent of submitted papers to JSM represented quantitative research and 14 per cent represented qualitative research; however, 75 per cent of accepted papers were quantitative and 25 per cent were qualitative/mixed methods. Thus, the proportion of published qualitative studies are increasing and have a higher chance of receiving an acceptance decision compared to quantitative studies. Additionally, the largest percentage of qualitative papers published in JSM derive from corresponding authors outside of North America.\nResearch limitations/implications: Service researchers who opt to use inductive research methods, which tend to use qualitative research, will not confront discrimination based solely upon the use of a research methodology among editors or reviewers at JSM.\nPractical implications: JSM welcomes qualitative research that has rich practical implications.\nOriginality/value: This study is one of the first to provide authors with a detailed analysis and responses to the qualitative-quantitative debate in marketing.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Extracting business process decomposition: A practical approach using the ISIran V methodology	[ "Process management", "Process planning", "Process analysis" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1 Introduction: Business process modeling is the heart of any kind of horizontal planning for enterprise's information systems. According to Cook (1996), horizontal plans (found in practices such as \"IT strategic planning\" (Wiseman, 1988), \"ERP systems\" (Davenport, 1998) and \"enterprise architecture\" (Spewak, 1993)) have the following characteristics:1. Providing an integrated plan (and/or architecture) for all the information systems before implementing any of them.2. Focusing on business strategies to provide an IT strategy and following this strategy during the planning phase.3. Analyzing business processes (instead of organizational functions) in order to gain requirements for future information systems through which:* data and process redundancies will be removed;* interoperability amongst information systems will be acquired;* features of information systems will be adaptable to actual business requirements; and* information systems may be customized easily when a business or technology driver occurs.Such an approach will result in a flexible interoperable IT environment instead of a non-satisfying monolithic one. As it could be seen, the majority of advantages taken from horizontal approaches are resulted from the most impressive factor, which is the business process modeling.Two kinds of diagrams are commonplace results of a business processes modeling practice: \"business process decomposition\" and \"process thread diagram\". The former diagram is a hierarchical decomposition of enterprise's business processes regardless their distribution amongst organizational units. The latter one is a description of each process in terms of events, results, actions, flows and responsibilities. In order to provide a thorough plan (and/or architecture) for information systems, it is necessary to extract such models.In this paper, a step-by-step methodology for extracting business process models is provided. Our methodology is called \"the V methodology\" because of its approach to break down the enterprise through a functional hierarchy and then collecting it up again via its process decomposition. In next of this paper, we will discuss the benefits and necessities of having such a methodology in Section 2, describe the terminology used in this paper in Section 3, define the V methodology in Section 4 and review learnt lessons and further work, respectively, in Sections 5 and 6.\n2 Motivation: According to BPMDS (2003) building a business process model is a complex challenging task because:* Business processes are not always clearly visible as they may go through the whole, often functionally structured organization.* Written information about business processes is often non-existing or not reliable.Based on Lin (2002) there would be a large space to improve business process modeling methods.In fact there are few written materials about how to extract enterprise's business processes. Looking for the business process modeling methodologies, most of the results will address the modeling notations used for this purpose such as IDEF or UML. Another problem with the existing resources is that most of them refer to modeling business processes but not recognizing them. Lack of enough comprehensive methods plus deadline limitations force most of experts to apply their previous experiences and/or best practices, in order to extract business process model of the enterprise.This may sound well specially when dealing with typical units such as administrative affairs. Difficulties arise when practicing with major business areas, containing enterprise's value chains. Even if they could overcome these hardships with the help of their excellence, the process would not be a repeatable one. In summary, having no definite methodology for extracting business processes:* causes dependency on a few experts;* makes it too difficult to repeat the task for other projects;* delays finishing projects due to bottlenecks around those experts;* brings the solution with no clue to show its correctness;* hardens the project and quality control processes;* hazards the process of human resources training;* makes it difficult to learn from previous lessons; and* leaves few chances for the company to employ qualified experts.And as a general result, costs paid for human resources, technical knowledge acquisition, training and penalties will grow.One may say that using ERP systems, I will be able to benefit from the advantages of best practices, so why may I still need to model business processes? The answer is that according to previous experiences, having business process models will help the solution providers to compare the target enterprise to their solution and assess its suitability and costs of changes needed in business processes. Despite some successes, reports of failed implementations cost and time overruns, and scalability problems abound. A careful examination of field experiences by Kamath (2003) reveals that a common source of difficulty lies in understanding and implementing compatible business processes.\n3 Terminology: Different terminologies are convenient among different practices containing the \"business process modeling\" effort. Since, we use a practical approach, our terminology is adapted to the one used by Popkin's System Architect - Popkin (available at: www.popkin.com/products/system_architect.htm): one of the most applied automatic software tools, in the area of enterprise modeling according to Schekkerman (2003). It is also meaningful from the viewpoint of the \"SELECT Perspective\" (Allen, 1998).Based on Mayer (1998) \"A business process is a series of steps designed to produce a product or a service. It includes all the activities that deliver particular results for a given customer (external or internal).\" In order to model a process, an special kind of diagram is used. This diagram is known as \"process thread diagram\" showing all the steps, responsibilities, information flows, events and results of the process. Process thread diagram models EBPs (Elementary Business Processes) representing at the lowest level of process decomposition diagrams (See the next paragraph for more information). A general layout of a process thread diagram is shown in Figure 1.Since, processes are not equally grained, decomposition diagram is used as a comprehensive tool, structuring business processes in a logical manner. Generally speaking of a process we mean a \"process thread\" which is thoroughly composed of its offspring blocks. Ordinarily these blocks are \"elementary business processes\" or EBPs, which are \"the smallest units of activity of meaning to the end-user, and which when complete leaves the information area in a self-consistent state - Martin (1990)\". There are \"business process groups\" at the highest level of a \"process decomposition diagram\" each of which consists of all the sequencing process (threads) regarding a specific business area. Offspring threads of a process group and offspring EBPs of a thread are supposed to be run from left to right. However, unlike process threads and EBPs, process groups do not follow a specific scheduled order because they are supposed to be performed within different business areas. Figure 2 is a depiction of a typical process decomposition diagram. Usually business process model of an enterprise contains some diagrams like the one shown in Figure 2.Process models do not count on specific organizational units. \"functional hierarchy diagram\" is instead given for a certain organizational unit. A functional hierarchy diagram describes functionality of an organizational unit as it is officially approved or said (and then endorsed) by officials (during interviews) in terms of major and minor organizational functions. Again EBPs are represented at the lowest level of this diagram, where the actual job is done. They explain each organizational function in terms of sequencing steps. Therefore, EBPs are shared amongst both process decompositions and functional hierarchies. This is the most important factor to devising the V methodology. Figure 3 shows the skeleton of an ordinary functional hierarchy diagram.\n4 The V methodology: Figure 4 shows how a sample of the V methodology will run. As Figure 4 shows, it starts from recognizing organizational units and their organizational functions, afterward EBPs determining each function will be extracted. Then these EBPs are arranged based on their typical sequence resulting chains containing process threads. Finally, each set of threads representing a concrete sequence of a process, will become a process group. Figure 4 shows how the V methodology runs on a sample enterprise.4.1 Steps and milestones\n5 Conclusion: Applying the V methodology to certain projects in Iran, chief enterprise analysts found that the V methodology helps them in:* Unifying process models throughout applying certain standard measures by all team members.* Satisfying enterprise's value chains.* Finding out, which processes do not add values for the enterprise's business?* Representing gaps and bottlenecks within business processes.* Designing non-redundant processes and data environment via building thoroughly modeled process chains.Despite reported successes of using the V methodology there are some difficulties when using it. Some of these dares are not specific for this methodology and seem to be cultural problems, which may be equally occurred in the case of any other business process modeling methodology. Here, is a list of possible challenges when using the V methodology:* Experienced analysts feel that this methodology will threaten their position at their company.* Some younger analysts feel that it is enough to use this methodology to extract business process decomposition. Unfortunately this is not true and we still need to consult with expertise people.* The most challenging facet of the methodology is that measures for identifying cut-points of threads within EBP chains (process groups) are not well defined.* Another problem is that analysts sometimes ignore the role of Porter's model because they are not familiar enough with it.Here, is a list of some of the projects in which the V methodology was used or is now being used:* IT strategic planning for the general inspection organization of Iran* ISIran's software department enterprise architecture and SAMAPEL enterprise architecture* An information systems architecture project for the iranian ministry of agricultures through the ParsTasmim Company (affiliated to Patsa Co.)* An information systems architecture project for an organization affiliated to the Iranian Ministry of Educations through the Rahgosha Company.* A collection of information systems architecture projects for the Iranian armed forces.\n6 Further work: In future we try to make the V methodology more pragmatic and configure it in order to gain more similar results when using by different persons. As a result we need to find well-defined measures for identifying process threads within EBP chains (process groups. Another major requirement is to prepare a practical guideline for using Porter's model when applying the methodology. Other possibilities will be better definition of steps and milestones based on more experiences; customizing automatic software tools and repositories to fit with the V methodology in the best way; developing an application for simulating business processes, through which business improvement and model assessment will be facilitated.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: - This paper seeks to offer a step-by-step methodology to extract and model business processes with a focus on business process decomposition. The main motivation is the lack of repeatable measurable methods and techniques for extracting business process decomposition.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - A step-by-step methodology for extracting business process models is provided. This methodology is called \"the V methodology\" because of its approach to break down the enterprise through a functional hierarchy and then collecting it up again via its process decomposition. Porter's value chain model is noticed as a powerful tool to complete the roadmap. The paper is designed using sections: benefits and necessities of having such a methodology, terminology, the V methodology, learned lessons and further work.\nFindings: - Success stories using the V methodology expressing its impact on quality business process models are mentioned. Experts find it useful to gain unified process models as well as helping them to discover gaps, bottlenecks and redundancies amongst business processes.\nResearch limitations/implications: - It is too hard to receive reliable information about previous experiences from the working companies in the area.\nPractical implications: - The main implications found when using the V methodology are: practiced analysts feel it dangerous to their position, younger analysts use it as the only source of modeling and people find it difficult to apply Porter's model in practice.\nOriginality/value: - Almost all of the previous papers refer to modeling notations when using the term \"methodology\". This paper instead describes the process of business process modeling. Another original value of the paper would be using Porter's model to classify the processes within their right process groups.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Assessing the information waste in maintenance management processes	[ "Information management", "Value creation", "Lean maintenance", "Maintenance performance" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: This paper addresses how value stream mapping (VSM) can be used in identifying development needs in maintenance data management processes. The amount of data available to maintenance decision makers has increased exponentially due to recent technological developments such as sensors, the Internet of Things and eMaintenance (Baglee et al., 2015; Candell et al., 2009). The decision makers can become overwhelmed by the vast amount of data, and unable to optimally manage the process of gathering, integrating, analyzing and exploiting the data (Kinnunen et al., 2016). This results in wasted resources and suboptimal decision making in maintenance management. To overcome this problem, novel methods are needed to identify the waste in maintenance data management processes and to measure the value of data to support decision making.\n2. Research design: The paper presents an industrial case example to showcase the application of the theoretical framework. The case company operates in the food manufacturing industry, employing over 15.000 people at almost 50 production sites. The research focused on one of the case company's factories in the UK. The factory produces about 550,000 meals per week, and employs 400-500 people, depending on the need of flexible workforce to complete the orders. The data collected and analyzed for the research include maintenance work requests documented in the selected factory from mid-June 2017 until mid-March 2018 (a period of just under nine months). The factory started to document their maintenance work requests in June 2017, aiming to find ways to increase the resource efficiency and value of their maintenance. In total, 10.053 work orders were recorded during this period. As shown in Figure 1, the number of work requests initially increased per month. Based on a discussion with the maintenance manager of the case company, this was due to the maintenance personnel gradually adopting the new process of documenting their work. Before the work order forms were introduced the maintenance personnel were not required to officially document their work, this was a new task for the maintenance technicians. However, after October 2017, the number of work orders per month has decreased. According to the maintenance manager, this is due to the improved management of the documentation process (i.e. less double entries and erroneous work orders), but also to the better planning and organization of the maintenance tasks (i.e. slightly less asset breakdowns, and merging of small maintenance tasks).\n3. VSM in maintenance information management: According to Gupta et al. (2016, p. 1026), lean can be defined as:[...] an integrated multi-dimensional approach encompassing wide variety of management practices based on the philosophy of eliminating waste through continuous improvement.\n4. Map of maintenance data exploitation paths: 4.1 Identifying a target process\n5. Conclusion: This paper studied how VSM can be adopted to identify waste in maintenance information management processes. A theoretical framework was presented to summarize the existing knowledge on the topic, and an empirical case example was used to demonstrate how the method supports lean information management in maintenance through mapping and quantifying different types of information waste.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: Due to recent technological developments, many maintenance managers become overwhelmed by the vast amount of data available to support their decision making. The purpose of this paper is to discuss identifying and eliminating waste in information management processes through a value stream mapping (VSM)-based method.\nDesign/methodology/approach: A theoretical framework is constructed based upon a review of the previous academic literature. The application of the framework is demonstrated with an empirical case example of a maintenance information management process within a food manufacturing company.\nFindings: The paper highlights existing examples of applying VSM in information management; however, the knowledge is fragmented and has not been extensively applied in a maintenance context. The case example shows that the suggested process offers a feasible method of mapping and evaluating the inherent waste in information management processes.\nOriginality/value: The paper summarizes the existing body of knowledge on lean information management in maintenance, and presents a theoretical framework on how VSM can be applied in the context. An empirical example is provided to show the method applied to a real industry case. The results will illustrate how the framework can support companies in identifying the waste and development potential in their maintenance information management.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Unions and equality: 50 years on from the fight for fair pay at Dagenham	[ "Gender", "Trade unions", "Equality", "Collective bargaining" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: In her preface to Sarah Boston's (2015) updated 1980 classic Women Workers and the Trade Unions, Trades Union Congress (TUC) General Secretary Frances O'Grady, the first woman in that position in almost 150 years of TUC existence, identifies inequality as \"the central challenge of our time\". O'Grady goes on to state, \"we [the unions] need to look, sound and feel more like today's workforce\". When trade unionism reached its peak at the end of the 1970s, women comprised a (substantial) minority 29 per cent of membership (Cunnison and Stageman, 1995). Today, following decades of membership decline concentrated in male dominated industries and occupations, that figure is a (slim) majority 55 per cent (BEIS, 2018). The Black, Asian and minority ethnic (BAME) share of membership stands at only nine per cent (BEIS, 2018) but that reflects their much lower share of the workforce. Thus, today, in terms of gender and ethnic composition of membership, the unions do look like the workforce, but whether or not they \"sound and feel\" like the workforce is still contested. It is important to recognise that while the high female share of membership creates a strong \"business case\" for unions to prioritise women's equality, the opposite holds for BAME members. However, as O'Grady suggests both women's and BAME members' claims for equality and inclusion within unions and the workplace should and do go beyond mere numbers to the core purpose of unions as a social justice movement pursuing the interests of socially marginalised groups as an element of advancing working-class interests (Kirton, 2015; Virdee, 2000b).\nThe union movement's pursuit of gender and race equality in historical context: When it comes to pursuing gender equality, it is widely recognised that as fundamentally class-based organisations, historically unions have not always acted in the interests of women workers (Boston, 2015), that they have sometimes shown disinterest in them or even colluded with employers' attempts to maintain inequalities such as unequal pay (Colling and Dickens, 2001). Yet despite this chequered history, it would be hard not to acknowledge that the unions have come a long way since the feminist movement within unions really took off around 50 years ago. Although women union members, activists and officers had existed since the beginnings of the movement, the 1968 Ford strike was a pivotal moment in the history of female unionism (Boston, 2015). A group of women sewing machinists went on strike against Ford management's refusal to recognise their skills; the women demanded to have the same pay as men doing similarly skilled but higher graded work. The three-week strike, joined by male workers for a period, brought the Ford factory to a standstill and achieved a partial victory of around 90 per cent of the pay rate the women had demanded although their jobs were not regraded (Boston, 2015). The Ford machinists finally achieved equal pay in 1985 after further industrial action (Cunnison and Stageman, 1995).\nResearch methods: The paper derives its findings from original analysis of data from four individual reports focusing on externally facing union action in the series of TUC Equality Audits of affiliated unions undertaken biennially since 2003 (2005, 2009, 2012, 2016). The Equality Audit initiative came out of the TUC's Stephen Lawrence Task Group[1] established to consider how the trade union movement could do better on racism. As such, the Task Group afforded a moment of critical self-reflection for the union movement. For the first time, the auditing exercise required unions to report and account for their equality work on race and multiple other bases of inequality including gender. The aim was to ensure that unions' commitment to equality would become more than the mere paper one that it had long been criticised as being. The paper also draws on data from the most recent of the SERTUC equality surveys (2016) looking primarily at women's and BAME representation in union structures undertaken since 1987. In addition, individual semi-structured interviews with 22 national union officers responsible for equalities (called National Equality Officers here) were carried out in 2017. Interviewees were employed by the TUC and 16 small, medium and large size unions, including the largest three that represent over half of union members (Unite, Unison, and GMB). The unions cover a vast range of industries and occupations. Because equality work can be a sensitive and contentious topic in unions and interviewees were asked to be as frank and open in their replies, as they felt able, quotations are not attributed to individuals or to unions.\nUnions' recent progress on gender and race equality: Towards equality of representation within trade unions\nConclusion and final reflections: The 1968 Ford women workers' strike is a useful starting point for the discussion on unions' action on equality because it marked the point at which the women's movement within the trade union movement \"took off\" and put women's inequality firmly on the union agenda (Boston, 2015, p. 279) alongside class-based notions of inequality. Shortly afterwards amid growing BAME activism, the unions were also forced to confront race/ethnic inequality within the movement as well as the workplace (Phizacklea and Miles, 1992; Virdee, 2000a).\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to review historical and contemporary union driven advances in gender and race equality within the movement and the workplace in order to show how far unions have come in the last 50 years, but also to identify continuing equality deficits.\nDesign/methodology/approach: As well as reviewing extant literature in order to provide historical background, the paper draws upon original analysis of the series of biennial TUC Equality Audits, the latest SERTUC equality survey and interviews with national union officers responsible for equality in large-, medium- and small-sized unions.\nFindings: Over the last 50 years, unions have made considerable progress in representing women both in leadership and democratic structures as well as in the workplace bargaining and consultative arena. However, BAME members remain underrepresented in both domains. A hostile socio-economic/political context threatens to hinder further progress.\nResearch limitations/implications: It is quite clear that the authors cannot assess unions' current record on equality by reference only to outcomes and benefits of big set-piece organisation, industry or sector negotiations. Future research could usefully explore in more depth unions' qualitative contribution to workplace equality practices in context of challenges in the internal and external environments.\nPractical implications: Unions need to step up commitment to integrating equality into the bargaining agenda. They also need to continue investing in campaigning activities and identify ways of making successful outcomes more visible within the union, to members and to non-unionised workers. Workplace unions need to develop strategies to confront the fact that strong equality policies do not necessarily translate into good workplace practices.\nOriginality/value: The paper provides a long-term evaluation of union progress on equality within the movement itself and the workplace.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
The impact of market sectors and rating agencies on credit ratings: global evidence	[ "Credit ratings", "Credit risk", "Rating downgrades", "Sectorial analysis" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: Credit rating agencies (CRAs) set an international standard for the comparison of credit risk across countries and debt instruments, which has been a core ingredient of the development of transnational financial markets of private actors over the past decades (Ghosh, 2013). The universal features of credit ratings permit users in all jurisdictions to uniformly classify assets, to determine capital requirements and to provide a credible evaluation of credit risk. Still, CRAs have been criticized from different angles. For example, Fabozzi and Vink (2015), Frost (2007), Shadab (2012) and White (2010) question the consistency, reliability and objectivity of agencies' credit ratings' implied assessment of credit risk. In fact, rating events are found to lag changes in issuers' default risk and to be serially dependent (Alsakka and ap Gwilym, 2010; Loffler, 2005). There are also conceptual inconsistencies between asset classes (Cornaggia et al., 2017) and within the investment grade range of ratings that may have critical consequences for investment decisions. Furthermore, the medium-term to long-term approach to credit rating stability partly refutes the argument of serial correlation by promoting capital market stability through rating stability (Lagner and zu Knyphausen-Aufsess, 2012). It is being questioned whether the agencies' current credit risk assessment models permit stakeholders to compare credit ratings across market sectors knowing that the credit risk quality of a BBB sovereign issuer may not equal the credit risk quality of a BBB corporate issuer. Researchers have sought to explain these discrepancies and explored alternatives for years. However, so far the market has not accepted any of the proposed alternative methods for measuring credit risk.\n2. Theoretical and empirical background of credit ratings: Credit rating agencies seek to provide independent, reliable, publicly available credit risk assessments that issuers and their stakeholders, as well as investors and regulatory bodies need to value issuers' creditworthiness. Risk assessment is presented by agencies as an objective process that incorporates the use of complex statistical models including risk parameters, as well as industry and operational risk and issuers' financial profiles.\n3. Data and descriptive statistics: Our data are based on corporate and governmental issuer credit ratings listed in the Bloomberg database. We converted the rating events from the database into a panel of monthly long-term issuer ratings comprising issuers simultaneously, i.e. at the same time rated by the big three rating agencies S&P, Moody's and Fitch. To reflect the new regulation of consistent ratings across asset classes as defined by the Dodd-Frank Act in 2010, the sample covers the period January 2010-December 2018. It includes a total of 80,103 monthly observations for 701 financial, industrial and governmental issuers from 59 countries. For calculation purposes, we translate the rating categories into 22 numerical grades. This numerical rating scale ranges from 21, the highest rating and associated lowest credit risk, i.e. AAA by S&P and Fitch, as well as Aaa by Moody's and 0 for default (Appendix AI).\n4. Empirical findings: 4.1 Assessing probabilities of a better rating by sector and agency\n5. Concluding remarks: Rating agencies promote their services by promising objectivity and comparability of ratings on one consistent scale. In practice, credit ratings have, however, lacked reliability across asset classes and between different issuers, which has led relevant authorities to regulate their objectivity and rating agencies themselves - to reconsider their credit risk assessment models after the global financial crisis. By analysing the extent to which credit ratings can be explained by issuers belonging to a market sector and being rated by a particular rating agency only, we show how belonging to certain market sectors and rating agencies affects issuers' S&P, Moody's and Fitch credit ratings.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: A credit rating, as a single indicator on one consistent scale, is designed as an objective and comparable measure within a credit rating agency (CRA). While research focuses mainly on the comparability of ratings between agencies, this paper additionally questions empirically how CRAs meet their promise of providing a consistent assessment of credit risk for issuers within and between market segments of the same agency.\nDesign/methodology/approach: Exhaustive and robust regression analyses are run to assess the impact of market sectors and rating agencies on credit ratings. The examinations consider the rating level, as well as rating downgrades as a further measure of empirical credit risk. Data stems from a large global sample of Bloomberg ratings from 11 market sectors for the period 2010-2018.\nFindings: The analyses show differing effects of sectors and agencies on issuer ratings and downgrade probabilities. Empirical results on credit ratings and rating downgrades can then be attributed to investment grade and non-investment grade ratings.\nOriginality/value: The paper contributes to current finance research and practice by examining the credit rating differences between sectors and agencies and providing assistance to investors and other stakeholders, as well as researchers, how issuers' sector and rating agency affiliations act as relative metrics.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
The influence of internet marketing capabilities on international market performance	[ "Internet marketing capabilities", "Customer management", "Market-oriented behavior", "Entrepreneurial-oriented behavior", "Knowledge internalization", "International market performance" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: An increasing number of studies in different fields have recognized the important role of the internet in firms' international performance (Glavas et al., 2017; Lyver and Lu, 2018). The utilization of the internet to enhance performance is often addressed as enabling firms to improve the exchange of information internally and externally, develop customer relationships on a global basis and reduce managerial and communication barriers for geographically dispersed firms (Bianchi et al., 2017; Chen et al., 2015). Consequently, firms may engage with their customers more efficiently through the use of the internet to achieve faster speed and increased scope in their internationalization efforts (Alarcon-del-Amo et al., 2018; Mithas and Rust, 2016). In this research, we define this integration of the internet with international marketing activities to convert them into a new set of firm capabilities as internet marketing capabilities.This research area is still in its infancy, with little understanding of the influences of the internet on a firm's international performance (Alarcon-del-Amo et al., 2018; Bianchi and Mathews, 2016). Recent studies indicated that the internet itself does not lead to a firm's internationalization, as successful implementation of the internet in the internationalization process still relies on other forms of organizational capabilities (Chen et al., 2015; Glavas et al., 2017; Mithas and Rust, 2016). Plunging into using the internet without considering its strategic functionality may not enhance firms' performance. The extent to which the internet can influence the processes and outcomes of a firm's international market performance is not fully clear (Glavas et al., 2017; Sinkovics et al., 2013). The combination of the internet and marketing is commonly referred to as internet marketing, including a broad set of internet-enabling technologies that are used in customer relationship management, communication and sales management (Glavas et al., 2017). Although researchers have provided empirical evidence of the link between internet marketing and firms' international performance, there is still a gap in our knowledge of how the internet and marketing activities are combined for developing new capabilities (Chen et al., 2015; Nevo and Wade, 2010). This paper aims to examine the drivers of internet marketing capabilities and the mechanism of how these capabilities influence firm performance in international markets.From the capability-based perspective, firms must continue to combine and reconfigure existing resources or capabilities to adapt to changing market conditions (Zhang et al., 2013). Several studies suggested that marketing capabilities decide a firm's performance, and these capabilities rely on the firm's ability to understand customer needs and establish sustainable relationships (Trainor et al., 2011). Some studies have demonstrated that the internet alone rarely enhances firm performance (Agnihotri et al., 2016; Srinivasan and Moorman, 2005). The utilization of the internet is more efficient when integrated with other organizational capabilities (Trainor et al., 2014). Based on the marketing and information technology (IT) capability literature, we argue that the use of the internet for customer management has a potential influence on the overall internet marketing capability.The other aspect is the influences of internet marketing capabilities on various strategic orientations. This study focused on market orientation (MO) and entrepreneurial orientation (EO). We followed the behavioral approach of MO (Adhikari and Gill, 2011; Kohli and Jaworski, 1990) and viewed MO as related to the organization-wide generation, dissemination and responsiveness of market information (Hakala, 2011). In the marketing literature, MO has been considered a key driver that effectively creates the organization's behavior leading to greater learning and performance (Deutscher et al., 2016; Hakala, 2011; He et al., 2018). However, very limited research has looked into how a firm's capabilities influence MO (Adhikari and Gill, 2011). Therefore, we examined the influence of a firm's internet marketing capabilities on market-oriented behavior. EO reflects the firm's commitment to innovativeness, proactiveness and risk-taking (Alayo et al., 2019; Miller, 1983). Several studies have highlighted the scarcity of literature analyzing the antecedents of EO (Covin and Lumpkin, 2011; Garcia-Villaverde et al., 2018). Certain studies have suggested that a firm's EO is conditioned by the firm's capabilities (Kyrgidou and Spyropoulou, 2013). The firm with better capabilities might be more willing to take a higher level of risk to compete in the international market (Ruiz-Ortega et al., 2013). Thus, we examined the impacts of internet marketing capabilities on entrepreneurial-oriented behavior (Deutscher et al., 2016).Despite extensive research on strategic orientations in recent years, most studies examined the direct relationship between MO, EO and performance (Covin and Lumpkin, 2011; Garcia-Villaverde et al., 2018; He et al., 2018). The mechanism of how strategic-oriented behaviors enhance international performance is still not clear (He et al., 2018; Radulovich et al., 2018). The role of knowledge in driving a firm's international performance has been well studied in the international business literature (Real et al., 2014). Nevertheless, access to the internet per se does not guarantee that the competences in the form of knowledge resources are equal for each firm (Lichtenthaler, 2016; Nguyen and Barrett, 2006). To create competitive differentiation, a firm must incorporate external knowledge into its internal organizational routines. Considering the significant dissimilarities between external knowledge and internal learning, the strategic orientations literature may offer different perspectives, because this stream of research has underscored the needs of MO and EO for a firm's internal innovation (Lichtenthaler, 2016; Wales et al., 2013). Few studies have examined how firms internalize knowledge (the process of transforming information from the internet into higher-value knowledge) to enhance their international market performance. To address this gap, we argue that a firm's strategic-oriented behaviors are important antecedents of knowledge internalization, allowing the firm to enhance its performance in the international market.The online internationalization phenomenon challenges the traditional approach to internationalization and its underlying assumption (Gabrielsson and Gabrielsson, 2011). However, only a few studies have validated the internet as an effective channel for international marketing and its market performance, despite some progress (Caniels et al., 2015; Glavas et al., 2017). Sinkovics et al. (2013) call for further studies to explore the relationship between the internet's contribution to global business and subsequent performance outcomes. A systematic integration of the internet, strategic orientations, knowledge and international performance literatures is still limited, leaving theoretical gaps for better understanding of the interrelations among different concepts. The present study presents and empirically tests a model of how internet marketing capabilities bridge customer management and strategic-oriented behaviors, leading to greater knowledge internalization that positively influences international market performance. By relating these critical concepts, this study contributes to the interdisciplinary understanding of this stream of research.\n2. Literature and hypotheses development: With the rapid pace of internationalization, utilizing the internet strategically plays a critical role in speeding up the marketing and commercializing of goods around the world, transforming the international business environment and internationalization process and providing many new international market opportunities (Glavas et al., 2017; Mathews et al., 2012). To explore a comprehensive mechanism for understanding the influences of internet marketing capabilities on international market performance, we propose the following conceptual framework (Figure 1) to delineate the interrelationship between the key constructs in this research. In the following subsections, we further discuss the arguments and proposed hypotheses. 2.1 Use of internet for customer management and internet marketing capabilities\n3. Methodology: 3.1 Sample\n4. Data analysis and results: 4.1 Assessment of the measurement model\n5. Discussion and conclusion: Implementing the internet allows firms to extend their capabilities of market information processing and strengthen their global connections (Alarcon-del-Amo et al., 2018; Sinkovics et al., 2013). Although studies about the influences of the internet are increasing, the evidence of links between the internet, strategic orientations and international market performance is still fragmented. Drawing from the previous literature, we investigated the interplay among online internationalization, market- and entrepreneurial-oriented behaviors, knowledge internalization and international market performance, a research topic that has been less studied and was unclear in previous research (Mathews et al., 2016; Wales et al., 2013).Previous studies showing the conflicting results of the direct effect of technology use for customer management on performance (Chang et al., 2010; Jayachandran et al., 2005) indicate the need for further research to examine contingent variables. We proposed that internet marketing capabilities provide the link between use of internet for customer management and market- and entrepreneurial-oriented behaviors. The empirical results showed that use of internet for customer management allows a firm to develop better internet marketing capabilities to execute international marketing activities more efficiently. The results showed that internet marketing capabilities are positively related to market-oriented behavior. This finding is in line with previous studies that indicate the positive influences of internet on stimulating activities related to market information generation and dissemination in today's digital economy (Bianchi and Mathews, 2016; Mathews et al., 2016). These results demonstrated a positive and statistically significant effect of internet marketing capabilities on entrepreneurial-oriented behavior. This result was also consistent with the notion that internet capabilities influence performance outcomes indirectly via EO (Chen et al., 2015). These results indicated that market- and entrepreneurial-oriented behaviors are vital intermediaries through which firms can strengthen their internet marketing capabilities to improve international market performance.Market-oriented behavior had positive and significant effects on knowledge internalization, which is consistent with the work by Jian and Zhou (2015), who indicate that a higher level of MO leads to a higher level of organizational learning, and with the work by Lichtenthaler (2016), who proposes the link between proactive MO and knowledge exploitation. The result also reveals that entrepreneurial-oriented behavior positively affects knowledge internalization. This result supports Fernandez-Mesa and Alegre's (2015) argument for the role of organization learning in the relationship between EO and export intensity. However, most strategic orientation literature emphasizes the direct relationships between orientations and performance and ignores the underlying process (Fang et al., 2014; Frank et al., 2016). We conducted post hoc analysis to discover the mediating effects of knowledge internalization. The results show that market- and entrepreneurial-oriented behaviors do not result in better international performance spontaneously. The results reveal that internalization of knowledge obtained from the internet plays a mediating role. These results contribute to the recent research stream focusing on indirect links between strategic orientations and firm performance (Fernandez-Mesa and Alegre, 2015; Real et al., 2014).We found that the impact of knowledge internalization on international market performance is positive and significant. The result is consistent with the organizational learning theory (Argote and Miron-Spektor, 2011), which indicates that knowledge internalization can play a key role in linking global market information generated from the internet and foreign sales (Dada and Fogg, 2016). Enhanced performance requires a firm with higher strategic-oriented behaviors to exploit knowledge about changing customer needs in international markets. This research contributes to the limited empirical research showing the influences of the alignment of market- and entrepreneurial-oriented behaviors and knowledge internalization on international performance outcomes.Although several studies examined the impact of the internet on firm performance and internationalization, these studies did not go in depth to explain whether the internet or the integration of the internet with other capabilities influences a firm's international market performance. We aim to make several contributions. First, we focus on the development of internet marketing capabilities beyond a simple perspective of internet use. From the capabilities-based perspective, a firm's competitive advantages are attained not only with utilization of the internet, because such resources are also available to other competitors (Riviere et al., 2018; Trainor et al., 2011; Zhang et al., 2013). Much of the work on internet capabilities has mainly focused on the direct influences of these capabilities on firm performance, and less on the important resources for creating them. The present results highlight the link between use of internet for customer management in firm-customer interactions and relationships with internet marketing capabilities. Second, due to the conflicting results for internet and international performance in previous studies, this study aimed to develop an integrative framework that depicts how internet marketing capabilities translate into international performance to make the overall mechanism and the conditions clear. Many previous studies consider MO and EO as a part of resources or capabilities and examine the influences of MO and EO on a firm's international performance (Deutscher et al., 2016; He et al., 2018). However, few studies have investigated how a firm's capabilities affect MO and EO in a different direction (Adhikari and Gill, 2011). In this study, we viewed MO and EO differently from the firm's resources and capabilities and investigated the extent to which a firm's internet marketing capabilities influence market- and entrepreneurial-oriented behaviors. To this end, the empirical results demonstrate that internet marketing capabilities facilitate market- and entrepreneurial-oriented behaviors. Third, instead of examining the direct impacts of MO and EO on a firm's success that have been discussed in much of the research, we propose the mediating role of knowledge internalization between market- and entrepreneurial-oriented behavior and international performance. The important implication of the present results is that the firm must transform the information obtained from the internet into a higher level of knowledge and adapt such knowledge for international business activities. Finally, this research contributes to the integration of different streams of theories from previous research and enriches the literature in online internationalization literature, strategic orientations and organizational learning theory by providing empirical evidence based on Taiwanese firms with international operations. 5.1 Managerial implications\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: The paper aims to explore the influential path of internet marketing capabilities impacting international market performance. The paper further investigates the mitigating roles of market- and entrepreneurial-oriented behaviors and knowledge internalization in this relationship. The effect of internet use for customer management on internet marketing capabilities is also examined.\nDesign/methodology/approach: A total of 618 firms with sales in international markets were approached to participate. Data were collected from a sample of 132 Taiwanese firms and analyzed using a structural equation model.\nFindings: Use of internet for customer management positively influences internet marketing capabilities. The results also support the positive impacts of internet marketing capabilities on market- and entrepreneurial-oriented behaviors. Knowledge internalization mediates the relationships between market- and entrepreneurial-oriented behaviors and international market performance.\nResearch limitations/implications: This paper's investigation of the role of internet marketing capability in international market performance contributes to online internationalization, strategic orientations and organizational learning theory.\nPractical implications: Managers should focus on developing internet marketing capabilities in management culture and fostering market- and entrepreneurial-oriented behaviors to facilitate knowledge internalization for better international performance.\nOriginality/value: This paper contributes to the construction of an alternative and comprehensive mechanism to understand the influences of internet marketing capabilities on the firm's international performance.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Uncovering the structures and maturity of the new service development research field through a bibliometric study (1984-2014)	[ "Service innovation", "Literature review", "Bibliometric analysis", "New service development" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: New service development (NSD) is an organizational process that delivers value to customers and links marketing and operational capabilities to define, design, and implement services (Tatikonda and Zeithaml, 2002). According to Menor et al. (2002), it comprises the iterative and nonlinear processes that are typically employed in creating new services. Moreover, Johne and Storey (1998) note that NSD involves developing an offer that includes concepts and processes through which a service is produced and consumed.\nResearch methodology: Literature reviews help monitor progress in a research field, promote knowledge building, and clarify unexplored research topics (Keathley et al., 2013). A \"research field\" is an area of knowledge and learning involving a community of researchers and scholars. In contrast, a \"discipline\" is a consolidated body of knowledge established over a long period through the consensus of scholars. Research fields are normally more recent areas of study, and their themes of interest (research topics) can be investigated across several disciplines. The definitions of \"research line\" and \"research stream\" are also relevant. They refer to topics that have grown in importance within a research field and converged into a broader understanding compared with other topics (Jesiek et al., 2009).\nResults: Frequency of publications\nDiscussion and Conclusion: This study presents a systematic literature review focused on NSD, exploring critical questions related to the progress and maturity of the NSD research field. The maturity of a research field is a concept involving several constructs (Cheon et al., 1993; Keathley et al., 2013; Neely, 2005). In general, a diversity of authors, research topics, and methods is needed to classify a field as mature (Cheon et al., 1993). However, each research field has its particular evolution pattern, making it difficult to fit the same classification criteria to all of them. This study acknowledges that research fields can incorporate new topics of interest introduced by academics and practitioners as a result of technological, economic, and organizational progress. Thus, classifying a research field as fully mature can be misleading, particularly when its primary foundations are not natural or physical constructs, but rather a result of current structures or beliefs about people and organizations. In addition, though the current foundations remain valid, the knowledge can evolve to its limits and become static, so that little contribution results from new research. This study examines the maturity of the NSD research field in the context of this key understanding.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to develop a deeper understanding of the new service development (NSD) research field. It addresses its scientific production, social and intellectual structures, and maturity.\nDesign/methodology/approach: This study uses a bibliometric-based literature review. Quantitative and qualitative analyses are performed on a sample of 277 NSD articles (published from 1984 to 2014). These articles are organized into four periods to improve the analyses from an evolutionary perspective: Early Writings (1984-1995), Advancing of Literature (1996-2001), Progressive Literature (2002-2008), and Recent Works (2009-2014).\nFindings: The scientific production in the NSD field has grown significantly over these four periods, and the entry of new authors has extended the social structure. However, collaboration networks seem disconnected from one another. Nonetheless, the intellectual structure has shown great progress, making NSD an independent area of research and discovery from the new product development domain, with its own foundations and expansions into new topics. Although the NSD research field has not yet reached maturity, it is consistently moving toward it.\nOriginality/value: This study delivers a multiperspective view of research on NSD using a mixed quantitative and qualitative approach. It provides new insights into the discussion of the field's maturity and can be used as a roadmap for academics and practitioners who would like to understand the state of existing knowledge and are looking for research opportunities.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Environmental liabilities and diversity in practice under international financial reporting standards	[ "Environmental accounting", "Discount rate", "IAS 37", "Environmental liabilities", "Environmental provisions" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: In this paper we explore what is arguably the most material environmental item in relation to financial accounting: how de-commissioning costs, clean-up costs and other related environmental liabilities are recognized in the financial statements. Environmental liabilities are quite different from financial liabilities. In the case of default on financial liabilities, the creditors end up with the firm's assets and the debt is effectively discharged. Environmental liabilities do not simply disappear if the polluting firm goes into insolvency. On the contrary, they often remain with the associated asset and serve to impair any future cash flows if the firm's creditors takeover. Environmental liabilities may lead the creditor to have no desire to take over the residual assets of the firm, if they loom too large on the balance sheet. Ultimately, and in any case, all the costs associated with pollution are born by society at some level.\n2. Background: With the move to IFRS in Canada, the larger Canadian oil and gas firms were expecting increases of hundreds of millions of dollars to their on balance-sheet liabilities if they were to move to a risk-free discount rate for environmental provisions. The Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers (CAPP) identified this issue as \"potentially the most material adjustment to the statement of financial position for the vast majority of CAPP's members\" (CAPP comment letter to IFRIC, March 2011). Most of the largest firms in the sector, particularly those with large operations in the Alberta oil sands developments, took the position that they could include own credit risk in discounting these liabilities. The divergent positions on IAS 37 focus on the specific wording describing the appropriate discount rate under IFRS (IAS 37, para. 47):The discount rate (or rates) shall be a pre-tax rate (or rates) that reflect(s) current market assessments of the time value of money and the risks specific to the liability. The discount rate(s) shall not reflect risks for which future cash flow estimates have been adjusted [emphasis added].\n3. Research questions: The extensive literature on earnings management has shown that when management discretion is available, it will be used (Healy and Wahlen, 1999; Roychowdhury, 2006; Dechow et al., 2010). Hilton and O'Brien (2009) provide evidence of opportunistic use of reporting regulations in the mining sector to avoid recognizing the impairment of mining assets. The opportunistic use of specific exemptions under IFRS 1 First time adoption of International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS 1), and other options that present themselves upon transition have also been documented in the recent literature. Capkun et al. (2012), Ahmed et al. (2012) and Cormier et al. (2009) present evidence of opportunism and earnings management on transition to IFRS for European companies. This evidence is in line with studies pointing to a limited role for accounting standards in determining reporting quality and highlighting the importance of firms' reporting incentives (Ball, 2006; Burgstahler et al., 2006; Daske et al., 2013). The application of accounting standards, including IFRS, involves judgment, the use of private information and thus management discretion. Many of the factors from this literature present themselves in our study.\n4. Research method: 4.1 Empirical model\n5. Results: 5.1 Diversity in practice\n6. Discussion, limitations and conclusions: Before presenting some of our study's limitations and our overall conclusions, we first enter into a discussion on what the appropriate discount rate for an environmental liability should be. Our study shows that there is diversity in practice, and therefore diversity in opinion, on how to discount environmental liabilities. A major objective of this study is to continue the discussion on this topic so that it will be addressed. Underlying the strict technical debate of whether own credit risk could be included in the discount rate under IAS 37 is the debate over whether it is theoretically appropriate and in the best public interest. We begin this discussion by presenting one of the most controversial comments that came out of the IFRIC discount rate debate, made by the IFRIC chair, at the meetings of March 9-10, 2011:[...] if I can make an observation at all about what I know of the extractive activity and also the Canadian situation. If you are about to adopt IFRS, I would encourage you to adopt it in the same way the rest of the world appears to have adopted it rather than continuing to use a Canadian GAAP type of approach and then finding perhaps in a year or two years' time that you've got to change accounting for your provisions. But the key issue I think is the more I see one industry and particularly in one country but certainly one industry complaining, I have to question why they are complaining and what the change is. Many in the extractive industry for environmental reasons have to post a bond or a Government guarantee or some other assurance that they will be able to meet their environmental obligation when it falls due several years into the future. They do that because not to put too fine a point on it, people in the extractive industry, especially the smaller ones, exploit, pillage, rape and then disappear with all the money and leave the mess behind for other people to clean up.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to encourage accounting regulators to address diversity in practice in the reporting of environmental liabilities. When Canada changed to International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) in 2011, Canadian regulators asked the IFRS Interpretations Committee to interpret whether the discount rate to value environmental liabilities should be a risk-free discount rate. Old Canadian GAAP, and current US GAAP, allow for a higher discount rate, resulting in commensurately lower liabilities. International regulators refused to address this issue expecting no diversity in practice in Canada.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The focus is on a sample of Canadian oil and gas and mining firms. These domestic industries play a major role internationally and have significant environmental liabilities. The method is empirical archival, tracking firm characteristics and discount rate choice on transition to IFRS.\nFindings: There is significant diversity in practice. About one-third of the sample firms choose a higher discount rate, avoiding a major increase in environmental liabilities on transition to IFRS. The evidence suggests that these firms have relatively larger environmental liabilities and that the discount rate decision is a strategic choice.\nResearch limitations/implications: The sample is based on one country and may only be reflecting local anomalies that have no broader implications.\nPractical implications: Diversity in practice in accounting for environmental liabilities is not acceptable. Accounting regulators should act to create consistent and comparable reporting practice.\nSocial implications: Firms and managers facing larger environmental liabilities can choose to minimize environmental liabilities under IFRS, while it is the general public and society at large that bear the ultimate risk.\nOriginality/value: The paper pushes forward the debate on whether recognized environmental liabilities should reflect the interests of equity investors, or if other investors and stakeholders should be taken into account.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Visual research methodologies, branding and magazine readerships	[ "Marketing", "Branding", "Advertising", "Design", "Fashion industry", "Brand loyalty" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: The increase in home magazine titles in the late 1990s was an effect of the increase in the housing market (\n2. Literature review: The literature review encompasses a number of relevant and related themes including creative devices, architecture, commercial photography and fashion retail spaces and product presentation. In the following section some references will be made to the advertising industry. This is happening because advertisements and editorial content have a lot in common; their production, consumption and content have strong resemblance and relevance to one another and in the media, advertising and editorial techniques are often interwoven.\n3. Methodology: This study draws on material from comparative analysis within three London-based, home interest magazines. In order for this study to be comprehensive, it focuses on three magazines that are published in Britain and aims at diverse market segments. As case studies three magazines have been chosen: Wallpaper, an international magazine that has managed to gain world media and expert attention since it was first published issue in 1996; Elle Decoration, an interior magazine with local editions worldwide, however, this study focuses on its British edition; and Ideal Home, Britain's best selling home magazine with a notable history in the magazine industry since 1920. What these magazines have in common is their interest in interior spaces and this is where the focus of this study and interest lies; in their representations of interior spaces and the ability of visual texts and photographs to differentiate a brand, encourage brand loyalty and target different market segments.\n4. Findings: The results suggest that magazines promote different representations of interior spaces depending on their background and target readership (please see Table III). The findings also suggest that Wallpaper is not just a magazine, but it has expanded to become a brand with a well-recognized logo. Practitioners managed to create a strong brand identity through the creation of a magazine with a very distinctive style among its competitors that clearly address the elite. Features aiming at very upmarket readership adopt an aesthetic approach and produce unrealistic and minimal interior spaces that are focused on the present. Practitioners create classical style compositions, design-focused spaces, often with an entertaining or surreal twist and with frequent use of hints and riddles. However, frequently these depictions look lifeless and self-centred.\n5. Discussion: This research suggests that Wallpaper is not just a magazine, but it has expanded to become a brand with a well-recognized logo. Practitioners managed to create a differentiated brand through the creation of a magazine with a very distinctive style that clearly addresses the elite. The findings propose that Wallpaper services the desire among the economically and culturally wealthy consumers to maintain their predominance and distinction. As Gough-Yates (2003, p. 114) notes, this idea of branding has a double benefit: not only does it strengthen the relationship between reader and magazine and thus \"reader loyalty by distinguishing individual titles from their competitors\" but it \"also encourages more defined 'lifestyle' readership profiles that can be used to sell advertising space to advertisers\".\n6. Conclusion: This research suggests that magazines promote different representations of interior spaces depending on their background and target readership and that magazine features can enhance the creation of a strong brand. Through the selection of specific modes, magazines can be differentiated from their competitors. Magazine features which are aimed mainly at down-market female readers tend to cultivate and promote memories, nostalgia, family values and traditions, relationships with other people and domesticity through the careful selection of props and products that stand for these qualities; as we move towards more cultivated and wealthier consumers of both genders these references to the past, traditions and \"others\" do not seem so appropriate. Additional creative and marketing techniques employed by the magazine can strengthen the relationship between reader and magazine and enhance brand loyalty. In this sense magazines can become a companion that helps the reader improve his/her life in a practical level; they can become a way to escape reality through daydreaming process; or a form on entertainment and enjoyment.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to explore how interior spaces can be differently represented across home magazines of different background and target audiences. And investigates how visual texts can differentiate a brand, increase brand loyalty and target different market segments.\nDesign/methodology/approach: This paper draws on material for comparative analysis from three home magazines (Wallpaper, Ideal Home and Elle Decoration). It combines quantitative methods (content analysis) and qualitative methods (fieldwork observations).\nFindings: This research suggests that Wallpaper is not just a magazine, but it has expanded to become a brand with a well-recognized logo. Practitioners managed to create a strong brand through the creation of a magazine with a very distinctive style among its competitors that clearly address the elite.\nResearch limitations/implications: This paper focused on the production of magazine features and representations of interior spaces. Further research could be conducted to explore how readers belonging to different economic, social and cultural groups \"receive\" and comprehend the home magazine features.\nPractical implications: The findings of this research could be used to analyse fashion photography in editorial, fashion advertising, fashion brand websites and social media, thereby assisting in the analysis of fashion photography and the relationship between fashion items, set design, styling of space, target audiences, branding and visual communication; exploring further how fashion photography can effectively target different market segments and enhance a fashion brand and its identity.\nOriginality/value: The area of magazine features, photography, set design and styling of space has received limited attention from scholars. The method of analysing interior spaces/set design presented in this paper can be developed further to provide in depth analysis of window and in store display design and the use of display design and visual merchandising as a way to reflect the fashion brand identity, target-specific market segments, differentiate and gain competitive advantage.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
The impact of brand evangelism on oppositional referrals towards a rival brand	[ "Brand identification", "Brand loyalty", "Brand relationships", "Brand evangelism", "Online brand communities", "Oppositional brand referrals", "Trash-talk" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Around 15 years ago, works by Belk (1988) and Fournier (1998) set the groundwork for understanding how consumers build relationships with a brand that go beyond the main roles previously attributed to brands (Hollenbeck and Zinkhan, 2006). Brands have the potential to convey rich meanings and connotations to consumers (Muniz and O'Guinn, 2003; Morandin et al., 2013). Through their brands, firms should capitalize on developing and enhancing strong relationships with their consumers, as this bond has been shown to contribute to increased revenues through repeated purchases, greater willingness to pay a premium (Gregoire and Fisher, 2006), positive word-of-mouth promoting the brand (Wallace et al., 2014), higher brand loyalty and creation of more active brand communities (Becerra and Badrinarayanan, 2013). Such outcomes amply justify the increased interest found in the marketing literature for investigating the positive relationships between a consumer and a brand, which goes by various labels, including brand devotion, brand love, brand romance, brand attachment, etc. (Fetscherin, 2014).\nLiterature review and research hypotheses: Oppositional brand loyalty, brand evangelism and oppositional brand referrals\nMethodology: Sample, procedures and data collection\nResults: Characteristics of the sample\nDiscussion: The hypothesis that trash-talking is explained by a desire to harm the rival brand is strongly supported by the model (H1). Making negative comments about the competing brand was largely connected to the gamer's desire to hurt that brand. On the other hand, trash-talking is also strongly associated to the consumer's loyalty to the brand of the console they own (H4b). In fact, trash-talking is not always an automatic defensive strategy against a rival brand. The desire to harm acts as an explanatory mechanism linking both consumer loyalty (H4a) and brand connection (H2a) to participation in trash-talking.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: This study aims to build on the notion of brand evangelism developed by Becerra and Badrinarayanan (2013) by examining how brand relationship variables regarding one brand (i.e. brand loyalty, brand community identification and self-brand connection) influence oppositional referrals to a rival brand (i.e. desire to harm and trash-talking) in the high definition (HD) videogame console industry.\nDesign/methodology/approach: A survey of online communities devoted to video gaming was conducted using a sample of 809 respondents, all owners of either a PlayStation or an Xbox.\nFindings: The results show that the desire to harm the rival brand is strongly and positively associated to participation in trash-talking. Brand loyalty is connected to both dimensions of oppositional brand referrals. Consumers' connection with the brand affects trash-talking only indirectly through the desire to harm. No association is found between identification with the brand community and oppositional brand referrals.\nOriginality/value: This study is the first to demonstrate the mechanism linking brand relationship variables regarding a focal brand with consumers' disparagement of a rival brand, showing that a desire to harm plays a central role. Just as the desire for retaliation drives negative word-of-mouth in the context of an unsatisfactory experience with a brand (Gregoire and Fisher, 2006), the desire to harm drives trash-talking against a rival brand by brand evangelists. This study improves our understanding of the relationships consumers build with their preferred brands and how this relationship may influence their rejection of competing brands with which they do not have direct experience.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Stand-alone vs systemic risk-taking of financial institutions	[ "Financial crisis", "Bank risk-taking", "Systemic risk", "Bank valuation", "G01", "G21", "G30" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: This study examines the risk-taking behavior of US financial institutions. It looks at the differences of stand-alone risk or idiosyncratic risk[1] compared to systemic risk. Furthermore, the effects of the financial crisis on both risk measures are examined. The financial crisis focused the attention on bank risk-taking and how to ensure the overall stability of the financial system. Globalization and the continuing progress of financial market integration increase the risk of systemic failures in the banking sector (Lehar, 2005) and their consequences for stakeholders (Schneider and Scherer, 2015). It stands to reason that financial institutions are more careful in assessing risks that threaten profitability and stock valuation as top managers are paid to act in the best interest of their shareholders. However, as recently noted by Anginer et al. (2014), the contribution of an individual financial institution to the deficiency of the whole financial industry may be more relevant than the stand-alone risk of that institution during periods of market stress. Therefore, regulators and supervisory bodies of financial institutions should be more worried about the stability and strength of the financial system as a whole (Acharya, 2009). Nijskens and Wagner (2011) decompose the beta of banks into an idiosyncratic and a correlation component and find that the latter is solely responsible for the increase in bank risk-taking before the recent crisis. This study adds to this strand of literature by shedding light on the differences in risk-taking between stand-alone and systemic risk around the recent financial crisis. Based on prior research by Iqbal et al. (2015); Jimenez et al. (2013) and Fortin et al. (2010), an empirical model is developed that encompasses the most common characteristics of stand-alone and systemic risk-taking. To facilitate comparisons, the same variables are chosen for both risk measures. According to Fahlenbrach et al. (2012), financial institutions' risk-taking is shaped by a \"risk culture\" that is reflected in similar performances during the recent and 1998 financial crises. This risk culture will influence not only one form of risk-taking but will be present in all risk management decisions of the top management. It seems, therefore, reasonable to assume that the same characteristics are potentially driving idiosyncratic and systemic risk-taking by financial institutions.\n2. Risk-taking in financial institutions: 2.1 Systemic risk\n3. Data and methodology: The data set consists of 92 financial institutions between 2000 and 2014. In total, the merged data set has 9,332 firm-month observations. Market data like capitalization and stock returns are taken from the Center for Research in Security Prices (CRSP) database. MES is the proxy for systemic risk in this study (more details can be found in section 2). The data on MES and leverage are obtained from NYU Stern's V-Lab website. Idiosyncratic risk is the residual volatility of returns of US financial equities using the market model. As proxy for the market return, the return of the whole financial sector is used.\n4. Results: 4.1 Descriptive statistics\n5. Conclusion: This paper analyzes the determinants of stand-alone and systemic risk in the context of the recent financial crisis. The importance of the stability of the financial systemic is crucial, as the financial crisis of 2007/2008 has proven. Incentives to take systemic risk and traditional, stand-alone risk are quite different. Top managers who are (supposedly) acting in the interest of shareholders have only an incentive to reduce stand-alone risk. Therefore, regulators have to make sure that financial institutions are not endangering the financial system as a whole. As the results show, systemic risk-taking is beneficial to a single financial institution but detrimental to the financial system overall. Stand-alone risk-taking can be reduced by unleashing the powers of market discipline, but systemic risk is a significant moral hazard problem. This study contributes toward the goal of financial stability by highlighting the similarities and differences between \"regular\" risk-taking and systemic risk-taking. Both measures show that smaller financial institutions in a more competitive environment are riskier. Additionally, charter value and GDP growth affect systemic risk. Future research should focus on improving systemic risk measures and mechanisms that reduce systemic risk to ensure and enhance financial stability. This study also contributes to the discussion on how competition affects risk-taking. Previous studies find mixed results, sometimes finding evidence that competition increases risk-taking behavior and sometimes evidence that it reduces the appetite for risk. The results show that the influence of competition is time dependent and conditional to the measure used. During the 2007/2008 crisis, high competition either decreases risk-taking by financial institutions or has no influence. Since 2009, competition is increasing the appetite for risk-taking of financial institutions. Further research to look into the exact drivers of this relation is needed. A broader data set and additional variables, e.g. related to risk culture, could provide important insights into the mechanisms driving risk-taking in financial institutions.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: This study investigates the risk-taking behavior of financial institutions in the USA. Specifically, differences between taking risks that affect primarily the shareholders of the institution and risks contributing to the overall systemic risk of the financial sector are examined. Additionally, differences between risk-taking before, during and after the financial crisis of 2007/2008 are examined.\nDesign/methodology/approach: To analyze the determinants of stand-alone and systemic risk, a generalized linear model including size, governance, charter value, business cycle, competition and control variables is estimated. Furthermore, Granger causality tests are conducted.\nFindings: The results show that systemic risk has a positive effect on valuation and that corporate governance has no significant effect on risk-taking. The influence of competition is conditional on the state of the economy and the risk measure used. Systemic risk Granger-causes idiosyncratic risk but not vice versa.\nResearch limitations/implications: The major limitations of this study are related to the analyzed subset of large financial institutions and important risk-culture variables being omitted.\nPractical implications: The broad policy implication of this paper is that systemic risk cannot be lowered by market discipline due to the moral hazard problem. Therefore, regulatory measures are necessary to ensure that individual financial institutions are not endangering the financial system.\nOriginality/value: This study contributes to the empirical literature on bank risk-taking in several ways. First, the characteristics of systemic risk and idiosyncratic risk are jointly analyzed. Second, the direction of causality of these two risk measures is examined. Moreover, this paper contributes to the discussion of the effect of competition on risk-taking.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Considering plain language: issues and initiatives	[ "Communication", "Language", "Written communications", "Australia", "United Kingdom", "United States of America" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Plain language, still called \"plain English\" in the UK, has been the focus of extensive discussion, research and legislation since the 1960s in the USA, the UK, Canada and Australia. More recently, the plain-language movement has been taken up in Europe (France, Italy, Germany, Denmark, The Netherlands, Portugal and Sweden) and in India, Mexico, New Zealand, Singapore, Hong Kong and South Africa. The seventh biennial conference of Plain Language Association InterNational (PLAIN), held in Sydney, Australia, 15-17 October 2009 attracted around 250 participants, who attended 45 sessions presented by 80 communication practitioners, 40 of whom came from more than 13 countries.This paper surveys the literature from the plain-language movement in the pioneering countries to date and presents guidelines that connect advocacy from the leading experts to practical applications in the corporate sphere. The paper covers issues such as the recent banning of Latin and jargon from English county council documents, the struggle to pass plain-language legislation in the USA, and the reliance on obfuscatory language by bodies that take unethical advantage of the inability of consumers to understand unintelligible documents. The paper concludes with recommendations for future research.\nWhat is plain language?: The key principle of plain language is that the intended reader can use the document for its intended purpose. The key aims of plain language are that a document be understandable and usable. As Cheek (2007) asserts, \"the most certain way to tell that is by testing the document with its intended audience\". Mowat (2007) claims that:[...] many outside our field have incorrectly guessed that plain language is a dumbing-down process, a reaching for the lowest common denominator or that it is a puerile re-clothing of complex specialist languages in dull and meagre, but understandable, language [...] but plain language [...] has nothing in common with these assumptions [...] it is an intellectual pursuit that eliminates linguistic arrogance or reader distancing and condescending language.Mowat goes on to say that plain-language people \"advocate a kind of de-programming of institutionalized, bureaucratic, foggy, long-winded, evasive, circuitous, or other types of poor writing\".In his much-cited essay, Politics and the English Language, Orwell (1946) held up honest language as a weapon against obfuscation and propaganda. In recent times, on the other hand, as Cohen (2009) affirms, in his paper on what has become known as the US torture-scandal memos that the Obama administration has recently released, there has been a blatant disregard of plain language: \"Don't say what you mean when you mean to do the unspeakable\".The prominent, long-term UK plain English campaigner, Cutts (2007), states:[...] plain English is a woolly term. As no formula can genuinely measure the plainness of a document, I would rather describe plain English than define it. In my view, plain English refers to:\nThe origins and evolution of the movement: As Garner (2002) explains, plain language is \"the language of the King James version of the Bible and it has a long literary tradition in the so-called Attic style of writing\". The Attic style, associated with the great Athenian orators of the fifth and fourth centuries BCE was active, direct, forceful and exemplified purity and simplicity. King Charles XII of Sweden is quoted by Asprey (2006) as requiring in 1713 \"that the Royal Chancellery in all written documents endeavour to write in clear, plain Swedish and not to use, as far as possible, foreign words\". The simple, plain style can be traced down through the centuries to the 20th when, from the 1920s to 1960s, many reading researchers such as Flesch (1979) developed reading scales to attempt to analyse readability levels of documents (an initiative now quite discredited).In the USA by the 1960s, consumer advocacy groups were stimulating legislation to ensure that government and business produced documents that the public could read and understand (Bowen, 1986). Since the 1970s, most American states have passed some type of plain-language legislation, and several federal statutes exist as well. The document that Asprey (2006) claims:[...] marks the coming-of-age of the plain language movement in the United States is the plain language consumer loan note launched on 1 January 1975 by First National City Bank (now Citibank).A committee that had been appointed in 1970 to analyse consumer-related problems with what had been called a \"promissory note\" discovered that lawyers, judges and Citibank's own lending officers had had trouble understanding the note. The note was re-written in plain language. The plain-language movement gained momentum through the 1970s when President Richard Nixon announced that the Federal register was to be written in \"layman's terms\" (Lutz, 1987). On 23 March 1978, President Jimmy Carter issued an executive order 12044 \"to make Federal regulations clearer, less burdensome, and more cost effective\" (Felker, 1980). This resulted in the Internal Revenue Service extensively revising the individual income tax form. On 30 November 1979, he followed this up with an executive order 12174 that government forms \"should be as short as possible and should elicit information in a simple straightforward fashion\". In the same year the state of New York introduced its plain-language law (often called the \"Sullivan Law\" after the politician who introduced it), which required that all residential leases and consumer contracts be written in understandable language and applies to agreements that involve amounts of $50,000 or less.President Reagan unfortunately rescinded President Carter's orders in 1980 and blighted the plain language record when, in a televised speech in 1981, he said:I will not stand by and see those of you who are dependent on Social Security deprived of the benefits you have worked so hard to earn. You will continue to receive your cheques in the full amount due you.As Lutz (1988) points out:This speech had been advertised as the President's position on Social Security, a subject of great debate at the time. After the speech, public opinion polls revealed that the great majority of the public believed that President Reagan had affirmed his support for Social Security and that he would not support the move by some republicans to cut benefits. However, five days after the speech, a paper in the Philadelphia Inquirer quoted white House Director of Communications David Gergen as saying that President Reagan's words had been \"carefully chosen\". What the President did mean, according to Gergen, was that the President was reserving the right to decide who was \"dependent\" on those benefits, who had \"earned\" them, and who, therefore, was \"due\" them.This example epitomises \"doublespeak\", and it is this kind of language that, designed as it is to mislead, has no place in the plain-language movement.In 1988, the Federal Judicial Center published a set of jury instructions in plain language. On 1 June 1998, President Clinton released a memorandum for the Heads of Executive Departments and Agencies:Subject: Plain Language in Government Writing.\nWhat are the benefits of plain language?: The benefits of plain language are inarguable, as is clear from the examples and cases mentioned in this paper so far. A commitment to clarity achieves democracy, equity, authenticity and transparency. It saves time and money, and generates goodwill and compliance. Mowat (2007) describes how some Australian judges discovered mistakes in law underneath the legalese when they were re-writing a piece of legislation in plain language.\nGuidance for generating plain-language documents: Writers wanting to generate plain-language documents will do well to follow the guidance below: Equation 1 Create a profile of your intended and potential readers: age range, gender, ethnicity, socio-economic background, geographical location, educational background, professional interests, familiarity with the subject, attitudes/sensitivities and motivations. Know what you need to say so that they can find what they need to know and understand what they need to do.\nWhat qualities/characteristics does plain language have?: Substance and structure:* Appropriate to the purpose of the communication.* Understandable, accessible content - the reader can \"get\" the writer's intended message on a first reading.* Sensitive to the context of the communication and to its readers.* Readable chunks organized in a \"reading path\" through the document.* Accurate, precise, relevant, essential, comprehensive, authoritative and current content.* Action-oriented - the \"scenario principle\" - the reader is motivated to act on the message.* A coherent, logical structure and appropriate sequence (general information before specific and before exceptions), with appropriate transitional words and phrases.* Parallel structure - where appropriate to break up complex material - in sentences and in dot point/vertical lists.* No cross-referencing that sends the reader elsewhere, if possible.* Appropriate use of headings and statements as \"advance organisers\"/\"signposts\".Style (verbal and visual):* Active voice and crisp, strong verbs - where appropriate.* Elegant sentences - not convoluted, rambling with \"and-ness\", awkwardly embedded sentences introduced with expletives and heavy with nominalisations (polysyllabic nouns with endings such as \"tion\", \"ance\", \"ity\", \"age\") and noun strings (noun piled upon noun).* Unambiguous/clear/coherent (unable to be inadvertently or deliberately misconstrued).* Formal, but not pompously so.* Conversational (if appropriate), but neither colloquial, nor \"breezy\".* Concise/succinct/economical style - not verbose/inflated nor redundant.* Human in tone - not patronising, glib, presumptuous, polemic, aggressive, defensive, or equivocal (use first and second person, as appropriate).* Positive - where appropriate (negative, if necessary, but generally avoid double negatives).* Simple - but not simplistic.* Neutral (but not abstract) inclusive language (avoid ageism, classism, racism and sexism).* Common terms rather than technical jargon (unless necessary and familiar to all readers).* Familiar terms (avoid archaic and arcane and foreign - where possible).* Consistent terminology (avoid the \"thesaurus syndrome\").* Absence of acronyms and initialisms (unless absolutely necessary/appropriate), and/or, cliches, colloquialisms, contractions, \"cuteness\", \"buzz\" words and phrases, euphemisms, neologisms and \"trendy expressions\", humour, hyperbole, idioms, irony, puns, over-defining, vague quantifers and weasel words and expressions.* Compelling, persuasive style (avoid standard/empty/phatic/\"happy\" introductions and conclusions, unless culturally relevant).* Visually inviting and consistent layout with appropriate font size, emphasis devices (such as bolding and italics), adequate \"white space\", and text boxes for pull-out quotes.* Charts, tables, graphs and other illustrations for complex material, where appropriate.* Polished to mechanical perfection.Mowat (2007) has designed a helpful mnemonic using the key word CLARITY as an acronym:* Conciseness.* Lean and lively language.* Active voice.* Regular and reasonable.* Image-evoking (using analogies and metaphors), concrete and specific.* Tight organization.* You and your audience.\nQuestions for research: Although the past few decades have seen valuable and sustained research, particularly in writing and reading and design, much research remains to be done. Plain-language practitioners belong to many associations (see web sites listed) and subscribe to differing theoretical, conceptual and methodological frameworks within many disciplines such as linguistics, communication, and rhetoric and professions such as the law, public administration and finance. Advocates have expressed a strong desire for acceptable and sustainable standards (Cheek, 2007; James, 2007; Redish, 2007) and an accreditation process, though they recognise that achieving these will be difficult. There seems to be agreement that there are no \"absolute absolutes\", but there are specific issues that require research, many of which Schriver (2007) has identified in her overview of over 300 studies of writing and design:* graphic design+text considerations and the ethos of graphic designers who are happiest when words do not get in their way;* the concept of \"simplifying\" (Mowat, 2007);* interdisciplinarity and multidisciplinarity;* languages other than English and acceptable grammatical and technical variations;* the problematic \"validity\" of spurious \"readability\" formulas (Duffy, 1985; Huckin, 1983; Redish and Selzer, 1985; Schriver, 2001) and reading levels; and* testing for desirable outcomes such as lower error rates in processing documents and higher response rates, compliance, cost savings and profits.Despite the presence of some pockets of complacency and resistance from those who believe that they already write in plain language or those who are inimical to it, the accelerating and widespread implementation of programs in plain language English worldwide augurs well for future research and growth in a movement that has great potential to benefit citizens worldwide.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: - The purpose of this paper is to review the literature on plain language in Australia, the UK and the USA since the movement began to accelerate in the early 1960s; to review the progress of plain-language initiatives in those countries in the years since then; to provide guidance on generating plain-language documents for writers in the corporate arena; and to present suggestions for further research.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - The paper discusses historical and contemporary initiatives and issues relating to plain language, presents guidelines for writing in plain language, and discusses the desirability of ongoing research.\nFindings: - The paper concludes with suggestions for further research in the corporate sector, where issues such as plain-language \"standards\" are contestable, and compliance with plain-language guidelines is under-researched.\nResearch limitations/implications: - Although the plain-language movement has gained great momentum worldwide in recent years, this paper is limited to the countries in which it was pioneered.\nPractical implications: - The desirability of adopting plain language is undeniable, with many professions and businesses recognising the social and economic benefits of presenting information to their customers in plain language: efficiency, effectiveness, cost-savings, equity, enhanced consumer satisfaction, among others.\nOriginality/value: - The paper provides a valuable overview of the progress of plain-language initiatives in Australia, the UK and the USA since the 1960s and highlights the necessity for further research in a movement that has become an important consideration for corporations in an economy in which writing and information design are central.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Leadership storytelling	[ "Leadership", "Storytelling", "Management skills" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n__NO_TITLE__: You are leading other senior managers in a discussion of the current state of affairs at your company. Or you are a project manager whose timelines have been missed and it is your responsibility to rally the troops to work harder and longer. Or you are a parent trying to help your child to make the right decision. In each of these cases and countless others, you need to find a way to communicate a complex idea in a clear and powerful way.\nWhy are stories important?: Human beings learn from experiences - their own and those of others - through stories. As long as human beings have had language, there have been stories. A story creates an indelible message. It is a container for important life lessons. Most of us carry several virtual volumes of \"lessons learned\" from childhood forward - we remember the lessons especially well because we can recreate the story of how we learned them. We tell those stories to our own children or young relatives in the hope that they can benefit from our experiences (without necessarily having to recreate them). As leaders, we can learn to use our own stories to communicate important messages to others.Stories can entertain, teach, delight, frighten or inspire. They are tools of leadership. Political, religious, military and business leaders have always used stories (myths, parables, proverbs, sagas, allegories) to inspire others toward right action. Sometimes the stories are heroic in nature (you probably couldn't do this), sometimes cautionary (never do this), sometimes motivational (you should try to do this), sometimes exhortative (always do this) and sometimes expository (I did this and this is what I learned).Because we all have our stories, one of the greatest sources of teaching or leadership stories is our own experience. To inspire others, you must first get their attention - opportunities for this are greatest during the first few minutes of a meeting when focus and attention are highest. You need to get your audience to connect with you and what you are saying. Stories, allegories, and metaphors are fast and powerful leadership tools for communicating complex concepts in unforgettable ways.\nHow can stories help me be a more effective leader?: Stories can reach across boundaries of culture, profession, and age. Using metaphors can create an understanding of a scientific principle in the mind of an artist or a young student, a sales manager or a subsistence farmer. (For example, Kukule's idea - one that came to him in a dream - of a carbon ring being like a snake with its tail in its mouth). You may be brilliant in your own field, but if you cannot communicate your idea in a way that makes it understandable to those outside your field, you place limits on your idea. If you can't explain the impact of your technical breakthrough to those who are in a position to invest in it, you are unlikely to get your product to market.Self-disclosure through storytelling is a powerful method of engaging and inspiring others. As a respected and admired leader, a story disclosing a failure can have the somewhat paradoxical effect of building trust and encouraging openness. You may tell a story about how you acted on incomplete information, made a bad decision - or talk about a risk you should have taken but didn't. There is high value to the connection that results when your team members see you as fallible - yet successful. The door opens to productive discussion about learning, course correction and development. Such a disclosure, told with humor and confidence, can stimulate a dialogue about what you could have done differently and opens the way for others to share their stories and life lessons.Of course, communication is a two-way process. No matter how important or profound an idea may be, it will have no impact or influence unless others listen to it, understand it, and take action on the basis of what has been communicated. People want to listen to someone who has an interesting story to tell or with whom they can identify. The issue for many leaders is getting others to listen - really listen - to an important message with an impact on the success of an initiative or an organizational change process.Leaders, especially senior leaders, are often perceived as being distant and unable to relate to or understand the issues and concerns of ordinary employees. How can the boss know what I'm dealing with if he or she has never been there and done that? How can I trust the advice or recommendation of someone unfamiliar with the problem at hand? Relating a story that describes a familiar situation will often provide the credibility that is vital to connecting with the audience. Sharing a story with a group of employees to help them realize that you understand their issues and dilemmas can be a very successful strategy for building trust, especially if the story relates a human weakness or failure on your part. Don't underestimate the value of the connectivity that results when your employees see you as fallible. They will discuss it among themselves. Disclosing your weaknesses can make employees feel that you are more approachable. While this type of disclosure may seem to be a risky thing to do in some organizations, respected leaders can, by the very fact of their position and security, afford to take the first step in opening up an organization to learning from both successful and unsuccessful experiences. This creates opportunities for innovation and lessens the likelihood that mistakes and failures will be covered up until they become serious problems.During a one-to-one conversation with an employee who needs constructive feedback or coaching, you can get started by telling a story that helps the employee relate to you. Once you have done so, you can take the conversation in a productive direction; the employee is likely to feel more relaxed, talkative, and ready to tell you what is really going on. In medical school, they teach that if you just listen to the patient, the patient will tell you what is wrong. By creating an opening through story telling, then listening to the other person, you take the first step in solving the problem. As he or she discloses needs, concerns, and shortcomings, you create an opportunity to solve problems and plan a personal development strategy.\nHow can I tell a story with impact?: The best leadership stories begin with an icebreaker - an opening phrase that grabs everyone by the ears and refuses to let go ... the words that make people want to look up from their laptops or PDAs and listen for what is coming next.Let me tell you about a time when I really screwed up.I'm going to tell you a story about something I learned the hard way.I want to tell you about how I failed my way to success.I'd like to tell you about one of my personal heroes (or mentor or model...)I'm going to tell you a story and then ask what you would have done in my place to create a better outcome - because almost anything would have worked better than what I did.I'd like to tell you a story about a risk I took...(or a failure or a major challenge or...)I wish someone had told me the following story when I started working here ...This is a story that might seem strange to you...(or unrelated to the current situation).You will almost always get people's attention by using a self-deprecating opener. People who admire and respect you may be surprised to learn that you have failed and encouraged to know that you have learned from it and continued to succeed. Paradoxically, a heroic story starring you will probably not be as well accepted, at least in most cultures, because it will be seen as unnecessary bragging; this will not communicate your membership in the human race or a reason for the listener to connect personally with your message.\nThemes: You may talk about a time during which you acted on incomplete or bad information or made a decision that resulted in a negative outcome, discussing how you used that experience to grow and improve. You can share how devastating the experience was, yet show how \"that which does not kill us makes us stronger.\" You can tell a story about a risk you took that failed - and perhaps led to later success or an important learning. You can talk about a choice you had where you made the wrong decision - and ask the group how they might have dealt with it differently.Some common themes for leadership stories include:mistakes and failures;unexpected opportunities;risk and reward;choices and consequences;lessons learned;obstacles and challenges;advice from a mentor; andsomeone who inspired me.These themes can stand alone or be combined to create an effective story.\nCriteria for effectiveness: To be most effective, leadership stories should meet many of the following criteria:they should disclose something about you that listeners may not have known;have a clear and compelling message;avoid self-serving or boastful content;avoid sarcasm or implied negative comments about listeners or those known to them;avoid \"preaching\";include an element with which others can identify;be relevant to a current issue;communicate empathy or understanding;open a door to new ideas or solutions;start a conversation; andinclude playful or self-deprecating humor.\nApplications for leadership stories: There are many times when a leader might find storytelling to be an effective way to communicate. Among the situations that lend themselves especially well to stories are:mentoring opportunities;introducing yourself to a new team;orienting new people to your team or organization;starting a meeting about a difficult issue;illustrating a concept;re-energizing an individual, group or team that has experienced failure or difficulty;coaching;leadership development courses or events;getting a key point across to a group that needs to hear it;beginning a conversation about a common problem; andmoving an organizational culture toward greater openness and a focus on learning.You can follow a story by asking questions or facilitating a dialogue where the group analyzes your story, identifying what you could have done to prevent a mistake or failure, or what you could have done better to rectify it. You can discuss solutions to a problem you encountered. You can ask how to apply lessons you learned to a current problem. You can use a metaphor or \"yarn\" that others can apply to a real situation. When the content of the story is tied to the issue at hand, learning will be shared and individuals or groups will have benefited both from your experience and their own engagement. The organization will benefit from the increased openness, learning, and trust engendered by telling the truth in interesting and productive ways.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: - The purpose of this viewpoint piece is to focus on sharing a set of best practices with senior and emerging leaders.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - The paper demonstrates the relevance of the skills of storytelling to the practice of leadership and provides a set of suggestions and recommendations for effective use of stories, based on the authors' personal experience and observations.\nFindings: - Leaders who tell stories compellingly communicate important messages in a memorable way, offer a pathway to leadership for others, develop more effective relationships with those they lead, and can create an inspirational culture in their organizations.\nPractical implications: - Leaders can search their own history and experience for important lessons learned that can be communicated in the form of a narrative and learn to tell them with grace, humor, and/or incisiveness at appropriate times in the life of their organization or key people.\nOriginality/value: - Those who are leaders or who work to develop leaders can benefit from this alternative approach to leadership communication.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Influential factors on medical equipment maintenance management: In search of a framework	[ "Maintenance management", "Hospital", "Medical equipment", "Medical devices" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Medical equipment is extensively utilized for patients' diagnosis and treatment. Nowadays, providing health services through the use of diagnostic and treatment devices is a fundamental part of health services, especially in hospitals (Wang et al., 2008, 2012). Medical devices are assets that directly improve the quality of life for many people (Painter and Baretich, 2011). Medical devices requiring calibration, maintenance, repair, user training and decommissioning activities are usually managed by clinical engineers. Medical equipment requires scheduled and unscheduled maintenance during its useful life (WHO, 2011). Hospitals should ensure that medical equipment is kept in working condition, and is safe, accurate, and reliable and operates at the required level of performance effectively (Augustynek et al., 2018). Lack of proper maintenance of medical equipment leads to equipment downtime, reduces the level of device performance, and wastes costs and resources. In this concern, it is essential that hospitals focus on effective and quick maintenance of more critical devices (Bracale and Pepino, 1994; Dyro, 2004; Stiefel, 2009).\nWhy this study: aims: Mahady et al. (2002) in his study states, despite the importance of medical equipment maintenance, unfortunately, enough attention has not been paid to this issue, especially in developing countries (Mahady et al., 2002). A number of studies have been conducted on medical equipment until now (Ameriyoon et al., 2006, 2007, 2014). To our best knowledge, no studies have provided a comprehensive framework for MEMM in Iran. This study aimed to explore the views of experts on factors affecting MEMM. This paper presents a framework for MEMM with the purpose of enhancing and improving our understanding of the effective factors in this realm.\nMethods: Design\nResults: Through data analysis, the factors affecting MEMM were categorized in seven main themes and 22 subthemes (Table I). As follows, the definitions of each theme and subtheme are reported using the participants' direct quotations.\nDiscussion: This study provided an in-depth and rich description of the influential factors on maintenance management. Our findings directly pointed out the importance of factors on affecting maintenance management and the related concepts were extracted. One of the studies concluded in developing countries reported that the useful life of the equipment under regular maintenance programs were on average double the useful life of the equipment that was not covered through this program (Halbwachs, 2000). This study showed that consideration of influential factors on maintenance management results increased patient satisfaction and cost reduction. Our findings are consisting with those of Hasper (1991) who reported that the implementation of medical equipment management program boosts customer satisfaction while minimizing costs (Hasper, 1991).\nRecommendations: This study provided insight into which elements of the MEMM the participants found most helpful. The findings demonstrate that implementation of a proper maintenance management depends on resources including financial, human resources, physical, documentation, training and education, IPM, quality control, design and implementation, and service. Moreover, these factors play an important role in developing and adopting the most effective maintenance strategies. A major share of hospital costs is allocated to the procurement of medical equipment annually. However, the related management or maintenance is particularly weak in hospitals. It is essential for any health-care facility to implement a maintenance program for medical equipment. An effective maintenance management of medical devices increases efficiency and productivity of health technology resources, which is especially important when resources are limited. This leads patients to have access to medical equipment that can provide them with an accurate diagnosis, effective treatment or appropriate rehabilitation. The findings of this study underscore the fact that fulfillment of these objectives requires establishing a framework for the development of MEMM. Several factors affect the MEMM considering each of which is important for improving functionality of the devices and providing health care services to the patients. Also, in our context, most medical engineers are less informed about the concept of maintenance management and that explains why there is little attention to maintenance of medical equipment. The extracted factors can help to managers and engineers in evaluating maintenance management systems and offer options and interventions to decision makers or policy makers for the improvement of such systems. This framework provides for the development of national essential health technology programs that will have a positive impact on the burden of disease and ensure effective use of resources. Also, it can help to identify and modify innovative technologies that can have a significant impact on public health. Further research into maintenance management is warranted to improve quality in this field. Themes derived from this study can be subjects for further research in Iran and in other countries.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: Effective maintenance management of medical equipment is one of the major issues for quality of care and cost-effectiveness especially in modern hospitals. An effective medical equipment maintenance management (MEMM) consists of adequate planning, management and implementation. This is essential for providing good health services and saving scarce resources. Considering the importance of the subject, the purpose of this paper is to extract the influential factors on MEMM using a qualitative approach.\nDesign/methodology/approach: Documents review and interviews were main methods for data collection. Semi structured interviews were conducted with a purposive sample of 14 clinical engineers with different degree of education and job levels. Interviews were voice recorded and transcribed verbatim. Qualitative data were analyzed using a content analysis approach (inductive and deductive) to identify the underlying themes and sub-themes.\nFindings: Factors influencing an effective and efficient MEMM system categorized in seven themes and 19 sub-themes emerged. The themes included: \"resources,\" \"quality control,\" \"information bank,\" \"education,\" \"service,\" \"inspection and preventive maintenance\" and \"design and implementation.\"\nOriginality/value: The proposed framework provides a basis for a comprehensive and accurate assessment of medical equipment maintenance. The findings of this study could be used to improve the profitability of healthcare facilities and the reliability of medical equipment.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
A framework for labour policy reforms in India: Balancing economic growth and social development	[ "Social reform", "Labour market", "Economic growth", "Developing countries", "India" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Labour relations are implicit or explicit contractual arrangements between employers and employees within the framework of government regulations and involve reciprocal expectations and behaviors. These relations influence a wide range of phenomena such as how work is organised, governed and evaluated; productivity of a nation; investment in various sectors and socio-economic dynamics of the region (Ackerman et al., 1998; Kuruvilla and Venkataratnam, 1996). Recently, national economic and structural adjustments, combined with spread of information technology and globalisation, have lead to substantial changes in these relations in many countries like India, Brazil, Nepal, Malaysia, Pakistan and South Africa, which are characterized by low per capita income, high economic diversity and surplus labour (ILO, 2000; Beng and Chew, 1995; Arudsothy and Littler, 1993). Though these countries have incorporated substantial neo-liberal thought to their socialistic-paternalistic foundations (Roy Chawdhary, 2004; Sen, 2003; Venkataratnam, 2001; Newman and Nollen, 1998) many governments are still unable to define an effective labour relations policy, no doubt constrained and discouraged by the difficulty in balancing the existing socio-economic complexities. Given the wide range of impact, governments have adopted a narrow but relatively safe focus of concentrating upon generating employment and ensuring labour stability. This is at the cost of organizational growth and development. An effective policy structure would require sensitive and tactful balancing of realities and emotions. Furthermore, it must also be representative.This paper explores some labour relations frameworks that are specific to developing countries, reviews recent literature to understand the status of development and growth in India with respect to employment, and proposes a new labour relations framework for India and similar country contexts that balances socio-economic imperatives of these nations and growth needs of organisations. The focus is on policies of labour demand (nature of employment, working conditions, etc.), labour supply (quality and quantity of labour, skill development, etc.) and labour market regulation (wages, benefits, demand-supply interface structures). Earlier research was influenced by structures and models existing in the USA and European countries. The systems models as developed by Dunlop (1958), Kerr et al. (1960, 1962) and Flanders (1965) have provided the foundation for industrial relations research for several decades. However, their seminal work did not include behavioral as well as unstructured variables like national culture and power sub-contexts. Recent research in labour relations has highlighted the importance of sub national variations and focused on individual countries and their specific national contexts (Locke et al., 1995; Verma et al., 1995; Bamber and Lansbury, 1993). In particular two reasons influenced this shift in focus. One, processes in the labour-government-employer relationship were seen to be guided by specific socio-economic-cultural debates within a nation, and two, work and employment were found to be a direct reflection of other larger developments in a society like economic prosperity, education status, and even crime rates (Venkataratnam, 2001; Locke et al., 1995; Verma et al., 1995; Dunlop, 1993). Hence it becomes imperative to look at labour reforms from a specific developing country context like low per capita income, surplus labour and low education and skill development.\nReviewing existing frameworks to understand developing country contexts and concerns: Developing countries show variation in their labour market regulations. Table I summarises labour relations policies in Asian countries. High growth and low unemployment economies like Singapore and Hongkong have reorganized their regulations towards limited government control and focus on skill development. Fluctuating growth economies like Malaysia and Taiwan have high government control and low unionism. Economies with consistent but slow economic growth and high unemployment, like Philippines and India have high degree of control and monitoring of the market, by the government. However, these economies are experimenting with labour market flexibility.Verma et al. (1995) looked at labour relations in these countries and concluded that secondary conditions in the labour market, like rise in wages and extent of trade union activity, influence economic growth as they affect the initial sources of competitive advantage for firms, like low wages and low unionization. A less-developed country typically begins the economic growth process by creating conditions conducive to investment like low wages or low unionization, which helps to increase investment in the economy. As investments increase, labour market conditions improve over time. This includes increase in wages and favorable collective bargaining. The authors construe that enabling conditions created by the state at this juncture lead to positive changes at the level of firm and state. Firms would adapt to the secondary environment and state regulated conditions by investing in training, involving employees in production processes, going for higher value adding activities (introducing new technologies) and/or building a flexible work organisation through labour flexibility. At the state level better investments in labour relations would create higher skills, higher productivity and committed workers. This in turn would feed into the secondary labour market conditions of raised wages and better working conditions, leading to higher economic growth.Additionally, two forces become important during this regulatory transition. One, role played by supporting societal systems, and two, perceived fairness of new systems. Active role of the supporting societal systems is critical for wider social intervention and dialogue, in order to ensure equity and social justice. Venkataratnam (2001) looked at the emerging Indian context of economic liberalization, and developed a labour relations framework, which actively takes support from three such structures, namely, monitoring role from the judiciary and non governmental social workers; support role of the state for union regulation; and governmental structures to ensure employability aspects of labour. The framework argues for active role of these support systems to ensure a just and fair alignment of labour, economy and industrialisation strategies.Perceived fairness of new systems is seen as critical to maintain systemic balance in order for its actors to take progressive and positive choices. Lee (1996, 2001) looked at the interaction between production, distribution of rewards and resources, and regulations and governance systems, in developing countries. He surmised that this interaction is heavily influenced by mindsets. Perceived fairness of systems has a strong effect on employees' values which in turn influences their strategic choices and involvement, and determines employee productivity (Lee, 1996, 2001). Any imbalance in this system generates conflict and low performance.\nReview of developments in India, with respect to employment, growth and labour: Government: shift in focus\nThe proposed framework: Review of the labour relations frameworks and Indian context of economic growth and employment provided the foundational dimensions critical for a comprehensive and representative regulatory framework. First, it underscores the need for substantial shift in regulatory frameworks at an opportune time, for national growth. India is currently on the threshold of rapid growth and formulating enabling policies at this stage can lead to substantial growth for all. Second, while it highlights the specific context of regulatory and economic shifts that have changed industry requirements and stakeholder perceptions at multiple levels including the state, the industry and the world, it also stresses on the social responsibility of stakeholders, especially corporate and unions, within a nation's socio-economic characteristics of low per capita income, low education and high population. Third, it demonstrates the nature and magnitude of regulatory shift needed. The changed economic scenario has created criticality in certain conditions for labour like appropriate training and skills, surplus supply and economic vulnerability. Similarly, the changed context has created criticality in union effectiveness due to low representativeness and in management conditions of limited flexibility in employment, limited skilled labour and ineffective conflict resolutions systems. Last, literature also underscores the need for a just and fair system, for its actors to take informed and progressive choices.Characteristics of the framework\nInstitutional systems: Monitoring and Governance System\nRegulatory systems: Economic security system\nConclusion: There is significant business need to reform labour policy in several developing countries, in order to support overall economic development and growth. However, incorporating market forces within the policy framework in a country with low per capita income and surplus labour without providing for economic and social security will be unjust. This article has argued for labour policy reforms that balances growth needs of firms and socio-economic imperatives of a developing nation. The framework operates at three levels, namely, at the level of economic security, employment regulation and system flexibility, and puts equal responsibility for growth on labour and management. It has a number of distinct mechanisms which look into specific needs of many developing countries and tried to correct some of the anomalies existing in the current system. However, the proposed options demand substantial restructuring of the current labour relations systems and modification of some existing laws. Thus, policy makers and regions looking towards change will have to detail these proposed options looking at specificity of their context.Opens in a new window.Figure 1\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: - This paper seeks to develop a framework for Indian labour reforms that lay emphasis on economic growth and social development by balancing growth needs of firms and socio-economic imperatives of a developing nation. It proposes four management systems and details their interactional dynamics at three levels, namely, at the level of economic security, employment regulation and system flexibility.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - This paper provides a literature review of current developments in India with respect to employment, and an analysis of existing labour relations frameworks for similar country contexts.\nFindings: - Labour relations in developing countries is characterised by recent shift to market driven external environment, economically vulnerable surplus labour, low skills, inflexible employment laws, politicised unions with low labour representation, and low corporate involvement in governance. There is a need for policy changes that incorporate economic stability for labour, employment regulation for organisational flexibility, union management for true representation and corporate contribution in labour security and governance.\nOriginality/value: - While market driven, privatization policy regime, are being adopted as a strategy by developing economies to promote economic growth, the resultant need for constant innovation faced by the organisations demand a new policy system for effective labour regulation. Governments are unable to define an effective labour relations policy, constrained and discouraged by the difficulty in balancing the socio-economic complexity of a developing country. The framework proposed in this paper is a multilevel model, which allows for more efficient and socially effective balance between needs of the firm and the labour.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Civil engineers' personal values/demographics linkage in project team building	[ "Organization", "Project management", "Questionnaire survey" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Professional life for civil engineers involves not only technical decisions, but also managerial decisions. Civil engineers commonly make managerial decisions according to their \"personal values\" (McCuen, 1998; Kilby, 1993; Rokeach, 1973). Value is defined by Rokeach (1973) as \"an enduring belief that a specific mode of conduct or end-state of existence is personally or socially preferable to an opposite or converse mode of conduct or end-state of existence.\" Values have a profound influence on how individuals perceive things, and consequently how individuals make decisions. Furthermore, Suar and Khuntia (2010) claim that personal values have an impact on individuals' professional choices. Elizur and Sagie (1999) state that values that an individual emphasize in an organization are a subset of the values that he/she emphasizes in his/her personal life.\nTheoretical background and literature review: The values that a civil engineer considers important should reflect the values that are important for his/her role in the project team. For instance, if an individual attaches much importance to courage and broadmindedness while the nature of the project requires values such as logic and capability, the decisions made by this individual are likely to result in failure. Project team leaders should be aware that their subordinates attach different levels of importance to different values, and that the decisions they make may be affected accordingly (McCuen, 1998). For example:\nResearch methodology: In this study, the main hypothesis is that civil engineers' demographics have an impact on their personal values. First, an extensive literature review was conducted to identify personal values and demographics. Subsequently, based on the information obtained in the literature review a questionnaire was designed and a survey was conducted to seek information about civil engineers' demographics and their personal values. Finally, statistical analysis was performed on the collected data to verify whether a significant statistical relationship exists between civil engineers' demographics and their personal values.\nDiscussion of findings: Responses were obtained from 394 civil engineers. The respondents were split into groups on the basis of their demographics. The groups were classified according to age (younger than 35, older than 35), marital status (single, married), education (bachelor's degree, higher degree), experience in the construction industry (less than ten years, more than ten years), type of firm (contractor, non-contractor organization), value of largest project that the respondent worked on (less than $50 million, more than $50 million). The term \"non-contractor organization\" should be interpreted to include public organizations and consulting firms. In order to split respondents as evenly as possible, the median was used as the threshold for age, experience, and project value (Table I). Thus, adequate sample sizes were obtained within each group to perform statistical analysis.\nConclusion: The quality of the decisions made by civil engineers plays a pivotal role in the success of their projects. Professionals commonly make decisions based on their personal values. Professionals' personal values should be in balance with the values that are important for their role in the project team. This study suggests that construction project team leaders need to pay attention to the personal values of the civil engineers they employ. Considering only technical or managerial skills is not sufficient in assigning roles to civil engineers. However, assigning civil engineers to appropriate positions based on their personal values is difficult in practice because employees' personal values are not readily available. This study explored the relationship between the personal values and the demographics of civil engineers in Turkey. Given that the demographics of employees are readily available in HR records, a proven statistical relationship between demographics and personal values would allow reasonable prediction of personal values. Project team leaders can then make assignment decisions with more confidence.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to explore the relationship between civil engineers' demographics (e.g. age, marital status, education, work experience) and their personal values. The objective was to predict civil engineers' personal values based on their demographics.\nDesign/methodology/approach: A questionnaire survey was administered to civil engineers to collect data on their demographics and their personal values. Statistical analysis was performed to verify whether a significant statistical relationship exists between civil engineers' demographics and their personal values.\nFindings: The most important and the least important personal values were identified for civil engineers. Statistical analysis indicated that civil engineers' values do vary based on their demographics.\nResearch limitations/implications: The results of this study cannot be generalized, because individuals' personal values and demographics are, by definition, local. Location and culture may affect the personal values of civil engineers.\nPractical implications: Team leaders normally have access to information about the demographics of the engineers they employ; based on the results of this study, they should be able to predict their personal values, and to make more informed decisions when appointing them to particular positions on project teams.\nOriginality/value: The research presented in this paper, establishes for the first time, that a linkage exists between civil engineers' personal values and their demographics, and makes it easier for team leaders to make assignment decisions.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Antecedents of Chinese adolescents' purchase intention for local brands: the moderating influence of materialistic values	[ "Country of origin", "Materialistic values", "Peer pressure", "Perceived social status value" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: With the ongoing globalization and the rapid growth of the Chinese economy, China continues to be a lucrative market for multinational corporations. Over time, competition in this market has intensified with more local brands expanding market shares. For instance, \"white-goods maker Hai'er Group has (also) successfully fought off foreign competition and now accounts for 40 per cent of China's refrigerator sales\" (Keegan and Green, 2012, p. 314). Recent evidence shows that some foreign companies adopt local names for their products (Li, 2004; Weng, 2002). Whirlpool uses the name Kelon for its washing machines sold in China, while Maytag sells products under the name of its Chinese partner, Rongshida (Zhou and Hui, 2003). These changes exemplify the increasing importance of local brands in this emerging market and suggest that it is critical for both local and foreign companies to understand the antecedents of consumer purchases of local brands.\nConceptual background and hypothesis development: Adolescents' perceptions of social status value associated with local versus foreign brands\nStudy 1: Participants and procedure\nStudy 2: Participants and procedure\nGeneral discussion: The objective of this research was to examine how perceptions of social status value associated with local versus foreign brands affect youth's purchase intention for local brands. Our findings indicate that perceived social status value associated with local versus foreign brands is an important antecedent of Chinese adolescents' purchase intention for local brands. Moreover, materialistic values have a significant moderating effect on this process: materialistic adolescent Chinese consumers, compared with non-materialistic youth, are more likely to purchase local brands with high levels of social status value. Interestingly, these patterns are found only in a product usage occasion with high levels of peer pressure, but not in an occasion with low levels of peer pressure.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: This study aims to examine factors affecting Chinese adolescents' purchase intention for local brands; this study focuses on the effects of perceived social status value and materialistic values.\nDesign/methodology/approach: A theoretical model relating perceived social status value of brands to purchase intention, including materialistic values as a moderator, was developed and tested, using a sample of 587 Chinese adolescent respondents. Another experimental study examined the variability of the moderation of materialistic values across different levels of peer pressure in a product usage occasion.\nFindings: Perceived social status value associated with local and foreign brands significantly influences purchase intention for local brands. Moreover, influence of perceived social status value of local versus foreign brands on local brand purchase intention is greater for materialistic adolescents. Additionally, the moderation of materialistic values is found in a product usage occasion with high peer pressure, but not in an occasion with low peer pressure.\nResearch limitations/implications: The findings show that perceived social status value associated with brands shapes purchase intention for local brands. The moderating effect of materialistic values is complex and suggests further research. The study's scope is limited to Chinese adolescents.\nPractical implications: The findings provide understanding of the drivers of purchase intention, and thus serve as a guideline for Chinese firms and foreign marketers seeking to enter the growing Chinese market, as well as consumer educators in China.\nOriginality/value: This study contributes to the limited empirical research into the factors shaping country-of-origin effects. Moreover, the findings suggest the need to consider the moderating role of materialistic values on purchase intention for local brands.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
A strategic managerial approach to corporate sports hospitality: the case of Belgian football	[ "Case study", "Business relationships", "Sports marketing", "Management process", "Premium seating", "Venue revenues" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: After the 2008 financial crisis, the perception has grown that premium seating sales in sports stadiums have been in decline (Titlebaum et al., 2013). Corporate budgets for sport sponsoring were reduced by 25 per cent after this crisis, and the number of unsold seats increased (Connelly, 2011). The question can be asked whether there are industry growth perspectives after such an economic recession obliging corporate management to justify all expenses (Titlebaum and Lawrence, 2011). As quantifying the value of investing in sports premium seating is difficult for a company, it may have been a target of cost cuts. Hence, a thorough study of the industry and strategies to deal with and reverse these negative impacts is required, to unveil the potential added value of corporate sports hospitality (CSH) and find ways to effectively realise added value through appropriate CSH management.\n2. Situating corporate sports hospitality: The major part of the CSH or premium seating literature concentrates on the USA. The first suites emerged in American stadiums in 1965 (Titlebaum and Lawrence, 2011), whereas in Belgium, RSC Anderlecht was the first team to have business seats in the 1980s. According to Titlebaum and Lawrence (2011), in the beginning of the twenty-first century, the market for all teams in four professional leagues (NBA, NHL, NFL and MLB) entailed $600m gross revenues per year for 12 351 seats. NBA teams earn on average $20m per year on premium seating (Titlebaum et al., 2013). This number is however increasing due to new facilities being built (Badenhausen and Ozanian, 2019). Lawrence et al. (2013) state that this industry accounts for half of the sport ticketing industry. In new venues, 25 per cent of the seating are premium seats, illustrating the importance of the industry (Shapiro et al., 2012) for football clubs and why it receives so much attention when building new stadia (Ginesta, 2017).\n3. Methodology and data: case studies: The previous section dealt with the current state of the CSH industry, however mostly focussing on North America. To study the situation in Europe, the methodology of case studies is applied to the Belgian football CSH industry to find out how added value for both clubs and companies can be realised in a win-win partnership. The approach is in line with Rundh and Gottfridsson (2015) and Benijts et al. (2011). Two criteria were identified to opt for a case study:\n4. Case description: This section starts with a description of the CSH industry into Belgian football. To gain more insight into the financial significance and value of the industry, the average annual income generated by CSH is subsequently estimated and related to the income of a Belgian football club.\n5. A formal process to manage corporate sports hospitality: The interviews unveiled that a formal management process for CSH is lacking. Too often, decisions are taken ad-hoc. Combining the qualitative and quantitative information from the interviews and field research with the body of knowledge in the domains of strategic management, marketing and sports marketing (De Wit and Meyer, 2010; Hrebiniak, 2013; Kotler and Armstrong, 2014; Lagae, 2015) allowed constituting a formal management process for both the clubs and CSH buying companies. Although the management processes of the club and the company follow a similar logic, the objectives of both actors differ. This has implications for the rest of the process, especially at the moments of interaction. The developed management process is displayed in Figure 4. It is a useful complement to the operational framework developed by Lawrence and Moberg (2009).\n6. Managerial implications: The findings from this paper have some implications for both club and company CSH managers. Our derived model offers them an approach to manage CSH, based on a thorough theoretical background. Moreover, the process leads to clubs and companies better understanding each other's objectives and practices, allowing them to jointly realise a better CSH experience for the customer. In addition, the derived KPIs present a useful management tool to better measure outputs and implement the so much needed feedback loops for improved CSH effectiveness and efficiency. According to the interviewed practitioners, defining and measuring the KPIs, as well as implementing adaptations will require the most effort and support of specialised firms might be useful in the rollout phase. However, the entire process will be necessary to realise the industry's transition to become an innovative industry, realising its full potential, and a valuable business marketing tool beyond the target of cost-cutting. In this light, Figure 4 should also be considered a starting point for clubs and companies to set up their specific and individual operational CSH process, which should be as versatile as possible to deal with a continuously evolving business environment. Nevertheless, specific club and venue or company characteristics will influence each actor's specific process.\n7. Limitations of this research: The analysis in this paper is based on a case study of the CSH industry in Belgian football, hence considering one sport in a rather small country. One of the major concerns with case studies is the external validity. Although external validity to other Belgian venue-based sports can reasonably be assumed, given the comprehensive set of interviews carried out, this does not necessarily hold for the situation in other countries and non-venue based sports. As demonstrated, the size and context of sports is entirely different in America. Also in other European countries such as England, Spain or Germany, the sports industry is larger and venues are newer and larger too. As a result, the findings here need to be interpreted with caution when they are to be translated to other countries. Nevertheless, the provided insights can also prove useful there.\n8. Conclusions and further research: CSH has too often been perceived as a static industry with little opportunities to grow. In 2017, the CSH market in Belgium's highest division of football generated an annual income between EUR63.5m and EUR71.5m and accounts for 11-12 per cent of an individual club's annual income. To create value for the club and the company buying CSH as part of a win-win partnership however, active management of the CSH process is necessary, instead of relying on ad-hoc decisions. Competitors and substitutes are important to monitor, but the guest's experience should be central in the strategy to create value for them. To this end, our CSH management process shows how the organisational objectives are to be measured by KPIs, such as those derived and validated in this paper. It is crucial to monitor them throughout the process, starting from the input (investment phase), over the throughput phase (the event itself) until the monitoring and crucial feedback phases. The last phase is too often overlooked. Nevertheless, newly available data collection and analysis techniques enable this process. For a company, ROO is much more important than ROI, because of the long time lag between the first contact with a customer and the financial returns through the signing of a new contract. For a club, it is easier to calculate ROI, since they earn a direct income for offering CSH, which also involves costs. Suitable stadium infrastructure is crucial as well to offer a good CSH experience to customers and to explore all potential benefits of this business.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: Corporate sports hospitality (CSH) is a relationship marketing tool whereby customers and other stakeholders are invited by a company buying CSH from a club to attend a sports event. The CSH product involves premium seating and optional services such as catering. This industry has been perceived to be in decline, especially in times of economic downturn. The purposes of this paper are a quantification of the CSH industry's value and the development of a formal CSH management process for both companies and clubs.\nDesign/methodology/approach: A case study from the highest division in Belgian football (soccer) is conducted, involving interviews and quantitative data collection as the primary data source, in addition to secondary data and insights from the literature. As opposed to literature, this paper uses a holistic approach, combining the perspective of the club and the CSH buying company with attention for customers.\nFindings: CSH returns account for an important share of club revenues (>10%), despite the smaller market compared to the American major sports leagues. Since a club experiences the strongest competitive impact from substitutes and other clubs in the league, and CSH is often managed on an ad hoc base, disposing of a formal management process is crucial for both clubs and companies. For companies buying CSH, not only return on investment but also return on other objectives matters. Moreover, CSH is at least as effective to deepen existing business relationships as to create new ones.\nResearch limitations/implications: The paper provides clubs and companies with a theoretic background and practical key performance indicators (KPIs) to base their managerial decisions on. Although external validity to other Belgian venue-based sports can reasonably be assumed, translating the findings to other countries or non-venue based sports requires caution.\nOriginality/value: Little academic research about the CSH industry is available. Specific KPIs to define objectives and measure output, as well as feedback loops for clubs and companies, are developed. The proposed CSH management process follows the same high-level steps, but with different specific actions per actor, leading to a better understanding of similarities and differences of both processes, and a better co-creation of the CSH event.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Measuring skills in Europe	[ "Employment domains", "European labour force", "Level of skills", "Measurement of skills" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: \"Skills\" is the central concept in a number of theoretical debates. Vast human capital literature seeks to explain the effects of the level of skills on productivity and wages (Becker, 1964; Acemoglu and Pischke, 1999; Leuven, 2005). Economic sociology has focused on the effects of technological change and proliferation of new work organisation methods on up-skilling and de-skilling of the labour force (Gallie, 1991; Heisig, 2009). Despite the role of skills in academic debates, there is a lack of adequate instruments for theoretically grounded empirical measurements. The most widely used indicators for measuring skills of the labour force of a country or a sector focus on educational attainment and years of schooling as the most often used indicator. The numerous critics (e.g. Borghans et al., 2001) of such an approach argued that the same quantities of education do not directly imply acquisition of the same quantities or qualities of skills, this neglects depreciation of \"unexploited\" skills and acquisition of skills beyond school. To counter these drawbacks, more recent approaches (e.g. Hanushek and Kimko, 2000) developed supplementary proxies. However, the fundamental problem remains: they capture individuals' potential, rather than skills actually used in work domains.\nWhat do we mean by skills?: Mason et al. (2012) among others argue that \"[a]s an intangible asset, human capital is notoriously difficult to measure\" (p. 352). The difficulties are further amplified by extensive use of proxies without explicit discussion on what should be measured, i.e. what are skills and their properties? As a result skills have been equated with qualifications, occupations, tenure etc. Hence, before discussing the proposed approach in section 2.2, this part outlines key terms and provides a short overview of previous attempts to measure skills (section 2.1).\nData and variables: Empirical analysis of skills in 29 European countries is based on the results of European Working Conditions Survey (European Foundation for the Improvement of Living and Working Conditions, 2010). It was carried out in 2010 and includes a number of questions on what the respondents do in work.\nResults and discussion: There are significant differences between European countries in the level of skills of labour force (see Table III). The index of the level of skills obtains highest means in the Nordic countries (Norway, Denmark, Sweden, Estonia, Finland), The Netherlands, Malta and Austria (means over 0.7) and the lowest means in Bulgaria, Lithuania, Hungary, Spain and Slovakia (less than 0.6).\nConclusions and discussion: This paper sought to develop and test a methodology that could provide an alternative to commonly used proxies for measuring skills. The proposed approach is to measure actually used skills and define them as interrelationship between individual qualities (education and training, prior experience, etc.) and performance domain (tasks, work organisation, technology, etc.). This has several benefits. First, measurements of how tasks are performed should provide more accurate and sensitive account of levels and specificity of skills in comparison to proxies (e.g. qualifications) that assume potential to carry our work. Such an approach has high potential to contribute to academic discussions on the links between level of skills and economic growth. Second, the proposed approach accounts for different dimensions of skills. This opens numerous opportunities for comparative analysis of these dimensions and their relationships with education and training, work organisation and other practices. Third, while use of widely available survey data has its drawbacks, it also present a range of opportunities for analysis, for example, by linking skills with regions, occupations, sectors, health at work and other characteristics of employment domains and individuals.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: \"Skills\" is a central concept in a number of academic and policy debates. Yet measurement of skills of labour force remains highly problematic. The dominant approach uses signals of individual capacities (e.g. level of education) as a proxy of skills. This paper develops and tests a methodology for more direct measurement of skills by focusing on how individuals perform their tasks rather than what they could be capable of doing.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The proposed theoretical framework assumes that skills used at workplace represent the skills an individual has. This is captured by the analysis of how tasks are performed. Level of skills-in-use is measured at three dimensions: degree of uncertainty, level of autonomy and opportunities for continuous skill-building. Empirical analysis utilises survey data on 29 European countries.\nFindings: First, the paper proposes a novel methodology for measuring skills. Second, it uses data from European Working Conditions Survey to measure skills of workforce in 29 European countries.\nResearch limitations/implications: The depth of indicators used for measurement of skills could be further expanded, if additional questions could be inserted in the pan-European surveys.\nPractical implications: Findings suggest that the quality of employment domain (tasks, technologies, work organisation, etc.) could be as important as formal education systems in upgrading the skills of labour force.\nOriginality/value: The paper proposes and tests a methodology for more direct measurement of skills than the ones previously employed in academic and policy debates.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Understanding and assessing crowd logistics business models - using everyday people for last mile delivery	[ "Innovation", "Business Model", "Logistics", "Design Science", "Crowd Logistics" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: From 2014 to 2016, worldwide e-commerce sales increased by almost 50 per cent, and the forecast for 2020 predicts a threefold increase (eMarketer, 2016). As these amounts of e-commerce orders must also be physically delivered to the costumers, the e-commerce growth is accompanied by an increase in freight transport. Not only is the transportation of these goods expensive, with the last mile typically being the most cost-intensive part of the transport chain (Cordon et al., 2016), but also this freight transport increase has negative effects. The transport sector is, for example, the only sector worldwide whose greenhouse gas emissions have not decreased since 1990 (EU, 2014). The last mile problem occurs not only in the area of freight transportation but also in passenger transport, as public transportation typically ends at transit stations (Zellner et al., 2016).\n2. Crowd logistics literature review: The origin of crowd logistics lies in the term crowdsourcing, which is derived from the words \"crowd\" and \"outsourcing\" (Howe, 2006). \"Crowd\" is defined as a mass of people, and \"outsourcing\" describes a shift of processes, functions and duties to third parties. An initial form of crowdsourcing was crowd working, which involved external people acting as employees and performing work that was previously conducted within an enterprise (Blohm et al., 2014). The increasing digitization of society (Unterberg, 2010) substantially supports the development of new forms of work, such as crowd working. Crowd working is organized through an information and communication platform, operated by an enterprise, or an intermediary (Blohm et al., 2014), which can be accessed externally via the internet or internally via the intranet (Leimeister, 2012). The term crowd logistics was generated in reference to the transfer of crowd work to the logistics sector. The definition of crowd logistics by Mehmann et al. (2015) was adapted and was enhanced based on discussions at a conference with scientific researchers:\n3. Research method: The principles of the Design Science process (Hevner et al., 2004) were followed to examine knowledge from both science and practice in the development of the business model, as detailed in Figure 1. The expert interviews and document-based data analysis represent the knowledge from the business side and emphasize on the relevance of the present research. The knowledge from the scientific community was integrated through the literature review and qualitative data analysis (QDA) to ensure research rigor. The literature review and QDA were primarily conducted in prior work (Mehmann et al., 2015), in which the results are presented in detail. The development of the business model concept in the present study was executed in an iterative method of development and evaluation.\n4. Crowd logistics business model concept: Crowd logistics cannot be assigned to just the logistics area, rather, it also has to be assigned to business administration and information systems. This finding is a result of the expert interviews conducted in the present study and was supported by every interviewee. Therefore, the development of a business model in the area of crowd logistics must include all these perspectives. In the present research, this requirement was followed by equally including scientists from the disciplines of information systems and business administration, as well as various experts from industry (Table I).\n5. Discussion: Although crowd logistics research and practice is still in its infancy, the analysis conducted in the present study (expert interviews and document-based research into crowd logistics companies) reveals that there are already considerable experiences that lead to the following implications for research and practice.\n6. Conclusion: The present study has demonstrated that crowd logistics is a complex theme for which economic, social and technical factors must be considered. Based on expert interviews and information gathered from existing companies, the nature and characteristics of crowd logistics business models were analyzed. With the findings from the present study, a business model concept was created that can be used as a reference for a sustainable implementation of crowd logistics services. Two aspects of the concept are obligatory for practice. First, the network, which includes the customer crowd and the carrier crowd, constitutes the crucial resource and has to be permanently maintained. Second, the ROI may be positive only in the long-term, although investments in crowd logistics are currently highly venturesome.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to evaluate the nature and characteristics of crowd logistics business models. Using this evaluation, a new concept for a sustainable implementation of crowd logistics services is proposed.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The Design Science process was followed to develop the proposed crowd logistics business model concept. The data are derived from expert interviews and a document-based data analysis of 13 companies.\nFindings: Four relevant steps that companies should follow to implement sustainable crowd logistics services are identified. Open research questions are also identified and guide five research tasks, which may lead to a greater understanding of this emerging field.\nResearch limitations/implications: The present research is based on data from companies operating in Germany. The holistic approach gives a broad overview but lacks detailed descriptions.\nPractical implications: Managers can use the four steps and the crowd logistics business model concept to plan future activities (e.g. new service provision). These steps increase the understanding, awareness and knowledge of opportunities and risks of specific crowd logistics services.\nSocial implications: This paper provides initial insights into social changes in terms of drivers for the use of crowd logistics services. However, further research is needed to capture the social implications in detail.\nOriginality/value: Crowd logistics is an emerging concept, and this paper is one of the first dealing with this topic generally and the first providing an analysis of crowd logistics business models. The developed concept includes implications for practice in the forms of common, and best practices, and science in the form of open research questions and tasks. Overall, the present research provides new insights into this emerging topic.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Sustainability at a Brazilian university: developing environmentally sustainable practices and a life cycle assessment case study	[ "LCA", "Life cycle assessment", "Sustainable university", "Sustainable development goals", "SDG", "Campus greening" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: The world economy depends on fossil energy sources, such as oil, coal and natural gas. Some researchers, society and the government, are trying to change this scenario. Several means of analysis can be used to reduce the consumption of electricity, paper, water, as well as waste and air pollution emissions.\n2. The context of existing efforts on sustainable universities around the world: Universities can be regarded as \"small cities\" due to their large size and can have high environmental impacts (Alshuwaikhat and Abubakar, 2008). Considering that, using sustainable measures in these institutions is extremely important (Jabbour, 2010). Also, this can be seen with more emphasis on the goals outlined by the United Nations to promote the advancement of sustainable development by education (UN, 2015).\n3. Methods: 3.1 Selection of one sustainable practice\n4. Environmental actions developed on all the 13 campuses of Universidade Tecnologica Federal do Parana: This section describes some of UTFPR's perspectives on sustainable university practices. Five aspects are described in relation to SDGs (4, 6, 7, 12 and 13).\n5. Life cycle assessment results of reusable plastic cups: This section presents the results of the LCA of a reusable plastic cup, which shows a simplified product system and system boundaries for the life cycle of reusable plastic cups. The results are presented for three impact categories, by life cycle phase.\n6. Discussion and analysis: 6.1 Insights from related studies on life cycle assessment worldwide\n7. Final considerations and future agenda: Over the past few years, universities and research institutes have sought to increasingly incorporate the principles and practices of sustainable campuses. Therefore, the main contribution is related to LCA, which can be used as a potential environmental impact assessment technique by universities' decision-makers to foster environmentally sustainable practices in higher education institutions interested in becoming greener. In addition, another contribution of this study comprises the descriptions and discussion of sustainable actions developed at UTFPR, which can act as a guide for other universities to use similar practices. Moreover, all of these practices are in line with several SDGs.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: Some universities have a commitment to both academic education and sustainable development, and the sustainable development goals can support several sustainable actions that universities may take as principles and attitudes. From this perspective, the purpose of this study is to present environmentally sustainable practices at a federal university in Brazil and to analyze and discuss the potential environmental impacts associated with an environmentally sustainable practice implemented using life cycle assessment (LCA) and its benefits for the university's decision-makers.\nDesign/methodology/approach: To accomplish that, the study combines a description of environmentally sustainable practices at the 13 campuses of the Universidade Tecnologica Federal do Parana (UTFPR) in terms of education, water and electricity consumption, waste management and emissions. As a result of this analysis, one campus identified that a high volume of disposable plastic cups were being disposed of, for which the use of reusable plastic cups was introduced. In addition, an LCA study (ISO 14040:2006 and 14044:2006) quantified the benefits of the introduction of said reusable plastic cups.\nFindings: The results show that the university is working on environmentally sustainable initiatives and policies to become greener. At the same time, using a systematic LCA made it possible to measure that replacing disposable plastic cups for reusable ones reduced waste generation but increased water consumption on the campus. Faced with this, a sensitization was carried out to reduce water consumption. Finally, the current study provides lessons on the environmental performance to universities interested in sustainable practices, fostering perspectives for a better world. The findings of this study encourage organizations to accomplish environmental actions toward greener universities. The study shows that institutions need to be reflective and analytical about how even \"greening\" measures have impacts, which can be mitigated if necessary.\nPractical implications: The sustainable practical implications were reported, and an LCA was conducted to assess potential environmental impacts of reusable plastic cups. It was identified that raw material production is the phase that generates most environmental impacts during the life cycle of the product, along with the consumer use phase, due to the quantity of water used to wash the reusable cups. In addition, the practical contributions of this study are to provide insights to institutions that aim to use environmental actions, i.e. suggestions of sustainable paths toward a greener university.\nOriginality/value: This is one of the first studies to investigate and discuss sustainable practices at UTFPR/Brazil. The study assessed one of the practices using a scientific technique (LCA) to assess the impacts of reusable plastic cups distributed to the students of one of the 13 campuses. Although there are other studies on LCA in the literature, the value of this study lies in expanding what has already been experienced/found on the use of LCA to assess environmental practices in university campuses.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
A benchmarking framework for information systems management issues in Kuwait	[ "Benchmarking", "Kuwait", "Information systems" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Identification of the top management issues in information systems has been a popular research topic in the MIS field. Several research teams have surveyed Chief Information Officers regarding the top IS management issues that they face. According to Shi and Bennett (2001), in their description and summary study on benchmarking IS management issues studies, the main purposes of the conducted studies can be grouped in four categories as follows: frameworks for identification, framework for comparison, frameworks that are used to analyze trends, and frameworks for examinations. As a methodology, benchmarking is suitable for evaluating virtually any aspects of organizational performance in both public and private organizations (McGaughey, 2002).Numerous IS management issues surveys have been conducted over the past 20 years. The reason for repeating these surveys is the assumption that IS management issues differ over time and geographical contexts. IS issues investigations are carried out longitudinally over time, or in different countries to be used as a useful means of benchmarking issues in term of their current and future importance within the specified contexts (Shi and Bennett, 2001). The results have been used by IS researchers to guide the selection of relevant research topics and by IS managers to focus their decision-making. Given the significance assigned to the results of issues surveys, it is important to establish the validity and meaning associated with these results.Palvia and Basu (1999) have proposed that reporting the underlying constructs associated with the IS management issues is more meaningful than listing the individual management issues and their ranks. They performed confirmatory factor analysis on a model of ten (10) proposed IS management factors using data from the Niederman et al. (1991) IS issues study. The results supported their proposed factor model.Utilizing issues grouping frameworks are more useful than the customarily practiced approach of identification of particular issues in isolation because the nature of information systems activities require to look at technology, strategies, organization structure, management processes, and employees and their roles in a holistic view (Earl, 1992; Somogyi and Galliers, 1987; Kawalek, 2003). Future benchmarking studies on issues comparisons and examinations should focus on IS issues as groups in a framework rather than individual issues and use the arrived at issues frameworks as a single structure variable (Shi and Bennett, 1998). Moreover, the IS literature shows that many of the expected benefits are sought after by developing information systems infrastructure in business organizations are qualitative in nature, therefore, require context to the organizations' strategy (Alshawi et al. 2003).This study reports on the results of a more recent IS management issues survey conducted in Kuwait. Factor analysis is performed and factor scores are computed in order to report the most important IS management factors rather than ranking individual IS management issues. This study also investigates how CIO ratings of IS management issues vary across organizational and personal variables using the developed IS management issues benchmark dimensions. Organizational variables include organizational type (public vs private) as well as IS function age, degree of centralization, and size. Respondent demographic variables included age, nationality, education and experience.The purposes of this study then are threefold:1. Demonstrate the importance of reporting IS management factors (constructs) rather than reporting and ranking the individual management issues;2. Determine whether the ratings of IS management factors differ across organizational and personal variables;3. Benchmark the position of Kuwait's results on dimentionality and determinants of IS management issues with that of other previous studies.The paper is divided up into five sections. The first section reports the results of previous research on IS management issues dimensionality and determinants. In the next section, the sample and research methodology for the study are discussed. Results and analysis of the data are presented in the third section. Discussion, implications, and future directions on IS management issues are presented in section four. The last section presents a summary and some conclusions of the research.\nPrevious research: IS management issues dimensionality\nResearch methodology: One hundred and five organizations with formal MIS departments were chosen as the target population. Sixty-two public and private organizations took part in the project, providing a net participation rate of 59 percent. This study considered only the opinions of the highest ranked executives of the IS functions within these organizations.The IS management issue list that was included in the research instrument was developed through a three-phase protocol. A list of 30 issues was compiled based on three sources: the global issues in IS management identified in Watson et al. (1997), the Society for Information Management (SIM) key issue list (Brancheau et al., 1996), and current IS issues identified in the local Kuwaiti business press. Then, the issues with their rationales were comprehensively evaluated by three academicians and five IS professionals. This phase resulted in a final revised list with 25 key IS issues. These IS management issues, plus organizational and personal demographic items, were combined into a seven-page structured interview guide.The participants were asked each, in face-to-face interviews, to rate the perceived importance of the key IS issues and their rationale over the next 3 to 5 years using a scale from 1 to 10.Principal component factor analysis with Varimax rotation was performed on the issue ratings in order to determine underlying IS management factors. Factor rating scores were then computed as the weighted average score of the issues associated with that factor. The management issue factors were then ranked according to their weighted importance scores. Confirmatory factor analysis was performed to further assess how well the factors fit the issue data and to test the fit of the resulting factor model. The factor model was estimated and tested using SPSS AMOS version 3.6. Finally, t-tests were performed to test whether the differences between factors were significant in order to demonstrate the discriminatory value of reporting IS management factor areas rather than individual issues.Using a model similar to Yang's (1996) model , proposed associations between organizational, IS department and respondent variables and IS issues factor scores are shown in Figure 1. The proposed associations are tested using Mann-Whitney and Kruskal-Wallis association tests. Organizational variables included organization type (public vs private) and industry type. IS department variables include age, degree of centralization and size. Respondent demographic variables included age, nationality, education and experience. Association tests are performed for each situational variable against each of the issues factors in the framework.\nAnalysis and results: Corporate and personal profiles\nDiscussion, implications and future directions: IS management issues dimensionality\nConclusions: IS management issues surveys play a valuable role in identifying important topics for IS research and in identifying important areas for IS management attention. Researchers and practitioners should be careful how they report and interpret the results of issues surveys. This study has reconfirmed the presence of underlying issues factors providing benchmark dimensions. These constructs, factors or categories represent a more parsimonious model of IS management concerns and are easier to interpret, and manage. The key areas identified by Kuwaiti IS managers in this 1999 survey were found to be1. the effective management of IS resources such as data, networks and applications; and2. management knowledge of IS.This study also found that most situational variables are not associated with differences in issues ratings. Thus, the management factor ratings are consistent across organizations and respondents. The exception is organization and IS department size that can lead to different opinions on relative factor importance. Whilst this study demonstrates the importance of reporting IS management factors (constructs) from the perspective of identification and examination benchmarking, the results can be applied for other business and management field studies focusing on benchmarking issues research.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: - Aims to demonstrate the importance of reporting IS management constructs rather than reporting and ranking the individual management issues; determine whether the ratings of IS management factors differ across organizational and personal variables; and benchmark the position of Kuwait's results on dimensionality and determinants of IS management issues with that of other previous studies.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - This field study considered only the opinions of the highest ranked executives of the IS functions within their organizations. A seven-page structured interview guide was used for data collection. Principal component factor analysis was performed on the issue ratings in order to determine underlying IS management factors. Confirmatory factor analysis was performed to further assess how well the factors fit the issue data and to test the fit of the resulting factor model. Finally, t-tests were performed to test whether the differences between factors were significant in order to demonstrate the discriminatory value of reporting IS management factor areas rather than individual issues.\nFindings: - The key IS management factors identified by IS managers are the effective management of IS resources such as data, networks and applications; and managers' knowledge of IS. This study also found that most situational variables including nationality are not associated with differences in IS management factor ratings. Thus, the survey results are consistent across different types of organizations and respondents. The exception is organization size and IS department size. Size differences can lead to different opinions on the relative importance of various IS management factors.\nOriginality/value: - To demonstrate the importance of reporting IS management factors (constructs) as a benchmarking framework rather than reporting and ranking the individual management issues, and to use the derived conceptual benchmarking model to determine whether the ratings of IS management factors differ across organizational and personal variables.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Developing knowledge from entrepreneurial actions - toward a taxonomy	[ "Experiential learning", "Qualitative method", "Knowledge development", "Entrepreneurial learning" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Politis (2005) defines entrepreneurial learning as \"a continuous process that facilitates the development of necessary knowledge for being effective in starting up and managing new ventures\" (p. 401). Cope and Watts (2000) show that \"critical learning events\" lead to specific types of knowledge. They also drew attention on other experiences that trigger entrepreneurial learning such as \"learning episodes.\" These were subsequently studied by Rae and Carswell (2001). The present empirical study is contributing to the growing stream of research on entrepreneurial learning (Chandler and Lyon, 2009; Cope, 2003, 2005b, Harrison and Leitch, 2005, 2008; Mueller et al., 2012; Politis, 2005). It investigates the extent in which entrepreneurs learn from their initiatives to create and manage their ventures (Mueller et al., 2012). Put differently: how do entrepreneurs learn from what they actually do?\nLiterature review: Minniti and Bygrave (2001) argue that building a theory of entrepreneurship requires to develop a theory of learning. This approach has gained more and more support in previous years, so that a significant amount of research has started to focus on the learning process of entrepreneurs during the creation and growth of their companies (Chandler and Lyon, 2009; Harrison and Leitch, 2005, 2008).\nMethod: Research setting and data collection\nResults: The analysis of 107 actions undertaken by entrepreneurs over two years, the knowledge they gained each time and the way in which they transformed their experience into knowledge led us to identify four knowledge development modes. To achieve this, as mentioned in the data analysis section, we clustered every action into one of the ten different types of ELO. ELOs can therefore be considered as having played the role of an intermediary construct in our reasoning. The four identified learning modes are presented below.\nDiscussion: This research focuses on the knowledge developed from the actions undertaken by entrepreneurs during the creation and the management of their venture. Entrepreneurs are said to have gained new knowledge by following concrete steps they considered as learning opportunities. This study brings two main contributions to the literature.\nConclusion: The objective of the study is to contribute to the entrepreneurial learning stream (Chandler and Lyon, 2009; Cope, 2003, 2005b, Harrison and Leitch, 2005, 2008; Mueller et al., 2012; Politis, 2005) by investigating the ways in which entrepreneurs learn from the things they do.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to enrich our understanding of entrepreneurs' daily deeds, tasks and activities. The research investigates the ways in which entrepreneurs seize opportunities and gain knowledge from the start to the expansion of their ventures.\nDesign/methodology/approach: Two case studies were developed based on a longitudinal fine-grained analysis of two ventures over two years. Entrepreneurs' success and learning were modeled in line with grounded theory methodology. Data were collected from both primary and secondary sources in the form of semi-structured interviews and archival documentation.\nFindings: The authors develop an original conceptual framework that consists of ten entrepreneurial learning opportunities and four knowledge development modes. There are ten generic types of actions that entrepreneurs take. There are then four distinctive ways to transform these experiences into knowledge. The model is assessed in absolute terms and relatively to existing taxonomies.\nResearch limitations/implications: The findings question the premises on which entrepreneurial learning research traditionally relies. Opportunities can be open-ended rather than purely instrumental. Similarly, knowledge can be emerging as much as it can be espoused. This opens-up space for further research.\nPractical implications: For practitioners, the findings suggest new ways for making sense of the daily experience of their entrepreneurial endeavor. The learning modes suggested can be used by coaches and mentors when helping entrepreneurs in their venture.\nOriginality/value: The research provides empirical evidence of what entrepreneurs do. This may help cast traditional debates about what there is to do (logical necessity) and what there is to know (a priori knowledge) in a new light.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Embedding management knowledge: repertoires and reservoirs	[ "Management development", "Knowledge", "Organizational learning", "Learning organizations", "Workplace training" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n__NO_TITLE__: Surveys of skills gaps consistently reiterate the importance of management and leadership development in organizational settings for improved productivity (Burgoyne et al., 2004), both within the private and public sectors. Management development is still often delivered through traditional face-to-face \"classroom-based\" approaches, although mentoring and coaching, blended and e- learning strategies are gaining ground (Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development, 2010). Despite the ubiquity of management and leadership programmes, and the investment in this area of learning and development, questions remain about the effectiveness of many programmes and interventions in developing management skills and organizational performance (Bolden, 2007). A decision to run a management development programme is therefore often fraught with questions that concern the following topics:* Using outside expertise or running the programme in-house.* Opting for face-to-face, blended, distance learning or online delivery.* Ensuring that the stated benefits of the programme are realised (and how to evaluate this).* How to ensure learning is embedded (and how to evaluate this).* How to ensure participants and the wider organization see value in the programme.There is a tendency, in the face of some of the uncertainties around effective evaluation, to opt for approaches to management development that are \"tried and tested\", or perhaps to opt to commission \"the experts\", who, it is hoped, can be trusted to deliver the goods.\nHorizontal discourse: application to organizational learning and knowledge development: Bernstein (1999) provides a language of description that can be used to delineate between different forms of knowledge and processes of knowledge development. While vertical discourse is outlined primarily in its relation to academic disciplines with varying knowledge structures, horizontal discourse is presented as embodying the mechanisms through which knowledge that is rooted in specific contexts arises and is acknowledged as valuable. Bernstein emphasises the \"segmentation\" within horizontal discourse, with knowledge relating to a particular activity or tasks developing specifically, in a manner that does not necessarily relate to other \"knowledges\" acquired by an individual. He uses the term \"repertoire\" to describe the array of differing strategies that an individual who has acquired different knowledges relating to different activities or tasks possesses.In a community, or organizational context, where a collection of individuals has cause to interact or co-operate, there are thus a range of different repertoires, which combine to form a \"reservoir\" of strategies for managing different situations and achieving objectives. In an organizational context we might use the example of a project team or task and finish group, with a range of skills and strategies (or repertoires) developed as a result of various experiences in the workplace, brought together to achieve an objective. They have the opportunity to expand their repertoires and develop a combined reservoir, providing they are able to use mechanisms of \"circulation\" and \"exchange\" (Bernstein, 1999) that facilitate learning and knowledge development. The existence and effectiveness of these mechanisms within an organizational context may be dependent on the \"expansive\" conditions outlined by Fuller and Unwin (2004), or equally on the nature of the productive system that the organization sits within (Felstead et al., 2009).For those interested in promoting organizational learning, and the development and capture of knowledge within an organization, a number of questions arise from the concept of segmented horizontal discourse, for example:* To what extent is horizontal discourse, as opposed to the more structured vertical discourse (and its vertical and horizontal knowledge structures) which is often connected with academic or scientific knowledge, an appropriate analogy for management and leadership skills and \"know-how\"?* What implications does this analysis of knowledge and its relation to the individual have for decisions regarding the suitability of learning and development interventions used within organizations?* How can the processes of \"circulation\" and \"exchange\" be best enabled so that the \"reservoir\" of organizational knowledge can be developed (and used) most effectively?\nAcquiring segmented knowledge: Bernstein's discussion proceeds to an analysis of how knowledge is acquired in horizontal discourse, the relevance of segmental pedagogy (of horizontal discourse) and how it contrasts with institutional pedagogies (which relate more to formal curricula). Bernstein (1999) stresses that \"pedagogic practice may vary with the segment\" as processes of knowledge acquisition are specific to the particular context and have not been subject to institutionalised pedagogy. In other words, we might say that people have learned how to do everyday tasks in different ways, ranging from brushing ones teeth to managing our personal relationships. Crucially, Bernstein theorises that engaging in the learning of a strategy or practice effectively may require the pedagogic approach in use in the earlier process of acquisition. These pedagogic approaches may include modelling, showing, repetition or by more explicit instruction.For those many managers who are learning how to manage people, delegate, supervise, and deal with power imbalance in organizational contexts without formal instruction, we might surmise that their knowledge development follows processes of acquiring tacit knowledge and strategies (Sanchez, 2005) from their practical experience of, or exposure to, \"know-how\" that they seek to deploy using their understanding of the effectiveness of specific knowledge and strategies in given contexts. Strategies for solving problems at work will be practised and re-practised to the degree that the provide solutions that are perceived as successful. Of course, the level of aptitude that individuals possess in the deployment of this knowledge and associated strategies varies, just as their capacity to acquire the knowledge and strategies varies as a function of their own individual ability and the structural context(s) which they have experienced (Felstead et al., 2009). The outcome of these processes at an organizational level is therefore influenced not only by the extent to which those in positions of power and authority have the capacity to acquire and facilitate the development of knowledge and strategies, but also by the awareness that individuals have of the nature of the knowledge and strategies existing or needed within the organization, and by the existence of meaningful opportunities to deploy knowledge and strategies. Processes of individual and organizational learning, and their impact on organizational performance, are therefore shaped by the extent of circulation and exchange, and by the construction and ongoing replenishment of the organizational reservoir of knowledge and strategies.\nCase study: recognising repertoires through a management development programme: The case focuses on a local authority directorate in the UK in which almost all of those with some form of managerial responsibility had undertaken very little formal training or development. In most cases this had consisted of one-off workshops focusing on aspects of line management or recruitment. At a strategic level it was recognised that there was both an organizational need for management development and a demand for greater recognition of skills acquired in management practice. In response a learning and development officer was tasked with the development of a management development programme which would lead to an accredited qualification. After considering a series of options, it was decided that a blended programme consisting of the use of online guided reading and tasks combined with regular face to face workshops would be designed. Although the management and delivery of the programme would be in-house, the programme was built around a partnership with an organization specialising in online learning. The focus of the programme would be around three priority themes, \"Team Management\", \"Leadership\" and \"Change\", which were mapped to relevant units offered by the Chartered Management Institute. Participants would complete written assignments and a presentation to gain a Chartered Management Institute Certificate in Management and Leadership over a six-month period. The intention was to deliver a rolling programme of sessions to consecutive cohorts of participants, with numbers in each cohort around 15-20, so that eventually all those with managerial responsibility in the directorate (estimated as in excess of 100) would complete the programme.A key focus of the programme would be to raise awareness of the \"repertoires\" that managers with different levels of experience within cohorts had acquired to deal with challenges at work, and to encourage participants to think of the accumulated repertoires as a \"reservoir\" of knowledge and strategies that was available to the organization. This could be characterised as part of a process of socialisation and gradual externalisation (Nonaka and Takeuchi, 1995). The process was promoted through workshops focused on sharing experiences, analysing case studies and testing and reflecting on management practice. \"Circulation\" and \"exchange\" of repertoires of strategies for dealing with management challenges was an essential element, with attention paid to the issues of pedagogy alluded to by Bernstein (1999), meaning that participants needed to be able to recognise and communicate not only what they had learnt but also how they had learnt it. This necessitated a process of reflection on how the knowledge and strategies were acquired or developed, in order to prepare to exchange experiences with other participants. As much of this learning had been experiential, sometimes undertaken over prolonged periods, participants primarily focused on narrating their reflections on moments of insight which had improved their management practice. With the aid of training tools such as the Johari Window (Luft, 1982), participants were supported to better understand how they had learnt and developed through their practice.\nCirculation and exchange: an associates development network: On recruitment to the management development programme, participants pledged that they would become members of an associates development network (ADN), which was described as a mechanism for sharing knowledge and skills within the organization. It was made clear that they would need to be prepared to contribute a small amount of time each year to the network, and that they would need to secure agreement for this from their line manager before commencing the management development programme. The ADN would become a vehicle for the further development of management skills within the organization, as participants graduating from the management development programme, and therefore schooled in the process of \"making repertoires visible\" would become responsible for facilitating workshops focused on key themes or \"strands\" and management skills. The intention was to develop an internal accreditation system which would recognise workshop facilitation, leadership and coaching skills, eventually resulting in a network of accredited associates who would have the skills to co-ordinate learning and development activity, and feel responsible for the network and its success as a consequence of their experience on the management development programme. Once the network was sufficiently robust, change initiatives would also be delivered through the network with new strands emerging to bring together relevant people, consult or disseminate. Additionally, the organization would be better equipped to respond quickly to poor performance identified, through a learning and development infrastructure owned and led by the combined workforce.The ADN encouraged progression, through initiation as an \"Affiliate\" and access to the reservoir of organizational knowledge, and progression to an \"Accredited Associate\" with a responsibility to coach and mentor affiliates in the process of recognising and developing their \"repertoires\". Progression to accredited status required a level of awareness, both of the repertoires available, and the capacity to perceive opportunities for knowledge and strategies to be deployed for the benefit of the organization (see Table I).In line with Bernstein's (1999) discussion of effective circulation and exchange processes within horizontal discourse, the ADN would champion approaches to learning that were collaborative, informal and focused on \"know-how\", using modelling and demonstration, but coupled with an emphasis on a community of learners with a shared interest in knowing and strategising to find solutions to management problems.\nOutcomes and learning points: The management development programme received positive feedback from participants, with most valuing the facilitative and co-operative approach, which was seen as valuing the \"repertoires\" they had developed as practising managers. Participants were persuaded by notions of sharing knowledge and strategies to support each other and organizational objectives. However, the ADN was considerably less successful, due to a lack of organizational will, and insufficient investment in communication of the concept in the implementation phase. Attempts to launch the ADN to a wider audience were also held back by ongoing restructuring and uncertainty within the organization, meaning that most staff were primarily focused on trying to make sense of change over which they felt they had limited control. Barriers to delivery included:* Reluctance on the part of the organization to act sufficiently decisively to ensure the viability of the ADN.* The lack of recognition at the organizational level leading to equivocation on the part of potential associates. Staff needed clear signals from the wider organization that they could invest time and effort in this concept* Wider political and structural change in the context of financial limitations and organizational uncertainty.In summary, the focus on the notions of \"repertoires\" and the development of a \"reservoir\" of shared knowledge helped to inform the nature and structure of the management development programme, its ethos and training methodology. A key objective of the programme, and the Associates Development Network, was to provide opportunities to promote the necessary circulation and exchange of repertoires, to encourage participants to identify, and to value, the knowledge and strategies they had developed through management practice, and to stimulate \"exchange\" through reflective activities. Although the ADN was not implemented fully, the concept and approach of the management development programme was declared a success, with positive participant feedback and commitments to take the approach demonstrated forward into team workshops and training sessions.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: - The purpose of this article is to illustrate through a case study how Bernstein's discussion of horizontal discourse can be used to inform processes of management development and organizational learning in multi-functional organizations.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - The approach taken is to reflect on a particular case of management development in which the author was instrumentally involved, using Bernstein's concepts of \"repertoire\", \"reservoir\", and the \"circulation\" and \"exchange\" of knowledge and strategies to further the understanding of the nature of learning and development interventions that aim to recognise, refine and disseminate tacit managerial knowledge.\nFindings: - The article discusses the background to internal management development interventions of this type, and briefly evaluates the outcomes of the case study against original objectives. Although much progress was made with an initial group of participants, in terms of realising and sharing tacit managerial knowledge and strategies, the organization did not take the second phase of the intervention forward.\nPractical implications: - The case study develops a conceptually informed approach to internal learning and development interventions that can inform future initiatives.\nOriginality/value: - The discussion of this case is valuable in that it illustrates how concepts from the sociology of knowledge can be used to provide new insights into internal learning and development interventions that seek to make better use of the knowledge and practice of individual employees.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
A little help from my friends: how purchasing gains influence in complex business-to-business services: the case of legal	[ "Purchasing", "Services", "Influence", "Purchasing power", "Purchasing techniques", "Institutional analysis" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction and research justification: There is widespread anecdotal and empirical evidence that the purchasing function is increasing in influence in the organization (Fitzsimmons et al., 1998; Cousins and Spekman, 2003; Bjorklund, 2011; Johnson et al., 2014). Previous research indicates that there are many factors that converge to increase the importance of the purchasing function in an organization, including the following:\n2. Setting the stage - contextual background information: The pharmaceutical (Pharma) company studied had experienced considerable growth due to a combination of acquisitions and successful new product introductions. The company transitioned from a decentralized model to a more centralized model for all functions, with each function dedicating staff to support each business unit. The restructuring was prompted by a desire to become more cost-efficient and improve customer service. With a \"category\" management approach to purchases, purchasing could leverage like items across different business units and different geographies. Purchasing had established expertise in the purchase of items related to the production of finished goods, but did not yet have much involvement in high-value, complex services, like legal services.\n3. Conceptual theory-building methodology: This research uses conceptual theory-building to, \"[...] generate and present theory, defined as a system of abstract concepts and the relationships between them\" (Skilton, 2011, p. 23). The introduction provided initial development of the first step of conceptual theory-building: identification of the research gap and the importance of this gap.\n4. Development of propositions and conceptual model: Existing theory and research is considered a source of evidence in conceptual theory-building (Kaufmann and Denk, 2011). As the researchers conducted the interviews, they also searched the literature for studies of similar phenomenon, or theory that could have some explanatory power for the results. This included consideration of multiple theoretical lenses to build theory in supply chain management (SCM)/operations management (OM) (Choi and Wacker, 2011). Through the data coding process, the researchers observed that purchasing involvement was primarily influenced by word-of-mouth, strong suggestion and observation of internal practices of other functions. Thus, institutional theory emerged as an explanatory lens with which to view this particular phenomenon.\n5. Gaining meaningful involvement and influence in purchasing complex legal services: One consistent message from those interviewed was that purchasing did not force its involvement with any of the complex services studied here primarily because it had no power to do so. Purchasing's contribution to any initiative was determined by the requestor and based on many factors. Thus, it became a question of how to gain influence.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: The purpose of this research is to develop an understanding of how purchasing can become meaningfully involved in complex business-to-business service purchases.\nDesign/methodology/approach: A single in-depth case study method of an exemplar organization was applied to better understand the purchasing function's role in adding to the value proposition in complex, non-traditional business-to-business service purchases.\nFindings: Powerful allies or advocates can mediate purchasing involvement in service procurement. However, once the involvement is initiated, purchasing must make a positive contribution with respect to the specific needs and expectations of the budget owner to retain its influence.\nResearch limitations/implications: This research extends institutional theory to show how powerful allies or advocates can mediate purchasing involvement in the complex services spend.\nPractical implications: This study describes the potential impact of purchasing's involvement in complex services spend and highlights the opportunities for purchasing managers to improve supplier management and drive out additional costs.\nOriginality/value: For the business practitioner, this research provides evidence regarding how individual functions can gain influence in the organization. A conceptual model describes the meaningful involvement of purchasing in complex business-to-business service purchases.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Linking work-family interference, workplace incivility, gender and psychological distress	[ "Gender", "Nigeria", "Coworker incivility", "Psychological distress", "Supervisor incivility", "Work-family conflict" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nOverview: Substantial changes in the work force demographics and family setup have altered our lives in many ways. This is because a greater number of individuals in the labor market are from dual-earner families or single-parent families, as opposed to traditional two parent, single income families (Palmer et al., 2012). Individuals in this situation strive to balance the competing demands of work and family roles, which results in conflict between work and family roles (Palmer et al., 2012). Such conflict can affect critical finite resources (e.g. work schedules, time, energy, task deadlines, intimacy and family commitments) (Hobfoll, 2001). Finite resources are an important component of human lives, as such; the lack of required resources can have severe effects on our lives.\nTheory and hypotheses: The conservation of resources (COR) theory is one of the most popular theories that link stressors and strain. The theory suggests that resource loss can lead to further resource loss, to regain lost resources; individuals tend to invest more resources by engaging in a \"catch-up\" strategy to offset their losses (Hobfoll, 2001; Hobfoll and Shirom, 2001). That is, those who lack resources are not only more vulnerable to resource loss but initial lack of resources also fosters increased future loss and vice versa. Challenge stressors (\"good stressors\") are work-related demands or circumstances that, although potentially stressful, have associated potential gains for individuals (e.g. high workload, time pressure, job scope and high responsibility). Whereas, hindrance stressors (\"bad stressors\") are work-related demands or circumstances that tend to constrain or interfere with an individual's work achievement and that do not tend to be associated with potential gains for the individual (e.g. organizational politics, role ambiguity, work-family interference and workplace mistreatment) as noted by Lu et al. (2016). Using the COR theory, this paper conceptualizes work-family interference, supervisor and coworker incivility as a hindrance stressor.\nMethods: Nigeria is a medical brain drained, poor resource and infrastructure, multiethnic and culturally laden country. The need for organizational restructuring of the health sector exists. Lasebikan and Oyetunde (2012) suggested that excess workload, frequent night shifts, poor wages, doctor/nurse conflict, inadequate personnel predicted burnout among nurses in the southwestern part of the country. Stress may lead to fatigue-related errors for health workers, who work in a demanding and unsupportive workplace (Lasebikan and Oyetunde, 2012). This makes hospital work environment suitable for testing the effects of stressor on strain and the moderating effect of gender.\nResults: The proposed structural model was subject to the confirmatory factor analysis using IBM SPSS AMOS v20, the proposed model yields better-fit indices than a one-factor model. Based on this, we concluded that the potential threat common method bias because of self-reported measures was not a major problem (Podsakoff et al., 2003), see Table I. The model fits indices of the measurement model were reasonable and acceptable as suggested (Wheaton et al., 1977; Bentler and Bonett, 1980; Joreskog and Sorbom, 1984; Tanaka and Huba, 1985; Bollen, 1989a, b). Standardized loadings, a's, CR and AVE were deemed adequate in terms of convergent and discriminant validity (Hair et al., 1998). Table II presents bivariate correlations among the study variables, the absence of strong correlativity suggests that a non-linear relationship may exist.\nDiscussions: Previous incivility and workplace mistreatment studies have focused more on employees' psychological outcomes, such as stress and emotional exhaustion (e.g. Lim et al., 2008; Lim and Lee, 2011). Incivility and social mistreatment have unwanted effect on employees' work experiences and outcomes (Hershcovis et al., 2017; Pearson and Porath, 2005). Likewise, the majority of WFC and FWC research works have focused on the negative effects on employee's well-being (e.g. life satisfaction, burnout, job satisfaction). To date, no study has tested the joint effects of workplace incivility and family-work interference on psychological distress. In an attempt to fill this void, this study highlights the need and develops a model that investigates the effect of WFC, FWC, supervisor incivility and coworker incivility on psychological distress, and the moderating role of gender.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: Drawing on COR theory, the purpose of this paper is to contribute to the scarce literature of work-family interference, workplace incivility, gender and psychological distress at the practical and academic juncture.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The linear (structural equation modeling (SEM)) and non-linear (artificial neural network (ANN)) techniques were applied to the survey data from a sample of Nigerian health workers (n=447) to investigate the relationships between the aforementioned variables.\nFindings: The results from SEM and ANN revealed that work-family conflict (WFC), family-work conflict, supervisor incivility and coworker incivility have positive impacts on psychological distress. A multi-group moderation analysis suggests that women were more likely to experience psychological distress.\nOriginality/value: The work-family interference and incivility are pervasive and gendered problems in the workplace. This paper strives to enhance the understanding of the nature of the relationship in an African work setting. The implications for making the workplace better and safer are discussed.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
A literature review on the student evaluation of teaching: An examination of the search, experience, and credence qualities of SET	[ "Higher education", "Student expectations", "Service marketing", "Teacher evaluation", "Teaching and learning process" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: For the past number of years, the increasing number of degree providing institutions has dramatically changed global higher education (Altbach et al., 2009; Usher, 2009). This rising number of higher education institutions has actually led to increased competition among universities (Naidoo, 2016). Furthermore, with cutbacks in government funding for higher education (Mitchell et al., 2016), differentiation is essential for universities to distinguish themselves and compete with other institutions (Staley and Trinkle, 2011). Such differentiation of higher education institutions has become commonplace, forcing universities to become more innovative, cost conscious, and entrepreneurial (Longanecker, 2016; MacGregor, 2015).\n2. Methodology: The current study is anchored on a literature review paradigm. For any study, a literature review is an integral part of the entire process (Fink, 2005; Hart, 1998; Machi and McEvoy, 2016) In general, literature reviews involve database retrievals and searches defined by a specific topic (Rother, 2007). To perform a comprehensive literature review, researchers adopt various approaches for organizing and synthesizing information, adopting either a qualitative or quantitative perspective for data interpretation (Baumeister and Leary, 1997; Cronin et al., 2008; Fink, 2005; Hart, 1998; Lipsey and Wilson, 2001; Petticrew and Roberts, 2005; Rocco and Plakhotnik, 2009; Torraco, 2005).\n3. Defining student evaluation of teaching: In relation to students' college experience, determining whether a course or a teacher is good or bad can be equated to measuring service quality (Curran and Rosen, 2006). This is especially the case with regard to SETs. The concepts behind SETs have been discussed since the early 1920s (Otani et al., 2012), and literally thousands of studies have been carried out on these various interrelated concepts (Marsh, 2007). Furthermore, within the vast spectrum of literature on the topic, a variety of related terms are used interchangeably. Hence, a thorough, comprehensive literature review is impossible.\n4. Dimensions of SET: As has been noted, SETs are complex and involves multiple interrelated dimensions. In his early meta-analysis, Feldman (1978) shows that although most studies focus on the overall rating of the instructor. However, SETs that focus only on summative evaluations and that use global measures (few summary items) are highly discouraged (Cashin and Downey, 1992; Marks, 2000; Sproule, 2000). The majority of SETs aim at a more comprehensive rating of teachers and, as Marsh (2007) notes, are mostly constructed around the concept of effective teaching. The usefulness and effectiveness of an SET depends on how well it can capture the concepts it measures. Hence, careful design is essential (Aleamoni, 1974, 1999; Aleamoni and Hexner, 1980; Arreola, 2007).\n5. Antecedents of SET: Within the vast literature on SETs, analysis of their validity and reliability has identified various antecedents affecting effective evaluation. SET ratings are dependent on several issues, including the various biases already discussed. The first obvious antecedent is the instructor, as can be discerned from the previous discussions. Besides personality issues, gender plays an important role. Boring et al. (2016) find that SETs are statistically biased against female faculty, and that such biases can cause effective teachers to get lower SET ratings than less effective ones. MacNell et al. (2015) conducted an experiment in which students were blind to the gender of their online course instructors. For the experiment, two online course instructors were selected, one male and one female, and each was given two classes to teach. Later in the course, each instructor presented as one gender to one class and the opposite gender to the other class. The SET results gathered at the end of the semester are interesting. Regardless of the instructor's real gender, students gave the teacher they thought was male and the actual male teacher higher SET ratings than the teacher they perceived as female. This experiment clearly shows that the rating difference results from gender bias (Marcotte, 2014).\n6. Conclusion: To sum up, literature has shown that the use of SETs to collect information regarding the teaching-learning process is commonplace. However, given the complex nature of academic processes, the data resulting from SETs are questionable and limited. The current paper presents a review of the literature on SETs, focusing on the concept of service marketing evaluation. The framework's three criteria are used to examine SETs, whereby the teacher represents the \"search\" qualities, the teaching process the \"experience\" qualities, and the learning outcomes the \"credence\" qualities.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: Competition among higher education institutions has pushed universities to expand their competitive advantages. Based on the assumption that the core functions of universities are academic, understanding the teaching-learning process with the help of student evaluation of teaching (SET) would seem to be a logical solution in increasing competitiveness. The paper aims to discuss these issues.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The current paper presents a narrative literature review examining how SETs work within the concept of service marketing, focusing specifically on the search, experience, and credence qualities of the provider. A review of the various factors that affect the collection of SETs is also included.\nFindings: Relevant findings show the influence of students' prior expectations on SET ratings. Therefore, teachers are advised to establish a psychological contract with the students at the start of the semester. Such an agreement should be negotiated, setting out the potential benefits of undertaking the course and a clear definition of acceptable performance within the class. Moreover, connections should be made between courses and subjects in order to provide an overall view of the entire program together with future career pathways.\nOriginality/value: Given the complex factors affecting SETs and the antecedents involved, there appears to be no single perfect tool to adequately reflect what is happening in the classroom. As different SETs may be needed for different courses and subjects, options such as faculty self-evaluation and peer-evaluation might be considered to augment current SETs.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Anxiety, crowding, and time pressure in public self-service technology acceptance	[ "Self-service technologies", "Technology acceptance", "Crowding", "Public use", "Technology anxiety", "Time pressure" ]	[ { "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: Technology anxiety is an apprehensive feeling when faced with the possibility of using a new technology (Meuter et al., 2003). In the context of computer usage, technology anxiety is shown to decrease perceived ease of use and subsequent intention to use (e.g. Phang et al., 2006; Venkatesh, 2000; Venkatesh and Bala, 2008). The effect of technology anxiety is particularly strong at an early phase of the adoption process (Venkatesh et al., 2003), when individuals mentally consider usage for the first time (Rogers, 2003), prior to actual use (Nabih et al., 1997). The inhibiting effect of technology anxiety on technology acceptance may also apply to publicly used self-service technologies (SSTs) like car-rental kiosks (Zhu et al., 2007), self-scanning devices (Weijters et al., 2007), or self-checkouts (Dabholkar et al., 2003). These SSTs differ from privately (i.e. home) used SSTs like online shopping or virtual try-on of apparel in that they are created \"on-site\" rather than \"off-site\" (Dabholkar and Bagozzi, 2002).\nTheory and hypotheses: Public use of SSTs\nResearch methodology: Research design and sampling\nResults: Structural equation modelling confirms the model displayed in Figure 1 with an excellent overall fit (kh2 [39]=78.78, kh2/df=2.02, GFI =0.95, AGFI=0.92, TLI=0.99, CFI=0.99, RMSEA=0.06). All path coefficients are significant at the 0.01 level. Self-efficacy has a positive effect on perceived ease of use and a negative effect on technology anxiety. Technology anxiety, in turn, reduces intention to use both directly, as well as indirectly, through the reduction of perceived ease of use (see Table III).\nConclusions and implications: Theoretical implications\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to propose and to test a model that illustrates the impact of technology anxiety on the intention to use a self-service technology (SST) in public. The study includes two context variables that are relevant in public settings: perceived crowding and perceived time pressure.\nDesign/methodology/approach: A cross-sectional survey was conducted to reflect individual perceptions and intentions when initially using a self-checkout. The proposed relationships and interaction effects were examined using structural equation modeling.\nFindings: The analysis confirms the core relationships of the model (technology self-efficacy-technology anxiety-perceived ease of use- intention to use) and yields three important results. First, technology anxiety has a direct negative effect on intention to use, which is greater than the indirect effect through the reduction of ease of use. Second, perceived crowding reinforces the negative effect of technology anxiety. Third, when perceived crowding coincides with perceived time pressure, technology anxiety almost completely inhibits the intention to use the SST in public.\nResearch limitations/implications: Technology anxiety is examined as the only antecedent of perceived ease of use.\nPractical implications: Initial encounters to public self-service technologies should be provided in servicescapes that avoid or at least reduce perceptions of crowding and time pressure.\nOriginality/value: The approach highlights the impact of technology anxiety on the acceptance of self-service technologies used in public by considering two context variables that are salient in public settings: perceived crowding and perceived time pressure.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
An optimization method of technological processes to complex products using knowledge-based genetic algorithm	[ "Complex product", "Component knowledge", "Genetic algorithm", "Operator knowledge", "Parameter knowledge", "Technological process" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: The complex product is a kind of large-scale product, system or infrastructure customized for users with high research and development cost, small quantity and high-technical content (intensive technology). Its technological innovation is a field of product innovation with a very practical significance, which plays an important role in the construction and enhancement of country's competitiveness. To confront with economic pressures and challenges from developed countries in the West, the technological innovation of complex products is one of the effective approaches to break the bottleneck of scale economies development and to establish the core competitiveness in future.\n2. Literature review: The complex product system was evolved from the large technical system in the US military development system. Hobday (1998) investigated the complex product system separately as a type of product which is greatly different from traditional products in mass production. He broke new ground for the research on innovation of complex product systems. Prencipe (2000) proposed an analytical framework which includes the strategic capability, functional competency and project capability for the complex product system.\n3. Problem formulations: With development of technology, traditional industries began to apply network techniques and large computer application systems into product development. But for complex products, their R&D process involves in interdisciplinary knowledge, and the models developed by single enterprise are not suitable for complex products (Luo and Huang, 2005). An efficient solution to meet the requirements by multi-disciplinary knowledge is the integrated development mode of complex products. Through the research of integrated product development process, the project team organizational form is integrated with modern network techniques to realize the information sharing among various production phases. This provides function realization and product technological innovation with guidance.\n4. Knowledge-based genetic algorithm: The Genetic Algorithm derives from biogenetics and the natural law of survival of the fittest. It is an intelligent optimization approach with an iterative process of \"survival + detection\". The GA expresses problem solving as the survival of the fittest of chromosomes, and converge to an individual the most adaptable to the environment finally by step iteration of chromosomes. In the optimization process of existing GAs, it often lacks an effective statistic (Ware et al., 2003), analysis and application of offline and online knowledge of optimization systems. According to our knowledge (Kanoh and Nakamura, 2000), this paper attempts to design and implement a KGA for the technological process optimization of complex products. Its basic framework is as shown in Figure 1 (Zhou and Xing, 2009).\n5. Experimental results: The design and development of vehicle products is the complicated system engineering, it needs a large number of collaborations in multidisciplinary design staff. The automobile manufacturing enterprises have realized the importance of process management. Because of the expensive costs and higher risks, the process management has not yet fallen in practice. Although there are many researches on the process management theory, but how to put theory into practical needs of enterprise software products is the most important. For this reason, the implementation of enterprise process management has important theoretical and practical significance. The function modules of vehicle products are summarized in Figure 3.\n6. Conclusions: The technological innovation of complex products plays an important role in the construction and enhancement of country's competitiveness. It has a great theoretical and practical significance to couple the computational experiments to the technological innovation of complex products. For this reason, the KGA is proposed to the technological processes optimization of complex products. The experimental results suggest that this approach is feasible and available. The effective integration of GA and knowledge model has greatly improved the optimization performance of KGA.\n7. Acknowledgment: The authors thank the reviewers for valuable comments and constructive suggestions. We also thank the editor-in-chief and guest editor for helpful suggestions. This work is supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (61300147, 61202309, 71101150, 71071156 and 71331008), the Program for New Century Excellent Talents in University, the Ministry of Education of Humanities and Social Science Research Youth Fund (13YJC720039), Beijing University \"Youth Talents Scheme\" Funding (29201449) and China Postdoctoral Science Foundation (No. 2014M551185).\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: This paper applies the knowledge-based genetic algorithm to solve the optimization problem in complex products technological processes.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The knowledge-based genetic algorithm (KGA) is defined as a hybrid genetic algorithm (GA) which combined the GA model with the knowledge model. The GA model searches the feasible space of optimization problem based on the \"neighborhood search\" mechanism. The knowledge model discovers some knowledge from the previous optimization process, and applies the obtained knowledge to guide the subsequent optimization process.\nFindings: The experimental results suggest that the proposed KGA is feasible and available. The effective integration of GA model and knowledge model has greatly improved the optimization performance of KGA.\nOriginality/value: The technological innovation of complex products is one of effective approaches to establish the core competitiveness in future. For this reason, the KGA is proposed to the technological processes optimization of complex products.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Tacit knowledge transfer from a master to an apprentice among hairdressers	[ "Knowledge transfer", "Ghana", "Tacit knowledge" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: Knowledge is an essential resource for sustainable economic growth and productivity. Professionals and academicians have noted knowledge as a key source of competitive advantage for organisations (Grant, 1997). This is due to its inimitable and non-substitutable nature (Kreiner, 2002).\n2. Hairdressing in the informal sector of Ghana: Hairdressing thrives remarkably among the various trades, and it is one of the modern and important occupations for women in Ghana. In general, there are no entry requirements such as general school education. As a result, hairdressing apprenticeship has worked as one of the major recourses for women with basic education these days (Oda, 2005). The general features of hairdressing in Ghana have been documented (see Oda, 2005; Essah, 2008). In Essah's PhD thesis \"Fashioning the nation: Hairdressing, professionalism and the performance of gender in Ghana, 1900-2006\" she noted, within most beauty salons, apprentices are the largest category of beauty care providers. Apprentices could serve as the yardstick that measured the performance of beauty salons because of the visual impression that they made on observers. Apprentices wear uniform clothing that was sewn from the same fabric and sometimes have the same style. The number of apprentices in a beauty salon make observers deem the madam highly skilled or knowledgeable in providing beauty care. Parents and guardians sent their children and wards for training at beauty salons that could provide excellent services. Aside the \"apprenticeship fee\", all potential apprentices provide a crate of minerals and about $8.6 as anbantem sika (\"late comer's fee\"). The master shares this money and drink among all the hairdressers in the beauty salon according to seniority (Essah, 2008).\n3. Knowledge transfer in apprenticeship: Apprenticeship is the approach used to conveying specialized knowledge to a new generation of practitioners. It is a means of learning things that cannot be easily communicated by conventional means. Apprenticeship is used in contexts that involve knowledge to be acquired through long-term observation and experience (Coy, 1989). Through this process the apprentices are transformed to masters (experts).\n4. Factors influencing tacit knowledge transfer: The extant literature has identified four sets of factors that are likely to affect the transfer of knowledge: features of the knowledge being transferred, the origin of knowledge, the recipient and the environment within which knowledge is transferred (Leonard-Barton, 1990). A number of individual parameters have been found to have influence on tacit knowledge transfer. One is the establishment and maintenance of good relationships between the sender and receiver of the knowledge (Seidler-de Alwis and Hartmann, 2008; Foos et al., 2006). Other individual parameters are perception and language competency, time that knowledge transfer takes place, perceived value and ownership of the knowledge in question and distance of tacit knowledge transfer between sender and receiver (Jacob and Ebrahimpur, 2001; Venkitachalam and Busch, 2012). The apprentices surrender to the authority of the master, and by watching him/her, the apprentice captures the rules, even those that are not known to the master himself/herself (Polanyi, 1967). In the case of master/apprentice tradition, Kurti (2011) posits that it requires apprentices spending a prolonged time with their masters. Polanyi (1967) and Olsson and Gullberg (1988) share the same perspective that tacit knowledge is typically acquired through a long tradition and experience; learning tacit knowledge is a long process that involves spending a significant amount of time along the master in a working environment that mainly involves tacit knowledge. Busch (2008) has a slightly different viewpoint, by claiming that tacit knowledge is not automatically acquired with years of experience, but it is really what one learns from experience that separates one from people who are less capable of making use of their tacit resources of knowledge (Kurti, 2011). Masters are often known for their displayed feelings of displeasure, sometimes even hostility, anger, pride and happiness, fear of losing ownership of knowledge, and a position of privilege and superiority (Szulanski, 1996). Haldin-Herrgard (2000) notes five difficulties in sharing tacit knowledge: perception (unconsciousness of holding knowledge); language (and its limit in expressing hard to verbalizing forms of expertise); time (long time required to process and internalise new knowledge); value (immeasurableness value of some kind of tacit knowledge) and distance (the need for face-to-face interaction). For example, tacit knowledge transferred from a master to an apprentice is an active creative process and not a passive transfer from the master to the apprentice (Polanyi, 1967).\n5. The theory of planned behaviour (TPB): Master hairdressers' decision to share knowledge is deemed a planned behaviour. Hence this study is founded on TPB. The TPB is one of the influential theories that have been used to understand, explain and predict human behaviour (Ajzen, 1991). Rooted in the theory of reasoned action (Fishbein and Ajzen, 1975), TPB hypothesises that three external variables: beliefs about the likely consequences of the behaviour (\"attitude toward the behaviour\"); beliefs about the normative expectations of other people (\"subjective norms\") and beliefs about factors that promote or hinder performing the behaviour (\"perceived behaviour control\") (Ajzen, 1991). They collectively determine a decision-maker's intention (or conscious plans) to perform an action (Parker and Castleman, 2009). The intention to act can then lead to actual performance of the act if the individual has control over the decision and no other environmental event occurs to change these plans (Harrison et al., 1997). In the context of TPB, the attitude towards an action is related to the strength of belief that positive outcomes (such as short-term benefits) will occur from performing the action (Parker and Castleman, 2009). Subjective norms relate to whether decision maker's believe that important individuals or groups (such as apprentice) think the action is appropriate and whether the decision makers are motivated to follow these norms. Perceived behavioural control refers to whether the decision maker believes adoption is feasible given their resources, including time and personnel (Ajzen, 1988). This study argues that master hairdressers decision to transfer knowledge would be based on the fact that the society expects them to train their apprentice as they take a fee to train them. Again, the master hairdressers' decision to transfer knowledge to apprentice may be partly due to both tangible and intangible benefits the masters will get. Further, the masters believe that they have the knowledge and the capacity to transfer the knowledge to the apprentice that is why they have accepted to train the apprentice.\n6. Methodology: The case study research design was used in this study. According to Yin (2003), a case study design should be considered when: the focus of the study is to answer \"how\" and \"why\" questions. This study sought to ascertain why a master hairdresser would or would not transfer her skills to an apprentice and therefore the decision to employ case study was justified. The researchers sought the voluntarily participation of respondents after explaining to them that data were going to be used for academic purpose only. Using convenient sampling technique, 47 master hairdressers were selected from six regions (Greater Accra, Ashanti, Eastern, Western, Upper East and Upper West) in Ghana to participate in the study. Following Neuman (2000), the convenient sampling technique was chosen because many potential respondents decline participation citing personal reasons. We were finding it difficult to get the participants. The master hairdressers who participated in the study were all females with experience ranging from 2 to 30 years and also with apprentices ranging from 1 to 17 in their salons. Semi-structured interview guide was used to collect the data. This was used because of its flexibility. To ensure reliability and consistency of the result, data gathering and analytical techniques (Whittemore and Knafl, 2005) were employed; the study provided a verbatim transcription. The interviews took place in between November, 2015 and March, 2016. The interviews took a minimum of 25 min. The interviews were recorded and later transcribed. The thematic analysis technique was employed to analyse the data. The transcribed interviews were read and re-read several times (Riessman, 1993), after which themes were searched for, then the common themes were identified in relation to the TPB (Braun and Clarke, 2006). After the clear idea of the various themes and how they fitted together had emerged, themes were defined and named. Each theme was clearly defined and accompanied by a detailed analysis. These themes were then classified under the three dimensions (attitude, subjective norms and perceived behavioural control) of the TPB (Table I).\n7. Data presentation: This section presents the findings of the study; the factors that affect tacit knowledge transfer from a master to an apprentice. The study found the following as factors affecting the transfer of tacit knowledge from a master to an apprentice: apprentices' attitudes, apprenticeship fee, fear of competition, pride of mentorship, altruistic motive, delegation reasons and time factor which are grouped under one of three variables of the TPB: attitudes, subjective norms and perceived behavioural control.\n8. Discussion of findings: Prior studies have found a number of individual parameters influencing tacit knowledge transfer. The establishment and maintenance of good relationships between the sender and receiver of the knowledge (Seidler-de Alwis and Hartmann, 2008; Foos et al., 2006) is confirmed by the result as masters are willing to share knowledge with apprentices with whom they have a pleasant relationship. The tacit knowledge being talked about here are exceptional skills (Lahti and Beyerlein, 2000; Polanyi, 1966), which are invaluable in hairdressing. These types of tacit knowledge make master hairdressers superior and distinguish. They are not everyday or routine hairdressing knowledge. They are unique knowledge gained through experience over a period of time (Lahti and Beyerlein, 2000; Polanyi, 1966).They are the type of knowledge that one does not automatically obtain during the period of apprenticeship (Busch, 2008). Though most tacit knowledge is non-verbalised and difficult to transfer but not impossible, some tacit knowledge in the form of personal knowledge; skills and experience (Lahti and Beyerlein, 2000) can be transferred as if they were explicit. Since tacit knowledge is personal, not easy to come by and important, to share these kinds of tacit knowledge, masters hairdressers look out for humbleness, respect, seriousness and obedience on the part of their apprentice before they share their tacit knowledge. The possession of knowledge, for that matter tacit, of which when others do not have, makes the holder or bearer important and unique in any group. With this value on tacit knowledge (Jacob and Ebrahimpur 2001), an apprentice would have to be liked or preferred before one would transfer the tacit knowledge that makes her an authority and competitive. To be liked and preferred by a master, apprentices have to be humble, respectful, obedient and serious towards work.\n9. Conclusion and implications: The transmission of tacit knowledge is not done solely orally as in the case of viewpoint and experience (Lahti and Beyerlein, 2000) as the term \"transmission\" may appear to connote. The concept of interaction or socialisation plays a critical role in the transfer of tacit knowledge in hairdressing. As apprentices are found around the master hairdresser, they learn a lot without the master hairdresser deliberately teaching. That is, as apprentices see, watch and observe the masterwork, they learn tacitly. Masters knowing this, speak clearly about their motivation to share skills as if they were explicit knowledge because as they perform, their apprentices observe them and acquire their skills. In performing the skills in the presence of their apprentice, masters are sharing their skills to apprentice. That is why, to avoid this transfer of skills to apprentice, apprentices are made to run errands.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to ascertain the factors affecting tacit knowledge transfer from a master to an apprentice in the informal sector among hairdressers in Ghana.\nDesign/methodology/approach: A case study was used as the research design. Convenient sampling technique was used to select 47 master hairdressers. Semi-structured interview guide was used for data collection. Data were analysed using the thematic technique.\nFindings: The study found that apprenticeship fee, fear of competition, delegation reasons, joy and pride of mentorship, apprentices' attitude and time, to be significant factors influencing tacit knowledge transfer from a master to an apprentice. It was also evident that time spent with master as he/she performs or works is crucial to learning as most of the learning is through socializing with the master.\nResearch limitations/implications: The main limitation of the study is the use of the convenient sampling technique in choosing the participants. The results of this study, if it has to be generalised to all hairdressers in Ghana, it may have to be done with caution since the participants were not drawn from a pool of all master hairdressers in Ghana.\nPractical implications: The paper provides what apprentices must do to acquire the tacit knowledge of master hairdressers.\nOriginality/value: This paper focuses on the holder of tacit knowledge (master hairdressers) and reveals their motivations to transfer or hoard their tacit knowledge.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Accounting for austerity: the Troika in the Eurozone	[ "Legitimation", "Austerity", "Power", "Eurozone", "Resource dependency", "Troika" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: This paper analyses austerity in Europe in response to the global fiscal crisis. The paper provides an overview of what austerity has meant in terms of the changing financial position of three countries in the EU that have been badly affected by austerity, and also reflects on the consequences of their changing financial positions. This paper contributes to our understanding of the implications of the deepest recession experienced in modern times by focusing on Ireland, Greece and Spain to provide a comparative analysis of the experiences of vulnerable countries in the Eurozone. Specifically, this study examines the research question of how the Eurozone crisis has impacted on countries seeking ECB/EC/IMF (the Troika) assistance. There are a number of dimensions to this. These include the extent to which the dependency on resources from the Troika, during the Eurozone crisis, shapes the way governments behave. Another dimension is the extent of the power wielded by the Troika as the tripartite Commission charged with monitoring, and making recommendations on policy to help solve, the euro sovereign debt crisis. The power relationship of the Troika and the countries affected is therefore explored. This study reveals the importance of available accounting information in shaping the programmes of governments in need of financial assistance and the actions of the Troika. This available accounting information was cash based, which is regarded by NPM reformers as the least sophisticated form of accounting, compared to their preference for the accrual accounting practices of commercial companies (Lapsley et al., 2009).\nThe Eurozone: financial crisis and accounting practices: The euro currency union has been depicted as a sub-optimal currency because of its lack of integrated fiscal management policies across the union. In this sense, the euro is a political arrangement, although with clear economic implications. These facets of the euro currency union make it particularly vulnerable to the current financial crisis. The 2008 global financial crisis has been depicted as the most severe since the 1930s which experienced the Great Depression (Albers and Jonung, 2010). While many OECD countries have had persistent financial deficits since the 1970s (OECD, 2009), the scope and scale of the current crisis is different.\nTheory: legitimation and resource dependency: As noted above this paper investigates the complex issue of the Eurozone crisis and austerity. There are a number of facets of the Eurozone which make it a particularly complicated setting to study. There is the severity of the fiscal squeeze in Eurozone countries. The outcome and origins of the squeeze are different in different economies. As noted earlier there is limited discretion available to national governments to resolve the crisis. The EU solution of the establishment of the Troika and its interplay with those countries most adversely affected by the financial crisis is yet a further dimension in this complex situation. In the examination of complex issues, the authors of this paper draw on Jacobs (2012) observation that complex social problems may require theoretical pluralism to tease out understandings of practice and two sets of ideas are deployed to make sense of the unfolding events in the Eurozone.\nResearch design: This study is international in scope and is focused on assessing the impact of the Troika's austerity programmes and on determining if legitimation and resource dependency theories can help us to interpret the actions of governments which have sought financial assistance because of the Eurozone crisis. To evaluate the design, adoption and outcome of policies adopted by governments in the Eurozone crisis it is necessary to undertake a comparative country study. This comparative method is most likely to yield more nuanced understandings of government actions (Caperchione and Lapsley, 2011). In this paper we have examined the experiences of Ireland, Greece and Spain which have all sought the financial support of external bodies - essentially the Troika of the European Commission, the ECB and the IMF. A particular challenge in comparative research is the interpretation of different national government policies on reforms (Hantrais, 2009, p. 53; Usunier, 1998, pp. 152-163). These challenges are greatest where foreign nationals who are not familiar with their study settings undertake comparative international research. However, this research team has members from each of the countries under investigation.\nAnalysis: legitimation, power and resource dependency: Resource dependency and some limited elements of legitimation theories can help us interpret the actions of governments in responding to the crisis and to the power exercised by the Troika. Each country has a distinctive historical context and so the response in each country needs to be examined separately. Table II offers a comparison of net receipts by Ireland, Greece and Spain from the EU. This table offers important evidence of the dependency of these states on resources from the EU. The analysis of each country reveals the interplay of resource dependency, the exercise of power by government bodies and legitimating behaviour, with austerity the major force for public sector reform in all of these countries.\nDiscussion and conclusion: This paper has provided an overview of the experiences of what austerity has meant in terms of financial outcomes in three countries in the Eurozone: Greece, Ireland and Spain, which have been significantly affected by austerity programmes. Greece presents a complex case in which the political establishment has been overturned by Syriza which campaigned in the January 2015 election on an anti-austerity manifesto. There has been speculation that Greece might leave the Eurozone (so called Grexit) and even renege on its debts if it could not secure a new arrangement for their repayment. This possible political outcome is a consequence of high unemployment and an apparently never-ending recession. The case of Ireland is different. It has been hailed as the poster boy of Eurozone efforts to assist its most vulnerable countries in financial crisis (Robbins and Lapsley, 2014) as it was the first Eurozone country in financial difficulties to emerge from recession. But both Greece and Ireland are smaller economies in the Eurozone, so we also looked at the experiences of Spain, one of the Eurozone's larger economies. Spain has also confronted recession with the assistance of EU funding. Indeed Spain has successfully exited from its EU financial arrangement and has been described as a success by the EU. However, Spain continues to have large scale unemployment, difficulties with its debt burden and financial deficit and has also experienced some political unrest. The descriptor of success story in this context is fraught with difficulties, although on one level, it is understandable if the Troika seeks to make such pronouncements to legitimise its activities. The experiences of Ireland may offer some reassurance to Eurozone countries, but the challenges of Greece and possibly Spain may endanger the Eurozone with far reaching consequences for those countries but also for neighbouring countries and countries which trade with the Eurozone. The key conclusions from these outcomes of resource-dependent engagement with the Troika are set out in the following sections:\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to examine the impact of the Eurozone financial crisis by discussing the experiences of Greece, Ireland and Spain. It particularly examines the influence and actions of the Troika in the management of the sovereign debt crisis in the Eurozone.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The primary source of information for this study has been the documents of the Greek, Irish and Spanish Governments (often only available in their native language) and the reports of EU bodies and the IMF, supplemented by media coverage, as deemed appropriate. This has been analysed on a comparative basis to contrast the experiences of these three countries.\nFindings: This study reveals how the Eurozone crisis has impacted on financially weak countries in this currency union. The fiscal conservatism of the Troika (the IMF, the EU and the European Central Bank) has had profound consequences for these economies, which have experienced dramatic cuts in public services.\nResearch limitations/implications: This study has focused on the experiences of three countries in the Eurozone. There is a case for extending this analysis to other Eurozone countries.\nPractical implications: There are two approaches to recession - governments can stimulate demand by infrastructure spending or take the financial conservatism route of reducing public expenditure and public sector borrowing. However, the severity of the crisis undermines the first approach and there are uncertain outcomes with the second approach. This paper shows the effects of adopting financial conservatism as a strategy in this crisis.\nSocial implications: The austerity programmes pursued by the governments in this study have led to unemployment, migration of skilled workers, collapse in property markets, failing banks and social unrest.\nOriginality/value: This study takes an accounting perspective on the Eurozone crisis. This offers a distinctive interpretation of events. This study examines the merits of widely used theories in studies of public sector change namely legitimation and resource dependency theory intertwined with power and offers insights into how meaningful they are in explaining the dramatic influence of austerity programmes in the Eurozone.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Are growth-oriented SMEs more likely to adopt market and brand orientations?	[ "SMEs", "Market orientation", "Brand orientation", "Growth intention" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Intentions affect the behaviour of small business owner-managers (cf. Ajzen, 1991). Furthermore, they are manifested in business goals that also direct behaviour (Reijonen, 2008). Thus, intentions influence behaviours both directly and indirectly. Consequently, small business owner-managers with greater growth intentions are more likely to realise growth (Delmar and Wiklund, 2008). There are many different ways to achieve this. Adopting and applying strategic orientations, such as market or brand orientation is one of them.\nGrowth intentions in SMEs: According to the theory of planned behaviour (TPB), personal attitudes influence intentions and through them behaviour (Ajzen, 1991). An attitude is an evaluation of an object, whether it is good or bad (Wiklund et al., 2003). It consists of three elements:\nMarket orientation and brand orientation: Market orientation is the implementation of marketing concept (Kohli and Jaworski, 1990) which, in turn, is a prescription of how an enterprise achieves its goals (Houston, 1986). Market orientation is defined to mean an organisation's purpose to identify needs and wants in its target markets, and then to satisfy those needs more effectively and efficiently than its competitors (Slater and Narver, 1998). In the two seminal papers by Narver and Slater (1990) and Kohli and Jaworski (1990) the content, construct and consequences of market orientation are discussed. According to Narver and Slater (1990), market orientation is an organisation culture that consists of three elements: customer orientation, competitor orientation and interfunctional coordination. The first two include the activities of obtaining customer and competitor information and sharing it throughout the firm, while the last one refers to creating customer value based on the information gathered. Kohli and Jaworski focused on the behavioural side of market orientation and defined it to include: first, generation of market information concerning present and future needs of the customers, second, dissemination of it throughout the organisation and third, organisation-wide task of responding to it by making and implementing plans (Jaworski and Kohli, 1993). Enterprises differ in the extent to which they accomplish these tasks (Kohli and Jaworski, 1990).\nData and methods: Questionnaire development\nResults: Cluster analysis\nConclusions: The aim of this study was to examine how SMEs with varying growth intentions differ from each other with regard to market orientation and brand orientation. Growth intentions were studied through growth-related goals, the importance of which the respondents were asked to evaluate. The TPB suggests that intentions are good predictors of behaviour (Ajzen, 1991). With this in mind, the more particular objective of the study was to investigate whether the extent of growth intention affects the level of the adoption of market and brand orientations both of which are regarded to enhance firm performance.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to examine how SMEs with varying growth intentions differ from each other with regard to market orientation and brand orientation. Both of these strategic orientations are seen to lead to enhanced market performance. Consequently, the authors investigate whether those small firms that regard growth as an important goal have adopted market or brand orientation.\nDesign/methodology/approach: Responses from 492 SMEs were analysed. They were clustered into four groups according to their growth intentions. These groups included firms that have low growth intention, capital adequacy growth intention, expansion growth intention and high growth intention. ANOVA was used to explore whether these groups differed in their market or brand orientation.\nFindings: The results indicate that the higher growth intention group the SME belonged to the more market and brand oriented it is. The biggest differences between the SMEs were found with regards to brand orientation.\nResearch limitations/implications: The findings suggest that SMEs have acknowledged the positive effect of market and brand orientations on firm growth, thus highlighting the importance of supporting growth-oriented SMEs in their quest to become more market or brand oriented.\nOriginality/value: The study sheds more light on the little researched themes of market and brand orientations in the context of SMEs. It also offers insights into how growth intentions affect the adoption of different strategic orientations.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Maximizing expected contractor profit using an integrated model	[ "Scheduling", "Interest", "Construction", "Project management", "Construction projects" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: One of the primary threats to a construction company is lack of profitability (Mahamid, 2012; Peterson, 2013). Construction companies generally operate with low profits (Senouci and Mubarak, 2014). Low profit is the primary cause of contractor failure (Arditi et al., 2000). Planning for increased contractor profits should start at the time the contract is signed. A contractor can capitalize on the efficiency of its operations and explore the possibility of accelerating certain activities by using time-cost tradeoff analysis. A contractor can adjust the activity start times in its work schedule to ensure a convenient cash flow forecast of the operation. It is to the contractor's advantage to explore the use of combinations of different financing alternatives and minimize the financing cost. Finally, a contractor can explore the tradeoff between profit and extended contract duration.\nMethodology: The IPMM that is proposed in this study calculates the maximum profit for every project completion time between the crash and extended durations so that the analyst can see the difference between the optimal outcomes for every project completion time, hence, performing a sensitivity analysis that allows the analyst to compare the results obtained in different scenarios. IPMM operates by performing time-cost tradeoff analysis, by adjusting the start times of activities, by minimizing financing cost, and by avoiding or minimizing the impact of extending the project duration beyond the duration specified in the contract. These approaches are briefly described in the following paragraphs.\nProposed integrated profit maximization model (IPMM): A hybrid algorithm is proposed to optimize financing variables using linear programming inside a genetic algorithm that is used to find the optimal activity acceleration/deceleration methods and start times of activities that lead to the highest profit. This algorithm of IPMM differs from Alavipour and Arditi's (2018b) hybrid algorithm in three respects. First, this algorithm considers the impact of changes in the start times of activities; second, it can handle the extension of the work schedule beyond the contract time; third, it considers four activity acceleration/deceleration methods including decelerated methods during the extension time in addition to crash, accelerated and normal conditions.\nTesting the model: IPMM is tested using an example project that is shown in Figure 2. This network is a modified version of the network used by Alavipour and Arditi (2018a), in which some activities and a new path are added and some predecessors and successors are modified. This network is simple enough for illustration but complex enough to display a multitude of activities with varied precedence relationships. The schedule data including activity acceleration/deceleration methods, and cost data including contractual terms are shown in Tables I and II, respectively. The CPM network that is presented in Figure 2 is solved using the schedule information presented in Table I, and the cash flow forecast is created using the cost and contractual data presented in Table II. The project costs and contract price are calculated using normal time and normal cost for all activities and are shown in Table III. In this study, the network (Figure 2), the schedule data including activity acceleration/deceleration methods (Table I), and cost data including contractual terms (Table II) are created by the user by considering the realities of the project. Past studies (e.g. Ali and Elazouni, 2009; El-Abbasy et al., 2016; El-Abbasy et al., 2017) used a similar approach to create an activity network, cost data, contractual terms and schedule inputs. It should also be noted that the network (Figure 2), the schedule data including activity acceleration/deceleration methods (Table I), and the cost data and the contractual terms (Table II) are identical in all three scenarios that are considered in this research, hence having no effect on the outcomes of these three scenarios.\nConclusion: IPMM integrates factors that affect the contractor's profit, namely: time-cost tradeoff, start times of activities, financing cost and extension of work schedule beyond the contract duration. IPMM is a distinct improvement over past models because:\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: Planning for increased contractor profits should start at the time the contract is signed because low profits and lack of profitability are the primary causes of contractor failure. The purpose of this paper is to propose an integrated profit maximization model (IPMM) that aims for maximum expected profit by using time-cost tradeoff analysis, adjusted start times of activities, minimized financing cost and minimized extension of work schedule beyond the contract duration. This kind of integrated approach was never researched in the past.\nDesign/methodology/approach: IPMM is programmed into an automated system using MATLAB 2016a. It generates an optimal work schedule that leads to maximum profit by means of time-cost tradeoff analysis considering different activity acceleration/deceleration methods and adjusting the start/finish times of activities. While doing so, IPMM minimizes the contractor's financing cost by considering combinations of different financing alternatives such as short-term loans, long-term loans and lines of credit. IPMM also considers the impact of extending the project duration on project profit.\nFindings: IPMM is tested for different project durations, for the optimality of the solutions, differing activity start/finish times and project financing alternatives. In all cases, contractors can achieve maximum profit by using IPMM.\nResearch limitations/implications: IPMM considers a deterministic project schedule, whereas stochastic time-cost tradeoff analysis can improve its performance. Resource allocation and resource leveling are not considered in IPMM, but can be incorporated into the model in future research. Finally, the long computational time is a challenge that needs to be overcome in future research.\nPractical implications: IPMM is likely to increase profits and improve the chances of contractors to survive and grow compared to their competitors. The practical value of IPMM is that any contractor can and should use IPMM since all the data required to run IPMM is available to the contractor at the time the contract is signed. The contractor who provides information about network logic, schedule data, cost data, contractual terms, and available financing alternatives and their APRs can use an automated IPMM that adjusts activity start times and durations, minimizes financing cost, eliminates or minimizes time extensions, minimizes total cost and maximizes expected profit.\nOriginality/value: Unlike any prior study that looks into contractors' profits by considering the impact of only one or two factors at a time, this study presents an IPMM that considers all major factors that affect profits, namely, time-cost tradeoff analysis, adjusted start times of activities, minimized financing cost and minimized extension of work schedule beyond the contract duration.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
The impact of Iran Central Bank's sanction on Tehran Stock Exchange	[ "Tehran Stock Exchange", "Exchange rate", "Oil price", "Iran Central Bank sanction" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: Application of economical and financial instruments are one of the most important methods in the implementation of foreign policy goals realization and interests securing. Usually, some countries subject another country by using instruments such as granting loans, sending new science and technology, freezing assets, increasing or decreasing customs rates to force the country to change their procedures.\n2. History of Iran's sanction: Historically, economic sanctions, which date back at least to the Megarian decree of Athens in 435 BC, were used by Napoleon in the Continental System commencing in 1806, by Thomas Jefferson in the Embargo Act of 1807 and by the League of Nations against Italy in 1935.\n3. Literature review: Selden (1999) notes that, in the long run, sanctions often foster the development of domestic industries in the target country, thus reducing the target's dependence on the outside world and the ability of sanctimonies to influence the target's behavior through economic coercion.\n4. Research methodology: Has Iran's Central Bank boycott influenced the Tehran Stock Exchange? In this study, due to the difficulties of Iran's crude oil sales and payments to the various destinations including Europe and Asia, light crude oil known as effective variable and used from Oman crude oil prices is the most favorite index for pricing of Iran's crude oil.\n5. Econometric estimation of the model: Johansen-Juselius method and 4.0 Microfit software are used to estimate the model. The major issues for the researcher to obtain integrated vectors by using the Johansen-Joselius method consist of three steps:\n6. Conclusion and remarks: The main objective of this study was investigating the impact of Iran Central Bank sanctions on Tehran Stock Exchange by using co-integration technique during period of October 2, 2011 to March 29, 2012 and daily data, respectively. In the estimated model using econometric methods, TEPIX was considered as a function of oil prices and exchange rates. To enact Iran Central Bank sanction by Western countries were defined a dummy variable by zero value for the period prior to October 10, 2011 and by one value for the period after October 10, 2011. Then, the stationary or non-stationary variables are investigated by using ADF unit root test. Results of unit root test show that all variables are non-stationary. But non-stationary variables became stationary at first difference of variables, so variables are integrated of one (I(I)). To estimate the model, two methods were used: Johansen-Juselius method and ARDL approach. Estimation results of both methods showed that there is a long-term equilibrium relationship between variables, so that oil price and exchange rates had a positive effect on TEPIX. In other words, the results of estimated model indicate a positive effect of Iran Central Bank sanctions by Western countries on the Tehran Stock Exchange. Thus, Tehran Stock Exchange has been growing with imposed economic sanctions by the Western states. Because of positive sign of oil price and exchange rate coefficients, our hypotheses are verified. So, the authors become to conclusion that sanctions not have ill effect to Tehran Stock Exchange. In other words after Iran Central Bank sanction, Tehran Stock exchange enjoys from the sanctions several benefits.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: US sanctions have been a major feature of US Iran policy since Iran's 1979 Islamic revolution, but the imposition of UN and worldwide bilateral sanctions on Iran that began in 2006 and increased dramatically as of 2010 is recent by comparison. The objectives of US sanctions have evolved over time. Broad international sanctions imposed on Iran harmed Iran's economy and contributed to Iran's acceptance of agreements that exchange constraints on its nuclear program for sanctions relief. The subject of this study is important because both Iran and the international communities are demanding for information about the effect of sanctions on Iran. In an international and regional perspective, it seems that sanctions have a negative impact on economic, social and even political status of Iran. Therefore, this paper aims to examine the impact of Iran Central Bank sanction on Tehran Stock Exchange as on December 31, 2011.\nDesign/methodology/approach: Variables of model are consisted by exchange rate, oil prices and Tehran Stock Exchange Price Index (TEPIX) from October 2, 2011 to March 29, 2012, which is offered daily. To analyze the model, the authors used Johansen-Juselius and Autoregressive Distributed Lag (ARDL) methods.\nFindings: The results indicate that there is a long-run equilibrium relationship between selected variables as oil prices, and exchange rates have a positive effect on the TEPIX. In other words, the results of the econometric estimation show the positive effect of the Iran Central Bank sanction on the TEPIX. Thus, because of economic sanctions imposed by the Western countries, Tehran Stock Exchange has been growing.\nOriginality/value: No empirical research exists that examines the impact of sanctions on stock price in developing countries. This study fills this gap by examining the links between sanctions and stock price in Iran.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Training supervisors in the unleashed power of positive psychology and social skills: A strategy for reducing resistance to organizational change	[ "Positive psychology training", "Social skills training", "Organizational change", "Supervisors", "Work motivation", "Organizational climate" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n__NO_TITLE__: Change is renowned as being a generally uncomfortable human experience, which in organizations can cause untold friction and disruption if not managed with diligence. A research paper by Veloso-Besio et al. (2019) focuses on the extent to which training supervisors to manage the process of organizational change with their team members is an effective way of reducing peoples' resistance to such events. Specifically, any buffering impact of supervisors receiving training in positive psychology and social skills on individual team member work motivation and the organizational climate is analyzed. Insights were collected via anonymous questionnaire responses from employees of a public organization in Chile's health sector when it was moving through an uncomfortable organizational change restructure. The data sample consisted of 15 supervisors for the training element and 77 non-supervisory employees answered the questionnaires about their supervisors but didn't receive the training. To enable direct comparisons, the training program divided the participating supervisors into an experimental group that received the training and a control group that didn't receive the training. The training took place twice a week over a period of one month and three weeks.\nCollective psychological resistance to workplace change: Supervisors can be seen as maintainers of an organizational climate, and play a key role in propping up employee motivation through direct operational contact with individuals during periods of change. This can bring upside in the form of development opportunities and personal growth through new learning, however the statistical likelihood of any change process failing is associated with a tendency for employees to obstructively resist it, fueled by morale-draining suspicion or by an instinct of self-preservation. How different aspects of change are experienced determines how individuals react to it; for example, how much those individuals know about what's being proposed, how any plans are communicated to them, and the level to which they feel involved.\nOutcomes of the training received by supervisors: After the experimental group supervisors attended ten training workshops covering positive psychology and social skills, their team members completed questionnaires to determine the training's impact by self-rating themselves prompted by statements such as \"Determine how hard do you try to do your job well\". The collated data support the authors' first prediction that team members' work motivation will become substantially elevated after their supervisors receive the training, compared to teams of supervisors that didn't have the training. Even more strongly at the organizational level, the data also support the second prediction that team members' perception of their organizational climate will become substantially elevated after their supervisors receive the training, compared to teams of supervisors that didn't have the training.\nBeing ready with an alternative change impact mitigation strategy: In answer to the study's central research question, the positive psychology and social skills training received by supervisors, when applied, does overcome the unwanted resistive effects of lower work motivation and a dampened organizational climate that are normally associated with employees being exposed to organizational change. Making proactively organized efforts to mitigate negative and obstructive reactions to change is a worthwhile exercise, since this lays a tested path for acceptable levels of productivity performance being delivered amid the uncertainty that employees continue to experience before any change programme ends. The attitude, words, and communication style of an employee's supervisor are largely influential in how they react to and process announced changes. Therefore deploying a program of training supervisors in positive psychology and social skills in advance of any such event delivers a win-win for all involved - one that smooths out reactions that may otherwise have been emotionally charged and negative to a greater extreme within the organizational climate.\nCommentary: The review is based on 'Effectiveness of training, based on positive psychology and social skills, applied to supervisors, to face resistance to organizational change' by Veloso-Besio et al. (2019), published in the Journal of Organizational Change Management. This research paper concentrates on how resistance to organizational change displayed by employees can be diffused by training their supervisors in positive psychology and social skills. The results revealed that team members' work motivation and their perception of the organizational climate will become substantially elevated after their supervisors receive this training, in part since it strengthens the employee-supervisor relationship.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: This paper aims to review the latest management developments across the globe and pinpoint practical implications from cutting-edge research and case studies.\nDesign/methodology/approach: This briefing is prepared by an independent writer who adds their own impartial comments and places the articles in context.\nFindings: This research paper concentrates on how resistance to organizational change displayed by employees can be diffused by training their supervisors in positive psychology and social skills. The results revealed that team members' work motivation and their perception of the organizational climate will become substantially elevated after their supervisors receive this training, in part since it strengthens the employee-supervisor relationship.\nOriginality/value: The briefing saves busy executives and researchers hours of reading time by selecting only the very best, most pertinent information and presenting it in a condensed and easy-to-digest format.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Follow my leader - and love the firm: Questions of identification should be addressed	[ "Organizational culture", "Employee attitudes", "Leadership" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nLoyalty counts: Employees who are especially loyal to their firm are often described as company men and women. This term occasionally has a slightly pejorative note, as if there is something slightly demeaning at being too closely wedded to a business organization.However, pretty clear evidence exists that such organizational identification (OI) is a good thing. The employees concerned report higher job satisfaction, are less likely to leave and are highly motivated to work hard on behalf of the organization without the need for carrots, sticks or whatever kind of tactics their leaders prefer to employ. Policies and practices that aim to improve employee OI will prove beneficial and companies will be served well by a policy of ensuring that their workforce's organizational identity is increased. In this respect, the role of the leader is hugely important, with their behavior a key factor in encouraging OI. Surveys and research have consistently backed up this idea, revealing that it can also apply to smaller groups within an organization. It has been shown, for example, that leadership behavior significantly influences bank clerks' identification with their branch.\nAligned behavior: Social identification can be defined as the extent to which a person perceives oneness between the self and the group, and the value of this group membership to the person. There are several reasons why followers will adopt their leaders' OI. Leaders often align their behavior with the goals of the organization even at the expense of their personal interests, and staff often follow suit. While they are influenced here by example there can also be an element of \"emotional contagion\", where followers catch the emotions consciously or subconsciously of the leader. Finally, people tend to automatically adopt other people's attitudes if they perceive that the other person shares a distinct and personally important group membership with them.On the basis of these three mechanisms for identity transfer a hypothesis is proposed: the more strongly leaders identify with their organization, the more their followers identify with the organization. After examination of issues relating to leader identification and job satisfaction it is proposed that the more strongly leaders identify with their organization, the higher will be follower job satisfaction. A further hypothesis states that followers who strongly identify with their organization will show higher degrees of job satisfaction, willingness to take on more roles that help the organization to run smoothly, and performance.Two studies were carried out to examine issues of leader identification. The first involved 68 German adults who were told that research was aimed at investigating perceptions of mergers and acquisitions. They heard that a medium-sized company was facing a merger with a larger organization. Participants then read a statement of a company's CEO in one of two versions. In the \"high-identified leader\" version the CEO had strong family connections to the company's founder, spoke positively and promised no lay-offs. He based his optimism on the company's tradition and the fine workforce. In the \"low-identified leader\" version the CEO also promised no lay-offs. He was described as externally appointed; his optimism was based on his track record in a similar situation elsewhere. Both scenarios were identical in layout, introduction, ending and length. The panel answered questions on six-point scales ranging from \"do not agree at all\" to 'fully agree.\" Results clearly confirmed the proposed directional effect from leader identification on follower identification.\nPractical application: Limitations included the fact that this was a virtual situation which may or may not have related to research participants' own experiences, such as whether they might have experienced mergers themselves or been in leadership roles and therefore brought a rather different perspective to this scenario. Furthermore, in this scenario participants had to imagine that they were members of an organization. This begs the question about whether similar results would be obtained if participants were placed in groups with an actual leader.This led on to a second study in which 32 German undergraduate students participated voluntarily in the study in return for course credits. Participants entered a laboratory in groups of three with a confederate of the experimenter within each trio. The experiment involved working together in two trials, building towers with Lego bricks with the aim of determining whether the color of the bricks would make a difference to the group performance. Although group leaders appeared to be randomly appointed, this process was fixed so that the confederate always took charge. Leaders would make comments at certain points during the trial. In the high-identified condition the leader said \"we will make it\" and in the low-identified condition the leader said \"you will make it.\" After completion of the second trial, participants filled in a questionnaire and were fully debriefed. The questionnaire included two distraction items and two items to measure participants' group identification. Again, a six-point scale was used and, to assess group performance, the number of Lego bricks used during each trial was counted.\nLimits of research: As with study one, the causal relationship between leader and follower OI was replicated. However, the results enter new territory by showing that leader identification also has an impact on follower performance. The limitations are the not particularly realistic laboratory situation and the reliance on a student sample.While recent studies have suggested that leader OI significantly affects follower identification, research on OI transfer has been restricted to cross-sectional field studies. This does not enable researchers to draw conclusions about causality. This research aimed at closing the gap by examining the causal relationship in two experimental studies. Followers of strongly identified leaders reported higher group identification than followers of weakly identified leaders. Furthermore, the \"Lego\" study showed that leader OI enhances follower performance. The studies therefore provide first empirical evidence for the causal effects of leader-follower identity transfer and its impact on follower behavior.The current economic environment is one in which leaders' identification is under constant threat. Frequent reorganizations, lack of job security and increasing demands for mobility are all having a negative effect. As the research here emphasizes, this can lead to a knock-on effect in the way that employees perceive the organization and their place in it. It reinforces the need for organizations to recruit and retain the best talent and ensure that senior staff lead by example, thereby encouraging others to see themselves as company men and women.\nComment: This review is based on \"My boss' group is my group: experimental evidence for the leader-follower identity transfer,\" by Rolf van Dick and Sebastian C Schuh. The extent to which employees will identify with their bosses and, ultimately therefore the company as a whole, is an important issue. Here, causal relationships are identified, but there are no unusual outcomes or findings that in any way come as a revelation to the reader.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: - Reviews the latest management developments across the globe and pinpoints practical implications from cutting-edge research and case studies.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - This briefing is prepared by an independent writer who adds their own impartial comments and places the articles in context.\nFindings: - The current economic environment is one in which leaders' identification is under constant threat. Frequent reorganizations, lack of job security and increasing demands for mobility are all having a negative effect. This can lead to a knock-on effect in the way that employees perceive the organization and their place in it. It reinforces the need for organizations to recruit and retain the best talent and ensure that senior staff lead by example, thereby encouraging others to see themselves as company men and women.\nPractical implications: - Provides strategic insights and practical thinking that have influenced some of the world's leading organizations.\nOriginality/value: - The briefing saves busy executives and researchers hours of reading time by selecting only the very best, most pertinent information and presenting it in a condensed and easy-to-digest format.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
A study on firm size distribution of the service sector and manufacturing sector	[ "Firm size distribution", "Pareto distribution", "Log-normal distribution", "Gamma distribution", "Mixture gamma distribution", "Business start-ups" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: Empirical research on firm size distribution has been conflicting. Traditionally, firm size distribution is known to log-normal distribution (Mansfield, 1962). However, when viewing the recent empirical analysis through a broader range of data relating to the firm size, firm size distribution is reported to be out of the log-normal distribution (Evans, 1987 and Hall, 1987). A Pareto distribution has been proposed as another alternative firm size distribution for the conventional view point (Axtell, 2001).\n2. Theoretical model and empirical method: 2.1 Theoretical model\n3. Empirical analysis: 3.1 Basic data\n4. Summary and implication: This study estimates the firm size distributions belonging to the service and manufacturing sectors. Especially, when I estimate a firm size distribution, I consider the following two import factors. First, firm size distribution may be specified to have a better availability to the gamma distribution than conventional Pareto distribution or log-normal distribution. In addition, industry-specific enterprises can have a different scale distribution of the gamma form. Second, I must estimate the firm size distribution as mixed gamma distribution, because it is composed of small businesses and medium-sized and large companies.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: This study aims to estimate the firm size distributions that belong to the service sector and manufacturing sector in Korea.\nDesign/methodology/approach: When estimating the firm size distribution, the author considers the following two major factors. First, the firm size distribution can have a gamma distribution rather than traditional accepted distributions such as Pareto distribution or log-normal distribution. In particular, industry-specific enterprises can have different size distributions of the type of gamma distribution. Second, the firm size distribution that is applied to this study's data set should reflect a number of factors. For example, estimating mixture gamma distribution for firm size distribution should be required and compared, because the total amount of configuration data is composed of small businesses, medium-sized and large companies.\nFindings: Using 8,230 number of firm data in 2013, the author estimates mixture gamma distribution for the firm size.\nOriginality/value: From the comparison, empirical results are found for the following characteristics of core firm size distribution: first, the firm size distribution of the manufacturing sector has a longer tail than firm size distribution of the service sector. Second, the manufacturing firm size distribution dominates the entire country firm size distribution. Third, one factor among the three factors that make up the mixed gamma firm size distribution is described for 99 per cent of the firm size distributions. From the estimated firm size distributions of the service sector and manufacturing sector in Korea, the author simply implies the strategy and policy implications for the start-up firm.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
International purchasing offices in China: roles and resource/capability requirements	[ "China", "Global sourcing", "Organizational design", "Case study", "Capabilities", "International purchasing office" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: International sourcing (IS) is a major trend of last decades (Christopher et al., 2011; Javalgi et al., 2009), which even the current economic recession has not appeared to reverse (Hultman et al., 2012). Both academics and managers have acknowledged the strategic relevance of IS, and the number of studies focusing on the topic has rapidly increased (Karjalainen and Salmi, 2013; Grossler et al., 2013). On the one hand, particular issues (e.g. motivations for engaging foreign supply markets) have been well researched (e.g. Quintens et al., 2006b), but on the other hand, many authors (e.g. Hartmann et al., 2008; Trautmann et al., 2009) argue that the organisational design of global sourcing deserves further study.\nLiterature review: This section reviews the following major themes of previous research on IS organisational design and evolution: the roles and activities of purchasing departments and subsidiaries (e.g. central purchasing organisations, purchasing departments of global plants or business units, and IPOs); the resources and capabilities required to an effective task performance; and the evolution of IS organisational structure; and the contingent factors affecting IS organisational design.\nResearch design: Research questions\nResults: IPO roles\nDiscussion: A resource-based view of IPOs\nContribution: Contribution to theory\nLimitations and future research: This paper has three main limitations. First, the limited number of cases analysed does not allow statistical generalisation to a broader population. However, we tried to increase external validity of the results by using a large sample for a case study research (14 IPOs) and a heterogeneous sample (from simple sourcing offices to fully fledged and proactive IPOs). Second, this research is focused on IPOs located in China that belong to large Western MNCs. Therefore, the results may be affected by the dimension of the sampled companies (large-scale multinationals) and by country-specific aspects concerning the localisation of the headquarters (all in the West) and the IPOs (all in China). This geographical/dimensional bias is common in studies on IPOs, as indicated in a recent literature review (Sartor et al., 2014). Third, we used retrospective data. Despite our efforts to maximise the reliability of our data (for instance using multiple data collection techniques and interviewing multiple informants), we acknowledge that this choice has some weaknesses (e.g. the recollection of past events by informants may be difficult and in certain cases biased).\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to address global sourcing organisational design through the following research questions: how do the roles performed by International Purchasing Offices (IPOs) change over time?; what are the resources/capabilities required by an IPO for an effective performance and how do they change over time?; and what are the contingent factors affecting such changes?\nDesign/methodology/approach: The authors employed an exploratory multiple case study approach and analysed 14 Western IPOs located in China for a period between 2007 and 2012. The data were primarily collected through 34 direct, semi-structured interviews of IPO heads and sourcing managers or senior buyers.\nFindings: The authors identify and discuss the importance of ten roles played by IPOs and 12 required resources/capabilities. Furthermore, considering the changes that occurred to these IPOs over a five-year period (2007-2012), the authors observe three distinct evolutionary behaviours (i.e. \"overall development\", \"selective development\", and \"stable configuration\") and highlight three contingent factors that jointly affect these behaviours (i.e. the architectural and technological complexity of the sourced items, annual volume sourced abroad, and experience in the foreign context).\nOriginality/value: This paper contributes to the resource-based view of the firm in a global sourcing context by highlighting the resources/capabilities required by IPOs and discussing their characteristics. Furthermore, it proposes a typology of IPO micro-organisational evolutionary behaviours. Finally, it applies contingency theory and identifies three factors that might affect the evolutionary behaviours.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
The effect of risk levels on technology adoption decision: the case of online games	[ "Technology risks", "Online games", "Social influence", "Curiosity", "Critical mass", "Playfulness", "Moderated structural equation model", "Categorical least squares" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: User involvement in risky behavior associated with information technology (IT) has been a central research area for information systems (IS) scholars. Academic and practical evidence show that users engage in unsafe behavior in work and non-work related context (Anderson and Agarwal, 2010). For instance, Dell's end-user security survey revealed that employees are willing to share sensitive and confidential information (Dell, 2017). Other risky behavior indicated in the study include connecting to public Wi-Fi to access confidential information or losing a company-owned device. IT permeates almost every aspect of our life; accordingly, risky behavior, identified as a behavior that can result in negative consequences, is no longer limited to workplace settings and extends to everyday life. For example, IT has also been associated with psychological and physical risks such as high stress levels and antisocial behavior (Kuonanoja and Oinas-Kukkonen, 2018; Anderson and Agarwal, 2010). Online games have been making news headlines because of their association with unsafe behavior that can range from social alienation to self-harm and suicide (Xu et al., 2012). Consequently, technology-related risks cause serious harm and should not be neglected. In this paper, we focus on the case of online games to understand why people engage in technology risk behavior, despite the negative consequences that might follow.Psychological and behavioral theories such as the theory of planned behavior (TPB) (Ajzen, 1991), protection motivation theory (Rogers, 1975) and the theory of reasoned action (TRA) (Fishbein and Ajzen, 1975) have been the main reference points for researchers examining technology use and risk-taking behavior. Our research builds on this literature and extends it in three ways. First, a common factor among the above-mentioned theories is the emphasis on the impact of social factors on behavioral intention. These theories, as well as IS literature, limit the social factor to be mainly driven by the influence of one's social network on behavior, commonly known as subjective norms. Nonetheless, social influence mechanisms are comprised of not only subjective norms but also critical mass (Cho, 2011). In this paper, we acknowledge both constructs of social influence mechanisms and examine how each impacts intention to play online games.Second, previous studies examining the motivation for adoption and continuous use of online games (see Hamari and Keronen, 2017, for a meta-analysis) have focused on the purpose of the game, i.e. hedonic vs utilitarian (Chang et al., 2014). However, given the proliferation of online games and the variety of risks associated with them, it is vital to consider the risk factor as an important aspect of the discussion on online games. A few studies have looked at the negative effects of digital gaming such as addiction (Lu and Wang, 2008) and aggression (Hilvert-Bruce and Neill, 2020; Hollingdale and Greitemeyer, 2013). Additionally, excessive online social gaming has been associated with adverse consequences such as technology-family conflict, technology-person conflict and technology-work conflict (Gong et al., 2019). However, these studies exist in silos and are not integrated with the mainstream IS gaming literature. Consequently, there is a need to understand the adoption of online games considering the motivating factors alongside the risks involved.Third, the current literature investigates risk-taking behavior under situations representing the same level of risk. In this paper, we acknowledge that users may face situations that vary in their risk levels. Additionally, we examine the effect of curiosity and playfulness as highly relevant factors to our case. Curiosity has been associated with unsafe behavior that results in physical or non-physical harm (Hsee and Ruan, 2016; Moody et al., 2017). It has also been reported that gamers engage in risky online games out of curiosity (Banerjee, 2017). Similarly, given the hedonic nature of most games, users who seek fun and enjoyment are more likely to engage in online games, making playfulness another critical factor for playing online games (Hsu and Lu, 2004; Shin and Shin, 2011). We, thus, examine whether the impact of these different factors (subjective norms, critical mass, curiosity and playfulness) on the intention to play online games differs under different levels of risk. Therefore, in this study, we consider two gaming scenarios with different forms of risks and examine whether a user's intention to play the digital game differs across these scenarios.The rest of the paper is structured as follows. In the next section, we review relevant literature and develop our research model and hypotheses, which is followed by a discussion of our methodology. We then present the findings and conclude with a discussion of the results and implications of our study.\nTheoretical background and hypothesis development: Social influence has been recognized as a key factor in shaping an individual's attitudes and behavior. Accordingly, an extensive body of IS literature focuses on the relationship between social influence and human behavior, particularly in the context of technology adoption and use. In this context, an overarching connotation of social influence comprises \"the interpersonal considerations\" of technology adoption and use (Chan et al., 2010, p. 525).Studies have included social influence as a driver of human attitudes, intentions and behavior using multiple theoretical lenses such as the TRA (Fishbein and Azjen, 1975), the TPB (Ajzen, 1991), the technology acceptance model (TAM) (Davis, 1989) and the unified theory of acceptance and use of technology (UTAUT) (Venkatesh et al., 2003). Although most studies in this stream have found support for the positive effect of subjective norms on an individual's behavioral intention to adopt the technology (e.g. Venkatesh et al., 2003; Chatterjee et al., 2015), there are some studies with conflicting or inconclusive findings (e.g. Pavlou and Fygenson, 2006; Chan et al., 2010). Additionally, some studies have found this relationship to work in the presence of certain moderators such as gender (Venkatesh and Morris, 2000), limited experience (Karahanna et al., 1999) or mandatory use (Venkatesh and Davis, 2000).One potential reason for such inconsistent findings is that, over time, numerous conceptualizations and measures of social influence have emerged in the literature. As a result, different social influence constructs such as subjective norms, group norms, social identity, social network configuration and critical mass are often lumped under the label of social influence; however, the underlying motivation and mechanism of the influence of these constructs vary (Cho, 2011). Prior research has highlighted the need to better understand the concept of social influence and examine the influence of more specific and delineated sub-constructs, which suit the study (Bagozzi, 2007). In response to these calls, some studies have worked toward demystifying some of these concepts. For example, Graf-Vlachy et al. (2018) conducted a systematic review of social influence in technology adoption research and presented an integrated framework by reconciling the manifold conceptualizations. Cho (2011) attempted to delineate two types of social influence - perceived critical mass and subjective norms in the context of 3G adoption. We take the approach used by Cho (2011) and extend it to the context of gaming. Specifically, we examine whether perceived critical mass and subjective norms have distinct influences on an individual's intention to play online games.In this study, we draw upon multiple theoretical perspectives such as the social influence processes (Cho, 2011), the critical mass theory (Markus, 1987) and the information gap theory of curiosity (Loewenstein, 1994) to understand the factors that affect an individual's intention to play online games, with the presence of different levels of risks associated with playing these games.Perceived critical mass\nMethodology: We selected an experimental design as an appropriate methodology to test the research hypotheses. Subjects were randomly assigned to a single treatment with two conditions: high- and low-risk scenarios. We developed two textual vignettes with a hypothetical scenario in each to depict the online gaming experiences with different risk levels (Appendix 1).Measures and instrumentation\nDiscussion: Our paper offers an explanation of why people play online games, despite the risks entailed. Our results reveal a strong influence of subjective norms, state curiosity, playfulness and perceived risk on the intention to play online games. The results also show that the strong influence of subjective norms and state curiosity is not affected by the level of risk.Theoretical implications\nConclusion: Technology-related risks can cause serious harm and need further investigation. In this paper, we examined why people engage in technology-related risky behavior in the context of online games. Drawing on multiple theoretical backgrounds and the literature on online games, our research showed that between the two primary social influence factors, subjective norms have a strong influence on behavioral intention, while critical mass has no effect on the behavioral intention to play online games. Moreover, individual-level factors (curiosity, playfulness) play a key role in the adoption decisions. Most importantly, we further investigated whether the effect of these factors differs across different risk levels. Among the three significant factors (subjective norms, curiosity and playfulness), playfulness turned to be the only factor that is affected by risk levels. This indicates that the situational stimuli that trigger curiosity and the pressure originating from one's social network are powerful drivers of the adoption decision that persist even in situations entailing high risk levels and hence drive individuals to engage in risky behavior.This study offers several contributions. First, it extends prior literature on technology adoption by examining the effect of different risk levels on adoption intention decisions and differentiating between the two main social influence mechanisms, namely, critical mass and subjective norms, and examining how each impact intention decisions. Second, it further extends prior literature on online games by identifying the factors that drive individuals to play games while accounting for the risks associated with playing these games. Third, this research study is among the first to apply the cat-LS methodology combined with a procedure for MSEM to test a structural equation model with categorical multiplicative terms in LISREL.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: Information technology is associated with psychological and physical risks such as high stress levels and antisocial behavior. The purpose of this paper is to understand why people engage in technology risk behavior, despite the negative consequences that might follow. Focusing on online games, this study identifies factors that affect individuals' intention to play online games and investigate whether the effects of these factors differ across different risk levels.\nDesign/methodology/approach: Experimental design was used as the research methodology. Subjects were randomly assigned to a single treatment with two conditions: high and low risk scenarios. A total of 597 responses were analyzed to test the research hypotheses.\nFindings: The research findings reveal that subjective norms, curiosity and playfulness have a positive effect on the intention to play online games, while critical mass has no effect on the intention decisions. Further, among the three significant constructs, playfulness turned out to be the only factor that is affected by risk levels.\nResearch limitations/implications: This study extends prior literature on technology adoption by examining the effect of different risk levels on adoption intention decisions. It further extends prior literature on online games by identifying the factors that drive individuals to play games while accounting for the risks associated with playing these games.\nPractical implications: The research study identifies factors that should be taken into consideration when promoting the adoption of technologies, including online games.\nOriginality/value: This study offers a new understanding of technology adoption decisions that takes into account the different levels of risk associated with technology use. It shows that an individual's curiosity and the pressure emanating from one's social network are powerful behavior drivers that persist regardless of the level of risk. Further, this research study is among the first to apply categorical least squares methodology combined with a procedure for a moderated structural equation model to test a structural equation model with categorical multiplicative terms in LISREL.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
"Learn to blend in!": A corpus-based analysis of the representation of women in mining	[ "Discourse analysis", "Corpus linguistics", "The web", "WebCorp live", "Women in mining" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: One major threat to global mining is that women do not find it attractive. Despite several attempts to create mining communities that are attractive to both women and men, along with initiatives to increase the number of women in the industry, mining continues to be highly male centred with male-dominated projects and organisational structures (Tallichet, 2000; Eveline and Booth, 2002; Johansson and Ringblom, 2017). A commonly mentioned problem is that mining areas are running the risk of developing into gender-segregated fly-in/fly-out communities with both social and economic consequences (Carrington et al., 2011; Pini et al., 2013; Saunders and Easteal, 2013).\n2. Gender and mining: As noted, mining is still understood as an extremely male-dominated industry, based on male bonding, interdependence, homo-socialisation and exclusion of individuals identified as not living up to stereotypical masculine ideals (e.g. Barrientos Delgado et al., 2011; Lahiri-Dutt, 2012b). It has, for instance, been shown that men miners find it particularly difficult to be associated with behaviours connected with femininity, and have consequently refused training in the use of machines defined as \"women's machines\" (Eveline and Booth, 2002, p. 567). Closely connected to masculine ideals are the perceptions of mining as dangerous, dirty and risky, and therefore only suitable for a particular group of hyper-masculine men, (Abrahamsson and Johansson, 2006; Abrahamsson and Somerville, 2007; Lahiri-Dutt, 2012a). The ideal miner has typically been represented as a hard, brave and masculine working-class male hero. This image has continued to inform the conception of the industry, even when technology has improved the working conditions in mines (Lahiri-Dutt and Macintyre, 2007; Bryant and Jaworski, 2011). As a means of maintaining institutionalised male identities, informal oppositions to safety procedures and new technologies among male miners have been identified (Abrahamsson and Somerville, 2007), in worst cases resulting in severe accidents, as reported in a study of an explosion in a Canadian underground coalmine where it was shown that the miners' identity as risk-taking patriarchs was prioritised before safety (Wicks, 2002).\n3. Language and the construction of gender: The point of departure for this study is that gender is a social construction. Following Foucault's (1972) definition of discourse as \"practices which systematically form the object of which they speak\" (p. 49, see also Fairclough, 1995; Baker, 2006), the study draws on the conception that each object is surrounded by a number of discourses, sometimes in conflict, but always in dialogue with each other, \"breaking off and merging\" (Baker, 2006, p. 4). Discourses are thus not static, but can be changed. To challenge gendered structures, the way we communicate and form knowledge about gender needs to be made visible. One way of uncovering traces of discourses is via language (Baker, 2006). The preference of a particular term instead of another does not only show how we perceive the world, it also reinforces conceptions of it, and contributes to the creation of normative knowledge.\n4. Material and methodology: This study is based on material connected to women in mining retrieved from the web. The value of turning to the web for primary data is its centrality in contemporary social life, both in the public and private spheres (Mautner, 2005). It is continuously updated, and provides its users with information from an incredibly large variety of genres and social domains. Information retrieved from it may thus be understood as representative representations of how women in the mining industry are conceptualised in a large part of the world.\n5. Women in mining: The immediate observation in the analysis of the material was that the majority of the texts are framed in the context that women are needed and encouraged to join the mining industry. Apart from statements bearing witness to the fact that the industry is facing a skill shortage and therefore needs to recruit women, the texts, much in line with the business case for hiring women (Mayes and Pini, 2014; Johansson and Ringholm, 2017), and as indicated in the collocational profiles, suggest that there are opportunities for women in mining, and that women are unexploited resources important for the development of the industry (see also Faltholm and Norberg, 2016). This is, for instance illustrated in (1) and (2) below, the former, the words of the vice president of a leading Canadian gold producer, and the latter, the thoughts expressed by the President of Women in Mining Canada. Built on ideas of innate gender differences (cf. Kelan, 2008; Faltholm and Norberg, 2016; Johansson and Ringblom, 2017), these examples show that women are expected to add new qualities to the industry that will complement those of men, as suggested by the chairperson of Women in Mining South Africa (3):(1) We know that women are underrepresented in mining, and it's in the industry's best interest to attract and retain as many talented and well-qualified individuals [as possible] - the female population is, in some respect, an untapped resource. (www.theglobeandmail.com/.../article23352076/) 2015-03-08(2) [W]omen bring a different and unique set of qualities to management positions, a different \"voice\". That voice is \"understandable to the general public. [...] [Women] have unique traits that will help industry be more successful. (www.internationalresourcejournal.com/there_s_a_place_for_women_in_mining/) 2015-02-16(3) McMaster highlighted that men and women [have] different strengths and qualities and, when placed together in business, a holistic industry could be created. (www.webcorp.org.uk/live/view-page.jsp?query=women%20in%20...s-that-several-challenges-remain-for-women-in-mining 2014-01-17)\n6. Discussion and conclusion: By analysing how women in the global mining industry are discursively represented in materials retrieved from the web, this study has shown that the way women, and indirectly men, are linguistically represented maintains and reinforces assumptions about women and men as different by nature, and where traits ascribed to women are devalued and pointed out as problematic in the context of mining. The historical dichotomy of woman as emotion and man as reason, as shown in many general studies on male and female representation (e.g. Pearce, 2008; Norberg, 2012) is noticeable in the material. Another finding is the close connection between women and family responsibilities. Throughout the material women's roles as mothers and also wives are mentioned and represented as conflicting with a job in mining (cf. Ridgeway and Correll, 2004; Bryant and Jaworski, 2011). This study has also shown that the traditional image of mining as risky and dangerous means different things to women and men. Danger and risks for men, as shown in studies on men in mining (e.g. Abrahamsson and Somerville, 2007; Abrahamsson and Johansson, 2006; Lahiri-Dutt and Macintyre, 2007), have primarily been used to enforce traditional masculine ideals. The findings of this study show that danger for women is mainly related to harassment and discrimination.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to contribute with increased knowledge about gender in mining by exploring how women are discursively represented in texts produced by actors in the international mining arena.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The study combines corpus linguistic methods and discourse analysis. It implies a combination of quantitative and qualitative analyses, where the former is used as the point of departure for the latter, and where the material analysed is chosen on the basis of certain selected search phrases. The source for the study is the web, and the search engine used for the retrieval of data is WebCorp Live, a tool tailored for linguistic analysis of web material.\nFindings: The analysis reveals that although the overarching theme in the women-in mining discourse is that women are needed in the industry, the underlying message is that women-in-mining are perceived as problematic.\nPractical implications: The study shows that if mining is to change into a modern industry, the inherent hyper-masculine culture and its effects on the whole industry needs to be problematised and made evident. To increase the mere number of women, with women still heavily underrepresented, is not enough to break gender-biased discrimination.\nOriginality/value: The research contributes with new knowledge about gender in mining by using a method, which so far has had limited usage in (critical) discourse analysis.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Corporate social responsibility in the mining industry: an exploration of host-communities' perceptions and expectations in a developing-country	[ "Ghana", "Corporate social responsibility (CSR)", "Multinational enterprises", "Host-communities", "Multinational mining companies" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: The intensification of economic globalization in recent past decades has energized multinational enterprises (MNEs) to set-up production plants and also outsource increasingly skilled operations to developing countries (Levy and Kaplan, 2008; Muthuri and Gilbert, 2011). Increased internationalization of firms, in turn, has resulted in calls for MNEs not only to take greater responsibility for their impact on society (Moon and Vogel, 2008), but also, increasingly, be involved in developing rules, norms and standards that define their corporate social responsibility (CSR) behavior (Levy and Kaplan, 2008). A number of factors explain the rise of CSR in the international business arena. Prominent among the factors is the concern expressed over the power and influence of MNEs, and in particular, their impact, in developing countries, on the natural environment, human rights and employment (Levy and Kaplan, 2008). Given their global influence, MNEs are usually confronted with addressing stakeholder groups and social responsibility issues that inform context-specific CSR practices in the environment in which they operate (Kolk and van Tulder, 2010; Matten and Moon, 2008).\nContext: In 2015, Ghana's population was over 27 million; its gross domestic product (GDP) was US$37.86 billion; and its annual GDP growth rate was 3.9 per cent. Ghana works actively to attract foreign investment, and many major MNEs, such as Golden Star, Newmont Mining, AngloGold Ashanti and Gold Fields, are present. Ghana is also rich in mineral deposits of manganese, diamonds, bauxite, natural gas (recent discoveries and production) and above all - in terms of production and reserves - gold.\nTheoretical and empirical foundations: Corporate social responsibility\nData and research methods: In this study, purposive sampling (Patton, 2002) was used to identify potential informants. The present study, therefore, sought for participants in the mining communities known to have knowledge and experience with CSR initiatives by mining companies in the host communities. In addition, the study made contacts with the government sectors in the mining communities for potential participants who have knowledge and experience with CSR initiatives by the MMCs in the communities. Other potential participants were reached through snowballing (i.e. one informant referred the researcher to another potential informant).\nEmpirical results: How is CSR understood in the mining communities?\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to explore how and what drives corporate social responsibility (CSR) in host communities of mining companies in developing countries.\nDesign/methodology/approach: To address this knowledge gap, this paper used Ghana as a test case and conducted 24 in-depth interviews with participants drawn from mining host communities.\nFindings: The paper discovered that while CSR is broadly understood and encompasses six thematic categories in the mining host communities, there are emphases on philanthropic and environmental responsibilities. Contrary to the evidence found in other studies, this paper discovered that CSR rhetoric plays a more positive/significant role than so far explored in CSR research, as it incentivizes the host communities to push for the fulfilment of their CSR expectations and/or CSR initiatives proposed by mining companies.\nResearch limitations/implications: Quantitative studies are needed to strengthen the findings from the present paper.\nPractical implications: Because developing countries share similar socio-economic and geo-political realities, the findings of this paper may be applicable not only for CSR advocates, but also for policy-makers in developing countries.\nOriginality/value: The paper provides new inputs from a developing country perspective to the current debate about the CSR performance of the extractive industry.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
The Great Leveraging in the European crisis countries: Domestic credit and net foreign liabilities	[ "Financial crisis", "Leveraging", "Cointegration", "Capital flows", "F32", "E51", "E44", "C32" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: The GIIPS countries - Greece, Ireland, Italy, Portugal and Spain - were among the countries in Europe that were most adversely affected during the global financial crisis. The five crisis countries experienced problems in the banking sector, credit crunches, government debt crises and deep recessions (Moro, 2014). Four of the countries received financial support from the IMF and the European Union; only the Italian authorities managed to borrow at commercial terms throughout the crisis.\n2. Data: The analyses for the five GIIPS countries are initially carried out with three variables, these being the net international investment position, domestic credit and GDP. The data are quarterly and cover the period 1998:4-2013:3, except for the data for Ireland, where data on net international investment position are only available from 2000:4.\n3. Empirical analysis: As a first step in the empirical analysis, we test for the order of integration of the variables L1CR and L1NFL. We apply the unit root test of Leybourne et al. (2007), which not only estimates the order of integration but also changes in the order of integration from I(1) to I(0) and vice versa. This is particularly important in our context as the financial crisis and other developments may have affected the time series properties of the variables. The estimation of a VECM model requires both variables to be I(1).\n4. Conclusion and policy insights: The paper examines the Great Leveraging in the GIIPS countries before the outbreak of the global financial crisis. Cointegration analysis and VECM estimations for each of the countries aim to ascertain possible linkages between domestic credit and net foreign liabilities and the adjustment processes over time.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: The Great Leveraging was an episode of rapid credit growth and booming housing markets leading up to the global financial crisis. It is important to identify the key drivers of the Great Leveraging and, to this end, the purpose of this paper is to model the relationship between domestic credit and net foreign liabilities in the EU countries most affected by the crisis.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The analyses show that domestic credit and net foreign liabilities were cointegrated one-to-one for Greece, Italy, Portugal and Spain, while there was no cointegration for Ireland. Estimation of vector error correction models (VECMs) shows that the adjustment to deviations from the cointegrating relationship took place through changes in domestic credit for Greece and Italy, while the adjustment was bidirectional for Spain and maybe also for Portugal.\nFindings: These results suggest that external factors in the form of foreign capital inflows were important drivers of the pre-crisis leveraging in the southern crisis countries, although to varying degrees across the countries.\nOriginality/value: Key novelties include the use of stock variables instead of flow variables and the estimation of VECMs for the countries individually instead of in a panel.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
US hotel industry revenue: an ARDL bounds testing approach	[ "Macroeconomics", "ARDL model", "Bound test" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: The tourism industry has positioned itself as one of the nation's largest employers representing 8.0 per cent of US GDP (World Travel and Tourism Council (WTTC), 2015). The lodging industry, being one of its major segments, contributed almost $600bn to the US GDP and created more than eight million jobs in different hotel segments (American Hotel and Lodging Association (AH&LA) American Hotel and Lodging Association, 2017). In terms of total output, lodging represents the largest segment in the broader tourism industry, with travelers spending more than $393bn per year on accommodations (Select USA, 2016). The lodging industry has outperformed the US economy over the past five years with industry revenue growing at an annual rate of 3.7 per cent reaching $189.5bn in 2015 (AH&LA, 2015). This rapid growth is driven by an escalating tourism demand, stemming from an influx of domestic and international leisure and business travelers. In addition, the growing demand of hotel service is influenced by the broad economy, where changes in consumer confidence and consumption expenditures can affect decisions on entertainment, travel and lodging (Alvarez, 2015). Moreover, the growth of hotel industry depends on the interplay between supply and demand (HOSPA, 2013).\n2. Literature review: 2.1 Estimation of hotel industry revenue\n3. Methodology: Monthly data from January 1996 to September 2017 were collected from a variety of sources. Monthly aggregate hotel industry and sub-segment revenue data were collected from STR. Revenue data for chain hotels and independent hotels as well as number of hotel rooms in each sub-segment were included in this dataset. These data were not publicly available and required subscription to STR. Domestic trips by US residents' data were gathered from the Bureau of Transportation Statistics (2018) website. Consumer confidence index (CCI) data were compiled from The Conference Board (2018) website. Inbound trips by non-US residents' data were collected from the National Travel and Tourism Office (2018). Seasonally adjusted personal consumption expenditure (PCE) data were collected from the Federal Reserve Economic Data (2018) (FRED). All data sets apart from hotel industry revenue and number of hotel rooms were publicly available. In addition, all data sets were not seasonally adjusted except PCE.\n4. Results: 4.1 Unit root test results\n5. Discussion: The findings showed the overwhelming support of CCI in estimating aggregate hotel and sub-segment revenues except for the upper upscale sub-segment. CCI's significant positive support of US hotel revenue is consistent with Singal's (2012) finding that CCI can explain a significant part of variation in consumer expenditure in the hotel industry. The more confidence consumers have in the US economy, the more they will spend on travel boosting hotel revenue. Low consumer confidence results in lower consumption as consumers often postpone their trips and/or reduce their frequency of travel (Ludvigson, 2004; Singal, 2012). The insignificant relationship between CCI and upper upscale segment revenue can be explained by the dichotomy properties of price: objective price and perceived price. Objective price is the actual price of a product, while perceived price appeals to the subjective internal impressions derived from the perception of price (Dodds et al., 1991). Prior research shows that consumers do not rely on objective price, but rather interpret perceived price in way that are meaningful to them (Zeithaml, 1988). Therefore, even though tangible price differences exist between these two classes, consumers may end up choosing to stay in luxury hotel instead of upper upscale due to the higher perceived value.\n6. Implications: To our knowledge, this is the first study that analyzed the predictive capacity of macroeconomic variables on aggregate hotel industry and sub-segment revenue. The ARDL bounds approach has not been applied in the past to estimate hotel industry revenue. Numerous differences were found in estimation models between sub-segments. A segment specific revenue forecasting strategy is therefore recommended. One approach fits all might not be the right strategy for tracking hotel industry revenue.\n7. Limitations: The availability of the right type of data was one of the limitations of this study. For example, hotel revenue data consist of a representative sample of the US lodging industry. More specifically, the data received from STR only comprise of hotels that voluntarily provide data to STR. Domestic trips was measured by the number of domestic flights only, which did not take into account domestic travelers traveling by other modes of transportations. In addition, there is room for adding more relevant explanatory variables to the model.\n8. Conclusion: In summary, this study successfully developed a parsimonious model of hotel revenue and identified four major macroeconomic predictors of US hotel revenue specific to different hotel sub-segments. However, the range of variability the model exhibited indicates that there is room to add more predictors to the model. Therefore, future studies should consider more predictor variables such as exchange rate and cost of transportation. Furthermore, it might be worthwhile to test the utility of the model to hotel sub-segments grouped by their locations such as urban, suburban, airport and interstate settings.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: This study aims to develop a parsimonious model to estimate US aggregate hotel industry revenue using domestic trips, consumer confidence index, international inbound trips, personal consumption expenditure and number of hotel rooms as predictor variables. Additionally, the study applied the model in six sub-segments of the hotel industry - luxury, upper upscale, upscale, upper midscale, midscale and economy.\nDesign/methodology/approach: Using monthly aggregate data from the past 22 years, the study adopted the auto-regressive distribute lags (ARDL) approach in developing the estimation model. Unit root analysis and cointegration test were further utilized. The model showed significant utility in accurately estimating aggregate hotel industry and sub-segment revenue.\nFindings: All predictor variables except number of rooms showed significant positive influences on aggregate hotel industry revenue. Substantial variations were noted regarding estimating sub-segment revenue. Consumer confidence index positively affected all sub-segment revenues, except for upper upscale hotels. Inbound trips by international tourists and personal consumption expenditure positively influenced revenue for all sub-segments but economy hotels. Domestic trips by US residents added significant explanatory power to only upper upscale, upscale and economy hotel revenue. Number of hotel rooms only had significant negative effect on luxury and upper upscale hotel sub-segment revenues.\nPractical implications: Hotel operators can make marketing and operating decisions regarding pricing, inventory allocation and strategic management based on the revenue estimation models specific to their segments.\nOriginality/value: It is the first study that adopted the ARDL bound approach and analyzed the predictive capacity of macroeconomic variables on aggregate hotel industry and sub-segment revenue.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Transformational leadership and change related voice behavior	[ "Transformational leadership", "Organizational change", "Affective commitment to change", "Change-related voice", "Personal change impact" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: An organization's ability to adapt, improve, and renew itself is crucial for it to thrive, grow, or even survive in today's rapidly changing competitive market (Fedor et al., 2006). However, a large number of change initiatives do not lead to the positive consequences that change agents intend (Burnes, 2004). Choi (2011) argues: \"Many change efforts fail because change leaders often underestimate the central role individuals play in the change process\" (p. 479). One reason why the employees are so important in the change process is because employees who work directly with the matters at hand have knowledge that may not be obvious to the change agents (Morrison, 2011). Therefore, voice behavior, defined as the employee's discretionary communication of ideas, suggestions, and concerns at work, with the intent to improve organizational functioning (Morrison, 2011; LePine and Van Dyne, 1998), may be especially important to improve the change process. Despite the substantial amount of research conducted regarding organizational voice behavior for the last two decades, there is little research on how voice behavior interacts with leadership and other change-related variables. However, this knowledge is crucial to understanding how organizations can increase employees' level of change-related voice (CRV). Hence, the main goal of our study is to investigate how leadership and change-related variables affect the individual's propensity to express their voice regarding the change process.\n2. Theoretical background: 2.1. Transformational leadership and CRV\n3. Methods: 3.1. Organizational context\n4. Results: 4.1. Confirmatory factor analyses\n5. Discussion: Unexpectedly, we did not find support for the effect of transformational leadership on CRV. However, we found evidence suggesting that transformational leadership indirectly affected CRV, through ACC. Furthermore, we found evidence that transformational leadership interacted with the employees' perceived level of change impact. Thus, for individuals who experienced themselves to be greatly affected by the change, there was a stronger relationship between transformational leadership and ACC. In turn, this was positively related to CRV.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to explore the relationship between transformational leadership and voice during the change-planning process. The authors propose a moderated mediation model to investigate the relationship between voice, other change-related variables, and the boundary conditions of transformational leadership.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The authors collected survey data from 124 employees and their leaders in a medical technology company in Norway. The organization was planning a major restructuring of its working procedures. The authors analyzed the data using PROCESS and a fixed effect approach.\nFindings: The results suggest that transformational leadership has no effect on change-related voice (CRV) by itself. However, there is an indirect effect through affective commitment to change. This effect is conditional on the employees' level of perceived change impact.\nResearch limitations/implications: The paper is limited by the cross-sectional design of the study. Other potential limitations are discussed.\nOriginality/value: The paper is the first to explore the relationship between transformational leadership and CRV, and is thus interesting for practitioners who wish to increase the level of CRV from their employees. Furthermore, researchers interested in organizational change and proactivity constructs such as voice will also find the paper valuable.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Crisis and disaster management in Jordanian hotels: practices and cultural considerations	[ "Risk", "Crisis", "Disaster", "Hotels", "Culture", "Jordan", "Risk management" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: Tourism development has the potential to impact almost every aspect in a society, both positively and negatively (Byrd, 2007). The global tourism environment is increasingly becoming complex and unstable, making hotels vulnerable to a wide range of risks (Paraskevas and Arendell, 2007; Ritchie, 2004; Blake and Sinclair, 2003; Dean, 2002). The tourism industry has been affected hugely by crises and disasters around the world in recent years; including natural hazards and man-made (Pennington-Gray et al., 2011).The Jordanian hotel and tourism sector has experienced multiple crises and disasters in the last decade. Overall, the period from 2000 to date has been characterized by serious political instability in the Middle East and has continued to influence Jordanian hotels negatively (Ali and Ali, 2010; Taylor, 2002). After September 11, there have been at least 18 major terrorist incidents aiming at tourism targets worldwide, including two conducted in Jordan (Paraskevas and Arendell, 2007).This research aims at: identifying major risks that have the potential to place Jordanian hotels in crisis or disaster situations; investigating the strategies and actions adopted by Jordanian hotels to manage crises and disasters; and exploring the cultural factors influencing the wider adoption of crisis and disaster management best practices in Jordanian hotels, a field of study that is still largely underexplored in the context of the Middle East and in the tourism industry more specifically.\n2. Literature review: 2.1 Risk and the tourism industry\n3. Methodology: A survey strategy was adopted in this research. Primary and secondary data were obtained. Interviewer-administered questionnaire was conducted with five stars hotels. Other hotels of lower star ratings were not included in this study since they are considered small businesses and lack financial recourses and adequate management practices. The sample consisted of 21 hotels which represent all five stars hotels in Jordan. 16 responded to the questionnaire representing 76 percent response rate.Interviewer-administered questionnaires were used since they usually result in higher response rates compared to self-administered ones, especially when samples are small (Saunders et al., 2000). The questionnaire included open-ended, closed-ended, and Likert scale questions. Likert scale is often used as a measure of intensity of responses (e.g. \"very unlikely\" to \"very likely\") (Hair et al., 2003). The questionnaire was divided into three sections: general questions; major risks facing Jordanian hotels; crisis and disaster management practice within Jordanian hotels.The questionnaire was followed by semi-structured interviews conducted with three general managers from three hotels of different organizational cultural backgrounds: local; regional; and international. Interviews were undertaken in order to provide insight of the cultural factors influencing the wider adoption of crisis and disaster management best practice in Jordanian hotels. Interviews targeted five stars hotels only which took part in the questionnaire. Having said that, and taking into consideration that three interviews were conducted, it was not intended to draw concrete conclusions from the interview sample, but rather to explore and provide a better understanding of potential cultural factors affecting crisis and disaster management in Jordanian hotels.\n4. Findings and discussion: 4.1 Section 1: general information\n5. Conclusion: The increasing number of organizational crises and disasters stimulates the hotel and tourism sector to consider crisis and disaster management best practices more than ever before. If an organization is incapable of coping with risks then it is likely to end up in a corporate crisis or disaster. This research contributes to the understanding of the significance of crisis and disaster management in Jordanian hotels in a time the entire Arab region faces huge political instability. It is the first study that investigates the strategies and actions used by Jordanian hotels to manage crises and disasters and the influence of culture on the wider adoption of crisis and disaster management best practice.Results revealed that Jordanian hotels face a wide range of risks. Yet, crisis and disaster management best practice is still in its infancy in Jordanian hotels. The strategies and actions adopted in Jordanian hotels for managing crises and disasters are limited, reducing their ability to respond and recover effectively.In the context of crisis and disaster management in the tourism industry, the influence of organizational culture is still underexplored. The findings revealed that few hotels in Jordan recognize the importance of organizational culture. Interview findings suggest that culture could affect the wider adoption of crisis and disaster management best practices in Jordanian hotels. As a result, the development of crisis and disaster management practice requires a better understanding and research to be undertaken relating to organizational culture. This can provide sound proofs for the preliminary findings of this research. This research is considered as a first step to the understanding of the influence of organizational culture on crisis and disaster management in the tourism sector and lays foundations for extended future research. Larger samples can be used in future in order to expand on the findings of this research.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: - This research aims to: identify major risks that have the potential to place Jordanian hotels in crisis or disaster situations; investigate the tools/frameworks adopted by Jordanian hotels to manage crises and disasters; and investigate the cultural factors influencing the wider adoption of crisis and disaster management best practices in Jordanian hotels.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - A survey of \"five-star\" hotels in Jordan was undertaken. Interviewer-administered questionnaire was conducted followed by semi-structured interviews with three General Managers from three hotels of different cultural backgrounds: local; regional; and international.\nFindings: - Results revealed that Jordanian hotels are exposed to a wide range of risks. Jordanian hotels lack effective and comprehensive tools/frameworks for managing crises and disasters. Organizational culture affects the wider adoption of crisis and disaster management best practices within Jordanian hotels.\nPractical implications: - To be successful in promoting crisis and disaster management in hotels and in the tourism industry more generally, the relevant authorities in Jordan, such as the Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities and the Jordanian Hotels Association, should demonstrate to hotels in Jordan how significant crisis and disaster management is, so that they can be able to cope with crises and disasters more efficiently.\nOriginality/value: - This is the first study investigating crisis and disaster management in Jordanian hotels using quantitative and qualitative approaches. This research will be of value to those interested in crisis and disaster management in the tourism industry.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
A network perspective on managing stakeholders for sustainable urban tourism	[ "Stakeholder analysis", "Urban areas", "Tourism" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: There is a large body of literature on sustainable tourism. However its application to urban settings is relatively new. The research on sustainable tourism has concentrated on natural environments and protected areas, despite the fact that most of the world's population lives in urban areas and the majority of travel happens in cities (World Tourism Organization, 1999). The market of urban tourism is rapidly expanding (Paskeleva-Shapira, 2003). The favorable market conditions tempt many city planners to make the tourism and hospitality industry (hereinafter the industry) development an important part of urban policy. The growth of the industry in urban destinations presents various challenges such as protection of environment, conservation of heritage, preservation of social fabric and cultural values, and maintenance of a desired quality of life for residents.The development of tourism that is sustainable in economic, environmental, social and cultural terms has been repeatedly recommended but researchers have found that the management and implementation of sustainable tourism (ST) requires the involvement of many partners, and that this collaboration between diverse stakeholders is both complicated and difficult to achieve (Paskeleva-Shapira, 2001). Managing ST requires interactions between the public sector (i.e. government bodies such as city planners, transportation department, etc.), the private sector (tourism and hospitality firms) and the local residents. This study aims to uncover the current interrelationships of stakeholders representing three partners of ST development. Respondents in three cities, representing diverse stakeholders from the industry, government and the community, were examined as to their existing interconnectedness.In the ensuing sections, stakeholder theory and the network perspective will be discussed to provide a foundation for identifying critical stakeholders in destination development. The network perspective helps determine whether identified critical stakeholders have existing relationships with the other members of destination networks. Having discussed the existing links among stakeholders from three clusters and identified the critical stakeholders, the study concludes by questioning which organization should take the lead in establishing stakeholder networks in sustainable destination development.\nApplying stakeholder and network perspectives to destination development: Stakeholder perspective\nResearch design and methodology: A two-stage research design was employed. The first aimed to obtain detailed input from selected interviews regarding critical stakeholders of urban destinations in the context of ST and the challenges of ST in the context of urban destinations. The interview process started with the key stakeholders such as the local DMOs, some hotel managers, major tourist attractions' managers, conference and convention centers' managers and government agents responsible for tourism and/or economic development. During the interviews, a snowball technique was employed to identify other stakeholders who were considered to have relevant characteristics and valuable information regarding the purposes of the study. This helped identify a more complete web of legitimate stakeholders. The respondents not only included key stakeholders, but also their referrals. When the saturation point was reached, the interviewing process was finalized. In total, 38 interviews were conducted in three cities with diverse stakeholders representing the industry, government and the community.In the second stage, a structured questionnaire was developed to collect comparable and quantifiable data in three cities. The self-completion, mail-back questionnaire was developed to examine the existing stakeholder relationships and identify the critical destination development stakeholders.Network analysis principles and methods were utilized to construct a destination network structure. Questions and analysis were adapted from Galaskiewicz (1979), Tichy et al. (1979), Galaskiewicz and Shatin (1981), Knoke and Wood (1981), Cobb (1988), Krackhardt (1990), Galaskiewicz and Burt (1991), and John and Cole (1998). To measure current stakeholder interconnectedness, an existing link was queried. The standardized stakeholder list was presented to respondents and they were asked to check off those with which their organization had joint programs or projects in the last 12 months.From responses to this question an \"adjacency matrix\" was constructed that represents the relationships among destination stakeholders in the destination network in each city. Specifically, by coding the presence (or absence) of a formal business contact, a matrix where the stakeholders are both rows and columns was created. A \"1\" stands for the presence of a formal business contact between stakeholder i and stakeholder j, and a \"0\" indicates the lack of relationship. Constructed adjacency matrices were entered into UCINET VI to compute the network measures and map relations between the network members.To identify the salient destination stakeholders that were particularly important for destination development, the two major attributes of stakeholders, power and legitimacy, were examined (Mitchell et al., 1997). The respondents indicated the critical stakeholders on the standard list.Sample cities\nStudy findings and discussion: The maps of destination networks illustrate interconnectedness by identifying the exact position of destination stakeholders in the tourism networks (Figures 1-3). In this section, the existing structural positions of stakeholders - such as central, isolate, or bridging - in each city are presented first and then, the connectedness of perceived critical destination development stakeholders are discussed.Network maps\nConclusions and implications: The existing structural positions of stakeholders representing three diverse clusters of ST development in three cities displayed that the stakeholders located at the center of networks in the three cities were the DMOs. But, other stakeholders with high centrality were different in each city. However, they were stakeholders with access to or possession of critical resources. It is argued that since each destination faces a different set of key stakeholders, the interactions would probably aggregate into unique patterns of influences in each city. As a result, sustainable destination development will be as unique as their historical patterns of development, the nature of their industry, and governmental and institutional culture.The study applied stakeholder perspective and identified the most important, important and unimportant stakeholders for destination development in the tourism and hospitality industry. The local DMOs are perceived to hold the greatest legitimacy and have power over others regarding destination development. Therefore, it is the entity most likely to take active role in sustainable destination development. DMOs, as high centrality destination stakeholders, could be key players in not only management but also planning and development, and linking planners, investors, developers, residents, local organizations, and the industry for developing a sustainable policy for their destinations. The power of DMOs arises not only from holding a high central position within the destination network, but also from the dependency of stakeholders on DMOs for resources such as expertise, information, and clientele. DMOs have the most crucial roles in achieving inter-stakeholder collaboration for developing a shared tourism policy, particularly because the many and diverse industry actors trust or depend on them.The other critical stakeholders in destination development were hotels, attractions, and government agents. These critical stakeholders that had advantageous positions in the structure of destination networks also have important decision-making roles, and are key to understanding the circulation of ideas and decisions to act collectively, particularly when the individuals are in different organizations. From this perspective, the DMOs, hotels and attractions stakeholders can be used to communicate destination planning and development issues, facilitate collaboration among stakeholders, increase awareness of network members towards sustainability challenges, and coordinate efforts toward reaching shared tourism and hospitality industry goals. In each city, all of these influential stakeholders came from the industry cluster. This could be related to the sampling but at same time highlights the lack of \"bridges\" between the clusters.The DMOs, hotels and attractions stakeholders have another major role to play in between-cluster networking. They must partner with the bridging stakeholders so that contacts between clusters can be established. Establishing ties with less connected or isolated stakeholders would help minimize the evident disconnect between clusters and improve legitimacy for sustainable urban policy.Destinations can no longer ignore various stakeholder concerns. On the contrary, they are challenged to create a more participative model. According to network theory, to create an environment in which collective action can be realized, more contacts have to be established. Thus, there is a need for sustainability networks. The term sustainability networks is used to indicate the interactions of multiple stakeholders with varying degrees of interest in sustainable destination development. The interconnectedness of diverse stakeholders representing governmental bodies, business firms, persons or other entities on sustainability dimensions can improve the process of sustainable destination development.What would sustainable urban tourism actually look like? This research does not provide the answer, and the various stakeholder goals and meanings attached to the concept of SUT are to be discussed elsewhere. But the network analysis of urban tourism stakeholders does strongly suggest that sustainability will only be perceived to exist as a process, not a final product, in which all the major stakeholders participate as equals. Exclusion of one or another important \"voice\" in this planning or policy-making process will certainly result in dissention, while their formal collaboration will ensure that one perspective does not completely dominate the discourse.This study advances theory and practice in the area of urban tourism by empirically identifying legitimate and powerful stakeholders that were critical in destination development. This study also advances theory and practice in stakeholder research by applying it in tourism destination development, and empirically testing the attributes of urban destination stakeholders.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: - This study aims to examine the current network of inter-relationships of stakeholders representing government, the community and the tourism and hospitality industry, and their perceptions of critical stakeholders in destination development.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - While the network analysis enabled examination of the interconnectedness of stakeholders, the stakeholder approach identified the critical stakeholders in destination development. These two approaches helped determine how the existing relationship structures of destination stakeholders might influence sustainable destination development.\nFindings: - The destination marketing/management organizations (DMOs) and stakeholders with access to or possession of critical resources have the highest centrality in urban destinations. In all three clusters, local government and DMOs are perceived to hold the greatest legitimacy and power over others in destination development. It is also found that there is a lack of \"bridges\" between the three clusters of industry, government and the community.\nResearch limitations/implications: - The study demonstrates the use of a network analysis methodology as a potential tool for researchers and managers in examining destination stakeholder relationships.\nPractical implications: - DMOs, hotels and attractions stakeholders have the most crucial roles in achieving inter-stakeholder collaboration for sustainable destination development, particularly because the many and diverse industry actors trust or depend on them.\nOriginality/value: - There are very few studies that have applied both network and stakeholder perspectives to destinations to examine the structure of inter-stakeholder relationships and the potential influence of this relational structure on sustainable destination development.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Publication lag and early view effects in information science journals	[ "Scholarly communication", "Editorial process", "Information science", "Bibliometric indicators", "Early view articles", "Peer-review process" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: The scholarly publishing phenomenon has been shaped over time and has been influenced by many different factors. Until recently, scholarly publishing was limited to the conditions of print, whereas today it is highly influenced by the advantages of electronic media. For instance, the quick and easy sharing and exchanging of information with colleagues using computers and the internet has changed and accelerated the scholarly communication processes. As vital scholarly communication tools, journals developed online systems through which applications can be submitted, the peer-review processes can be managed, and the author-editor-reviewer communication can be realized through a single interface. Apart from these, some journals use the electronic systems to gain temporal flexibility and publish their issues earlier. It is also known that there are some journals that share the articles without assigning them any volume and issue numbers. Although the names can vary among journals or databases[1] (such as \"early view,\" \"articles in press,\" etc.), the objective is to make visible the content for which the editorial processes are completed. Under the circumstances of contemporary scholarly communication, extending the duration of the visibility of content is extremely important and without doubt, it gets positive reactions from different actors (such as users, authors, etc.) that are involved in this communication process.\nLiterature review: Scientific communication is quite a labor-intensive process that brings together different actors such as writers, editors, referees, publishers, and users to serve a specific purpose. In this process, accessing the new information sooner than later makes everyone's work easier. Consequently, both users and authors lean toward the early view concept during the publishing process of articles. Findings of some studies (Hallmark, 2004; Zha et al., 2012) show that users find accessing the articles that are still in the publishing process quite functional and time efficient.\nMethods: In this study, the behaviors of information science journals during the publishing process are discussed in terms of the relationship between the immediacy index and impact factor values, among the most used bibliometric indicators, and early view features. Immediacy index and impact factor are the values that are given great importance by publishers and editors, since these are accepted as quality indicators for the journals. Especially, from a marketing perspective, publishers tend to use these values to approve the quality of their journals[3]. In this context, this study aims to examine the current situation for these commonly used indicators and early view effects by addressing the following specific research questions:\nFindings and discussion: In 2015, a total of 3,779 articles were published in 82 information science journals. These journals published 440 different issues where the average number of articles was 8.6. While the Library Journal had the maximum number of issues per year with 20 issues, three journals (African Journal of Library Archives and Information Science, Investigacion Bibliotecologica, and Library and Information Science) published only two issues. As can be seen from Figure 2, most of the journals published four to six issues per year. Of these, 57 percent of the journals (47 journals) were published quarterly.\nConclusions: In today's scholarly publishing environment, time is among the most crucial concerns.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: A major problem in today's scholarly publishing process is the long tails for the assignment of volume and issue numbers for approved articles. The purpose of this paper is to investigate the extent to which information science journals offer early view features and the effects of these features.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The study addresses three basic questions: Do the articles approved for publication in information science journals appear in the online platforms of these journals before the assignment of volume and issue numbers? How long do the articles wait in the online platforms before they get the volume and issue numbers? Is there a statistically significant relationship between the online accessing numbers of the articles before they are published and bibliometric indicators?\nFindings: More than half of the information science journals complete the editorial process in reasonable durations and share new articles with their readers before publishing them. In some journals, there are articles that wait for more than a year to be assigned volume and issue numbers after the completion of the editorial process. There are statistically significant differences, in terms of both their impact factor and immediacy index values, between the journals that offer early view features and those that do not. Both the impact factor and the immediacy index values of the journals that provide early view are higher than the others.\nPractical implications: Adopting the early view policy may significantly help increase the impact factor and immediacy index values of the journals, as well as the visibility of their contents\nOriginality/value: The answers to this study's research questions offer a new perspective to overcome the challenges in the processes through which scientific products meet with their users.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Efficiency assessment of banking sector in Yemen using data envelopment window analysis: A comparative analysis of Islamic and conventional banks	[ "Data envelopment analysis", "Business performance" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: The Republic of Yemen is classified as a Least Developed Country (LDC) with an economy that has passed through the gradual change of restructuring its underdeveloped economic system towards a transition to a market-based economic system[1]. According to a report on Yemen by US Commercial Service (2008), Yemen faced several challenges such as the large volume of non-performing loans, low capitalisation, and weak enforcement of regulatory standards, which have hampered attempts to improve the banking sector. Nonetheless, there is rapid growth and development in Yemen's financial and banking sectors. Such growth has been fuelled by the introduction of financial reforms and the liberalisation of the financial sector, which have contributed substantially to increased competition, and the entry of a number of new banks with particular reference to Islamic banks[2]. Few years after the liberalisation process, the players in the banking industry have doubled from eight to 16 banks. Due to the absence of a capital market, the Yemeni banking system constitutes the linchpin and backbone of the Yemeni financial system, although it remains underdeveloped. A very important component of the overall economy and one of the main drivers of the development process (Al-Swidi and Mahmood, 2011). Evidently, there is huge expansion in the total assets of the banking system from USD1.5 billion in 2000 to USD9 billion in 2010 (Central Bank of Yemen, 2010). This suggests the huge contribution and the significance of the banking system to the economic landscape (Zolait et al., 2008). The substantial increase in the assets of the banking sector can be attributed to the emergence of Islamic banks in the late 1990s and the tremendous speed of innovation and introduction of new financial instruments.\n2. Literature review: Several studies have investigated the efficiency of the conventional and Islamic banking sector globally. Most studies have utilised standard DEA to analyse the bank's efficiency across countries (Sufian, 2011; Zimkova, 2014; Tsionas et al., 2015; Wozniewska, 2008; Ajlouni et al., 2011; Ahmad Mokhtar et al., 2008; Hassan et al., 2009; Bader et al., 2008). Among the recent cross-countries comparative studies on efficiency is the study conducted by Said (2012) that investigated the efficiency of different banks worldwide. It focused on the change of efficiency of small conventional and Islamic banks for the 2007-2009 period, during the economic downturn to provide evidence on whether the financial crisis has brought a negative impact on the efficiency of the conventional and Islamic banks. The researcher utilised the DEA non-parametric test to examine efficiency. The findings revealed no significant difference in efficiency between small and large conventional banks for 2007. However, for 2008 and 2009, there was a significant difference in the efficiency of small and large conventional banks. On the other hand, there was evidence of significant difference as between small conventional banks and Islamic banks for the three years (2007-2009). The results suggested that Islamic banks have sustained their efficiency during the three years of economic downturn.\n3. Data and methodology: 3.1. Data\n4. Empirical results: 4.1. First stage results: overall efficiency\n5. Conclusion and policy implications: As one of the poorest countries in the Middle East, Yemen and its economy progressed slowly and has yet to achieve its expectations. The banking sector was exposed to several obstacles that impeded the progress of the entire indsutry. This includes the ciruclation of cash out of the monetary system and high non-performing loans among others. The government upon the advice of IMF in an attempt to rectify such problems recommended the introduction of economic reforms which partly focus on the financial system. This has been done in order to improve the productivity and efficiency of the banking sector so as to correspond to international standards. This study provides evidence that banking sector reforms were unsuccessful in attaining the expectations. It is evident that the efficiency scores were very low and there is an urgent need for enahncement and improvement. Taking the results together, Islamic banks were reported to have outperformed their counterparts. Though it is relatively stable, the conventional banks experienced lower levels of efficiency in comparison to Islamic banks. The reforms emarked on by the govement have not born fruit in enhancing the efficiency and fostering comeptition within the banking sector. Necessary steps and policies are needed to further enhance the banking industry. Regulators may embark on new policies to relax foreign entry, with specific emphasis on foreign Islamic banks, which could foster competition and hence efficiency. This calls for further improvements in the informational, contractual and enforcement infrastructure in the country. On the side of managerial efficiency of banks, Islamic bank managers are able to work efficiently, given their roles and constraints imposed on them by Shari'ah norms.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to examine the banking industry's efficiency using the case of Yemen.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The paper utilises two-stage analysis to evaluate the efficiency adopting Data Envelopment Window Analysis (DEWA) in the first stage for the period 1996-2011. Furthermore, the paper addresses, in two-dimensional matrix, the stability and efficiency of the banking sector in order to assess their ability for survival. In the second stage, panel data analysis is applied to regress a set of bank-specific and macro-economic variables on the efficiency of the banking sector in Yemen in a comparative fashion between Islamic and conventional banks.\nFindings: The findings of the investigation indicate that the Yemeni banking industry in general was on a declining efficiency's trend with increased instability during the later period of the investigation. In addition, the study shows that most conventional banks were relatively stable, though inefficient, while Islamic banks were more efficient over the time. The results of panel data regression further suggest that efficiency is related to a number of determinants. Loan/financing, and profitability are the common key determinants of efficiency for both Islamic and conventional banks. However, other determinants have impacted differently for Islamic and conventional banks, which could reflect the uniqueness of their operation and structure.\nResearch limitations/implications: The present study provides a basis for the regulators and bankers to assess the viability of the banking sector and proposes policies to restructure the industry in order to enhance the performance of the whole industry.\nOriginality/value: The paper presents new empirical findings on the efficiency of Islamic and conventional banks in Yemen.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Attracting prosocial lenders from different cultures to help others in microlending	[ "Prosocial giving", "Microlending", "Cultural background", "Future orientation" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: With as little as $25, you can help people around the world create the opportunity for themselves, their families and their communities. Get repaid by the borrower. - Kiva organization\nTheoretical background and hypotheses development: Cultural differences in prosocial behaviors\nStudy 1. Cultural differences in microlending: Study 1 tests the influence of cultural differences on prosocial behaviors in microlending. We predict that lenders in collectivist cultures will give more money to others in need compared to those in individualistic cultures.\nStudy 2. Moderating effect of future orientation on microlending amounts: In addition to our finding in Study 1 that the cultural differences of lenders had impact on their prosocial giving, Study 2 investigates if future orientation plays an important role in microlending considering the characteristics of long-term future-focused microlending. Specifically, we examine how future focus influences the microlending amounts of individualists compared to collectivists.\nStudy 3. Moderating effect of future orientation on willingness to help and microlending terms: Study 3 was conducted to replicate the results about the cultural effects (H1) and the moderating role of future orientation on the relationship between cultural differences and the amount of prosocial giving (H2a). In particular, as consistent with the findings in Study 2, we expect that future orientation significantly increases the amount of giving only for individualists. Further, we conducted analyses to test H2b and H2c on how the moderating role of future orientation facilitates more positive prosocial behaviors in microlending, particularly focusing on prosocial microlending behaviors including the willingness to help and the length of commitment.\nGeneral discussion: This research investigates the effects of lenders' cultural differences and future orientation on their prosocial giving via microlending. The results suggest that individualists are less willing to microlend to the poor compared to collectivists. More importantly, the findings provide significant insights on the role of future orientation for encouraging more positive prosocial giving behaviors among lenders in individualistic cultures, who are more reluctant to lend to the poor in need compared to collectivists due to risky characteristics of microlending and uncertainty in a borrower's ability to pay back. To the best of our knowledge, this research is the first study that focuses on lenders' cultural backgrounds and future orientation in the prosocial microlending context.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: The purpose of this study is to examine the role of culture and future orientation in lenders' prosocial microlending behaviors.\nDesign/methodology/approach: Three experiments examine how different cultural backgrounds, either individualistic or collectivistic, influenced microlenders' prosocial behaviors, including the amount of microlending, the willingness to help and the length of commitment. Further, the moderating role of future orientation among individualists is investigated.\nFindings: Results indicate that cultural differences influence prosocial microlending differently such that individualists give less to people in need compared to collectivists. Further, the author found that future orientation helps lenders in individualistic culture to improve prosocial microlending behaviors.\nOriginality/value: This paper emphasizes the role of cultural background and future orientation in promoting lenders' prosocial giving in the context of microlending. The results assist social marketers to understand how to motivate giving behaviors via microlending among lenders in different cultures depending on future orientation.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Climate change from the lens of Malolos children: perception, impact and adaptation	[ "Children", "Philippines", "Climate change adaptation", "Climate risk perception", "Coping mechanism" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: Studies have shown that changes in precipitation and temperature patterns and sea level rise have adverse effects on children and their socio-physical environment, affecting their health, safety, protection, education, play and recreation, and social development (Chatterjee, 2015). Children also suffer from the immediate and long-term human security impacts of displacement and migration due to climate change-related disasters, not to mention loss of livelihoods and eventual breakdown of economic structures (UNICEF, 2008) in \"areas of compound risk\" (Oppenheimer et al., 2014)[1]. Moreover, weather- and water-related extreme events such as floods and supertyphoons put children at high risk, often resulting in massive loss of young lives in many developing countries (Wisner, 2006).\n2. Methodology: 2.1 The study site\n3. Review of literature: Climate change affects children in many ways. Primary impacts may be seen in the form of injury from disaster events and incidence of infectious, vector, and water-borne diseases as a direct result of precipitation and temperature changes. It can also be indirect in the form of rising food prices and escalation of conflicts over scarce natural resources. Secondary impacts, on the other hand, would involve lifestyle and behavioral changes, migration, and new livelihood practices normally outside the control of children (UNICEF, 2011).\n4. Results and discussion: 4.1 Children's perception of climate change\n5. Conclusions and recommendations: The impacts of sea level rise, changes in temperature and precipitation, and extreme weather events are expected to be strong in urban areas. Malolos is not only vulnerable to large-impact climatic risks (e.g. major storms and massive flooding), but also to the so-called \"invisible\" risks or extensive events with low or moderate intensity that are highly localized in nature but have debilitating cumulative impacts over time (UNISDR, 2009). By their nature, these small-scale events are not usually treated as disasters; hence, their impacts are generally underestimated, if reported at all. To Wisner and Gaillard (2009), these events fall under the category of \"neglected disasters.\"\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is threefold: first, to understand how Filipino children perceive climate change; second, to determine how children themselves adapt to its impacts; and third, to identify the level of support available at the household, community, and city levels as children adjust to their changing environment.\nDesign/methodology/approach: A qualitative study was conducted in three peri-urban communities in Malolos, Philippines, looking at the perception and adaptation mechanisms of children in the face of climate change, using Lazarus and Folkman's typology for children's coping strategies in stressful situations. The support that children receive at the household, community, and city levels was also examined.\nFindings: Climate change has impacted the daily lives of children, aggravating in particular the \"everyday\" and \"invisible\" risks of those who belong to poor households. In general, emotion-focused coping that hinges on denial or distancing did not seem to be prominent among children; many of them were rather pre-disposed to problem-focused coping as they try to cope with the impacts of climate change in their immediate environment. Unfortunately, however, interventions to mitigate the impacts of climate change on children at the household, community, and city levels were found to be lacking.\nResearch limitations/implications: The selected communities do not represent the wide spectrum of localities in the Philippines. At best, findings from the small sample size provide only a snapshot of the conditions of children living in peri-urban areas.\nPractical implications: The study points to the need for child-sensitive climate change adaptation at the household, community, and city levels to support the coping mechanisms of children.\nOriginality/value: The study adopts a multi-level approach at understanding the impacts of climate change on Filipino children and the interventions that they and other social institutions have undertaken in response thereto. Findings add empirical evidence to growing literature on the subject, especially in the context of the Philippines where academic studies on the matter remain scant.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Managing stability and crises in business relationships: The case of Ericsson in an emerging market	[ "Uncertainty", "Commitment", "Ericsson Argentina", "Relationship crises", "Stability/instability", "Trust" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Due to increasing diversity and a higher degree of radical changes in the business environment, relationships have become increasingly vulnerable to disturbances which trigger crises (Grewal et al., 2007; Payan et al., 2010). While relationship incrementality has extensively captured the attention of a large number of researchers, relationship stability jointly with instability and crises has attracted few researchers. As Payan et al. (2010) pinpoint, relationship development is always vulnerable, for reasons like rapid changes in technology or in the relationships' environment. Therefore, the paper argues that beside the incremental behaviour of relationship parties, more research is needed on relationship development which includes both stability and instability. This paper conceives instability and crisis as part and parcel of relationships, and asserts that they both need to be dealt with at times.\nEarlier contributions: The relationship view has received growing attention among researchers during the last three decades (Andersen and Narus, 1990; Hakansson and Snehota, 1995). In these contributions, studies close to the research field of this paper are:\nAnalytical standing: Adding the theoretical view of instability in relationship development, this paper stands on the statement that relationship development envelops both incremental change as well as crises and radical change (Hallen and Johanson, 2004; Grewal et al., 2007). As shown in Figure 1, the study of the process of instability and critical change is captured by changes in the three behavioural elements of:\nResearch design: In order to grasp business relationship aspects in situations of crisis, a choice was made to carry out a case study in an international setting in an emerging market. This calls, according to Birkinshaw et al. (2011), for more investigations through qualitative case studies, in order to increase the understanding of the complexity of the context. Otherwise there is a risk that research will deny its existence and ignore possible environmental differences. The need to generate theories that recognize the context has been identified also by Doz (2011) and Welch and Wilkinson (2004). The fact that the context of an emerging market was chosen was based on the recognition by earlier research of the lack of formal institutions and the high degree of turbulence that often faced actors engaged in these markets (Child and Tsai, 2005; Vachani et al., 2009). The need for a process oriented, in-depth case study was also based on the belief that we need to understand socially constructed processes in order to learn more about relationship development. With the aim of deeper understanding of relationship development, the case of Ericsson and Telefonica was examined through a longitudinal case study, in which the process of construction is understood through the elements of uncertainty, trust and commitment, as explained previously.\nRelationship background: The relationship that will be used in this paper to illustrate relationship development in times of stability and instability takes place in Argentina and concerns the network supplier Ericsson and its customer the telecommunications operator Telefonica. This relationship was initiated in the beginning of the 1990s when the telecommunications sector in Argentina was privatized. Ericsson had been present in Argentina since 1921 when only a few small cooperative-based operators were present in the market. The telecommunications industry was privatized as a part of this process in 1990 and the operator procurement was won by Telefonica de Argentina (founded the same year) who gained a monopoly in the south of the country, whereas Telecom Argentina dominated in the north until November 2000. At the same time, i.e. 1990, The National Commission of Communications (Comision Nacional de Comunicaciones (CNC)) was created and is still (2011) the public regulator of the sector.\nAnalysis: The case, describing a relationship development process between the years 1998 and 2004, reveals some interesting aspects of relationship development, deterioration, survival and re-establishment. While the first incremental development episode is contingent with small and gradual changes in network connections and context, the relationship crisis episode is contingent with radical changes in connections and in network context. The following analysis explores how the three relationship elements of commitment, trust and uncertainty change in these episodes. A short summary is exhibited in Table I.\nConcluding remarks: Earlier research contributions on incremental change (Hakansson and Snehota, 1995; Morgan and Hunt, 1994), ending and exit behaviour (Halinen and Tahtinen, 2002; Hallen and Johanson, 2004) and survival (Gounaris and Prout, 2009; Payan et al., 2010) have increased our understanding of each type of behaviour separately. This paper, however, aids further understanding of relationship development concerning both smooth incremental change and discontinuity (Hadjikhani et al., 2012a, b) which can trigger relationship weakening, dissolution and/or recovery (Grewal et al., 2007; Payan et al., 2010). It has been shown how the three elements of uncertainty, trust and commitment in the theoretical contribution enhance the analysis of relationships facing both stable conditions and instability and dramatic changes. This paper asserts that every relationship holds all these different kinds of behaviour and it calls for deeper research to unlock the content of relationship development. Aiding firms and managers, the paper also reveals different strategic managerial decisions and their consequences. The thoughts are provoking but are at an initial stage needing further research. The theoretical view in this study, for example, is examined by only one empirical case, thus providing very limited possibilities for generalization. This limitation calls for further studies that can enhance the understanding of relationship development through empirical testing of our framework.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: Adding to the theoretical view of relationship development, this paper holds the view that relationship change encompasses not only smooth incremental change but also includes crises which can trigger relationship weakening, dissolution and/or recovery. The aim is to develop a theoretical view that allows understanding of both smooth incremental and critical changes in the process of relationship development.\nDesign/methodology/approach: Based on a business network perspective, the paper's relationship view holds uncertainty, commitment and trust as central explanatory elements. The process view is composed of three episodes: incremental relationship development; relationship crisis; and ending or survival. The paper employs a longitudinal case study method and discusses how the relationship between the Swedish firm, Ericsson, and its counterpart, Telefonica, develops in the emerging market of Argentina during the period of 1998-2004.\nFindings: Conclusions demonstrate the vulnerability of relationships due to counterparts' behaviour and network embeddedness. This is a risk of commitment deterioration, and remedial actions like investment in new commitments will reduce distrust and uncertainty. Re-energizing relationships incrementally requires behaviour like waiting strategies, when otherwise the choice is to exit.\nOriginality/value: Few researchers have combined the findings from stable relationship development studies with the findings from research on crisis into one model handling both stability and instability in business relationships. This is despite the fact that episodes of turbulence and instability are becoming more common in business relationships, due to entrance into more unstable markets, and markets crises of various types.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Continuous improvement: critical factors in Brazilian industrial companies	[ "Continuous improvement", "Critical factors", "Non‐parametric tests", "Factor analysis" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: Continuous improvement (CI) can be considered as one of the foundations of production systems based on the models of Total Quality Management, Lean Production and World Class Manufacturing. Although, often associated with these models, the CI process can be implemented as an independent program that produces cumulative improvements in the organizational performance indicators. Therefore, CI is an important strategic tool to increase competitiveness in organizations. (Marin-Garcia et al., 2008).Caffyn (1999) considers CI as a process, which focuses on the incremental innovation that should engage the whole organization. According to Bessant and Francis (1999), CI is the result of three elements:1. paths;2. position; and3. process.The first two ones are related to the set of abilities that an organization accumulates over time and the positioning in terms of product/market that it intends to occupy. The third element refers to organization routines that determine ways to innovate, learn and renew.Many issues can be related to CI such as: organizing improvement teams (Augsdorfer and Harding, 1995; Dabhilkar and Bengtsson, 2004); the team members' ability to improve (Bessant and Francis, 1999; Jabnoun, 2001; Lee, 2004; Abrahamsson and Gerdin, 2006); the relationship between CI and quality management systems (Chapman and Hyland, 1997; Hyland et al., 2000); the use of support mechanisms and tools (Delbridge and Barton, 2002) and the use of performance indicators and information systems as a support for CI activities (Bechet et al., 2000).Identifying critical factors, which positively influence the result of CI activities was studied by Atkinson (1994), Dabhilkar and Bengtsson (2004), Al-Khawaldeh and Sloan (2007), Corso et al. (2004) and Marin-Garcia et al. (2008). However, many organizations have found difficulties in implementing this concept in an effective way. Therefore, further empirical research should be carried out to identify the factors that really contribute towards the success of CI. Therefore, the aim of this work is to answer the following questions: what factors can contribute to continuous improvement activities success in Brazilian companies? What factors of continuous improvement are related to the improving of performance in Brazilian companies? Moreover, this work proposes actions to overcome barriers and difficulties of continuous improvement practices.This study addresses this issue and investigates:* the influence of the organization and operation of continuous improvement on the performance;* the influence of incentive systems on the performance of companies;* the CI tools that most contribute to the performance of companies;* the relationship between organization and operation of CI, as well as financial and non-financial results.Hence, a survey was carried out in Brazilian companies that adopts formal systems of quality management. The data collected was analyzed using descriptive and multivariate statistical techniques. It uses regression and correlation analysis to test these relationships as this would test the generalization of the existing theory. The contributions made in the paper are concerned with the expansion of the link between Continuous improvement and performance using empirical results from these topics in the literature related to continuous improvement in Brazilian companies.The following sections present a literature review on continuous improvement and critical factors. Section three describes the methodology used. The results of the descriptive and multivaried analysis are presented in Section four and discussed in the following section. In the last section, the final considerations are presented.\n2. Literature review: 2.1 Continuous improvement\n3. Methodology: This study was divided into four stages. First, a literature review was conducted and critical factors were identified concerning continuous improvement activities. These factors were then included in the conceptual mode proposed. In the second stage, the questionnaire used in this study was designed and tested. In the third stage, the data was collected. In the fourth stage, statistical analyses of the collected data were carried out.3.1 Sample of companies\n4. Results: 4.1 Descriptive analysis\n5. Discussion: The results suggest that the companies studied have developed regular CI programs ever since they adopted the ISO9000 as the standard for the continuous improvement programs. Choosing companies with an ISO9000 certificate was a right decision as they already have the basic structure to engage improvement activities. Thus, it was found that the companies monitor their CI activities constantly and adopt formal policies that guide CI actions.The companies showed more often the practice of members of the organization and operation who use incentive systems to support continuous improvement. This indicates a greater development in the skills for structuring the continuous improvement activities. The results show that there is statistical evidence of dependence between the organization and operation of continuous improvement in company performance (Table III), accepting the hypothesis shown in the conceptual model in Figure 1. It can also be observed that the practices of organization and operation is dependent on the incentive systems and use of support tools for solving problems.The same result, the conceptual model developed for this study, suggests dependence relationships between the individual variables in three constructs (organization and operation of CI, incentive systems and CI activity support tools) and CI outcome indicators (productivity, quality, lead time reduction, cost, customer satisfaction and employee ability development). The statistical significant variables can be considered as critical factors. Therefore, they have positive impacts on the CI outcomes.Some critical factors were identified such as: staff training in problem solution tools, incentive suggestions, use of face-to-face communication, regular visits to the shop floor and adopting incentive systems. These results are consistent with various critical factors found in the literature on continuous improvement (Youssef and Zairi, 1995; Terziovski and Sohal, 2000b; Al-Khawaldeh and Sloan, 2007; Fryer et al., 2007).The operational and organization practices were classified, according to the application of the factor analysis, in two great dimensions, as shown in Table V. First, for actions according to the promotion of continuous improvement activities, for example, by using a slogan, suggestion plans and internal promotion. A second dimension of actions is focused on organizational leadership and support guided by the management staff and leadership of the top administration and management by direct communication with teams and individuals and by direct involvement in projects (regular visits to the shop floor).When these two dimensions/factors are related to the results (Table VII), the following analytical results are found:* weak relationship between continuous improvement promotion variables and the non- financial and financial result variables with the exception of statistical significant relationship between \"suggestion plan\" and \"financial results\", which suggests the adoption of suggestion plans to raise productivity and reduce costs.* A statistically significant relationship between \"continuous improvement support and leadership\" dimension/factor and non-financial results was found from top administration leadership, face-to-face communication and regular visits to the shop floor by the management.* Training has an impact on financial and non-financial results.Based on these results, it can be said that some behavior operational practices have a positive influence on the results of CI activities. Better performance can be reached by management practices that encourage open communication, employee participation in improvement activities and the use of incentive mechanisms. These practices certainly contribute to developing a culture focused on the active engagement of the company with CI activities.Another finding is that developing human resources is a factor of vital importance for the success of CI programs. Many of the practices listed in Figure 2 and used frequently by the companies (face-to-face communication, team work, staff training, supporting leadership and suggestion stimulation) indicate behavior that supports CI activities.It can also be said that CI activities are concentrated on the productive areas of companies (quality, production and engineering), which shows the prevalence of local activity improvement aiming at solving problems and not necessarily a more general approach directed at the company strategy.The companies should be aware that the qualification programs are not designed aiming at only technique training and improvement tools. They should include issues related to the development of basic individual abilities, which are fundamental for CI. It could be noted that the staff training in problem solution tools has a statistically significant relationship with the increase in productivity and the development of employee abilities. Therefore, the companies should invest in tools applied to CI since they affect the results of CI activities positively besides endowing employees with appropriate abilities.Nevertheless, staff training in problem solution tools affects several financial results such as production costs and staff productivity. This training also influences non-financial results, which are associated to customer satisfaction and employee abilities (results shown in Table VII).The statistical analyses show, in general, moderate coefficients of correlation for the problem identification tools in the result indicators observed. Continuous improvement does not have to be disassociated from techniques as it enables the companies to develop collaborator competences and abilities. Therefore, the problem solution support techniques could be classified into two types according to the factor analysis in Table X:1. standardization techniques, necessary to implement problem solutions; and2. problem identification and causes techniques, which are part of the initial stages of the problem solution methods.The standardization and problem identification tools, the 5S program and the seven tools of the quality are the most well known. Moreover, techniques such as QFD and Six Sigmas, are more complex and demand more specialized knowledge. Therefore, the results show that the companies studied make use of tools to a lesser degree of complexity more often, which can mean that they are in the first evolution stages of CI management. However, this observation requires deeper knowledge of the companies' practices.In general, the results of this study are in accordance with the literature. Most of the companies studied adopt the ISO9000 as the standard for continuous improvement programs. Moreover, they pay regular visits to the shop floor and monitor activities, to support and manage improvement activities. Generally, there is evidence that the improvement teams, besides being volunteers, adopt a bottom-up approach. However, there are control mechanisms for these teams' activities.It can be said that the results reinforce the idea that these companies are partially aware of some of the critical success factors found in the literature. This can be observed by the statistical relationship observed between staff training in problem solution tools and the increase in the employees' abilities.The relationship between means of support, incentives, and results reinforce the theoretical analyses in continuous improvement activities. Nonetheless, it is worth mentioning that too little importance is given by the companies to techniques and tools such as the FMEA, the seven management tools and DOE.In general, the results indicate that continuous improvement practices have contributed to the performance of Brazilian companies. The main difficulties and barriers observed for the improvement of these practices make use of mechanisms and incentive systems. Furthermore, the statistical evidence shows a relationship of dependency between organizational practices and operational improvement activities, confirming the results of the literature. On the other hand, the hypotheses H2 and H3 were not confirmed by statistical evidence, commonly found in the literature as positive in similar surveys in other countries (Dabhilkar and Bengtsson, 2004; Al-Khawaldeh and Sloan, 2007; Corso et al., 2004). However, by analyzing the variables related to each construct, it appears that the training methods of solving problems for the staff, incentives for suggestions, face-to-face communication and regular visits to the shop floor are critical for success of continuous improvement activities.\n6. Final considerations: Continuous improvement can be defined as an organizational process based on a culture focused on incremental improvement, which demands behavioral changes and new organizational structures. These behavioral changes can be reached by a leader or induced by a slow process of organizational change.This article brings theoretical and practical contributions to the management of CI programs. The conceptual model presented includes the critical factors considered. Some of which were confirmed statistically, and they deserve special attention from researchers and managers responsible for improvement activities. Thus, the results of this work provide a thorough understanding of the success drivers in the CI activities.These critical factors are related to actions that encourage the participation of the employees in CI activities and in incentive mechanisms, to the ability of applying successfully techniques and tools of identification and the solution of problems. Statistical significance provided evidence of the support and leadership activities of the continuous improvement process and non-financial results, such as the ability to solve problems, customer satisfaction and internal communication improvement. On the other hand, the training in problem solution methods showed a relationship with non-financial and financial results.Thus, it can be said that the present study achieved its objectives contributing to an empirical perspective towards guiding the organization and operationalization of continuous improvement activities.However, this study has some limitations. Although the constructs are fairly accurate, they are still subject to improvements, and new dimensions can be incorporated into them. Another limitation is related to the scope of the subject of this research, which is subject to a large number of subjective variables resulting in the need to include other subjects related to CI activities that were not part of this study, but which however should be considered in further studies.Further studies can analyze in depth some of the relationships between the dependent and independent variables considered in this study. Research on other methods such as detailed interviews should be carried out to provide a more comprehensive list of critical factors for improvement activities. Moreover, further studies for the sectorial analysis should also be conducted.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: - The objective of this article is to identify and analyze critical factors in the development of continuous improvement (CI) activities in Brazilian companies.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - A conceptual model of the relationship between practices and results was tested to identify the critical factors using a survey conducted in 46 industrial companies. Non-parametric tests were used to test some hypotheses developed based on the literature.\nFindings: - The results indicate the importance of staff training in problem solution tools, incentives for suggestions, face-to-face communication and regular shop floor visits such as critical factors for the success of continuous improvement activities (CI). Operational practices of CI contribute to company performance in relation to improvements in productivity, quality, lead time, cost, customer satisfaction and development of employees' skills to solve problems.\nResearch limitations/implications: - Although the detected constructs are fairly accurate, they are still subject to improvements and new dimensions can be incorporated to them.\nPractical implication: - These critical factors are related to actions that encourage employees to participate in CI activities and incentive mechanisms to be able to apply identification techniques and tools successfully, as well as find solution to problems.\nOriginality/value: - The results of this work provide a thorough understanding of the success drivers when conducting CI activities.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Supplier and customer involvement on new product performance: Contextual factors and an empirical test from manufacturer perspective	[ "Product development", "Supplier involvement", "Customer involvement", "Modularity", "Innovativeness", "Survey", "China" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1 Introduction: A growing body of literature suggests that a company will perform well if it collaborates with suppliers and customers in new product development (NPD) (Lin et al., 2010; Shamsuzzoha et al., 2009; Parker, 2000; Brown and Eisenhardt, 1995). In industrial management and data systems literature, there have been continuously studies on the importance of suppliers and customers in NPD from 1998 onwards (Willis, 1998; Koh et al., 2007; Lin et al., 2010). In order to compete in twenty-first century, manufacturers should implement agile manufacturing, for which early supplier involvement (SI) is indispensable (Willis, 1998). Supplier and customer integration is also important for deciding the use of IT applications (Lin and Tseng, 2006) and advanced manufacturing technologies in order to improve market responsiveness (Crocitto and Youssef, 2003). Literature has thus proposed various IT applications for selecting and building supplier and customer relationships (Humphreys et al., 2005; Lin and Tseng, 2006; Muller and Seuring, 2007; Gonzalez-Benito, 2007; Shamsuzzoha et al., 2009).In NPD, a company usually acquires external knowledge and resources from supplier and customer involvement (SCI) (Lau et al., 2010; Gupta and Thomas, 2001; Verona, 1999). It helps improve the company's operational performance (Koh et al., 2007; Lin and Tseng, 2006), collective efficacy (Law et al., 2009) and innovation capabilities (Lin et al., 2010). However, such involvement is affected by many contextual factors internally and externally (Parker et al., 2008; Petersen et al., 2005), including product salability, power and trust (Wu et al., 2004), supply chain dependence (Leger et al., 2006), and different supply chain linkages and IT systems (Muller and Seuring, 2007). Except these studies, there is little research on what other contextual factors can affect such involvement. Without a comprehensive understanding of the contextual factors, it is possible that firms dissipate rare resources to develop ineffective supplier and customer relationships, resulting in loss of money and time. For example, contextual factors such as the misalignment of the expectations on supply chain commitment and transparency could make companies experience a lot of frustration in adopting such involvement (Parker, 2000). To avoid or reduce these undesirable consequences, studies on identifying the contextual factors should be conducted.Therefore, this study tries to address existing literature on how SCI affects new product performance (NPP) and under what contextual factors such involvement may work, with emphasis on empirical evidence (Lin et al., 2010; Parker, 2000). Research hypotheses drawn from the study were tested on a multi-industry sample in manufacturing industries in Hong Kong. A total of 251 responses from the companies were collected and data were analyzed by comprehensive statistical methods, including factor analyses, correlation tests, and structural equation modeling. The study found that three contextual factors including product innovativeness (PI), modularity, and internal coordination (IC) affect SCI. Also, SCI and PI improve NPP.The present study contributes to existing knowledge in two ways. First, this study re-examines the impact of SCI on NPP in a single empirical study in Hong Kong, China (Frishammar and Horte, 2005; Brown and Eisenhardt, 1995). The study is thus a response to the literature on examination of generalized beliefs about SCI in product innovation (Lin et al., 2010; Song and Benedetto, 2008; Koufteros et al., 2007; Hauser et al., 2006). The study is important as different levels of involvement requires different product development processes (Flynn et al., 2009; Brown and Eisenhardt, 1995) and IT systems (Muller and Seuring, 2007). It also affects a firm's innovation capabilities (Lin et al., 2010; Lau et al., 2007).Second, this study extends prior literature by exploring new contextual factors on the relationship of SCI on NPP. The factors, which include product modularity (PM), innovativeness and IC, have been studied in previous literature separately, but never been examined simultaneously (Lau et al., 2007; Hauser et al., 2006; Droge et al., 2004; Kang et al., 2007; Espino-Rodriguez and Rodriguez-Diaz, 2008). The study is thus a response to the literature on identifying new contextual factors that facilitate supply chain involvement in NPD (Parker et al., 2008; Petersen et al., 2005; Wu et al., 2004).The following sections will discuss the theoretical development of the hypothesized research model, followed by the statistical analysis and discussion of the results. The implications and the limitations of the study will be discussed finally.\n2 Theoretical development: Recent literature suggests that a firm will perform well if it can integrate external suppliers and customers in order to optimize the total performance of all partners in the supply chain (Zhao et al., 2011; Feng et al., 2010; Tsai, 2009; Dyer, 2000). SCI is useful to accelerate product development and problem-solving (Brown and Eisenhardt, 1995), acquire external resources (Verona, 1999) and secure relationships for product development (Stump et al., 2002). In dynamic environment, external integration with suppliers and customers increase the efficiency of the applications of the specialized knowledge in product innovation (Grant, 1996). Many \"best-practices\" companies have taken advantage of SCI to improve business performance (Morash and Lynch, 2002; Dyer, 2000).However, the impacts of SCI on product development performance are not clearly verified in literature (Chen et al., 2010; Parker et al., 2008; Ragatz et al., 2002; Hartley et al., 1997) and those that are verified contain inconsistent results (Gerwin and Barrowman, 2002). On one hand, a meta-analysis of NPD shows that customer input has no statistically significant relationship with NPP (Henard and Szymanski, 2001). On the other hand, another meta-analysis found that SCI has a positive effect on NPD speed in a relative term (Chen et al., 2010) that is essential for new product success (Kessler and Chakrabarti, 1996).Some empirical studies show that SI results in lower development costs, fewer engineering changes, higher quality with fewer defects, shorter time to market, highly standardized components, and detailed process data (Monczka et al., 2000; Bonaccorsi and Lipparini, 1994). Others found that SI may increase development time (Zirger and Hartley, 1994) and costs due to greater co-ordination requirements (Ittner and Larcker, 1997). It also involves knowledge leakage and protection (Lau, 2009; Liebeskind, 1996). On the other hand, some researchers argue that customer involvement (CI) helps identify market and technology opportunities, reduce poor design in the early stage and generate new ideas about product innovation, leading to better product innovation performance (Lin et al., 2010; Tsai, 2009; von Hippel, 1988). But, others found that extensive CI limits strategic choices in product development (Callahan and Lasry, 2004), and customer information may generate familiar ideas, leading to poor innovation performance (Frishammar and Horte, 2005). In some cases, too much involvement of the customer may lead to unneeded distractions and confusion, lowering the quality of information for product development (Bonner, 2010).Prior studies on SCI in NPD exhibit variation in magnitude, statistical significance, and direction of relationships studied. This may reflect the difficulties of implementing SCI in product development. An alternative view is that it results from different contextual conditions the companies face. For example, Wu et al. (2004) found that product salability, power, and trust have an effect on a company's normative commitment on supply chain management (SCM), which influence the firm's NPD performance. This study argues that the understanding of the contextual factors is thus useful to verify the impact of SCI in product development (Bonner, 2010; Parker et al., 2008; van Echtelt et al., 2008). The results of the study may give industrial mangers new insights on under what contextual situations suppliers and customers should be involved in NPD. As SCI could negatively affect NPD (Lau, 2009; Ittner and Larcker, 1997; Liebeskind, 1996; Zirger and Hartley, 1994), it is important for the managers to carefully identify proper contextual conditions, so as to improve NPD performance.2.1 Model development\n3 Methodology: 3.1 Instruments\n4 Data analysis: 4.1 Non-respondent bias and common method variance\n5 Results: 5.1 Descriptive statistics and correlations\n6 Discussion and conclusion: Previous research has examined the role of SCI on product performance with inconsistent empirical results. This study found that SCI has a significant effect on NPP in the sampled industry, which is consistent with the existing literature (Chen et al., 2010; Nieto and Santamaria, 2007). The empirical evidence shows that SCI are highly integrated. When a manufacturer develops SI, it builds up a good foundation for CI simultaneously and vice versa. SI provides supply-side knowledge and capabilities, while CI provides demand-side ones. Integrating both of them improves NPP.The findings of this study also show that modular design, innovative products and IC lead to the high level of SCI in NPD. Innovative products improve NPP. The results supports the contingency view of NPD that there is no one best way to design, lead or manage a NPD project because it is situational and subject to a variety of contextual factors, upon which the impact of SCI in NPD is contingent (Bonner, 2010; Parker et al., 2008; van Echtelt et al., 2008). This study explores three of these contextual factors, including PM, innovativeness and IC, which are rarely examined at once.6.1 Academic and managerial implications\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: - Recent studies have found inconsistent findings on the impact of supplier and customer involvement on new product development. This study thus aims to explore what contextual factors affect supplier and customer involvement altogether and how such involvement affects new product performance.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - The study used structural equation modelling to analyze empirical survey data from 251 manufacturers in Hong Kong.\nFindings: - The study found that modular design, product innovation, and internal coordination are positively correlated with the supplier and customer involvement. Such involvement and product innovation lead to better new product performance.\nResearch limitations/implications: - The study is limited to the use of cross-sectional data and a single key informant approach, and the industry structure of the sampled industries.\nPractical implications: - The study examines the contextual factors of supplier and customer involvement and how such involvement relates to new product development with new empirical evidence. The study not only provides new empirical evidence to support the importance of supply chain management in product development, but also extends existing literature to identify new contextual factors for such involvement.\nOriginality/value: - The study re-examines generalized beliefs about supplier and customer involvement in new product development, and extends prior studies of the contextual dimensions of product modularity, product innovativeness, and internal coordination on such involvement in an empirical way.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Estimation of total factor productivity in the Indian garment industry	[ "Garment industry", "Productivity rate", "India" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: Indian garment industry plays a significant role not only in the country's economy but also in the lives of millions of citizens of this country. It provides direct employment to about 5 million workers. Currently, consumption of readymade garments in the domestic markets is around 70 per cent, whereas 30 per cent of garments produced are exported to major markets, such as, US, Canada and Europe. With the modest start of Rs. 13920 million in 1987-1988, export of Indian readymade garments rose to Rs. 293,760 million in 2006-2007 with a statistically significant annual compound growth rate of 17.0 per cent (Joshi and Singh, 2008a). The consumption of garments in the domestic market has increased from 1,050 million pieces in 1990-1991 to 4,415 million pieces in 2006-2007. It is anticipated that the domestic market will grow at a rate of 9.1 per cent per annum and the export market will grow with 17 per cent per annum during 2007-2012. For this, the number of machinery requirement would be 2.4 million and the investment requirement would be Rs. 218,000 million (Singh, 2006).Until recently, the industry was reserved for the small-scale units to protect the employment in rural and urban areas. These policy restrictions affected investment in the plant and machinery. In turn, this prevented the industry from updating technology and from achieving economies of scale, thus adversely affected both quality and productivity (Pantahki, 2001). To review the Textile Policy 1985, an expert committee was constituted on 24 July 1998 by the Government of India. This committee found that there was a need of creating awareness about the WTO and their implications for the garment and textile industry (Sathyam, 1999). To improve the competition in the garment industry, the committee made valuable suggestions like removal of the industry from small-scale industry reservation, technology up-gradation and automation at each stage of garmenting, design of scientific tools to improve the productivity of the clothing and, setting of textile and apparel parks. Keeping in view the recommendations of the committee, the Government of India de-reserved the garment industry from the small-scale industry list in 2001. In addition to this, on January 1, 2005, Multi Fibre Agreement restrictions on readymade garments were fully removed and hence the trade in garments was no longer being subjected to quotas. In this scenario, the small and medium scale garment firms are now facing tough competition with large domestic and global firms.Earlier studies on the industry have reported that India's garment firms are not globally competitive in productivity. Uchikawa (1999) finds that low productivity of Indian firms has curtailed the advantages of low wages. Using partial factor productivity approach (PFP), Bheda (2002) finds that productivity level achieved by Indian firms is substantially lower than the productivity in the western countries. The PFP approach has also been applied by several other studies on the garment industry in India (Khanna, 1993; Bheda et al. 2003; Rangrajan, 2005; Joshi et al. 2005). Although this technique is simple, the most important drawback is as inappropriateness of making decisions based on one single ratio when there are many inputs and outputs (Duzakin and Duzakin, 2007). The PFP approach also cannot capture the effects of factors that affect the performance of the organisation (Smith, 1990). The TFP approach has also been applied to measure the productivity in Indian textile and garment industry. Hashim (2005) measured the TFP in the garment industry using Translog Multilateral Index and reported the negative productivity growth in the industry. Bhandari and Ray (2007) measured the levels of technical efficiency in the Indian textiles industry at the firm level using data envelopment analysis (DEA). The data used for the study relate to the production of cotton, woollen, silk, synthetic and other natural fibres. Bhandari and Maiti (2007) used Stochastic Frontier Analysis to estimate the technical efficiency of Indian textile firms. Joshi and Singh (2008b) examined the TFP growth and efficiency trends in Indian textile industry, including garment as one of the sector, using MPI. The study used Annual Survey of Industries aggregate data and observed negative TFP growth during 1998-2004 in the garment industry.Although there is no dearth of studies on manufacturing industry, however, studies using DEA based MPI, are, in fact, scant. MPI approach overcomes the problem of PFP approach by taking into account the levels of all the inputs used in the production of output and measures the TFP growth at firm level at time and over a period of time. This paper, therefore, applies the MPI approach to estimate the TFP growth of the Indian garment firms. The step-wise process of estimation of TFP is shown in Figure 1.\n2. Methodology: 2.1 Data selection\n3. Empirical findings: 3.1 Average TFP growth in the industry\n4. Conclusion: The empirical results indicate that the Indian garment industry has achieved TFP growth of 1.7 per cent annually during the entire period. Year-wise analysis shows that the industry has achieved technological progress in only two years, while technical efficiency change has been positive in most of the years. On an average, the technological change has declined by 1.9 per cent during the study period; in contrast the technical efficiency change has gained by 4.3 per cent. It suggests that the only source of productivity growth in the industry is the improvement in technical efficiency change. Firm-wise analysis shows that the 28 firms, out of 34 firms, achieve positive growth in the technical efficiency change (catch up), on the other hand, only eight firms show the progress in the technological change during the study period. This implies that most of the firms' TFP growth has been due to improvement in the technical efficiency change rather than the improvement in their technological change.We have also compared the TFP growth and its components by location, scale-size and type of garments. Region-wise analysis indicates that the firms in the northern and southern regions show the positive productivity growth; on the other side productivity in the western region has declined. In all three regions, northern region is the most productive. Looking at components of the TFP, all three regions show the positive technical efficiency change, whereas the technological change has regressed during the period under review. Lastly, we observe that small-scale firms are more productive than the medium and large scale ones. Relatively higher productivity in the small-scale firms is mainly attributed by the progress in the technical efficiency change. The technological change has regressed the TFP growth in all type of firms. Garment-wise analysis concludes that the knitted firms are more productive than woven firms. In these industries, the technical efficiency change is positive and technological change is negative during the entire period. To sum up, technical efficiency change has worked for Indian garment firms in terms of obtaining positive TFP growth so far. In contrast, declining technological change has curtailed the advantages of positive efficiency change. In any case, to sustain the productivity growth, gains from both technological change and technical efficiency change are necessary.\n5. Policy implications: On the basis of findings of the study, some policy implications are drawn. The TFP growth of 1.7 per cent per annum is the moderate growth rate. Looking at components of TFP, the technological change of the most of firms show the declining trends during the period 2002-2007. To make these firms more efficient and competitive, investment in new technology is to be increased. These firms can avail the benefit of the Technology Up-gradation Fund Scheme, which provides the loan to the industry at lower interest rate to up-grade the existing technology. Apparel Export Promotion Council of India can organize the awareness camp especially for the small-scale garment manufactures to make them aware about the different Government policies and schemes.The results of the study also suggest that TFP in the medium and large-scale firms have declined due to technological regress. In addition to this, the progress in the technical efficiency in these firms is marginal in comparison with small-scale firms. Hence, the medium and large-scale firms can improve existing technology with the proper utilisation of the available inputs. The region-wise analysis shows that the western and southern- region firms needs to improve their technical efficiency as well as existing technology to achieve the progress in the productivity growth.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: - The Indian garment industry has witnessed a significant change since the inception of the New Textile Policy 2000 that suggests removing the industry from the list of small-scale industries with a view to improving its competitiveness in the global market. As productivity is the driving factor in enhancing the competitiveness of any decision-making entity (firm), a study of total factor productivity (TFP) and its sources can provide vital inputs to a firm for improving its competitiveness. Keeping this as a backdrop, the paper attempts to measure the TFP in the Indian garment-manufacturing firms; identify sources of the TFP; and suggest measures for the firms to enhance their productivity.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - The study is based on the firm-level panel data collected from the Centre for Monitoring Indian Economy for the years 2002-2007. One output variable, namely, gross sale and four input variables, namely, net fixed assets, wages & salaries, raw material, and energy & fuel, have been selected. The DEA-based Malmquist Productivity Index (MPI) approach has been applied to measure the TFP.\nFindings: - The Indian garment industry has achieved a moderate average TFP growth rate of 1.7 per cent per annum during the study period. The small-scale firms are found to be more productive than the medium- and large-scale firms. The decomposition of TFP growth into technical efficiency change (catch-up effect) and technological change (frontier shift) reveals that the productivity growth is contributed largely by technical efficiency change rather than by technological change.\nOriginality/value: - Earlier studies on the Indian garment industry have applied the partial factor productivity approach, which has several limitations. This paper measures the TFP and identifies its sources through applying a non-parametric DEA-based MPI approach. Through this approach, the productivity growth is decomposed into technical efficiency change and technological change. Further, an attempt has also been made to study the variation in the productivity growth rates across location, scale-size and type of garments.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Researchers' responses to research management and governance for primary care research in England: Persistent and escalating problems over time	[ "Primary care, Bureaucracy, Research, England" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: In the NHS in England new procedures have recently been introduced to regulate research which has patients and staff as study participants. This has been partly in response to high profile scandals involving patients and a concern that research taking place on NHS premises lacked transparency. Researchers and managers alike have welcomed the introduction of the Research Governance Framework for Health and Social Care, first published in 2001 and updated in 2005 (Department of Health, 2001, 2005b). However, although the concept is generally regarded as appropriate, the processes of implementation and further development have not been without their problems and critics.Research Governance is about the rules and procedures drawn up by the Department of Health to make sure all NHS medical and social care organisations involved in research are aware of and take responsibility for all the research taking place in their organisation (Department of Health, 2005a, b). It has been set up to \"improve the quality of research and protect the public while minimising bureaucratic processes\" (Salisbury et al. 2005a). However, the process has, in many instances, achieved the opposite effect to that intended by increasing bureaucracy and limiting the types of research that can realistically be conducted. This paper sets out to describe, understand and provide solutions to the current problems for researchers associated with the introduction of Research Governance in England, with particular reference to research conducted in primary care.\nMethods: Since the introduction of Research Governance, we have conducted two major research studies which were required to comply with the newly introduced legislation. The first study took place in 2003-2004 and the second in 2004-2005, providing the opportunity of observing the process of Research Governance as it was developing. The first study consisted of a national postal survey in which questionnaires were sent out to all Primary Care Cancer Leads (one per Primary Care Trust (PCT)) and all PCT Chief Executives in England (n=303): this was followed by telephone interviews with personnel in a sample of six PCTs (Leese et al., 2004). Patients were not participants in this study. The second study concerned primary care nurses and again patients were not participants. Here, postal questionnaires were sent to primary care nurses (District Nurses, Health Visitors, School Nurses and Practice Nurses) in four PCTs with an additional two acting as reserve PCTs. Again, this was followed by interviews with a sample of nurses across all participating PCTs.\nResults: The results presented here concern the process of gaining Research Governance approval for the two studies, and the experiences of researchers with regard to four aspects of this process: Research Governance requirements; the process of achieving Research Governance approval; the consequences of achieving Research Governance approval; and recommendations for the future.Research Governance requirements\nDiscussion and recommendations: The Research Governance Framework presents researchers with a number of challenges. We believe that an investigation into the costs and benefits of the Research Governance process should be conducted with some urgency. As researchers we are not opposed to the concept of Research Governance but there is mounting evidence that the process in inhibiting rather than promoting research (Salisbury et al., 2005; Leese and Burt, 2005). Easing the way through the documentation would help to ensure that researchers are able to continue to conduct high quality research. In the current climate it is likely that research will be selected for ease of passage through the legislation rather than to enhance the quality of the research. This means that projects are likely to be small in scale and localised rather than nationally representative - the opposite to what was intended.It is disappointing that the time taken to achieve approval has not decreased over time. It is essential that it does since adding six months to the start of projects is costly and detracts from the findings of the research.Although we are totally in agreement that patients should be protected when they agree to participate, we would question the inclusion of healthcare professionals in the Research Governance requirements once the PCT or other organisation has agreed that the study can take place. Where professionals are being interviewed or sent questionnaires about their jobs to their workplace addresses, we do not see the need for CRB checks, health checks and so on for the researchers. We were, therefore, pleased to note that the Information Toolkit for RM&G PCTs has been updated recently and states that \"Honorary contracts are not necessary where the research involves activity that dies not have a direct impact on patient care or where there is no access to identifiable patient data (e.g. surveys involving NHS staff)\" (NHS Research and Development Forum, 2005, page 51). This goes some way towards improving conditions for researchers although confirmation with each PCT that the research can proceed will still be required. Presumably, also, the names of staff will not be available to researchers so that questionnaires will still have to be distributed by PCT employees and not by researchers. We believe that an element of pragmatism should be allowed to prevail. If PCTs were to employ Research Governance personnel who had themselves conducted research, a greater understanding of researchers' difficulties might prevail.Finally, we are concerned about the rights of researchers. Researchers seem to be regarded as guilty until proven innocent rather than the reverse. There is concern that asking for CRB checks when they are not strictly necessary (i.e. only where research involves children and vulnerable adults) may be illegal and this should be clarified with some speed. Requiring the health details of all researchers requiring honorary contracts is also a doubtful practise given that medical records are regarded as confidential and researchers are not assured of the conditions in which their health check forms will be kept, who will have access to them, and when they will be destroyed.Another important and neglected factor, which requires urgent attention is the rights of researchers to be able to conduct their research to the high standards to which they aspire. Research Governance is inhibiting this process. The benefits of honorary contracts are obscure. To be sure they protect the PCTs but appear to have little benefit for researchers who have to complete the same paperwork as full time paid employees but receive none of the benefits. A single honorary contract for researchers applicable to all PCTs is all that is required. However, such a development is likely to be highly contentious, given the wide variation in requirements across PCTs.We fear that, if changes are not made as soon as possible, research in primary care in England will be seriously disadvantaged and may become impossible to pursue, surely the opposite to what was intended?\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: - Research Governance has been introduced to regulate research involving National Health Service (NHS) patients and staff but the process is lengthy and bureaucratic and has improved little since its introduction. The paper seeks to investigate changes over time.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - A comparison between two studies, one in 2003-2004 and the second in 2004-2005, provided the opportunity of observing the process of Research Governance as it was developing. Both studies included postal questionnaire surveys and interviews with study participants.\nFindings: - In order to achieve Research Governance approval, application forms have to be completed, reviews undertaken, sponsors and indemnity information identified and honorary contracts from individual PCTs applied for. Honorary contracts can require references and health and Criminal Records Bureau checks. The process reduces the time available for research and employs large numbers of people, yet is still inefficient. Some of the requirements reduce the quality of the research and researchers' rights are marginalised.\nResearch limitations/implications: - The studies took place in a rapidly changing research environment. Further studies should continue to assess the situation and report any progress in making Research Governance less onerous for researchers.\nPractical implications: - There is an urgent requirement to investigate how procedures can be simplified and made less bureaucratic and costly, and to protect the rights of researchers. Without this, primary care research will be seriously disadvantaged and may become impossible to pursue.\nOriginality/value: - The study compares process over time and shows that achieving Research Governance approval is seriously limiting research in primary care.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Brand value: does it belong on the balance sheet?	[ "Brand management", "Assets", "United States of America" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n__NO_TITLE__: Today, US public companies value tangible assets on the balance sheet and buy insurance to protect them. But for intangible assets, which may be worth far more if brands matter to buyers, valuation is required only when a company is merged, bought, or sold. At that time, accountants are told, they can calculate the net present value of an intangible asset based on five-year and ten-year projections of the cash flow it will produce (Jordan, 2009).\nA likely prospect?: Predicting a change in accounting standards to require the valuation of intangibles on the balance sheet rests on a set of disparate indicators:1. Some member companies in the Association of National Advertisers (ANA) strongly advocate such a requirement, although the association itself has not yet taken an official stand. The ANA, composed of 400 companies with 9,000 brands that collectively spend over $200 billion in marketing communications and advertising, has recognized the importance of this issue and begun a formal evaluation process.2. European companies have moved in this direction. Since 2005 all listed companies there must report the value of their acquired intangible assets, such as brands, on their balance sheets, based on International Accounting Standards. The Deloitte (2010) web site describes requirements in Europe, and an IVSC \"Guidance note\" (2010) concerning international standards specifically refers to \"Marketing-related intangible assets ... used primarily in the marketing or promotion of products or services. Examples include, but are not limited to:trademarks, trade names, service marks, collective marks and certification marks;trade dress (unique colour, shape or package design);newspaper mastheads;internet domain names; or*non-compete agreements.\"That development has prompted some accountants and intellectual property attorneys to advocate going even further, to require the valuation of internally generated brands and publication of those values. They are using Weblogs as their chief communication medium for such advocacy. Interestingly, some offer pure marketing arguments. For example, one accountant noted:One of the main strategic benefits of applying IFRS for brands is the opportunity to construct a value contribution analysis tool [...] If a brand is valued in the different markets, categories, and territories it operates in - the sum of which is total brand value - the contribution each makes to the overall brand value is easily identified. Each individual brand can then be analyzed to find what is driving the value and what needs attention (Whitwell, 2005).More tersely, a New Zealand patent attorney observed: \"A book value should be placed on all company IP and this value should be reported\" (Cockburn, 2009). The same author notes that undervaluing intangible assets is nearly universal.Recent academic writing in marketing supports the proposition that brand metrics add incremental explanatory power to accounting variables such as margins and turnover. Substantiating evidence indicates that trademarks can contribute to cash flow growth and firm value, and brand assets can be leveraged to enhance revenue and reduce risks while launching brand extensions (Hanssens et al., 2009). Other authors find that brand assets influence firm valuation through direct effects on sales multipliers, most strongly the case for consumer durable goods (Mizik and Jacobson, 2009.\nA welcome prospect?: Why welcome the idea of placing brand value on the corporate balance sheet? The simplest answer is the obvious one: leaving off such a critical area for investment currently distorts corporate resource allocation. Advertising, for example, looks today like an expense when it should be viewed as an investment. Marketing expenses and legal expenses to protect intellectual property from imitation can be short-changed if the value of these assets is underestimated, a common error. The basic point is that in absolute terms a corporation lacks a way to compare the value of intangibles in which it should invest to the value of tangibles.Further, it lacks a basis for comparison to competitors - which investors will certainly focus on if public valuation becomes a requirement. If that change takes place, every public corporation will find that it is being compared by securities analysts and investors to its industry peers in the contribution of brand equity to market capitalization. That possibility offers a powerful motivation for corporations to begin a valuation process now, so that if the future brings intra-industry comparisons of brand value, they will not be found wanting by stockholders.Currently, the many companies that lack a standard to measure brand value are likely to determine marketing budgets either based on the previous year's spending or on gut instinct and emotion. Given awareness of the dollar importance of the brand, however, it is reasonable to expect that investing in brand building vs other investments can be more sensibly considered.Also, and of current significance, the valuation of corporate brand equity and the specific elements contributing to it should guide decisions for increasing that value and protecting it. Companies face the threat of imitation of non-patented elements, such as a brand name, trademark, or package design. Valuing these elements allows managers to prioritize when they target marketing dollars to increase the association of that element in the public mind with their company alone, often the only way to ensure its protection. Also, the corporate brand can be affected by everything the company says and does - for example, cause-related marketing to enhance its image, or provision of beyond-expected customer service. Decisions about expenditures in these realms can be made more wisely if the value of the corporate brand is known.It should be noted here also that functional (and therefore ineligible for a patent) product characteristics cannot be protected from imitation unless in the mind of the relevant population they are associated specifically with one source. Such association is not guaranteed by significant marketing expenditures, but surely when Owens Corning communicates with potential customers in pink type on its homepage and tells them \"The color PINK is a registered trademark of Owens Corning,\" it is protecting the current association of that color with its insulation and no other.Protection is not the only issue, however. Zadrozny (2006) notes that managers make better decisions if they track the value of their intangibles, using as examples the possibility of licensing patents and of monitoring quality issues that affect the value of a brand. Overall, he recommends skillfully leveraging the power of intangible assets - and such opportunities are far likelier to claim the attention of management if the value of those intangibles is known and is public.\nA call to action: valuation: Thus, what companies should be doing now, if they already are not doing so, is twofold. One possibility is joining the call to publicize brand value on the balance sheet. A second, assuming that others are issuing that call even if a given firm is not doing so, is to value one's own brand.Several consulting firms currently offer for a company's own use the service of valuing brands, using survey data, financial data, and statistical analysis. Since 1990 all of these consulting companies have invested significantly in developing their own proprietary models. Because each holds these methods as closely guarded secrets, it is impossible to objectively evaluate the virtues of one over another. However, the important lesson that can be garnered from these various firms' creating their own models is that they are directionally similar in their methods, leading to the possibility of developing standard acceptable models across industries. Fortunately, scrutiny of the top 100 corporations' brand equity results as established by the most credible firms performing such measurements shows already that the various measurements are within a relatively close range of each other in terms of their value calculation for any given company.Most consulting firms evaluate brands in one of three ways - as corporate brands, product brands, or a combination of corporate and product brands. Kraft is a corporate brand; Philadelphia Cream Cheese is a product brand, and the entire entity is the combination. So it is important when valuing brands to understand what aspect is considered. Consultants at one firm in this field, CoreBrand, believe that the corporate brand should be identified independently from the product brand, because each brings value in a different manner. Box 1 shows information on its valuation method.For example, AFLAC increased its advertising significantly over a three year period between 2002 and 2005 primarily to increase awareness and revenue. However, the firm also achieved a secondary effect of improving corporate brand equity, creating an identifiable \"premium effect\" of $1.48 billion on its market cap attributable to an increase in brand equity resulting from the campaign. The advertising campaign increased the corporate brand equity as a percentage of market cap for AFLAC from 7.0 percent to 11.0 percent over that three year period vs a change of 4.8 percent to 4.9 percent for the industry over the same period. Considering the $196 million invested in the advertising campaign over three years the ROI was $7.54 for every dollar invested, over and above the impact the campaign had on the traditional drivers of stock performance: revenue, cash flow and earnings growth. By separating the corporate brand from the product brand this premium effect can be readily identified.Companies that manage both product brands and a corporate brand create an even more significant premium value for the market cap of the company. For example, Kraft is worth more as a brand because of the value of Philadelphia Cream Cheese, an entity in the firm's brand portfolio. In turn, the value of Philadelphia Cream Cheese will be greater if any foil-wrapped rectangular solid in the shape of a 3-ounce or 8-ounce block of cream cheese is associated in the public mind only with Philadelphia Brand and ideally also with Kraft.This last example provides several additional reasons to publish brand value. One relates to any kind of \"legal intangible\": to the extent that a significant fraction of brand value rests with a patent, trademark, or other type of intellectual property, the value of that intellectual property can be estimated, a useful calculation for licensing decisions. Likewise, valuation of brand takes into account customer service and other synergy between the business process and the culture/behavior of the company. Finally, elements like trade dress, the \"look and feel\" of a product, can be valued as well, as noted earlier. However, that value may be more volatile; for example, trade dress may be successfully imitated if not associated with one source alone. Investors and potential investors can deduce from the value of a corporate brand that depends on such intangibles a worst-case or best-case financial scenario if they were to be imitated by competitors.For example, Krishnamurthy (2007) conducted a behavioral experiment to help value the Gateway \"cowbox\" package. Box 2 shows the result: $133 as the increment to revenue for each computer sold. Comparing that valuation, multiplied by units sold, to the value of the Gateway brand itself would be possible if that brand value were published on the balance sheet. Then an investor - and Gateway management - could see what proportion of brand value is at risk if the box design were to be imitated and then in a lawsuit found not to be associated only with Gateway in the public mind. The same method could be adapted to value a logo, a brand name in a company's portfolio, or any trademark or trade dress. The legal question in any such circumstance is whether customers or prospective buyers associate a name/logo/trade dress with YOUR company and/or brand. If they don't, you can't necessarily protect it.That realization raises the question of the extent to which any given intangible element is material to the value of a brand. That question is answered by comparing the value of the element to the value of the brand. Is that latter value available to all? Today the answer is negative. But good management and the prospect of a different set of rules tomorrow should provide more than enough spur to action to value that potentially critical asset.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: - The authors offer the viewpoint that a requirement to put the value of intangible assets like brands on a company's balance sheet may be in prospect - and that such a requirement would benefit businesses.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - Brands and elements of brands like a package can be valued, the authors assert, and describe an experiment to value the Gateway \"cowbox\" package. In the study, 61 university students saw identical ads for a computer, except that half saw one with a generic name, half with the name Gateway, and half of each of these two subgroups saw a \"cowbox,\" the other half no package.\nFindings: - The box did not influence the price respondents who saw the Gateway name in their ad said they would expect to pay for the computer. However, the box's presence in an ad for the \"no-name\" computer boosted the expected price from $515 to $648.\nOriginality/value: - If one brand element has a measurable value, investors have a right to know that value. The same applies for the brand as a whole. Furthermore, managers benefit from directing marketing dollars to the promotion of valuable brand elements, to associate them in the public mind with their brand.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Competition and supply chain integration: a taxonomy perspective	[ "China", "Supply chain integration", "Taxonomy", "International competition", "Local competition", "Operational challenge" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: With increasing globalization, competition is intensified in both domestic and international markets (Pedersen and Petersen, 1998; Wiersema and Bowen, 2008). Taking the Chinese tire industry as an example, China has become the biggest manufacturer, exporter, and consumer of tires in the world (Research Report of Chinese Tire Industry, 2012), and Chinese tire companies face local and international competition in both domestic and international markets. In both markets, Chinese firms have to compete against both homogeneous low-cost Chinese competitors and high-technology international companies such as Michelin. However, the low cost strategy has become relatively ineffective in recent years as the costs of labor and raw materials (e.g. natural rubber for the tire industry) have increased in China. Operational challenges including rising operations costs, unreliable supply, and uncertain demand have also pushed Chinese tire companies to adopt new management philosophies and practices to pursue competitive advantages.\n2. Literature review and hypotheses development: 2.1. Competition\n3. Methodology: 3.1. Sampling and data collection\n4. Analysis and results: The descriptive statistics are presented in Table III. The correlations between local competition and II, CI, and SI were not significant, whereas the correlations between international competition and these three dimensions of SCI, and the correlations between operational challenges and these three dimensions were positive and significant. Meanwhile, the correlations between international competition and SCI were stronger than those between operational challenges and SCI. The results confirm our argument that competition has three distinct dimensions that may have different relationships with SCI.\n5. Discussion and conclusions: 5.1. Theoretical contribution\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to investigate the influence of competition on supply chain integration (SCI).\nDesign/methodology/approach: Survey data from 617 manufacturers in China were used in this study. Taxonomy with cluster analysis was used to investigate the patterns of competition, and analysis of variance (ANOVA) was used to investigate the influence of these competition patterns on SCI.\nFindings: Seven competition patterns composed of local competition, international competition, and operational challenges were identified from the survey data. The ANOVA results showed that companies with different patterns achieved significantly different levels of SCI, indicating that higher levels of local competition, international competition, and operational challenges drove higher levels of SCI. Post hoc analyses revealed that international competition had stronger effects than local competition on SCI.\nResearch limitations/implications: The data were collected from a single country, which may limit the generalization of the findings. The data were cross-sectional and thus lacked causal explanatory power.\nPractical implications: The findings provide suggestions for managers to use different configurations of SCI to adapt to different patterns of competition.\nOriginality/value: This study makes three main contributions to the literature. First, it extends the research on the relationship between competition and cooperation to the supply chain management area. Second, it extends the concept of competition by incorporating not only competitive intensity, but also competitive scope and competitive capability. Third, the use of a configuration approach rather than a dimensional approach to investigate the effects of competition on SCI solves many methodological problems.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Strategic foresight in a changing world	[ "Change", "Discontinuity", "Paradigm", "Extraordinary foresight", "Normal foresight", "Ontological" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nPart I: the uncertain and complex nature of change: SOCRATES: Heraclitus is supposed to say that all things are in motion and nothing at rest (Plato et al., 1989, p. 402a).\nPart II: the four types of (ontological) change: [...] there is still a dearth of studies which can make statements about about the how and why of change, about the processual dynamics of change, in short which go beyond the analysis of change and begin to theorize about changing (Pettigrew, 1985).\nPart III: the methodological distinctions of normal and extraordinary foresight: One cannot manage change. One can only be ahead of it. (Drucker, 1999)\nPart IV: a structured approach to scenario analysis, redux: The real test of leadership then, is to be able to compete successfully by both increasing the alignment or fit among the strategy, structure, culture and processes, while simultaneously preparing for the inevitable revolutions required by discontinuous environmental change. (Tushman and O'Reilly, 1996)\nPart V: implications for the management and cultivation of strategic foresight: Scenario planning [...] is a discipline aimed at rediscovering the original entrepreneurial power of foresight in contexts of accelerated change, greater complexity and genuine uncertainty (Wack, 1984).\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: The purpose of this research is to explore the nature of change and the practices of foresight required to anticipate and to plan for change.\nDesign/methodology/approach: Part I provides a sketch of investigations of change and related areas of uncertainty and discontinuity. Part II provides a conceptual framework outlining four types of change: incremental, contextual, structural and foundational. Part III outlines the methodological distinctions required to explore the four types of change characterized here as normal and extraordinary foresight. Part IV combines these examinations to develop a structured approach to scenario analysis. Finally, Part V examines the implications of this work.\nFindings: A structured approach to scenario planning explores four variations of evolutionary and revolutionary changes. It applies both normal and extraordinary foresight to explore the epistemological and ontological boundaries of change and to analyze the impact of shifts in ontological boundaries. While a structured approach applies established tools and techniques, it also directs our attention to areas where we can do more. It is an integral part of strategic foresight in a changing world.\nResearch limitations/implications: This is a conceptual article based on over 25 years of practice in corporate strategy, including 10 years of work in scenario planning. It is also drawn from doctoral research on the epistemological and ontological boundaries of paradigms (Wayland, 2003), as outlined in Thomas S. Kuhn's The Structure of Scientific Revolutions (Kuhn and Hacking, 2012).\nOriginality/value: Recent work examining the epistemological and ontological boundaries of change are linked with a practical framework and methodological distinction. These contributions are combined with a structured approach to scenario planning to improve the ability to anticipate and to plan for change.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Touchstone poetry: writing as a catalyst for moments of development	[ "English language arts", "Poetry", "Writing", "Critical pedagogy", "Critical literacy", "Adolescent literacy" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n__NO_TITLE__: Extant research paints a clear picture of the myriad ways that schools are failing to provide a meaningful education, and meaningful literacy pedagogies, to all youth (Darling-Hammond, 2004; Acosta and Martin, 2013). Given this crisis shouldered disproportionately by youth of color in urban schools, this research takes a retrospective approach to understanding the lasting reverberations of a high school poetry class on a group of students who experienced failure in traditional schools. In contrast to representations of failing schools, current research offers portraits of students engaging in empowering literacies in urban classrooms that make critical use of media arts, poetry and hip hop (Duncan-Andrade and Morrell, 2007, 2008; Fisher, 2003, 2005, 2007; Ginwright, 2004; Hill, 2009; Jocson, 2005, 2008, 2012). Studies illustrate the ways youth in these spaces nurture critical counterstories that confront the devaluing of the voices and lived experiences of youth of color and contribute to what Stovall (2006) describes as racial praxis and healing. The questions driving this study are based on what happens once students step out of these alternative classroom spaces. What was the nature of the writing they produced in what they described as an empowering poetry class and what relationship did it have to their development as young adults? This paper explores the memorable writing produced in the context of a high school poetry class and to unpack how participants situate these texts within their life narratives after high school. Through a dialogic lens, this research makes sense of the relationship between the written words produced by these youth, their actions in and on the world in early adulthood and their moments of development.\nTheoretical framework: Beginning with a Vygotskian understanding of individual development as a socially mediated process (Vygotsky, 1978; Wertsch, 2007), this research examines the role of poems produced in the context of a beloved in-school writing community (Jocson, 2005) as mediating artifacts in the life trajectories of participants. Social poetics (Manning, 2016) frame art as an act of possibility that plays an important role in adolescents' development as agentive individuals and civic actors. This framework highlights a dialogic relationship between art, development and social engagement (Vygotsky, 1971; Bakhtin, 2006). Greene (1988) pushes for a revaluing of community spaces in which dialogue inspires action and informs a dialectic understanding of the relationship between schools and society. Furthermore, this research relies on theories highlighting the ways that youth of color are shaped by and in turn shape social and educational contexts that have not historically served their development (Leonardo and Manning, 2015) and the potential for counter-stories in driving this dialectic relationship (Solorzano and Yosso, 2002).\nMethods: The retrospective case study design relied on theories of memory that frame memories as psychologically real events that have narrative truth and are indicative of how individuals make sense of experiences, particularly those of transitional moments (McAdams and Bowman, 2001). The retrospective approach invited participants to look back at their experiences and their writing to unearth memories. Critical to development, Pillemer (1998) explains that events can significantly alter one's path and that these memories are understood as being true to the participant's narrative construction of experience and therefore meaningful in terms of their understanding of self. This article focuses on interview data from four case study participants (who were between two and six years out from taking the class) in which they were asked to reflect on their experiences in their high school poetry class and on writing they produced to illustrate the role their writings played in their lives after high school.\nFindings and discussion: In exploring the nature of memorable writing participants produced in poetry, I found that participants identified touchstone poems and also linked these back to Mrs Warran's pedagogy that nurtured deep self-exploration through writing, or what many described as \"digging deep\". Many participants attributed these touchstone poems to the groundbreaking encouraged by Mrs Warran's pushing them to delve below the surface to unearth complex feelings. They described her as \"pushing\" and \"forcing [them] to write about emotions\". While initially conjuring images of coercion, the participants expounded memories of a teacher-mentor-poet who coaxed, rather than forced, her students out of their shells as the relationships in the poetry class strengthened. This relational pedagogy (Manning, 2016) inspired what I call touchstone poems that transformed the way they understood themselves or their circumstances and embodied the expansive capabilities of art (Vygotsky, 1971).\nImplications: The texts that youth produced in Mrs Warran's poetry class evidenced digging-deep and facing struggles. These touchstone poems remained as artifacts that they carried with them into adulthood, that helped them overcome challenges and that connected to anchoring memories marking important transformations. All of the touchstone poems identified illustrated an externalizing of inner feelings and memories, often related to various traumas. Discussion of these touchstone poems revealed how they functioned to reorganize experiences and memories and enabled participants to feel increased agency in relation to their struggles. Furthermore, participants regarded these writings as meaningful in their lives after high school and discussed them as pivotal in terms of the young adults they were becoming. While participants held these poems as transformative, their personal and sensitive nature raises important pedagogical dilemmas. Poets collectively took risks in revealing their struggles, especially in a community where so many youth were survivors of abuse. Mrs Warran ran the risk of unearthing student experiences that neither she nor the school had the capacity to intervene in or manage. And yet, the participants in this study remembered this pedagogy as transformational and sometimes life-changing. Because NBHS students shared experiences of marginalization and educational traumas in traditional schools, Mrs Warran invited them to push the boundaries of freedom in the class, teaching, as Greene (1988) describes on the verge.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: Extant research has painted a clear picture of the myriad ways that schools are failing to provide a meaningful education, and meaningful literacy pedagogies, to all youth. Given this crisis shouldered disproportionately by youth of color in urban schools, this paper aims to take a retrospective approach to understanding the lasting reverberations of a high school poetry class on a group of students who experienced urban traumas including but not limited to educational injustices. In contrast to the representations of failing schools, some current research offers various portraits of urban students engaging in empowering ways in classrooms that make critical use of media arts, poetry and hip hop. The questions driving this study are based on what happens once students step out of these alternative classroom spaces. For youth who have dropped out of the traditional system, what was the nature of the writing they produced in an alternative literacy learning space and what relationship did it have to their development as young adults?\nDesign/methodology/approach: Using qualitative case study methodology, this paper explores the memorable writing produced in the context of a high school poetry class by six case study participants to understand its meaning in their lives over time. It is through a dialogic lens that this research makes sense of the relationship between the written words produced by these youth, their actions in and on the world in their early adulthood, and their moments of development as survivors of trauma and as civic actors.\nFindings: Student discussion of what I describe as touchstone poems revealed how these poems functioned to reorganize experiences and memories for the case study participants that enabled them to feel increased agency in relation to their personal and socio-cultural struggles.\nOriginality/value: For these students who were perpetually labeled as at-risk, poetry class served as a space where they could collectively engage in positive risk-taking that held meaning in their lives after high school and catalyzed the development of agentive identities.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Mediated power and sustainable supplier management (SSM): Linking power use, justice, and supplier performance	[ "Survey", "Prospect theory", "Justice", "Sustainable supply chain management", "Power use", "Sustainable performance", "Sustainable supplier management" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: In the age of global sourcing, sustainability is no longer internal to an organization. Any unexpected sustainability issues occurring along the supply chain may greatly threaten the normal operations of a global brand (Hajmohammad and Vachon, 2016). Thus, it has become increasingly clear that the sustainable performance and reputation of focal firms depend significantly on the cooperation of their suppliers, which they may have limited control over (Schnittfeld and Busch, 2016). To the extent that single firms cannot tackle sustainability issues on their own, sustainable supplier management (SSM) has assumed an increasingly pivotal role in sustainable supply chain management (SSCM) (Chen and Chen, 2019). SSM is essential because even if most sustainability misconduct occurs upstream (Ehrgott et al., 2013), the more visible brand companies receive the most criticism (Schmidt et al., 2017).\nConceptual model and hypotheses: This study posits that as focal buyers exert their power to extend sustainability to suppliers through SSM, suppliers may respond differently to buyers' use of power. We question the contention that buyers' power use guarantees SSP. Figure 1 depicts our model linking coercive and reward power with SSM, justice, and SSP, in which buyers' power use affects the effectiveness of SSM in two ways: it influences SSP through the mediated role of SSM; and it impacts justice perception, which moderates the relationship between SSM and SSP.\nResearch methodology: Survey instrument\nAnalysis and results: To analyze our model, we employed the partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) technique using the SmartPLS 3.0 software. A PLS-SEM approach was chosen over covariance-based techniques because it: works well with small sample sizes and makes no distributional assumptions about the underlying data; is more suitable for exploratory research and complex models with many constructs and indicators; and has advantages in estimating moderating effects.\nDiscussion and implications: This study complements and extends SSCM research by examining the differential impact of reward and coercive power on justice perception and analyzing the direct and indirect effects of justice perception on SSM and performance links. Our empirical data reveal that: both reward and coercive power can help buyers implement SSM; reward power has a positive, whereas coercion has a negative, impact on justice perception; and justice perception moderates the effect of SSM implementation on sustainable performance. By clarifying the intricate relationships, this paper makes a few contributions to the SSCM literature.\nConclusions: Firms that are in control of economic resources are increasingly finding themselves reliant on suppliers for controlling social and environmental resources (Touboulic et al., 2014). As such, SSM has become an integral part of corporate sustainability initiatives (Schnittfeld and Busch, 2016). Since buyer-supplier relationships are shaped not only by economic rationales, but also by social norms of fairness and reciprocity (Reimann and Ketchen, 2017), justice perceptions are vital to SSM success. To the extent that humans are motivated beyond economic payoffs and do not always act rationally, human behavior is central to understanding SCM. Nonetheless, the human dimension is the most underrepresented research topic in SCM (Schorsch et al., 2017). This study adds to behavioral SCM research by examining how buyers' exercise of power might differentially influence suppliers' justice perception and responses to SSM. Specifically, as the first large-scale empirical investigation to address gaps in the extant literature, this study provides compelling evidence that reward power and coercion work inversely by boosting and harming justice perceptions, respectively, which subsequently enhance or diminish the impact of SSM implementation on sustainable performance. Thus, although coercive power might be convenient and tempting for buying firms, managers ought to be judicious in the use of coercion.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: As focal buyers implement sustainable supplier management (SSM) to advance their supply chain sustainability, the purpose of this paper is to provide a more nuanced understanding of how buyers' use of power may incite varying perceptions of justice from suppliers that affect sustainable supplier performance (SSP).\nDesign/methodology/approach: This paper draws on multidisciplinary literature and collects empirical data from 181 supplying firms in China to examine the complex links among power use, justice, SSM, and sustainable performance using partial least squares structural equation modeling.\nFindings: Both coercive and reward buyer power can facilitate SSM implementation and justice perception moderates the impact of SSM on SSP. Furthermore, coercive power adversely influences justice evaluation, thereby attenuating the effect of SSM on performance.\nResearch limitations/implications: This study complements and extends sustainable supply chain management research by evaluating SSM: on environmental, social and economic performance; from the perspectives of suppliers; and in an emerging market where many suppliers of Western firms are located. It also adds to behavioral SCM research by examining how buyers' exercise of power might influence suppliers' justice perception.\nPractical implications: To implement SSM, focal buyers cannot simply issue codes of conduct to suppliers and ignore suppliers' disposition to commit to standards. While coercive power might be convenient and tempting for buying firms, managers ought to be judicious in the use of coercion.\nOriginality/value: This is the first large-scale empirical investigation on the links among power use, justice, SSM and sustainable performance from the perspectives of suppliers in an emerging economy.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Gender at work, one size does not fit all	[ "Gender differences", "Diversity", "Employee engagement", "Leadership development", "Progression of women", "Retention of women" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nUnderstanding gender differences for improving team success: Recent research in neuroscience and bio-psychology finds that men and women are mostly the same. Yet, small differences are found and those make a huge difference at work.\nLeaders learn to lead men, but what about women?: Despite these differences, leadership training, tools and techniques, are all based on research with heavily male-dominated groups. This comes from a practical situation, and becomes easier to understand once you know that leadership research is often run at business schools with groups of students for instance. If a researcher wants to know how people respond to different leadership styles or to different types of reward and encouragement, they need large, easily accessible groups of people to work with. Students at their own institution are often fit for that purpose. Traditionally, however, these were male dominated groups. A lot of this type of research was done in the 1950s and 1960s when business school populations were over 90 per cent male. But even now as much as 70 per cent of business school students are male.\nTop sports coaches flex for female players: One place where this has already happened is in the world of top sports, where teams of coaches are constantly evaluating their impact on team performance. Coaches of women in sports have had to learn over the years that to be successful they need to adapt their style to what women need to perform. They have found that some of that significantly differs from that what men need.\nTransferring the learning to organisations: What sports coaches do may not work in the office though. So, to test this, we taught male and female line managers about the (brain) differences between men and women in a series of workshops. We taught them the gender-specific approaches that can be used in sports to create an environment that enables performance in both men and women.\nLine managers and women need to become gender smart: Men and women are not the same, and respond differently in the same situation. Organisations, team leaders and line managers need to learn about brain wiring and psychological differences, so they can adapt their style, just like sports coaches do. That is what we have called Gender Smart Leadership.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: Leaders have learned to lead men. Women are different and organisations will need to adapt to maximise progress and performance of women as well as men. Line managers need to be aware of gender differences in their approach of a mixed gender team. The paper aims to discuss this issue.\nDesign/methodology/approach: In a review of literature, key gender differences that could play a role at work were identified. Five top sports coaches were interviewed to find how they had to adapt to improve performance of female teams. Practical application of their strategies in organisations was tested in four workshops and 15 interviews with women and managers.\nFindings: Six key gender differences were identified. Top sports coaches confirmed that they had to adapt their style to a female team, and could relate those to some of the differences from literature. The workshops and interviews showed that teaching managers to adapt their style is a promising approach.\nResearch limitations/implications: The research was set up to find if there is merit in being aware of gender differences in organisations. There is, but as it is exploratory research it is now important to find further evidence.\nOriginality/value: Gender diversity efforts tend to be focused on equality, flexible working, and upgrading women's skills. This paper highlights that those initiatives are not enough, and organisations need to adapt to women's needs to maximise performance and progress of women as well as men.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Hong Kong, a gateway for mainland China? Examining the impact of luxury fashion retailers' ownership structures on expansion strategies	[ "Hong Kong", "Internationalisation strategies", "Luxury brand management", "Mainland China", "Parenting advantage", "Post-entry expansions" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: The landscape of the international luxury fashion market has changed dramatically in recent years because of the rapid growth of emerging markets, particularly China (Shukla et al., 2015). Compared with the saturation and stagnation of many traditional key markets, such as Japan, Northern America and Western Europe, Greater China and particularly mainland China, has been one of the few luxury fashion markets to have experienced significant growth during the global economic recession (Zhan and He, 2012). Indeed, the consumption of luxury fashion products in mainland China increased sharply until 2014 (Bai, 2016). Although there has been a slowdown since 2015, the majority of foreign luxury fashion retailers remain optimistic, and believe it is a transition period, evidenced by the retailers' continuous expansion into mainland China and their increasingly sophisticated consumer base (He and Wang, 2017).\n2. Theoretical frameworks: 2.1 Defining luxury fashion retailers\n3. Methodology: The research philosophy adopted by this study is pragmatism, as it advocates that there is no pre-determined theory or framework to shape knowledge and understanding in the social world (Creswell, 2014). Pragmatic researchers look at the \"what\" and \"how\" in research, and believe in both the external world independent of the mind and that lodged in the mind (Silverman, 2015). Therefore, the researcher is free to choose research methods considered most appropriate to understanding the questions.\n4. Findings and discussions: 4.1 General information of the survey respondents\n5. Conclusion: This study examines the importance of Hong Kong as a gateway to mainland China from the perspective of international luxury fashion retailers' in terms of ownership structure and the influence of parenting advantage to their internationalisation strategies into the Chinese market. Generally, group-owned luxury fashion retailers encounter fewer difficulties than their individually owned counterparts when entering into mainland China because of parenting advantage. This parenting advantage is reflected in stand-alone influence, linkage influence and functional and services influence, including financial support, management talent, standardised supply chain and the benefit of obtaining good store locations for the brand portfolio. Therefore, the importance of Hong Kong is not same for the two kinds of luxury fashion retailers, group-owned subsidiaries and individual brands, in the following aspects: cross-border shopping market, experience (landing market for mainland China) and in offering a cultural buffer zone.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to examine luxury fashion retailers' ownership structures at their internationalisation strategies in Hong Kong and mainland China.\nDesign/methodology/approach: This study adopts a pragmatic mixed methods approach, comprising a quantitative mail survey and ten qualitative executive interviews.\nFindings: This study found that group-owned luxury fashion retailers usually encounter fewer difficulties when internationalising into mainland China than their individually owned counterparts because of parenting advantage, particularly functional and service support. However, the success of some individually owned brands has demonstrated that branding strategies, management culture, international experience, financial power and local partners' know-how are as important as parent company support and although the luxury market in mainland China has become developed, many foreign luxury fashion retailers still enter Hong Kong prior to mainland China. However, in relation to post-entry management and expansion strategies, the importance of Hong Kong has weakened because the emergence of capital cities, the growth of the middle class and fewer political restrictions.\nResearch limitations/implications: The research findings are generated in the context of Hong Kong and mainland China, they are therefore limited in explaining luxury fashion retailers' internationalisation strategies in other markets. Despite the challenge of the sample size, 63 out of 130 survey respondents (48.5 per cent response rate) and ten interview participants are felt to be sufficient to represent the market.\nPractical implications: This research can be used by practitioners when assessing appropriate entry strategies to the Chinese luxury fashion market.\nOriginality/value: This is a pioneering study of the Chinese luxury market from the perspective of international retail strategies. It differentiates between Greater China (including Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan) and mainland China, and examines the impact of luxury fashion retailers' ownership structures on their internationalisation strategies.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Development and application of a benchmarking information system in clusters of SMEs	[ "Benchmarking", "Small to medium‐sized enterprises", "Performance management", "Cluster analysis" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: In recent years, there has been growing attention to clustering as a means to boost growth and competitiveness of enterprises, especially SMEs (Krugman, 1991; Porter, 1998; Humphrey and Schmitz, 1998). Although the term cluster is indiscriminately used for quite a wide range of business arrangements, in its broad sense it refers to a geographical concentration of certain economic activities.The agglomeration of firms in similar or related activities can improve the availability of production resources, improving quality and reducing costs. Can also open-market opportunities otherwise inaccessible to small firms. These advantages make clustering quite beneficial to the firms, especially SMEs, as well as to the economic and social sustainability of local and regional communities.In parallel to the evolving theory and practice on clustering over the past decades, benchmarking has gained wide acceptance among organizations as a practice to improve business performance and competitiveness. Benchmarking is defined as the process of comparing a firm's operational and managerial practices and performance against others, competitors or not, in order to achieve improvements (Bhutta and Huq, 1999). It is also a strategy for organizational learning. Despite the fact that benchmarking is spread in the business environment, it is not much known or used by SMEs (Cassell et al., 2001).To facilitate the process of finding benchmarking data and partners, benchmarking databases and services have became available through the internet. In such databases, a company may share its information regarding performance and best practices and, in return, have the same sort of information from other companies sharing information (Welch and Mann, 2001). For a cluster of SMEs, a benchmarking database can be a powerful instrument for information sharing and promotion of joint actions among companies within the cluster, so as to improve organizational learning and the collective efficiency of the cluster. In view of that, the main objective of this paper is to present and discuss the development and application of a benchmarking information system, composed of a database accessed by the internet designed for use within a cluster. In the following section, the subjects of benchmarking and clustering are briefly reviewed. Next, the proposed benchmarking information system is presented. A pilot application of the information system is described and discussed. It concludes with a discussion on the benefits and difficulties of such a proposal and further research directions.\nBenchmarking: Benchmarking practices can be generically classified according to the nature of the object of study of benchmarking and the partners against whom comparisons are made. In terms of object of study, benchmarking can be classified as (Spendolini, 1993):* Process benchmarking. Used to compare operations, work practices and business processes.* Product benchmarking. Used to compare products and/or services.* Strategic benchmarking. Used to compare organisational structures, management practices and business strategies. In a sense, it shares some similarities with process benchmarking.Benchmarking partners may include other units of the same organisation, competitors in the same or different geographical markets and organisations in related or unrelated industries, in the same or different countries.Classifications of benchmarking found in the literature are mainly based on the type of partner, as follows (Camp, 1989):* Internal benchmarking. By comparison of performance of units or departments within one organisation. Even though not explicit in this definition, comparison can also be made between similar products or services of similar business units.* Competitive benchmarking. By comparison of performance with a direct competitor's product. In this case, comparison of products or services and business processes can be made. Reverse engineering is a more appropriate term for product benchmarking.* Functional benchmarking. It is an application of process benchmarking that compares a particular business function in two or more organisations in the same industry.* Generic benchmarking. Search for the best practice irrespectively of industry. It is similar to functional benchmarking but the aim is to compare with the best in class regardless of industry.The most publicised benchmarking procedure was proposed by Camp (1989) and was originally developed and applied at Xerox Corporation as part of its TQM effort. Other models are described by Zairi and Leonard (1994). Although different companies have adopted different models of benchmarking, most of these models generally conform to a process comprising five basic steps, as shown in Figure 1 (Drew, 1997).A very critical issue of the benchmarking practice relates to legal aspects and ethics in the relationships between partners. Boulter (2003) presents the circumstances in which intellectual property should be protected. Concerning the relationship with benchmarking partners, the Benchmarking Clearinghouse of the American Productivity and Quality Center (APQC, 2004) has produced a code of conduct for an effective, efficient and ethical benchmarking process. Among its principles, it emphasizes:* Legality. Verify legal aspects of the study, as if there are restraints to market or questions of trade secret.* Exchange. Provide to the benchmarking partner the same type of the requested information, in a complete and timely manner, so that mutual benefits can be perceived.* Use of information. The benchmarking data must be used just for benchmarking purposes and information obtained about other organizations during the study must not be communicated outside unless there is a prior permission.Several organisations offer services that facilitate the development of benchmarking projects. For instance, The Benchmarking Exchange(c) enables members, among other things, to electronically locate and communicate with potential benchmarking partners, to research best in class companies, to find out how they achieved best in class performance or to seek assistance and advice from others who have already benchmarked on subjects a company is about to benchmark. Benchmarking services are also provided by the Benchmarking Clearinghouse of the APQC. Welch and Mann (2001) provide a comprehensive review of performance improvement web sites.Although it is widely spread among large companies, benchmarking has limited use in SMEs. In a research conducted in the UK with 100 SMEs (Cassell et al., 2001), it was verified that one-third of them had never used any benchmarking information and none of the respondents had systematic benchmarking procedures. The companies that did not use benchmarking put this down to a lack of time and resources. Another finding is that, as well as in large companies, in SMEs there is a bias towards \"hard\" indicators instead to the \"soft\" ones, with focus in financial performance, customer satisfaction and quality of products and services, with prejudice to the human and organizational issues. Furthermore, benchmarking is informally conducted and concentrated upon external measures of performance such as profitability, market share, quality and customer service, obtained through trade journals and other sector sources.In this same research, in spite of the perceived effectiveness of the studies to be high, almost one-third of the sample (31 percent) reported no interest in using benchmarking. The authors speculate that this occur due to the managers in SMEs are not convinced of the potential of benchmarking, once best practice benchmarking studies reported in the literature have focused on large firms.Differently of the findings in SMEs, Ramabadran et al. (2004) argue that with the growth and maturity of benchmarking practice, its focus is shifting to more cooperative studies that give qualitative understanding of the process. More and more, there have been related collaborative benchmarking in contexts other than in companies, for instance, in countries (Prasad and Tata, 2006) or regional and local government as described by Harmes-Liedtke (2005). According to this author, agents of local development can exchange experiences through the territorial competitive benchmarking.\nIndustrial clustering: Clusters are geographic concentrations of interconnected companies, specialized suppliers, service providers, firms in related industries, and associated institutions (e.g. universities, standard agencies, and trade associations) in a particular field that compete but also cooperate (Porter, 1998). Schmitz and Nadvi (1999) point out that the agglomeration of enterprises engaged in similar or related activities brings advantages such as a pool of specialized workers, easy access to suppliers of specialized inputs and services and the quick dissemination of new knowledge. Such advantages, called localized external economies, can contribute to the reduction of costs for clustered enterprises. The concept of external economies, used by Krugman (1991) to explain why agglomeration can bring the benefit of efficiency and competitiveness, was first developed by Marshall (Schmitz, 1999), in his nearly centenary book Principles of Economics. He noted that the agglomeration of firms working in similar or related activities generates advantages such as a pool of suppliers of raw material, equipment and specialized services, a pool of specialized workers and the dissemination of new knowledge.Adding to the theory on industrial clustering, Schmitz and Nadvi (1999) argue that the results of external economies are not a sufficient explanation for the growth of companies in a cluster. While it is true that the concept of external economies remain valid to explain the growth of clustering today, Schmitz (1999) and Schmitz and Nadvi (1999) propose that deliberate cooperation in joint actions is an essential second component to explain the benefits of clustering. They then define the concept of collective efficiency as the competitive advantage derived from the combination of local external economies and cooperative joint actions (Schmitz and Nadvi, 1999). They also differentiate the concept of passive and active collective efficiency, to express the fact that some benefits require joint action to occur while others come from external economies. Such active collective efficiency can be derived from horizontal cooperation (between competitors) or vertical cooperation (for instance between producer and supplier) either bilateral or multilateral (for instance groups of firms joining forces in business associations or producer consortia). Examples of active collective efficiency include: the organization of trade fairs, the development of suppliers, human resources or other resources required for production; and the development of actions aiming at mitigating social or environmental problems.Considering this theoretical frame, a more appropriate definition of cluster should take into account external effects and interaction. Porter (1998) presents a definition of cluster as a geographic concentration of interconnected companies, specialized suppliers, service providers, firms in related industries, and associated institutions (e.g. universities, standard agencies, and trade associations) in a particular field that compete but also cooperate. Altenburg and Meyer-Stamer (1999) list some characteristics that, besides external economies and joint actions, are said to be present in most definitions of cluster, which basically comprise the following points:* forward and backward linkages between firms inside the cluster;* information exchange between firms and institutions;* the existence of diversified institutional infrastructure supporting the activities of the cluster; and* a social and cultural identity made up of common values.The adoption of the concepts and practices of benchmarking to carry out joint actions among companies of a cluster can aid to consolidate cooperation, linkages and information exchange among companies as well as develop a culture of continuous innovation, thus contributing to the development of the collective efficiency of the cluster. In that sense, a benchmarking information system as presented in the next section can be very helpful for that purpose.\nThe benchmarking information system: The benchmarking information system proposed for this application comprises two parts: the database itself and a web application for remote access to the database, which was developed, respectively, in SQL Server and Active Server Pages. Its homepage, accessed through the address www.numa.org.br/pb, presents general information on benchmarking, links of interest and how to perform benchmarking. To gain access to the database, the company has to fill in an electronic form with: identification and contact information; number of employees and sales volume; and the code of its economic activity according to the Brazilian National Economic Activity Classification. In the form, the company may choose to have its name disclosed or kept anonymous (default option). After sending the form, the company will have to wait for authorization to gain access to the database so as to input data and generate reports.Restricted area\nCase study: In Brazil, there has been a growing interest in studying and supporting industrial clustering, especially of small firms, mainly motivated by several successful cases reported in the specialized literature as well as in the press (Schmitz, 1999; Altenburg and Meyer-Stamer, 1999). Puga (2003), using a methodology based on location quotient (relative significance of employment in a particular industrial sector in a region compared to its significance in Brazil, greater than five) and the location Gini coefficient (equal or greater than 0.5), identified 193 agglomerations in Brazil, made up of nearly 77,000 companies, responsible for over 680,000 jobs and exports of over $3,700 million. Of these, 42 clusters are in the State of Sao Paulo, mainly in the sectors of footwear, textile, furniture, and ceramics.Realizing the importance of industrial clusters for economic and social development, the Federation of Industries of the State of Sao Paulo (FIESP) and the \"SEBRAE\" (an agency for supporting small enterprises) have launched a project to promote cooperation among companies in several industrial clusters in the State of Sao Paulo.In order to test and analyze the applicability of the benchmarking information system proposed in the previous section, pilot applications were carried out in two industrial clusters of SMEs which were participating a project funded by government agencies to improve productivity and results. Case research was the general research methodology adopted for field research (Voss et al., 2002). The criteria for choosing the clusters were: the involvement of a governing body that promotes joint actions among the companies of the cluster. In the first case, participation in the project promoted by FIESP/SEBRAE was used as an indicator of such an involvement.First research case\nConclusions: The information system for collaborative benchmarking and performance management developed in this study is in line with benchmarking trends reviewed in the literature. However, the applications have shown that it takes quite a long time to build a database that can be really meaningful for benchmarking purposes and that it requires management maturity, an organizational culture of performance management and finally systematic procedures to collect and input data.However, despite the difficulties pointed out and the lack of maturity for benchmarking and performance management to be overcome, the governing institutions and most of the companies have realized that implementation of this system in itself represents a step towards managing the improvement of this cluster.For consolidation of this information system, it should be expanded to include data of SMEs of different clusters, in the same or different industries. This will bring the benefit of a more attractive database as well as will enable functional benchmarking. Other ways of inducing enrolment of the SMEs in the information system should be thought of such as offering awards for best reported management practices; or it could be in the form of discounts in the affiliation fee of associations.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: - The paper aims to focus on the development and application of a benchmarking information system designed for use within a cluster.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - Case study as the field research methodology for theory testing and refinement.\nFindings: - Despite the difficulties and a lack of maturity for benchmarking and performance management to be overcome, the governing institutions and most of the companies have realized that implementation of the system in itself represents a step towards managing improvement of the clusters.\nResearch limitations/implications: - Research is still at an early stage and applications of the information system need to be carried on further so as to review and validate it.\nPractical implications: - Absence of a culture of decision making based on analysis of information and lack of resources may create some difficulty in using metrics for a cluster of SMEs.\nOriginality/value: - The paper proposes to apply the concepts and techniques of business performance management and improvement to manage performance of clusters of companies, offering a new approach on how to improve the collective efficiency of a cluster.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Exploring the link between climate change perceptions and adaptation strategies among smallholder farmers in Chimanimani district of Zimbabwe	[ "Zimbabwe", "Climate change", "Adaptation", "Resilience", "Perceptions", "Smallholder farmers" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: Since the turn of the twenty-first century, numerous studies have been carried to assess the impact of climate change on smallholder farming systems (FitzRoy and Papyrakis, 2013; Arbuckle et al., 2015; Ibrahim et al., 2015; Opiyo et al., 2015; Mugari et al., 2016; Mutunga et al., 2017). Previous research has consistently shown that climate change remains a significant challenge to the attainment of higher productivity among smallholder farmers who predominantly rely on rainfed agriculture in Sub-Saharan Africa (Hassan and Nhemachena, 2008; Deressa et al., 2011; Arbuckle et al., 2015). Apart from persistent constraints such as disease and pest infestation and post-harvest losses, climate change has exacerbated the socio-economic context of smallholder farmers in Africa through its effects on infrastructure, household income and food self-sufficiency (Hassan and Nhemachena, 2008; Opiyo et al., 2015; Limantol et al., 2016; Mugari et al., 2016; Elum et al., 2017). As a result, policy and development attention has been gradually shifting toward building resilience against climate change through a process of systematic incorporation of adaptation measures (Gbetibouo, 2009; Mashapa et al., 2013; Opiyo et al., 2015; Elum et al., 2017).\n2. Methodology: 2.1 Study area\n3. Results and discussion: 3.1 Farmers' demographic and socio-economic characteristics\n4. Conclusion and recommendations: This study was concerned with examining if there was a link between farmers' perception of climate change and the responses implemented at the household level. One major implication from the findings is that farm activities undertaken by farmers are often a reaction or response to the farmer's perception of a production-related issue or factor whether supported by indigenous or scientific knowledge. In this case, public policy can be enhanced with empirical evidence. Conventional educational training methods whereby \"experts\" attempt to enhance local knowledge on climate change may not be helpful on their own. Instead, research and education methods that appreciate the value of context-specific social and cultural knowledge about climate change need to be emphasized. Therefore, knowledge from institutions such as AGRITEX or non-governmental organizations need to package climate change information using cultural-based methods such as local drama and folklore to increase understanding of climate change concepts. The government should also ensure secure land tenure rights in order to stimulate investment on farms hence adaptation to climate change. By establishing secure land tenure system, this will have a signaling effect for rural farmers to invest and thus build resilience in the long run (Table V).\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to establish the association between smallholder farmer perceptions toward climate change and adaptation strategies at the household level in Chimanimani District of Zimbabwe.\nDesign/methodology/approach: Data were collected from 284 households mainly using a structured questionnaire. The Heckman probit selection model was used to first identify the underlying socio-economic factors that affect households' recognition of climate change in the past 10 years, and the second model the factors that influence adaptation to the climate change phenomenon.\nFindings: The majority of farmers (85 percent) perceived that climate change, characterized by rising temperatures and variability in rainfall patterns, has been occurring in the past ten years. As a response, farmers adapted using methods such as manuring and staggering of planting dates. Indigenous knowledge systems and non-governmental organizations increased the likelihood farmers' recognition of climate change (p<0.05). The probability of adopting multiple adaptation strategies was influenced by household head's education level, land tenure and access to public extension services.\nPractical implications: Integrative extension methods that take into account socio-cultural values could be helpful in building resilience as farmers are better able to understand the climate change construct. There is a need to guarantee land tenure rights in resettlement areas to stimulate investment on farms.\nOriginality/value: This study showed that there is a link between farmers' prior knowledge of climate change and the number of adaptive investments. The analysis proposed an educational and extension approach that is embedded in the socio-cultural and traditional setting of farmers.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Knowledge discovery out of text data: a systematic review via text mining	[ "Data mining", "Systematic review", "Text mining", "Big data analytics", "Knowledge discovery", "Data extraction" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: Before the fourth industrial revolution, in theory and practice, knowledge management (KM) has been based on the premise that only human beings are able to draw on the full potential of their brain. In fact, digital organizations are generally notable to fully use their employees' knowledge.\n2. Literature review: Owing to the phenomenon of globalization, especially in the business-to-consumer (B2C) market, firms are creating social network-driven partnerships, and vast amounts of information flow across and within firms, so that more and more businesses are interested in using big data analytics (Reyes and Rosso, 2012; Liu et al., 2014; Lo et al., 2016).\n3. Methodology: A systematic review brings results together and shows different perspectives to inform scholars and practitioners to address further research (O'Mara-Eves et al., 2015, p. 3). In this line, the authors identify the main publications from 1999 to 2017, showing how knowledge discovery has been approached by adopting the text mining technique. The scope is to reduce the effect of publication redundancy. Basically, the authors adopt a multi-layered method to searching which is based on a wide Boolean searches of online reference databases, key information and \"citation trails\".\n4. Results: It has emerged that from 1998 to 2009, the terms knowledge and text were always used. From 2010 to 2017 in addition to these terms, sentiment analysis, review manipulation, microblogging data and knowledgeable users were the other terms frequently used.\n5. Discussion and conclusion: To reduce redundant studies and to avoid the possibilities of missing relevant publications, this present research offers a systematic literature review.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: The aim of this work is to increase awareness of the potential of the technique of text mining to discover knowledge and further promote research collaboration between knowledge management and the information technology communities. Since its emergence, text mining has involved multidisciplinary studies, focused primarily on database technology, Web-based collaborative writing, text analysis, machine learning and knowledge discovery. However, owing to the large amount of research in this field, it is becoming increasingly difficult to identify existing studies and therefore suggest new topics.\nDesign/methodology/approach: This article offers a systematic review of 85 academic outputs (articles and books) focused on knowledge discovery derived from the text mining technique. The systematic review is conducted by applying \"text mining at the term level, in which knowledge discovery takes place on a more focused collection of words and phrases that are extracted from and label each document\" (Feldman et al., 1998, p. 1).\nFindings: The results revealed that the keywords extracted to be associated with the main labels, id est, knowledge discovery and text mining, can be categorized in two periods: from 1998 to 2009, the term knowledge and text were always used. From 2010 to 2017 in addition to these terms, sentiment analysis, review manipulation, microblogging data and knowledgeable users were the other terms frequently used. Besides this, it is possible to notice the technical, engineering nature of each term present in the first decade. Whereas, a diverse range of fields such as business, marketing and finance emerged from 2010 to 2017 owing to a greater interest in the online environment.\nOriginality/value: This is a first comprehensive systematic review on knowledge discovery and text mining through the use of a text mining technique at term level, which offers to reduce redundant research and to avoid the possibility of missing relevant publications.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Competence and capability in quality in the high-tech sector: an international comparison	[ "Capabilities", "Quality management", "Global operations management" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Investment in quality improvement programs being linked to improved firm performance has been established through an extensive body of research in the operations management literature (Nair, 2006). As investment in quality-related initiatives expands evidence suggests that plant managers should expect to be able to develop systems capable of delivering significant improvements in plant performance (Ittner, 1994; Waldman, 1994; Flynn et al., 1995; Powell, 1995; Schroeder et al., 2005). At the same time the capability to institutionalize quality through the adoption of quality management methods is often problematic (Beer, 2003). This problem in fact provides one of the ongoing opportunities for research in this area (Schroeder et al., 2005), and is further reinforced by the recognition of the importance of contingencies in this context (Sousa and Voss, 2001).\nTheoretical foundation: Manufacturing competence and capability\nMethod: Research database and sample\nResults: H1. Investment in quality management systems and methods over the measured time span will be higher in the Chinese and emerging economy plants than in those in the industrialized economies.\nDiscussion: Four of the hypotheses are supported in terms of the proposed relationships between the emerging and industrialized economy plants. The emerging economy plants record investing significantly more resources in quality management programs than the plants in the industrialized economies. This is consistent with the predicted outcome using the theory of performance frontiers (Vastag, 2000; Schmenner and Swink, 1998). The evidence suggests that investment in quality improvement is constrained in the industrialized economy plants by the technological limits of assets (Rosenzweig and Roth, 2004), and it is a plausible scenario that this is due to the maturity of quality systems. There is also evidence to indicate that the industrialized plants have a higher degree of competence in quality. Consistent with the establishment of a link having been established between competence and performance in operations (Schmenner and Vastag, 2006), these plants can therefore be expected, on average, to be more consistent and reliable in this area. The two groups do, however, converge in capability for quality improvement over time, a result not as hypothesized. This is perhaps consistent with the constraints on improvement inherent in a learning environment (emerging economy group) (Wright, 1936) outweighing the relative levels of maturity of systems and the natural limits of performance frontiers hypothesized for the industrialized group (Vastag, 2000).\nImplications for theory: There are a number of implications for theory resulting from this study. First, the differentiation between and measuring manufacturing competence based on current performance (in this study reject rates at four different points in the value chain), and capability based on improvement in performance outcomes over time (in this study changes in reject rates over a two year period at four different points in the value chain) has been proposed and tested. The debate in the operations management literature over the past 20 years around what constitutes competence, capability and related concepts such as competitive priorities has been considerable (Safizadeh et al., 2000; Swink and Hegarty, 1998; Vickery et al., 1993, 1994; Schmenner and Vastag, 2006; Cleveland et al., 1989). In this study definitions of competence and capability from other management disciplines have been used to clarify and simplify these concepts. Competence has been distilled into \"what we can do now,\" and capability into \"performance improvement over time.\" The testing of the hypotheses using these two measures provides evidence supporting the conceptual and predictive validity of this method. As such, this study contributes to the debate clarifying the difference between competence and capability, and importantly establishes why this difference is an important point of definition in operations. The relevance and practicality of using theory developed and tested in other management and cognate disciplines is also highlighted.\nImplications for practice: Investment in quality management methods may not always result in discernible variance in quality indicators. In this study this has been shown to be the case in plants in the industrialized world, highlighting the importance of developing a requisite proficiency in innovation. For the plants in an emerging economy significant changes in performance can be realized, but should not be expected. In fact the evidence suggests that factors such as the apparent gap between an operations and asset frontier may at the same time offer opportunity and some risk. If the gap is to be bridged, investment in quality management must lead to changes in both culture and practice, neither of which have been shown to be easily achieved. For the plants in China the lack of positive variance in either competence or capability attributable to investment in quality management programs presents a dilemma. On the one hand, if quality competence is low it would not be recommended to abandon such programs. On the other, continued investment in programs not yielding discernible outcomes becomes more difficult to justify over time. The solution may lie in focussing on how and where these resources are being invested, and how quality management is actually valued within a firm and/or plant. Much of the research in this area highlights the importance of \"commitment\" in changing the quality culture of an organization. Perhaps these results further serve to highlight the salience of this concept in this context.\nLimitations and opportunities for further research: Although this study draws on a reasonably large data set (343 plants from 17 countries) it is recognized that access to further longitudinal data would be of particular value. It is also noted that in segmenting the data into three groups based on the extent of economic development the statistical power of the regression models within each group has been reduced. As such some of the findings may be subject to Type 11 error. Further studies in this area are encouraged based on larger (and preferably longitudinal) data sets within each of the countries of interest. We also recognize that the sample from China is drawn from a single city (Shanghai) and therefore further studies may be needed drawing responses from a wider range of economic zones within this country.\nConclusion: This study has developed a method for differentiating and empirically measuring quality competence and capability using data from a global manufacturing plant level study. It has been shown that the theory of performance frontiers can be used to explain differences in levels of investment in quality management, as well as competence and capability, in plants across regions with varying levels of economic development. In doing so, it has been shown that this theory is a useful predictor of competence and capability in this context. Further, it is shown that China provides an example of a special case in that it does not display the same characteristics as other emerging economy plants. In particular, the evidence that the plants in China in this study do not possess similar levels of quality competence and capability, and struggle to make investment in quality management alter outcomes, is of importance. As China takes over more global manufacturing, the ability to develop systems and processes able to deliver reliable and high-quality products will become a competitive imperative of great interest to all stakeholders.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to compare Chinese high-tech firms with other international firms in terms of quality capability and competence.\nDesign/methodology/approach: This study uses data from the GMRG fourth round survey and provides a method for differentiating and empirically measuring quality competence and capability using a sample of 343 plants in 17 countries in the high-tech manufacturing sector.\nFindings: It is shown that the theory of performance frontiers can be used to explain differences in levels of investment in quality management, as well as competence and capability, in plants across regions with varying levels of economic development. Further, it is shown that plants in China provide an example of a special case in that they do not display the same characteristics as plants in other emerging economies.\nResearch limitations/implications: The study is limited to the high-tech sector and is also constrained by the countries in which the GMRG data has been gathered.\nPractical implications: Investment in quality management methods may not always result in discernible variance in quality indicators. In this study this has been shown to be the case in plants in the industrialized world, highlighting the importance of developing a requisite proficiency in innovation. For the plants in China leverage may lie in focussing on how and where resources are being invested, and how quality management is actually valued within a plant.\nSocial implications: The study indicates that although some economies in the world may experience rapid growth this also needs to be tempered by a requisite investment in building human capability.\nOriginality/value: The evidence indicates that the plants in China in this study do not possess similar levels of quality competence and capability, and struggle to make investment in quality management alter outcomes.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Evaluation of aviation-based safety team training in a hospital in The Netherlands	[ "Quality improvement", "Professional education", "Hospitals", "Teamwork" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nBackground: Studies have shown that too often health care is hazardous rather than beneficial, with unnecessary morbidity and mortality (Kohn et al., 1999; Haynes et al., 2009; Leape et al., 2009; Classen et al., 2010). Human factors seem to cause most incidents and failures (Reason, 1990; Griffin and Neal, 2000; van Dyck, 2000). A study in Dutch hospitals revealed that 56 percent of unintentional harmful events were related to health professionals' knowledge, behavior, or skills (de Bruijne et al., 2007). In contrast, technical and organizational factors played a minor role at 4 and 14 percent, respectively. The researchers attribute the other 26 percent to a combination of \"others factors\", \"patient factors\" and \"not able to evaluate\". Health care managers therefore are urged to focus on patient safety and quality while they are simultaneously asked to reduce costs and increase efficiency. Such circumstances are not exclusive to health care management. Comparable challenges are found in other industries, some of which have found effective approaches to focus on quality in combination with increasing efficiency and client centredness. Many authors have advocated the use of innovations from other industries in health care (Berwick, 1989; Hudson, 2003; Singh et al., 2006; Nance, 2008). It is widely believed the application of industrial quality and safety methods can result in significant improvement in clinical processes and medical care outcomes.\nMethods: A mixture of methods was used (Bowling, 2002; Creswell, 2003; Yin, 2003). First, we have described the development and content of the TRM-program in detail. The case hospital is the only eye hospital in the Netherlands (thus serving 16 million people), providing secondary eye care for the region and tertiary care for the country. As a major referral centre, it handles approximately 140,000 outpatient visits and 14,000 surgical cases per year. Some 30 specialized ophthalmologists, four anaesthesiologists, and four internists maintain their practices through a partnership with the hospital. The hospital, which has a total of 400 employees, operates resident and fellow programs and a research institute. All n=274 hospital staff involved in patient care were exposed to the TRM program. The training was mandatory for all staff but physicians. The numbers of staff types and respective participation rates are described in Table I.\nResults: Application of TRM\nDiscussion: The TRM program was co-developed and implemented by healthcare professionals and aviation specialists. Aviation proved to be an inspiring example for medical professionals. The involvement of aviation specialists stimulated a broader perspective on safety issues without focussing too much on medical-technical details. Furthermore, the programs introduced the hospital's first multidisciplinary platform and training. Observations showed that this helped participants to identify and change safety-related patterns of behavior between professions, such as doctor-nurse and ophthalmologist-resident. The observations and interviews suggest that safety awareness has increased as a result of the training. Whether ophthalmologist's compliance with the time-out procedure has increased is not yet evident, but a substantial decrease of wrong-site sentinel events due to using time-outs has been established (de Korne et al., 2010). Over the period 2010 to 2012, one incident per year was reported while number of reported near-misses increased to nine. Due to the duration as well as the design of this case study, we are not able to make distinct statements on a longer-term and sustainable culture change.\nConclusion: Aviation-based TRM training can be a useful approach to stimulating safety culture in hospitals. The TRM program consisted of safety audits, interactive classroom and flight simulator sessions, and video recording of team activities with subsequent feedback. Aviation experts were considered inspiring role models for medical professionals. They had an external perspective without hierarchical barriers or focus on medical-technical issues. Ophthalmologists and other hospital staff became progressively aware of safety issues. The multidisciplinary approach promoted social (team) orientation and diminished the former more functionally-oriented culture. The number of reported near-incidents strongly increased; the number of wrong-side surgeries stabilized to a minimum after a substantial reduction in the first years after the program. A multidisciplinary system approach and focus on \"team\" instead of \"profession\" seems both necessary and difficult in hospital care.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to evaluate the implementation of a broad-scale team resource management (TRM) program on safety culture in a Dutch eye hospital, detailing the program's content and procedures. Aviation-based TRM training is recognized as a useful approach to increase patient safety, but little is known about how it affects safety culture.\nDesign/methodology/approach: Pre- and post-assessments of the hospitals' safety culture was based on interviews with ophthalmologists, anesthesiologists, residents, nurses, and support staff. Interim observations were made at training sessions and in daily hospital practice.\nFindings: The program consisted of safety audits of processes and (team) activities, interactive classroom training sessions by aviation experts, a flight simulator session, and video recording of team activities with subsequent feedback. Medical professionals considered aviation experts inspiring role models and respected their non-hierarchical external perspective and focus on medical-technical issues. The post-assessment showed that ophthalmologists and other hospital staff had become increasingly aware of safety issues. The multidisciplinary approach promoted social (team) orientation that replaced the former functionally-oriented culture. The number of reported near-incidents greatly increased; the number of wrong-side surgeries stabilized to a minimum after an initial substantial reduction.\nResearch limitations/implications: The study was observational and the hospital's variety of efforts to improve safety culture prevented us from establishing a causal relation between improvement and any one specific intervention.\nOriginality/value: Aviation-based TRM training can be a useful to stimulate safety culture in hospitals. Safety and quality improvements are not single treatment interventions but complex socio-technical interventions. A multidisciplinary system approach and focus on \"team\" instead of \"profession\" seems both necessary and difficult in hospital care.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
The effect of sales promotions on consumers' organic food response: An application of logistic regression model	[ "Organic food", "Logistic regression", "Sales promotion", "Consumer response", "Qualitative interview" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: Consumers are increasing the attention paid to the quality of food (Liu et al., 2013; Phillipov, 2016; Pouta et al., 2010; Tsakiridou et al., 2009). At the same time, increasing environmental awareness has also led to the questioning of modern agricultural practices (Krystallis and Chryssohoidis, 2005; Aertsens et al., 2009), and the organic food market has rapidly grown under this wave of personal health trends. In Taiwan, for example, there were about 1,000 organic food chain stores in 2004 and 1,600 organic food chain stores in 2014, growing 60 percent in a decade. More recently, the farming area devoted to organic agriculture has risen to 6,000 hectares, which is ten times compared to the levels in 2005 (Yang, 2013). The total sales amount is higher than US$120 million (Lin, 2014).\n2. Literature review: 2.1 Consumer response\n3. Sales promotion categories from the qualitative method: 3.1 Document analysis\n4. Research method: 4.1 Measurement development\n5. Statistical results: 5.1 Description analysis\n6. Discussion: The research results indicate that different sales promotions provide different clues and values (e.g. promotion messages) for consumers. In past research, Van Dijk et al. (2012) demonstrated that consumers prefer benefit messages (e.g. nutrition content) over risk messages (e.g. food problem). Vecchio et al. (2016) found that when different sales promotion message framing (e.g. positive vs negative) was available in the food market, consumers had a more positive response (e.g. higher WTP) to a positive message than to a negative message. In other words, sales promotions provide unique product clues for consumers (Cucchiara et al., 2015). Moreover, the authors adopted the value perspective of Jamal et al. (2012) to survey whether or not specific characteristics (e.g. discount or gift) of the sales promotions provided different value for consumers, subsequently influencing their purchase intention. The research results indicate that different sales promotion indeed influenced consumers' purchase intention. Surprisingly, some promotional programs even lead to negative outcomes such as lowering of consumers' purchase intention. Targeting this phenomenon, the research results could be explained by both a theoretical perspective and the practical situation during the promotion itself.\n7. Conclusions and future work: 7.1 Conclusions\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: Owing to the wave of consumers concern about food quality, the organic food market has grown rapidly. However, how organic food promotions outweigh the negative impacts of high prices has become a pressing issue scholars need to discuss. Hence, with the value perspective as the basis, the purpose of this paper is to attempt to understand whether or not organic food consumers have preferences for specific promotional programs as opposed to other promotional programs.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The two-stage study design was adopted to explore these issues. In the first stage, 225 copies of promotional program documents were collected, and middle-ranking and high-ranking supervisors from seven organic food distributors were interviewed. According to the value perspective, the promotional programs were divided into four types: discount category, member category, free giveaway category, and limited time offer category, which were used to develop the questionnaire questions. In the second stage, 1,017 copies of valid questionnaires were recovered.\nFindings: The logistic regression analysis was adopted to discuss the impact of the various promotional program actions on consumers' choices. The empirical results indicate that the consumers preferred the programs in the discount category and the free giveaway category, while the programs in the member category and limited time offer category reduced the purchase intention.\nOriginality/value: The stringent qualitative and quantitative design in this study shall serve as a reference for follow-up research. The important implications of the operators' promotion practices are covered in the discussion.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
A holistic approach to the analysis of online profiles	[ "Internet profiles", "Web pages", "Science communication", "Self‐presentation", "Qualitative comparative analysis", "Curriculum vitae", "Academic staff", "Information exchange", "Web sites" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: This article presents a holistic approach to the analysis of personal online profiles. The internet provides opportunities for individuals to present themselves and their activities to a worldwide audience. A number of platforms focus directly on offering opportunities for self-presentation and networking with others (social networking platforms). Other platforms offer internet users virtual space where they can easily publish static as well as dynamic content (web-page hosting, blogs, wikis, video or image hosting). Furthermore, many platforms originally providing content hosting now also offer profiling and networking opportunities. Given this variety, it is not uncommon for users to create personal content and profiles on more than one platform. They can even use hyperlinks to connect the profiles, thus creating personal profile networks.There is a considerable body of research concerned with self-presentation and creation of personal content in online environment. Some authors have discussed the topic from a theoretical point while others provide descriptive studies of published content (see Section 2). The research is, however, typically focused on a single type of platform. Given the diversity and connectivity within the virtual environment, this appears insufficient. Hence, this article presents a holistic approach using profiling \"episodes\" as individual practices used to reach specific communication goals (Schmidt, 2007). The approach is based on Schmidt's (2007) framework for the analysis of blogs. Due to its heuristic character, the framework was developed to support analysis beyond blogging.The holistic analytical approach was applied to professional profiles of European scientists in order to show, how it can be used to generate profiling patterns on different analytical levels. Of particular interest were personal and institutional web pages, profiles on social networking services, blogs, and microblogs. For this purpose, data from 168 profile pages belonging to 48 European scientists were collected and analysed using methods of the qualitative comparative analysis (Ragin, 2008, 1987). As a result, patterns describing the profiling content of European scientists were generated, forming a three-level hierarchy:1. (A) content-unit patterns;2. (B) profile-instance patterns; and3. (C) profile-network patterns.The approach presented in this paper serves as a foundation for further research in online self-presentation. It creates a more holistic understanding of internet profiles and can support structured analysis of online content. Practitioners can use the underlying analytical framework to explicate the decision-making process connected to publishing profile content and thus to create suitable profiling strategies.\n2. Research on online profiling: The design of personal online spaces and profiles has been of interest to researchers since the creation of first personal web pages. Doring (2006) points out three theoretical perspectives that can be used to discuss personal internet presence:1. identity theories;2. self-presentation theories; and3. computer-mediated communication theories.Identity theories discuss the relationship between \"self\" and content created on the internet as a so-called \"digital identity\" (Wynn and Katz, 1997). Individuals can possess multiple digital identities, differently connected to their \"offline identities\" (Doring, 1999). A digital identity is formed through interaction with others (Grasmuck et al., 2009; Mesch and Talmud, 2006; Strufe, 2010). Self-presentation theories are often based on Goffman's (1959) concept of impression management. According to Goffman's (1959) dramaturgical analogy, individuals put on different performances of self, depending on their situation. The internet can be considered as a new setting for individual performances (Miller and Arnold, 2003). A related approach is presented by Schmidt (2007), who suggests that online self-presentation is a result of a decision-based process, where micro-level actions (i.e. individual blogging episodes) interact with a macro-level frame. Computer-mediated communication theories consider the role of the internet as a communication medium (Sherman et al., 2001). Compared to face-to-face communication, internet appears to be lacking \"richness\" (Daft and Lengel, 1984). At the same time, it gives the users high level of control over the communication (Feaster, 2010; O'Sullivan, 2000).These theoretical approaches have been used in research of web pages (Wynn and Katz, 1997; Miller and Arnold, 2003; Dillon and Gushrowski, 2000), social networking services (SNS) (Zhao et al., 2008), blogs (Ferguson et al., 2010; Ewins, 2005; Keng and Ting, 2009; Luzon, 2009), and microblogs (Honeycutt and Herring, 2009; Mischaud, 2007). These studies aim to describe how the internet platforms can serve self-presentation and interaction purposes. Furthermore, there are phenomenological studies concerned with describing the usage and the content patterns of web pages (Hess, 2002; Hawisher and Sullivan, 1999), SNS (Strufe, 2010), blogs (Blood, 2002; Herring et al., 2005), and microblogs (Herwig et al., 2009; Java et al., 2007).In general, empirical studies focus on the analysis of platforms of a single type. An individual internet presentation, however, can stretch across several platforms according to the needs of its owner. The analysis of multiple platforms can be problematic as the platform features often vary considerably. This paper therefore discusses a holistic framework for a multi-platform analysis. For this purpose, Schmidt's (2007) framework for blog analysis was generalised and developed to apply to other platforms. This is possible due to the heuristic character of the original model. The framework was used to study profiles of European scientists in order to show how it can be applied to generate profiling patterns.\n3. Objectives: The purpose of this study was to develop and apply an approach suitable for a multi-platform analysis of internet profiles. For this purpose an existing framework was generalised, developed and applied to data from professional profiles of European scientists. The objectives of the study were thus:* to develop an analytical framework suitable for providing foundation for data collection and analysis across multi-platform profiles of internet users;* to develop an approach suitable for a structured analysis of the collected data; and* to apply the approach to a heterogeneous sample of online profiles of European scientists.\n4. Method: This section presents the analytical framework used as a foundation for the data collection and the data analysis. It also describes the approach to the analysis of multi-platform profiles in a study of internet profiles of European scientists.4.1 Analytical framework and approach\n5. Results: The analysis has yielded pattern descriptions on three analytical levels. First, patterns were derived describing the content units with regard to their topics and communication goals. Second, these were used to describe patterns on profile instances as combination of the content-unit patterns. Third, patterns were described on the network level, based on the profile-instance patterns and occurrences of platform types.5.1 (A) Patterns of content units\n6. Discussion: The article presents a study using a holistic approach to online-profiles analysis. The foundation of the approach is a simple framework (see Figure 1) modelling the interaction between micro-level actions of profile owners (profiling episodes) and macro-level structural factors (rules, code, relations) (Schmidt, 2007). This interaction leads to a formation of patterns on three analytical levels (content units, profile instances, profile networks) (see Figure 6). The patterns can be identified using structured techniques, such as methods of the QCA. The study described in this paper was carried out in following three steps:1. (A) The study began by describing content units - snippets of related content on the profiles of interest. Ideally, the content units would be based on the profiling episodes and thus be defined by a common publishing time. In this study, the identification of episode-based content units was not always possible. Thus, for analytical purposes, content units were defined based on the topic they contributed to. Other studies can use different distinctions, as necessary. The content units were described with regard to their topic (here relevant topic areas were derived from a pre-study of scientists' profiles) and communication goals. They were then grouped according to the topic and goal combination into 11 content-unit patterns. The study was descriptive, but an explanatory study can at this point applied a suitable theory to explain the rules leading to the placement of particular content patterns on particular platforms.2. (B) The patterns were grouped according to the profile-instance where they were found. Patterns were derived on the profile-instance level based on the combinations of the content-unit patterns. Again, an explanatory study can use the suggested framework to apply or develop theories describing how technical features of different platform types influence the formation of patterns in content published there (code).3. (C) The profile instances were depicted as hypertextual profile networks and network patterns were derived based on the profile-instance pattern combinations. An explanatory study can further research the theoretical influence of hypertextual relations on profiling. Furthermore, an analysis viewing social ties (e.g. with other individual's profiles) can also be carried out.\n7. Conclusions: The objectives of this article were to describe and apply an analytical approach suitable for studying complex online profiles. The presented approach uses a further development of a framework modelling the interaction between the micro and the macro level of content publishing (Schmidt, 2007). The model utilises the influence of the three macro-level elements (rules, code, relations) to frame an approach that analysis profiling patterns on three hierarchical levels. Using the outlined approach, the research focus can be shifted to self-presentation as a sum of separate digital identities (compare Doring, 1999). Furthermore, the approach generated patterns as combinations of characteristics rather than viewing separate characteristics. Unlike a comparisons of separate characteristics, patterns help retain the data richness. Applying the approach to a large data, it would be not only possible to generate stable profiling patterns, but also to analyse differences between countries and disciplines.The article further demonstrated the application of the approach on a study of 168 profiles belonging to 48 European scientists. The sample was selected to offer a heterogeneous collection of profiles, thus showing both the complexity of the problematic and the strength of the approach. While the sample size was sufficient for the demonstration, the resulting patterns cannot be considered either fully stable or exhaustive. The derived profiling patterns were matched with existing typologies from the literature. While no radically new types were identified, the resulting patterns were more holistic and more specific than the existing typologies. This speaks for the reliability and the validity of the approach.Scientists can apply the framework used in the analysis, as well as the findings, to reflect on their own approach internet presentation. While internet presence can be of strategic importance in communication with peers as well as other stakeholders (Heimeriks and Vasileiadou, 2008), it is often treated in an ad-hoc manner. The findings point to self-presentation practices that are being used within the community. Furthermore, the findings clearly show, that the approach to self-presentation among scientists is highly heterogeneous. Scientists have different needs and practices with regard to internet presence. This fact has to be taken into account by scientific institutions regarding the management of online faculty self-presentation (Hess, 2002). The faculty has to be provided with flexible possibilities to manage their internet presence. Overall, the findings illustrate that the internet has an important role for the scientific community as communication channel. It offers opportunities for personalised self-presentation according to individual needs. As such, internet presence should be treated as an important strategic instrument for scientists' self-presentation.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: - The article aims to present a holistic approach to analysis of patterns on complex online profiles, demonstrated on profiles of European scientists.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - An existing analytical framework was developed to incorporate a holistic understanding of online profiles. The framework was applied to a sample of 188 online profiles belonging to 48 European scientists. The profile data were studied on three levels (content-unit level, profile-instance level, and profile-network level), using methods of the qualitative comparative analysis to derive profiling patterns.\nFindings: - The approach developed in this work generated profiling patterns for European scientists. The patterns exist on all three levels, forming a hierarchy. This pattern structure shows the variety of ways in which scientists can use the internet for self-presentation.\nOriginality/value: - The study was based on a holistic understanding of online self-presentation, acknowledging that personal presentation can be spread across different platforms. The study presented shows how this understanding can be used when analysing online profiling behaviour. The profiling patterns of European scientists identified in this study supplement existing typologies. The study serves as a foundation to structure further research as well as to inform practitioners.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Integrated management systems diffusion models in South European countries	[ "Management systems", "Diffusion model", "Gompertz model", "Integrated management systems (IMSs)", "Logistic model" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: The concerns of the organizations related with new stakeholders and their requirements have increased over the last few years. Hence, organizations seek to address these new requirements through the adoption and implementation of different certification standards, which leads to the coexistence of multiple management systems (MSs) (see ISO, 2017). The International Organization for Standardization (ISO) publishes annually the ISO Survey of Certifications with data concerning the number of certificates issued, breakdown by management standard, each year (ISO, 2017).\nLiterature review: This section addresses the main studies on both the integration of MSs and MS standards diffusion. The mathematical dynamics of the tested growth curves used as diffusion models are explained at the end of the section.\nMaterials and methods: The sample and its analysis are explained in this section.\nResults and discussion: The models for forecasting and analyzing the current state of QES were developed considering the data in Table II and using the second column (Counter) as independent variable. The parameters of each model applied to different countries are reported in Tables III and IV. With these data and the graphics presented in Figures 3-8, it is possible to observe that the studied countries reach different levels of growth.\nConclusions: This paper presents the analysis of the diffusion of the number of South European organizations that implemented multiple certifications. Additionally, some patterns regarding similarities and dissimilarities within the studied geographic regions were pointed out, which may unfold the path for the future of organizational management - the systematic and holistic assessment of stakeholders' needs and expectations.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to dissect the diffusion of the number of organizations that implemented multiple management systems (MSs), considering the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) 9001, ISO 14001 and OHSAS 18001 standards (quality, environment and safety) in the South European countries: Italy, Portugal and Spain. In addition, based on the data collected, forecasting models were developed to assess at which extent the multiple certifications are expected to occur in each studied country.\nDesign/methodology/approach: Data concerning the evolution of the amount of multiple MSs in Italy, Portugal and Spain were collected for the period between 1999 and 2015. The behavior of the evolution of the number of MSs over the years was studied adopting both the Gompertz and the Logistic models. The results obtained with these two models were compared and analyzed to provide a forecast for the next years.\nFindings: The diffusion throughout the years of the number of MSs presents an S-shaped behavior. The evolution of the amount of MSs in countries with a lower saturation level are properly fitted by the Gompertz model whereas the Logistic model fits more accurately when considering countries with a larger saturation level.\nResearch limitations/implications: The data related to the early years are not available in some of the countries. To overcome this shortcoming missing data were extrapolated from the data set provided by the annual ISO survey. Additionally, the integration level attained by each company was not assessed and, on this regard and in the scope of this paper, an integrated management system is understood as implemented when organizations have multiple MSs implemented.\nPractical implications: The results provide a cross-sectional portrayal of the diffusion of MSs certifications in the South European countries and enable a forecast for the trend in the next years.\nOriginality/value: This study aims for the first time, to the best of the authors' knowledge, to analyze the diffusion of multiple MSs throughout the years.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Service loyalty: accounting for social capital	[ "Loyalty", "Social capital", "Relationship marketing", "Services marketing", "Customer loyalty" ]	[ { "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.It is increasingly being recognized that customer loyalty is driven by more than just company- or brand-specific variables such as service quality, switching costs and alternative attractiveness; several relational variables have been suggested as drivers of loyalty, such as trust (e.g. Bove and Johnson, 2001b), commitment (e.g. Garbarino and Johnson, 1999), and relationship quality (e.g. Hennig-Thurau and Klee, 1997). Most of the extant research in this area investigates the relationship between customers and the service firm. However, increasingly researchers are examining the value of relationships between customers and individual service providers in the generation of customer loyalty (e.g. Barnes, 1997; Beatty et al. 1996).\nSocial capital: Our focus is on individual-level social capital. The term \"social capital\" was first used in 1916 by the US school reformer L.J. Hanifan (see Putnam, 2000, p. 19), and gained wider use when it was adopted by the urbanologist Jane Jacobs (1965). Definitions of social capital are numerous; however, the central premise of social capital is that social networks have value and that these social relationships affect economic outcomes (Lin et al. 2001). Social capital theory has provided frameworks for research in areas such as social theory (Bourdieu, 1986), education (Coleman, 1988), sustainable development (Grootaert, 1998), career advancement (Burt, 1997), and innovation diffusion (Senge et al., 2001). The application of social capital theory has also occurred at multiple levels of analysis including: nations, communities, organizations, work teams, and dyads (Cote and Healy, 2001; Lin et al., 2001; Nahapiet and Ghoshal, 1998; Pennings et al., 1998; Putnam, 1995; Tsai and Ghoshal, 1998; Watson and Papamarcos, 2002).Recently, social capital theory has been embraced by those studying the social nature of firms and how this \"social capital\" can be harnessed or appropriated to generate economic returns for the firm, through benefits such as: better knowledge sharing, greater coherence of action due to organizational stability and shared understanding, and higher employee loyalty and retention (e.g. Cohen and Prusak, 2001). These authors suggest that the social capital derived from all of the firm's relationships (i.e. relationships within the firm but also between the firm and its customers and other partners) can impact the firm's bottom line (Cohen and Prusak, 2001, p. 10). In a services marketing context, a service firm may have many relationships (e.g. with suppliers, customers, competing firms, employees) at many levels (e.g. firm-to-firm, individual-to-firm, individual-to-individual). Social capital is the combination of the value embedded in all of these relationships; however, we focus only on the social capital that stems from the relationship that develops between an individual service provider (i.e. the person that represents the firm) and an individual service consumer. While this only represents a portion of the potential value embedded within a firm's social network, it is a useful starting point for the use of social capital theory in marketing relationships.In all of the studies of social capital at each of the levels (i.e. national, regional, organizational, individual), there is one common theme - social capital is a set of resources embedded in relationships. The use of the term \"capital\" assumes that this social capital has a currency. While few studies have explicitly mentioned the notion of currency, seminal work in the field of social capital (e.g. Granovetter, 1985; Uzzi, 1999, 1997) has focused on the idea of embeddedness, suggesting that the more \"embedded\" a relationship is, the more potential value this relationship has. Research in the social capital arena has identified several different forms of social capital. These are described next.Forms of social capital\nAssociations among the different forms of social capital: Linking cognitive and relational social capitals\nMethod: To examine our research questions, we needed adult respondents to answer questions about a relationship that they have with a particular service provider. Our hypotheses suggest that the forms of social capital will explain unique variance in customer loyalty. To formally test these hypotheses, we needed to assess each of the three forms of social capital, customer loyalty, and other likely drivers of customer loyalty. As the forms of social capital capture the possible relationship drivers of loyalty, we also assessed service quality, alternative attractiveness, and switching costs as the most likely service-related drivers of loyalty (Bloemer et al. 1999; Butcher et al. 2001; de Ruyter et al. 1998).Research site and data collection\nResults: Our analysis proceeded in two steps. First, we assessed the reliability and validity of the measurement model. Next, we estimated a series of structural equation models to empirically test the five hypotheses.Measurement model\nDiscussion: The purpose of this research was to examine the utility of social capital theory in the explanation of customer loyalty. Specifically, we wished to examine if the three forms of social capital (structural, cognitive, relational) adequately predict service loyalty, both behavioral and attitudinal.Theoretical and managerial implications - the contingent value of social capital\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: - To the extent that customer relationships with service providers provide value to service firms suggests that these relationships can be viewed as social capital. This paper seeks to use social capital as a theoretical framework to examine the effect of these relationships on customer loyalty.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - Data were collected using an online survey of 342 adult consumers of services.\nFindings: - Results of structural equation modeling analyses indicate that social capital variables explain unique variance in customer responses. The effect of each of the three forms of social capital - structural, cognitive, and relational - are contingent on whether the service is personal (e.g. hairstylist, medical services) or non-personal (e.g. mechanic, banker).\nResearch limitations/implications: - This research suggests that customer relationships can be viewed as social capital and that the form and content of such relationships are important in terms of influencing customer loyalty.\nPractical implications: - Managers can build \"social capital\" by focusing on its three forms - structural, cognitive, and relational social capital. The paper provides prescriptions for such relationship building activities. Such social capital translates into firm value/profits through customer loyalty.\nOriginality/value: - This study uses a theoretical framework from research in social capital to help explain the value of customer relationships with individual service providers to the firm. The idea of social capital is compelling to service managers since it implies that investments in relationship building tactics have real results for firm profitability.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Category killers and big-box retailing: their historical impact on retailing in the USA	[ "Retailing", "Stores and supermarkets" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Category killers or big-box retailers have had a powerful impact on the retailing scene. Their impact has been felt throughout the retailing industry and no retail sector has been spared from their influence. Category killers got their name from simply \"killing\" the product category with a wide and deep assortment in a store with a large store size. In some retail sectors this category killer format has transformed the sector and weeded out weaker competitors. In the sporting goods sector, for example category killers transformed this sector. In 1988, the sporting goods sector was dominated by competitors such as Herman's and Oshman's with stores of about 10,000 square feet. In 2004, the sector was dominated by retailers such as Sports Authority, Dick's and Cabela's with stores in the range of 40,000-130,000 square feet (Discount Store News, 1989a; DSN Retailing Today, Annual Industry Report, 2005). This story was repeated in many retail sectors including books, toys and electronics.References to \"category killers\" and \"big-box\" retailers began to be utilized by the middle of 1986. By 1988, these terms were in frequent use in newspapers and respected academic journals. Big-box retailing existed long before the relevant terminology was coined, however. Pioneers like Toys R Us (1957), Wal-Mart (1962), Price Club (1976) and Home Depot (1978) developed and refined this retail format (Jones and Doucet, 2001). These category killers did not become a familiar sight in the USA until the 1990s when their sheer numbers reached a critical mass.Category killers or big-box retailers are part of a larger defined group of large format retailers. Large format retailers include:* discount department stores like Wal-Mart and Kmart;* super food warehouses that carry food only like Cub Foods;* warehouse membership club stores like Costco and BJ's;* supercenters like Wal-Mart and Kmart Supercenters; and* category killers or specialists like Home Depot and Toys R Us.While operationally these retailers are different, they do share commonalities in physical size, emphasis on low price or value, low-gross margin/high-volume business and their impact on market entry (Arnold and Luthra, 2000).The effects of market entry by category killers or big-boxes on the retailing landscape have been well documented in studies such as Stone (1995), Arnold and Luthra (2000), Arnold et al. (2000), Peterson and McGee (2000), Davidson and Rummel (2000), Brennan and Lundsten (2000), Jones and Doucet (2001), Arnold (2002), Gibson and Billings (2003), Barber and Tietje (2004), Bianchi and Arnold (2004), Moon (2005) and Charan (2006). Arnold and Luthra (2000) summarized the effects associated with market entry of a large format retailer as: consumer benefits in assortment and pricing, rapid market penetration in the growth stage of the retail life cycle, decline in sales of competing local stores, growth and decline in various commercial sectors, economic growth in market of entry, job creation and loss, changes in market efficiency and competitive market structure and economic decline in nearby markets.What has not been examined in the literature is the effect that this retail format has had on sales and per capita retail consumption. Customers have demanded large stores with a wide selection of merchandise as a matter of convenience (Spector, 2005). Retailers have converted to this format as a matter of competitive survival. The literature surrounding category killers or big box retailers has really centered around what has happened on the micro level. No studies thus far have focused on the evolution of the retail format and what can be learned from this evolution. This paper addresses the following research questions:RQ1. How have larger format retailers impacted the sectors in which they compete?RQ2. Do larger retail formats translate into higher sales for the retailer and the industry?RQ3. Have these category killers raised consumption of the products they offer? Or have they just shifted sales between retail sectors and/or between retailers themselves?RQ4. How can this knowledge be used by retailers when investing in future strategies?This paper will examine how category killers in several retail sectors have impacted their competitive sector historically; determine if there is a relationship between sales and store size; and determine if the rise in category killers has impacted per capita consumption of these products in the USA. Category killers in the following product categories will be examined: books, sporting goods, home centers, electronics, toys, home furnishings and the grocery sector (warehouse stores). These sectors were chosen because each has been heavily impacted by category killers and data are readily available. As this study addresses stores with a physical presence only, it does not include virtual big-box retailers.\nMethodology: Measuring the historical impact of category killers on the retail sector\nResults: The historical impact of category killers on the retail sector\nSummary and conclusions: From the historical analysis in this study it is obvious that category killers have had a large impact on the retail industry. By 1996, all of the retail sectors studied were dominated by big-box category killers. In examining these retail sectors over time it was determined that there is a strong relationship between store size and sales revenue. As the average store size increased so did sales revenue. So for retailers in these sectors it was important to increase the size of their stores over this time period or they would not have remained competitive.Category killers remain a dominant force in all these sectors even today. Several retail sectors such as home centers and warehouse club stores developed during this era and their top volume leaders such as Home Depot and Costco are some of the most powerful retailers in the world today.Category killers obviously forced consolidations in these retail sectors due to their competitive advantage of size and assortment. This competitive advantage, coupled with overall per capita consumption rates that did not increase appreciably, created an environment that was ripe for consolidation. This is especially evident in the book sector where competitors merged or were driven out of business. Per capita consumption rates in the book sector have not changed since 1996.The electronics sector and the sporting goods sector appear to have come full circle. The sporting goods sector especially, moved toward total dominance of big-box retailers to more of a balance between bigger and smaller format stores. The large store formats still drive 76 percent of the revenue, however. Obviously, sheer size and assortment are not the only competitive factors that are valued by consumers in these sectors. This begs the question - will all sectors of retailing eventually see more of a balance in store formats like these sectors have? Is the competitive advantage of size and assortment giving way to other market factors?In two sectors, books and toys, the actual number of stores decreased. These sectors are different from the others in that they each have a strong \"outside\" competitor to deal with. For the book sector, online retailer Amazon.com exerts strong competitor pressure on Barnes & Noble and Borders. (Amazon.com is, in essence, a non-store category killer.) In toys, discount stores like Wal-Mart, Target and Kmart are changing the face of the sector blurring retail definitions along category lines. Some interesting research questions arise. Is this an emerging trend or an anomaly? How far are the discount retailers willing to go? What product categories will be next?So what has been learned from this study to inform retailers going forward? Several things. First, there is a relationship between sales revenue and store size - as store sizes increased so did sales revenue. Retailers needed to increase store size to foster the growth of sales revenues. There also appears to be a link between per capita growth and larger format stores. While there may be other economic factors that have contributed to the growth of per capita consumption in these sectors, it does appear that the sectors with the largest number of big-box category killers have had the highest growth in per capita retail consumption. It definitely appears that this competitive advantage in merchandising has paid off both in increased sales revenue and increased per capita consumption. It is also obvious from Tables II-VIII that many of those that did not convert to larger size retail formats are no longer in business today.Second, this competitive advantage, like every other competitive advantage, does have a shelf life. If retailers are slow to innovate and stay on top of customer desires, some other retailer will step forward and gain a competitive advantage. This applies to big-box retailers as well. Toys R Us has certainly been on the learning curve on this point. Home Depot and Lowe's have also found that the failure to innovate has consequences and both are now trying to make their businesses more consumer-centric.Finally, different competitive strategies can coexist. Many of the retail sectors studied are more balanced lately in terms of store size among the top sales volume leaders such as in home furnishings and electronics. This demonstrates that even though it appears that only one merchandising strategy is winning, there is room for several well executed strategies. Retailers such as RadioShack and Williams-Sonoma have certainly taught this lesson.Possible further, research\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: - This study aims to examine the evolution of category killers or big-box retailers over a 17-year time span and the impact that this retail format has had on seven retail sectors, sales revenue, and per capita retail consumption in the USA.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - Sales revenue, average store size and per capita income were examined over a 17-year period - 1988-2004 - for the book, sporting goods, home center, electronic, toy, home furnishings and the grocery sector (warehouse stores) to determine the effect of large retail formats on sales revenue and per capita spending.\nFindings: - This longitudinal study demonstrates that evolving to big-box formats had a positive impact on both sales revenue and per capita spending in each of the retail sectors.\nResearch/limitations/implications: - It is a starting-point for fully understanding the impact of large retail formats on the retail industry.\nOriginality/value: - The evolution of large format retailers has not been studied from a macro view. Most studies have focused on their impact on small markets. This study focuses on the overall trend and examines their impact on the industry and per capita spending.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]

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