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Team diversity and its management in a co-design team
|
[
"Service innovation",
"Co-design",
"Customer co-creation",
"Team research",
"Service design"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: A key requirement for service design is to understand the circumstances surrounding the customer's value-creation process. Only then can new value propositions be developed that effectively support customers in creating value based on the specificity of their context (Gustafsson et al., 2012; Storey and Larbig, 2018). This requirement has led to a shift from service design being the sole responsibility of individual experts, toward involving members with different expertise and interests through co-design (Holmlid, 2009; Trischler et al., 2018). For example, large corporations, such as Dell, Starbucks, and Microsoft employ ideation contests to systematically identify suitable users who are then invited to design workshops to develop their ideas further into usable concepts (Russo-Spena and Mele, 2012; Cui and Wu, 2016). Likewise, in the public sector, leading agencies, such as the Design Council and FutureGov, actively involve end-users in design projects that aim to tackle societal challenges in health, education, and housing (Crosby et al., 2017).\nTheoretical background: The challenge of exploring customers' value-creation processes\nResearch methodology: The research was exploratory in nature and used field experiments together with the collection of qualitative data as its research approach. The field-experimental design enabled the collection of data within a natural setting, while controlling for possibly confounding factors (Maxwell and Delaney, 2004), which, in teams, can include team-external factors (Gilson and Shalley, 2004). In turn, the qualitative inquiry provided a better understanding of the relationships between complex structures and meanings that people ascribe to their actions (Guba and Lincoln, 1994), which is important for the exploration of intra-team effects (Mathieu et al., 2014). The research setting, samples, and measures are described next.\nStudy 1: Experimental procedure\nStudy 2: Experimental procedure\nImplications: The research reported in this paper explored the specific conditions under which a co-design team comprised of in-house professionals and leading-edge service users can generate innovative service design concepts. This addresses an important knowledge gap in the current service design literature: while design research has not evaluated the benefits of co-design per se, contributions to customer co-creation research are primarily based on individual users being involved in innovation activities. This paper goes some way toward exploring the required conditions for co-design in terms of team composition and process facilitation. Table VI summarizes the key findings and implications that result from this research and the application of the three diversity dimensions, separation, variety, and disparity (Harrison and Klein, 2007). For service managers, the findings can assist in the effective assembling and facilitation of co-design teams that involve users with lead user characteristics.\nLimitations and future research: The findings from this research are based on field-experiments and the study settings, service design tasks, and samples were necessarily narrowly defined to avoid internal validity problems. To build a more complete understanding of co-design as an approach to service design, future research should empirically test the proposed effects of the team composition - facilitation relationship on innovation outcomes, by using different study contexts to determine their generalizability.\n",
"role": "user"
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"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to explore the conditions under which a co-design team comprised of in-house professionals and leading-edge service users can generate innovative service design concepts.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The investigation used a field-experimental design to conduct two studies. Observations and open-ended questionnaires were used to examine cross-comparison matrices with experts rating the generated outcomes and t-tests being used to compare the outcome ratings between teams of different compositions.\nFindings: The outcomes produced by a co-design team seem to be linked to the team diversity - process facilitation relationship. Bringing a variety of knowledge and skills into the team can lead to original outcomes, while a high disparity between members' backgrounds can require extensive efforts to facilitate a collaborative process. Separation between users' objectives can result in a user-driven process and outcomes that are too specific for the broader marketplace. Co-design teams that characterize minimum separation, maximum variety, and moderate disparity are likely to produce the most promising results.\nResearch limitations/implications: The research was restricted to a narrowly defined study setting and samples. Future research should replicate the current study in other service contexts using different team compositions.\nPractical implications: Co-design requires the careful selection of users based on their background and motivations, as well as the facilitation of a process that enables the team to collaboratively transform relevant knowledge into innovative outcomes.\nOriginality/value: The research contributes to a better understanding of the team composition - process facilitation relationship affecting innovation outcomes. Doing so provides a more fine-grained picture of the co-design team composition and the facilitation requirements for service design.\n",
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Innovation network, technological learning and innovation performance of high-tech cluster enterprises
|
[
"Innovation network",
"Innovation performance",
"High-tech cluster enterprises",
"Technological learning"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: Owing to the advantages of geographical spaces, high-tech industrial clusters have become one of the most successful models for the development of high-tech industries. High-tech cluster enterprises can achieve technology upgrading through forming knowledge dissemination networks (Akgun Ali et al., 2005). The dissemination of technological knowledge provides a convenient environment for technological learning among enterprises and is conducive to technological changes and innovations (Pan et al., 2018).\n2. Theory and hypotheses: 2.1 Theory\n3. Research design: 3.1 Variable settings\n4. Empirical results: 4.1 Reliability and validity test\n5. Conclusion: Based on the questionnaire survey data, we empirically use SEM to examine the relationship among the innovation network, technological learning and innovation performance of high-tech cluster enterprises and draw the function path of these three variables. The fitting indicators of modification structural model are all good, and the path coefficients of these three variables are all statistically significant. Therefore, the constructed model is acceptable. The results of SEM analysis show that the centrality of network location and the strength of the network relationship have a direct positive effect on technology acquisition, technology digestion and technology exploitation of high-tech cluster enterprises. Meanwhile, technology acquisition has a direct positive effect on technology digestion, technology digestion has a direct positive effect on technology exploitation and technology exploitation has a direct positive effect on innovation performance of high-tech cluster enterprises.\n",
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"content": "Purpose: This paper aims to identify the influence of innovation network and technological learning on innovation performance of high-tech cluster enterprises.\nDesign/methodology/approach: Using a questionnaire, data are collected from Dalian High-tech Industrial park in China. In addition, structural equation model is used to identify the influence of innovation network and technological learning on the innovation performance of high-tech cluster enterprise.\nFindings: The findings of this study show that the centrality of network location and the strength of the network relationship have a direct positive effect on technology acquisition, technology digestion and technology exploit of high-tech cluster enterprises. Meanwhile, technology acquisition has a direct positive effect on technology digestion, technology digestion has a direct positive effect technology exploit, and technology exploit has a direct positive effect innovation performance of high-tech cluster enterprises.\nPractical implications: To improve innovation performance, high-tech cluster enterprises should not only nurture and optimize innovation networks but also improve technological learning ability.\nOriginality/value: This paper empirically supports the significant influence of innovation network and technological learning on innovation performance. While the results provide guidance for researchers and practitioners, it also adds value to innovation-related research.\n",
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Review of research on school principal leadership in mainland China, 1998-2013: Continuity and change
|
[
"China",
"Literature review",
"School principals"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n__NO_TITLE__: Despite two decades of raised awareness of the international study of educational leadership, the bulk of empirical scholarship continues to focus heavily on education in the West, or on what Sugure (2005) called the \"Anglo-American axis of influence\". This bias, however, seems to be slowly correcting. Although small by established Western standards, an increasing number of studies about school leadership from across a range of societal and cultural settings are appearing in the international literature. As this work accumulates, over time, the field moves closer to having a true international knowledge base (Day and Leithwood, 2007; Hallinger et al., 2005; Oplatka, 2004; Walker and Dimmock, 2002). This paper looks to make a contribution to this growing knowledge base through reviewing the literature on principal leadership in China. The reasons supporting to construction of a more culturally defined knowledge base are addressed in other sections of this special issue, and have been argued elsewhere (e.g. Walker, 2003; Walker and Dimmock, 2002) - we, therefore, do not repeat these here.\nThe review process: We reviewed the literature about school principalship in China published between 1998 and 2013 in international English-language refereed journals and books. This section outlines how we identified the sources for the review and how we extracted and analysed the data.\nFindings: Our findings were organised around the research questions. As noted, we identified 39 journal papers and 18 book chapters written in English about school principalship in China published between 1998 and 2013. This section explicates our findings about authorship, topics, methodologies and substantive findings. Our purpose here is to provide a general picture of each of these four areas and to discern the trends and patterns of continuity or change.\nDiscussion: This section attempts to synthesise some of the major findings or insights presented by the review, explicate some of its limitations and suggest several directions for future research.\n",
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"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to review English-language publications about school principalship in China published between 1998 and 2013 and to present an overview of the authorship, topics, methodologies and key findings of these publications.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The methodology includes an exhaustive review of journal articles and book chapters about Chinese school principalship published in the English language. In total, 39 articles and 17 book chapters are identified for the 1998-2013 period. Qualitative analysis is conducted to determine the basic patterns of authorship, topics, methods and key findings. The changes or continuities in these patterns during the study period are also discerned.\nFindings: The paper identifies several continuous and discontinuous patterns in each of the review categories and provides a better understanding of on-going research into the practice of school principalship in China. The results also suggest areas that require deeper exploration.\nOriginality/value: This paper explores the landscape of school principalship in China as reflected in the international literature and indicates the ways that this landscape has changed or remained the same over the years. As such, the paper contributes to the thin knowledge base concerning school principalship in China and sheds light on the enduring local-global tension in the evolution of education systems.\n",
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Foreign firms' financial and economic risk in China
|
[
"Financial risk",
"China",
"Risk management"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: China has one of the most dynamic construction markets in the world driven by high economic growth and public infrastructure spending. It is ranked third in terms of global construction spending and will soon be second only to the United States (US) market (Davis Langdon, 2005).It is however not easy for foreign firms to succeed in China's construction industry. Business failures may arise when foreign firms underestimate the risks and difficulties they may face in China. Identifying and controlling vital risk factors is important for foreign firms to have a successful venture (Zhi, 1995).The aim of this research is to investigate how foreign firms manage financial and economic risks when operating in China's construction industry. The specific purposes of the paper are to: identify the types of financial and economic risks foreign firms face and the frequency and severity of these risks; examine how foreign firms manage these risks; and recommend a risk management framework that can be adopted by foreign firms to mitigate financial and economic risks in China.This study is important because many foreign firms are entering China's construction industry for the first time and may not be familiar with the risks they would encounter. This research focused on financial and economic risks that foreign firms face when operating in China with particular focus on architectural, engineering and construction (AEC) firms from Singapore that have worked in China. The foreign firms studied are Singaporean AEC firms that had undertaken construction projects in China.Managing financial and economic risks is important because these risks may cause a negative impact on the cash flow, endanger a project's viability and limit profitability (Xenidis and Angelides, 2005). The findings of this study would help foreign firms know the types of financial and economic risks they would face and the strategies that they could adopt to mitigate these risks.\nLiterature review: Risk management is a management discipline with the goal of protecting assets, reputation and profits of a company by reducing the possible losses before the risks occur (Bing et al., 1999). Optimal risk management should aim to minimize the total cost of risk to a project and not necessarily the costs to each party separately (Rahman and Kumaraswamy, 2002). It is important to adopt risk management techniques when projects are large in size, complex and the potential for delay and cost overruns are high (Burchett et al., 1999).In the construction industry, risk reduction technique is most frequently utilized, followed by risk transfer, risk retention and risk elimination (Baker et al., 1999). Kim and Bajaj (2001) discovered that Korean contractors' unfamiliarity with risk management techniques caused them to manage risks based on intuition, judgment and past experience. In Australia too, Uher and Toakley (1999) found the lack of knowledge to be the main barrier to the implementation of risk management. Wang and Chou (2003) analyzed risk allocation strategies and found that owners allocate risks through specific contract clauses.Risks may be organized into several levels: country; market; project and client (Wang et al., 2000; 2004). Alternatively, they can also be categorized as internal, project-specific and external (Bing and Tiong, 1999; Wang and Chou, 2003). Within these categories, the specific risks include natural risks (caused by weather and geological systems) and human risks comprising social, political, economic, financial, legal, health, managerial, technical and cultural risks (Edwards and Bowen, 1998).The common types of financial and economic risks in construction projects are now reviewed.Fluctuation in foreign exchange rates\nResearch method: Research may be quantitative or qualitative in nature. This research adopted the qualitative method because understanding a phenomenon from the point of view of the participants and its particular social and institutional context may be lost when textual data are quantified (Kaplan and Maxwell, 1994). Other construction management researchers who adopted qualitative research method include: Ellis et al. (2005); Nystrom (2005); and Leiringer (2006).The qualitative research method adopted was grounded theory. Grounded theory is an inductive, theory discovery methodology that allows the researcher to develop a theoretical account of the general features of a topic while simultaneously grounding the account in empirical observations or data (Martin and Turner, 1986). This method was chosen because there should be a continuous interplay between data collection and analysis, to determine inductively how financial and economic risks in China are managed using discovery method.Data collection for qualitative research includes interviews, participant observation, and archival research (Myers and Avison, 2002). This study adopted the face to face interview technique because probing questions were involved, respondents were required to provide in-depth answers and particularly interesting aspects of the responses could be delved into. It also tended to give a higher participation rate since interviewees only need to give verbal comments rather than fill up a questionnaire with long answers. The other data collection methods were not used because the projects in China had been completed (preclude participant observation) and project information are confidential (archival research ruled out).The data collection instrument was a specially designed questionnaire which comprised open ended questions to investigate frequency and severity of major financial and economic risks in international construction projects, and how these risks were managed. Open ended questions allowed interviewees to have greater freedom in sharing their experience and knowledge.The qualitative data collected were analyzed using content analysis. Content analysis is a research technique for making replicable and valid references from data to their contexts (Krippendorff, 1980). This was chosen because content analysis allowed the qualitative data to be subjected to constant comparative analysis to search for structures and patterned regularities in the text to generate knowledge within interviewees' experience in managing financial and economic risks in China.The population comprised non-indigenous Chinese clients, consultants, main contractors, specialist contractors and suppliers, who had exported their construction services or products to China. The sampling frame was Singapore-based firms that had undertaken construction projects in China and at least one of these commenced after China became a WTO member (2001). A list of 54 Singaporean firms was obtained from trade publications and websites. The questionnaire was emailed all the 54 firms, requesting for interviews with directors or managers in-charge of projects in China.\nCharacteristics of the sample: Of the 54 requests for interview, 22 experts agreed to be interviewed after much persuasion, giving a response rate of 41 percent. Interviews were conducted in interviewees' offices. Each interview lasted 30-60 minutes.Table I shows that the majority of the interviewees were from middle and upper management. The interviewees had an average of 15.3 years of working experience in the construction industry, with six years of experience in China. The majority (55 percent) of the interviewees was from consultancy firms.Table II shows that the interviewees undertook different types of businesses in China. The projects they were involved in were predominantly buildings, many located in Shanghai.In the sections below, the results are reported and analyzed. For convenience, labels are used in the discussion. Interviewees are coded according to Table II, column 1; risks are coded as R1 to R2 (Table III, columns 2-3); and risk mitigation measures coded at CM1 to CM7 and GM1 to GM11.\nFrequency and severity of risk: Table III shows the types of financial and economic risk encountered by the interviewees in China's construction industry. The difference in the types of risks faced was due to the different roles they played in a project. The companies' priorities and policies also affected the types of risks they faced.On average, specialist contractors (SC-1 and SC-2) encountered the most financial and economic risks in China (mean=5.50), possibly because they are low in the supply chain and risks have been transferred down the chain to them through contractual provisions. Suppliers (S-1) faced the least risks because they exported their goods from the home country without the need to be physically present in the host country.Table III also shows that none of the interviewees encountered foreign exchange fluctuation risk in China, while labor and material price fluctuation risk was encountered by 21 (95 percent) of the 22 interviewees. These observations are discussed later.Table IV shows the impact of financial and economic risks faced by foreign firms in China. On the x-axis, the frequency of occurrence was based on the number of interviewees who encountered this risk (see Table III). When more than 75 percent of the respondents had faced the risk, it is classified as \"high frequency of occurrence\". Medium frequency is when 25 percent to 75 percent of respondents encountered this risk and the rest are classified as low frequency of occurrence. The severity of the risks was classified by respondents during the interviews as \"low\", \"moderate\" or \"high\", based on their experience and perception. Two risks have a great impact on construction projects in China because they are perceived to have high frequency of occurrence and high severity: Labour and Material Price Fluctuation (R5); and Default by Contractors/Subcontractors (R4).\nFramework for managing financial and economic risks: The interviewees were asked how they managed the financial and economic risks which they encountered. The strategies they adopted can be classified into: contractual measures (CM1 to CM7); and general measures (GM1 to GM11) (see Table V). These are represented pictorially in Figure 1.Figure 1 consists of three rows and three types of nodes. The nine types of financial and economic risks (R1 to R9) in this study are represented by circles and are sub-categorized according to when they predominantly occur in a project: pre-contract stage; construction stage; and completion stage. Admittedly, some risks may occur in several stages, but Figure 1 shows where they predominantly occur. The contractual measures (CM1 to CM7) are represented by square boxes on the first row, whereas the general measures (GM1 to GM11) are represented by the rectangular boxes on the last row.When a foreign AEC firm encounters a specific financial and economic risk, it could use Figure 1 to find out the strategies to manage them, by following the arrows to relevant contractual and/or general measures.\nDiscussion: This section discusses the ways foreign firms managed financial and economic risks in China's construction industry. The discussion is based on the framework in Figure 1 and details in Table V.R1: Foreign exchange risk\nConclusion: This study investigated nine types of financial and economic risks that foreign AEC firms face in China. These are: labour and material price fluctuations; contractors and subcontractors' default; delayed or no receipt of payment; inflation; foreign exchange risk; inflation; interest rate fluctuations; import/export restrictions; financial failures; and restriction on repatriation of profits. The impact of these risks and ways to manage them were investigated by in-depth interviews with 22 foreign experts who have experience in China's construction industry.The study found that the first four financial and economic risks have big impact on foreign firms operating in China's construction industry because they are frequently encountered and are severe (see Table IV).This study found several mitigating measures for the financial and economic risks (see Table V). Based on the mitigating measures, a risk management framework is proposed (Figure 1) to help foreign firms manage financial and economic risk in China's construction industry. Of these, the most important is adjusting bidding strategy, by pricing for these risks in the offer price. This study found that foreigners in China are risk avoiders and largely risk averse. They showed a distinct preference for using contractual risk transfer and risk elimination methods.\n",
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"content": "Purpose: - The aim of this research is to investigate how foreign firms manage financial and economic risks when operating in China's construction industry. The specific purposes of the paper are to: identify the types of financial and economic risks foreign firms face and the frequency and severity of these risks; examine how foreign firms manage these risks; and recommend a risk management framework that can be adopted by foreign firms to mitigate financial and economic risks in China.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - The data collection instrument was a questionnaire which had open-ended questions. The data collection method was face-to-face in-depth interviews with 22 experts from Singapore who have experience in China's construction industry.\nFindings: - Nine economic and financial risks affecting foreign firms that operate in China's construction industry are found. Of these, the risks that occur frequently and are severe are: labour and material price fluctuation; and contractors/subcontractors' default. Eighteen contractual and general measures were found to be useful in mitigating these risks.\nResearch limitations/implications: - The findings may not be readily generalized because interviews were conducted with 22 China experts, all of whom are from Singapore.\nPractical implications: - Foreign firms could use the findings to help them decide on the most appropriate measures to adopt, to overcome financial and economic risks that they face when operating in China's construction industry.\nOriginality/value: - The research proposed a framework for foreign firms to use in managing financial and economic risks in China. It recommends different measures to mitigate different types of risks.\n",
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] |
An analysis of technical and commercialization paths for an innovation trajectory
|
[
"Renewable energy",
"Innovation trajectory",
"Innovation events",
"Lock-in effect",
"Technical and commercialization paths"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: There has been a renewed interest in the path dependence, trajectories of innovations and innovation evolution (Andriani, 2011; Codini, 2015; Garud and Karnoe, 2003; Purchase et al., 2014; Thrane Blaabjerg and Moller, 2010; Van de Ven, Polley, Garud and Venkataraman, 2008). Focus has moved away from a linear perspective to incorporate dynamics through narrative approaches (Garud et al., 2014; Simmie et al., 2014; Thrane et al., 2010). Trajectories for radical innovations cover multiple levels such as individual products (Thrane et al., 2010; Van de Ven et al., 2008); organizational decisions (McCarthy et al., 2006); industries (Jenkins and Floyd, 2001); and business networks (Olaru and Purchase, 2015; Purchase et al., 2014), highlighting that a multi-level analytical approach is required (Dagnino et al., 2015; Garud et al., 2014) and supporting the use of narrative methods (Makkonen et al., 2012). The concept of a trajectory has been conflated with the term path such that they are often used interchangeably. This research uses the term path to describe a thread/sequence of events following a thematic classification (Thrane et al., 2010) within an innovation trajectory, whereas an innovation trajectory represents a combination of multiple paths.\n2. Theoretical background: 2.1 Innovation trajectories\n3. Methodology and data: A single longitudinal case study was conducted into the development of a product innovation within a university spin-off organization in the renewable energy sector. The longitudinal case study methodology allows researchers to incorporate dynamics and temporality within the context in which the case is embedded (Halinen and Tornroos, 2005; Makkonen et al., 2012). In particular, we use narrative approaches to consider event triggers and linking between events (Codini, 2015; Halinen et al., 2013; Makkonen et al., 2012); these aspects have not received enough attention in previous research (Dagnino et al., 2015).\n4. Analysis and results: Data analysis consisted of two steps:\n5. Implications: 5.1 Academic implications\n6. Conclusion: This research contributes to our understanding of trajectories and paths, through a case analysis of a university spin-off organization. Results indicate that decisions can \"lock-in\" future possible paths. By analyzing two different path categories (technical versus commercialization), we show that distinct paths contribute to the overall trajectory differently. Therefore, teasing out these differences contributes to our knowledge of how innovation events can influence innovation trajectories. In particular, converging paths along a trajectory make it difficult for changes to be implemented. When changes along a strongly converging trajectory were needed, they tended to be disruptive (i.e. liquidation), such that the conditions for innovation were radically changed and the paths no longer even possible. Thus, analyzing different paths, while maintaining a holistic focus on the overall emergence of an innovation, provided an in-depth understanding of the decisions and events across different path categorizations.\n",
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"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this study is to investigate sequences of event and the resulting innovation paths and trajectories followed by a university spin-off organization.\nDesign/methodology/approach: A single longitudinal case study methodology was applied to analyze innovation events and paths along the trajectory. Narrative methods were used to analyze actor perceptions on innovation processes/events.\nFindings: The study categorizes events and paths in two categories, technical and commercialization, and finds that lock-in events matter for convergence of an innovation trajectory. The results indicate that understanding critical events may assist timely interventions in the innovation paths, thus potentially avoiding disruptions of the development of an innovation trajectory. The temporal processes reveal contrasting convergence-divergence patterns in the trajectory, depending on the types of events that occur.\nResearch limitations/implications: Using a single case data may limit the applicability of the findings, which calls for future research.\nPractical implications: Industries could monitor the technical and commercialization paths as a strategy to reduce \"vulnerability\" of the innovation trajectory and possible negative impacts. Knowledge about the role of the CEO is key for a university spin-off organization.\nOriginality/value: This study presents a new typology of events and paths, identifies and characterizes lock-in events and shows the relatively fragile dexterity between convergent and divergent paths along an innovation trajectory.\n",
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IMRT utilization in Ontario: qualitative deployment evaluation
|
[
"Evaluation",
"Innovation",
"Complex technology",
"Implementation",
"IMRT",
"Utilization"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Rapid advances in healthcare technology, in combination with changing patient demographics, disease patterns and treatment options, pose significant resource and cost challenges to healthcare (Nguyen et al., 2011). Radiation oncology is particularly dependent on complex treatment delivery techniques, which are constantly evolving (Burnet et al., 2012). When implementing new treatment techniques, such as intensity-modulated radiation therapy (IMRT), it is crucial to measure and evaluate implementation to ensure that scarce resources are used efficiently. Further, it is useful to reflect on the implementation process efficacy to determine how it might be improved in future iterations. Evaluations help to analyse prediction accuracy regarding a project's impact and clarify what works and what should be improved (Poon et al., 2009), particularly important when healthcare services are implemented at scale; e.g. across entire jurisdictions - where the activity and scope will be much greater. Cancer Care Ontario (CCO) is an umbrella organization that coordinates cancer services for 14 million people. Staff collect, monitor and report information about cancer and system performance (www.csqi.on.ca/), develop evidence-based standards and treatment guidelines and work with regional providers to plan, improve and implement cancer services. In 2008, Ontario's Ministry of Health and Long Term Care managers funded CCO to accelerate IMRT, reduce disparities across cancer centres and improve patient access to excellent, high quality care without lengthening waiting times. IMRT, which delivers high radiation-doses to cancerous tumours while significantly decreasing radiation damage to surrounding healthy tissues (Webb, 2003; De Meerleer et al., 2004), is an effective treatment for several cancers (Veldman et al., 2008; Staffurth, 2010). We describe province-wide IMRT deployment in Ontario, summarize the IMRT Project evaluation and highlight the lessons learned.\nMethodology: To ensure safe and high-quality care, CCO staff develop and implement targeted quality improvement initiatives. Cancer Care Ontario's 2008-2011 Ontario Cancer Plan (Cancer Care Ontario, 2008, p. 19) recommended that comprehensive approach to \"ensure that all [cancer centres] have the technology and know-how to safely and efficiently deliver IMRT\". Similarly, an organizational standard guideline (Whitton et al., 2009) was published, which recommended IMRT as the care standard. These recommendations led to the three-year (2008-2011) IMRT Project, guided by an implementation framework (Figure 1) that focused on three main goals, to: improve access to IMRT for all eligible patients, ensure appropriate IMRT use and ensure the highest quality IMRT. Access was defined as ensuring that all eligible patients are able to receive IMRT in their region; appropriate use was defined as IMRT utilization that reflects the best-available evidence; and highest-quality was defined as IMRT delivery that is safe, standardized and expert-based.\nFindings: Document analysis, interviews and the survey generated insightful results. Over 200 documents were located, which were related to initiatives undertaken during the three year IMRT Project, including reports, project plans and proposals, surveys, needs assessments, spread sheets, letters, e-mails, memos, meeting minutes and presentations. Three centres were smaller, served a mixed urban and rural population and were treating less than 9 per cent of patients with IMRT in 2010. The remaining centres were larger, served a mostly urban population and treated between 10 and 35 per cent of patients with IMRT in 2010. In total, 21 from 30 individuals formally invited to participate agreed to be interviewed (three administrators, five radiation oncology, six physics and seven radiation therapy managers). All regional directors declined the invitation to participate stating that they were too far removed from the IMRT Project to comment. The interviews lasted around 24 minutes (range 15 to 44 minutes). All key informants agreed to have their interview audio recorded. Overall 266 electronic questionnaires were returned; 13 (5 per cent) from radiation oncologists, 32 (12 per cent) from physicists and 221 (83 per cent) from radiation therapists and dosimetrists. There was at least one respondent from each cancer centre. At onset, a CCO IMRT implementation team was created to communicate, coordinate and implement various initiatives comprising the IMRT Project. The implementation team communicated primarily with administrators and department managers at each cancer centre, expecting that information would be passed on to frontline staff. During the interviews, all key informants stated that they were very familiar with the IMRT Project. Conversely only 64.5 per cent of survey respondents stated that they were either very or somewhat IMRT Project aware. This result may be explained by the fact that the survey included frontline staff respondents (86.5 per cent) who did not directly receive communications regarding the IMRT Project.\nOriginality/value/implications: Treatment techniques used in radiation oncology are intricate and rapidly evolving. Similar to surgery, radiation treatment is a complex procedure that cannot be easily learned from books and lectures; it requires guided hands-on training. This is likely why, the innovative coaching initiative, piloted in this project, proved effective. Accordingly, this approach should be studied further, given that it improved rapid knowledge transfer and relationship building between centres that were previously working in silos. Despite tools offering suggestions on how to best translate research and evidence into practice (Ward et al., 2009; Stetler et al., 2011; Chatfield et al., 2013) recommendation uptake from guidelines and advice reports remain inadequate (Kendall et al., 2009; Boaz et al., 2011; Grimshaw et al., 2012\nConclusions: This evaluation demonstrates that a multifaceted, jurisdictional approach that includes elements addressing funding allocation, evidence-based guidelines, utilization targets, expert coaching and educational activities can be successful in driving and implementing complex techniques such as IMRT. The initiatives implemented during CCO's IMRT Project have shown to be largely effective in expanding IMRT expertise and increasing utilization. This evaluation offers valuable recommendations for future jurisdiction-wide implementations, in Ontario and elsewhere. Generally, it may interest practitioners who are exploring ways to fund, implement and sustain complex and evolving technologies or programmes.\n",
"role": "user"
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{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to describe a jurisdiction-wide implementation and evaluation of intensity-modulated radiation therapy (IMRT) in Ontario, Canada, highlighting innovative strategies and lessons learned.\nDesign/methodology/approach: To obtain an accurate provincial representation, six cancer centres were chosen (based on their IMRT utilization, geography, population, academic affiliation and size) for an in-depth evaluation. At each cancer centre semi-structured, key informant interviews were conducted with senior administrators. An electronic survey, consisting of 40 questions, was also developed and distributed to all cancer centres in Ontario.\nFindings: In total, 21 respondents participated in the interviews and a total of 266 electronic surveys were returned. Funding allocation, guidelines and utilization targets, expert coaching and educational activities were identified as effective implementation strategies. The implementation allowed for hands-on training, an exchange of knowledge and expertise and the sharing of responsibility. Future implementation initiatives could be improved by creating stronger avenues for clear, continuing and comprehensive communication at all stages to increase awareness, garner support and encourage participation and encouraging expert-based coaching. IMRT utilization for has increased without affecting wait times or safety (from fiscal year 2008/2009 to 2012/2013 absolute increased change: prostate 46, thyroid 36, head and neck 29, sarcoma 30, and CNS 32 per cent).\nOriginality/value: This multifaceted, jurisdiction-wide approach has been successful in implementing guideline recommended IMRT into standard practice. The expert based coaching initiative, in particular presents a novel training approach for those who are implementing complex techniques. This paper will be of interest to those exploring ways to fund, implement and sustain complex and evolving technologies.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
Are information quality and source credibility really important for shared content on social media? The moderating role of gender
|
[
"Gender",
"Information quality",
"Source credibility",
"Male",
"Female",
"Destination",
"Customer-generated content",
"Shared content on social media"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: In addition to the increasing diversity of products and services, the number of channels through which information about products and services can be obtained is growing. The internet and social media, which are among the largest information sources, have been growing in importance day by day. Consumers wishing to obtain information about a specific product or service make use of the internet and social media ideally. Especially electronic word-of-mouth (e-WOM) or content generated on social media by others has become essential for consumers' purchasing decisions, preferences and attitudes (Sotiriadis, 2017). E-WOM or consumer-generated contents are able to reach more population faster than the traditional WOM (Litvin et al., 2018). Viglia et al. (2016) have found that online reviews, a type of e-WOM or consumer-generated content, are an important precedent in terms of hotel occupancy rate. The fact that content generated on social media by other individuals shapes the decisions and preferences of consumers in a significant way has created the necessity for organizations to focus on these media. Organizations such as Sheraton or Starwoods have started to take steps to ensure the interaction of consumers with both the company and other consumers (Sigala, 2009).\nConceptual framework: Shared content on social media, information quality and source credibility\nMethodology: Instrument\nFindings: Demographic findings\nDiscussion and conclusions: Conclusions\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: This paper aims to first examine tourists' perceptions of the source credibility and information quality of social media content to see whether they would have an impact on their perceptions of the importance of shared content on social media. The moderating role of gender in this relationship was then examined.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The research sample was composed of domestic and foreign tourists in Alanya, an important tourist destination in Turkey. The data in the current study were collected by the questionnaire method. The structural relationships in the research were examined using the partial least squares structural equation modeling, and the moderating effect of gender was examined via the partial least squares multiple group analysis.\nFindings: According to the research findings, tourists' perceptions of source credibility regarding social media content had a positive impact on the importance attached to non-participant shared content, whereas their perceptions of information quality had a positive impact on the importance attached to participant shared content. Furthermore, it was also observed that gender had a moderating effect on the relationship between information quality and source credibility perceptions and the importance of shared content on social media.\nOriginality/value: Two important predictive variables have been examined in the current research in term of customer-generated contents. It has been demonstrated that the effects of these predictive variables on different customer-generated types could be different. Furthermore, it has been determined that the effects of these influences differ according to the gender of the individuals following the content. Thus, the current study provides significant findings to understand the impacts of these variables on the basis of gender.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
Factors for and against resistance to smart services: role of consumer lifestyle and ecosystem related variables
|
[
"Lifestyle",
"Innovation",
"Internet of things",
"Mobility",
"Consumer resistance",
"Dual factor",
"Smart service"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Many studies published in the service marketing literature have highlighted the emergence of a new model of \"smart\" services (Wunderlich et al., 2013; Wunderlich et al., 2015; Ostrom et al., 2015; Mani and Chouk, 2018). The term \"smart services\" describes services that integrate Internet of Things (IoT) devices in support of service delivery in many domains (e.g. smart cities, smart homes, IoT banking). For example, a smart thermostat connected to the Internet can provide an intelligent service in the home by learning the user's routines and adjusting the temperature automatically and autonomously. By means of a mobile app or a smartwatch, users can also control the temperature remotely, monitor their home and receive alerts if anything goes wrong with the heating or cooling system. A smart thermostat can thus become a support that enables energy suppliers to provide a smart service, makes the home more efficient and helps customers reduce their energy consumption.\nLiterature review: Consumer resistance to innovation: a dual-factor perspective\nFramework and hypotheses: Theoretical framework\nHypothesis development: Consumer lifestyle-related factors\nMethodology and results: Context of the research: Internet of Things-based banking services\nDiscussion: Our research sheds light on the antecedents of consumer resistance to smart services. We find a negative link between mobiquity and resistance; in other words, the current tendency of individuals to favor mobility and the possibility of experiencing service through multiple devices (ubiquity) are negatively related to resistance to smart services. This result is in line with previous studies that identified mobility as a favorable antecedent to consumers' intentions and attitudes toward the use of an electronic service (Mallat et al., 2006; Schierz et al., 2010). Similarly, our results identify congruence with self-image as an antecedent that has a negative impact on resistance, thus confirming the results of previous studies showing that the acceptance of smart services is determined by their compatibility with the consumer's self-image (Mani and Chouk, 2018). In addition, while previous research highlights the significant impact of consumer innovativeness on the intention to adopt technology-based services (Goldsmith, 2002; Lassar et al., 2005), our research shows no significant effect on resistance. This result can be explained by the fact that IoT devices are new products in their first stage of development, and consumers have not yet had time to learn about them.\nLimitations and future research: Despite its theoretical and managerial implications, our research has a number of limitations, which provide possible directions for future work. First, the study was carried out in France, which could limit the external validity of the results, given that patterns of resistance and adoption may vary from country to country (Laukkanen, 2016; Joachim et al., 2018). It would be interesting to replicate our model in other countries in order to identify cultural differences in terms of resistance behavior. These cultural differences could also explain the influence of each resistance factor. For example, it would be interesting to investigate the extent to which lifestyle, which differs from country to country, might influence resistance differently. Similarly, future research could address the question of possible differences in perceptions of resistance barriers between developed and emerging countries. The second limitation concerns the choice of smart banking as a context. This sector is still in an early stage of development, and consumers are not yet familiar with this type of service. Consumers will presumably become more familiar with smart services over time, and that this will have an impact on the resistance behavior. Future research based on a longitudinal study could provide more extensive information on resistance factors to smart services. Finally, other factors not included in the study could explain resistance to smart services, such as price, self-efficacy, involvement and perceived utility. It would be interesting to consider these variables in future research.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: Consumers are increasingly connected to, and make use of, a multitude of technologies in their daily lives. The exponential growth in the use of Internet of Things (IoT)-based services is ushering in a new era of e-services, in which the service experience is becoming autonomous (intelligence), devices are intercommunicating (connectivity) and consumers can access the service anytime, anywhere and using any device (ubiquity). However, a number of challenges have arisen. The purpose of this paper is to investigate factors that reduce consumer resistance to smart services (factors against resistance) and factors that promote this resistance (factors for resistance), by means of a dual-factor approach.\nDesign/methodology/approach: To test this theoretical model, the authors developed a Web-based survey and used structural equation modeling.\nFindings: Results show that consumer-lifestyle factors (individual \"mobiquity\" and self-image congruence) reduce consumer resistance to smart services (factors against resistance). Conversely, innovation-related factors (perceived security, perceived complexity) and ecosystem-related factors (perceived government surveillance and general skepticism toward IoT) promote consumer resistance to smart services (factors for resistance). In addition, general skepticism toward IoT has a significant positive effect on perceived complexity, perceived security risk and perceived government surveillance.\nOriginality/value: This research investigates consumer resistance to smart services using a dual-factor perspective (Cenfetelli, 2004; Claudy et al., 2015): factors reducing resistance versus factors promoting resistance. This paper provides evidence for the importance of consumer lifestyle-related factors, innovation-related factors and ecosystem-related factors in explaining consumer resistance to smart services. This work enriches previous studies of consumer resistance to innovation (Ram and Sheth, 1989; Ram, 1987) by studying original variables (individual mobiquity, technological innovativeness, government surveillance).\n",
"role": "assistant"
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The business financial inclusion benefits from an Islamic point of view: a qualitative inquiry
|
[
"Business",
"Financial inclusion",
"Recordkeeping/bookkeeping",
"Zakāh",
"Employment",
"Poverty alleviation",
"E24",
"E58",
"M40 I30",
"H52",
"J42",
"E23"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: Financial inclusion is believed to be a central objective of many developing economies (Sharma and Kukreja, 2013). Recently, enhancing access to financial services enjoys special consideration on the agenda of many economies in the world (Brekke, 2018; Naceur et al., 2015; Seman, 2016). It has become a universal activity and concern for policymakers and regulators for developing the financial sector in order to achieve a maintainable long-term economic objective (Zulkhibri, 2016). According to the World Bank's 2014 Global Financial Development Report (GFDR), more than 50 nations have formally established their targets for enhancement of financial inclusion (Naceur et al., 2015).Nigeria is not an exception in struggling for achieving a higher financial inclusion rate. Several measures, such as agent banking, tiered Know-Your-Customer (KYC) requirements, financial literacy, consumer protection, linkage banking, the implementation of the Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises Development Fund (MSMEDF) and credit enhancement programs, among others, have been put in place by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) in collaboration with other organizations with a view to attaining a financial inclusion rate of 80% by the year 2020 (Zauro et al., 2017a). A survey conducted in 2018 showed that over 60% of the Nigerian adult population has become financially included (Enhancing Financial Innovation and Access (EFInA), 2018). Perhaps, this motivated the governor of the CBN and chairman of the National Financial Inclusion Steering Committee to set further higher the next target of achieving a 95% financial inclusion rate by the year 2024 (CBN, 2019).Meanwhile, Islamic banking serves as an instrument for achieving financial inclusion (Naceur et al., 2015). In 2011, the CBN approved the establishment of an Islamic bank (IB) with a view to providing alternatives to conventional finance that are Shari'ah-compliant for economic growth and development (Zauro et al., 2017b). Currently, another full-fledged IB, named Taj Bank Limited, has emerged and commenced operation in Nigeria on December 2, 2019. Also, a Nigerian conventional bank that earlier had an Islamic window is making all the necessary preparations for conversion into a fully Shari'ah-compliant bank. These show the potential contributions of the Nigerian Islamic banking industry in enabling Nigerians to have access to Islamic financial services.Many empirical studies were conducted on the link between Islamic finance and financial inclusion defined with different objectives in different countries, such as Beg and Mullick (2016), Brekke (2018); Demirguc-Kunt et al. (2014); Er and Mutlu (2017); Naceur et al. (2015); Zulkhibri (2016); Ali (2015) and Umar et al. (2019). These studies failed to clearly point out the advantages and benefits of business financial inclusion.Given this background, the objective of the present study is to explore the benefits of accessing business financial services from an Islamic point of view in Nigeria by selecting Kano state as a case study. Kano was selected as a case study for four reasons. First, it is the most populated state in Nigeria. Second, historically, it is the Nigerian center of commerce. Third, it is not only dominated by Muslims but also has the highest number of Muslims among the Nigerian states. Fourth, after releasing the revised Nigerian Financial Inclusion Strategy in January 2019, the CBN organized a stakeholders' forum in each of the six zones of Nigeria to educate Nigerians on the provisions of the strategy and fashion out implementation activities at the grassroots level. Kano was selected in the North-West Geo-Political Zone (CBN, 2019). Hence, the forum is expected to improve the financial inclusion rate in the state.The remainder of the paper is divided into four sections: literature review, methodology, research findings and conclusion.\n2. Literature review: 2.1 A brief history of the case study\n3. Methodology: This study utilized a semi-structured interview method that was adapted from previous studies (Eldabi et al., 2002; Horton et al., 2004; Nor and Hashim, 2015; Thaker, 2018). It is a qualitative method that emphasizes more on understanding and describing a process instead of behavioral outcomes (Bakar and Yusof, 2016; Nor and Hashim, 2015). Moreover, it enables the researcher to seek further in-depth explanations on some responses with the view to resolving apparent contradictions (Horton et al., 2004). Hence, this approach is considered to be a way of finding social reality from the subject, not from the observer (Eldabi et al., 2002).Professional accountants (working in audit and consultancy services firms) and experienced traders were interviewed in order to achieve the objective of the study. Purposive sampling technique was applied to select the respondents. It is the most common sampling technique used for pre-selecting respondents based on a particular research question (Thaker, 2018). Nowadays, it is widely used as a method of sampling in qualitative research (Gentles et al., 2015). This is applied to ensure that experienced and qualified respondents were selected to provide answers to research questions. In the case of sample size, six respondents were selected based on the principle of data saturation as used by Thaker (2018). The purpose of data saturation is to avoid oversampling of interviewees which tends to make the data become redundant (Marshall et al., 2013). Thus, the sample of the six participants was assumed to be enough. Similarly, unlike quantitative research where a large sample size is preferred, in qualitative research, a small sample size is recommended with the view to acquiring information that could enable one to understand the complexity, depth, variation or context surrounding a phenomenon (Gentles et al., 2015).The data collected through the interviews with the participants were transcribed into field notes and analyzed by the application of thematic analysis, as applied by Thaker (2018). Table 1 presents the profile of the respondents:Table 1 shows that there are six respondents. The first three (A1-A3) are professional accountants/consultants, who have been rendering accounting/auditing and other consultancy services to businesses for many years. The next two (A4 and A5) are traders with accounting and finance background. The last one (A6) worked as an accountant for one of the stores that are financially included in the state.In spite of financial inclusion as a contemporary and topical issue, prior studies have not yet clearly pointed out the comprehensive benefits of business financial inclusion. However, the literature on cashless policy and financial inclusion was reviewed to explore the expected benefits of business financial inclusion, which would serve as a basis for developing the categorical themes of the interviews. According to the CBN (n.d.), the anticipated benefits of the cashless economy would, among others, include faster access to capital, reduction in cash-related crimes, increased convenience, access to adequate credit facilities (by business), faster access to capital (by businesses), reduced revenue leakage and cash handling costs, among others. Similarly, Achor and Robert (2013) established that the cashless economy has the potential to reduce cash-related robberies, corruption and other fraudulent practices. Hence, eight expected benefits of business financial inclusion could be pointed out. It is worth noting that some benefits would serve as the drivers of others.First, when a business is financially included, most of its receipts and payments will be done through banks. This implies that bank statements will provide substantial information concerning receipts and payments for the preparation of the comprehensive financial statements of businesses. A bank statement is one of the essential source documents needed to prepare the financial statements of a business (Umar, 2019a). Second, effective financial inclusion provides various alternative means of electronic payments, such as online payment, credit transfer, debit cards and POS, which enable customers to make payment when they have no cash in hand. Consequently, this would contribute to the reduction of bad debts. Third, financial inclusion is likely to contribute to minimizing the risks associated with carrying cash. Fourth, if a business has access to adequate credit facilities, it has its revenue leakage fraudulent activities reduced. Thus, it has the potential to grow and increase its revenue. Fifth, when a business grows and has its revenue increased as well, there is a tendency to pay more zakah. Sixth, as the business grows, it would provide more employment opportunities. Hence, it is believed that successful financial inclusion would increase employment (Dixit and Ghosh, 2013; Ali, 2015; Er and Mutlu, 2017).Seventh, for about a decade, the Nigerian government has adopted the cashless economy, which greatly contributes to the increase in the financial inclusion rate. This is because many Nigerians have bank accounts through which they make and receive payments. It has now become a rule that for any individual or organization to benefit from the Nigerian government and NGOs (both local and international), they must operate bank accounts through which payments and receipts are done. Eighth, it is worth noting that businesses that grow (size) and earn higher profits are likely to increase and disclose more CSR activities in their annual reports and accounts. These findings are based on the survey and content analysis of 76 empirical studies conducted in both developed and developing countries (Ali et al., 2017).Briefly, eight benefits of business financial inclusion could be pointed out. All benefits are not independent - some are the drivers of the others. For example, when a business grows and its revenue increased, it is likely to pay more zakah for poverty alleviation. It is also expected to employ more workers. Table 2 shows the eight categorical themes based on the issue discussed above.Table 2 shows the eight categorical themes and the interview questions about the benefits of business financial inclusion. In line with Thaker (2018), the responses were transcribed into field notes. Besides, observations were made in various stores and shops that are financially included, such as Jifatu Stores, Sahad Stores and Sammanin Fatihu Stores, in order to support the interview results.\n4. Research findings: It has been observed that the most common and popular means of making electronic payments in the stores and the shops is the point of sales (POS) terminal. The POS has now become a powerful instrument that significantly enhances the financial inclusion of business. Also, all the sample stores and the shops have barcode machines, which are used to record all the inventories purchased and sold. The machines print invoices for the purchases made by customers.The results of the interviews based on the eight major themes and the observations are presented below. 4.1 Recordkeeping improvement\n5. Conclusion: Financial inclusion is a central point to both Islamic and non-Islamic states as well as developed and developing countries. The objective of this paper is to explore the benefits of business financial inclusion for wealth maximization and poverty alleviation in Nigeria. This study utilized primary data by conducting interviews with experts comprising professional accountants/consultants and experienced traders. Also, observations were made in some selected stores and shops that were believed to be financially included. The study reveals the benefits of business financial inclusion to include recordkeeping improvement, the reduction of the risks of bad debts, the reduction of the risks associated with cash, enhancement business zakah for poverty alleviation, sales improvement and business growth, getting support from government and other development organizations and the provision of employment opportunities. Other benefits are carrying out religious and other philanthropic activities which greatly contribute to the welfare of the ummah.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: This study explores the benefits of business financial inclusion from the Islamic perspective in Nigeria by selecting Kano state as a case study.\nDesign/methodology/approach: Primary data were generated through semi-structured interviews with experts who comprised professional accountants/consultants and experienced traders. Thematic analysis was applied to examine the data collected. In addition, observations were made in some selected stores and shops to complement the interview results.\nFindings: The study finds that the benefits of business financial inclusion include recordkeeping improvement, reduction of the risks of bad debts, reduction of the risks associated with cash, enhancing business zakah for poverty alleviation, sales improvement and business growth, getting supports from government and other development organizations and the provision of employment opportunities.\nResearch limitations/implications: This study is purely qualitative, and, as such, it has some limitations in terms of generalization.\nPractical implications: The practical implication of this study is that the use of electronic payment methods, especially point of sales, enhances the business financial inclusion, which consequently maximizes their wealth and contributes to the reduction of poverty to the barest minimum in the society.\nSocial implications: The social implication of the findings is that businesses that are financially included are in a better position to discharge religious, philanthropic and other benevolent activities, such as zakah, qard hasan, waqf and sadaqah, for the welfare of the ummah.\nOriginality/value: The study points out the benefits of financial inclusion not only to businesses but also to other members of the society at large.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
Competencies of older workers and its influence on career success and job satisfaction
|
[
"Skills",
"Career development",
"Motivation",
"Job satisfaction",
"Integrity"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: The population is aging and older workers are becoming a substantial part of the labor force (OECD, 2011). Many studies have been conducted about how to retain older workers or what makes older workers extend their working lives (Buyens et al., 2009). However, much less is known about what actually influences the career success of older workers (Robson et al., 2006). Career success is a well-studied topic in management research, but previous research mainly focussed on younger or middle-aged workers (Bridgstock, 2011) and older workers have received only very limited attention (Bown-Wilson and Parry, 2013). This is important, because competencies change with age (Reeve et al., 2012) and their influence on both components of career success as well. Furthermore, while technical skills were the only skills necessary for career success in the past, nowadays the importance of soft skills is increasingly being acknowledged (James and James, 2004). One study found that 85 percent of long-term job success depends on soft skills, while only 15 percent is dependent on technical knowledge (John, 2009).\nTheoretical framework: The theoretical framework in this study is the human capital theory (Becker, 1964). This theoretical framework was chosen, since we argue that one's human capital is increasingly important in the boundaryless career era. What makes workers successful and satisfied at work is related to what individuals possess in terms of knowledge, experience or skills. According to the human capital view, organizations distribute rewards to their members according to their contributions. The ability to contribute to an organization depends on having relevant competencies, which can be acquired in various ways. This view implicitly assumes that individuals compete for the rewards available in organizations, and some are more successful than others (Brown and Hesketh, 2004). Most research linking human capital to individual or organizational outcomes have focussed on knowledge, skill, experience and/or education (Ployhart and Moliterno, 2011). Although many researchers believe that education is the most important component of human capital (McArdle et al., 2007), evidence suggests that the relationship between educational achievement and career success is only modest (Ng et al., 2005). Ng et al. (2005) found that indicators of educational achievement correlated modestly but positively with subsequent financial success (r=0.21). Thus, although education is reliably associated with career success, the effects are relatively small; the amount of unexplained variance suggests that other factors may also be important. This study does not look at the well-studied dimension of education, but examines competencies that are especially relevant to older workers. We look at competencies, an under-studied aspect of the human capital theory that is increasingly important in the changing work environment where individuals have to constantly develop themselves and keep their knowledge and competencies up-to-date in order to stay employable and attractive in the labor market, thereby extending our knowledge of this theoretical framework.\nLiterature review: Career success\nMethodology: Sample\nResults: Table II provides the means, standard deviations and correlations of all variables under study. It shows that motivation (r=0.18; p\nDiscussion: This study examined the influence of social skills, integrity and motivation on both intrinsic and extrinsic career success of older workers in the Netherlands by the use of the human capital theory. Multiple regression was used to analyze the 1,112 surveys. It was found that motivation, integrity and social skills all had a positive relationship with job satisfaction: the higher the older workers scored on those competencies, the more satisfied they were with their job. Motivation and social skills were also positively related to extrinsic career success, while integrity was unrelated.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to examine the influence of the competencies motivation, integrity and social skills on both intrinsic and extrinsic career success.\nDesign/methodology/approach: In total, 1,112 individuals aged 45 or above registered at a job agency specialized in older employees in the Netherlands filled out a survey. The results were analyzed using multiple regression.\nFindings: The three competencies had a positive relationship with intrinsic career success (job satisfaction). Motivation and social skills were also positively related to extrinsic career success, while integrity was unrelated.\nOriginality/value: The influence of competencies on career success of older workers has received only little attention from researchers.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
SME international performance in Latin America: The role of entrepreneurial and technological capabilities
|
[
"Internet",
"Chile",
"Technological capabilities",
"Entrepreneurial capabilities",
"International entrepreneurship orientation",
"SME internationalization"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: There has been a rising trend in internationalization among small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in the last decade, and SME international performance has emerged as an important topic for investigation (Ruzzier et al., 2006). Particularly, more and more SMEs from emerging economies are expanding their operations into international markets (Aulakh et al., 2000). These firms generate a large proportion of economic growth and new-job creation in emerging markets (Lyon et al., 2000). Academics, businesses, and governments increasingly recognize that gaining a better understanding of the internationalization process of SMEs, especially from emerging markets, is a very important endeavor (Filatotchev et al., 2009). However, prior research into SME internationalization has focused mostly on large, multinational enterprises from developed countries (Olejnik and Swoboda, 2012; Spence and Crick, 2006), and less attention has been paid to SME internationalization from emerging markets (Bianchi and Wickramasekera, 2016).\n2. Literature review: While a number of theoretical frameworks have been developed over the past decade to explain how international firm performance is achieved, one of the most predominant perspectives has been the RBV of the firm (Barney, 1986, 1991; Wernerfelt, 1984). The RBV suggests that a firm can attain a competitive advantage by acquiring-specific resources (Dhanaraj and Beamish, 2003; Lu et al., 2010). Barney (1991) classifies resources broadly as \"all assets, capabilities, organizational processes, firm attributes, information, knowledge, etc.\" (p. 101). This definition has partly resulted in synonymous usage of the terms. This study follows the perspective that resources, processes, and capabilities clearly differ from one another, as resources cannot be a source of competitive advantage by themselves (Ray et al., 2004). However, not all processes will be a source of competitive advantage for a firm. The RBV suggests that processes that exploit intangible firm resources are more likely to be a source of competitive advantage than processes that exploit tangible firm resources (Barney, 1991).\n3. Hypotheses and conceptual model development: 3.1 SME international performance\n4. Research methodology: Hypotheses were tested using an online survey applied to entrepreneurial SMEs in Chile, between January and April 2015. Chile was chosen as the context for this study based on the World Economic Forum's (WEF) 2016 competitiveness report. Chile is considered one of Latin America's most stable and prosperous nations, leading the region in competitiveness, income per capita, globalization, economic freedom, and low perception of corruption (WEF, 2016). Chile has a small domestic market so internationalization is essential for country growth. Governmental regulations in Chile have increased to comply with international standards, and Chilean standard guidelines follow those of the World Trade Organization. However, many Chilean SMEs are still reticent about internationalizing due to a lack of resources and expertise, which are not suited to perceived risky ventures (The Economist, 2015; Sommer, 2010).\n5. Results: 5.1 Descriptive statistics\n6. Discussion and conclusions: The impact of organizational capabilities for emerging market SMEs on international performance in a technology-based environment is largely absent from the existing literature. This study addresses a limitation of previous research and draws on the RBV and a capabilities approach (Barney, 1991; Teece, 2007; Teece et al., 1997) to develop and test a conceptual model that considers the impact of entrepreneurial and technological capabilities on the international performance of SMEs in a Latin American context. The aim of the research was to enrich the current understanding of how SMEs from emerging markets improve their international performance. This study considers the role of specific dynamic capabilities - international entrepreneurial orientation, international entrepreneurial opportunity recognition, technology-related international networks, and internet technology capabilities - for leveraging SME international performance. Based on data collected from Chilean SMEs, the findings of this study contribute to previous research by showing that entrepreneurial and technological capabilities have a positive impact on the international performance of SMEs (Morgan-Thomas, 2009).\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: Small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) from emerging markets in Latin America are increasingly engaging in internationalization. Nevertheless, there is limited research into how these firms achieve international performance. The purpose of this paper is to examine managerial and technology-related capabilities and their impact on international performance of SMEs.\nDesign/methodology/approach: Drawing on data from 233 Chilean SMEs, a model is developed and tested using structural equation modeling. Specifically, the model considers the role of international entrepreneurial orientation and internet technology capabilities on SME international performance, taking into account the mediating effect of international entrepreneurial opportunity recognition and technology-related international networks.\nFindings: Results show that international entrepreneurial opportunity recognition and international networks mediate the relationship between international entrepreneurial orientation and internet technology capabilities on SME international performance.\nResearch limitations/implications: The context for the study is Chile. However, this is an important emerging market in Latin America with a strong focus on SME internationalization. The research design is cross-sectional and so does not allow for any causal claims to be made.\nOriginality/value: This research contributes to the relatively scant but increasing number of empirical studies which investigate the link between internationalization strategy and SME performance in emerging market contexts.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
Institutional investors, information asymmetry and stock market liquidity in France
|
[
"Liquidity",
"Institutional investors",
"Information asymmetry",
"Pension funds"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: Institutional investors are considered as a common feature of modern capital markets. They play a major role in internationalizing financial markets because they manage huge volume of assets: nearly 62,000 billion dollars at the end of 2006, more than the total GDP of major industrialized countries. In 2005, institutional investors held 65 percent of equity in firms listed on the NYSE/AMEX, indicating a compound annual growth rate of 6.3 percent over the past 25 years (Agarwal, 2009).\n2. Institutional investors and stock market liquidity: literature review and development of hypotheses: 2.1. Institutional investor ownership and market liquidity\n3. Sample and methodology: 3.1. Data collection\n4. Methodology: Our methodology relies on linear regressions using the method of ordinary least square[1]. We apply a logistic transformation for financial variables (quoted and effective relative spread, trading volume, share price and volatility) to convert bounded variables to unbounded ones (Table I).\n5. Results and discussion: 5.1. Descriptive statistics\n6. Conclusion: The purpose of this paper is to study the impact of institutional investor's ownership and type on information asymmetry and liquidity for a sample of 162 French-listed companies over a three-year period (2007-2009). The literature examining this relationship in international contexts is rather mixed and considers these institutional investors as a homogeneous group. We focus on this relationship by highlighting the heterogeneous nature of these investors.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to examine the effect of institutional investors' ownership and type on information asymmetry and stock market liquidity in France.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The sample includes 162 French-listed firms from 2007 to 2009. The methodology relies on linear regressions using the method of ordinary least square. Before examining the interaction between liquidity and institutional investors, the authors check for the existence of the endogeneity problem by applying the Durbin-Wu-Hausman test of Davidson and MacKinnon (1993). The results of the endogeneity test show that institutional investors' ownership and stock liquidity are endogenous. A simultaneous equation model using the double least square method is then tested to address this problem.\nFindings: The findings show that the proportion of institutional investors has a positive and significant effect on stock-market liquidity, which confirms the signal theory and trading hypothesis. These investors perform high trading activity which favorably affects market liquidity. The results also show that pension funds improve stock liquidity. This result suggests that pension funds manage huge assets decreasing transaction costs and improving liquidity. They display a positive signal to the market about more transparency and a low level of informational asymmetry.\nPractical implications: These results highlight the institutional investors' role in defining the level of liquidity on the French market. The findings also stress the relevance of developing institutional investors' demand for the Paris market in order to better assess firm value, protect minority ownership and improve market liquidity.\nOriginality/value: In the French institutional setting, institutional investors act as a control device since minority shareholder interests are less protected than in Anglo-American counterparts. This result highlights the significant role of institutional investors in corporate governance structures and on financial markets. Their presence is a guarantee for minority interest protection and for more liquid stocks.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
Managerial competencies for middle managers: some empirical findings from China
|
[
"Leadership development",
"Middle managers",
"Competences",
"China"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n__NO_TITLE__: In recent years, competency study has gained more and more interest and attention. Numerous attempts have been made by scholars to study competency (Boyatzis, 1982; McCleland, 1973; McLagan, 1989; Prahalad and Hamel, 1990; Spencer and Spencer, 1993; Ulrich, 1997). Competency modeling, in addition to being regarded as a focal point for planning, organizing, integrating and improving all aspects of human resource management systems (McLagan, 1980), is also regarded as an approach focused on improving organizational performance (Rothwell and Lindholm, 1999).\nLiterature review: McCleland (1976) described \"competency\" as the characteristics underlying superior performance. In the US, traditionally, the competency modeling starts from observing successful job performers to determining how these individuals differ from less successful performers. However, some researchers argued that, this approach in identifying competencies tended to produce competencies that were too generic and abstract, therefore, of limited value in competency development (Sandberg, 2000). In comparison, Sandberg (1994) argued that competency should be viewed as a function of the context in which it was applied, and Sandberg (1994) further suggested that competency should be constituted by the meaning of one's work rather than a specific set of attributes.Many studies attempted to identify the key competencies that defined effective leadership (American Management Association, 2005; Boyatzis, 1982; Development Dimensions International, 2005; Hayes, 1979). Several research studies were conducted in China on leadership competency modeling (Kakabadese and Wang, 2003; Wang and Chen, 2002; Wang and Schneider, 2003). Wang and Chen (2002) conducted a study of managerial competency modeling for assessment and selection in China. They used a strategic hierarchical job analysis and a survey on leadership competency to formulate a model of managerial competency structure The findings of their study suggested that the managerial skills necessary for middle managers included strategic decision-making, relationship coordination, empowerment and facilitation, business monitoring, and innovation. Wang and Schneider (2003) conducted a three-year longitudinal research project to examine the dynamics of multicultural leadership team development. Their emphasis was on a cross-cultural managerial competency-performance framework. They identified four dimensions of leadership competencies that were crucial to working in multicultural leadership teams in joint ventures in China. Their findings indicated that managers in China shared several common competencies with western managers. However, some competency differentiations were unique to the Chinese culture.The perception of informants in the work situation is frequently used by researchers when studying competency (van der Velde et al., 1999), and the critical incident technique (Flanagan, 1954) has been widely used as one key methodology in rigorous competency studies. In addition, Pernick (2001) proposed that competencies could be derived from the organization's mission statement and core values. Rothwell and Lindholm (1999) argued that the approach to developing a competency model s crucial to ensuring validity and reliability for the effort.\nMethodology: Based on our literature review, we chose to explore competencies of middle managers by way of mixed approaches. To be more specific, two studies were conducted separately to explore the competencies critical to the success of middle managers in China. In study 1, a questionnaire survey was distributed to Managerial Business Administration (MBA) and EMBA students at a major university in China to examine their perceptions of managerial competencies required for successful middle managers. In study 2, two case studies were conducted respectively to identify critical competencies for the middle managers in participating companies. Focus groups, critical incidence interviews, and survey questionnaires were adopted because, as suggested by Yin (1994), multiple sources of evidence could add validity and reliability to case study findings.In both of the studies, middle managers were identified to be those who were positioned in the middle of the organization and served as vertical links between the strategic decision-makers and the first-level supervisors as well as front-line employees in their business units. As such, middle managers were usually held accountable to translate organizational strategy into actions, deliver qualified outcomes and meet deadlines within budget. In this sense, their roles in the organization were more or less the same in China as those of their counterparts in the western countries.Study 1\nResults: Major findings of study 1\nConclusions: This research attempted to explore the competencies critical for middle managers in China. From the findings of the two studies, the managerial competencies including team building, communication, coordination, execution and continual learning were critical for the success of middle managers in China.In addition, this research found that the middle managers required different set of competencies from senior managers. For example, in study 1, all the competencies that were rated as important or very important to the success of middle managers in China did not include items that were more strategically focused. Competencies such as vision and strategic thinking were less frequently mentioned as important and gained relatively lower mean values. Therefore, our research was consistent with findings in earlier studies (Kraut et al., 1989) reporting different hierarchical positions require different managerial behaviors.Furthermore, the five competencies identified for middle managers in this study were relevant to their positions in their company. As an integral vertical link between the strategic decision-makers and the first-level supervisors and front-line employees in their business units, middle managers were usually held accountable to translate organizational strategy into actions, deliver qualified outcomes and meet deadlines within budget. Therefore, their ability to execute and implement strategy was critical to the success of middle managers, resulting in execution being an important competency for middle managers. In addition, middle managers were sometimes referred to as \"glue\" in an organization because they were often relied upon to lead their teams to achieve the goals of the organization. They were expected to inspire, motivate and guide their team toward goal accomplishment. As such, team building was another critical competency for middle managers. The above findings corresponded with those in previous studies in that, compared to executive managers, middle managers needed to focus more on execution and leading people (Farquhar, 1998; Kraut et al., 1989). Due to their unique position in the organization, middle managers faced quite different challenges than senior managers. To be more specific, middle managers were positioned in the middle of an organization, which placed them in a complex network with other people. As such, the competency of developing, adapting and maintaining good relationships was extremely important for middle managers. In the turbulent workplace, the pace of change and the required evolution of skills place a premium on continuous learning (Morgan, 1991). To catch up with the rapidly changing environment in China, middle managers must keep updating their knowledge and skills so that they can keep their professional competence in their current jobs and be prepared for the next higher positions.Lastly, as this study explored middle management competencies in Chinese context, when compared with the studies conducted in western context, we can see that relationship management was highly emphasized in China. For example, in study 2, communication and coordination apparently reflected relationship management in study 1. This suggested that relationship building was crucial in Chinese culture.\nImplications, discussions and limitations: Implications\nHow this research contributes to the field of HRD: This research was intended to identify the leadership competencies required for successful middle level managers in China. As such, it contributes to the field of HRD in two ways. First, it informs the HRD professionals of the critical leadership competencies required for successful middle managers in China and, therefore, serves to fill in the gaps in leadership competencies. Second, the findings of study 1 show that the leadership competencies identified in the US are all perceived to be important for middle managers in China, suggesting that successful middle managers in China share many common attributes with managers in the US. Therefore, for HRD professionals in China, when developing leadership competency models and designing leadership development programs for middle managers in China, the tools, instruments and programs from western countries are applicable as foundations or references.\n",
"role": "user"
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"content": "Purpose: - This study aims to identify managerial competencies required for successful middle managers in China.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - First a questionnaire survey was distributed among MBA and EMBA students at a major university in China, and then two case studies were conducted to collect more in-depth data.\nFindings: - The findings of this study suggest that team building, communication, coordination, execution and continual learning are critical competencies for the success of middle managers in China. Implications for future research and practices are also discussed.\nOriginality/value: - The literature review shows that although previous leadership competency studies are extensive, little research has been conducted to explore the competencies required for middle managers. This study would contribute to fill the gap in the literature.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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Autonomy, market orientation and performance in Indian retail banking
|
[
"Market orientation",
"Business performance",
"Banking",
"India",
"Service industries"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: Effectiveness of subunits influences the effectiveness of firms constituted of them (Gelade and Young, 2005). Boundary spanning subunits, having primary responsibility to interact with agencies external to the organization (Callahan and Salipante, 1979), could therefore influence firm effectiveness. Superior decision-making autonomy to the boundary spanning employees helps to improve the competitiveness of firms (Nielson and Pedersen, 2003) which in turn could have performance implications. Similarly, decentralization facilitates a market orientation at firm level (Jaworski and Kohli, 1993). Decentralized organizations are also found to be good in generating innovative ideas from a variety of groups within the organization and to be more effective in non-routine and complex environments (Olson et al., 1995). This paper proposes a theoretical model that postulates the impact of autonomy and decentralization on market orientation and performance at boundary spanning levels and tests it in the post liberalized Indian retail banking context.\n2. Theoretical context: Association between market orientation and organizational performance in services firms has been observed to be weaker than that in manufacturing firms (Kirca et al., 2005). This weaker impact has been attributed to higher levels of customization and on-the-spot adaptations services require due to greater necessity for direct firm-customer interactions (Varadarajan, 1985; Kirca et al., 2005). Market orientation was thus considered more of a failure-prevention factor (a \"hygiene\" factor) for services firms. Direct firm-customer interactions and on-the-spot adaptations in service organizations usually happen at the boundary spanning unit level (Frei, 2006). However, this level has not received any attention in the already rich market orientation-performance research literature including that from services context. An effort to address this gap could lead to conclusions of practical as well as theoretical relevance. Therefore, in this paper researchers propose to test performance implications of market orientation at the boundary-spanning unit level.Effectiveness of organizations with multiple business units is critically dependent on effectiveness of their performance at the subunit level, and it is, therefore important to identify the characteristics of effective and ineffective subunits. Many studies have identified that a superior market orientation leads to effective firm performance (Narver and Slater, 1990; Deng and Dart, 1999; Deshpande et al., 1993). Market orientated behavior expects organizations to design and implement responses to market information (Jaworski and Kohli, 1993). In services, relevant customer information is often received and responses are expected to be designed and implemented on-the-spot by boundary spanning employees interacting with customers in service delivery process. Decision-making autonomy for such boundary spanners could be considered necessary for them to behave in a market oriented manner. Researchers have already found organizational autonomy to be related to many variables crucial to organizational effectiveness (Dill, 1958; Osborn et al., 1980; Porter, et al. 1975; Robins et al., 2002). Gebhardt et al. (2006) suggest distribution of intra-organizational power, which has similar connotations as decision-making autonomy, as an essential, but overlooked, dimension in the creation of a market orientation. Therefore, in this paper researchers also propose to test whether decision-making autonomy precede a market orientation in boundary spanning service units.Along with autonomy researchers consider decentralization, a variable that coincides and proposed to have similar impact on market orientation, and formalization, another variable that was found to be insignificant in previous researches on market orientation and performance. Brock (2003) postulated that autonomy and decentralization though conceptually different would coincide and would have similar implications if studied at operational levels in organizations. If this postulation holds true autonomy should have similar performance as well as market orientation implications as decentralization has. Centralization has already been established as an antecedent to market orientation and thereby to performance (Kohli and Jaworski, 1993). So, while testing organizational autonomy's impact on market orientation and performance at operational levels, researchers considered it apt to look for an empirical validation for the postulation. The resultant theoretical model tested and discussed in the current study is given in Figure 1.\n3. Practical context: Economic reforms initiated in 1991 changed Indian economy significantly in a span of 15 years. A liberal economy open to global competition as well as encouraging privatization has so far witnessed changes in foci, strategies and structures in many industries. Growing customer expectations and competition resulted in a shift in many industries from a predominantly regulated and licensed seller's market to a buyer's market. Growth in demand coupled with increasing competition forced firms in many industries to device unconventional strategies to tap growing market potential. One such strategy that has been adopted by firms in varying degrees is the implementation of a superior market orientation. Market orientation draws its relevance from marketing concept which stipulates that to achieve sustained success; firms should identify and satisfy customer needs more effectively than their competitors (Day 1994; Kotler 2002). The post reform change dynamics in Indian economy and the resulting realization of a need for market orientation can be observed in the example of retail banking sector.Banking and financial services have traditionally believed less in a marketing philosophy (Howcraft and Durkin, 2003). This has been particularly true of post independent Indian retail banking until recent times. In an underserved and highly regulated market, providers - primarily public sector banks - considered banking service more of a chore and neither proactively identified nor creatively addressed customer needs. Banks in India traditionally selected graduates based on their general knowledge, quantitative aptitude, and English language ability rather than based on business or marketing aptitude. The staff training colleges of banks focused more on technical training in operations and procedures and neglected training in marketing. But today, banking - at least in urban India - has already moved to a buyers' market under pressure from competition. The industry today has more multi-national corporations and private players than pre-reform. Therefore, there is an increasing realization among bankers about the need for a superior market orientation and an interest in factors that would facilitate a superior market orientation. For example, changes in strategic orientation to a more market oriented one had to be followed by necessary structural adjustments. Indian banks have made structural changes in the process of implementing a market orientation strategy. But, what structures are supportive of a market orientation and performance? Do greater operational autonomy and decentralization enable superior performance? Do they help banks to be more market oriented? Answers to these questions will be relevant to decision makers.\n4. Literature review and formulation of hypotheses: Organizational structure follows strategy (Chandler, 1962). Since different organizational characteristics are more or less appropriate for different business strategies changes in strategies demand structural adjustments. Walker and Ruekert (1987) hypothesized that firms that follow different business strategies adopt different structural designs. Vorhies and Morgan (2003) observed that structural variables like formalization, centralization, and specialization seem particularly important in shaping organization's or department's performance. Structural variables were also found to be of importance in market orientation literature. Kohli and Jaworski (1993) identified centralization, formalization, and departmentalization among other antecedents of market orientation. Existing literature provides direction to further examine the role of structural variables on implementation of a market orientation and organizational performance (Gebhardt et al., 2006; Kirca et al. 2005). However, one such structural variable that can be critical to market orientation and performance of a service organization but has not got any attention in the past is organizational autonomy.4.1 Autonomy\n5. Data collection and methodology: To test the proposed framework researchers adopted a quantitative research design. However, to get a closer understanding of the context researchers initially conducted semi-structured depth interviews with eight executives at branch levels at three different banks. These interviews assessed features salient to market oriented branches, kind of market oriented activities such banks were engaged in as well as factors that facilitated a superior market orientation at branch level. In the process researchers also associated with two specific market oriented activities at two banks; one to understand the reasons for customer defection at a mortgage bank and the other to study the scope for introducing a savings account product for students staying away from home. Further, a survey was conducted among branch managers at eight national banks. A set of five questionnaires each measuring market orientation, decentralization, organizational autonomy, formalization and organizational performance (see Appendix) were administered personally by researchers to the branch managers of these banks. Though researchers aimed at getting response from around 300 branch managers the efforts resulted in getting 122 completely filled in questionnaires, a response rate of 41 percent.5.1 Measurement issues\n6. Discussion of results: 6.1 Impact of structural variables on market orientation\n7. Summary of findings: As hypothesized, higher autonomy showed positive impact on market orientation and its dimensions of intelligence generation, intelligence dissemination, and responsiveness. Among the components of autonomy, personnel autonomy showed a significant positive impact on overall market orientation and specifically on market oriented response. Its impact on intelligence generation is positive but of lower significance. However, personnel autonomy has no significant impact on intelligence dissemination. On the other hand, intelligence dissemination is positively influenced by goal setting autonomy. Goal setting autonomy has a positive but lesser significant impact on overall market orientation. The impact of goal setting autonomy on intelligence generation and response was not found to be significant. Marketing autonomy has significant influence neither on overall market orientation nor on any of its components.Decentralization also had significant positive impact on overall market orientation. While the impact was positive and significant on Intelligence Dissemination and response it was not so with intelligence generation. On impacting market orientation decentralization and overall autonomy displayed similarities. Both had positive impact on overall market orientation. Organizational autonomy was also consistent in positively impacting the three dimensions of market orientation. Decentralization also displayed similar impact except in the case of intelligence generation. Similarly, organizational autonomy and decentralization displayed positive impact on two of the three organizational performance measures namely sales growth and market share. These results give support for Brock's (2003) postulation that decentralization and operational autonomy are conceptually different but similar in consequences that researchers tested in hypothesis H4.As hypothesized, formalization's impact on market orientation was found to be significantly negative. Similar impact was found in the case of formalization's impact on intelligence generation and response. Whether or not a front end service unit is formalized its performance remains unaffected. However, in the case of intelligence dissemination formalization did not have any significant impact.In agreement with earlier research findings the impact of market orientation on performance was found to be significantly positive. The higher correlation between market orientation and two of the performance measures reveal that when measured at the boundary spanning unit level impact of market orientation is high even in services industry. Autonomy was found to have significant positive impact on organizational performance. Autonomy and decentralization displayed significant similarities in influencing sales growth as well as market share. Autonomy positively impacted organizational performance both directly as well by enhancing a superior market orientation that in turn impacted performance. Superior decision-making freedom at service delivery levels result in better sales growth, market share, and overall performance. Autonomy's impact on performance is also mediated through market orientation. This implies that when greater autonomy is retained by a service delivery unit its market orientation improves and in turn its performance also improves.\n8. Managerial implications: As the study reveals autonomy of lower level units has significant positive impact on their level of market orientation and performance. Managers in large service organizations constituted of multiple service delivery units (for e.g. banks, organized retail, hotels, restaurants, libraries, training institutes and others) would find results of the study beneficial. Researchers suggest that decision makers in service organizations comprising of multiple service delivery units would benefit from delegating more decision-making powers particularly personnel decision-making powers to the branch level managers. Such autonomy enables greater generation and dissemination of information on customers and competitors as the boundary spanners in these organizations find that they are not hands-tied but could do something about things occurring around them. If the lower level units find that they cannot take any relevant decisions on issues they need to address on a daily basis they might loose interest in such issues over a period of time. This lack of interest in turn would reflect in lower market sensing and market relating abilities of the units. Very similar impact could be expected if the lower level managers have to just report market developments to their immediate authorities and have to wait for long for some action from higher ups to respond to the reported market developments.The high impact of market orientation on performance suggests that managers should not neglect the role of market orientation in delivering superior results. They must bring in practices enhancing the market sensing and relating capabilities of their units. Regular gathering of market information from current, potential and lost customers so as to make decisions based on them enhances a market orientation. The marketing departments of these organizations could play a catalyst role in information gathering as well as in inter-functional coordination resulting in greater information dissemination and response. Such market oriented responses result in sales growth and superior market share.While having formalized rules and procedures and their meticulous implementation could be important to an industry like banking their customers do not want to be party to such formalized procedures. Banks will have to take effort to contain formalities at back office level so that the customer doesn't feel the same at the front office. Since it is impossible to do away with procedures it shall be in the best interest of banks to also see that such formalized procedures are completed taking least of customers' time and resources.\n9. Directions for future research: Current research is conducted in the retail banking context. To make more generalizable conclusions the same model could be tested drawing samples from a cross section of services industries. Besides, researchers' claim that impact of market orientation on performance is strong even in services sector - if sample is drawn from lower level units of operations shall be upheld only if such a cross section of industries is represented in the sample. Therefore, the study could be extended to other industries especially the ones undergoing major structural changes in emerging economies like insurance and organized retailing. Not-for-profits that are undergoing similar changes, like higher education in developing countries, can as well be considered for similar research. The present research relied on subjective data on organizational performance. The results of the study could be further validated using objective measures of organizational performance.\n10. Limitations: As the data on autonomy, market orientation and organizational performance were gathered from the same group of respondents i.e. branch managers researchers admit the element of common method variance that needs to be accounted for. Practical difficulty in gathering information on various branches from higher levels in all the banks prompted researchers to collect all data from the same source. All respondents were drawn from a single state in India and therefore seem to have a limited geographic scope. However, all these banks operated within the broad policies lay down by the Central Bank and had national operations resulting in the same banks competing in majority of states. Therefore, findings of this study can be considered viable for generalization across the nation.\n11. Conclusion: Organizational subunits at boundary spanning level in services would perform better if they are more market oriented. Superior market orientation and performance of these units also coincide with higher subunit autonomy. Therefore, market orientation and superior performance at lower level units could be considered better possible if these service delivery units enjoy greater autonomy. Organizational autonomy and decentralization, though conceptually different, coincide and display similar impact on market orientation and performance at boundary spanning unit level.Opens in a new window.Figure 1\n",
"role": "user"
},
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"content": "Purpose: - This paper aims to find out whether superior autonomy at boundary spanning levels in service organizations results in better market orientation and performance and whether autonomy and decentralization, though conceptually different, have similar practical implications. Researchers developed a theoretical model and tested it in the post-liberalized Indian retail banking context to address these concerns.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - Bank branches constituted the unit of analysis. Further to getting initial insights on market orientation in retail banking through interviews researchers conducted a survey among branch managers. A total of 305 branch managers were contacted of which 122 cooperated.\nFindings: - Regression results suggest that superior personnel related and goal setting autonomy at boundary spanning levels have positive market orientation as well as performance implications. Marketing autonomy did not have significant impact on market orientation. Autonomy and decentralization though conceptually different displayed similar implications on market orientation and performance. Formalization while negatively impacting market orientation did not directly impact performance.\nPractical implications: - As firm performance is dependent on subunit performance, managers should naturally be interested in factors that enhance performance at subunit level. Current research finds evidence for superior personnel and goal setting autonomy as well as less rigid rules facilitating market orientation and performance at the subunit level.\nOriginality/value: - This is the first effort to study market orientation at the boundary spanning levels in service organizations. Besides providing evidences from the Indian retail banking context about the impact of autonomy on market orientation and performance the paper also presents primary evidence for clarifying the similarities and differences between autonomy and decentralization.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
Opportunity identification and evaluation in franchisee business start-ups
|
[
"Social networks",
"Entrepreneurs",
"Guanxi",
"Business start-up",
"Franchisee opportunity identification and evaluation",
"Franchisees"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Franchising is variously described in service management literature as a business format, market entry mode, and distribution channel. However conceptualised, within service industries, franchising - business format franchising in particular - continues to grow in popularity (Gillis et al., 2011) and now exists in over 160 countries worldwide (International Franchise Association, 2011). Franchising plays an important role in the growth of global entrepreneurship (Chirico et al., 2011) and the creation of entrepreneurial wealth (Croonen and Brand, 2015), contributing value to national and global economies (Grunhagen et al., 2012). In an effort to understand the factors that contribute to both franchise and entrepreneurial growth, a developing stream of research now addresses the franchise/entrepreneurial interface. However, research that examines franchisee business start-ups from an entrepreneurial perspective is scarce, despite the potential contribution of such research to this understanding.\nThe franchisee/entrepreneur interface: As franchisors develop a franchise concept after recognising a business opportunity and undertake risks to exploit that concept through franchisees (Michael, 2003; Clarkin and Rosa, 2005), they are generally considered entrepreneurs. In order to minimise risks, ensure brand uniformity, and protect brand reputation, franchise contracts frequently reflect high levels of standardisation and codification (Hoy, 2008). Accordingly, some researchers argue that these contracts prohibit entrepreneurial activity by the franchisee, declaring franchisees the \"antithesis of entrepreneurs\" (Clarkin and Rosa, 2005, p. 305). Research that supports this argument has examined franchisees' traits relative to those of independent entrepreneurs. Early studies revealed that franchisees exhibit less self-reliance, motivation (Knight, 1984), initiation, and autonomy (Withane, 1991) than independent entrepreneurs. Franchisees were subsequently found to have less prior experience and confidence in their skills and abilities (Sardy and Alon, 2007), possess lower quality skills (Williams, 1999), and lack expertise in risk-taking, opportunity recognition, and assessment of new ventures (Seawright et al., 2011). The desire to reduce risk has also been identified as influential in franchise purchase decisions (Withane, 1991; Brookes and Altinay, 2011).\nThe process of entrepreneurship: Entrepreneurial behaviour and the entrepreneurial process and are argued to provide important research directions for entrepreneurship (Gartner et al., 2010). Although different models of the entrepreneurship process have been developed (Moroz and Hindle, 2012), at a minimum, these comprise the identification, evaluation, and exploitation of opportunities (Shane, 2000). As franchisees exploit opportunities by joining chains, this research focusses on opportunity identification and evaluation and the factors that influence these activities.\nResearch design: A qualitative approach was adopted in order to fully explore the activities undertaken by franchisees and the factors that influenced their actions. Qualitative studies allow researchers to get close to franchisees (Shaw, 1999) and explore the situational complexities of entrepreneurship (Bryant, 2006). Such studies also are suitable for inducing credible causal explanations to extend existing managerial practice (Maxwell, 2005).\nFindings: The findings reveal both similarities and differences in the identification and evaluation practices of master and single franchisees. These are presented in the following section according to the two research questions posed.\nDiscussion: Prior knowledge, information search, social networks, and opportunity identification\nConclusions: Theoretical contributions\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to examine franchisees' business start-ups from an entrepreneurial perspective, adopting a process representative of entrepreneurship to examine opportunity identification and evaluation by franchisees and to analyse factors that influence this process.\nDesign/methodology/approach: A qualitative study was employed and data collected using semi-structured interviews with a sample of service industry franchisees in Macau.\nFindings: The study identifies that social networks play a key role in opportunity identification and that franchisees' goals influence the criteria used and information search activities undertaken while evaluating franchise opportunities.\nResearch limitations/implications: The study makes two contributions to franchise literature. It identifies that social networks can serve as substitutes for lack of prior knowledge in franchise opportunity identification. It also identifies the interrelated nature of franchisees' goals based on the activities and criteria used to evaluate franchise opportunities, and the importance of relational criteria when franchisees lack prior industry knowledge. It therefore also contributes to franchise/entrepreneurship literature by identifying the interrelated nature of the factors contributing to the dynamics of franchise chain growth.\nPractical implications: Franchisors should explore how to better use franchisees' social networks and identify the longer term goals of prospective franchisees to support market penetration and franchise chain growth. Franchisees are advised to use independent information sources to evaluate franchise opportunities using goal-informed objectives and demand and relational criteria.\nOriginality/value: The study presents a more comprehensive understanding of franchisees' decision-making process when joining franchise chains by identifying the activities undertaken and criteria used to identify and evaluate franchise opportunities.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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Consumers' identification with corporate brands: Brand prestige, anthropomorphism and engagement in social media
|
[
"Corporate marketing",
"Anthropomorphism",
"Brand identification",
"Corporate branding",
"Brand engagement",
"Brand prestige"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: In the past two decades, ever since Balmer (1995) has accentuated the importance of strategic management of corporate brands and their identity, the vital role of corporate brands as organisations' valuable strategic resources and assets has been demonstrated (Brown and Dacin, 1997; Ind, 1997; Gray and Balmer, 1998; Balmer, 2001a; Harris and de Chernatony, 2001; Einwiller and Will, 2002; Balmer and Gray, 2003; Balmer, 2012). Corporate brands come to the foreground because the increasingly sensitive and astute public wishes to know more about organisations' ethical and environmental issues; thus, organisations find it increasingly difficult to hide behind their product brands (Balmer, 1995). The corporate brand defines the organisation that stands behind the offering (Aaker, 2004; Urde, 2013) and is a mean of creating both shareholder and stakeholder value (Balmer, 2012). As Balmer (2001a; 2001b) points out, corporate brand management goes beyond classic product brand management, as, unlike for the product brand where only the middle management is responsible, everyone in the organisation has a responsibility for the corporate brand and its maintenance. Corporate brand management requires the constant attention of the chief executives and involves decisions about the organisational identity that are taken by the senior management and that have to meet the expectations of a whole range of internal and external stakeholders (for detailed comparison of product and corporate brands, see Balmer, 2001b). Corporate brands \"are born out of corporate identities, but live in the minds of groups and individuals\" (Balmer, 2010, p. 186). As such, corporate brand has become not only the key construct but also the flag bearer of the corporate marketing (Balmer, 2001a; Abratt and Kleyn, 2012). An important interest of corporate-level marketing is how a company as a brand can maintain ongoing relationships with customers and other stakeholder and communities (Balmer and Greyser, 2006). A strong corporate brand functions as a focus of attention, interest and activity of various stakeholders in their relationship with the corporation (Balmer, 2010; Podnar, 2015). Institutions where the corporate brand specifically acts as an entity's cornerstone for its relations with stakeholders are characterised with corporate brand orientation (Balmer, 2013). For such orientation, the issue of corporate brand identification is highly significant (Balmer, 2013). In the context of relationships that can occur between a corporate brand and its stakeholders, identification of employees (Dutton et al., 1994; Bergami and Bagozzi, 2000; Podnar et al., 2011) and consumers (Bhattacharya and Sen, 2003; Ahearne et al., 2005) with a company represents a psychological bond that underlies deep, voluntarily and long-term relationships with the corporate brand. While identification of employees as formal members of organisation received much attention in academic research (for literature review see Podnar, 2011), scholars (Bhattacharya and Sen, 2003; Tildesley and Coote, 2009; Elbedweihy and Jayawardhena, 2014) call for a more detailed consideration of consumers' identification with corporate and product brands that occurs even without formal membership ties. Specifically, authors address an urge to operationalise consumer-brand identification (CBI) (Tildesley and Coote, 2009) and highlight the importance to further investigate its antecedents and consequences (Kuenzel and Vaux Halliday, 2008; Stokburger-Sauer et al., 2012; Elbedweihy and Jayawardhena, 2014). In addition, Balmer and Liao (2007; Balmer et al., 2010) expose the need to focus the empirical concern on investigating consumers' identification with corporate brands, as it is an important but neglected area. As corporate brands can help individuals define who they are, an identity category enjoys a prominent place in corporate marketing and can be highly meaningful to stakeholders (Balmer, 2010). To fill these gaps, the paper aims to offer novel insights on the antecedents and consequences of CBI in corporate brand settings.\n2. Literature review and research hypotheses: 2.1 Understanding consumer-brand identification\n3. Method: 3.1 Participants and data collection procedure\n4. Results: 4.1 Descriptive statistics and assessment of validity and reliability of measures\n5. Discussion: 5.1 Theoretical contribution\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: This paper aims to examine relationships between consumer-brand identification (CBI), brand prestige (BP), brand anthropomorphism (BA) and consumers' active engagement in brand activities on social media in corporate brand settings.\nDesign/methodology/approach: Data collected with an online survey on a sample randomly drawn from an online panel of consumers were used to test the proposed theoretical model.\nFindings: Anthropomorphism and prestige of corporate brands were found to positively influence consumer-brand identification. Also, CBI positively affects consumers' active engagement and fully mediates the effect of BP and BA on consumers-brand engagement (CBE) with corporate brands.\nResearch limitations/implications: Further research in other markets and on a broader set of corporate brands would additionally validate results and enable comparisons of impacts among different brand categories. The data were gathered in one country, so further research in other markets would additionally validate results of this study.\nPractical implications: Chief executives responsible for corporate brand management are provided with some insights on how appropriate corporate brand identity management can strengthen CBI and stimulate CBE on social media.\nOriginality/value: This paper provides some novel insights into the research on consumer-brand identification. It is the first study (to the authors' knowledge) that empirically supports the positive influence of brand anthropomorphism on CBI in corporate brand settings. It also contributes to the clarification of previously inconsistent results of the influence of BP on CBI. By showing that consumers' identification with a corporate brand plays a vital role in increasing consumers' active engagement on social media, the study contributes to the relatively sparse body of research on CBE.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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Improving worker morale through the use of appreciative inquiry
|
[
"Motivation (psychology)",
"Organizational culture",
"Leadership",
"Employees",
"Morale",
"Middle East"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n__NO_TITLE__: Improving and maintaining employee morale is a challenge for many organizations. Appreciative inquiry (AI) is an alternative approach to problem solving, positioned within a social constructionist framework that builds on positive affirmation of organizational strengths to address workplace issues (Cooperrider et al., 2003). This paper links the AI approach with Arab cultural factors that support its use in Middle Eastern, Arab organizations. A brief literature review establishes the theoretical basis of AI, and the 4D model of AI is presented. Critiques to the AI approach are shared, followed by a brief review of an AI application in a large oil refinery.\nArab cultural factors and AI: A compelling reason for the use of AI in Arab organizations lies in its natural link with inherent Arab cultural factors, as illustrated in Table I.\nAI foundational theories: AI is rooted in social constructionist theory. In postmodern management theory, organizations are viewed as social constructions, continuously being created by the conversations that take place between people, which in turn affect the relationships, identities, and emotions of organizational members (Barge and Oliver, 2003). Affirming inquiry of past practices combined with the positive intentions of a shared future creates the momentum and energy to achieve desired changes.AI is also rooted in positive psychology theory. Research on the inner dialogue of individuals suggests that those who are considered psychologically and socially functional demonstrate a higher frequency of positive images than negative images, and that such underlying images heavily influence the fate of cultures and civilizations (Cooperrider et al., 2000). AI is also based on the concept of the Pygmalion effect, which suggests that much of what we experience is what we expect.\nThe 4D model of AI: The 4D model of AI (Cooperrider et al., 2003) has been used on numerous occasions in different organizations, and includes four phases of the AI approach: Discovery, Dream, Design, and Delivery, detailed in Table II along with specific links to Arab culture.The use of AI has been documented in a variety of applications and can be used to develop leadership potential, to facilitate change, and to support personal growth.\nCritiques of AI: Critiques of AI center on appropriateness, repression of negative images, and unexpressed resentment. Golembiewski (1999) suggests that other alternatives may be equally effective, that groups may reach agreement for fear of rejection and exclusion, and that groups may find utility in voicing neutral or negative points. Another criticism is the lack of scientific evidence of the benefits of AI. AI may also ignore the neutral and negative dialogic discourse necessary for sustainable organizational development. Grant and Humphries (2006) found that, in the 4D AI cycle, the desired affirmative dialogue did not always result; that the ways in which questions were posed influenced participants' perceptions; and that, in dialogue and in discourse, what was left unsaid was often as important as what was said.Within the Arab culture, social formalities honor status, seniority, and position over performance, merit, and ability, potentially limiting challenges to the status quo and to the valuing of achievements and competence. These challenges suggest the need for sensitivity when applying AI to deal with issues in organizations, and effective facilitation of the process to ensure transparency and validation of concerns while maintaining the focus on affirmation, appreciation, and inquiry towards the attainment of organizational improvement.\nThe \"Red Team\" AI intervention: On June 20, 2009, a group of young engineers known as the Red Team at a large oil refinery in the Middle East was tasked by the general manager (GM) to re-image the organization. When asked to explain, the GM told the group that he wanted the refinery to be the best place in the company to work, and said that he would measure success by the \"level of happiness\" of the 1,600 workers, believing that this would lead to a safer, more productive worker force. Initially, the Red Team began identifying issues and possible recommendations for improving employee morale. But then the team decided to apply the AI approach to solicit input on the inherent strengths and possibilities for the future from the employees themselves, and in so doing, generate the necessary commitment to future changes.The Red Team developed a plan based on two concepts: First, the refinery needed a simple theme around which people could connect emotionally. Second, it needed an approach for improving morale, motivation, and happiness that would gain immediate support and momentum. Similar to Martin Luther King, Jr's \"I have a dream\" vision, the Red Team decided that the theme would hinge on one simple word: Smile. The GM had planted this seed, and the team had posters and buttons made up with Smile integrated into the refinery's logo. The approach involved the application of AI in a series of workshops with 100 employees from each of the refinery work units and organizational levels.Using the AI 4D model, employees shared stories of their best experiences at the refinery. Shared story telling served to create an affirming, energized atmosphere. The participants then shared ideas of what the ideal future could be, and several provocative propositions emerged: Seeing the managers more often in the plant, strengthening worker-supervisor relationships, improving the cafeteria menu, providing shade canopies over employee parking areas, and holding quarterly employee-family appreciation events. Volunteers were then asked to champion each of these initiatives for follow-up action.By using AI to improve employee morale, the Red Team helped to create an environment of positive affirmation, sharing, and open communication. As a result, employees are experiencing a stronger sense of belonging and commitment to a better future for the refinery, as evidenced by participant feedback and an increased number of employee-generated ideas for improving the workplace. Perhaps the greatest benefit of the AI approach is the goodwill and commitment that results from the positive affirmation of what gives life to an organization. This attitude continues to spread throughout the organization, as the AI approach becomes further embedded.The results of the Red Team intervention using the AI approach strengthened the core organizing competencies at the refinery, as described in Table III.\nImplications for practice: AI is an organizational development approach for addressing organizational issues based on the theoretical frameworks of social constructivism, positive psychology, and narrative communication. AI provides an alternative to the traditional problem-solving approach for dealing with social issues in organizations, and can be effective in Middle Eastern, Arab organizations because of the link between AI and Arab cultural factors that naturally privilege the AI approach. These factors include the community of participation resulting from a homogeneous Islamic culture; a highly collective society; a strong family-based orientation; prevalent use of high-context, narrative communication; and a strong emphasis on the importance of relationships.AI can be applied to develop plans and commitment in which organizational members collectively define the best of what is and has been to create provocative possibilities and plans for the future. The process builds positive affirmation and alignment for commitment. A review of an AI application in a Middle Eastern oil refinery indicates an increase in employee satisfaction and initially confirms a solid link of the AI approach to Arab cultural factors.As an approach for training and development, AI provides the platform from which to drive competency development through the recognition of an individual's strengths, and building on these strengths to mitigate deficiencies, recognizing that sustainable performance improvement depends upon the enactment of critical strengths, and that other team members' strengths complement individual deficiencies.In the field of leadership coaching and development, an AI approach positions the conversation towards the clarification of what is working well, the identification of future aspirations, the reflection on success factors for a particular leader, and the repositioning of leadership behaviors resulting in the enhancement of capabilities in support of the desired future.\nConcluding remarks: Despite critiques, a lack of dialogic discourse, and support from scientific research for this relatively new approach, AI presents a promising alternative to traditional problem solving and its inherent, often negative effects. Further, AI's foundational approach links well with Arab cultural factors. When individuals change their inner and explicit dialogues to focus primarily on affirmation and support, they change their stories and their organizations for the better (Cooperrider et al., 2000).\n",
"role": "user"
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{
"content": "Purpose: - The purpose of this paper is to examine appreciative inquiry (AI) as an organizational development approach that aligns with Arab cultural factors to address the issue of employee morale in an Arab-led organization.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - A brief literature review establishes AI's foundational theories and links with Arab cultural factors. An overview of the AI 4D model is then followed by critiques of the AI approach. The paper presents an application of AI to address the issue of low employee morale in a large oil refinery.\nFindings: - A literature review of AI and Arab cultural factors and initial findings of an AI application in a Middle Eastern Arab-led organization indicates an increase in employee satisfaction and initially confirms a complementary link of the AI approach to Arab cultural factors.\nResearch limitations/implications: - Critiques of AI center on appropriateness, repression of negative images, and unexpressed resentment. Despite critiques, a lack of dialogic discourse, and support from scientific research for this relatively new approach, AI presents a promising alternative to traditional problem solving and its inherent, often negative effects.\nPractical implications: - The sharing of stories as part of the AI approach served to bond employees to each other and served to instill a shared sense of ownership for the past and future success of the organization. The use of AI builds on the cultural attributes of Arab culture including high collectivism, strong family and relationship orientation, high context and narrative communication, low risk tolerance, prevalence of positive intentions, and homogeneity of the Islamic society.\nOriginality/value: - This paper provides insight and support for using AI as an organizational development approach that complements existing Arab cultural factors for practicality and benefit.\n",
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Extended responsibility through servitization in PSS: An exploratory study of used-clothing sector
|
[
"Clothing",
"Servitization",
"Textile/clothing supply chains",
"PSS",
"Extended responsibility",
"Product-service system"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: Servitization is a growing phenomenon to improve resource efficiency, leading to positive environmental effects for the society (Mont and Tukker, 2006; Tukker, 2015). In this context, product-service systems (PSSs) are one of the most effective instruments to attain a resource-efficient circular economy (Tukker and Tischner, 2006; Tukker, 2004; EC, 2011). A major research stream has identified how these PSS create incentives for better resource utilization leading to improved sustainability (Vezzoli and Manzini, 2008; Tukker and Tischner, 2006; Mont, 2002a). On one hand this generates new revenue stream, competitive advantage and consumer adoption (Baines et al., 2009), but also pressures increased organizational stewardship (Jayaraman and Luo, 2007) or \"extended responsibilities\" (Bostrom, 2015). Current industrial practices show that organizations could attempt to extend their responsibilities in a number of ways to close the loop, e.g. either by taking back used products from consumers, or by taking financial responsibilities to organize collection, reuse and disposal, or by taking informative measures to improve consumer awareness, etc. (Vezzoli et al., 2015). Even though it is this \"service content\" or servitization in the PSS that enables organizations to show extended responsibility (ER) towards closing the loop, so far little research have addressed the responsibility aspect beyond mere physical management and property rights of post-consumer wastes (Vezzoli et al., 2015).\n2. Concepts: 2.1 PSS business models and their scope in used-clothing sector\n3. Significance of PSS on ER: PSS highlights a transfer of risk, property rights and incentive from the customer to the upstream actors, thus shifting the responsibility of maintenance and availability (Azarenko et al., 2009). This signifies a transfer of ownership in some cases, while sometimes both type of responsibility undertaken and incentive could be different. However, extant PSS discussion is scarce when discussing responsibilities beyond physical management and product ownership. Existing discussion highlights stakeholder responsibilities in PO-PSSs mostly in terms of product management and monitoring through post take-back arrangements (Tukker, 2004). In UO-PSS such responsibility of the property rights is kept by the provider through the entire lifecycle who executes the responsibility for the utilization conditions, e.g. timely installation, maintenance, upgradation, etc., during a given period of time (Azarenko et al., 2009). Further, Azarenko et al. (2009) highlight such PRs are undertaken by companies as a product life-cycle supporting activity for encountering product downtime difficulties like claims, product exchange due the critical failure, etc.\n4. Methodology: In line with the research objective and postulated RQs, this paper adopts a qualitative exploratory study to gain significant insight on a relatively unexplored research area. Much research has so far been conducted on PSS implementation and EPR schemes separately, but no explicit research connects the two, thus advocating a theory-building perspective (Eisenhardt and Graebner, 2007). In this context, qualitative research conducted through in-depth interviews and document studies was chosen to build the cases thus suiting the explorative inquiry (Cresswell, 2007). Minor modification is introduced in the framework underpinning the ER concepts to suit the research context and purpose. Considering that there are no current legislations for producers or importers to take responsibilities in used-clothing sector (in the countries from which the cases have been selected), liability as a responsibility has not been further investigated.\n5. Findings: 5.1 Servitization in used-clothing PSS\n6. Discussion: explored themes and trade-offs: Above findings illustrate that servitization in used-clothing PSSs drives ER through six dominant mechanisms, resulting in two distinct trade-offs and three pairs of differentiating attributes underpinning these mechanisms (ways).\n7. Conclusion and implication: The purpose of this study was to explore on how companies operating in used-clothing sector extend their responsibilities through servitization in PSS. This sheds light on various corporate responsibilities (physical, financial, informative and ownership) that are taken in as an outcome of PSS implementation. First, overview of diverse servitization schemes is presented followed by reasoning how these extend corporate responsibilities in used-clothing PSS. This is further elaborated through a thematic analysis thus revealing six dominant ways or mechanisms: value-adding services and complete product leverage for extending PR, collaborative partnership for FR, and information transparency, raising awareness and platform-enabled networking for IR. While the roles played by value-added services and product leverage to extend PR through physical management of the used clothes have been discussed in previous literature, the roles undertaken by the other four mechanisms, even though can be observed in the industry, have hardly been captured in the scholarly discussion. The study also revealed two trade-offs underlying these mechanisms, in terms of their focus on either physical process or digitalization, and developed by honing either core competency or collaborative partnership. Further three differentiating attributes underpin these mechanisms. First, used-clothing PSS seek higher IR by raising sustainability awareness and/or higher information transparency. Second, they engage in collaborative value creation and/or in promoting collaborative consumption, and third, they execute ownership and/or leverage over the used clothes.\n",
"role": "user"
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"content": "Purpose: The global textile-fashion industry is resource inefficient thus requiring higher product-service systems (PSS) intervention. Further, insight of how PSS extends corporate responsibility is rather limited; knowledge of which may contribute towards increased PSS viability. The purpose of this paper is to explore how companies operating with used-clothing PSS extend their responsibilities through servitization.\nDesign/methodology/approach: An exploratory study of seven companies operating with various used-clothing PSS is conducted through semi-structured interviews and supplementary document studies.\nFindings: Six dominant ways through which servitization drives responsibility in used-clothing PSS are identified. These are through: value-adding services, product leverage, collaborative partnership, information transparency, awareness and platform-enabled networking. Two trade-offs exist in terms of their focus on physical process or digitalization, and developed by honing core competency or collaborative partnership. Further three differentiating attributes underlie these mechanisms for: raising awareness and/or improving transparency, collaboration in value creation and/or in promoting consumption, and product ownership and/or leverage.\nResearch limitations/implications: A wide range of used-clothing PSS exists each in its own way extending responsibility. In-depth studies are required to investigate the relationship between servitization and extended responsibility for diverse PSS-types and on type of responsibilities they address.\nPractical implications: By identifying the key mechanisms or ways and their underlying characteristics companies can identify new servitization forms and ways to extend their responsibility, identify best practices and establish viability beyond the traditional measures, e.g. financial.\nOriginality/value: So far no studies have investigated the role of servitization in PSS and how it extends corporate responsibility, especially in industries like textile-fashion, where both resource efficiency and responsibility is low.\n",
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When will European Muslim population be majority and in which country?
|
[
"European population",
"Muslim population",
"Forecasts",
"Wavelet analysis",
"Burg model",
"C53",
"E37"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: This paper presents estimates of the years the European Muslim Population will be majority in 30 European countries using spectral analysis. Europe's population represents about 10 per cent of the world population and about 5 per cent of Europe's population is Muslim. Europe has experienced a refugee crisis that reached a peak in 2015 with an influx of refugees coming mainly from Muslim countries across the Mediterranean Sea or overland through Southeast Europe. Refugees have come primarily from Syria, Afghanistan, Iraq and Eritrea. In all, 86 per cent of them are Muslims based on the top ten origins of refugees from 2010 to 2016 (Pew Research Centre, 2017). Refugees include two main groups: asylum seekers and economic migrants.\n2. Literature review: Wavelet analysis, a tool of signal processing, is used in Physics to model physical phenomena such as electrical, audio or seismic signals which propagate through space in waveforms. Wavelets mimic signals with specific properties that make them useful for signal processing. Signal processing focuses on the analysis, synthesis, and modification of signals. Spectral (or spectrum) analysis focuses on data analysis of signals. From a finite record of a stationary data sequence, spectral analysis estimates how the total power is distributed over frequency (Stoica and Moses, 2005). Spectral analysis may reveal hidden periodicities in data, which are to be associated with cyclic behavior or recurring processes in the field of meteorology or astronomy, for example.\n3. Methodology: The objective of the paper is to present an application of wavelet analysis to the forecasts of Muslim population for 30 European countries. We estimate the future years when the Muslim population will be majority population for 30 European countries. The methodology, improved with a de-noising and compression step, is derived from Rostan and Rostan (2018a) and requires five steps illustrated with the time series of the Europe total population (30 countries). Figure 1 illustrates the series of the total population and the 0-4-year age group from 1950 to 2015 by step of Five years (14 data) released by the Population Division of the United Nations Secretariat. The 0-4-year age group is involved in the 5-step methodology since we assume that the 0-4-year age group is a good proxy (after adjustment for scale) of the fertility rate. Figure 1 illustrates two opposite trends, a growing European total population but a declining 0-4-year age group which, as a proxy of the fertility rate, is doomed to decline in the future. We clearly anticipate that the European population (30 countries) will get older in future years. However, there is an external factor not reflected by these historical data, the recent inflow of Muslim refugees following the European refugee crisis which has started in 2015 and that may revert the trend of the fertility rate, assuming that the Muslim population has higher fertility (one child more per woman, on average) than other Europeans, mirroring a global pattern (Pew Research Centre, 2017).\n4. Results: We apply the five-step methodology to each European country among the 30. We identify three tiers depending on the level of forecasted growth of the European Muslim population among the 30 countries, high-growth, medium-growth and low-growth and 3 scenarios, zero-migration, 2017 migration scenario, and mid-point scenario.\n5. Conclusion: This paper presents estimates with spectral analysis of the years European Muslim Population will be majority among 30 European countries. About 5 per cent of Europe's population is Muslim. Two main factors are responsible of a growing European Muslim population, a higher fertility rate of Muslim population (one child more per woman on average) than other Europeans and a refugee crisis that reached a peak in 2015 with an influx of refugees coming mainly from Muslim countries across the Mediterranean Sea or overland through Southeast Europe. Refugees have come primarily from Syria, Afghanistan, Iraq and Eritrea. 86 per cent of them are Muslims based on the top ten origins of refugees from 2010 to 2016 (Pew Research Centre, 2017). We implement a five-step methodology (Rostan and Rostan, 2018a) based on spectral analysis which involves 1) de-noising and compression of the first-order difference of the population time series of each European country among the 30; 2) wavelet decomposition; 3) Burg extension of approximations and details; 4) wavelet reconstruction and finally 5) forecasting the Muslim population based on three scenarios: 1) a conservative zero-migration scenario; 2) a 2017 migration and a more likely 3) mid-point migration scenario. In the mid-point migration scenario, we identify 13 countries where the Muslim population will be majority between years 2085 and 2215 in order of occurrence: Cyprus (in year 2085), Sweden (2125), France (2135), Greece (2135), Belgium (2140), Bulgaria (2140), Italy (2175), Luxembourg (2175), the UK (2180), Slovenia (2190), Switzerland (2195), Ireland (2200) and Lithuania (2215). The 17 remaining countries will never reach majority in the next 200 years. The growing Muslim population will change the face of Europe socially, politically and economically. Examples of such changes will include proliferation of mosques, prayer calls from loudspeakers, commercialization of halal foods and products, compatible workload and adjustable working hours with Ramadan constraints, new laws in favor of the Muslim population and a growing meddling of foreign governments in European political decisions. At first, anti-Islam political parties may gain support in a xenophobic reaction to the rising contribution of the Muslim population to the life of the European society until the Muslim population be majority. Then negative reactions should fade away. These social, political and economic changes will bring periods of adjustment that would be painful for the European society -some talk of shock of civilizations- and will depend on the degree of openness and tolerance of the communities toward each other and their willingness to build a balanced European society enriched with a diversity of beliefs and cultures.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to estimate the years the European Muslim population will be majority among 30 European countries.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The methodology/approach is to forecast the population of 30 European countries with wavelet analysis combined with the Burg model which fits a pth order autoregressive model to the input signal by minimizing (least squares) the forward and backward prediction errors while constraining the autoregressive parameters to satisfy the Levinson-Durbin recursion, then relies on an infinite impulse response prediction error filter. Three scenarios are considered: the zero-migration scenario where the authors assume that the Muslim population has a higher fertility (one child more per woman, on average) than other Europeans, mirroring a global pattern; a 2017 migration scenario: to the Muslim population obtained in the zero-migration scenario, the authors add a continuous flow of migrants every year based on year 2017; the mid-point migration scenario is obtained by averaging the data of the two previous scenarios.\nFindings: Among three scenarios, the most likely mid-point migration scenario identifies 13 countries where the Muslim population will be majority between years 2085 and 2215: Cyprus (in year 2085), Sweden (2125), France (2135), Greece (2135), Belgium (2140), Bulgaria (2140), Italy (2175), Luxembourg (2175), the UK (2180), Slovenia (2190), Switzerland (2195), Ireland (2200) and Lithuania (2215). The 17 remaining countries will never reach majority in the next 200 years.\nOriginality/value: The growing Muslim population will change the face of Europe socially, politically and economically. This paper will provide a better insight and understanding of Muslim population dynamics to European governments, policymakers, as well as social and economic planners.\n",
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Financial liberalization and economic growth: The (ir)relevance of the democracy context
|
[
"Economic growth",
"Democracy",
"Financial liberalization"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: A significant portion of the economic literature posits that capital account liberalization[1] stimulates a country's economic growth. According to this approach, which follows the general lines of a neoclassical model of growth, in countries that have abundant capital financial liberalization allows excess savings to be transferred to countries where capital is scarce, boosting poor economies (Obstfeld, 1998; Gorinchas and Jeanne, 2002). The most important corollary of these models is that the greater the economic integration between countries, including in the financial sphere, the greater the level of social welfare, while income disparities between nations are reduced over time.\n2. Democracy, liberalization and economic activity: a brief review of the literature: The relationship between democracy and globalization (commercial and financial) is of interest to both economists and political scientists. Thus, it is possible to argue from both the theoretical and empirical points of view that the relationship between these variables may occur in both directions. In this section, we seek to briefly highlight some of the results found in the literature.\n3. Data and method: The study was conducted between 1990 and 2010, since the process of financial integration became more widespread in the global economy from the 1990s onwards. The estimation was made using balanced panel data and the sample contained 77 countries with data from four non-overlapping sub-periods of time: 1991-1995, 1996-2000, 2001-2005, and 2006-2010. Of the total number of nations, 36 per cent had a maximum per capita income of $4,035 dollars per year. Another 36 per cent were countries considered high-income by the World Bank, since they had a per capita income equal to or above $12,475 dollars. Finally, the remaining 28 per cent were considered to have an upper-middle income, since their per capita income range falls between the two.\n4. Results and discussion: As already noted, there is no definitive response about the effects of financial integration on economic growth, particularly when referring to developing countries. Nevertheless, it is reasonable to suppose that the possible economic benefits of financial globalization depend on specific domestic characteristics.\n5. Final considerations: By the middle of the 1970s, some countries had started to interact financially with the global economy, but it was only from the 1990s that capital account openness began to form part of the economic dynamics of a greater number of nations. In the meantime, many theoretical economists argued that financial liberalization would bring considerable benefits to all countries. However, the view that liberalization always brings benefits, independent of certain economic characteristics, remains far from consensus in economic theory. It is from within this context that the debate emerged about the necessary and appropriate preconditions and institutions for countries to benefit from financial openness. Here, we took democracy to be central to those institutions considered essential.\n",
"role": "user"
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"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to ascertain whether countries benefit from capital account liberalization in more democratic contexts.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The authors used the follow methodologies in this paper: Pooled OLS, panel data with fixed effects and generalized method of moments. The empirical exercises were conducted for both a large sample and a smaller group of developing countries. Given the characteristics of the variables used in the standard model, the main conclusions were obtained from an estimation that took into account the presence of fixed effects and endogeneity.\nFindings: Considering a sample of 77 countries, the authors were able to ascertain that capital account openness has a positive effect on economic growth only in highly democratic countries. When the same estimates are carried out with a more restricted sample, composed of 50 developing countries, the results are more pessimistic. In this case, capital account openness has a negative and significant effect, although being more democratic is not sufficient in itself to reap the benefits of financial integration.\nResearch limitations/implications: The results obtained in this paper are limited to the number of observations and the period analysed. Furthermore, the conclusions need to be confirmed by a test of robustness, which should be conducted in future works; such works could make use of other democracy indicators and other instruments.\nOriginality/value: The innovation of the work, in comparison to those the authors consulted, resides in its testing, through an interactive variable, whether the effect of capital openness on economic growth depends on level of democracy.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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Technology for Islamic microfinance's disbursement and repayment system
|
[
"Technology",
"Islamic microfinance",
"Disbursement",
"Repayment"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: Today's social environment has been largely focussed towards the advancement of technology. Across the globe, people are connected through social media, hence making the world different from how it was a decade ago. Similarly, the financial services industry is also proliferating with the introduction of credit and debit cards; also internet and mobile banking. People were used to be dependent towards on-the-counter transactions to facilitate their money flow. After that, automated teller machines and cash deposit machines were introduced, and people get intrigued with handling those machines on their own. They are slowly making further transition towards being more independent by making their own transactions through mobile and internet banking. Similarly, banks are trying to compete with each other by introducing new and sophisticated banking solutions that are both user-friendly and cost-effective to these financial institutions.\n2. Literature review: The industry of microfinance had been into the spotlight lately, with many success had been produced by microfinance institutions worldwide, especially Grameen Bank, which is serving as a bank for the poor in Bangladesh. This branch of financial service had been strongly developed with a promise in reaching a double bottom line of financial viability and social impact (Allet, 2014). Hence, many researchers had attempted to explore the essence of this industry, making sense on why it is so vital to have microfinance products offered these days.\n3. The case study: A single exploratory case study was conducted for the purpose of exploring the risk vulnerability in the repayment system of an Islamic microfinance institution. The case study was selected with reference to a suggestion made by Ritchie and Lewis (2003), where it was argued that a unit for sample is chosen based on its characteristic which is expected or known to have an outgrowth to the subject matter under study, or simply have a \"symbolic representation\" towards the study's subject matter.\n4. Research design: This study follows an approach described by Yin (2003), which is a single case study. The analysis of data follows a social constructionist approach as described by Creswell (2007), where data should be analysed interpretively to make sense of the meaning that others have about the phenomena being studied. This supports the study of Scapens (2006), who argued that the best method in understanding the practice in organisation is not only to analyse the different practices adopted by an organisation, but also to make sense of the adopted practices. The main focus of this study is aimed to understand the application of technology into the repayment system of Islamic microfinance products and also to understand the implications in this application towards the success of the technology extension provided to assist the operation of Islamic microfinance products of the institution. Hence, in order to acquire deeper understanding of issues from a Malaysian perspective, this research is conducted as a qualitative single case study. The usage of a qualitative approach would provide for richer analysis, which allows for better understanding of problems arising and to allow for good identification of phenomena, attitudes and influences (Creswell, 2007).\n5. Findings and discussion: Since its inception in 2010, the mobile banking solution had always been tested as a pilot project of Institution Z, as only a few branches of the Islamic microfinance institution that fully implements this system to its clients' repayment routine. Up to the time of study, the project had to stay as it is, without further expansion to the number of branches applying mobile banking as an alternate repayment channel, as clients from the pilot project were starting to reject this method of payment. Since its pilot implementation to 33 centres in 2011, the performance of the mobile banking solution had shown to be positive. This is whereby in 2011 and 2012, there was an increment of 100 per cent on the client's usage of the mobile payment function in all respective centres. However, in its third year of inception, the performance of mobile banking usage among clients of Institution Z dropped significantly. This is where almost 80 per cent of clients were rejecting the usage of mobile banking and started to demand for a re-instatement of the institution's cash-based disbursement and repayment system. Many risk factors had been found to be prevalent to this drop. The clients had been found to be highly vulnerable to these risks, which made the mobile banking solution a struggling extension for Institution Z's products.\n6. Conclusion: The study had identified several issues that led to the temporary downfall to the newly introduced mobile banking solution for Institution Z. The main concern for the clients was found to be the lack of easiness in methods of conducting transactions using mobile banking, which is caused by the clients being resistant towards change and subsequently, the diffusion of a mobile payment function into their repayment process. The complex process of the mobile payment function made these clients to feel uncomfortable in using the technology, hence passing it over to selected representatives to manage their repayment process every week. Additional cost incurred in acquiring a mode of transportation to reach the bank was also adding into the rejection of technology diffusion. This lack of easiness had made clients lose interest towards the new mobile technology; hence they lack confidence and are hesitant to be conducting the transaction on their own. Other risks which were highlighted include the client's breach of trust and the risk of carrying cash.\n7. Limitation and future research: This study has made an exploration towards the issue, with a specific focus on a single case study. Hence, generalisation of the findings would be rather difficult due to the limitation of scope in this study. However, the richness provided by descriptions of data should be sufficient to counter this limitation. As the research paper is written with in-depth detail on the findings from interview sessions, the rich and thick descriptions provided in report would allow reader to make decisions regarding transferability (Riege, 2003). On top of that, the study only focusses on mobile banking aspect of the repayment system for Islamic microfinance institution, where there is still more technology that could be explored. This is because Institution Z is only focussing on this branch of banking innovation. For future researches, a multiple case study could be adapted to investigate various banking channels being implemented by different Islamic microfinance institutions in Malaysia and their current success.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to explore the implementation of a mobile network system for an Islamic microfinance institution, made in collaboration with a commercial bank in Malaysia. It also intends to highlight any emerging issues pertaining to the implementation of technology into the disbursement and repayment system of an Islamic microfinance institution from their clients' perspectives. As Islamic microfinance industry is still growing in Malaysia, findings gathered throughout the course of study are also intended to boost further knowledge relating to this area.\nDesign/methodology/approach: By using a case study method, interview sessions were conducted separately with clients of the Islamic microfinance institution. The purpose of interview sessions is to identify the benefits and problem that surrounds the usage of mobile banking into the repayment system for Islamic microfinance products. Data triangulation with various public documents was conducted to enhance the credibility and reliability of data, also to support the claims that were made by the respondents.\nFindings: It was found that clients are quite satisfied with the disbursement process through a mobile solution. However, the same cannot be said with the repayment process. The difficulties in using the mobile solution pose a major threat to its success. As most clients are not born to be technological savvy, the lack of easiness in methods for the usage of a mobile solution for their transactions pushes them away from further exploring the benefits that can be brought in by the function. Other risks which were highlighted include concerns towards breach of trust and risks of robbery. Clients of the case study, on the other hand, are concerned that the transfer of cash between their meeting venues to the bank would expose them to the public who might try to take advantage from the situation.\nResearch limitations/implications: As the current study had only focusses on mobile banking aspect of the repayment system for one Islamic microfinance institution, a multiple case study could be adapted to investigate various banking channels being implemented by different Islamic microfinance institutions in Malaysia and their current success.\nPractical implications: By highlighting several issues through this study, it is hoped that this Islamic microfinance institution would consider applying other means of payment that are available in the market that is not only cost-efficient, but also beneficial for clients of the institution.\nOriginality/value: This study highlights the setbacks in the usage of technology by clients of Islamic microfinance institution in Malaysia. Although many approved to the diffusion of innovation in Malaysian banking sector, the same has yet to be achieved in the Islamic microfinance industry, which clients are mostly technology illiterate.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Status quo bias and shoppers' mobile website purchasing resistance
|
[
"Inertia",
"Switching costs",
"Cognitive dissonance",
"Habit",
"Status quo bias",
"Mobile website purchasing resistance"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: With the advancement of mobile and internet technologies, a growing number of consumers are using mobile phones to surf the internet. To capitalize on this trend many retailers have extended the website developed for customers owning a computer connected to the internet, commonly known as the \"desktop website\" (Leung et al., 2013), to mobile phone users by developing a mobile version of the website for mobile phones (henceforth, referred to as \"mobile website\") to align their mobile marketing strategy with consumers' preferences for a mobile website as opposed to a mobile application to do mobile shopping (V12data.com, 2018; Faulds et al., 2018). Consequently, the desktop website and the mobile website have become concurrent channels for shopping - channels owned by the one retailer that provide similar services simultaneously (Falk et al., 2007). From a retailer's perspective, the use of the mobile website to purchase products is essential to increase additional revenues from their customers already using their desktop website (Yang et al., 2015).\n2. A review of the mobile purchasing literature: Table 1 presents a state-of-the-art review of mobile purchasing adoption research. In those studies, mobile shopping and mobile purchasing are used interchangeably. For consistency, we use the term mobile purchasing unless otherwise noted. The review shows that the technology acceptance model (TAM) (Davis et al., 1989) continues to be a pivotal theory drawn upon by many to investigate mobile purchasing adoption from pre- and post-adoption perspectives.\n3. Theoretical framework: To realize the objective of the study the theoretical framework guiding this study comprises the concept of resistance and two psychological mechanisms that lead to resistance behavior. Status quo bias behavior in the form of inertia has been identified as a personality-related inclination that leads to consumer resistance to adopt new products and services (Talke and Heidenreich, 2014). The second mechanism is individuals' reactions to cognitive dissonance based on cognitive dissonance theory (Festinger, 1957). These reactions are dissonance elimination mechanisms that contribute to resistance behavior (Fishbein and Ajzen, 1975). These theories provide the theoretical underpinnings to understand how desktop purchasing inertia can lead to mobile website purchasing resistance (RQ1) and the formation of desktop purchasing inertia (RQ2). 3.1 User resistance\n4. Model development: The conceptual model developed for the study is presented in Figure 1. The model consists of eight constructs, including two second-order reflective-formative constructs, namely, mobile website purchasing switching costs and desktop purchasing inertia.\n5. Methodology: 5.1 Research design\n6. Results: 6.1 Common method variance assessment\n7. Discussion: The primary purpose of the study was to address two key questions:\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: Shopping statistics indicate that online shoppers prefer purchasing products using the desktop website of the retailer, rather than using the mobile website on a mobile phone to purchase products (mobile website purchasing). Therefore, using status quo bias theory, this study aims to investigate mobile website purchasing resistance of those customers using only desktop website purchasing.\nDesign/methodology/approach: To test the conceptual model an online questionnaire was used to collect data from customers purchasing products using only the desktop website on a computer (n = 484) and not the retailer's mobile website.\nFindings: Due to cognitive dissonance, customers using only desktop purchasing trivialize mobile website purchasing perceived attractiveness while perceiving more cognitive effort in mobile website purchasing to maintain consonance with their inertia. Further, relative advantage perceptions of mobile website purchasing lead to more trivialization of mobile website purchasing attractiveness perceptions. Desktop purchasing inertia enhances resistance through alternative attractiveness and cognitive effort perceptions, respectively, and cognitive effort and alternative attractiveness perceptions in serial. Desktop purchasing habit has the strongest positive influence on desktop purchasing inertia.\nResearch limitations/implications: This study was conducted in a high-involvement product context. Replication in a low-involvement product context is necessary to confirm the robustness of the results.\nPractical implications: Retailers can use the findings to develop strategies to lower mobile website purchasing resistance in an online-mobile concurrent channel environment.\nOriginality/value: The study provides novel insights into mobile website purchasing resistance in an online-mobile concurrent channel environment. Further, the study addresses the gap in research on inertia and switching costs in the adoption of concurrent channels.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Boundary objects as connectors between communities of practices in the organizational context
|
[
"Boundary objects",
"Practice",
"Globalization",
"Learning organization",
"Artifacts",
"Community of practices"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Conditions in the current labor market push organizations to adapt to continuous change which is driven both by external and internal forces. On the one hand, the radical and rapid diffusion of globalization and the pervasive use of technology are forcing organizations to deal with new markets and to explore new business areas. On the other, corporate reorganization, business expansion and contraction and the absorption of other businesses create further pushes toward a reforming of an organization's strategic vision, cultural norms and internal practices.\nBeyond organizational boundaries: managing knowledge in times of change: Wenger and Snyder (2000) have shown that the notion of a \"community of practice\" (COP) may help to reinvent an organization, especially in times of great change. Yet, the idea brought about by COPs is that learning occurs in social contexts that emerge and evolve when people, who have common goals, interact while striving toward those goals. In this way, organizations are conceived of as a constellation of COPs, where learning is situated and reified (Wenger and Snyder, 2000). Then, the boundaries that concretely mark the territory both inside and outside of these communities are neither an obstacle nor a limit; they are a precious space of learning and exchange, similar to the membrane of a living organism.\nHow to connect boundaries between organizations?: There are two main paths through which positive interaction can take place between communities: through boundary objects and through boundary interactions.\nBoundary objects as contamination spaces between communities: The sociologists Star and Griesemer (1989) first introduced the term \"boundary object\" to describe the artifacts, discourses and processes that allow connection between different perspectives among communities to achieve a common goal. Using boundary objects, it is possible to come across pieces of knowledge that would otherwise be inaccessible and hinder organizational development. This is particularly evident during critical moments of organizational life such as any deliberate and/or unexpected change and transition to a different organizational form that inevitably implies individual and collective resistance, demotivation, insecurity and fear.\nExpanding a practice: crossing the boundaries to manage change: The (formal and informal) interaction between communities, especially inside the organizational borders, allows the organization to grow and to become resilient to change. However, this process is not effective if the practice stays within the borders of the community that has generated the community itself. Therefore, the expansion and diffusion of practices are crucial for organizational development (Engestrom, 2007). This is the core of the knowledge building process that concretely gives sense to organizational learning. But, how could such a practice be expanded?\nConclusions: The aim of the present paper has been to enlarge the discussion about the beneficial effects of COPs in organizations by arguing that they could be particularly useful with reference to change management actions. Accordingly, moving from a constructionist view of organizations, we have attempted to show that they are socio-cultural systems, networks of relationships that mostly base their identity in interaction. Indeed, it is through the ordinary and extraordinary, the formal and informal exchanges that organizations have the opportunity to grow, to define their identity and to develop their practices (Lesser and Everest, 2001).\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: This paper aims to argue the beneficial effects of communities of practices for organizations. More specifically, given their intrinsic features, communities of practices support individuals and organizations in developing and diffusing the organizational culture, in making sense and guiding individual and collective actions, in defining identities and finally in coping with change and transitions.\nDesign/methodology/approach: Moving from a constructionist view of organizations, the paper reported the lessons learnt through literature about communities of practices, reviewing the most recent empirical evidences on the topic.\nFindings: Boundary objects and boundary interactions are the concrete tools that allow individuals to exchange knowledge and to develop practices, thus becoming a community. This exchange of skills and expertise concretely shapes the practices that give sense to individual and organizational actions. Nonetheless, organizations and communities are open spaces constantly in interaction, both inside and outside the organizational borders. Thus, through contamination, namely, through the encounter with different actors and contexts, practices could be expanded and reformulated as long as they might suit to specific demands.\nOriginality/value: The paper argued that communities of practices in times of change could become a space for learning and development as long as they allow people to redefine mental models and practices and thus to make sense and to cope with a new cultural scenario.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Tackling Whiteness in organizations and management
|
[
"Diversity",
"Discrimination in employment",
"Whiteness",
"Relational framework",
"Ethnic privileges"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nUnderstanding Whiteness: Understanding Whiteness entails addressing the issue of privileges and looking toward achieving social justice. Social sciences have witnessed a growing field of cross-disciplinary studies on unearned ethnic privilege, usually held by dominant ethnic groups. Origins of ethnic privilege scholarship can be traced back to black feminist scholars and critical race theorists such as Baldwin, Goldberg, Du Bois, Elson, Hooks, Fanon and Morrison (Garner, 2006). Rather than focussing solely on ethnic minorities, this special issue questions taken for granted privileges invested in ethnicity at work and in societies. One such unearned privilege is Whiteness in societies which are tarnished by colonialism and racism. Ethnic privilege and, as a variant of it, Whiteness, remain uncontested and under-researched in studies of work, organization and management (Grimes, 2001).\nPapers in this special issue: Samaluk's \"Whiteness, ethnic privilege and migration: a Bourdieuian framework\" is the first paper and serves two important functions:\nConclusions and future research: To conclude, this special issue explores ethnic privileges in the context of work, organization and management from varied methodological and theoretical traditions, and across different international contexts and disparate fields. They all have strong theoretical and practical implications, developing therefore new perspectives and insights into understanding power privileges held by the ethnic majority in the management of people in organizations. We hope that readers will enjoy this special issue. While we attempted to tackle some important issues regarding ethnic privilege at work, future research can look more in depth into questions like:\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to offer a theoretical and methodological framework to overcome knowledge gaps on Whiteness in organizational and management studies.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The paper draws on a brief review of literature on ethnic privileges.\nFindings: The authors propose a relational approach to tackling ethnic privileges in organizations and management research.\nResearch limitations/implications: The framework contributes to a better understanding and deconstruction of ethnic privileges at work.\nOriginality/value: The paper proposes a theoretical and a methodological framework for tackling Whiteness in organizational and management studies. By doing so, it elucidates the topic of Whiteness, bringing new insights from an interdisciplinary perspective.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Accountability and accessibility: ensuring the evidence of e-governance in Australia
|
[
"Archiving",
"Digital libraries",
"Document management",
"Government",
"Publications",
"Records management"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n__NO_TITLE__: There is no political power without control of the archive, if not of memory. Effective democratisation can always be measured by this essential criterion: the participation in and the access to the archive, its constitution and its interpretation (Derrida, 1996, p. 4, n. 1).\nIntroduction: Since the 1980s, government information has increasingly been created, stored, distributed or published in a variety of digital media and formats, including floppy disks, network drives, CDs, DVDs, online on the internet and intranets and in electronic mail. All of these formats contain information that may be important sources of memory and evidence for e-government and e-democracy. However, it is the phenomenon of the internet, and more particularly the worldwide web developed in 1993, that has revolutionised the publication and distribution of information in digital form and has the greatest potential to impact, for a variety of reasons, some positive, some negative, on the ability of citizens to participate in democratic government in a digital world.This paper focuses on information made available online via the internet and intranets and the role of libraries and archives in collecting, managing and preserving it for long-term access. \"Electronic\", \"digital\", \"online\" and \"born digital\" are all terms used in the literature to refer to information made available in this manner. In this paper the term \"online\" is used to refer to information made available via the internet (including the web) and intranets. \"Digital\" is used to refer more generally to the broader range of formats.Definition of an online publication\nE-government and the role of libraries and archives: In April 2000 the Australian Government issued \"GovernmentOnline: The Commonwealth Government's Strategy\", which stipulated that:All new non-commercial publications released by a Minister or agency must be made available online concurrently with other forms of dissemination from 1 June 2000 (Australia, Department of Communications, Information Technology and the Arts, 2000).While many Australian government publications continued to be published in print, as well as online, the volume of online government publishing expanded rapidly from this time onwards. An increasing number of titles are produced only online, and this situation is being replicated in all States and Territories.It is the role of the National, State and Territory libraries (the deposit libraries) to document the published heritage of Australia. By collecting, cataloguing to the National Bibliographic Database (NBD)[3] and preserving publications, these libraries, as well as other research libraries, such as the university libraries, enable researchers to find out what information has been published and to gain access to it. Unless these libraries are informed about what has been published online and have sufficient resources to deal with it, a substantial body of Australia's published heritage, including vital government publications, will be difficult to identify and locate now, and will be lost altogether to future generations. In fact, the publications of some Australian government agencies are already difficult to locate, being moved willy-nilly from one site to another, as agencies change name and functions are shifted from one department to another.In addition to being an important source of national and cultural memory and places of scholarly research, archives in democracies are meant to help protect the rights and entitlements of the governed. Archives provide a means of democratic accountability, a means of empowering citizens against potential maladministration, corruption and autocracy. In the words of John Fleckner (1991, p. 13), archives are bastions of a just society where \"individual rights are not time bound and past injustices are reversible\", where \"the archival record serves all citizens as a check against a tyrannical government\". For these noble objectives to be achievable, evidence of government decisions and activities, including government online activities, needs to be captured and preserved in an accessible form for as long as it is needed, in some cases indefinitely.In the interests of accountable government and for the benefit of the community the National Archives of Australia promotes reliable recordkeeping and maintains a visible, accessible and known collection. To this end, the Archives enables and promotes best practice in the management of government records in all formats from the point of creation for as long as they are required to support the needs of government and the people. The importance of National Archives standards and guidelines as enablers of successful e-government has been recognised by the Australian Government, which has made compliance with relevant Archives policies and standards mandatory under the Government Online Strategy and its successor, the e-Government Strategy.Thomas Jefferson is widely quoted as having said \"Information is the currency of democracy\"[4]. To be able to evaluate the success or otherwise of government programs, to be able to assert their rights, to debate the issues of the day, citizens must have access to current and historic sources of information generated by government and by other sectors such as academia and private enterprise. In an online world, this means that access to information created and distributed by digital means is essential. Yet online information is known to be ephemeral. It has been estimated that web pages have an average life of 44 days (Library of Congress, 2003) although, in the experience of the National Library of Australia, high quality publications of research value usually remain available on the publisher's web site for much longer.\nWhat makes online information so vulnerable?: There are technical, organisational, legal, financial, and political reasons for the vulnerability of online information.Technical factors\nThe current situation in Australia: initiatives at the National Library and National Archives: Although there are still many areas of concern, Australia has done more than most countries to date to address the need to identify, collect, store and preserve online publications and organisational records. Both the National Library of Australia and the National Archives of Australia have earned international reputations for their initiatives in this area.National Library of Australia\nFactors inhibiting the long-term availability of online information for e-governance: Publications\nConclusion: Keeping information in electronic formats available for e-governance and e-democracy is a public good, just as health services, education and bridges are. In fact, increasingly in future, the provision of other public goods will depend on the long-term availability of information in electronic formats, and this must be recognised and the cost of it must be borne by society as a whole.At this time in Australia, despite the pioneering work of the National Library and National Archives, information that is critical to e-governance and e-democracy is in danger of being lost. To avoid serious gaps in the record of government business, to avoid loss of information often paid for by the taxpayer, there is an urgent need for politicians, heads of government departments and other key policy-makers, educators, publishers, academics and the general public to realise the magnitude and the gravity of the situation before us. We must find the collective will and adequate resources to implement policies and practices that will safeguard our online heritage and keep it safe for the Australian people, now and in the future.This is not to say that the situation in Australia is any worse than it is in any other country in the world. On the contrary, Australia is better positioned than most to move quickly, if the political will is there. But we cannot justify losing our online heritage in this incunabular period for online information because everyone else is doing it too. We have guidelines, procedures, technical infrastructure and expertise, which other countries are seeking access to, for the collection and preservation of both publications and organisational records.Australia is still seriously disadvantaged in lacking legal deposit provisions that cover electronic publications. Countries such as the United Kingdom and New Zealand have recently addressed this deficiency by introducing amended legislation to grant the national library the right to collect and preserve web publications without the need to seek the permission of individual publishers. Such legislation must, of course, contain balances to safeguard the rights of publishers, as the current legislation for print publications does. It is essential that the principle of preserving one copy of every Australian publication for access by current and future generations be extended to electronic publications.A national strategy for the collection and preservation of online publications is required, encompassing government, education, commercial and private sectors. This strategy must assign responsibilities, where they have not already been assumed, for collecting and preserving the records and publications of the various sectors. It must be supported by appropriate legislation and funding.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: - To review the challenges associated with ensuring the capture and preservation of and long-term access to government records and publications in the digital age and to describe how libraries and archives in Australia are responding to the challenge.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - Literature- and case-study-based conceptual analysis of what makes government online information so vulnerable and initiatives at the National Library of Australia and the National Archives of Australia.\nFindings: - Democracy, governance, consultation and participation all depend on the availability of authentic and reliable information. Government agencies as well as educational and research institutions are producing increasingly large volumes of information in digital formats only. While Australia has done more than most countries to date to address the need to identify, collect, store and preserve government publications and public records in digital formats, large amounts of information are still at risk of loss.\nResearch limitations/implications: - Focuses on circumstances and initiatives in the Australian Government.\nPractical implications: - Librarians and archivists need to become more proactive in influencing the behaviour of government agencies to ensure that important evidence of democratic governance is created and managed in ways that facilitate their accessibility and long-term preservation.\nOriginality/value: - Emphasises the vital role that information management agencies such as libraries and archives have to play in supporting transparent and accountable governance in the digital age, and explores innovative strategies for ensuring the long-term preservation of this important documentary heritage material for the use of future generations.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Chinese choices: a survey of wine consumers in Beijing
|
[
"Wines",
"Consumer behaviour",
"Markey entry",
"China"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: General wine market in China\nMethod: To examine the wine choices and preferences of Beijing consumers it was decided to sample two distinct groups, actual wine consumers (as representative of the \"now\") and university students (as representative of a possible future market for wine sold in China). Data were collected concerning the consumption of wine, the preferences towards purchase outlet type, as well as information regarding the country of origin and associated attributes (such as DOCG, Vintage). As part of a larger research project (see Goodman, 2009) a BW choice experiment was included to enable the identification and measurement of the various influencers on the purchase of a bottle of wine in a retail store. The survey instrument was a pen and paper questionnaire. Broadly, the survey consisted of three parts. The first part collected demographic information, data related to the respondent's level of wine involvement and attitudes towards various aspects of different distribution outlets (price, service range, convenience). The second part collected data relating to wine information and knowledge; this included types of wine purchased, prices paid, and knowledge of AOC/DOCG. The third part of the survey instrument consisted of the BW choice experiment (see Goodman et al., 2005), which identified the relative levels of influence on wine purchase in the retail setting. This specific question relating to the choice task was:Think of the last time you purchased a bottle of wine to have with friends for dinner. Tick the ONE reason that MOST influenced your choice and the ONE that LEAST influenced your choice in each set of four propositions.The 13 attributes were selected by an international group, as a result of literature searches and qualitative interviews with members of the trade. Using this design, the data collection was replicated in 11 other markets (Goodman et al., 2008). The BW choice set was piloted and modified as appropriate (see Goodman et al., 2006 for further details). In the BW experiment, there was a choice set of 13 attributes, using a balanced incomplete block design; the experiment had 13 \"sets\", with four attributes presented in each set and each attribute appearing four times across the full design. Respondents were asked to select the one that most influenced and the one that least influenced their decision in relation to the question.Sampling\nResults and discussion: There were 250 \"typical\" consumer respondents, 230 of them provided valid answer sheets to parts one and two, 197 provided valid answer sheets for part three (BW experiment). Of the respondents, 52 per cent were female; young people aged between 18-24 and 25-40 comprised 44 per cent and 49 per cent, respectively, and 41-55 years old comprised 5 per cent. As to income, 61 per cent of the respondents had monthly incomes of less than CNY 3,000, 28 per cent had an income of CNY 3,000-5,000 and 8 per cent with CNY 5,000-10,000; only 1 per cent had a monthly income of more than 10,000 CNY (1 Euro [?] 10 CNY, 1 USD [?] 7 CNY). In the university student group there were 122 valid answer sheets from 130 respondents, and 53.5 per cent of them are male. Nobody in this group has a full time job, most of them are supported by their family, some make extra money from part time work, and their monthly income is less than CYN 3,000. Most of them were also indentified as low involvement consumers; 79 per cent only drink wine on special occasions, and only 9 per cent drink wine once or twice a month.Price\nConclusion and business implications: In this study, the wine purchasing behaviour of both typical consumers and university students in Beijing was surveyed and compared. The results showed that both groups intend to pay a low price for \"daily use\" wine and higher prices for wine intended for gift-giving. The main differences between the typical consumer and university student is the choice of a wine for* a business dinner at a price of more than 30 euros (28 per cent and 51 per cent, respectively); and* a private date with a price of 3-8 euros (18 per cent and 3 per cent, respectively).When looking at the influence of \"Country of Origin\", Chinese wines were the top choice, most likely due to the price, easy reach in supermarkets/restaurants and long term brand presence; leading Chinese wineries such as Greatwall and Changyu have invested large sums of money on nationwide TV, fashion magazines and places such as airports, business centres and shopping malls resulting in very high brand recognition. With very limited tasting experience and wine knowledge, most of the local consumers are more aware of large Chinese wineries and regard their brands as reliable in quality and value for money. Limited by the sales volume, difficulties in penetrating supermarkets and restaurants and the high cost of large scale advertising, neither single foreign winery, nor foreign winery associations advertise their wine on television.France was the highest choice foreign wine in this investigation, though many respondents have not tasted any French wine, the image of French wine appears to be very positive amongst Chinese consumers. Wine is thought of as \"western style\", \"the good life\" and \"romantic\", which corresponds with the image of France, French food and French culture in the mind of Chinese. Thus there is a strong chance for people to buy a bottle of French wine for a gift or a situation where the image of the gift is of more priority than the practical function.\"High prices\" and \"do not know how to select wine\" were the main reasons which have prevented consumers from purchasing a bottle of international wine. In the Chinese market entry level wine from a Chinese winery is about 3 euro per bottle whereas imported wines usually start from 8 euro per bottle. Though the import tax dropped to 14 per cent in 2004, the price for a bottle of imported wine is more than double that of a domestic wine.For convenience, supermarkets were the main choice of distribution channel for buying wine amongst both of the groups. More than 200 supermarkets of different sizes, scattered in 12 districts of the city, are the basic retail resource for most consumer's grocery needs, including wines (Yu and Ma, 2005). Four supermarkets Carrefour, Walmart, Chaoshifa and Jingkelong were selected in this investigation. Carrefour is considered the best place to buy imported wines from the supermarkets in Beijing, with more imported wines than domestic brands on the shelf. There are very few imported wines in Chaoshifa; the shelves are occupied by the leading Chinese wineries and a few Beijing regional brands such as Dragon Seal and Fengshou. The wine collections in Walmart and Jingkelong lie between those of Carrefour and Chaoshifa, with more domestic wines than imported wines. When we think about the number of the chain supermarkets in the city, there are nine Carrefour, five Walmart, 42 Jingkelong and 50 Chaoshifa. Together with many other Chinese run chain supermarkets, the exposure of Chinese major brands is much more than international wines. It is more convenient to buy a bottle of Chinese wine from the supermarkets than to buy a bottle of imported wine.Back label information showed that \"Taste description\" was the most important, but other information was also highly rated. A Chinese translation of the general information of the wine such as brand, variety, producer, distributor and some other support information is obligatory in Chinese markets. This translation is made in the shape of a label and affixed at the location of the back label. This translated back label provides the basic information when consumers make their choice. The language barrier is very high in the Chinese market; most consumers not only have very little knowledge of grape variety and wine, but also cannot read the original back label in English or other foreign languages. A good translation and sound description of the taste and food matching of the wine could help the consumer to make a positive decision on imported wines.From the BW scaling, the ranking of 13 chosen attributes in the mind of consumers was clear. The four most influential factors in the two groups are the same though the sequence is somewhat different - \"Tasted the wine previously\", \"origin of wine\", \"brand name\" and \"someone recommended it\". When we compare the imported wines and domestic brands on these four factors, the market dominant Chinese brands have the inside track in the competition. Tasting on site, especially a comparative tasting among a few different wines can help consumers not only understand what they really like, but also help them in making future choices.It should be mentioned that the BW method had some limitations. To obtain more reliable results, a different approach that varies the factors simultaneously and independently may be required in future. In addition, the present study was conducted for two groups of consumers. Purchasing choices of more consumers is needed to understand and profile the wine market. From the BW test, tasting experience of the wine was very important to most consumers, so a taste test should be done next. Replication is needed using the BW method in order to begin to generalize. Whilst the method has been tested against Likert scale and conjoint designs (Louviere and Islam, 2004), the choice set used in this design was part of an internationally used set; this is a limitation to some extent and warrants individual country based design to see if there are other attributes to be included - as well as the possibility that some existing attributes need rewording or elimination. This survey focused on Beijing supermarket wine purchasing, and the university students as \"a\" future market demand. An investigation of the wine consumers in a restaurant setting is needed and would be interesting if it were to compare results between a retail and restaurant environment. Is behaviour different, if so how, and to what extent can strategies be developed to utilize the different end channels? Further research in other cities in China is also needed to ascertain if China is in fact one wine market or a composite of several quite differently influenced and behaving wine markets.Opens in a new window.Figure 1\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: - The purpose of this paper is to investigate the purchasing behaviours of two Beijing wine consumer groups and evaluate the influence of different factors on their decision making process to provide information to better understand the Chinese wine market and assist with market entry and penetration.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - A questionnaire with 27 single choice or scoring questions and a set of 13 best-worst (BW) scaling questions is designed. Typical consumers in supermarkets and university students are invited to answer the questionnaire which uses a mix of nominal and rating scale responses as well as a BW choice experiment.\nFindings: - The results show that the consumers intend to pay low prices for daily use wines, but high prices for wines for gift purposes. Domestic brands constituted the highest proportion of the purchases, followed by French wines. The consumers are sensitive on price and country of wine origin; awards, medals, and vintage were of low influences in wine purchasing decisions. Typical consumers like supermarkets and boutique wine shops, while university students prefer the internet for on-line sales. In the BW experiment, tasting the wine previously, the origin of the wine and brand name listed are the most influential factors in purchasing decisions.\nOriginality/value: - The overall picture of wine preference of Beijing consumers is reported for the first time. It provides an understanding of the factors in wine purchasing decision making and their relative importance. The result could better facilitate wine promotion and penetration in this promising and unique market.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Quid pro quo: The impact of explicit brand mentions and reciprocity in brand alliance communications
|
[
"Brand alliance",
"Communication",
"Reciprocity",
"Partners",
"Brand mention",
"Relational embeddedness"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Brand alliances - defined as short- or long-term combinations of two or more individual partner brands that undertake combined activities - flourish in various industries (Schnittka et al., 2017). Research shows that brand alliances may exert positive effects on both the alliance product (e.g. a co-branded innovation) and the partner brands themselves through signaling and spillover effects (Geylani et al., 2008; Nguyen et al., 2018; Roosens and Dens, 2018). At the same time, some studies find non-significant (Levin et al., 2003; Vaidyanathan and Aggarwal, 2000) or even negative (Geylani et al., 2008; Levin et al., 2003) effects of brand alliances on the partner brands.\nStudy 1: Literature review and hypothesis development\nStudy 2: Literature review and hypotheses\nConclusions: In this paper, we investigated the effect of explicit brand mentions, communication source and brand name reciprocity in brand alliance communications on consumers' purchase intentions and willingness to pay for an innovation, and test the serial mediation through the perceived relational embeddedness of the partners and the perceived corporate credibility of the co-creating companies. In Study 1, we compared explicit brand mention by one or both partners with implicit partnership mention by both partners, where in Study 2, we investigated the effects of reciprocated brand mentions in comparison with an implicit partnership reference by one of both partners.\nTheoretical implications: Our research has several theoretical implications. First, we extend previous studies that have identified a number of boundary conditions of signaling and spillover effects. Spillover effects of consumer attitudes from partners in brand alliances is well established in current literature (Simonin and Ruth, 1998). However, in this study, we introduce explicit brand mention in brand alliance communications as a moderator, interacting with the spillover effects, which is to our knowledge not done before. Although the results are pretty intuitive, they can be an interesting starting point for research on how to communicate about partnerships. Indeed, brand alliance literature has almost exclusively tested a single communication \"source\", where alliance information is presented by the researchers, or in a mock ad or press release, communicated jointly by partners, or just one of the partners. Based on this research, it seems sufficient that a link is somehow established to allow for spillover effects to occur. Recent research by Liljedal (2016) questioned whether it is the signal of another partner collaborating with a firm that induces positive effects for this firm, or a specific brand explicitly exhibiting the alliance. We demonstrate the importance of explicit brand mentions, as they imply a strong bond between partners (Gammoh et al., 2006).\nManagerial implications: Our study also offers a number of managerial implications. In practice, alliance partners increasingly communicate independently about their individual initiatives or results, especially online. One of them may choose, for some reason, to not communicate or communicate a general involvement, without mentioning specific partners. Partners may choose not to communicate an alliance or to communicate a general involvement, without mentioning specific partner brands for several reasons. For example, because the alliance did not lead to a marketable innovation, because of a potential conflict of interest with other (future) alliances, because the alliance partner may not be an established or reputable firm, because the alliance involves multiple partners, or because an NGO, government or scientific institute may be afraid to come across as \"too commercial\".\nLimitations and further research: There are some limitations to this study that could inspire future research. First, in both studies we included the communication of a single partner. In practice, firms increasingly collaborate with multiple partners in the alliance (Fyrberg Yngfalk, 2013; Kazadi et al., 2016). More partners will make communications more complex and bring additional challenges to communicating effectively about the brand alliance. Therefore, both the effects of communication by multiple partners and the management of marketing communications in a network of diverse partners are compelling paths for future research. In light of the current research, it would be interesting to test whether reciprocity of explicit brand mention is required by all parties in more complex setting, or whether a \"tipping point\" might occur where additional explicit references by more than x parties may no longer add additional value. While we suspect that the conclusions of our research would also hold for other types of partners and other types of brand alliances, this is something that should be explicitly tested in further research.\n",
"role": "user"
},
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"content": "Purpose: This paper aims to assess the effects of explicit partner brand mentions (as opposed to a mere partnership mention) in communications by brand allies on consumers' purchase intention and willingness to pay for an innovation, as mediated by the perceived relational embeddedness of the allies and their respective perceived corporate credibility. In Study 1, the authors investigate the effects of (reciprocal) explicit brand mentions by both allies (as opposed to by a single ally) and further test whether explicit brand mentions moderate spillover effects from the ally. In Study 2, the authors investigate the effect of reciprocity of explicit brand mentions and whether this is moderated by a company's experience.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The authors conduct two online experiments. Study 1 (N = 216) is a four-level between-subjects experiment (single communication by Partner A with explicit brand mention, single communication by Partner B with explicit brand mention, explicit brand mentions by both allies and mere partnership mention by both allies) where participants judge a social alliance related to a new tablet. Study 2 (N = 376) builds upon these findings in a 4 (explicit brand mentions by both allies; mere partnership mention by both allies; explicit brand mention by Partner A, mere partnership mention by Partner B; explicit brand mention by partner B, mere partnership mention by Partner A) x 2 (Partner A experience: established vs startup) between-subjects experimental design for a co-created battery.\nFindings: Spillover effects from one ally to the other are stronger with explicit brand mentions than with a mere partnership mention. There is no added value of two allies communicating over one, provided that both partners explicitly mention their partner brand. However, when allies do communicate separately, it is crucial that an explicit brand mention is reciprocated. This effect is explained by an increase in the perceived relational embeddedness of the partners, which in turn positively influences their corporate credibility. This effect does not differ depending on a company's experience.\nOriginality/value: This research is one of the first to study effects of how a brand alliance is communicated and extends previous studies on the effects of communication about brand and co-creation alliances by demonstrating that communications moderate spillover effects, that brand mention reciprocity is crucial, and by introducing the concept of perceived relational embeddedness.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
Enhancing organizational recovery in tough times: a pragmatic perspective
|
[
"Organizational economics",
"Economic depression",
"Recession",
"World economy",
"Leadership"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n__NO_TITLE__: The global economy has experienced monumental challenges in the last two years as organizations have grappled with seemingly insurmountable financial crises. A quick glimpse at the popular press reveals a staggering collection of organizations that have liquidated, downsized, or engaged in other strategic imperatives in the quest for survival. Fortunately, there is some evidence that the intensity of the global crises may be waning. However, organizations and their leaders are now faced with the stark reality of trying to recover from the trauma of these crises, while simultaneously establishing entities that are capable of competing successfully in a battered global environment. With the context of a new, battered global environment in mind, this article provides a pragmatic perspective on the issue of organizational recovery. The perspective offered here is not intended to be all inclusive. Instead, the perspective summarized in this article attempts to highlight those factors that may have the greatest potential to enhance the recovery of struggling organizations.\nConduct an identity check: In the midst of economic prosperity, it is easy for organizations to get distracted or drawn toward numerous opportunities that represent possible growth, challenge and profitability. However, during lean economic times, it may behoove organizational leadership to undergo a realistic examination of the foundational purpose of the organization. This will require more than the traditional strategic evaluation of the mission and vision of the organization. Indeed, it will require introspection to the very core of the organization's culture to develop a genuine understanding of the fundamental attributes that collectively represent the essence of the entity, possibly back to the organization's founding. There are several ways this could be accomplished. For example, senior leadership could organize small focus groups of employees, with a facilitated discussion of key attributes that define the organization. In other words, organizations can check their identity by asking employees what makes this organization what they are. It might also be helpful to ask employees how the organization is perceived by customers and the community.\nClarify: It is readily acknowledged that bigger businesses are not necessarily better. The renewed awareness of identity elucidated above should, then, serve as a catalyst for reevaluating organizational goals, priorities and operations as well as the allocation of resources to ensure proper alignment. Anything that does not directly or indirectly relate to this identity and to perpetuating the organization should be critically evaluated for possible discontinuation. While this simplification may necessarily lead to scaling back in some areas, one area key to the recovery of the organization that can not be sacrificed is quality.\nDevelop enhanced awareness through promoting an open environment: During times of organizational strife and chaos, it is not uncommon for employees to experience heightened levels of frustration and anxiety. It is acknowledged that frustration and anxiety, in turn, may be accompanied by collective employee withdrawal (Everton et al., 2007; Reynolds, 1992). Reasons for this withdrawal could be multifaceted, ranging from individuals' fear of uncertainty to numerous, overwhelming priorities that consume every moment of an employee's day. Regardless of the origins of withdrawal, diminished interaction can suffocate the social networks that underpin organizations. This can occur as key information about internal activities fails to get shared with others in the organization. Further, the collective withdrawal may also prompt a lapse in awareness and sharing of key developments in the external environment. In an effort to foster organizational recovery, leaders may need to consciously engage in efforts to restart the communication processes within the organization. This may require leading by example through communicating the leader's own personal insights and observations about internal and external environmental developments. Encouraging employees to also share their personal insights, observations and concerns may serve to reverse the withdrawal process, particularly if this mutual communication is permitted in the context of true openness where individuals are assured that they will not experience negative repercussions. For example, managers may want to allocate time to informally going around to different employee groups at their work sites, asking them to share any concerns, frustrations or observations related to the organization. If employees are concerned about possible retribution or lack of anonymity, brief surveys could be developed, asking employees to respond to open-ended questions regarding their perceptions about the organization.\nFocus on salient employee needs: Economic crises require careful stewarding of financial resources. The same is true of a firm's human resources. Who facilitates recovery? How can management enhance creative collaborative efforts? The answer is obvious - employees. Therefore, it is crucial to consider the needs of employees during times of organizational recovery. First, nurture emotional bonds. Senior management must articulate clearly and frequently their need for their employees' help. This should be coupled with exuding confidence in their collective ability to survive this storm. Employees need to feel needed. Someone has observed: employees join an organization for rational reasons, they stay for emotional ones. The firm truly needs the best efforts of its talented workforce. This is an ideal time to rally your troops.Second, nurture trust. Employees need and want to focus their personal energies on the recovery. However, many are stressed, confused and distracted by the crises. Competence fosters trust. Top management should provide a steady hand on the tiller through this storm, as well as a clear sense of direction. For example, help employees interpret the reality in which the firm is operating. In addition, communicate regularly about external threats and opportunities. Middle managers and supervisors must articulate specific contributions their units must make to reach strategic objectives in a manner where peers and subordinates can understand how they fit. Management must also provide adequate resources to enable each employee to reach their objectives. Do not change terms of the employment relationship without discussing and seriously exploring alternatives. Be open to creative alternatives avoiding knee jerk, top-down responses. In some organizations, employees have suggested temporary unpaid holidays and other creative alternatives to layoffs. Employee understanding and buy-in reduce dysfunctional responses such as reduced effort, employee theft and voluntary terminations.Lastly, nurture stars. They can provide leadership in recovery efforts, yet, if dissatisfied they may find other employment. Listen attentively and observe carefully to discern unique needs. Not everyone processes the recovery efforts in the same way. Invest in these precious assets.\nReconnect with key external stakeholders: As previously discussed, collective withdrawal may occur during times of organizational strife. In addition to impacting internal social networks within organizations, this withdrawal may also have detrimental effects on interactions with significant external stakeholders. Two key stakeholder groups that merit special consideration in the pursuit of organizational recovery are customers and suppliers. The significance of customers is logically grounded in the contributions they make to perpetuate the organization. The relationship between customers and organizations is inherently transactional. However, astute organizational leaders also realize that customers possess a wealth of information that can be helpful in guiding the organizations' future strategic initiatives. Recovery efforts may be enhanced through efforts to reach out to customers and reconnect with them to determine their perceptions and loyalties related to the organization as well as the industry in general.Similarly, suppliers are intimately familiar with dynamics of the industry in which the organization competes. Tapping into this knowledge base can provide leaders with key information about anticipated trends in resource availability, future pricing and possible shifts in the competitive structure of the industry.\nConclusion: The perspective offered in this paper is not necessarily new and certainly not intended to be exhaustive. Further, enacting the perspective outlined in the article is no guarantee that organizations will necessarily recover. However, the perspective is offered in an attempt to refocus the attention of leaders on issues of significant importance to the recovery of organizations that have weathered the recent economic storms. As such, one way to view the perspective offered here is that organizations may facilitate their recovery efforts by getting back to the basics by focusing on both key stakeholders and activities that are fundamental to business success.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: - The purpose of this paper is to offer possible perspectives on pursuing organizational recovery given the current level of intensity in the global economic environment.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - The suggested approaches offered in this article are presented from a pragmatic perspective. While empirical support for these approaches can be found in the literature, some of the conclusions drawn in the paper were not validated empirically.\nFindings: - Leaders and managers could easily become discouraged by the ongoing barrage of negative press associated with global economic struggles. This article offers leaders and managers five simple approaches for possible consideration in addressing organizational recovery.\nSocial implications: - The approaches summarized in this article are presented in an optimistic manner, with the intention of providing a renewed sense of hope for those leaders attempting to redirect the efforts of their organizations.\nOriginality/value: - The paper offers a succinct and practical perspective on basic approaches organizations can pursue in the quest for economic recovery.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
The employee survey: more than asking questions
|
[
"Employees",
"Surveys",
"Employee involvement",
"Human capital",
"Questionnaires",
"Employee relations"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n__NO_TITLE__: One of the challenges for leaders of large organizations is to learn about - and act upon - the views of the employee base. While companies may be adept at the outward-facing task of listening and responding to clients and customers, they are not always inwardly attuned to the voice of the worker. The resulting disconnect can have a major impact, over time and especially in a global context, on business results.\nWhy surveys fail: Despite good intentions, employee surveys often fail in their strategic aims. Through Mercer's work on more than 1,000 survey projects, we have identified ten key areas within the survey process that consistently stand out as potential stumbling blocks to survey success. By being aware of these potential blocks and adopting best practices to avoid them, organizations can significantly improve the odds of conducting a survey that produces meaningful, actionable results; builds employee engagement; and enhances organizational performance. The ten key areas are:1. Project planning.2. Communication.3. Questionnaire design.4. Timing.5. Prioritization of issues.6. Engaging senior management.7. Data delivery.8. Follow-up support.9. Monitoring and accountability.10. Linking survey results to business outcomes.Survey projects can be complex, with a number of risks that are difficult to anticipate. In the absence of proper planning, problems can be experienced in all aspects of the process, including the survey field work, survey return rates, and the timely delivery of results. When things go wrong early in the process, the survey loses credibility in the eyes of management and employees, and the follow-up process fails to secure the time and resources required for success.1. Begin with careful planning\nConclusion: Employee engagement has a significant influence on organizational performance and can become a long-term source of competitive advantage. To effectively manage this opportunity, the majority of organizations conduct regular surveys of employee opinion. However, if the survey is not properly planned and resourced, if the questionnaire is poorly designed, if the process fails to engage managers and employees, or if the organization does not take and communicate clear follow-up actions, the survey is likely to destroy rather than build employee engagement.Some employers may interpret this message as: \"We should reduce this risk by avoiding employee surveys.\" But the majority, if not all, of high-performance organizations recognize that an active process of consultation with employees is essential to implementing strategy successfully, building the employer brand, and raising overall performance levels. The employee survey is a valuable management tool, and it is here to stay. The challenge for organizations is to avoid the common pitfalls that afflict employee surveys by adopting the best practices described here.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: - Leading organizations invest large amounts of time, energy, and financial resources in conducting employee surveys. Through Mercer Human Resource Consulting's work on more than 1,000 survey projects, ten key areas within the survey process have been identified that consistently stand out as potential stumbling blocks to survey success. The purpose of this paper is to make companies aware of these potential blocks, and show that by adopting best practices to avoid them, organizations can significantly improve the odds of conducting a successful survey.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - According to Mercer Human Resource Consulting's What's Working(tm) research, upwards of 50 percent of employers in Sweden, Japan, Singapore, the USA, Brazil, Australia, Canada, the UK, and Ireland regularly conduct employee surveys. Employee engagement is more often the intended ultimate outcome of employee surveying. All the same, employee surveys often fail in their strategic aims. Through Mercer's work on more than 1,000 survey projects, ten key areas within the survey process have been identified that consistently stand out as potential stumbling blocks to survey success.\nFindings: - This article identifies the ten key stumbling blocks to employee survey success as: Project planning; Communication; Questionnaire design; Timing; Prioritization of issues; Engaging senior management; Data delivery; Follow-up support; Monitoring and accountability, and Linking survey results to business outcomes. These stumbling blocks and methods of overcoming them are described.\nOriginality/value: - It is becoming increasingly clear to organizations that employee engagement has a significant influence on organizational performance and can become a long-term source of competitive advantage. An original connection is made between effective employee surveys and employee engagement, and best-practice guidance is provided on ensuring survey success. Otherwise, a survey runs the risk of destroying rather than building employee engagement.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
Fault-lines between policy and practice in local partnerships
|
[
"Partnership",
"Voluntary organizations",
"Public health",
"England"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: The emphasis attached to partnership working at national, regional and local levels reflects the complexity of public services and the extent of cross-cutting issues. At the same time, questions have been raised over the effectiveness, accountability arrangements, leadership and purpose of local partnerships and the extent to which they add value (see, for example, Audit Commission, 2005). Partnership working is considered key for tackling inequalities in health, a task made more difficult by the fact that the latter can be seen as a \"wicked issue\", that is, a complex policy issue which is imperfectly understood, where solutions are not clear, and which requires collaboration across a range of services and partners (Clarke and Stewart, 1997). Difficulties in moving from policy to practice in addressing health inequalities have been identified in a number of studies (see, for example, Exworthy et al., 2002, 2003; Hunter and Marks, 2005; Marks, 2006). This article focuses on partnerships as a key link between policy and practice in tackling health inequalities, and on the role of the voluntary and community sector (VCS), whose involvement in local partnerships is considered key to narrowing the health gap.This article begins by summarising the role of local strategic partnerships (LSPs) in England and policies intended to encourage the effective involvement of members of the VCS in these partnerships.LSPs were set up in local authority areas in England from 2001 onwards, and spearheaded in the 88 most disadvantaged areas. They are sometimes described as \"a partnership of partnerships\" and are intended to rationalise and coordinate existing local partnerships, forge new ways of working across sectors, reflect local priorities and encourage integrated approaches to regenerating communities and addressing inequalities in health. Their membership structures reflect the importance attached to collective responsibility across public, private and community sectors for working together on \"joined up\" problems. There are now over 360 LSPs in England (Office of the Deputy Prime Minister, 2005). However, outside the 88 most disadvantaged areas, where LSPs are compulsory, their development has been influenced by the extent to which they incorporate previously successful partnerships, the strength of the infrastructure for local community groups on which they can draw, and how successfully partners negotiate the complexities of LSP decision-making.Although they are not statutory bodies, and do not exercise executive powers, LSPs are charged with important tasks. In the 88 most disadvantaged areas, LSPs are responsible for allocating neighbourhood renewal funding (NRF), developing and delivering neighbourhood renewal strategies and drawing on the community empowerment fund, which supports VCS involvement in LSPs. Under the Local Government Act (2000), local authorities have a statutory responsibility to ensure the production of a community strategy, which is designed to promote economic, social, and environmental well being. However, ownership lies with the LSP.LSPs provide an important vehicle for addressing inequalities and the wider determinants of health through bringing together different elements of the public health jigsaw, including life-long learning, economic development and regeneration, housing, health, and transport. The role to be played by all LSPs in addressing the inequalities agenda has gained prominence. For example, the English Department of Health's three year programme for tackling health inequalities (Department of Health, 2003) states that:... locally, LSPs are central to tackling health inequalities (para 5.3).Further, it states that:LSPs allow the various partners to work together to reshape their services to narrow the health gap locally, consistent with their own responsibilities (para. 5.6).The Treasury-led Public Service Agreements (PSAs) (2005-2008), emphasise the importance of tackling social exclusion and narrowing the gap between the most deprived areas and the rest of England. (HM Treasury, 2004). Chief executives in local councils and Primary Care Trusts (PCTs) (NHS bodies responsible for providing primary care services, commissioning health care, improving the health of their local populations and tackling inequalities) will be accountable for their performance in tackling health inequalities and LSPs will be monitored on their effectiveness in reshaping services to narrow inequalities.A capacity to engage effectively with the VCS was identified as a key feature of LSPs if they were to address social exclusion, help regenerate neighbourhoods and reduce the health divide for their local area.Guidance for LSPs states that they should ensure that:... the community and voluntary organisations, and local people more widely, are in a position to play a full part in multi-agency partnerships on the same basis with statutory authorities and better resourced partners (Department of Environment, Transport and the Regions, 2001, para.12, Annex C).This aspect was further emphasised in accreditation procedures for the 88 LSPs responsible for allocating neighbourhood renewal funding. LSPs in these areas were required to develop a protocol for working with the VCS and to include representatives from a range of special interests, geographical communities, faith and ethnic groups, constituting about one third of total LSP membership.These developments have taken place in a context of support at national policy level for the continued expansion of the VCS in delivering public services, as well as an increased recognition of their role in addressing social inclusion and regeneration (HM Treasury, 2002). A \"national compact\" (Home Office, 1998), setting out principles underpinning the relationships between the government and the VCS, was launched in November 1998. It includes \"compliance mechanisms and codes of good practice to make the agreement work\". From 1999, local compacts were signed between local authorities and the VCS, and a national register provides details of the compacts already agreed at local level. Although compacts are not legally binding documents, they provide a basis for monitoring and evaluating partnerships with the VCS.While the rules of engagement for creating equal partnerships are clear, research suggests that, despite these policy initiatives, members of the VCS are not equal partners in LSPs. A study on partnership development for joint strategic planning and commissioning, with specific reference to LSPs, noted that \"particular effort is needed to develop the ability of the community and voluntary sector to become more equal partners in the LSP\" (Health Development Agency/Local Government Association/NHS Confederation, 2003, para. 6.26). The first survey of a five year national research programme on LSPs in England, (Office of the Deputy Prime Minister/Department for Transport, 2003) identified engagement of the VCS as a major gap and noted the under-representation of the community sector within LSPs. A case study of one LSP in the North East of England (Liddle, 2002) showed little progress had been made by communities in influencing funding decisions. At a regional level, Voluntary Organisations Network North East, a network organisation for the North East of England, itemised difficulties faced by the VCS in LSPs. These included a lack of understanding from other partners, tokenistic representation, use of jargon, lack of attention to accessibility of meetings, lack of clarity over roles, and dominance of partnerships by local authorities (Ford, 2003). It has been argued that statutory organisations need to make radical changes if they are to engage effectively with the \"third sector\" (Pickin et al., 2002) and, in a study of the lessons for LSPs from area-based regeneration projects (New Commitment to Regeneration (Phase one) Pathfinders), Russell (2001) emphasises the challenges of moving away from traditional ways of working in order to tackle regeneration through strategic level partnerships, emphasising the time consuming nature of the development phase of partnerships, the need to \"marry inclusivity and focus\" and the critical importance of leadership.In order to explore the extent to which the policy importance attached to the role of the VCS within LSPs for narrowing health inequalities was reflected in practice, the NGO PHorum, (a national agency funded by the English Department of Health in order to promote the involvement of non-governmental public health organisations in developing public health strategy), commissioned research to explore factors influencing the effective involvement of non-governmental organisations in LSPs in relation to health improvement and addressing health inequalities (Marks, 2004). This article explores themes arising from this research.\nMethods: Four separate activities were undertaken: a rapid review of research on LSPs; documentary analysis for the 25 LSPs in the North East of England; semi-structured telephone interviews (30-60 minutes long) with eight national and regional stakeholders and 11 members from the VCS, drawn from a cross-section of LSPs and their health sub-groups in the region. Interviews were transcribed and a thematic analysis carried out. The research was completed in 2004.\nResearch findings: effective involvement?: The effectiveness of the VCS in addressing inequalities in health through LSPs is influenced by broader issues, such as the effectiveness of LSPs as decision-making bodies and the complexities inherent in tackling inequalities in health, and by more specific issues arising from VCS membership, representativeness, and accountability arrangements. Views were sought on all these topics, further described below.A web of partnerships\nDiscussion: In this study, high expectations of LSPs and of the contribution to be played by the VCS in tackling inequalities, were confounded by tensions in governance arrangements arising from new forms of partnership, conflicts between decentralised decision-making and the need for overall coordination of cross-cutting issues or for meeting national priorities and targets; and confusion over the different ways in which partners understood, operationalised and prioritised health inequalities. These tensions undermined the capacity to work across the LSP and maximise its impact on narrowing the health gap. These issues are discussed in turn.LSPs illustrate tensions which emerge from new forms of partnership, where traditional accountability arrangements coexist with network relationships and where notions of representativeness and accountability of the VCS are still in flux. The involvement of the VCS with groups which are socially excluded, \"hard to reach\", or have needs that are not met by the statutory services, means that their involvement is increasingly seen as crucial for addressing social inclusion and tackling inequalities (Pearson and Morgan, 2001). Ling (2000) argues that the notion of \"governmentality\", (that is, where members participate in their own self governance), in the context of partnerships is concerned with \"making the voluntary sector, user groups and others fit to be partners within a new strategic arena\". However, while LSPs could be considered a prototype of 'governmentality', in practice, they reflect different forms of governance. Hierarchical relationships remain, along with nationally determined strategic objectives; partnerships may be framed by previous partnerships set up for different purposes; and decision-making structures are not geared to the very different needs of the VCS. The VCS has traditionally played advocacy, operational or representative roles - and there is the potential for these to become fused - or even confused - within LSPs. The strategic role that could be played by the VCS in general, or by specific groups within it, remains underdeveloped.Clearly, decision-making by the VCS is influenced by the number of members on the LSP and arrangements for chairing meetings. As one interviewee put it, \"we are not equal, but we have an equal right to be involved\". Yet VCS representatives are often unpaid and may lack resources for consulting with their communities. Moreover, VCS members embody tensions in new forms of partnership which combine traditional systems of democratic accountability with newer, participatory approaches to decision-making and which straddle national priorities and local concerns. Tensions between national targets and local priorities are arguably at their most acute for VCS members, and are exacerbated by the fact that the same people might be representing a range of different neighbourhoods, views and networks through membership of a wide range of local committees. Whether VCS members will change, in order to participate fully as \"compliant collaborators\" (Ling, 2000) in these partnerships, remains to be seen.There is little empirical evidence exploring the relationships between different sorts of partnerships and outcomes, and some interviewees were sceptical of the added value brought by the LSP. Was the partnership as a whole greater than the sum of its parts? Where was the plan of how complex and overlapping partnerships, with accountability to different sectors, would work together? These issues are particularly relevant to public health and health inequalities. LSPs have the potential to devise, implement and coordinate multi-level interventions, reflecting the fact that many different agencies need to work together if health inequalities are to be addressed. Strategies and action plans could be developed which exploit potential synergies, partnerships and multi-level interventions so that impact of interventions could be maximised across the LSP, and through each of its partners, including the VCS. In the same way, they could adopt a more systematic approach to assessing the impact of their decisions on health and on narrowing the health gap. It is important, therefore, that frameworks for addressing the inequalities agenda are made explicit both within organisations and for all the partners of the LSP, so that a common language and framework can be developed. Both the nature of VCS membership and their role in decision-making are likely to be influenced by the conceptual map of public health adopted by LSPs (whether implicitly or explicitly), the priority accorded to it, and the view taken on the extent to which membership of the LSP should be shaped by strategic priorities.In this sample, health inequalities were more likely to be seen as a sub-group theme rather than as a basis for decision-making across all the partnerships making up the LSP. The LSP infrastructure, composed of theme groups, could work against its potential to address overarching issues, such as inequalities in health.The different demands on LSPs do not always work in harmony and can undermine effective decision-making. The community strategy often determines the numbers and themes of the sub-groups and this can deflect from a strategic approach to overarching themes, such as inequalities in health. A concentration on wards receiving neighbourhood renewal funding can work against an LSP-wide approach to inequalities and hinder cooperation in relation to decisions affecting mainstream funding, while a focus on LSPs which have access to neighbourhood renewal funding distracts from the development needs of the many LSPs without it, despite their importance in addressing local inequalities in health.In order to develop a coherent strategy, LSPs need to have a clear understanding how each sector understands and prioritises interventions related to addressing inequalities in health. There is also scope for developing closer links at both national and local levels across public health networks, networks for regeneration and national networks for voluntary organisations. Finally, a more strategic approach is required to harnessing the many different contributions to public health and addressing inequalities in health which are already being provided through the VCS. If LSPs and other forms of public health partnership are to reflect new forms of governance - or move towards \"governmentality\" - then a combination of administrative sensitivity, strategic vision and an understanding of the potential fault lines between partnership policy and partnership practice will be required.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: - The purpose of this study is to explore gaps between policy and practice in relation to the involvement of voluntary and community sector (VCS) members in local strategic partnerships (LSPs), using the example of inequalities in health.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - Documentary analysis; semi-structured interviews with VCS representatives from a sample of LSPs in one region of England; semi-structured interviews with key researchers and national stakeholders.\nFindings: - National policy imperatives to expand the role of the VCS in decision-making and to make LSPs an important avenue for addressing inequalities in health are not always translated into practice. VCS members are at the sharp end of tensions in LSPs between thematic and neighbourhood approaches, local views and strategic priorities and between democratic and participatory approaches to decision-making. Effective engagement in addressing inequalities in health requires a strategic approach across the LSP which is reflected in the priorities of each of the constituent partnerships.\nResearch limitations/implications: - This is a snapshot of LSPs at one point in time and local interviews are restricted to one region of England.\nPractical implications: - The article illustrates good practice and barriers to VCS involvement in addressing inequalities in health through LSPs. This is relevant to a range of public health partnerships.\nOriginality/value: - The views of VCS members on addressing inequalities in health through LSPs have not previously been researched, despite their key role. Lessons are relevant for multi-agency strategic partnerships with a public health focus in England and internationally.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
AstraZeneca turns "Cinderella" employees into stars: Training builds a coherent team out of 24 project managers
|
[
"Teambuilding",
"Employee attitudes",
"Training",
"Project management",
"Pharmaceutical products",
"Trust"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n__NO_TITLE__: In Ken Loach's latest film, Looking for Eric, the unlikely duo of down-and-out postman Eric Bishop and ex-France and Manchester United footballer Eric Cantona watch old television clips of the midfield maestro in action.\nRolling out the professional development day: A typical PDD would include all the IS project managers. It would begin with a business update for the team and include a presentation from another area of the business. Training would take place in the afternoon and the event would end with a business round-up.The training element of the sessions would deal with personal issues and would be interactive. It would cover, for example, managing difficult situations, developing conversational skills, managing workload pressures and building self-awareness. At the end of each session, the project managers would choose a focus for the next PDD.\"The project managers were encouraged to think practically about how they could respond as individuals as well as parts of a team and to question and practice what they had learned and how they could use it in real life,\" said Emma Keddy. \"We pushed the managers to start sharing thoughts and ideas as a group. It was clear that working in isolation was the norm and they were happy that way. Learning to work as a team was a completely alien concept to them and interaction regarding work with colleagues was very much outside the comfort zone of the average IS project manager.\"At the beginning, there was also a lot of resistance and we had to keep telephoning people to attend - at first it was more like a three-line whip to ensure attendance - but all the time I tried to encourage people to stick with us as the rewards would be great. Gradually, over time, attendance became less carrot and stick and was led more by a desire to perform closer and better as a group.\"\nFostering a sense of belonging: Kevin Charlesworth continued: \"They started to open up more and at this point it was clear that they were really enjoying the training and basically having a laugh - something that had definitely been missing in the past. What was really encouraging was that they began to trust the group - they were enthused and started to bring problems to the table to be solved. From a trainer's perspective, this is extremely rewarding.\"My role continues to evolve. I still have an educational input to the project managers' development, but now I tend to sit in and listen during the PDDs and then respond to people's needs, rather than trying to predict what these needs may be.\"I have become part of their team - they even refer to me as the team coach. In some respects, I am a little like the coach of a football team - at half time I get to tell them the sorts of things that they need to work on, how to improve their game and how they can work closer as a team. Coaching is about building teamwork; it is not about doing the team's work.\"\"Today, it is the project managers themselves who are more in charge of the program,\" said Emma Keddy. \"They get to change the syllabus and direct the program to deal with real aspects of their work.\"For example, some of the third-party suppliers with whom GDDIS works are based in India. This prompted the need to integrate teams. The project managers looked at the issue as a team and decided that training in cultural differences would help. This was provided, with great success, at a recent PDD.\nLinking with organizational behaviors: Previously it was rare for the team to hear how its work dovetailed into the business as a whole. Now, however, a \"customers' corner\" has been introduced, which helps the project managers better to understand how their work is received outside the department. \"This has proved a real morale booster,\" said Emma Keddy.The project managers have been divided into four teams. Throughout the year they compete to gain points for delivering on a list of activities that includes best team name, attendance at competency network meetings, suggestions for agenda items and whether the agenda item was realized, presenting at a network meeting, helping another team and volunteering.\"The activities link into topics covered on the PDDs and encourage managers to consider their everyday behaviors and not just how they interact on training days,\" Emma Keddy commented. \"Points are added to the leader board in the office and it has really helped to get across the message of team working and how effective it can be.\"\nTeam spirit takes on a life of its own: The team spirit among the project managers has now developed a life of its own. Team members meet voluntarily during their lunch times to manage their operational issues. They run their own agendas and use each other to solve problems and to help to create a better working environment.\"We also work hard to ensure that the PDDs continue to focus on current issues,\" Emma Keddy explained. \"We usually take a key topic and Kevin will use it to develop a scenario so that the sessions become very focused, tailored and real. Each project manager has also been given a folder to detail what he or she has learned over the year. The individual is encouraged to log thoughts and feelings and what he or she takes away from each PDD.\"\nA new attitude emerges: Attendance at PDDs has risen from between 50 and 60 percent to a regular 98 percent.\"As line manager to the project managers, I have also seen a marked difference in the feedback given to project managers by colleagues and task managers - there is definitely more emphasis on the soft skills these days,\" said Emma Keddy. \"Today, the only reason for not attending is either because a person is on holiday or has urgent work to be finish. The project managers see the sessions as beneficial to themselves and others with whom they work.\"AstraZeneca has now invited Oakridge to help it to develop the model for use in other parts of the company. The training will be extended to other GDDIS teams, including architecture, IS specialists, project analysts, line managers and service managers, as well as IT services.\nComment: This review is based on \"AstraZeneca adopts a new approach to team building\", by Emma Keddy, project and service skills team leader, global drug-development IS, AstraZeneca, Cheshire, UK, and Kevin Charlesworth, an associate who specializes in coaching senior managers and delivering development events, of Oakridge Training and Consulting, Macclesfield, Cheshire, UK. The article vividly illustrates that successful training initiatives can change people's attitudes, as well as their behavior. It contains valuable lessons for a wide range of organizations.\nNote: David Pollitt, Human Resource Management International Digest editor, wrote this article.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: - The purpose of this paper is to examine how Oakridge Training and Consulting helped AstraZeneca to develop a training program in teamwork for its information-services (IS) project managers.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - Discusses a three-day workshop that focused on developing individual learning skills, which was followed by a program focused on developing team spirit.\nFindings: - Reveals that the project managers were encouraged to think practically about responding as an individual as well as part of a team, to question and to practice what they had learned. Describes how attendance at training sessions increased from 55 percent at the start of the program to around 98 percent.\nPractical implications: - Advances the view that the project managers see the sessions as a good opportunity to share problems, learn with colleagues and support other team members.\nOriginality/value: - Contends that the training has developed a sense of belonging, and that team members have begun to trust the group to help solve problems.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Reflections of a new academic
|
[
"Publications",
"Serials",
"Academic staff"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n__NO_TITLE__: Up the greasy pole we climb\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: - The purpose of this poem is to describe the feelings of uncertainty and frustration that may be experienced by new academics as they seek to publish, or attempt to publish, in academic journals for the first time.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - The poem is a reflective piece that expresses some of the feelings of anxiety and uncertainty faced by the author. A poem was selected as the medium for this reflection because it is an indirect way of expressing the issues and may have resonance for other new (or even not so new) academics.\nFindings: - The process of elucidating the difficulties associated with knowing where, how, and what to publish was very helpful on a personal level.\nOriginality/value: - A poem that reflects on the trials and tribulations surrounding publication efforts by new academics is an original contribution to the literature.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Corporate governance and the social performance: investigation on Tunisian financial institutions
|
[
"Social performance",
"Corporate governance",
"Tunisian financial institutions"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: The dispute on the corporate governance is a dispute which has structured the thought since the 1980s. The ideas concerning this topic are not recent saw that the study of the complications attached to the separation between ownership and control of a firm has existed since the nineteenth century. However, this notion is exposed in the first rank of the concerns in the business community and the academic (Gurevich and Shinn, 2007). Financial institutions, particularly the banks, are mainly interested in the corporate governance saw that they are characterized by many problems of agency. These agency problems constitute a most important consequence of the opacity, the strong regulation and the asymmetry of information persistent between all the actors in the banking sector. As well, corporate governance is fundamental to testify the consistency of a financial institution and its continuity saw that the aspects of corporate governance form an indispensable support to implement mechanisms for ensuring the consistency between different facets of its social mission and the acts performed.\n2. Theoretical framework: 2.1 The concept of corporate governance within the financial institutions\n3. Presentation of research methodology: 3.1 The field of study\n4. Result discussion: As well, the objective of this study is to verify empirically the relationship between corporate governance and social performance in dealing with the case of the Tunisian financial institutions.\n5. Conclusion: The results are established in two steps: a descriptive analysis to assess the reliability of the variables in the model and an explanatory analysis. As well, the findings confirm, global, the idea that the corporate governance has a significant impact on the social performance, but there are mechanisms of corporate governance which have a positive effect and other a negative effect. In addition, it can be noted that the Board of Directors has a fundamental role to improve the social performance. This contribution is explained by the importance of this mechanism of corporate governance. In this context several researchers have demonstrated the crucial role of the Board of Directors as a corporate governance mechanism promoting the performance namely Carver (2007) and Andres and Vallelado (2008). As well, the services supplied by the Committee of auditing are an important enough capital to ensure an improvement in the social performance. This is justified by the solid strategy monitoring within our sample. This result is confirmed by Yeoh and Jubb (2001), Gramling et al. (2004), Yang and Krishnan (2005) and Carcello et al. (2006) which show that the auditing committee and monitoring is an effective body in a firm to support the interests of shareholders and to ensure the credibility of the information disclosed.\n6. Limitations of the study and future research: Nevertheless, our model has limitations, in particular, that the constant has a highly significant evaluated value. This shows the existence of a specification error or the existence of forgotten variables in our model. This provides a pathway to better understand the other determinants of the commercial and social performance of financial institutions. Therefore, these limits represent a support for future research. Thus, we can also see the extension of our research within the same financial sector; it is a more in-depth investigation of the subject using other dimensions or by developing the variables in more detail. Again, this study can be applied in other sectors other than the financial sector. These different perspectives represent an attempt to better understand the impact of a governance system on social performance.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this study is to show the specificities of the corporate governance of Tunisian financial institutions and the impact of the internal mechanisms of corporate governance of these institutions on their social performance. It is therefore interesting to establish the existing relationship between these mechanisms of corporate governance and the performance of a financial firm.\nDesign/methodology/approach: This study aims to study the financial sector, generally characterized by its opacity, its regulation, its evolution and its obscurity. Therefore, a study based on the questionnaire method was recommended. The questionnaire is intended for managers. Therefore, the authors interviewed 138 managers of Tunisian financial institutions dispersed between agencies and headquarters in different regions (Gabes, Tozeur, Gafsa, Sfax, Sousse and Tunisia).\nFindings: As a result, an impact on performance was observed according to the empirical study. Therefore, the authors can conclude an essential role of internal mechanisms for improving the social performance of a financial institution. The empirical findings in this paper lead to important conclusions. Indeed, the variables measuring the governance mechanisms have divergent effects on the social performance of the financial institutions subject to the sample. For the variables board of directors, confidence, culture, auditing, they have a positive effect. While, the incentive remuneration effect negatively the social performance.\nOriginality/value: This study will be based essentially on the financial sector in Tunisia: the credit institutions (22 banks), the establishments of leasing (eight companies of leasing), two factoring companies and two banks of cases which are listed on the Stock Exchange of Tunis (BVMT).\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
To be or not to be: an investigation of accounting students' career intentions
|
[
"Undergraduate students",
"Internship",
"Accountants",
"Anticipated conflict",
"Professional commitment"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: The shortage of accountants is a global issue, and has been reported in various countries including New Zealand (Gill, 2008), UK (Hambly, 2007), Ireland (Accountancy Ireland, 2008), Thailand (Akathaporn et al., 1993), South Africa (Weil and Wegner, 1997), and the USA (Frieswick, 2000; Traster, 2008; Johnson, 2014; Knese, 2014). In Malaysia, the shortage of accountants is a continuous concern (Marzita, 2011; Utusan Malaysia, 2011; Bernama, 2013; Jawing, 2013). In 2013, the number of accountants in Malaysia was 29,624, an increase of 1,516 or 5.4 per cent since 2012 (Malaysian Institute of Accountants (MIA), 2013). Similar growth was reported in 2011 and 2012 (4 and 5 per cent, respectively). The growth is very minimal considering that Malaysia will require 60,000 accountants by the year 2020 (Sharifah Norfaezah, 2013).\n2. Literature review: The literature review was conducted with the aim to identify factors that may influence students' intentions to become accountants. These factors include gender and year of study (Jackling and Calero; 2006; Danziger and Eden, 2007; Law and Yuen, 2012), intrinsic and extrinsic interests (Ahmed et al., 1997; Jackling and Calero, 2006; among others), and subjective norms (Auyeung and Sands, 1997; Tan and Laswad, 2006; among others). The review of literature also revealed that prior studies have not adequately examined the influence of internship, self-efficacy, and anticipated conflict on students' intentions in relation to accounting careers although these variables have been found to be significant in predicting students' career intentions (Hayes and Credle, 2008; James and Hill, 2009; Beck and Halim, 2008; Cord et al., 2010; Tong and Tong, 2012\n3. Research method: 3.1. Participants\n4. Analyses and results: 4.1. Descriptive statistics\n5. Discussion of results: This study has produced four significant findings that form a basis for future studies, with some practical implications. First, the results highlighted the significance of education institutions as an agent of career socialisation. As students progressed with their programmes, their attitudes and behaviours were moulded into the expected future roles (Weidman et al., 2001; Ardts et al., 2001; Bogler and Somech, 2002). Results of this study showed male and female students' career intentions did not differ significantly towards the end of their study, indicating more uniform intentions compared to the second-year students. Nonetheless, results of this study also showed that different dimensions of career intentions existed within the socialisation process and were affected in different ways by the independent variables. Although undergraduate accounting programmes were designed to prepare students for a career in the accounting profession, this study provided evidence that non-commitment could still exist. Thus far, this dimension has not received much attention from accounting researchers. Further investigation on non-commitment is believed to deliver better insights on accounting students' career intentions and provide a basis for interventions aimed towards addressing the shortage of accountants.\n6. Concluding remarks: While this study has found that students' career intentions seemed to become clearer and more uniformed as they progressed with their studies, two issues remain to be addressed by education institutions and professional accounting bodies. The first issue concerns anticipated conflict. This study affirmed that anticipated conflict has detrimental effect on students' career intentions. Hence, education institutions need to work together with professional bodies in preparing students for the possible challenges brought by the profession to their personal life. The second issue relates to internship programmes. This study showed that students who have undergone internship have lower commitment intentions compared to those who have not. This merits further investigations as internship had been recognised as beneficial towards students' career intentions (Siegel and Rigsby, 1988; Cord et al., 2010; Tong and Tong, 2012). Future studies should examine the impact of internship on students' career intentions from the perspective of occupational reality shock. Career intentions that deviate from the profession should also be given adequate attention.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to study accounting students' intentions to pursue their careers as accountants and modelling this within the context of Malaysian accounting education.\nDesign/methodology/approach: Data were gathered via a questionnaire survey involving undergraduate accounting students. Factor analysis, independent sample t-tests, and multiple regressions were employed.\nFindings: In total, four findings were derived from this study. First, within the undergraduate accounting programmes, non-commitment towards the accounting profession can still exist. Second, intrinsic interest is a significant predictor of career intentions. Third, the influence of anticipated conflict provides a new finding in relation to accounting students' career intentions. The last finding is concerned with the influence of internship experience on students' career intentions.\nResearch limitations/implications: It was assumed that differences detected between the accounting student cohorts reflect changes over time in students' intentions.\nPractical implications: Suggestions that have been previously put forward in efforts to market the accounting profession were mainly focused on promoting the extrinsic rewards. However, findings from this study suggested that sole focus on extrinsic rewards is not enough to warrant commitment towards the profession. Instead, marketing efforts should also focus on intrinsic values of the profession.\nOriginality/value: The study has provided evidence that anticipated conflict should be given more attention by accounting researchers. Although students' career intentions seemed to become clearer and more uniform as they progressed with their studies, two issues remain to be addressed by education institutions and accounting professional bodies, namely anticipated conflict and the conduct of internship programme.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Race and place
|
[
"Space",
"Racism",
"Relational",
"Post-racial",
"Racialization"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n__NO_TITLE__: [Place] is the vast complexity of the interlocking and articulating nets of social relations [...] [it is] always formed by particular sets of social relations and by the effects that juxtaposing those interrelations produce.(Massey, 1994, p. 168)\nPlacing sociology: Two children are playing on a bright pink seesaw. The seesaw cuts across a vertical fissure in a dark brown wall, one of the many territorial divisions mushrooming across the world, in this case between the USA and Mexico. The contrast between the brightness of the seesaw and the darkness of the wall emphasizes the \"tremulousness, vulnerability, dubiousness, or instability at the core of what [borders] aim to express\" (Brown, 2010, p. 24).\nRelational race-and-place making: Drawing on the critical contributions of Massey (1994, 2005) and Hall (2017), especially the latter's point that place is \"a strong representational coordinate of cultural identity\" (Hall, 2017, p. 106), anchored in imaginary geographies and invented traditions of time and place. The central argument we make is that race and place are made in relation to one another. This is a stronger claim than merely noting that race and place are connected, or that place representations and national discourse are sometimes inflected with ethnic and racial overtones and discourses. Thus it is not that race is absent from some of the sources we have cited so far, but it is rarely central. To take a few examples: Urry (2001) looks more to ethnicity - rather than race - as important for the ways in which diasporas connect spaces and places across boundaries that call into question those very boundaries; while in Gieryn (2000) place is certainly important in showing and reinforcing social hierarchies and where ethnic enclaves have limited people's life chances. Other authors (De Blij, 2009) link race to spatial segregation such as under Apartheid, or to exclusionary nationalist narratives but these tend to make racism exceptional rather than routine. Other work on race and place connects them in relation to health inequalities (Gaskin et al., 2014) or ecologies of urban policing and crime control (Hipp, 2007) run into Gieryn's counter that place is not just a context for structural or behavioral variables. A closer look at sociological and geographical contributions to understanding relational race-place making shows the close connections between the two disciplines but also sociology's distinctive role.\nSociological race-place making: While acknowledging the growing and fruitful interdisciplinarity of this scholarship, we would like to propose some further aspects that appear to us typical of a sociological sensitivity. We will then locate the seven articles of this special issue within this sociological framing. As we already indicated, Hall's contributions over several decades appear as essential. In his analysis of Policing the Crisis (Hall et al., 1978), Keith (2009) underlines the importance of maintaining the complexity of sociology of race in its historically informed imagination, when approaching spatial phenomena, especially those relating to the city:[...] crime, race and the ghetto could be conflated as social problems after incidents such as the clashes with police in Brockwell Park because they \"located and situated black crime, geographically and ethnically, as peculiar to black youth in the inner city ghettos\" (Hall et al., 1978, p. 329). For Hall the racialized iconography of place fuses together ethnicity, location and the spatial imaginaries of danger. These metropolitan spaces of anxiety have a history in the ways we have thought about and written about the city in the past. The rhetorical structure of urbanism's academic prose always deploys vocabulary that draws meaning from the ways in which terms such as the street, the square, the barricades, the agora have always performed the dual tasks of invoking (metonymically) a sense of city living at the same time as they attempt to describe (metaphorically) a particular social reality. (Keith, 2009, p. 541)\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to introduce the special issue on race and place.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The approach used by the authors is to combine an overview of sociological debates on place within a framework that makes the case for a relational approach to race, space and place.\nFindings: The overview provides an account of place in sociology, of the relationality of race and place, and the making of race and place in sociological work.\nOriginality/value: The Introduction sets the papers in context, providing a short account of each of them; it also aims to present an argument for attention to race and place in sociology in a setting characterized by racism and reaction.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
Pricing temperature-based weather derivatives in China
|
[
"China",
"Temperature distribution",
"Forecasting",
"Weather derivatives",
"Heating degree days options",
"Cooling degree days options",
"Monte Carlo simulation"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1 Introduction: The demand for weather derivatives was initially driven by the energy industry in the USA, where the first over-the-counter weather derivatives were introduced in 1997. Recently, other industries such as utilities, agriculture and tourism are also increasing the demand for weather-contingent financial products. Weather derivatives and their applications in the energy and agriculture industries are discussed in studies by Cao et al. (2007), Ellithorpe and Putnam (1993), Sharma and Vashishtha (2007), Turvey (2001) and Zeng (2000). These industries hedge their investments against weather-related risk, thus stimulating the development of the weather derivatives market. In addition, hedge funds have begun to invest in weather derivative contracts in order to diversify their portfolios, thereby also contributing to the recent growth in these contracts. Finally, the lack of weather derivatives in stock portfolios increases the demand for weather derivative contracts for diversification purposes.Unlike equity options, the underlying variable in a weather derivative is non-tradable, thus making the weather derivatives market incomplete and perfect hedging impossible. This study mainly prices derivatives by using a dynamic model for temperatures that incorporates the market price of risk based on the market prices of weather derivatives. The model is fitted to the temperatures of three Chinese cities, namely Beijing, Shanghai and Shenzhen, and used with Monte Carlo simulation and analytical approximation methods to price weather derivatives.The next section defines daily temperatures, heating degree days (HDD) and cooling degree days (CDD). Section 3 fits the daily average temperatures of Beijing, Shanghai and Shenzhen between the years of 1990 to 2009 to the dynamic pricing model proposed by Benth and Saltyte-Benth (2007), and uses the fitted model to price HDD and CDD contracts. Section 4 presents the statistical results of Monte Carlo simulation for the HDD and CDD options for Beijing, Shanghai and Shenzhen. It also computes the sensitivities of the prices of those options, and compares the results of analytical approximation with those of Monte Carlo simulation in order to determine the degree of convergence between the two. Lastly, Section 5 provides the conclusion of the study.\n2 Temperature-based contracts: Weather derivative contracts include swaps, futures, and call and put options based on different underlying weather indices. Some commonly used indices are HDD, CDD, rain (precipitation), wind and snowfall. Temperature-based HDD and CDD indices are the most popular indices in the weather derivatives market. The following are the study's definitions of daily temperature and the HDD and CDD indices.Definition A (Temperature Ti ). Given a specific weather station, let Timax and Timin denote the maximum and minimum temperatures (in degrees Celsius) measured on day i. The temperature on day i is thus defined as Ti=(Timax+Timin)/2.Definition B (HDDi and CDDi). The HDD for day i, HDDi = max (18-Ti, 0), and the CDD for day i, CDDi = max (Ti-18, 0). The number of HDD and CDD for a contract period consisting of n days is given by the following equations: Equation 1 Equation 2 The payoff of an uncapped HDD call option is given by g max(Hn-K, 0), where g is the tick size and K the strike level.Temperature-based contracts based on HDD or CDD indices use a reference temperature of 18degCelsius (65deg Fahrenheit). This reference temperature became an industry standard in the USA (Hull, 2006, p. 551-3).\n3 A model for daily average temperatures: The literature recommends various dynamic models for estimating daily average temperatures and pricing weather derivatives. Campbell and Diebold (2005) provide an autoregressive time series model for daily average temperatures. Alaton et al. (2002), Benth and Saltyte-Benth (2007) and Brody et al. (2002), among others, present some of the other dynamic models for pricing weather derivatives.Alaton et al. (2002) propose the use of a model that employs the mean-reverting or Ornstein-Uhlenbeck stochastic process with a piecewise constant volatility function, and assume that volatility is constant over any given month of the year. The main advantage of this model is that it yields an analytical approximation formula; however, it cannot fully capture the seasonality of daily temperature variations due to its constant volatility assumption for simplicity. The seasonality of volatility is a typical phenomenon observable from temperature data, as shown in studies by Benth and Saltyte-Benth (2007) and Campbell and Diebold (2005), which used Norwegian and US temperature data, respectively. The effects of seasonality on the volatility of daily average temperatures is also clearly shown by the data from Beijing, Shanghai and Shenzhen, and is better captured by the model of Benth and Saltyte-Benth (2007), which uses Fourier approximation for the variance term. The biggest advantage of this model is its ability to capture the seasonal structure of volatility without becoming too complex. This ability is important because ignoring the seasonality of volatility can lead to significant pricing errors. For example, the use of a constant volatility function leads to significantly lower prices for HDD futures contracts for seasons in which volatility is higher than it is in other months of the year (Benth and Saltyte-Benth, 2007).Our dataset consists of daily temperatures collected from Beijing Capital International Airport, Shanghai Hongqiao International Airport and Shenzhen International Airport over the period of 1990-2009. Figure 1 shows the average temperatures of these three cities during the given period. The temperature data will now be used to test the proposed model of Benth and Saltyte-Benth (2007).Given the probability space (O, F, P) and the filtration {F}t>=0, the time evolution of temperatures is given by the following equation: Equation 3 where W(t) denotes the Wiener process. The term s(t) models the trend and seasonality of temperature, which is assumed to be bounded and continuously differentiable. The deterministic long-term temperature s(t) and the variance term s2(t) are given as follows: Equation 4 Equation 5 Equation (3) can be solved using the following time series equation: Equation 6 where a represents the mean reversion parameter of the model, and e(t) is an independent and identically distributed standard normal deviate. In equation (6), T~t=Tt-s(t), a=e-k, and s~(t)=as(t).The condition I1=J1 is used in equation (4) to calculate the respective coefficients for Beijing, Shanghai and Shenzhen. Figure 2 shows the fitted long-term mean temperatures given in equation (4).Tables I and II show the estimated parameters of the temperature model that accounts for seasonal volatility. To find the mean reversion parameter, the autoregressive model of order one specified in equation (6) is used; that is, today's de-trended and de-seasonalized daily average temperatures are regressed against that of yesterday's. The mean reversion parameter a is largest for Shanghai and lowest for Shenzhen. A lower mean reversion parameter, all else being equal, reduces option prices. A higher mean reversion parameter enables the temperature to more closely approximate long-term mean levels. For all three cities considered, a significant trend component exists at a 1 per cent level which might be due to global warming or rapid urbanization.Figure 3 shows the empirical values of the daily squared volatilities and the fitted volatility function s~2(t), and shows that the temporal dependency of daily volatility is strongest in Shenzhen and weakest in Beijing (the same result is shown in Figure 4). Large deviations in the daily volatility estimates for Beijing reveal that temperatures in that city are more erratic than they are in the other two; however, temperatures in all three cities commonly experience lower daily volatility in summer than in fall and winter. Deviations from the fitted volatility function are lowest for temperatures in Shenzhen.Figure 4 shows the squared residuals obtained after dividing out the fitted daily volatility function. Doing so removes seasonality from volatility and reveals that the effect of seasonality on temperatures in Beijing is weaker than it is on temperatures in Shanghai and Shenzhen.Figure 5 compares the histograms with the fitted standard normal density functions of the residuals. The histograms for Beijing and Shanghai are closer to their respective standard normal density functions than the one for Shenzhen is to its function, as shown by the larger deviations of the Shenzhen histogram from the function. When the Jarque and Bera (1987) normality test is applied to the data for these three cities, the hypothesis of normality is rejected at a 1 per cent significance level. Similar conclusions are reported for Norwegian data in Benth and Saltyte-Benth (2007). This could be remedied using the generalized hyperbolic distribution, which captures high peaks and heavy tails. The high peaks of the residuals can also be dealt with by using a generalized autoregressive conditional heteroskedasticity model or a non-normal distribution, which leads to a more complicated Levy process. This study assumes the normality of the data in order to conveniently obtain closed-form expressions for option prices and sensitivities.\n4 Valuation and sensitivities of HDD/CDD options: In our valuation examples the contract period for HDD options is given as January 1 to March 31, whereas the contract period for CDD options is June 1 to August 31. The Monte Carlo simulation uses the daily volatility estimates shown in Figure 3, the fitted model parameters presented in Table II, a sample size of 10,000, a risk-free rate of 7 per cent and a tick size of $1 per HDD or CDD.It should be noted that the prices obtained here are highly dependent on the market price of risk. However, calculations of the market price of risk require knowledge of the prices of HDD and CDD contracts traded on the market. Since such contracts are not presently traded in China, this study employs the common practice of setting the market price of risk at zero.4.1 Analytical approximation formulas for pricing HDD and CDD options\n5 Conclusion: The main concern for hedgers in the weather derivatives market is basis risk, which is the difference in the value of the derivative's underlying basic variable due to the different locations of the index station and the hedger. A small difference in these values indicates a low basis risk. Temperature, for example, exhibits a high degree of spatial correlation within close proximity of its reference index station; that is to say, it does not show local behaviour within the city in which a given reference station is located. This reduces the basis risk faced by hedgers in that city and increases the demand for standardized temperature-based contracts. Conversely, rain, snowfall and wind show local behaviour even within close proximity of their reference weather stations; consequently, traders of weather derivatives based on these variables experience increased basis risk. Therefore, it is easier to minimize basis risk in temperature-based contracts, whereas new contracts based on different local index stations must be introduced in order to lessen basis risk in contracts based on rain, snowfall or wind.Weather derivatives involve basis risk, but also reduce weather-dependent production risk; therefore, the government can use them to provide insurance or non-distorting subsidies to the agriculture industry. For example, the US Government subsidizes a large proportion of the costs of crop insurance for participating farmers and private crop insurance companies. Skees et al. (2001) estimate that US farmers pay only 20 to 25 per cent of the costs of the federal crop insurance program. Governmental deployment of weather derivatives may prove useful because contracts based on various event indices such as rainfall or frost days require geographical segmentation. The government can expedite the development of contract markets that the private sector lacks the expertise or incentive to trade in by providing liquidity or offering tax advantages. However, the optimal design and implementation of such a policy is beyond the scope of this paper.China's climate varies drastically because the country is large, and weather events affect the profits of many of its industries. Therefore, these industries need the weather derivatives market, which is growing rapidly in developed countries, in order to hedge against weather-related risk. While a single weather derivative contract is a highly risky asset, pooling with other financial contracts can minimize the risk. It is necessary to invest in different types of weather derivatives, in terms of both type of derivative and index used, in order to diversify the risks of single contracts. A variety of weather derivatives can be offered based on negatively correlated or uncorrelated index locations. In addition, it should be noted that weather-related assets are uncorrelated or very poorly correlated to the market, which in turn enables portfolio managers to use weather derivatives to minimize portfolio risk.The dynamic model used in this study does not have a closed-form solution for pricing HDD and CDD options. This can be done, however, by using analytical approximation formulas under the assumption that the mean and variance values for the settlement index are known. The approximation formulas and Monte Carlo simulation produce very similar prices for HDD and CDD options in Beijing and Shanghai, a result that also verifies the convergence of the Monte Carlo and approximation estimators. However, the two methods do not produce converging option prices in the case of HDD options for Shenzhen. This is expected because the main assumption in the derivation of the approximation formula does not apply to Shenzhen for the HDD options. Therefore, analytical approximation cannot be used to price HDD options based on Shenzhen temperatures.The sensitivities of HDD and CDD option prices were derived from the approximation formulas for HDD and CDD call and put options. They can also be used to determine the effect of meteorological temperature forecasts on the prices of different HDD and CDD contracts. The hedging of weather derivatives differs from that of financial derivatives in its lack of a tradable underlying. Even in the absence of a complete market, the risks of a weather derivatives portfolio can be managed by combining portfolios with other uncorrelated asset classes or trading offsetting weather contracts.The introduction of weather derivatives as a method of hedging against temperature risk could bring significant benefits to various weather-affected industries in China. However, objective and sustainable weather measurement must be available if such a market is to succeed. We believe that this paper serves as a first step towards the development of the weather derivatives market in China.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: - The purpose of this paper is to propose a feasible model for the daily average temperatures of Beijing, Shanghai and Shenzhen, in order to price temperature-based weather derivatives; also to derive analytical approximation formulas for the sensitivities of these contracts.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - This study proposes a seasonal volatility model that estimates daily average temperatures of Beijing, Shanghai and Shenzhen using the mean-reverting Ornstein-Uhlenbeck process. It then uses the analytical approximation and Monte Carlo methods to price heating degree days and cooling degree days options for these cities. In addition, it derives and calculates the option sensitivities on the basis of an analytical approximation formula.\nFindings: - There exists a strong seasonality in the volatility of daily average temperatures of Beijing, Shanghai and Shenzhen. To model the seasonality Fourier approximation is applied to the squared volatility of daily temperatures. The analytical approximation formulas and Monte Carlo simulation produce very similar prices for heating/cooling degree days options in Beijing and Shanghai, a result that also verifies the convergence of the Monte Carlo and approximation estimators. However, the two methods do not produce converging option prices in the case of HDD options for Shenzhen.\nOriginality/value: - The article provides important insight to investors and hedgers by proposing a feasible model for pricing temperature-based weather contracts in China and derives analytical approximations for the sensitivities of heating/cooling degree days options.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
Applying lean thinking in an educational institute - an action research
|
[
"Framework",
"Lean thinking",
"Higher education",
"Implementation",
"Process improvement",
"Action research"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: Excellence in quality and efficiency in processes have gained significant importance in educational institutes (Sunder, 2016; Handy, 2002; Doria et al., 2003; Ghoshal, 2003; Grey, 2004). Research studies have documented how educational institutes have catered to this need by adopting different process improvement philosophies such as total quality management (TQM) (Mergen et al., 2000; Mizikaci, 2003; Sahney et al., 2003; Bayraktar et al., 2008; Sharabi, 2013, etc.), six sigma (Sunder, 2014), lean six sigma (Furterer, 2009; Antony et al., 2012; Antony, 2014; Sunder, 2016), and lean thinking (LT) (Comm and Mathaisel, 2005a, b; Maguad, 2007). TQM and six sigma philosophies have got a structured framework and guidelines to assist in their adoption and implementation to address a certain objective in a particular context. For instance, Bayraktar et al. (2008) conducted a thorough review of TQM literature to identify 11 critical areas of TQM in higher education institutes (HEI) (e.g. leadership, vision, student focus, etc.) and constructed an instrument to measure and evaluate the TQM practices in HEI. Similarly, Sunder (2014) has proposed a Six Sigma implementation model for higher education providers. But even though many educational institutes have seen value in implementing LT (refer to the literature review, Section 2.2), none of them have developed and validated a framework that can guide the structured implementation of LT in the processes of an educational institute. This study addresses this gap by developing a step-by-step framework with associated lean practices and performance measures. The framework developed is validated by studying the lean implementation experience of an educational institute in India using the action research methodology (ARM).\n2. Literature review: The review is broadly classified into three categories: the existing frameworks for LT implementation in an educational institute, case examples of educational institute implementing LT, and LT for education/teaching process. The review of the existing frameworks helps us to understand how these frameworks provide the necessary guidelines for implementing LT, while a review of case studies on LT implementation in educational institutes and in the teaching processes helped us to understand the steps involved, the more frequently and least frequently used elements, performance metrics monitored, etc.\n3. ARM: ARM was defined by French and Bell (1973) as a \"research technique that relies on the application of the scientific method of fact finding and experimentation to practical problems requiring action solutions and involving the collaboration of scientists, practitioners, and laymen.\" According to Benbasat et al. (1987), an action researcher is a participant and not an independent observer in a system's implementation who simultaneously evaluates a certain intervention technique. Intervention technique in this study is the implementation of process improvements using the lens of LT in an educational institute. Wood-Harper (1985) state that action research is one among the most effective approaches for technique development. Similarly, the underlying objective of this study is to propose and demonstrate a framework for deploying LT for an educational institute. Westbrook (1995) explains action research as a variant of case research, where a case researcher is an independent observer and an action researcher is a participant observer. In this study, the process improvements were studied by the author(s), who participated in the implementation. One of the authors was a part of the deployment team responsible for carrying out process improvements, while the other author experienced the changes during the implementation by being a student in the batch. Authors did not interact or influence each other during the implementation period to achieve unbiased interpretations. This acts as the primary source of data for answering the RQs listed earlier.\n4. Experience of LT implementation: The experience of implementing process improvement in an educational institute using the lens of LT is documented below. A step-by-step description of the implementation experience helps in easy understanding and it is expected to ease the implementation of LT in other educational institutions in future.\n5. Framework for LT implementation in educational institutes: As shown in Figure 6, the framework proposed to adopt LT in the process of an educational institute comprises of five steps. These steps are to be followed in sequence to implement LT:\n6. Conclusion: A literature review has shown the absence of a study describing the implementation of LT in the education sector from the Indian context. Research has not been pursued to develop a step-by-step detailed procedure to implement LT in the education sector. Hence in this study, by using ARM, the experience of implementing LT in an educational institute was documented. Based on the experience, a detailed framework has been proposed for implementing LT in educational institutes. This answers the RQ1 raised in the beginning of this paper. In response to RQ2, the current study has identified the general set of wastes and performance metrics that an educational institute should consider while implementing LT.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: Lean thinking (LT) has been implemented in various manufacturing and service sectors. But, only a few published research articles have developed a framework describing the procedure for implementing LT in an educational institute. The purpose of this paper is to develop and demonstrate a framework that can provide a structured procedure for the implementation of LT in an educational institute.\nDesign/methodology/approach: Various LT tools and techniques applicable in educational institute were identified by reviewing the relevant literature. By adopting an action research methodology (ARM) for a time period of 28 months, the processes in a case institute were studied; wastes in the process were identified and various solutions were proposed and implemented.\nFindings: A comparison of the performance measures before (Batch 1) and after (Batch 2) implementation of solutions provided interesting insights into the effectiveness of LT. In both the batches, absenteeism in the class was found to increase across the terms. But the magnitude of increase was lesser in Batch 2. Results also showed that the number of unfilled seats (poor utilization) in an elective course in the second year of the program drastically reduced in Batch 2. Finally, a framework that can guide LT implementation in educational institutes was proposed.\nResearch limitations/implications: The current study describes only the initial stages of implementation in an educational institute. Hence, some of the benefits discussed are expected in the long run which can be assessed by carrying out a longitudinal study. Future study can attempt to empirically validate the proposed framework in multiple educational institutes and theoretically explain the reasons behind the results obtained.\nPractical implications: ARM can be used as a tool by practitioners to study the behavioral aspects of employees of educational institutes toward LT implementation. The proposed framework and its demonstration can assist employees in educational institutes to implement LT. Positive results obtained in this study can further motivate the educational institutes to consider LT as a potential tool for improving the processes.\nOriginality/value: This is the first study to develop and validate a framework for structured implementation of LT in the processes of an educational institute. The study is also unique in empirically capturing the impact of LT implementation of an educational institute by analyzing the archived data.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
How cultural differences in uncertainty avoidance affect product perceptions
|
[
"Culture",
"Uncertainty management",
"Product specification",
"Individual perception"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n__NO_TITLE__: By most accounts, The Walt Disney Company has been an American success story. What started as a cartoon studio in the 1920s has grown into what Disney itself calls \"the world's premier entertainment company\" (http://corporate.disney.go.com/). Although Disney has marketed its consumer products, motion pictures, and network media entertainment around the globe, it is probably the case that of all their international operations, their theme parks in Tokyo and Paris have received the widest media attention. While Tokyo was, by many measures, an instant success, Euro Disney in Paris has yet to turn a profit (Wall Street Journal, 2005) despite having opened its doors nearly 14 years ago.\nConceptual background and hypotheses: Product uncertainty and consumer acceptance\nOverview of studies: We conducted two studies that vary in their methodology, sampling strategies and analysis techniques to assess the hypotheses. The first study involves an experiment; while an experiment gives us confidence that the results are due to the manipulation, it has lower external validity. The second study uses secondary data from a large-scale survey of consumers conducted in ten countries, to test the interaction hypothesis in a more representative sample. While this study is limited by the questions asked in the survey, consistent results should increase our confidence in the findings from study 1.By offering substantially different approaches, the two studies minimize the limitations inherent in either study alone. In addition, we avoid some of the limitations previously mentioned by isolating the effect of UA to control for a variety of other cultural and individual level variables, and by using a broad selection of cultures from Asia, Europe and the Americas.\nStudy 1: To offer a controlled test of the relationship between PU and UA, we used COO quality-stereotypes to create different levels of PU without changing the product offering. Those combinations of product category and country that match the existing COO quality-stereotype should be associated with less PU since there is a fit between the person's expectations of the product and country's perceived ability to make the specific product (e.g. Russian vodka and Japanese cameras). In contrast, those combinations in which the product category and the country do not match the quality-stereotype should be associated with higher PU since the product category is not assumed to be made well by the COO (e.g. Russian cameras and Japanese vodka).Methodology\nStudy 2: Study 2 was designed to broaden our understanding of the interaction between UA and PU and overcome the sample limitations in Study 1. To this aim, the second study tests H2 from a different angle. First, it uses a large-scale secondary data set to expand the sample. Second, it does not manipulate PU, but rather assesses the impact of UA on quality judgments that are either high or low in PU. The uncertainty reducing techniques are expanded to include not only the use of COO quality-stereotypes, but also the preference for one's own country's offerings (i.e. the familiarity increasing techniques outlined in the conceptual development). Finally, it examines the influence of product category experience on these relationships.Study 2 uses secondary data from a large-scale survey of 13,319 consumers conducted in ten different countries, to further test the interaction hypothesis. This allows us to examine H2 in a representative sample of multi-national consumers across a variety of product categories, although at the cost of control over the questions asked.In this study, there are two main choices that can be used to reduce PU: either choosing the strong quality-stereotype (as in Study 1) or choosing one's own country offering. The rationale for choosing one's own country is that products from a consumer's own country should seem more familiar in comparison to those from a foreign country. As such, the home country product should be associated with a relatively lower level of PU.In addition, we examine the effect of product category experience on the influence of UA on product evaluations for high vs low PU offerings. People with more experience in the specific product category are likely to be more certain about products in that category and as such, they are less likely to be influenced by the COO quality-stereotype in their product evaluations. Thus, consumers who are more experienced with a product category will perceive less potential for uncertainty in their choice; therefore, an increase in experience will reduce the effect of UA:H3. Consumers with less experience in a product category will be more strongly influenced by UA in their judgments of high PU offerings, than those with more experience.Methodology\nGeneral discussion: In their survey research, Rothaermel et al. (2006) uncovered a negative relationship between the UA of international markets and the probability of US internet firms entering those markets. It would appear that such firms are justified in considering UA, as our results suggest that this cultural dimension plays a potentially significant role in the international success of new products. These results are robust for a variety of reasons. First, we isolated the effects of UA from those of other cultural and individual level variables. Second, the results hold across many countries displaying varying levels of UA. Third, the results hold across multiple product categories. These categories include both durable and non-durable goods as well as both technical and non-technical products. Moreover, the results hold in product categories not typically deemed high risk. Fourth, the results hold over two studies using different methodologies and sampling strategies.The results reveal a negative relationship between the level of PU associated with a product and consumer judgment. In other words, consumers evaluate low PU alternatives (e.g. those with strong COO quality-stereotypes) as better quality than high PU ones (e.g. those with weak COO quality-stereotypes). Consistent with these perceptions, consumers appear to have higher purchase intentions for low PU alternatives than they do for high PU alternatives. This result offers supports to marketers who seek to evoke a COO stereotype to build positive brand image regardless of the brand's true COO (Domzal et al., 1995) (e.g. the French-sounding Mont Blanc brand that is actually made in Germany or the European-sounding Haagen Daz made in the USA). Such artificial alignments of COO stereotype may substantially decrease the PU associated with new product offerings.Although products with high PU appear to be at a disadvantage, this disadvantage is not uniform across cultures depending on the level of UA in the market. While the PU influences quality judgment for consumers in both high and low UA countries, such influences are significantly stronger in high UA cultures. In other words, consumers from high UA countries perceive products with high PU to be of lower quality than do consumers from low UA countries. This does not mean that consumers in low UA countries perceive little difference in quality between products with certain vs less certainty. Rather, their quality judgments of high PU offerings are simply less harsh as compared to those of consumers from high UA countries.Consistent with the perceived quality differences between consumers in high vs low UA countries, there also appears to be a difference in purchase intentions between these groups. Consumers from high UA countries have lower purchase intentions for offerings with high PU than for those with low PU. Thus, they seem to rely on their product quality judgments at the time of purchase consideration. While the level of PU also affects the purchase intentions of consumers in low UA countries, it does so to a lesser extent, when compared to the effect on their quality perceptions. Thus, low UA consumers appear less likely to act on their quality perceptions. They are more willing to consider high PU alternatives, despite lower product quality perceptions.The difference in behavioural intentions between consumers in high and low UA countries suggests that products with high PU will have more of an opportunity to prove themselves in low UA countries than in high UA countries. Marketing managers may keep this in mind, particularly when devising rollout strategies for products with a weaker quality stereotype. Based on the results, it appears sensible to introduce a product with a weaker stereotype in low UA countries first, since the consumers there will be more likely to try it. During trial, the product will have the opportunity to demonstrate its quality and benefits. Having done so, the marketer may then consider rolling out the product to high UA markets. At this point, the success of the product in the low UA countries may be used as a promotional aid to reduce the perceived PU for high UA consumers.Such a rollout strategy is less necessary in cases of offerings with less PU. In such cases, the distinction between high and low UA does not affect quality perceptions or behavioural intentions. Thus, marketers can disregard this distinction and focus all their attention on other factors influencing new product success.Lessons for The Walt Disney Company\nLimitations: The results and subsequent implications are subject to a variety of limitations. Most notable in Study 1 is that all subjects resided in the USA at the time of the study. Fortunately, the possible bias resulting from such residence should weaken, not strengthen, the hypothesized interaction. That is, since the USA is a relatively low UA country, residence in the USA should lower the UA of subjects from high UA countries. Alternatively, those people who come to live in the USA from another country may exhibit less UA than others from their native land since going overseas is an uncertain act in itself. Either case would presumably increase the difficulty of finding the hypothesized effects. Study 2 overcame this limitation but had limitations of its own by offering a less complete and rigorous test of the hypotheses.Although we succeeded at isolating the effects of UA from those of other cultural and individual level variables by including a number of covariates in our analyses, future studies may consider a different approach. Since, individualism is highly correlated with UA, it would be useful to directly cross these two variables in an experimental design, if at all possible. Doing so would further serve to disentangle the effects of each of these cultural dimensions and shed greater light on the results reported here.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: - To examine how people from countries that vary in uncertainty avoidance (UA) use information about product uncertainty when evaluating products.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - Two studies were conducted that vary in methodology, sampling and analysis. First, an experiment was designed to manipulate product uncertainty through the use of country of origin (COO) quality-stereotypes. It was administered to university students from a diverse range of countries, all studying in the USA. Next, data from a large-scale survey of consumers from ten countries was submitted to hierarchical binary regression analyses to include variables at the country and individual level.\nFindings: - The studies support an interaction between product uncertainty (PU) and cultural UA on quality perceptions and behavioural intentions. Consumers from high UA countries evaluated high PU offerings less positively and held weaker behavioural intentions than those from low UA countries, but for low PU offerings, no difference was found. The effect of UA was reduced for people with more experience and those who were younger.\nResearch limitations/implications: - Although we isolated the effects of UA from other cultural and individual level variables, it would be useful to directly cross individualism with UA in an experimental design, as these two variables are highly correlated.\nPractical implications: - This study suggests products with higher levels of PU will have more opportunity to prove themselves in low uncertainty cultures.\nOriginality/value: - This study should be valuable for marketing managers devising rollout strategies for products with higher levels of PU or weaker quality stereotypes.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Scandals of abuse: policy responses in intellectual disabilities
|
[
"Intellectual disabilities",
"Abuse",
"Learning disability",
"Public policy",
"Scandal",
"Developmental disability"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: In both the USA and the UK, scandals of abuse among the care of vulnerable people form a particular impetus for policy changes (Shortell and Walshe, 2004; Walshe and Higgins, 2002). This paper compares two coincident scandals from May 2011, related to individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities (I/DD) in the USA and the UK.\nPolicy background: Deinstitutionalisation and community living\nTheoretical frameworks used in the study: Of scandal construction and policy impact\nMethod: A descriptive case study methodology was used to conduct an in-depth qualitative analysis of two scandals in the USA and the UK using analytical frameworks by Butler and Drakeford, and by Bonnie and Wallace, to examine the process of scandal development and the policy response. A focused qualitative analysis was used in order to examine the \"how\" and \"why\" question about two \"contemporary sets of events over which the investigator has little or no control\" (Yin, 1994, p. 9). As he points out, this methodology is ideal because it allows the study \"to retain the holistic and meaningful characteristics of these events\" (Yin, 1994, p. 3) in order to understand elements and patterns. The methodology is also indicated by the US National Research Council for investigation of precisely this type of phenomena (Bonnie and Wallace, 2003).\nCase study 1: \"used and abused\": abuse in New York State developmental disability system: The scandal\nCase study 2: UK: abuse and neglect at Winterbourne View: The scandal\nComparative analysis of scandal construction: Both case studies demonstrated strong consistency with Butler and Drakeford's model of scandal construction. Some minor differences were apparent in those elements relating to policy formulation.\nPolicy survey: Policy outcomes from each case were analysed against a framework comprising Harris (2005) and Mansell's (2006) policy projections outlined previously, and against continued themes of deinstitutionalisation.\nPolicy outcomes in the context of theoretical models: Bonnie and Wallace propose three levels of factors influential upon incidents of abuse - the individual where the subject/carer relationship is sited; the organisational, providing the institutional context to the abuse, and the societal, comprising the socio-environmental context.\nConclusions: The value of international case study comparisons\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to compare two scandals related to the care of individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities (I/DD) in the USA and the UK.\nDesign/methodology/approach: A descriptive case study methodology was used to conduct an in-depth qualitative analysis of the two scandals to examine the process of scandal development, and to survey the policy response against policy trends and theories of abuse in each case. The two cases were systematically analysed against a theoretical framework derived from Bonnie and Wallace (2003) theoretical framework for understanding abuse based on its sociocultural context, the social embeddedness of organisations providing care, and the individual level characteristics and interactions of subjects and carers.\nFindings: In both cases the process of scandal construction was comparable, and each case offered confirmatory support to extant theories of abuse, and to wider policy trends within I/DD.\nResearch limitations/implications: The study examines only the short-term policy responses to the scandals in two countries, based on published material only.\nOriginality/value: This paper contributes an international comparison of the similarities and differences in the social construction of scandal and the policy responses to abuse and neglect of a vulnerable population using systematic analytical frameworks.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Language at work in the Big Four: global aspirations and local segmentation
|
[
"Language",
"Big Four firms",
"Language absorptive capacity",
"Linguascapes"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: Professional service firms (PSFs) promise an effortless experience worldwide, as they claim to offer globally integrated services wherever their clients operate (Segal-Horn and Dean, 2009; Faulconbridge and Muzio, 2012; Muzio and Faulconbridge, 2013). Yet, as PSFs aim to coordinate their offices with a common logic in a \"one firm\" model, conflicts arise in local contexts, where practices might lack legitimacy and clash with local institutional logics (Boussebaa et al., 2012; Muzio and Faulconbridge, 2013). These local barriers are accentuated for professionals, who - given their autonomy - demand a say in their firms' strategy discourse, rendering hierarchical management and global coordination difficult (Faulconbridge and Muzio, 2007). Professions thus remain \"nationally contingent\" (Faulconbridge and Muzio, 2012, p. 138), and tensions in the global networks have been documented regarding the staffing of projects (Boussebaa, 2009; Boussebaa et al., 2012), the coordination of multinational audits (Barrett et al., 2005), and the local appropriation of accounting standards (Albu et al., 2014) and appraisal processes (Spence et al., 2015, 2017).\n2. The sociology of language in PSFs: 2.1 Global PSFs and \"language absorptive capacity\"\n3. Research site and research methods: The Grand Duchy of Luxembourg is a landlocked European country with a population of 550,000, neighbouring Belgium, France, and Germany. Notably, half of the country's resident population is not Luxembourgish and half of the country's working population commutes into Luxembourg on a daily basis from the neighbouring countries. Financial services are the main economic pillar, accounting for more than a third of the national income. The Big Four audit firms echo the country's heterogeneity and its status as a leading global financial centre. The firms are among Luxembourg's largest employers, with an overall staff of more than 6,000 people (STATEC, 2014). The intermingling of languages, cultures, and nationalities within a limited geographic space makes the Luxembourgish Big Four an appropriate setting for our research, as the firms are located in and represent themselves as multilingual contexts. One Big Four provided us with an overview of its audit staff, which, at the end of 2016, included 57 nationalities. Most auditors came from France (41 per cent), followed by Germany (18 per cent), and Belgium (17 per cent), with a small fraction from Luxembourg (5 per cent). The remainder came from other European countries (14 per cent) and the rest of the world (5 per cent). While the Big Four differ somewhat in their customer focus and client orientation, this study does not spell out these differences but focusses on the implications of the firms' multilingual work.\n4. Navigating the global and the local: language absorptive capacity, linguascapes, and the power of language: The empirical discussion begins by outlining the firms' strategies to cope with local language diversity. Next, the research turns to the firms' structuring into linguascapes, highlighting how language adaptability converts from an organizational capacity that facilitates client interaction into a force that creates and shapes organizational reality. Finally, the study illustrates how, through the dynamic, sometimes fluid, interactions between the linguascapes, language affects social interactions by having a range of power implications.\n5. Discussion and conclusion: This paper has demonstrated the multifaceted role of language in multilingual Big Four audit firms as being visible and subtle, as well as functional and performative. Although English is the corporate lingua franca at the Luxembourgish Big Four firms, the study suggests that it is other languages that mediate the intra- and inter-organizational relationships. The Big Four organize their audit teams primarily based on the language of their clients, resulting in predominantly French and German teams as well as international ones. This client alignment introduces a grouping in the Big Four that is fostered and primarily expressed discursively. Yet, as social identities and identification processes offer comfort and security, the grouping \"creates a bond between the individual and the collective\" (Karreman and Alvesson, 2009, p. 1127). As a result, the firms are internally divided and different subcultures characterize the Big Four, rather than a singular corporate culture of a global audit firm. Testifying to the power implications of language, the paper also showed that language skills endow individual auditors with \"linguistic capital\" (Bourdieu, 1991). Organizational actors with relevant language skills are situated in more powerful positions. Language thus turns into a channel of influence through which intra-organizational power is exerted, as it imposes a powerful \"shadow structure\" on communication patterns, hierarchies, and informal networks that lie behind the firms' formal organization charts (Marschan-Piekkari et al., 1999).\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to examine how professional service firms (PSFs) manage the linguistic tensions between global Englishization and local multilingualism. It achieves this by analysing the work of Big Four audit firms in Luxembourg, where three official languages co-exist: Luxembourgish, French, and German. In addition, expatriates bring with them their native languages in a corporate environment that uses English as its lingua franca.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The paper combines the institutionalist sociology of the professions with theoretical concepts from sociolinguistics to study the multifaceted role of language in PSFs. Empirically, the paper draws from 25 interviews with current and former audit professionals.\nFindings: The client orientation of the Big Four segments each firm into language teams based on the client's language. It is thus the client languages, rather than English as the corporate language, that mediate, define, and structure intra- and inter-organizational relationships. While the firms emphasize the benefits of their linguistic adaptability, the paper reveals tensions along language lines, suggesting that language can be a means of creating cohesion and division within the firms.\nOriginality/value: This paper connects research on PSFs with that on the role of language in multinational organizations. In light of the Big Four's increasingly global workforce, it draws attention to the linguistic divisions within the firms that question the existence of a singular corporate culture. While prior literature has centred on firms' global-local divide, the paper shows that even single branches of such firm networks are not monolithic constructs, as conflicts and clashes unfold amid a series of \"local-local\" divides.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Bridging the gap: Social networks as a theoretical mechanism linking public service motivation and performance
|
[
"Performance",
"Social networks",
"Social capital",
"Public service motivation"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: A body of theory and systematic evidence links public service motivation (PSM) to a range of individual and organizational outcomes including job satisfaction and organizational commitment as well as individual and organizational performance. The focus of the extant literature has been on studying PSM and its antecedents and consequences as an individual characteristic. For instance, public employees with high levels of PSM are predicted to have strong organizational commitment. However, this perspective has two shortcomings. First, even individuals with high PSM are sometimes dissatisfied with their jobs, show low levels of organizational commitment, or do not accomplish much. The extant research does not thoroughly explain these situations. Only a few researchers have tried to elaborate on these situations by using, for example, the concept of person-organization (P-O) fit (e.g. Bright, 2007; Wright and Pandey, 2008). According to them, PSM influences individual performance and job satisfaction via increases in congruence between the individual and the public organization, assuming a positive relationship between PSM and P-O fit; however, this perspective is still based on an individual characteristic such that interactions among individuals have not been considered. Second, the causal mechanism between PSM and group outcomes has not been fully specified. For instance, although meta-analytic results support the existence of direct and positive relationships between PSM and performance (Warren and Chen, 2013) and job satisfaction (Homberg et al., 2015), several studies identify the mediating effects of job satisfaction and organizational commitment (Vandenabeele, 2009) as well as P-O fit (Bright, 2007; Wright and Pandey, 2008) on the relationship between PSM and individual outcomes. While these efforts do partially address the PSM-related linkage as an individual characteristic, little is known about a \"black box\" mechanism linking PSM and individual- and group-level outcomes in which interactions of individuals are critical processes. In particular, the causal mechanism between PSM and group-level outcomes has not been fully addressed in prior research. At most, some mechanisms linking PSM with organizational performance have been briefly discussed (e.g. Brewer and Selden, 2000; Kim, 2005; Petrovsky and Ritz, 2014; Ritz, 2009).\n2. Previous literature on PSM: 2.1. The concept of PSM\n3. Social network perspective: 3.1. Social capital and public employees\n4. Theoretical background and propositions: PSM is described in the present paper as the values, desires, and attitudes of an individual who delivers public services through internal and external interaction with others beyond self-interest and organizational interest, with the purpose and willingness to do good for others and society. As elaborated earlier, high PSM enables individuals to enact prosocial behavior including social trust, social altruism, and civic engagement (e.g. Brewer, 2003; Houston, 2008), and then through individual attributes enhancing the trust and norms of reciprocity (e.g. self-regulation), individuals with high PSM may occupy central positions in a network (Mehra et al., 2001). Meanwhile, Putnam (2001) suggests five general dimensions[5] of social capital: community organizational life, engagement in public affairs, community volunteerism, informal sociability, and social trust. Of these dimensions, engagement in public affairs, community volunteerism, and social trust are strongly related to the dimensions of PSM (i.e. attraction to policy making, commitment to the public interest, compassion, and self-sacrifice), thus PSM is also affected by social capital due to their similar nature. As shown in Figure 1, PSM and social capital have a feedback effect by which social capital will reinforce an individual's PSM, and social capital embedded in and affected by a network may, for example, positively influence a network feature of advice relations through social support and information exchange.\n5. Discussion and conclusion: 5.1. Implications\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to theoretically clarify the relationship between public service motivation and performance by suggesting a framework in which social networks among members provide an explicit mechanism linking employees' PSM with their performance and by proposing several empirically testable propositions.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The author suggests a theoretical framework based on a literature review and combining insights from several major strands of theory including social capital and social network theories.\nFindings: Conceptually, the paper shows that, first, the extent of the social relationships among group members and their positions within a network vary depending on the level of PSM; second, individuals with high PSM are more likely to complete their tasks when they are in central positions in a network of advice relations and less likely to complete their tasks when they are in peripheral positions in central positions and a network of advice relations in a network of adversarial relations; third, group members with high PSM are more likely to complete group tasks when the group has higher density in a network of advice relations and less likely to complete tasks in a dense network of adversarial relations.\nPractical implications: The author demonstrates the possibility of reciprocal relationships between PSM and social networks, in which PSM builds social capital that reinforces each member's PSM by enhancing relationship quality, which will positively affect performance.\nOriginality/value: This paper provides opportunities for future empirical research by developing the discussion about a new conceptual mechanism in the relationship between PSM and performance, proposing an initial conceptual framework that clarifies the PSM and performance linkage, and suggesting several testable propositions.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
AppAware: a policy visualization model for mobile applications
|
[
"Android",
"Awareness",
"Privacy policies",
"Mobile application permissions"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: The great increase of smartphone users' in just ten years from 85.000 users in 2010 to 2.5 billion in 2017 (Statista, 2017a) has led many computer program developers to turn to mobile application (apps) developers. In March 2017, Google Play Android Store had available for downloading nearly 3 billion mobile applications (apps) (Statista, 2017b) and the Apple store had more than 2.2 billion (Statista, 2017c) while just a decade ago these two webstores had almost 65.000 apps in total (Statista, 2018). A user who wants to install an app from the application store markets needs to read and accept its relevant privacy policy, commonly presented in a textual form. Cranor et al. (2008) concluded that it is unrealistic to believe that users would ever be capable to read every single privacy policy because of the length of such documents, the time that a user needs to spend and the legal language these policies are written in.\n2. Privacy risks, awareness and policy visualization: To examine scholar disquisition associated to our research objective, we reviewed the literature on privacy policies as well as the available literature and resources on mobile apps' features and vulnerabilities. Our literature review analysis consists of three parts: potential risks/threats that mobile app users encounter, user privacy awareness, privacy policies' reading cost and new visualization approaches. We narrow our efforts on Androids OS's and exclude IOS from our research because only Android's security and privacy settings can be changed by the user without any special expertise (Benenson and Reinfelder, 2013). In IOS users have limited capabilities of changing the security and privacy settings of an app. Apple (the Company providing IOS) claims that any app that is available through the official App store is reviewed by Apple's review process system for security and privacy issues. This feature does not allow users to change apps' settings.\n3. Methodology: In this section, we analyze our methodology for developing AppAware and for validating its effect on users' privacy awareness.\n4. AppAware users' evaluation: The questionnaire intended to collect users' opinion regarding aspects of AppAware installability, usability, and viability/purpose.\n5. AppAware parser concept model: To further enhance AppAware's capabilities we propose a complementary application called AppAware Parser. The philosophy behind AppAware Parser can be imprinted in four points:\n6. Conclusions and future work: In this paper, we suggested a visualized model for representing privacy policies for mobile apps and the permissions they obtain upon installation. We processed android's permission set and we matched all permissions with a potential threat and a representative picture. We included in AppAware the 20 most popular applications for 2017 and then we evaluated AppAware using a survey with 73 participants. We focused our evaluation on installability, usability and viability/purpose of AppAware. AppAware was evaluated above average in all categories especially in the usability category. Thus, we presented AppAware parser, a browser add-on as a concept model. AppAware parser is complementary application to AppAware and acts mostly pro-actively, trying to enhance users' awareness.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: Privacy policies emerge as the main mechanism to inform users on the way their information is managed by online service providers, and still remain the dominant approach for this purpose. The literature notes that users find difficulties in understanding privacy policies because they are usually written in technical or legal language even, although most users are unfamiliar with them. These difficulties have led most users to skip reading privacy policies and blindly accept them. This study aims to address this challenge this paper presents AppAware, a multiplatform tool that intends to improve the visualization of privacy policies for mobile applications.\nDesign/methodology/approach: AppAware formulates a visualized report with the permission set of an application, which is easily understandable by a common user. AppAware aims to bridge the difficulty to read privacy policies and android's obscure permission set with a new privacy policy visualization model. Thus, we propose AppAware parser, a mobile add-on that acts complementary with AppAware and helps mobile device users to monitor the applications they installed to their smart device.\nFindings: To validate AppAware, the authors conducted a survey through questionnaire aiming to evaluate AppAware in terms of installability, usability and viability-purpose. The results demonstrate that AppAware is assessed above average by the users in all categories.\nOriginality/value: In the best of the authors' knowledge, there is no such approach as AppAware as an application nor AppAware parser as add-on.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
Empirical analysis of integration practices among agribusiness firms: Perspective from a developing economy
|
[
"Integration",
"Ghana",
"Agribusiness"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: The crucial role played by agribusiness firms in the world's economy as the most relevant source of food supplies and job creation has become a topic of discussion among academicians and practitioners (Behzadi et al., 2018). Although agribusiness firms within the Sub-Saharan Africa face issues of integration, collaboration, competitiveness and sustainability, the investments in agribusiness and agriculture yields are expected to spur to US$1tn by 2030 as against US$313bn in 2010 (Byerlee et al., 2013). As an emerging and agrarian economy, Ghana is experiencing rapid economic transformation in the Sub-Saharan region, particularly west of Africa. Agribusiness and agriculture contribute approximately 25 per cent to gross domestic product and employ 55 per cent of the population in Ghana (Ghana Statistical Service, 2015). However, in recent times, agribusiness and agriculture performance has declined drastically as compared to the service sector. Practitioners and scholars comprehend and argue that agribusiness firms in Ghana face several challenges ranging from operational, marketing, information technology, purchasing and logistics, and human resource management as well as the lack of investment. Comparatively, in contemporary competitive environment, firms are striving to enhance their business processes to gain competitive advantage, with agribusiness firms in Ghana being no exception. Several studies have tackled and elaborated on how proper management of supply chains (SCs) and integration of resources and information sharing (IS), within and beyond the boundaries of the firm, could lead to higher value creation, sustainable competitive advantage and improved internal process performance (IPP) (Dubey et al., 2018; Flynn et al., 2010). These strategic factors are pushing agribusiness firms to improve their internal processes and integrate their suppliers and customers as part of their SCs to enhance their competitive position in the domestic and global markets. Additionally, Kamal and Irani (2014), Gupta and Ramesh (2015) have emphasised that firms are no longer operating as a single or closed systems, neither can they survive alone in such an aggressive responsive environment without integrating their processes internally as well as with suppliers and customers. Currently, supply chain management (SCM) research has widely discussed and conceded supply chain integration (SCI) practices as a core strategic enabler that will upsurge the competitive gains of firms through an integrative link between the market, distribution system, the process of production and purchasing activities (Abdallah et al., 2017; Kazemzadeh et al., 2012; Zhang and Huo, 2013). Therefore, both academicians and practitioners have devoted much attention to the development and enhancement of SCI practices purposefully. Despite the long-time recognition of the importance of SCI practices, our comprehension of its influence on the performance of internal processes is varied. Some studies discovered that SCI practices have affirmative impact on the performance of the firm (i.e., operational and financial) (Dai et al., 2015; Kuei et al., 2015; Kumar et al., 2017), whereas others contended that SCI practices might have negative consequence on the operational and financial performance of the firm (Zhu et al., 2017). Hence, the approach through which SCI practices influences on IPP must be well tackled to enhance our understanding. Moreover, the study attributes the past conflicting findings to the different definitions and dimensions of SCI practices. Although some studies concentrate on the separable dimensions of SCI practices (Han et al., 2007; Marquez et al., 2004; Pagell, 2004; Rosenzweig et al., 2003), other studies consider SCI practices as a unidimensional construct (Cheng et al., 2016; Kim, 2017), two-dimensional construct (i.e., internal integration and external integration) (Koufteros et al., 2005; Petersen et al., 2005; Zhao et al., 2011), and a multi-dimensional contruct (i.e. internal integration, supplier integration (SI) and customer integration (CI)) (Droge et al., 2004; Narasimhan and Kim, 2002; Yu, 2015). In spite of the different conceptualisation and inconsistent findings of SCI practices on firm performance, most of the studies were conducted in manufacturing and multi-national companies in developed economies such as Australia, USA, Canada, Germany and UK (Cannon et al., 2010; Rosenzweig, 2009). However, we do not know how the findings of these previous studies on SCI practices in developed economies may be applicable or valid in the perspective of emerging economies, particularly Ghana, due to the cultural, social, economic and political setting (Hofstede et al., 2010). In line with Hofstede et al. (2010), we comprehend that limited attention has been paid to the fact that whether Ghana's cultural setting may influence the impact of SCI practices with IPP. This study classifies SCI practices systematically and segregates it into three dimensions, namely internal, supplier and CI. Despite the popularity and benefits of SCI practices on the performance of the firm, there exist only few works that explore SCI practices and IPP, specifically in Ghana, the context under study. Additionally, a limited empirical proof has established how different SCI practices concurrently influence IPP and none of the erstwhile studies have paid attention to the mediating role of IS between the different dimensions of SCI practices with IPP. According to Jajja et al. (2018), investigating the relationship between SCI practices, IS and IPP has been recognised to have a great significance.\n2. Theoretical background and hypotheses development: 2.1 SCI practices\n3. Research method: 3.1 Sampling and collection of data\n4. Results: 4.1 Results of the measurement model\n5. Discussion: The focus of this research is to examine the impact of IS on the relationship between SCI practices and firm's IPP, concentrating on agribusiness firms in a developing economy, Ghana. First, the results proposed that INI and CI positively and significantly influence IS. Such findings are parallel with the past results of Li and Lin (2006), Moberg et al. (2002), Singh and Garg (2015), where both established that INI and CI are key prerequisites in the process of mitigating risk and uncertainty, as well as in the process of development of products. The improved level of systems and procedures, as well as connectivity, is affirmatively related to the capability of a firm to integrate business procedures internally and externally with suppliers and customers. However, SI was found to have no significant impact on IS among the agribusiness firms in Ghana, and this result could relate to the cultural setting of the study. However, the finding is somewhat unexpected and it negates the results of previous studies, including (Prajogo and Olhager, 2012b; Yu, 2015; Zhang et al., 2018), which indicate that SI has an affirmative impact on IS. The Ghanaian environment provides a possible explanation to the results. Agribusiness firms consider the reputation of the supplier and also analyse the track records of the supplier, as well as its affiliation with existing group procurement organisation. It was observed that Ghanaian agribusiness suppliers considered themselves to be \"independent\" and separate entities, so sharing vital information meant the loss of one's power. Therefore, they found it very hard to share information with agribusiness firms. Thus, agribusiness firms mostly generate information internally and from their customers, because no one considers SC in its entirety. Nevertheless, it has been verified in many past studies (Du et al., 2012; Khan et al., 2016) that information shared between partners through the chain enhances firm's capability to respond to changes in the environment. Regarding mediation, IS was found to fully mediate two SCI practices (i.e., internal and customer) with IPP. The confirmation was unveiled by the PLS-SEM test. The result agrees with that of the past studies (Ding et al., 2011; Droge et al., 2004; Huo et al., 2016; Kumar et al., 2017; Qi et al., 2017), wherein the execution of SCI practices is vital to reach a higher IPP through the use of effective IS between agribusiness firms and its partners in the SC. Interestingly, the finding disclosed that the relationship between SI and IPP is not significantly mediated by IS, but it is rather directly related to IPP. This research finding is consistent with (Frohlich, 2002; Green et al., 2012; Kim and Chai, 2016; Wu, 2013) who discovered similar outcomes. IS, likewise, was also found to positively and significantly improve IPP. This concurs with past findings, in that through collaboration and integration, IS in the SC offers flexibility and nurtures appropriate decision-making about problems in the SC (Kocoglu et al., 2011; Ding et al., 2011; Cheng et al., 2016). Reacting quickly to market changes, SC members must be connected as well as willing to share information. Enhancing IS can cultivate joint planning and joint problem solving, directed through information exchange and frequent communication, and can improve SC visibility as well as the development of new product and market agility. Thus, when agribusiness firms establish a strategy for accomplishing IPP, IS performs a key function to minimise the response period to changes and to upsurge collaboration. IS provides an avenue for agribusiness firms to make the right decision based on the available information. Therefore, IS helps agribusiness firms to make a fast decision towards changes in the market by communicating frequently with customers and suppliers as well as internally, which enhances IPP. The outcome of this study recommends that a high level of coordination between internal and external (customers and suppliers) functions through a high degree of IS is expected to achieve a robust IPP. Thus, the Ghanaian context vindicates IS as a core catalyst that eases the nexus between SCI practices and IPP. Finally, this study has confirmed that apart from investing in SCI practices to enhance the firm's IPP, it is important to have an efficient and effectual capability to integrate IS with trading partners to reap the long-term benefits (Kwamega et al., 2018).\n6. Conclusion and managerial implications: The inception of strategic business management acknowledges SCI as one of the prominent topics in SCM; therefore, agribusiness firms should look for every possible way of attaining incomparable competitive advantages through SCI practices and IS to enhance performance. Agribusiness firms have become an important sector fostering economic development among the developing economies. Given the relevance of agribusiness firms in this modern century, this study aims to investigate the links between SCI practices (internal, customer and supplier) and IPP among agribusiness firms in Ghana, and to know whether IS plays a mediating role. The present study contributes to the extant knowledge by providing relevant evidence regarding Ghanaian agribusiness firm's IS, IPP, and SCI practices' impacts, which is deficient in a developing economy like Ghana. Moreover, extant body of knowledge demonstrates inconsistent findings regarding the impact of SCI practices on IS and IPP. The findings showed another conflicting outcome in a developing country where the study was conducted and according to the context of firms. However, the finding in this study concurs with previous studies that conceded that IS mediates between the dimensions of SCI practices and IPP (Ding et al., 2011; Du et al., 2012; Khan et al., 2016; Kocoglu et al., 2011; Prajogo and Olhager, 2012b; Wu et al., 2014). The current study bridges the gaps in the literature; also, it is the first to tackle agribusiness integration practices and IPP in one of the West African Countries and particularly in Ghana. Previous studies on the subject under discussion focussed on other context, such as USA (Hauff et al., 2017; Kim and Chai, 2016), China (Song et al., 2017) and Sweden (Beheshti et al., 2014). According to its implication for managers, they should be aware that integrated activities can lead to internal process improvement of agribusiness firms, expediting INI, CI and SI through IS. Therefore, managers should encourage INI and CI, since collaborative works between the functional units are necessary in facilitating the information received from external partners in the SC, thus laying solid foundation for improved IPP. The prevalence of INI, CI and IS offers the structural elements to achieve an enhanced IPP. Unsound connection internally or with customers would have a cascading and weakening influence on agribusiness firms' planning, decision-making, organising and controlling of SC activities for IPP. Thus, the results established a convincing support that IS internally, as well as with customers and suppliers, permits agribusiness managers to mitigate risk and to improve product development and uncertainty associated with SCs, which enhances IPP.\n7. Limitation and future research: Like any other study, this research has several limitations. First, the data were collected from three regions in Ghana, namely Ashanti, Brong Ahafo and Northern regions. Therefore, the results cannot be generalised. Second, the study failed to consider the effects of the various types of IS (e.g., intra-firm, firm-customer, firm-supplier) in measuring the mediation to know which variable has more impacts in the Ghanaian context.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to investigate the mediating effect of information sharing (IS) on the link between supply chain integration (SCI) practices (internal, customer and supplier) and internal process performance (IPP) by using selected agribusiness firms from an emerging economy, Ghana.\nDesign/methodology/approach: To determine the effect of IS on the nexus between SCI practices and IPP, a research framework was developed and tested using data amassed from 156 agribusiness firms for the study. The data set was assessed and hypotheses were tested using structural equation modelling.\nFindings: The outcomes revealed that both INI and CI positively and significantly influenced IS. However, the results disclosed that SI has no significant positive effect on IS among the Ghanaian agribusiness firms. The findings of the study further discovered that IS fully mediates the relationship between INI, CI and IPP, whereas SI has a direct interaction with IPP.\nOriginality/value: This study contributes to the existing supply chain management research by empirically authenticating IS as the mediator between SCI practices and IPP. From the viewpoint of a developing economy, this paper identifies the significant connection that exists between SCI practices, IS and IPP. The outcomes recommend that IS is a core driving facilitator to reinforce the correlation between SCI practices and IPP.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
A lifetime's change in LIS
|
[
"Document delivery",
"Interlending"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: It is very unusual for the subject of a festschrift to be asked to contribute to it, but there it is. The following piece will not be about myself. In response to pleas from others, I did once start to make notes towards an autobiographical sketch, but I quickly got bored with the subject, and also it was so critical that it verged on libel. I will deal instead with some of the main changes that have occurred in my active lifetime as a librarian (1950-2004), and in all of which I have played some part.A total of 53 years have passed since my first published paper in the field. During these years I have been responsible for the consumption of much paper and probably of readers' time. This is almost certainly the last professional paper I shall write.\nGeneral trends: Libraries, like all of the public sector, have been affected by general government policies, notably privatisation - the persistent belief, in spite of experience, that the private sector can always deliver better than the public, that few services should be tax-supported, and that everything that can be charged for should be - except of course armies and armaments, as Galbraith (1996) pointed out. Most library services remain free, but they have been under severe pressure (see Management below). The threat of General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS) hangs over public libraries; if they are deemed to be in competition with services the private sector could give, they might not be allowed to continue.Local government internal reorganisations have resulted in a lowering of the status and influence of public librarians, only one or two of whom now have the rank of chief officers. On the positive side, some have achieved higher rank in local government, often remaining in overall command of libraries. In the academic world, quite a few librarians have been put in charge of other services as well, usually including computing, with titles such as Head of Academic Support Services, occasionally Pro-Vice-Chancellor. This has not always worked, and some merged services have subsequently had to be separated again.\nAutomation: It is hard to overstate the impact of automation, together with telecommunications, on libraries over the last 40 years. Automation has had a major impact on almost every industry, trade and profession, but in most cases by affecting the way things are done. In our case, and that of publishers, automation has had and is having a more fundamental effect. It has not only led to changes in bibliographic control and access, including of course catalogues, and the issuing of books for loan, but also made possible or easier new activities and services. In the early days there were inevitably many mistakes and wrong turnings, not to say dead ends. I do not look back with any great pride to my involvement in the first automated acquisition system in the UK (at Newcastle upon Tyne University Library), but we did all gain valuable hands-on experience, and I saw our faltering steps in a wider perspective when I visited the USA two years later and was proudly shown in one or two reputedly advanced university libraries MARC tapes sitting on shelves totally unused. Among the things I do look back on with much satisfaction is the innovative catalogue research I initiated at the University of Bath in the early 1970s, a programme that after several transformations became UKOLN, which is still with us.Automation has also enabled the ready collection of statistics and hence to better control over stock, including acquisition and relegation. It has also unfortunately led to renewed attempts to do things that had hitherto failed, such as distributed document supply by means of union lists (see Remote document supply below) and cooperative acquisition schemes. I have never had much time for the latter; the logistics are problematic, and very few have shown themselves to be justified in terms of cost-effectiveness (Line, 1998), but the gut feeling of most librarians that they ought to save money seems to prevail over hard reality, as so often in the history of librarianship.Since my retirement from the British Library, digitisation of text has gained pace. This affects the essence of librarianship - what we collect, how it is stored, and how it is made available. This has led to serious questions as to whether libraries are needed at all, except as museums. Academics are able to read most of what they want online, and it is possible that the \"common man\" (which most academics are not) will in the future have access to e-books in one form or another. Librarians have been quick to argue that libraries will indeed have an important role in the electronic age, but they can be accused of special pleading - they would say that, wouldn't they? I confess that I am among these defenders of libraries, in which I no longer have a personal stake (Line, 1995a, 2000).\nFocus on users: This has been an issue close to my heart ever since I worked under a librarian whose main purpose in life seemed to be the frustration of users (as well as the destruction of the morale of staff). She achieved remarkable success in both. \"How do you build libraries and information systems around people?\" has been a persistent element in my thinking, and led directly to the studies I headed in the 1960s and 1970s into information requirements in the social sciences and the subsequent studies on the design of information systems geared to them (Line, 1974, 1980). These studies are incidentally now badly out of date, and need redoing.My pleas for more user-orientated systems seem to have struck a chord, especially with younger librarians, and there was a succession of user studies as well as gradual changes in practice. Monumental buildings gave way to much more friendly ones, procedures became simpler, and, perhaps most importantly, staff shed the custodian mentality and assumed a helpful one. I think I am right in saying that at Southampton University Library in the early 1960s we had the first full-blown Readers' Service headed by a senior member of staff (me), though doubtless similar services had been around earlier.Concern with users can lead in public libraries to efforts to satisfy popular demand for light fiction and a general \"dumbing down\" of stock, including the disposal of older \"classics\". This seems a strange policy at a time when the importance of lifelong learning is constantly thrust on us.\nManagement: The management of libraries has improved immeasurably since 1947 (Line, 1994). Academic libraries used to be headed by scholars manques - a collection consisting mostly of pseudo-academics, but sprinkled with the odd real academic whom the university did not quite know what to do with. Very few of them thought of themselves as managers; they would probably have felt insulted if anyone had called them that.The change began to occur partly because of a general rise of interest in management, accompanied by a flood of writings on the subject, most of them eminently forgettable and forgotten; but mainly, I think, because of increasing pressures to show value for money from parent bodies and ultimately the government. This necessarily led to an interest in costing and performance measurement management, and to the popularity of a succession of techniques such as management by objectives (MbO). Some of these proved to be rather short-lived, and several were reinventions of old wheels; but most of them contained something useful, particularly TQM. The net effect was to focus the minds of librarians on managerial issues, and, equally important, to induce parent bodies to look for managerial qualities in making appointments. LIS departments made management an increasingly prominent feature of their courses, and it appeared more and more frequently in conference programmes.A persistent element in management, though in theory rather than in practice, has been delegation and staff involvement, another subject near to my heart (Line, 1995b). Many libraries are managed quite well at the top, but also from the top; whatever the boss thinks, most staff feel at best little real engagement, and at the worst positive demotivation. If this is still true in the UK, it is doubly true in countries where authoritarian regimes have fostered a culture where orders come from the top all through the system and any argument is severely discouraged. After I retired from the British Library much of my consultancy work took place in such countries; it took two or three years to persuade staff that they could think for themselves, and longer to persuade the boss to allow them to do so; it was always very difficult to break long-established habits, and in one or two cases I left an enthusiastic and motivated staff under a boss who was simply unable to change.\nRemote document supply: My last 17 years as an employee (1971-1988) were spent with the national document supply service, which has also been transformed, probably more after my time than during it as the scanning and electronic transmission of documents have become more economic - and permissible. Whereas most of the serial publications in demand are in digital form, this applies to only a minority of books, and in any case we are not as yet near a position where it can be held in this form by a public body and supplied automatically and immediately.Meanwhile, union lists have been given a new lease of life by the ease of their construction; librarians continue to cling to the belief that, with all those books lying in all those libraries, there must somehow be a more economic and efficient alternative to a centralised service. The real competition, for serials at any rate, comes from direct access to material from databases held by publishers or intermediaries. Nevertheless, I see the future in the UK as one in which the British Library works with publishers in giving a centralised service that is more economic for the publishers and more convenient to users than a service based on supply from numerous individual publishers.\nDeprofessionalisation: The content of LIS education and practice has changed radically. Cat and class have been relegated as other means of bibliographic access, most of them enabled or enhanced by automation and originating from outside the profession, have taken over on grounds of cost and ease of implementation. In their place have come skills in management (see above), computing, marketing and so on - which do not require an LIS qualification. At the same time, much work has been shown to be carried out by too high a grade of staff; I have seen numerous examples of work hitherto deemed \"professional\" performed more than adequately by totally unqualified staff. Much of the professional mystique of LIS has been shown up as mystification as highly competent users of information have proved to be non-users of libraries, and staff with no LIS background or training have taken up senior posts with success.\nEnvoi: I began my library career as a bookman (I was responsible for proposing the creation of the Rare Books Group of the LA), became a systems man, and finally a people man. This progression, which I am sure has been experienced by many others, reflects the changes in LIS during my time - not that we do not still need bookmen and, even more, systems men (and women).The long overdue merger of the Library Association with the Institute of Information Scientists has finally taken place, in spite of the fears of the \"scientists\" that their image might suffer. I would guess that the image of librarians has benefited from the advent of computers; perhaps the mystique of librarianship is being replaced by that of computer technology.While the future of academic libraries seems fairly safe, that of public libraries is increasingly questioned, especially as book issues have fallen in the last decade. To some extent this decline has been compensated for by increased loans of videotapes and dvds, and even more by the use of computers. But the impression remains that public libraries are still searching around for a role. As for national libraries, there are signs that some are beginning to discover what they are for.About 30 years ago I gave a paper in Australia in which I castigated my own profession before a somewhat bemused audience (Line, 1988). Things have improved since then, but rather less than I had hoped. We have partly abandoned the jargon of professional librarianship, only to adopt that of trendy management (some excellent examples of gobbledy-gook can be found in (Wheen, 2004). Too many initiatives come from outside the field; we seem to be quite good at developing but not at inventing. When we have invented, it has tended to be along conventional lines; an example is PRECIS, conceptually a brilliant indexing scheme, but practically unusable because of its cost. We need more questioning of theory and practice, more clear thinking and more radical thinking. (I have set out my own agenda for change briefly elsewhere (Line, 2004). We need a profession where the mediocre are not regarded as outstanding. We need some Martin Luthers, Tom Paines and Charles Darwins.\nAbsolutely the last word: I will close by breaking my promise at the beginning and mentioning my two most significant contributions to international librarianship. At an Essen International Symposium some 12 years ago, the entertainment consisted of some German belly-dancers. I selfishly elected to dance with the one with the least belly and the best dancing. And in Kecskemet in Hungary a few years later, where I went with a broken ankle sustained four weeks earlier, I danced a csardas on one leg (I had had quite a lot of practice - but do not try it at home, or anywhere else). Both of these occasions are recorded on videotape, and can be viewed on payment of a large sum.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: - To investigate and comment on changes in LIS during a lifetime in libraries, half of it spent in senior positions.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - Narrative reminiscence.\nFindings: - Dramatic changes have occurred in the use of technology, management and attitudes to users, but most of them were initiated by non-librarians. LIS needs more leaders and innovators.\nOriginality/value: - Reflections on a lifetime in librarianship by one of its leading practitioners and the subject of this festschrift.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
Gearing and the Australian real estate investment market
|
[
"Gearing",
"Financial management",
"Real estate",
"Australia",
"Risk management"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nI. Introduction: Since the early 1990s the level of debt and gearing has steadily increased, both in the wider economy[1] and the investment market. For instance, household debt has increased markedly mainly due to increased housing finance; with the fastest growth for residential investment. The Reserve bank of Australia (RBA) attributes this to three main factors: the lower interest rate environment; lower inflation; and financial deregulation. On this latter point, increased debt is due to increased competition with more aggressive pricing, financial intermediaries encouraging investment loans, and the development of new products such as home-equity loans and mortgages with a redraw facility. The listed equity market has also seen a wider use of gearing with the proliferation of margin lending products and instalments[2] as well as an increase in leverage by companies that previously had low levels of gearing.A similar phenomenon is evident in the commercial property investment market. In particular, Australian listed property trusts (LPTs) have experienced significantly increased levels of gearing over the last ten years. This higher gearing is used to facilitate a wider product offering to investors along the risk-reward space. For instance, gearing is used to deliver property products with a higher alpha or capital growth bias (through taking on development exposure) or to assist in acquiring property assets offshore. Accordingly, motivated by the prospect of enhancing returns, unlisted wholesale real estate funds are also seeking to raise gearing levels. With greater use of debt in property investment products there has been much industry debate about the corresponding increased risk and hence, the \"optimal level\" of gearing. This is of particular interest to investors of unlisted wholesale property investments, (being mainly superannuation funds), where the debate regarding the optimal gearing level necessarily focuses on the additional risk incurred by the investment.Gearing is a general term used to describe borrowing (or debt) within an investment context. It refers to the use of borrowed funds to earn a return greater than the interest paid on the debt. Gearing is usually expressed as the ratio of debt to total (gross) assets. A related term, leverage, on the other hand, describes the degree of gearing or borrowing.The contribution of this paper is three-fold. First, the paper provides an overview of gearing for the Australian real estate investment market. Notably, LPTs have taken on significantly more gearing. Second, the paper formally examines the relationship between property returns, risk and gearing in an attempt to better understand how gearing impacts property performance in terms of risk and return. It is shown that the relationship between these variables changes depending on whether the cost of finance is fixed or variable. More importantly, it is shown that the interdependency between ungeared returns and interest rates also significantly impacts the relationship between risk and gearing. Third, the paper provides some guidance in evaluating \"optimal\" gearing levels for real estate investment. It is highlighted that the concept of optimal gearing is couched within a given investment objective.The paper is structured as follows. Section II briefly describes the changing gearing profile across real estate investment vehicles. Section III outlines the modelling framework for gearing. Section IV provides some empirical results using direct property returns. Section V provides a discussion on the concept of optimal gearing. Section VI provides concluding remarks. Mathematical derivations are contained within the Technical Appendix.\nII. Gearing across real estate investment vehicles: There are several reasons motivating the use of gearing across real estate investment vehicles. First, it offers a strategy for enhancing investment returns against alternative investment strategies that may offer greater risk[3], such as taking on exposure to lower grade real estate assets which have the potential for higher growth. Second, it offers the ability to generate enhanced investment returns with debt being a relatively cheap source of capital relative to equity. In other words, it may lead to a reduction in funding cost[4]. CommSec (2002) comments that real estate (listed and unlisted) trust managers view debt as an attractive source of cheap capital. This is generally supported by a relatively low and benign interest rate environment, new innovative financial instruments, and low market volatility. Third, it can lead to a tax benefit. For instance, the use of debt has the additional advantage of interest expense being deductible in calculating taxable income, whereas dividends on preferences and ordinary shares are not tax deductible. This leads to increased cash flow, hence making debt a valuable financing tool. However, this is relevant only for syndicates as the tax argument offers no obvious attraction for LPTs and unlisted wholesale funds as they have a tax-free status (i.e. trusts being exempt from company tax provided they distribute all income to unit holders).Figure 1 shows historical gearing levels for LPTs, unlisted wholesale real estate funds and syndicates. Notably, gearing levels differ markedly across property vehicle and over time.Over the course of the past ten years, gearing levels for LPTs have increased from approximately 10 percent to 40 percent. The rise in gearing has been motivated by LPTs wanting to expand and generate enhanced returns. UBS (2004) note that the take-on of additional debt levels has contributed to strong distribution per unit growth. This has coincided with a gradual reduction in the level and volatility of market interest rates as indicated by the falling ten year bond rate shown in Figure 2. As expected, the chart clearly shows an inverse relationship between gearing levels and the interest rate. This level of gearing for the sector seems consistent with other global REIT markets: gearing levels for US REITs and J-REITs were approximately 45 percent and 40 percent respectively as at March 2005.Figure 3 shows gearing levels across the LPT sub-sectors for 2003, 2004 and 2005. While gearing has increased across all sub-sectors, it varies markedly. The sub-sectors with the highest gearing include retail and international. The varying gearing level across sectors can be partly explained by the stability of their income stream. For example, the higher gearing for the retail sector over office can be justified by its more stable cash flows, underpinned by longer contractual lease arrangements (linked to consumer price inflation) with anchor tenants. This implicitly provides the retail sector with some hedge against rising interest rates on the back of higher inflation. With reference to trusts with international property exposure, a large proportion of these assets reside in the United States (USA). Hence, borrowing higher levels of debt in US dollars provides a higher natural hedge as it reduces the risk of the investment's income and net equity.Interestingly, while gearing has progressively risen for LPTs it has not translated into rising equity beta values as one may have expected. This suggests that maybe the risk of gearing is not being appropriately priced in the market or that this has been offset by other market factors (such as a general de-risking of real estate against other asset classes).Gearing levels within wholesale unlisted property funds remain relatively low in comparison to LPTs and syndicates. Most of the fund's trust deeds, which represent investors of superannuation funds, have been reluctant for the funds to carry high levels of debt, due to concerns of introducing greater volatility in return profiles. However, in the past few years gearing levels for Mercers unlisted wholesale funds have risen towards 10 percent-15 percent, as shown in Figure 1.In contrast to wholesale unlisted property funds, property syndicates carry relatively high gearing levels, hovering around 50 percent. Despite this high gearing level, investment into property syndicates is usually accepted by investors, induced by the (perceived) lower cost of debt, the tax effective benefits of owning property and low earnings volatility in property income.\nIII. Modelling framework: This section provides a rigorous treatment of gearing. It sets out a framework for examining the relationship between returns, risk and gearing in an attempt to formulate a view on \"optimal\" gearing levels. First, the basic concept of gearing is outlined within an investment return setting with fixed cost of debt. Second, the conceptual framework is extended by allowing the cost of debt to be variable. Furthermore, the dependency between the cost of debt and ungeared returns is also examined.Basic concept\nIV. Stylised results: Employing the relationships outlined in the previous section, this section examines the impact of gearing on direct property returns for Australia. Use is made of historical quarterly ungeared nominal total returns based on the PCA/IPD Investment Performance Index for the period between 1985:Q4 and 2005:Q4. Annualised rolling returns for total property and core property sectors are depicted in Figure 4. Clearly, the series show a pronounced change around 1994/1995 with returns being relatively stable since this period. Given that average return and risk estimates would differ markedly pre and post 1994/1995 periods, the analysis proceeds by considering the later sample period between 1995:Q1 and 2005:Q4.Fixed cost of finance\nV. Optimal gearing level: While one can argue that market conditions are favourable for taking on greater leverage in property investments, an important question relates to the appropriate or \"optimal\" level of gearing. A starting point for discussing optimal gearing relates to the trade-off theory of capital structures, which asserts that an optimal level is reached when the marginal benefit of debt use (such as interest tax shields) equate to its marginal cost. From an investment perspective this can be interpreted as when the incremental return due to additional gearing matches the additional risk borne by the investment (such as financial distress).From one perspective, optimum gearing levels can be gauged by observing industry averages. As noted by Stoja and Tucker (2004), the rationale for this is that macroeconomic conditions tend to have a similar affect on firms in the same industry. Bowen et al. (1982) report that industry average ratios can be considered to be optimal if they are stable over time. This aspect is also emphasised by Hull (1999). Furthermore, studies by Graham and Harvey (2001), Antoniou et al. (2002) and Bunn and Young (2004) find evidence of firms targeting industry gearing ratios.While there appears to be no single or unified response to this question of optimal gearing, the nature of responses by industry participants tends to focus on the additional risk take-on by the investment. Rowland (1997) notes that the optimal gearing is primarily determined by the investor's objective and attitude to risk. To a large extend, the optimal gearing level need to be considered in the context of the investor's investment targets, in terms of risk and return, and alternative investment strategies.Furthermore, apart from considering optimal gearing in terms of a single value, it may well be best approximated by a range. This would be appropriate if gearing levels are found to vary over time, and move in line with changing market conditions. Indeed studies by Flannery and Rangan (2004) and Bunn and Young (2004) provide support to this notion.The following discusses optimal gearing within the context of various evaluation criteria, which include targeted return, risk mitigation, and risk-adjusted returns. These concepts can be applied to either a static investment portfolio or a dynamic investment portfolio, such as a growth portfolio. In this latter case, evaluation by a RAR criterion will facilitate selection between a geared and an alternative investment strategy.Target return\nVI. Concluding remarks: Geared returns depend on two key factors; the gearing level and the difference between the ungeared return and the cost of debt. Accordingly, with higher gearing levels, ungeared returns are greatly magnified, both positively and negatively. It is also shown that risk rises with rising gearing levels with the nature of this relationship described by the gearing-risk profile. More importantly, it is found that gearing does not improve risk-adjusted returns.The cost of debt structure is shown to be significant in understanding the interplay between the gearing level, return and risk as the relationship between these three variables differed accordingly. More importantly, it is shown the interdependency between ungeared returns and the cost of debt (or more specifically, interest rates) also influences the relationship between risk and gearing by enlarging risk. Consequently, it should not be dismissed when assessing the impact of gearing on risk.Using ungeared returns data for Australian real estate assets, it was shown that the impact of gearing varies across the core sectors. In essence, gearing accentuates the different risk-return characteristics across the sectors, underpinned by different drivers of capital return.Optimal gearing was discussed in the context of formulating an investment strategy, based on a number of performance criteria, which embedded investor preferences. With reference to gearing strategy, a possible approach may be one that monitors the optimal gearing level within a broader business agenda of delivering enhanced risk-adjusted returns. This requires prudent management of key factors influencing risks associated with gearing. Such factors include the structure of borrowed funds, property market cycles and an outlook on interest rates, both levels and volatility. Such a strategy needs to be tailored across sectors as the study identified different relationships between gearing and risk.The study suggests that current gearing levels in LPTs and unlisted wholesale property funds are relatively conservative. This implies that current gearing could be increased, in particular for wholesale funds, without taking on substantially more risk whilst enhancing returns.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: - The aim of the paper is threefold: to provide an overview of gearing in the Australian real estate investment market; formally examine the relationship between property returns, risk and gearing; and provide some guidance in evaluating \"optimal\" gearing levels for real estate investment.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - A mathematical modelling framework is presented for evaluating the relationship between investment returns, risk and gearing levels.\nFindings: - The study highlights that risk rises with rising gearing levels and that risk-adjusted returns fall with rising gearing. Furthermore, it is shown that the gearing-risk relationship is influenced not only by the cost of debt structure but also the interdependency between ungeared returns and interest rates.\nResearch limitations/implications: - The study suggests that current gearing levels from Australian listed property trusts and unlisted wholesale property funds are relatively conservative. This implies that current gearing could be increased, in particular for wholesale funds, without taking on substantially more risk whilst enhancing returns.\nPractical implications: - The paper is of value to industry and academia as it offers an extended framework for evaluating the relationship between risk and gearing. In particular, the framework provides insight for gauging gearing levels when constructing real estate investment strategies.\nOriginality/value: - Importantly, the paper shows that the interdependency between ungeared returns and interest rates significantly impacts the relationship between risk and gearing.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
The effects of transformational leadership and ERP system self-efficacy on ERP system usage
|
[
"Transformational leadership",
"Technology acceptance model",
"ERP system self-efficacy",
"ERP system usage"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Dealing with today's competitive environment in obtaining new technologies and overcoming the limitations of traditional systems has prompted many companies to undergo a rapid replacement in their systems by implementing Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) systems. Implementing the ERP system in an organization is by no means an easy job and poses many challenges, since it is one of the organizational critical change processes in information and communication technologies (Williams and Williams, 2007) which can lead to significant effects on structures, processes and cultures of an organization (Wickramasinghe and Gunawardena, 2010). These changes often initiate feelings of de-motivation and disinterestedness among the employees who are targeted users for the ERP system. Hence, the main concern in ERP research is primarily to decrease the risk of ERP system rejection and promote analogous encouragement of ERP system acceptance by users (Amoako-Gyampah and Salam, 2004; Kumar et al., 2003).\nLiterature review: Antecedent of transformational, transactional, and servant leadership\nHypotheses development and research model: In the following section, we have aimed to, particularly: first, define how internal relationships between the components of TAM make sense in the context of an ERP system; second, define the processes which make TL effective in the outcomes of ERP system usage; third, understand how transformational leaders can communicate sufficiently high levels of self-efficacy in ERP users to lead to the success of ERP system usage.\nMethodology: In order to examine the proposed hypotheses, we have chosen two case studies as the necessary tool by which to test the hypothesis in the proposed model. The context of the case study, process of selecting sample and the instrument for measuring validity are detailed below.\nResults: Validity and reliability\nDiscussion: We applied the TL theory to TAM theory in the context of ERP. The results of our test were consistent with the findings in literature concerning the influence of TL on TAM in other contexts. Moreover, this study has been provided with new insight about the mediation role of ERP system self-efficacy in the relationship between TL and TAM.\nTheoretical implication: Our study integrated two important managerial issues - TL and TAM with ERP system self-efficacy. Providing an insight into ERP system self-efficacy, as well as assimilating and applying capacities were introduced as indicators of user self-efficacy in using ERP system. A research model proposed and tested user assimilating and applying self-efficacy as a mediator between TL and the TAM. Although some studies previously examined the effect of TL on TAM, our study is the first to focus on understanding the role of ERP system self-efficacy in this regard.\nPractical implication: The major finding of our study indicates that transformational leaders with their specific attitudes (charisma, IS, IM, and IC) support ERP users to become confident in using ERP system in the workplace. Therefore, ERP managers should pay particular attention to the point that ERP system acceptance can be enhanced by the role TL can play in enhancing users' self-efficacy when using ERP system. Management should provide TL development programs for their ERP leaders and encourage them to implement transformation in a way that could increase users' ERP self-efficacy in assimilating and applying ERP system. In this regard, leaders should prepare a transformational atmosphere in organization to have everyone involved in the transformation procedure. It is paramount that each individual user completely believes in and supports what is happening.\nLimitation and future: Multinational ERP implementation introduces another dimension of complexity - national differences - into the already complex nature of ERP implementation in the context of global information management (Sheua et al., 2004). Thus, this study is not an exception. Our findings were drawn from two Iranian case studies so the results are not necessarily generalizable to other nations or continents. Future research can analyze the framework of our research and examine it in other countries, then examine cultural differences to attain thorough comparisons. Despite this limitation, our study on two different companies in Iran showed that TL achieved ERP system usage by enhancing self-efficacy of ERP system users.\nConclusion: While some studies such as Schepers et al. (2005) have already verified the positive impact of TL on TAM; none of them were in the context of ERP system. Further, to the best of our knowledge, no attention was paid to examine the mediating role of self-efficacy in the ERP system between TL and TAM (components of PU/PEU). It was found to be similar to the study of Schepers et al. (2005) which discovered that, in both case studies, TL has a positive direct impact on PU/PEU.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: During the past decade, there has been vast investment in Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) system packages, in addition to a significant increase in the importance of acceptance by users of the ERP system regarding the success or failure of ERP implementation. The purpose of this paper is to identify the external factors which influence ERP system acceptance. The work is motivated by the realization that transformational leadership (TL) and ERP system self-efficacy are critical external factors that can affect ERP system acceptance.\nDesign/methodology/approach: A framework has been developed from a study of literature in the field of TL, ERP system self-efficacy and the technology acceptance model (TAM). A survey utilizing a questionnaire was used to collect data and a total of 151 usable responses were analyzed by using the partial least squares method.\nFindings: The results of the study indicate that TL can either directly or indirectly influence perceived usefulness via the assimilation of self-efficacy in a positive manner. Also, TL has been found to have a positive influence on perceived ease of use both directly and indirectly via application of self-efficacy measures.\nResearch limitations/implications: The findings were drawn from two Iranian companies, hence the results are not necessarily generalizable to other nations and other cultures.\nPractical implications: Management should provide TL development programs for their ERP leaders and encourage them to implement transformation in a manner that could increase assimilation and application of self-efficacy when using the ERP system.\nOriginality/value: The study can provide ERP managers with a better understanding of how they can use TL behavior and skills in motivating and enhancing employees' self-efficacy in order to achieve ERP system usage success.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Why service recovery fails: Tensions among customer, employee, and process perspectives
|
[
"Customer service management",
"Service failures"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nService recovery: unrealized potential: Service recovery refers to the actions a company takes in response to a service failure (Gronroos, 1988). Research shows that dealing with problems effectively constitutes the most critical component of a reputation for excellent (or poor) service for a broad range of industries (Johnston, 2001b).Interest in service recovery has grown because bad service experiences often lead to customer switching (Keaveney, 1995), which in turn leads to lost customer lifetime value (Rust et al., 2000). Favorable recovery positively influences customer satisfaction (Smith et al., 1999; Zeithaml et al., 1996), word-of-mouth behavior (Maxham, 2001; Oliver and Swan, 1989; Susskind, 2002; Swanson and Kelley, 2001), customer loyalty (Bejou and Palmer, 1998; Keaveney, 1995; Maxham, 2001; Maxham and Netemeyer, 2002b), and eventually, customer profitability (Hart et al., 1990; Hogan et al., 2003; Johnston, 2001a; Rust et al., 2004; Sandelands, 1994).The extensive literature on service recovery practices makes recent empirical evidence about customer dissatisfaction and ineffective service recovery both surprising and disturbing. According to data provided by the American Customer Satisfaction Index, the overall satisfaction score for US companies moved from 74.8 in 1994 to 74.4 in 2006 (ACSI, 2007). In some industries, customer satisfaction has significantly decreased (O'Shea, 2007); for example, complaints filed with the Association of German Banks (Bundesverband Deutscher Banken) increased from 1,510 in 1993 to 4,136 in 2006 (BDV, 2007). A recent study involving 4,000 respondents from nearly 600 US companies concludes that 56 per cent believe their companies are slow to respond to and fix recurring problems (Gross et al., 2007), and 41 per cent of respondents to a 2006 survey of Austrian and German firms indicate they have no complaint handling process in place (Bruntrup, 2006). In the UK, various organizations (e.g. holiday providers, train companies, police services) report complaint increases of 8-40 per cent per year (Johnston and Clark, 2008). Although certainly some companies and industries have improved, the more widespread perception holds that modern \"service stinks\" (Brady, 2000).To explain why service recovery management fails, we begin by first describing what the fundamental principles and practices of successful recovery are for each of the separate perspectives of customer, process, and employee recovery (Table I). We then detail the cross-functional tensions that can interfere with the implementation of those fundamentals (Figure 1). Finally, we propose a set of integrative perspectives and practices that may help resolve those tensions and allow for service recovery success (Table II).\nThree perspectives on service recovery management: Our research on service recovery (Johnston and Michel, 2008) has revealed three different, function based, discipline-grounded perspectives. The marketing literature focuses on the customer experience and satisfying the customer after a service failure (Smith et al., 1999; Tax et al., 1998), which we call customer recovery. Operations literature centers more on the processes and how to learn from failures to prevent them in the future (Johnston and Clark, 2008; Stauss, 1993), which we refer to as process recovery. Management literature focuses on employees and how to prepare them to recover from service failures (Bowen and Johnston, 1999), which we term an employee recovery perspective. There are some key successes factors associated with each.Customer recovery\nHow tensions among the three service recovery perspectives cause service recovery to fail: Despite wide spread awareness of these effective service recovery management practices, service recovery clearly remains poorly executed. Why? We attribute it to disciplinary and function-bound views that focus primarily only on customer recovery (marketing) or employee recovery (human resource management) or process recovery (operations management). That cross-functional tensions hamper organizational best practices is not a new insight! What is new is explicitly specifying those tensions in the case of service recovery so that those committed to effective service recovery know what they are up against as they strive to implement the six fundamentals displayed in Table I.The key tensions among the three discipline-based perspectives, the three-cornered fight, so to speak, are displayed in Figure 1. Not all tensions are present in all firms, nor are all equally relevant in all recovery situations.Employee vs customer recovery\nIntegrate around a \"service logic\": A service logic describes how and why a unified service system works and should guide management's design of the service system for both service delivery and recovery (Kingman-Brundage et al., 1995). In this sense, a service logic represents the integration of the potentially competing logics of customer logic, which asks, \"what is the customer trying to accomplish, and why?\"; technical or process logic that considers, \"how are service outcomes produced, and why?\"; and employee logic, which demands, \"what are employees trying to do, and why?\"When the answers to these logic questions weave together synergistically, the result is service logic and a firm basis for service delivery and recovery. To expose and enhance the service logic of the current service delivery system requires two key tools:1. Service maps (Shostack, 1984) and service blueprints (Kingman-Brundage, 1989; Zeithaml et al., 2005). Both approaches illustrate the service experience across time, structures, and processes - not functions! - and identify likely failure points.2. Cross-functional teams that engage in problem solving by integrating the tensions we have identified, the competing logics that drive them, and the service maps that reveal them.\nIntegrate around balancing the \"dominant\" organization culture and co-existing subcultures: We will resist the temptation to offer the simplistic advice that a strong, unified culture will resolve the tensions. Managers realize that their firms are comprised of multiple subcultures. These have been described by Martin and Siehl (1983) in their classic article, \"Organizational culture and counterculture: an uneasy symbiosis\" as the \"dominant\" organizational culture, overall; an \"enhancing\" subculture with fervent adherence to those core values; \"orthogonal\" subcultures which accept the core values and simultaneously and a separate set of unconflicting values particular to themselves, e.g. accounting versus R&D; and a \"counterculture\" which has some values that directly challenge the core values of the dominant culture.The management task is to surface and even \"map\" the dominant culture and potential subcultures relative to their: basic assumptions; core values; artifacts, e.g. jargon, stories, rituals, and management practices. For example, to change the dominant culture from a culture with an \"illusion of no failure\" (e.g. we achieve Six Sigma quality) to a culture of recovery and improvement, leadership must espouse recovery as a core value. For example, stories that recount the outcomes of a successful or failed recovery incident should find their way into company folklore and conversation; training programs should focus on building the employee competencies required for effective recovery. Then explicitly work through the culture maps of Marketing, Ops, and HR to assess culture fit or acceptable deviance. For example, although operations management should honor \"heroes\" of efficiency, rewards should also flow to those heroes whose actions clearly retained profitable customers who had been failed, above and beyond efficiency alone. These value alignments are critical because when organizational and employees' values align, employees are more willing to exert the extra effort required in a failure and recovery situation (Maxham and Netemeyer, 2003). Recovery of dissatisfied customers can be very taxing for employees, but employees who share the organization's core values likely persevere.Integrate with strategy-driven recovery\nConclusion: Service recovery fails due to root causes found in the tensions among customer recovery, process recovery, and employee recovery. Effective recovery management requires starting with what we already know to be the key fundamentals to be achieved and then actually implementing them by an integrated approach based upon service logic, value and strategy-driven approaches, seamless information flows, recovery-relevant metrics and rewards; and T-shaped service providers. The end result is a more unified service system leading to higher customer satisfaction and loyalty, enhanced employee satisfaction, fewer failures, lower costs, and overall higher profitability. In conclusion, we extend the definition of service recovery by Gronroos (1988) and suggest the following:Service recovery are the integrative actions a company takes to re-establish customer satisfaction and loyalty after a service failure (customer recovery), to ensure that failure incidents encourage learning and process improvement (process recovery) and to train and reward employees for this purpose (employee recovery).\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: - The keys to effective service recovery are familiar to many throughout industry and academia. Nevertheless, overall customer satisfaction after a failure has not improved, and many managers claim their organizations cannot respond to and fix recurring problems quickly enough. Why does service recovery so often fail and what can managers do about it? This paper aims to address these issues.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - The objective is to produce an interdisciplinary summary of the growing literature on service recovery, bringing together what each of the author's domain - management, marketing, and human resources management - has to offer. By contrasting those three perspectives using 141 academic sources, nine tensions between customer, process, and employee recovery are discovered.\nFindings: - It is argued that service recovery often fails due to the unresolved tensions found between the conflicting perspectives of customer recovery, process recovery, and employee recovery. Therefore, successful service recovery requires the integration of these different perspectives. This is summarized in the following definition: \"Service recovery are the integrative actions a company takes to re-establish customer satisfaction and loyalty after a service failure (customer recovery), to ensure that failure incidents encourage learning and process improvement (process recovery) and to train and reward employees for this purpose (employee recovery).\"\nPractical implications: - Managers are not advised to directly address and solve the nine tensions between customer recovery, process recovery, and employee recovery. Instead, concentrating on the underlying cause of these tensions is recommended. That is, managers should strive to integrate service recovery efforts based upon a \"service logic\"; a balance of functional subcultures; strategy-driven resolution of functional differences; data-based decision making from the seamless collection and sharing of information; recovery metrics and rewards; and development of \"T-shaped\" employees with a service, not just functional, mindset.\nOriginality/value: - This paper provides an interdisciplinary view of the difficulties to implement a successful service recovery management. The contribution is twofold. First, specific tensions between customer, process and employee recovery are identified. Second, managers are offered recommendations of how to integrate the diverging perspectives.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Spanish steps key to transfer training: Education key to skilled and adaptable workforce
|
[
"Training",
"Workplace training",
"Motivation",
"Spain",
"Learning transfer",
"Training transfer"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n__NO_TITLE__: In an ever-changing business environment which requires organizations to respond rapidly to shifting situations, new demands are placed on employees - and those seeking positions - who are expected to assume multiple responsibilities, adapt to changing procedures and demonstrate a broad knowledge of the job. Achieving a competent workforce in the face of such change requires continuous training.\nJob-improvement motivation significant predictor of transfer of learning: In Spain, as elsewhere, the government and companies are becoming aware of the importance of training results and their impact in the workplace, especially when enhancing workers' knowledge and abilities is part of the public agenda. The assessment and improvement of work-related training courses is therefore becoming a priority which goes beyond the number of training programs delivered or the numbers of participants who have attended.\nBoth delivery and marketing a course should be considered: The training design features studied, in terms of relevance and efficiency, emerged as significant predictors of transfer of learning. As trainees' perception of courses as being relevant to their jobs was clearly critical, educational providers should ensure that courses are relevant and tailored to specific needs. Efforts should also be made not only to ensure that courses are relevant but also to advise potential attendees about the content and goals of the course.\nComment: This review is based on \"Transfer of learning: Motivation, training design and learning-conducive work effects\" by Renta-Davids et al. (2014). They investigate the transfer of learning in work-related training offered to participants by an educational provider in Spain - the Professional Training for Employment Subsystem.\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: In an ever-changing business environment which requires organizations to respond rapidly to shifting situations, new demands are placed on employees - and those seeking positions - who are expected to assume multiple responsibilities, adapt to changing procedures and demonstrate a broad knowledge of the job. Achieving a competent workforce in the face of such change requires continuous training.\nPractical implications: The paper provides strategic insights and practical thinking that have influenced some of the world's leading organizations.\nOriginality/value: The briefing saves busy executives and researchers hours of reading time by selecting only the very best, most pertinent information and presenting it in a condensed and easy-to-digest format.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Building thinking, feeling and knowing teams
|
[
"Leadership",
"Teams",
"Confidence",
"Strategy",
"Neuroscience",
"Relationships",
"Team working"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n__NO_TITLE__: Teambuilding has been a mainstream activity in Learning and Development for some time and particularly since the profiling work of Professor Belbin in the 1980s. Yet the real goal of genuine team bonding and alignment remains all too elusive. Now we have the opportunity to have a completely fresh look at this by using the underlying principles of emerging neuroscience. Psychologists of the twentieth century were limited largely to observational methodology and built conceptual models which reflected their view of their subject. Since the development of functional MRI technology in the 1990s, neuroscience now offers us radical insights into the actual inner workings of the brain so that we can directly monitor the relationship between brain functionality and human behaviour.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to present fresh insights into the development of business teams. It aims to set out principles for taking teams through \"thinking, feeling and knowing\" into a state of advanced and confident performance and aligned behind a common vision.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The paper draws on insights only recently available through emerging neuro-scientific research, especially via functional MRI scanning technology. These principles are well embedded in the clinical world but rarely translated to business. The Think Feel Know model addresses this through its representation of the three layers of the brain (cortex, limbic and basal) and makes understanding accessible and practical.\nFindings: By using the insights available through neuroscience and adapting these to the building and development of teams, people can foresee opportunities to take teams to completely new levels of performance. This is about creating confident teams.\nResearch limitations/implications: This paper is based on a mixture of the author's own experience in senior business roles over a 30-year corporate career and underpinned by the emerging neuroscience. It is intended to offer radical insights as well as to be put to practical use.\nOriginality/value: The key value is the representation of complex neuro-scientific principles on human behavior and performance into a simple but powerful model called Think Feel Know. The model represents the three layers of the brain - the cortex, limbic and basal layers. It shows how the interaction of these layers directly influences behavior and performance, how it gives meaning to experiences and how it makes people the individuals that they are.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Triumphant capitalism and the future of human, social and economic progress in the post-Cold War era
|
[
"Privatization",
"Socialism",
"Capitalist systems"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: The present state of capitalism seemed very alluring as the doctrine distends like wild-fire on a global dimension. Indeed, Turner (2001, p. 4) reported that:The late 1990s and first half of 2000 marked the apogee of a sort of market triumphalism, a confidence - at least among the Western elites - that capitalism, and in particular, American free market capitalism, was the universal answer to economic problems.Present day capitalism bears little resemblance to the early form of capitalism and as such, full blown global capitalism has shown its monstrous face after the defeat of the contending alternatives in Russia, the Eastern Europe and other parts of the world as noted by Sklair (2002) in his comment:By the early 1990s, ruling groups in all the countries of Eastern Europe had abandoned communism and were trying, in a variety of ways, to insert themselves into the capitalist global system.Thus, as predicted, capitalism has now broken every wall of resistance, penetrating societies and nations as never before imagined. Even nations like India and China which were one time sworn enemies of the pure capitalist system, have finally succumbed to the political ideology of capitalism (Heng, 2000; Kishore, 2003). After years of trade restriction and protectionism followed by series of euphemistic economic policies, the Chinese Government finally decided to liberalise and opened up its borders to the trans-national juggernaut of capitalism.The first Prime Minister of India, Jawaharlal Nehru (1889-1964), vowed at Independence that the Indian economic policy would uphold the socialist economic pattern that would promote an egalitarian society (Dhar, 1999). When the great Indian statesman was giving his outstanding independence speech of how Indians could include the excluded in the society, he could not imagine that any Indian Government would deviate from the aspirations of the founding fathers of India. However, five decades after his famous speech, a socialist (labour) Indian party (BJP), abandoned the Indian course and surrendered to the economic practices of the bourgeoisie. Evans (1995) put it this way:By 1990s even an Indian government claiming economic nationalist credentials had succumbed to the economic transnational practices of capitalist globalisation and had open up its economy.A French Socialist Government privatised more state assets in four years than any government previously in economic history. In November 2000, Bill Clinton's visit to Vietnam and his invitation to the Vietnamese to embrace the \"force of nature\" (capitalism) were welcomed with a thunderous applause. Moreover, the great successes achieved in the USA, Britain and other nations that have profitably practised the capitalist doctrine and the demise of nations that have embraced its alternatives, may give powerful credence, to the notion that neo-liberal capitalism was the best of all options and as such, should be adopted by all nations that desire progress. In other words, capitalism is the best and only option to propel any global economic agenda.From elites of the first and third world the current slogans are deregulation, liberalisation, and privatisation. And the major governments have heeded to these calls to the extent that the Nigerian Government contemplated privatising their Security Printing and Minting Company popularly known as the Mint (where currencies are printed and a symbol of the nation's security and pride) (Onwuka, 2003). Perhaps, some governments may as well decide to privatise the central bank or the armed forces of their nation! These occurrences are reflections of the fact that, the triumph of capitalism over socialism was as complete as was the success of American shareholder capitalism over Rhineland stakeholder capitalism (Turner, 2001).Numerous authors have expressed their views about the present scenario. Some have dubbed it as global capitalism (Hutton and Giddens, 2000; Ross and Trachte, 1990); others have called it globalisation of capitalism or capitalist globalisation (Sklair, 2002; Petras and Veltmeyer, 2001). Hall et al. (1998) in concordance with many authors believe that:[...] our world is being remade. Mass production, the mass consumer, the big city, big brother state, the sprawling housing estate, and the nation-state are in decline: flexibility, diversity, differentiation, and mobility, communication, decentralisation and internationalisation are in the ascendance. In the process our own identities, our sense of self, our own subjectivity are being transformed and we are in transition to a new era.Enthusiasts such as Francis Fukuyama have gone to the extent of asserting that the triumph of capitalism over its rivals signalled the end of history (Maxim, 2001). However, the Harvard Professor, Huntington (1996) feels that the present scenario could best be captured by the clash of civilisation. In his view:[...] the future will be decided not by a confrontation between social theories and political orders, as in the days of the Cold War, but by conflicts of religious and cultural origin between civilisations.The above assertion could presumably be linked to the current resistance in many parts of the world as presently witnessed in Iraq, Iran, Russia, North Korea, Afghanistan and Somalia although these could best be regarded as \"pockets\" of resistance in the face of \"turbo\" triumphant capitalism (Martin and Schumann, 1997). Hence, to a certain extent, capitalism seemed unchallenged and has become the goose that lays the golden egg; some sort of a demigod. It can easily be asserted and concluded that the present state of capitalism is indeed glamorous.\nProblems with the current capitalist logic: A critical analysis of incidents taking place around the world could lead to a new conclusion that capitalism is actually void of foundation, and as such, lacks future and may not be the true goose that lays the golden egg. Its future is frighteningly bleak and precarious. A period of huge increases in productivity while real wages lag behind is a receipt of over accumulation of capital and its effects (as occurred in the Great Depression of the 1930s). How far are we from that now - with a gargantuan growth in productive capacity around the world in countries with low wages and massive unemployment? The ability of capital to relocate to low-wage countries in order to manufacture commodities that are exported back to the more developed world increases the disparity between productivity and real wages (Giddens, 1993; Dowd, 2002).The International Labour Organisation (ILO, 1994) stated that:Global unemployment is at its highest level since the dark days of the depression. A total of 800 million humans are either underemployed or unemployed, which represents a structural unemployment statistic of approximately 30 per cent.The UN estimated that the world labour force of 2.8 billion people in early 1990s included about 800 million unemployed (120 million of them officially registered as such) and over 700 million underemployed (Simai, 1995; Scholte, 2000). Moreover, with the exception of the newly industrialised countries, most third world nations have experienced dismal shortages of opportunities for waged labour, and the end of centralised planning has also brought large-scale unemployment to most countries in transition (Scholte, 2000). On an international level it is the exception rather than the rule to identify companies which have not endured the traumas of retrenchment. Ultimately, retrenchments are self-destructive: buying power is eroded and products cannot be sold, leading to further retrenchments in order to maximise profit (Slabbert, 1996). Capitalism is actually at another crossroad and possibly heading to another formidable crisis. How else could we describe a system that puts phenomenal wealth in the hands of few while a significant number of earth's inhabitants are left to freeze in the coldest element known to man-human indifference? Capitalism by its unnatural constraint on the free flow of wealth decreases the quality of life for many people, while only increasing it for a few individuals (Kowalski, 2000). Furthermore, a momentary thought of the escalating problems of endemic unemployment (Martin and Schumann, 1997), low quality of work life, retrenchment and re-engineering, trans-national movement of fund and corporation, abrasion of state power, crimes and revolution (Kaplan, 2000), the vicious circle of poverty and economic suppressions (Econocides) (Slabbert, 2005), environmental degeneration and moral decadence, all of which are associated with the capitalist trans-national practices, presupposes a new opinion that is inevitable.Global capitalism appears to be running out of control towards some sort of abyss (Greider, 1997). It produces class polarisation. There are underprivileged individuals and groups in the first world as well as the third world due to expanding capitalism (Sklair, 2002). Capitalism is indeed producing some calamitous problems for economic security (Scholte, 2000). However, Neo-liberals considered it \"sensible politics\" to be defending this social order which has degenerated into a kind of destructive madness, and continued to condemn any leftist contribution to ameliorating the crises as destructive utopianism.However, under the present circumstances, it would be erroneous to see economic empowerment as a South African phenomenon that exists solely to redress the legacy of apartheid. In a world where one-billion people own 80 per cent of global Gross Domestic Product and two-billion people earn less than $2 per day (Haines, 2001; Sachs, 2005; Chronic Poverty Research Centre), economic empowerment must rapidly become a global issue. As organisations expand, as manufacturing is moved out of developed economies into developing economies and the digital divide narrows, the need for global economic empowerment would definitely become ubiquitous. The notion of moving manufacturing facilities to countries where labour is \"cheap\" would be no longer sustainable. It is a matter of time before organisations that have relocated their manufacturing operation will be faced with the demand for empowerment and progressive redistribution - not only as a result of government pressure, but also through the realisation that to disregard human potential is to commit productivity suicide (Sawubona In-flight Magazine, 2005). Thus, a democratic and just, humane society on global level, however utopian, seems to be the best long-term guarantee for the continue survival of humanity (Sklair, 2002).This is the very reason that capitalist triumphalism may not be conclusive evidence of the end of other alternatives. Singer (1999) succinctly remarked:The year 1989, with East European regimes tumbling in quick succession, could have been greeted as a sign that people do count and that obsolete systems are, ultimately, swept away. Instead it was hailed, illogically, as a proof that our system will go on forever.\nRemedy and conclusion: In a nutshell, there could be other better global alternatives to the current single capitalist triumphant orthodoxy. This particular view is reinforced by the recurring protests and confrontations around the world. The first large public protest against the current logic came in Seattle, November 1999 at the WTO Ministerial Conference. This was followed by street protests in Bangkok in February (during the UNCTAD conference), Washington in April (during the World Bank-IMF spring meeting), and in Melbourne (during the Asian Summit of the World Economic Forum), in Prague (during the World Bank-IMF annual meeting), in Cancun, at Doha, to name a few. These popular protests around the world are basic reflections of the majority's yearning for an alternative ideological cum global order. Hence, as opposed to Francis Fakuyamas assertion, history has not actually ended and there are many symptoms that capitalism may not be the last man standing. There could still be the possibility of a complementary relationship between capitalism and socialism (effective state), so that a higher human, social and economic order is realised. This is actually what Slabbert (1996) termed as \"capisocism\" and what the World Bank meant by \"developmental state\" - a state which is democratic and interventionist in nature, with the capability of regulating the operation of the market forces (The World Bank, 1997). In other words, the state must not be a passive onlooker of the propagandist slogans of capitalist triumphalism but must play a catalytic, facilitating role, encouraging and complementing the activities of private businesses and individuals. This alone would be the best remedy towards a sustainable human, social and economic development in the current post-Cold War era, most especially in the developing nations.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: - The aim of this paper is to show that there could still be the possibility of a complementary relationship between capitalism and socialism (effective state), so that a higher human, social and economic order is realised.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - The paper is a meta-analytical study, which relied on secondary sources of information. It is a qualitative study that is based on conceptual analysis, theory building and \"emic\" perspective (authors' viewpoint).\nFindings: - With the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1998 and the fall of the famous Berlin Wall, the final victory or triumph of capitalism over its alternatives was heralded. This development saw nations, most especially the developing ones, rushing to infuse themselves into the capitalist global system, which is reflected by the opening of borders to the capitalist onslaught. However, soon after this euphoric capitalist triumphalism, capitalism seems to be heading to another cross-road, which is capable of undermining the aforesaid euphoria. As capital is now set to continue its accumulation, expansion and profitability, unemployment is on the rise, as government ability to create lasting employment has become ineffective due to the privatisation of the public sectors, retrenchment by private business, etc. The state of affairs is exacerbating the crime rate (both within nations and globally), ethnic and global tension, poverty and ill-feeling. Hence, there could be other better global alternatives to the current single capitalist triumphant orthodoxy.\nPractical implications: - Socialism has failed and capitalism is in the process of failing. Therefore, the only hope left to resurrect socialism and resuscitate capitalism, is a complementary and comprehensive ideological order. In that sense, there is a need to complement the positive aspects of both ideologies.\nOriginality/value: - This paper is original, since no other paper has taken up the topic of \"Triumphant capitalism and the future of human, social and economic progress in the post-Cold War era\". The suggestion given in the paper could help to achieve a higher level of human, social and economic progress in the post-Cold War era, most especially in the developing nations.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Improving the US hospital reimbursement: how patient satisfaction in HCAHPS reflects lower readmission
|
[
"Patient satisfaction",
"Readmission",
"HCAHPS",
"Value-based purchasing",
"Readmissions reduction program"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: In order to hold hospitals more accountable for the clinical services they provide, government officials and healthcare organizations in the US have introduced changes in the way hospitals are reimbursed for Medicare services. In 2013, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) began withholding a percentage of revenue, which hospitals had received under the previous reimbursement model. This policy revision has incentivized hospitals to recoup that percentage was based on improved patient outcomes and sustained patient satisfaction (Petrullo et al., 2013). Likewise, the Affordable Care Act (ACA) facilitated the development of the Partnership for Patients initiative. This initiative focuses on quality of care from the patient perspective, forcing hospitals to improve their services or risk financial penalty when patients submit lower satisfaction scores (CMS, 2017). Beginning in 2013, Medicare initiated a shift from pay-for-reporting to pay-for-performance; specifically, Medicare began withholding 1% of their reimbursements to hospitals, creating an $850 million fund to support plans for value-based payments. Each year, the amount of reimbursement withheld increases by 0.25% until it reaches the predetermined cap of 2% (Kennedy et al., 2014).The Hospital Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems (HCAHPS) patient satisfaction survey is an instrument developed by the CMS and the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) as a standardized process for the reporting of patients' perceptions of care. HCAHPS results have been publicly available since 2008 (Giordano et al., 2010). Specifically, HCAHPS solicits opinions from recently discharged hospital inpatients via 22 questions covering six domains of care, two questions for reputation (i.e. overall rating and willingness to recommend), and two questions on the hospital environment (i.e. quiet at night and cleanliness). This survey is accepted as an accurate measure of satisfaction for adult inpatient constituencies (Merlino et al., 2014).The hospital value-based purchasing (VBP) program is designed to financially incentivize acute-care hospitals to improve performance on several quality measures. The final regulations published by the CMS offer two criteria for measuring performance: improvement and achievement. CMS administration maintains that these criteria place all hospitals in a position to receive incentive payments (Dupree et al., 2014). The HCAHPS survey is now used across the country as a determining factor in the hospital VBP program. Thus, hospitals are facing pressure to perform well on the survey in order to receive payments, which support the hospital financially (VanLare and Conway, 2012). While implementation of the VBP program has been successful in its attempt to incentivize hospitals to improve patient satisfaction, clear evidence of what exactly motivates patients to respond positively on the HCAHPS survey is still limited (Iannuzzi et al., 2015; Tevis and Kennedy, 2015).In June 2009, the CMS began reporting the 30-days readmission rates for patients hospitalized and discharged for acute myocardial infarction (i.e. heart failure). These statistics are available on the Hospital Compare website. The purpose was to encourage hospitals with high instances of readmission to improve their readmission rates for patients with certain common conditions. Moreover, the Patient Protection and ACA required dissemination of this data and allowed Medicare to hold hospitals accountable for higher readmission rates. According to the Medicare Payment Advisory Commission, preventable readmissions cost Medicare $12bn annually (Baker et al., 2015). Heart failure (HF) is the leading cause of hospitalization in individuals who are 65 years of age and older, affecting over 5m people in the US (Go et al., 2013). For these patients, it is common to be readmitted soon after a hospital discharge; this indicates healthcare inefficiencies, such as an inadequate transitioning of individuals from inpatient to outpatient (Dharmarajan et al., 2013).Due to the excessive costs and frequent association with poor outcomes of hospital readmissions, the Medicare Hospital Readmissions Reduction Program (HRRP) was deployed nationally with the goal of decreasing 30-days readmission rates for Medicare patients. The program targets a defined set of three conditions: acute myocardial infarction (AMI), heart failure (HF) and pneumonia (PN), along with other surgical procedures, including total hip or knee arthroplasty (Chen and Grabowski, 2019; Jindal et al., 2018). As such, hospitals are penalized financially for having 30-days readmission rates above the Medicare target for the specified conditions (AMI, HF and PN) and interventions for three consecutive years (Zuckerman et al., 2016). If a hospital's 30-days readmission rates remain excessive for Medicare Patients treated for AMI, HF and PN, reimbursement payments could be withheld. While these actions should lower such readmissions, in some instances hospitals have searched for ways to avoid such penalties (Axon and Williams, 2011). This present study is the first to investigate the relationships among readmission, payment and patient satisfaction to determine if the financial incentive program leads to higher clinical quality and higher patient satisfaction among US healthcare providers.Certainly, if acute-care hospitals are expecting to receive a higher percentage of reimbursement payments from CMS, the incentive is to maintain or provide high-quality services via successful clinical outcomes and improved patient/consumer perspectives. The main objective of this study is to identify the effects of readmission on payments. The secondary objective is to determine how HCAHPS results are impacted by readmission rates and the effects on reimbursement. Specifically, this present study investigates the following questions: (1) In the HRRP program, is a higher readmission ratio associated with lower reimbursement? (2) In the HCAHPS patient/consumer survey, does a lower readmission ratio lead to higher HCAHPS ratings? (3) In the HCAHPS patient/consumer survey, do reimbursement payment amounts affect HCAHPS ratings?\nLiterature review and hypotheses: The research model for this study is presented in Figure 1. The literature review for patient readmission, payment and HCAHPS is also included in this section, along with the research hypotheses.Readmission\nMethods: Data sources and validity measurement\nHypothesis tests and results: PLS modeling analysis via Smart-PLS was utilized for testing the hypotheses. PLS was adopted instead of covariance-based SEM due to PLS having no strict normality distribution assumptions for the data and both reflective and formative constructs can be modeled within the same study (Peng and Lai, 2012). The bootstrap procedure is used to obtain the path coefficients, t-statistics and 95% confidence interval by resampling 300, 500 and 1000 times. Please see Table 3. Summary for hypothesis tests for a listing of path coefficients, t-statistics to determine the results of the structural model. Hypothesis 1 predicted that the relationship between Readmission and Payment would be negatively associated. Based on the PLS-SEM output, Readmission shows a significant positive relationship (p < 0.01) with Payment which reflected the opposite relationship expected in Hypothesis 1. This finding suggests that in spite of a higher readmission rate for both heart failure and pneumonia patients, the hospital could receive higher payments for these HF and PN patients. In addition, the higher readmission rate reflects higher average spending per episode of hospital admittance for Medicare beneficiaries who are 65 years of age and older. Furthermore, the analysis of Readmission and HCAHPS (Hypothesis 2) indicated a significant negative relationship (p < 0.01).This outcome provided the same results as originally stated in Hypothesis 2 as a lower readmission rate is related to higher patient satisfaction. According to the CMS website, lower percentages of hospital readmission are indicative of higher quality care. As such, this outcome indicates that a higher readmission rate for patients corresponds to a lower consumer (patient) assessment survey for the consumer/patient ratings regarding doctors, nurses, staff, medicine, care transition and facility performance. Hypothesis 3 proposed that the relationship between Payment and HCAHPS would be positively associated. Nevertheless, Payment and HCAHPS (Hypothesis 3) showed a significant negative relationship (p < 0.01). This finding indicates that even though a hospital received a lower rating on patient assessments, it may obtain larger payments from Medicare patients for HF and PN services. The control variable-hospital ownership (government, not-for-profit, for-profit)-reveals varied results for the dependent variables of Payment and HCAHPS. Payment is positively related to the type of ownership which indicates that for-profit hospitals tend to receive higher payments from patient services compared to Government or not-for-profit hospitals. Also,for-Profit hospitals received lower HCAHPS (patient assessment scores) compared to government or not-for-profit hospitals.\nDiscussion: Research question one predicted that a higher readmission ratio is related to lower reimbursement. The results showed that Readmission positively affects the reimbursement of Payment for patient services in contrast to the research question which predicted a negative relationship. These results were similar to the findings of D'Angelo and Lawson (2018) and Zuckerman et al. (2016) ,which indicated that HRRP incentive policies did not considerably reduce readmission rates. Their findings revealed that hospitals with excessive readmission ratios for HF and PN patients still received reimbursement payments as usual. Furthermore, hospitals received higher payment amounts per episode of hospital admittance for Medicare beneficiaries who are 65 years of age and older, even though readmission rates remained high. As for research question two, does a lower readmission ratio connect to higher HCAHPS ratings? The results of this present study indicated that a lower Readmission rate was associated with higher HCAHPS ratings. These findings corresponded with several other studies (Carter et al., 2018; Cruz et al., 2017; Dong et al., 2019), noting that patient satisfaction is correlated with reduced readmission rates. CMS states that the HCAHPS survey of consumer/patient perspectives should reflect quality of care. More specifically, higher patient-provided ratings of doctors, nurses, staff, medicine, care transition and facility performance should be reflected in lower readmission ratios. With regard to question three, do reimbursement payments relate to HCAHPS ratings? The results showed that reimbursement amounts are negatively associated with HCAHPS ratings. However, the results of this study were in opposition to Hypothesis 3 which predicted that the relationship would be positive. These results indicate that the type of patients (i.e. varying severity of illness) being treated at the hospital might affect patient satisfaction outcomes and payment amounts, as discussed by Merlino et al. (2014). In brief, even though the patient/consumer gave lower HCAHPS scores, the hospitals still obtained higher reimbursement payments from CMS.Based on the above results, the findings of this present study indicate that data provided from the Hospital Compare database for the acute-care hospitals indeed reflect quality outcomes. Nevertheless, the HRRP did not reflect financial incentives or penalties when patients reported lower quality service measures via HCAHPS scores. Thus, the measurement of quality using current assessment techniques is limited by subjectivity. Lacking unified measurement objectives across healthcare platforms, the effectiveness of value-based reimbursement and the concept of continuous improvement is constrained. In a recent study, Ody et al. (2019) confirmed that many hospitals have manipulated HRRP risk scores in order to influence the program's risk adjustment of diagnosis codes in order to reflect reduced readmission rates. Moreover, in the case of HRRP, some hospitals are less willing to readmit patients after implementing risk adjustment, which may increase the use of care, although such cases were not counted as readmission. Hence, CMS should consider hospitals' geodemographic characteristics in establishing further HRRP criteria of readmission rate adjustments for risk and penalty calculations (Jindal et al., 2018).Notably, several major policy changes regarding Medicare reimbursement have been enacted in recent years in order to reduce hospital readmissions. The HRRP was designed to support quality improvements in hospitals with recurring high-readmission rates. HRRP expanded public access to 30-days hospital readmission measures as related to problematic health issues. By placing more power in the hands of patients within the US healthcare system, results of the HCAHPS survey have become a determining factor in the reward system of hospital payments. Hence, the information provided by patients on the HCAHPS survey directly affects provider revenue. As such policies are expected to remain in effect for the foreseeable future; healthcare administrators should develop processes and procedures to meet these pressures.\nImplications of research: The managerial implications of this present study indicate that the quality of healthcare is perceived not only from patients' opinions of experience with physicians, nurses or environment but also from the quality of outcome performance, such as readmission rates. The findings of this present study reveal that a high-readmission rate is not associated with lower payment. Hence, these results reveal weaknesses in the HRRP's policy of penalizing hospitals financially for higher readmission rates. It appears that existing quality measures in the healthcare industry may not fully reflect the performance of healthcare organizations and providers. Nevertheless, this present study included the time frame of only a single year of data. Future longitudinal studies should investigate the readmission rate of patients compared to payment over a minimum period of three years. Ideally, further research will identify whether the same hospitals with readmission ratios above the Medicare target for three consecutive years still obtain the full amount of reimbursement without financial penalty.\nConclusions: The (VBP) program is intended to provide financial incentives to improve the performance of acute-care hospitals. Thus, HCAHPS surveys are one of the determining factors for hospitals to receive the payments to financially support the hospital. HCAHPS includes the patient's view of specific experiences regarding services received at hospitals. This present study provides evidence that higher payments from the government are associated with higher patient evaluations of service obtained from the hospital. The patient perspectives of service are further reflected by 30-days readmission rates. Furthermore, when readmission rates are higher, patients provided lower service quality ratings of the hospitals. The HRRP was established to penalize hospitals with higher 30-days readmission rates. However, this present study indicates that hospitals are not necessarily penalized for excessively high-readmission rates. In actuality, hospitals received larger reimbursements while having higher readmission rates. Thus, the US policy makers and healthcare providers should base policies and procedures on legitimate comparisons valid across all healthcare environments; moreover, stakeholders must reach a unified stance on the definition and assessment of healthcare quality.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to examine whether patient readmission rates are associated with patient satisfaction and Medicare reimbursement rates in the US hospitals.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The Hospital Compare database was obtained from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) in the US. A total of 2,711 acute care hospitals were analyzed for this present study. The data included patient satisfaction surveys, hospital 30-days readmission ratios for heart failure and pneumonia patients and related payments. Exploratory factor analysis was applied in the first stage to operationalize constructs for scale development. Partial least squares (PLS) modeling analysis via Smart-PLS was utilized for testing the hypotheses.\nFindings: Results indicated that data provided from the Hospital Compare database for the acute care hospitals accurately reflect quality outcomes. Nevertheless, the Medicare Hospital Readmissions Reduction Program (HRRP) did not penalize the hospitals when patients reported lower satisfaction via the Hospital Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems (HCAHPS) scores.\nOriginality/value: The findings suggest that a high-readmission rate is not associated with lower payment. Such results appear to conflict with the goals of value-based purchasing programs, which seek to penalize hospitals financially for higher readmission rates.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Emotions as core building blocks of an experience
|
[
"Research methods",
"Emotions",
"Experience design",
"Biometric methods",
"Experience research",
"Neuroscientific methods"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Statics, the physicist knows, is only an abstraction from dynamics. Dynamics, on the other hand, deals with the general case and might be described as the theory of how and why something does happen. Thus, only dynamics can give us the real, universally valid laws of mechanics; for nature is process; it moves, changes, develops. (Popper, 1957, pp. 39-40)\nUnpacking the experience construct: Experience as a central construct in hospitality, tourism and leisure\nCurrent quantitative approaches to measuring experiences: Both qualitative and quantitative methods have been used in previous studies in an attempt to understand and measure experiences. Even though previous studies have focused on various aspects of the experience, all have acknowledged the importance of investigating not only the customer's internal factors (such as emotions, thoughts, and evaluations triggered by experiences) but also external variables (such as the physical environment, employees and other customers), which seem to have a significant impact on the overall experience and the evaluation of the experience (Falk and Dierking, 2016). In this section, we briefly describe the main quantitative approaches that have been followed to measure (memorable) experiences in leisure, tourism and hospitality. It should be emphasized that our brief discussion of experience measurement techniques is limited to quantitative approaches. Although excellent qualitative research methods have been used to measure experience (Chang and Horng, 2010; Trischler and Zehrer, 2012), discussing these approaches in sufficient depth is beyond the scope of this paper. In addition, we do not provide a comprehensive review of the quantitative literature. Rather, we address the main quantitative methodological approaches that have been followed and illustrate these with a few examples.\nValidity issues in experience measurement: As said, the large majority of studies that attempt to measure experiences in the field of hospitality, tourism and leisure have made use of self-reports, be it via post-experience self-reports (questionnaires and interviews) or in-the-moment self-reports (experience sampling and related methodologies). We are convinced of the usefulness of self-report methodology for measuring complex, predominantly cognitive components of the experience construct (such as attention, involvement, engagement and immersion). However, having established that the ebb and flow of emotions during an experiential episode provides crucial ingredients for transforming the episode into a memorable experience, one may question whether relying exclusively on these traditional research techniques constitutes the optimal research methodology for measuring the emotions that create memorable experiences. Research methods that are based on self-reports inherently fail to fully capture the essential emotional dynamics of experiences in a sufficiently valid manner, for at least four reasons (Larsen and Fredrickson, 1999).\nMeasuring emotions during an experience - a methodological framework and some empirical data: To overcome the validity issues of current approaches to measuring emotions during experiential episodes delineated in the previous section, we propose studying experiences with research methods borrowed from psychology and neuroscience, which are better geared for the task of capturing the successive emotions that shape the memorability of an experience. We see the bodily expression of emotional responses - as measured through recordings of brain activity (electroencephalography, or EEG) and through biometric measures such as facial expression, heart rate and skin conductance - as prime candidates for better understanding the intricate relationship between emotions and experiences (Larsen and Fredrickson, 1999). Here, we present a very brief overview of the rationales behind the different methodologies we propose. In addition, we review some of the efforts that have been undertaken in the field of leisure, tourism and hospitality to use these methodologies for experience research. The available empirical data shares the perspective of aiming to bridge the gap between emotional responses, on the one hand, and experiences, on the other hand.\nDiscussion: Conclusions\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: This paper aims to stimulate the discussion in the fields of hospitality, tourism and leisure on what exactly constitutes \"an experience\" and how to measure it; the authors unpack the experience construct into its core constituent elements, namely, emotions.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The paper reviews insights from psychology and cognitive neuroscience that define experiences as a fine-grained temporal succession of emotions that occur during an experiential episode. Limitations of current methods for measuring experiences are discussed, after which biometric and neuroscientific methods are reviewed that are optimally geared toward measuring emotions, as they occur during an experience with fine temporal detail.\nFindings: An overview is presented of the available studies within the fields of hospitality, tourism and leisure that use these methodologies. These studies show that using these methodologies provides a fruitful methodological approach to measuring experiences in real time.\nPractical implications: Companies are constantly seeking to create memorable experiences for their customers. The proposed research methodologies allow companies to get a more fine-grained image of what impacts customers over the course of their experience and to actively integrate the use of emotions into creating experiences, as emotions are key to making them memorable.\nOriginality/value: The paper sketches the contours of a rapidly emerging framework that unpacks memorable experiences into their constituent element - emotions. It is proposed that this will contribute to a deeper understanding of how consumers experience offerings in the hospitality, tourism and leisure industry.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Using employee gainsharing plans to improve organizational effectiveness
|
[
"Gainsharing",
"Organizational effectiveness",
"Stakeholder analysis"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Recently businesses have been altering employee reward systems by decreasing traditional pay for performance schemes and increasing group pay for performance mechanisms (Welbourne and Cable, 1995; Wiseman, 2001). Gainsharing is the fastest growing non-traditional pay-for-performance reward system. Approximately 26 percent of US companies use some variation of gainsharing and 73 percent of these plans have been implemented since 1980 (Guthrie, 2001; Hanlon and Taylor, 1991). The applications of gainsharing plans have a long history. The use of these plans date back to the 1930s. Unfortunately, theory has not kept up with practice and for years there has been a void of theoretical work on this topic (Bullock and Lawler, 1984; Guthrie, 2001; Graham-Moore and Ross, 1990; Hanlon and Taylor, 1991; Steers and Porter, 1991; White, 1979). In fact, Steers and Porter (1991) go so far as to state that gainsharing has largely been a practice in search of profit, in need of theory to explain it. This statement highlights the success that practitioners have had with gainsharing applications and the frustration that theoreticians have had explaining this success. Some authors have attempted to bridge the gap between application and theory (Goodman and Moore, 1976; Hanlon and Taylor, 1991; Hatcher et al., 1991; Kirkman, 2000; Mawhinney and Gowen, 1990). Unfortunately, these works have concentrated almost exclusively on the individual participative aspects of gainsharing and ignored the organizational effectiveness elements (Hanlon and Taylor, 1991). Vandenberg (1999) makes the only recognizable attempt to link gainsharing to organizational effectiveness to date. The present work attempts to build on current theory by concentrating on the relationship between gainsharing plans and organizational effectiveness.\nGainsharing defined: The rich literature on gainsharing plans has provided no clear definition of gainsharing (Geare, 1975; White, 1979; Schuster, 1983; Doherty et al., 1989). This is largely a function of the \"tailor made\" aspects of many of the plans (Hanlon and Taylor, 1991). Doherty et al. (1989, p. 226) sum up the situation \"Assessing gainsharing continues to be difficult. The diversity of gainsharing plans and the need to adapt even generally known plans (the Scanlon Plan) to fit local circumstances suggest that the definition of gainsharing may never truly become uniform\".One general definition suggests that a gainsharing plan is an organizational system of employee involvement with a financial formula for distributing organization-wide gains (Bullock and Lawler, 1984). Other definitions have acknowledged the exclusion of employee participation for some gainsharing programs. Graham-Moore and Ross (1990, p. 20), state that \"gainsharing involves a measure of productivity combined with a calculation that offers a mutual stake in the sharing of any increase to the total organizational productivity\". A working definition of gainsharing is an organization-wide approach to enhancing organizational effectiveness through a formal system of employee involvement and a group financial bonus (Hanlon and Taylor, 1991).\nOrganizational effectiveness: Not unlike gainsharing, a review of the literature on organizational effectiveness produces little consensus on the meaning of the term. For example, a review of studies of a single criterion of organizational effectiveness has unveiled 19 different variables that have been used (Katz and Kahn, 1978). Similarly, a survey of 17 studies that used multiple criteria of organizational effectiveness produced little consensus and a surprising lack of overlap across various approaches (Steers and Porter, 1991). There have been three primary approaches to define organizational effectiveness: the goal approach, the resource control approach and the multiple constituency approach.The goal approach to organizational effectiveness views an organization as successful if the goals of the dominant coalition are satisfied (Perrow, 1961; Simon, 1964). Most often it is assumed that the ownership is the dominant coalition and therefore, it is their goals that should be satisfied. The second approach to defining organizational effectiveness is the resource munificence approach. Simply stated, if an organization wants to survive it needs to be able to attract the needed resources from the environment to produce its output. Inherent in this approach is the assumption that survival is the ultimate measure of effectiveness. The final approach to defining organizational effectiveness is the multiple constituency approach. In most organizational settings, the varying nature of individual desires makes a unitary concept of effectiveness inadequate (Katz and Kahn, 1978). Proponents of this approach recognize the varying interest of different groups and individuals. The definition of organizational effectiveness is different for different constituents (Tsui, 1990; Vandenberg, 1999). A constituent being a member of a group of individuals holding similar preferences pertaining to the activities of the organization (Zammuto, 1984). Generic constituencies such as owners, employees, and customers are common to most organizations (Tsui, 1990). And, the goals of any two of these groups can be quite different.Combining the three previously mentioned approaches will provide a definition of organizational effectiveness that is satisfying to many organizational constituents (Zammuto, 1984). First, the goal approach can be subsumed in the multiple constituency approach by simply taking the goals of ownership (the assumed dominant coalition) into consideration. Additionally, if the company is unable to gather necessary resources, all the constituents of an organization will eventually be dissatisfied because the organization will become defunct.Consequently, the most appropriate definition of organizational effectiveness would appear to be the net satisfaction of all constituents in the process of gathering and transforming inputs into output in an efficient manner. Note this definition highlights the combined utility of all parties in the acquisition and transformation of a product or service. It is also important to note that measures of organizational effectiveness are value based and time specific (Zammuto, 1984). As such, over time the goals of different constituents will change and thus so will the criteria for measuring organizational effectiveness. In summary, a working definition of organizational effectiveness is the maximum combined utility of the primary constituents. Pictorial representation of organizational effectiveness appears in Figure 1.\nInfluence of gainsharing on organizational effectiveness: Researchers have pointed out that gainsharing should be viewed as a complex organizational development intervention and not simply as an incentive system (Doherty et al., 1989; Hatcher and Ross, 1991; Hatcher et al., 1989; White, 1979). As such, gainsharing plans are not quick fixes to inherent problems. They are devices by which managers can take advantage of a focused organizational strategy by utilizing the combination of employee participation and an incentive system (Miller and Schuster, 1987). The outcomes of enhanced trust, awareness of organizational goals and commitment, though not explicit goals of gainsharing are the stated objectives of most organizational development initiatives. Vandenberg (1999) points out that these are often second-order latent variables that take time to bare fruit. Lawler in Steers and Porter (1991) identifies six kinds of impacts that reward systems can have on organizational effectiveness. Four of which are most pertinent to gainsharing efforts: attraction and retention of employees, motivation of performance, motivation of skill development, and cultural effects.Attraction and retention of employees\nEmpirical research: Although the theoretical work done on gainsharing effectiveness is weak, the empirical evidence in support of gainsharing may even be weaker (White, 1979). Empirical research has been limited, primarily to assessments of employee and managerial attitudes toward the Plan (Schuster, 1984). In discussing the empirical literature on The Scanlon Plan, White (1979) points out the specific weaknesses of the studies done (p. 294): they are individual company studies of unknown generalizability; there is a blatant pro or anti Scanlon Plan bias; and they are summary tablations based on secondary sources of information. Added to the White's list should be; most studies do not measure productivity longitudinally; and employee questionnaires have been the primary source of data.Hatcher et al. (1989) point out that due to weak research designs investigators have not been able to evaluate the effectiveness of participation in gainsharing. Bullock and Lawler (1984) reviewed over 500 plans and noted that of these only 33 cases were reported in enough detail to permit preliminary assessments of productivity. Even when productivity improvements have been documented with rigorous methods (Schuster, 1983) researchers have not been able to determine whether the changes resulted from suggestion contribution or from the motivating effect of the gainsharing bonus. Although these criticisms are valid, there are some important findings in the literature which may support the contention that gainsharing improves organizational effectiveness.Bullock and Lawler (1984) reviewed 33 cases and found that 74 percent of the cases showed improvement on an indicator of overall success. And in more than half of the cases improvements were found on these dimensions: quality of work life, improved labor management relations, better use of materials, greater employee interest, and more suggestions.Schuster (1983, 1984) has found that productivity generally increased sharply in the initial two to three years following the inception of gainsharing plans. In addition to this finding, in most cases employment patterns remained stable even if industry trends were unstable. The later finding may serve as an indication of employee satisfaction. Naff and Pomerleau (1988) found that gainsharing increased the level of productivity while reducing the rate of deficiencies in a Federal Government Agency (Office of Personnel Management). This case provides some support for the idea that gainsharing can be successful in a non-production environment. Kaufman (1992) analyzed 112 responses to 273 questionnaires sent to all known users of Improshare from 1981 to 1988. The data indicates that Improshare has led to significant increases in productivity. The median increases were around 8 percent (mean 12.5 percent) for the first year and the cumulative gains 17.5 percent (mean 22 percent) before they leveled off in year three. Finally, the authors report that a sizable portion of the gains reflects reductions in defects. In analyzing the transition from an individual piecework incentive system to a high-involvement gainsharing plan, Hatcher and Ross (1991) were able to document significant increases in product quality and employee satisfaction. Time series analysis taken before and after the intervention showed a significant decrease in grievances and increase in product quality. Finally, survey responses obtained before and after the transition showed improvements in perceptions of teamwork and concern for performance.To summarize, the findings of improved productivity following gainsharing implementation have been consistent (Hatcher and Ross, 1991). Although not as strong as the evidence concerning productivity, studies which have measured product quality and employee satisfaction support the claim that gainsharing improves these measures (Guthrie, 2001; Wiseman, 2001). It would appear that gainsharing may in fact meet the criteria of organizational effectiveness. However, these findings must be viewed with caution for several reasons. First, failed efforts are less likely to be described and published than successes. Second, none of the studies described above evaluated the relative importance of increased effort or increased creativity. Consequently, the question still remains \"why does gainsharing improve these measures of organizational effectiveness?\". Finally, none of the aforementioned studies measured the combined satisfaction level of the three primary constituent groups.\nFactors that influence success/failure: The implementation of a gainsharing plan does not insure success. Several studies have assessed the causes and correlates of success or failure of gainsharing plans. Lawler (1986) notes that organizations with less than 500 employees tend to benefit most from gainsharing plans. Additionally, gainsharing generally fits well with organizations having simple financial measures, limited overtime, little new investment planned, stable product markets, cost controllable by employees, and expandable markets. Moreover, plan success is directly associated with employee interests and competency, participative management, high levels of trust, and work flow interdependence.White (1979) found that participative decision making, managerial attitudes toward the plan, and the number of years an organization had used the plan affected Scanlon Plan success in the 23 organizations he studied. White also reports that neither company size nor technology were associated with plan success.Hatcher et al. (1989) surveyed 100 employees and found that the number of suggestions an employee contributed was positively related to job complexity. Suggestion making was positively related to assisting behavior, but only for employees reporting high levels of job complexity. Suggestion making was not related to role prescribed behavior. Non-contribution was most often caused by apathy or negative attitudes toward management. These authors found that about 80 percent of the workforce contributed suggestions in an active plan. Finally, the average number of gainsharing suggestions per employee ranged from 1.08 to 2.40 (Hatcher et al., 1991).Hanlon and Taylor (1991) examined the effects of communication variables on plan success. They found that gainsharing promotes high levels of information sharing and positive work related communication. Further, without good communication a plan is not likely to succeed. Gowen (1991) points out that a survey of 17 of the larger American trade unions demonstrated that up to 90 percent of union officers hold favorable attitudes toward gainsharing programs. Gowen and Jennings (1991) surveyed 179 production employees on a longitudinal basis to determine the effects of group size and employee participation on productivity improvements. The results indicate that employee participation is important, but group size is not a moderating factor in the success of gainsharing programs.Iberman (1995) successfully summarizes the \"Rules for Success\".* The payout formula must be understandable and reasonable. Employee education must accompany the introduction of the bonus formula. This will serve to increase understanding and trust.* Employee involvement in devising the plan is a key determinant of plan success. Involvement will increase commitment and understanding.* Monetary rewards should follow performance will minimal delay. Monthly payouts seem to function best logistically and motivationally.* Plans need to be guided by an expert from the beginning. They also should be tailor-made for the particular business in question.In summary, research shows that the level of employee participation is an important factor determining gainsharing success. This factor may in turn be influenced by job complexity and managerial communication. Finally, there is a great deal of confusion over the effect group size has on plan success or failure. Hence, no conclusion can be drawn with regard to the effect this variable has on gainsharing plan success. There are a few rules for success which include employee education, understanding, involvement, timely payouts, and expert administration.\nConclusion: Research on the effects gainsharing has on organizational effectiveness has been scant. The reason for this may be that researchers have been unable to work with current definitions of organizational effectiveness. This paper presents a general model of organizational effectiveness. Building on the aforementioned general model, the specific aspects of gainsharing that interact to determine effectiveness are discussed. A summation of the empirical literature to date provides support for the contention that gainsharing plans improve organizational effectiveness. However, further empirical work is needed to prove or disprove this contention.Specifically, empirical work must be done to determine the relative importance of the individual's physical performance versus mental effort (the levers in the model) after gainsharing intervention. Finally, there has been no study that has comprehensively measured organizational effectiveness by surveying all organizational constituents. This comprehensive measure of the effects gainsharing has on organizational effectiveness is badly needed.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: - To introduce a conceptual model for increasing the likelihood that gainsharing plans will be successfully implemented.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - The literature on gainsharing plans is rich in descriptions of how individual cases were successful or unsuccessful owing to various situational variables. Research on the effects gainsharing plans have on organizational effectiveness is much needed. The present paper builds on current research by providing a general model of factors that determine whether a particular gainsharing effort will increase organizational effectiveness. A review of the empirical literature provides support for the model presented.\nFindings: - Gainsharing can be an important and successful intervention for many organizations. The keys to success are involving all stakeholders in the development of the plan, developing an easy to understand formula for sharing gains, maintaining transparency, and ensuring that the plan's goals are in line with the organization's goals.\nOriginality/value: - Develops a conceptual model which can be used by many organizations in an attempt to use gainsharing as a means to increase organizational effectiveness. Considerations for future research are discussed.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Career challenges for female managers in Egyptian hotels
|
[
"Women workers",
"Management personnel",
"Careers",
"Hotels",
"Egypt"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction and background: Since females constitute a significant proportion of the labor force in several countries, awareness of the factors and the constraints that might affect their participation is increasingly required for their managers (Burrell et al., 1997). Despite the significant number of females working in the hospitality field worldwide, only a few of them succeeded to reach top managerial positions. In order to investigate the reasons for the absence of females in top management, a thorough review of the barriers and challenges confronting them proved to be exceedingly needed.It is necessary to admit that females' failure in competing with their counterparts in top positions is not restricted to the hospitality industry. Restraining stereotypes of females' capabilities in the business sphere persist everywhere. Such stereotypes are recognized in the fields of business communication skills and management discourse as well as in others (Holmes et al., 2003). The experience of many women striving for the top levels in business survives, accompanied with the fact that they must work harder, often struggling with extraordinary demands on their personal lives to earn the same recognition or success as men (Rowe, 1999).Females' status and career advancement in the hospitality field is an issue of particular importance in an industry characterized by an assorted workforce (Snyder, 1993). Woods and Viehland (2000) found that although practitioners and researchers were concerned with females' status in hotel management, only a few empirical studies examined this topic. Whether the issue has been scrupulously studied or not, relevant literature clarified that it was widely debated (Mann and Seacord, 2003; Del Sesto, 1993).Some studies dealt with females' issues in the hospitality industry by comparing them with their male counterparts. Burke and Collins (2001) compared between male and female managers regarding their adopted managerial styles. Female managers self-reported a more interactive style than their male counterparts. Talbot (2003) found that female managers were expected to have well-developed \"people\" skills. However, the stereotype suggested that they were not good at giving directives, running meetings and challenging views.Female managers' profile and challenges had been the concern of several studies as well. Diaz and Umbreit (1995) studied the profile of female managers in the USA, and stated that females almost constituted 41 percent of hospitality managers. Woods et al. (1998) found that in large hotels (over 500 rooms) only 2.6 of the managers were females. Crafts and Loanna (1995) studied the challenges faced by female managers in educational food service operations. Andorka (1998) was very optimistic concerning the future view of female managers in the hospitality industry worldwide. Shinew and Arnold (1998) studied gender discrimination in public service agencies. They reported that female managers were discriminated against male managers in promotional opportunities. Discrimination in pay, promotion and other aspects has been reported in further studies (Brownell, 1994; Woods and Kavanaugh, 1994).Woods and Viehland (2000) have studied positions occupied by female managers in the hospitality industry. MacVicar et al. (2000) examined the amount of female labor in the Scottish economy where females were concentrated in a relatively small number of areas in the service sector and occupied lower occupational grades than males. Li and Leung (2001) reported that female advancement in the hospitality industry has been an issue of interest in Europe and North America while little concern has been detected in Asian countries. This topic was not of significant importance in the Middle East either.The present study is an attempt to shed light on females' status in the hospitality field. It is primarily the first time for such a topic to be dealt with in Egypt. The study aims at providing a profile of female managers in Egypt, determining their positions in hotel departments and investigating the challenges preventing them from reaching the top of the management pyramid.\nMethodology: Research sample\nResults: Profile of respondents\nDiscussion: The study findings provided a pattern of the employment of female managers in the Egyptian five-star hotels. Apparently, females occupy positions in specific departments, namely; the \"room division\" and the \"marketing\" departments. The reasons might be attributed to regarding females as being more attractive in handling people-oriented positions, as well as considering them more successful in dealing with public and gaining much more acceptance in comparison to their male counterparts. Positions in \"human resources\" departments, on the other hand, were surprisingly not occupied by a large proportion of females (only 7.9 percent). This is regardless of it being one of the departments that suits feminine nature and where females would best demonstrate their talents and abilities. Moreover, female managers were scarce in some positions as in food and beverage, financial and recreational departments. Such a phenomenon might be attributed to the nature of these departments as they would require long working hours, thus creating an exhausted fully stressed manager (Brownell, 1998).Such findings differed from those of Woods and Viehland (2000) who mentioned that the top managerial positions occupied by females in the USA were general manager, director of sales and marketing, controller and food and beverage manager. Pointing out the reasons behind this disparity is an intricate task. Apparently females in the Egyptian hospitality industry are reluctant in accepting positions requiring long working hours such as \"financial controller\" or with difficult working environment as \"food and beverage manager\". Moreover, a female holding a \"general manager\" position is still too complicated a situation to be accepted in the Middle East culture. Business there is generally a men's world, not to mention that precedence in management must be prevailed by males. Therefore, it is an extremely rigid road for females to find an easy chance to reach such managerial positions.While Li and Leung (2001) reported that female managers in Asian hotels belonged to the age category of 20-39, the study of the female managers' profile indicated that they mostly belonged to a higher age category (40-49). Such a difference is likely to occur because in the Middle East societies most females get married early and devote themselves to work later. Although the results confirmed that a considerable proportion (25 percent) of female managers had a long experience in the hospitality field, a few of them hardly occupied top management positions.The stepwise multiple regression analysis revealed factors that were significantly correlated to the existence of challenges. Results appeared to reject the findings confirming that discrimination disappeared from the hospitality work environment. It was therefore not possible to accept what was reported by Diaz and Umbreit (1995), who declared that the hospitality industry was gender neutral. The study revealed that gender discrimination was considered the most influential factor predicting the existence of challenges.Although it was widely accepted that successful recovery effort strengthened females' situations in the business environment, the current study provided empirical evidence that more efforts are still required in the hospitality field. The study confirmed the findings of Woods and Kavanaugh (1994) according to whom gender discrimination was an invisible barrier that kept women from reaching top positions in many management circles. It is particularly of importance that further studies concerning gender discrimination should be undertaken in Egypt. In oriental societies where culture still predominates the way has been paved for such discriminations.Relationships at work were considered as the second important predictor. Females argued that the kind of relationships taking place at work was one of the factors preventing them from advancement. They believed it was easier to keep good working relationships among males rather than when females were involved. They also perceived it was always much easier for their male counterparts to have stronger relations with higher management, which eventually affected their promotional opportunities. In the Middle East region much respect is given to cultural traditions that precisely define male-female relations, and thus add more regulations to such relations particularly in a work setting. Top managers should thus be aware of such limitations and not allow them to be the cause of preventing females from their advancement privileges.Mentor support was the third predictor of the existence of challenges. Females argued that, in comparison with their male counterparts, they did not receive equal support from their mentors. Furthermore they considered mentor support as one of the challenges that they confronted in their career advancements. It was then evident that limited opportunities in the business were offered to females.The lack of network access was the fourth important factor. The results conformed to those of Li and Leung (2001) as females declared that they lacked both internal and external network access, e.g. governmental, business, professional and social. Results might as well be due to cultural values.\nConclusion, recommendation and implications: The results of the study depicted a negative image of female management advancement in the hospitality industry top positions. Being still vastly underrepresented in top management and corporate boards, the majority of female managers are not in situations that would lead them to the positions of general managers. This was evident as only three females succeeded in breaking the ceiling and reaching top positions. On the other hand, the industry might be acclaimed for providing females with management positions in some departments especially in room division and marketing departments.In an attempt to detect the factors preventing female managers from reaching the glass ceiling, the study reported gender discrimination, relationships at work, gender stereotyping and cultural conflict as being significantly correlated to the existence of challenges.The stepwise multiple regression showed that 35.5 percent of the variance in the existence of challenges could be explained by the existence of gender discrimination, relationships at work, mentor support and lack of network access. In the mean time, the study created a new insight for hospitality industry researchers to examine other predictors of challenges and to study female career advancements aiming at providing more opportunities for females to move up and to overcome challenges and barriers.In fact, females are not going to actuate the positions they deserve unless more females are promoted for the top positions. In order to achieve that, the participation of females in executive positions would greatly depend on denying Klenke's (2003) statement: \"the double standard continues at the top. A man manager can legitimately and unquestioningly surround himself with other men, but a female who selects or promotes other females to the top positions is heavily scrutinized\".It is hoped that the results of this study would help alleviate the challenges that female managers face in hospitality by increasing awareness, and illustrating the predominance of several factors prohibiting females' advancement within the industry. It might be considered a step forward in understanding the situation of females in the hospitality industry in the Middle East region. It also highlights the fact that career advancement requisites and barriers are somehow linked to culture and should not be studied apart from social impacts. Finally, it is prospected that the study findings will not only be of academic concern, but will also be beneficial for industry leaders and practitioners in practical application. It is therefore believed that future studies concerned with different female issues in the industry should be diagnosed.A wider view of the requisites of profiting from females in the intensive labor hospitality industry must prevail. Industry executives, managers and practitioners should take practical steps to alleviate the existing barriers facing females. It should be taken into account that females represent an affluent source for feeding the industry with its needs of qualified calibers. Hence, it is indispensable to widen the perceptive of the industry practitioners concerning the necessity of lessening challenges facing females, especially those escorting to male-female work relations, gender stereotyping errors as well as mentor support and net work access barriers. Females should be offered further opportunities to exist widely in other departments; namely food and beverage, financial and recreational departments. Such recommended practices could certainly be achieved through continuous awareness, tailored training programs and vigilant feedback from an alert and attentive management to the industry needs and problems.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: - This paper aims at providing a profile of female managers in Egypt, determining their positions in hotel departments, and investigating the challenges preventing them from reaching the top management positions.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - A sample of female managers in five star hotels was randomly selected, followed by an in-depth interview conducted with 56 female managers. This sample represented 37.6 percent of the total population.\nFindings: - The results of the study depicted that the majority of female managers were not in situations that would lead them to the positions of general managers. The study detected several factors preventing female managers from reaching the glass ceiling. The stepwise multiple regression showed that 35.5 percent of the variance in the existence of challenges could be explained by four factors; gender discrimination, relationships at work, mentor support and lack of network access.\nResearch limitations/implications: - This study might be considered as a first step in understanding the situation of females in the hospitality industry in the Middle East region. Future studies concerned with different female issues in the industry should be diagnosed.\nOriginality/value: - It is hoped that the results of the study would help alleviate the challenges that female managers face by increasing awareness, and illustrating the predominance of several factors prohibiting females' advancement within the hospitality industry. It is prospected that the study findings will not only be of academic concern, but will also be beneficial for industry leaders and practitioners in practical application.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
Academic leadership and Lean Six Sigma: A novel approach to systematic literature review using design of experiments
|
[
"Design of experiments",
"Lean Six Sigma",
"Systematic literature review",
"Higher education",
"Academic leadership",
"Taguchi methods"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: In a globalised world, all countries are trying to educate their people to enable their nation to prosper using World class universities. A term used to help distinguish between the great and the good, based in the USA and UK, they have recognised that globalisation is creating a series of trends which academic leaders must address:\nSystematic literature review: A systematic literature review attempts to collate all empirical evidence that fits pre-specified eligibility criteria in order to answer a specific research question and is widely used by the medical research community to pull together the relevant research in a particular field to meet a particular research question. A good systematic review uses explicit, systematic, repeatable methods that are selected with a view to minimising bias, thus providing more reliable findings compared to traditional approaches, from which conclusions can be drawn and decisions made (Antman et al., 1992; Oxman and Guyatt, 1993).\nConducting a DoE: DoE enables researchers to \"optimise\" their products or processes they need to identify the \"output\" characteristics they are interested in optimising and modelling. Then the individual factors, or inputs, need to be selected. These are usually drawn from a larger pool of inputs and are regarded as the \"key process inputs\"; sometimes identified through a filtering experiment or other such systematic way to identify the important factors. The \"settings\" or levels that these factors are to be modelled at are then decided. The simplest design assumes that all relationships are linear, and that simply picking a low and high setting is sufficient.\nFiltering a complex design using Taguchi: Genichi Taguchi (1924-2012) was an electrical engineer who developed a variety of statistical and non-statistical techniques which both delighted and frustrated western engineers and mathematicians. However, his approach to filtering factors is widely used by the Six Sigma community as a \"first cut\" at identifying the key input characteristics of a product or process.\nCase study: The following case study relates to the authors wish to identify any gaps in research relating to academic leadership and the successful implementing of change using business improvement techniques such as Lean, Six Sigma, Lean Six Sigma, Maturity Model, Continuous Improvement and Total Quality Management. The main tool used to identify these gaps would be a systematic literature review.\nValidation exercise: To validate the process undertaken above, the process was repeated replacing the terms academic leadership and university with leadership, with the aim of identifying a significant number of the 1,000 articles which exist linking leadership with Lean, Six Sigma and Lean Six Sigma.\nUsing traditional literature review analysis: There is no published research directly linking the term \"Academic Leadership\" with \"Lean Six Sigma.\" However, when the search criterion was widened there are references to leadership requirements of universities in implementing Lean Six Sigma in an academic environment, and several case studies have been identified across the world to support the evidence that Lean Six Sigma can work in a university setting.\nUsing Taguchi-specific techniques: One of the main objectives of using DoE is the ability to study the effect inputs have on output characteristics and within Taguchi experiments it is possible to complete what is known as a \"Main Effects\" plot. Figure 1 demonstrates a Main Effects plot for the case study linking University with six business improvement approaches.\nConclusion: DoE is a powerful technique for process understanding and has been rarely used outside of manufacturing. This paper has demonstrated the use of DoE as an approach to structure a systematic literature review and, through the verification exercise, dispelled the myth that systematic literature reviews run the risk of missing key pieces of research, especially if not all combinations of search strings are used. Finally DoE also can add additional analysis tools, such as the Main Effects plots, to assist the research in understanding which key search strings matter. It is hoped that the reader can appreciate the power of this tool in identifying gaps in research and see the efficiency and effectiveness of the method.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to demonstrate the ability to researchers of using design of experiments (DoE) as a structured and systematic approach to performing systematic literature reviews. The authors demonstrate a simple case study illustrating the application of DoE in executing a systematic literature review on two popular topics in higher education: academic leadership and Lean Six Sigma.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The methodology involves the systematic literature review of linking academic leadership with terms such as Lean, Six Sigma, Total Quality Management, Maturity Model and Continuous Improvement. The main tool used to structure the systematic literature review is a Taguchi Orthogonal Array design, specifically an L16 grid and the method is verified by conducting another review, replacing the term academic leadership with simply leadership.\nFindings: The approach identified at first no research papers linking the terms; however, when academic leadership was replaced with university, 19 research papers where discovered. The verification exercise, linking just leadership with the other search string generated over 1,000 results - demonstrating that the tool can find large volumes of articles if they exist, the search was completed for a ten year time frame - 2004 to 2014.\nResearch limitations/implications: The case study focussed on a field which is known to have little current research and the verification exercise deliberately targeted a known large body of research. The authors will continue to use the approach and refine the technique over time.\nPractical implications: This approach would help any researcher despite of their discipline to identify opportunities and gaps in the current literature.\nOriginality/value: The paper shows how DoE can be used in an academic research-based process. No other literature review approach currently exists which uses Taguchi approach to DoE to filter the search criteria.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
Hotel loyalty programs: how valuable is valuable enough?
|
[
"Hospitality industry",
"Active loyalty",
"Loyalty programs",
"Perceived program value"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Loyalty programs comprise a commonly practiced marketing strategy to maintain customer relationships and generate return business (Hoffman and Lowitt, 2008; McCall and Voorhees, 2010). Despite the proliferation of loyalty programs over the past three decades, some industry observers criticize these programs for not accomplishing enough (Kim et al., 2009; Sharp and Sharp, 1997; Skogland and Siguaw, 2004); moreover, their profitability is questionable (Berman, 2006; Dowling and Uncles, 1997). Many researchers have posited doubt on whether loyalty programs actually work (e.g. Dowling and Uncles, 1997; O'Brien and Jones, 1995). They argue that many of the establishments of loyalty programs are, in fact, copying behaviors and that loyalty programs in marketplaces generally fail to understand customer behaviors and expectations (Sharp and Sharp, 1997; Wansink, 2003).\nLiterature review: Loyalty programs in the hospitality industry\nMethodology: Industry investigation\nResults and findings: Industry practice of hotel loyalty programs\nConclusions: Theoretical implications\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: This study attempts to examine customers' perceived value of hotel loyalty programs, to identify the relationship between perceived program value and active loyalty, and to examine the effect of perceived program value in determining customers' active loyalty.\nDesign/methodology/approach: An extensive sample of 15,000 respondents was randomly selected from a pool of US domestic tourists who previously requested tourism information from the Convention and Visitor's Bureau (CVB) websites across the country. The data for this study were collected using online survey questionnaires. The researchers sent out e-mails, embedding a link to a brief questionnaire and consent form to potential respondents.\nFindings: This study substantiates the impact of perceived program value, particularly the psychological value, on active loyalty. In addition, the study identifies significant differences in perceived financial value and externality value of the loyalty programs.\nOriginality/value: This study breaks down loyalty program practices into individual brand levels and compares the perceived program value of 11 major hotel loyalty programs. This provides a better understanding of the perceived program value that may affect active loyalty and explains how the value varies by different hotel loyalty programs. This study offers recommendations on how hotels might craft value opportunities to cultivate the continued engagement of consumers. The results of this study offer insights into the under-researched domain of the drivers of active loyalty in the hospitality context and suggest methods for better strategic management of this loyalty form.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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Fitting in organizational values: The mediating role of person-organization fit between CEO charismatic leadership and employee outcomes
|
[
"Chief executives",
"Charisma",
"Leadership",
"Organizational culture",
"Regression analysis",
"Taiwan"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: In the past 20 years, a number of researchers have begun to investigate the effects of charismatic leadership. Scholars often use different terms to describe this specific type of leadership, such as \"charismatic\" (House, 1977), \"transformational\" (Burns, 1978; Bass, 1985), \"visionary\" (Bennis and Nanus, 1985), or \"value-based\" (House et al., 1998) leadership. The terms \"charismatic leadership\" or \"charisma\" is better for describing the core essence of such leadership, which means that the leader has extraordinary power to influence followers and is able to obtain a special type of leader-follower relationship (Conger and Kanungo, 1998).Charismatic leadership presents a different paradigm from other \"more traditional\" leadership styles such as transactional leadership. Based on a rational leader-member exchange relationship, transactional leaders emphasize urging subordinates to accomplish the set goals by providing appropriate incentives and usually take subordinates' needs, preferences and values as inherent. On the other hand, charismatic leaders put emphasis on changing subordinates' needs, values, self-concepts, and goals. A number of authors have noted that charismatic leaders usually demonstrate symbolic and meaningful behavior such as proclaiming the significance of a task, advocating ideological values and providing great vision, in order to provoke affective and cognitive consequences among subordinates, such as emotional attachment to and trust in leaders, motivation arousal, and enhanced self-efficacy (Shamir et al., 1993; Conger and Kanungo, 1998; House et al., 1998).Briefly speaking, charismatic leadership is a leading process concerning value transformation. However, past research has had very few investigations on this underlying process (Yukl, 1999; Fiol et al., 1999). Besides, there is no theoretical model clearly explaining how a charismatic leader can transform a subordinate's values into the leader's values, and furthermore make them the shared values of the organization. In addition, although organizational culture researchers (e.g. Schein, 1992) have suggested there is an interactive relationship between an organization's top leaders and organizational culture, the empirical data remains scant. Moreover, past research usually put more attention on outcome variables which are leader-related (e.g. trust in leader) or task-relevant (e.g. efficacy perception), but organization-relevant variables (e.g. organizational commitment) have been neglected in charismatic leadership studies (Shamir et al., 1998). Thus, we proposed a value-fit charismatic leadership model to fill the theoretical gaps described above, and which suggested that the CEO's charisma can enhance person-organization values fit among followers and, in turn, lead to their outcome variables. The purpose of this study was to investigate the relationships between CEO charismatic leadership, person-organization values fit and employee outcomes. We also examined the mediating effect of person-organization values fit on the relationships between charismatic leadership and employee outcomes.\nTheoretical background and hypotheses: Charismatic leadership and follower outcomes\nMethod: Participant and data collection\nResults: Table I provides the means, standard deviations, reliability coefficients, and zero-order correlations for all study variables. At the zero-correlation level, charismatic leadership was significantly related to all three employee outcome variables (r=0.29, p<0.01 to r=0.34, p<0.001) and person-organization values fit (r=-0.19, p<0.05). Person-organization values fit had a significant negative relationship with all three employee outcomes (r=-0.29, p<0.001 to r=-0.32, p<0.001).Table II shows the block regression results for CEO charismatic leadership and person-organization values fit on employee outcomes. H1 proposed that CEO charismatic leadership has a positive relationship on employee outcomes. After controlling the demographic variables, charismatic leadership still has significant unique effects on all three employee outcomes (for extra effort to work, DR2 = 0.11, p<0.01; b=0.35, p<0.001; for satisfaction with the CEO, DR2 = 0.10, p<0.001; b=0.33, p<0.001; for organizational commitment, DR2 = 0.09, p<0.01; b=0.31, p<0.01). Thus, the first hypothesis was supported.H2 proposed that CEO charismatic leadership has a direct positive relationship with person-organization values fit. After controlling the demographic variables, charismatic leadership still has a significant unique effect on person-organization values fit (DR2=0.05, p< 0.05; b=-0.20, p< 0.05). Thus, the second hypothesis was supported.H3 proposed that person-organization values fit has a direct negative effect on employee outcomes. After controlling the demographic variables, person-organization values fit still has significant and unique effects on all three employee outcomes (for extra effort to work, DR2 = 0.11, p<0.001; b=-0.33, p<0.001; for satisfaction with the CEO, DR2 = 0.10, p<0.001; b=-0.33, p<0.001; for organizational commitment, DR2 = 0.15, p<0.001; b=-0.40, p<0.001). Thus, the third hypothesis was supported.H4 proposed that person-organization values fit has a mediating effect on the relationship between CEO charismatic leadership and employee outcomes. Following the procedure suggested by James and Brett (1984), we tested our mediating hypothesis. Table II shows that the unique effects of charismatic leadership on employee outcomes are significant (see M2, M5 and M8), the unique effect of charismatic leadership on person-organization values fit is significant (see M1), and the unique effects of person-organization values fit on employee outcomes are also significant (see M3, M6 and M9). Putting all the variables into the block regression model, the unique effects of charismatic leadership on employee outcomes reduce significantly (for extra effort to work, DR2 reduces from 0.11 to 0.08, b reduces from 0.35 to 0.29; for satisfaction with the CEO, DR2 reduces from 0.10 to 0.07, b reduces from 0.33 to 0.27; for organizational commitment, DR2 reduces from 0.09 to 0.05, b reduces from 0.31 to 0.24). In addition, the unique effects of person-organization values fit are still significant (see M4, M7 and M10, where DR2 from 0.07, p < 0.01 to 0.11, p<0.001; b from -0.28, p<0.01 to -0.35, p < 0.001). All together, these results reveal that the relationships between CEO charismatic leadership and all three employee outcomes are partially mediated by person-organization values fit since charismatic leadership still has significant direct effects on employee outcomes (DR2 from 0.05, p < 0.01 to 0.08, p< 0.01; b from 0.24, p<0.01 to 0.29, p<0.01). Thus, the fourth hypothesis was partially supported.\nDiscussion: This study proposed a value-fit model of charismatic leadership in organizations, which shows how CEO charismatic leadership can influence employee outcomes such as extra effort to work, satisfaction with the CEO and organizational commitment through person-organization values fit.According to our results, we demonstrated that charismatic leadership has significant effects on employee outcomes. Our findings also provided evidence that the relationship between charismatic leadership and person-organization values fit is significant. Furthermore, our analysis also showed the significant effects of person-organization values fit on employee outcomes.Previous studies have consistently shown that charismatic leadership has significant effects on follower outcomes (Fuller et al., 1996; Lowe et al., 1996). Our findings also showed the same pattern of relationship between charismatic leadership and follower outcomes. Consistent with previous research about person-organization fit (Cheng, 1993; O'Reilly et al., 1991), our results showed that person-organization values fit could predict extra effort to work, satisfaction with the leader and organizational commitment. Additionally, our findings about the positive relationship between charismatic leadership and person-organization values fit also confirm results from previous studies about the roles of top managers for shaping and creating organizational culture (Schein, 1992).However, although it was found that the mediating effect of person-organization values fit on the relationship between CEO charismatic leadership and employee outcomes is significant, CEO charismatic leadership still has some direct effects on outcome variables. This issue needs to be further clarified or even reconsidered. First, the direct effects of charismatic leadership may imply the influence process of charismatic leadership on follower outcomes could be more complicated than we originally proposed. We suggest that the relationship between charismatic leadership and person-organization values fit may also exist with some other mediators. For example, there may be dual routes, one through organization-leader values fit, and the other through follower-leader values fit. If so, each route may have its unique effect on outcome variables (Cheng, 1993; Meglino et al., 1989).Second, the various effects of each route may involve the issue of level of analysis. Waldman and Yammarino (1999) have indicated that the level of measures and statistical analysis must match the level of theoretical constructs. Basically, our study considers culture-shaping behavior of CEO charismatic leadership as an organizational level fact, so such behavior should have greater effects on organization-relevant outcomes. On the other hand, subordinate-shaping behavior is considered as a dyadic or group-level phenomenon, so it should have relatively higher influence on individual-relevant or group-relevant outcomes. In short, we should further clarify the issue of level of analysis for each influence route in order to improve our model's validity.Third, the behavioral dimensions of charismatic leadership also need to be clarified. Although researchers have some kind of agreement on the behavior domain of charismatic leadership, the precise behavioral dimensions still remain inconsistent (Conger and Kanungo, 1998; Bass and Avolio, 1990; Shamir et al., 1998). Therefore, in order to accumulate more empirical evidence for this current model, it is necessary to redevelop an appropriate measurement for charismatic leadership behavior based on our culture-shaping and subordinate-shaping constructs.There are limitations in our research that should be mentioned. First, this study only used extra effort at work, satisfaction with the CEO and organizational commitment as the outcome variables, which limit the possibility of comparing our results with different outcome variables. Second, since this research only collected cross-sectional data, it is not appropriate to infer strong causal effect between variables. Therefore, collecting longitudinal data for time-lag analysis may be a good approach for future research. Third, even though the hierarchical linear model (HLM) is more suitable for analyzing data from different levels, we did not use this method since we only got small samples from each company.Although there are some limitations, our results are still reliable and can provide several important theoretical implications. First, as many researchers have indicated, investigation on the influence processes of charismatic leadership can assist the development of charismatic leadership theories (Yukl, 1999). Our study provides a model with empirical support to show that charismatic leadership can have a profound effect on employee outcomes through improving person-organization values fit. Second, this study offers a bridge to link the strategic leadership theory and organizational culture theory. Our empirical findings show that organizational culture and values fit play an important role in the leading process. Third, for the controversy concerning whether it is possible for top-level leaders to have substantial effects on the overall performance of the organization (Waldman and Yammarino, 1999), this research provides some insight about the ways in which charismatic CEOs might have substantial effects on organizational effectiveness.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: - The current leadership literature has paid little attention to understanding the intervening mechanism by which leaders influence followers. In order to partially bridge this gap, the article aims to present a value-fit charismatic leadership theory which focusses on the key intervening mechanism - person-organization values fit.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - The model was tested empirically on 180 participants, including 51 managers and 129 employees from 37 large-scale companies in Taiwan.\nFindings: - Based on the block regression analysis, the results showed that CEO charismatic leadership has both direct and indirect effects on employees' extra effort to work, satisfaction with the CEO, as well as organizational commitment, which are mediated by employees' perceived person-organization values fit. The findings also provided evidence that the relationship between charismatic leadership and person-organization values fit is significant. Furthermore, the analysis also showed the significant effects of person-organization values fit on employee outcomes.\nOriginality/value: - The study shows how CEO charismatic leadership can, through the mediating effect of person-organization values fit, have profound influence on employee outcomes.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
A trust-risk perspective on social commerce use: an examination of the biasing role of habit
|
[
"Social commerce",
"Trust",
"Habit",
"Perceived risk"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: Social commerce has emerged as a new form of electronic commerce that employs social media features in addition to the traditional commerce facilities. Social commerce enables user interactions for the purpose of sharing information about transactions and products and provides users with more information about the products or services they purchase (Wang and Zhang, 2012). To do so, social commerce users share their product/service-related opinions and experiences and seek other users' advice and recommendations. Such sites (e.g. Etsy, Pinterest, Facebook/Instagram fan pages) have emerged in recent years, in tandem with the growth in popularity of social media. It is expected that this growth would continue and the global revenue of social commerce will reach USD80 billion by 2020 (HnyB Insights, 2012). Given its market potential, it is important to understand what drives users' social interaction and purchasing behavior on social commerce sites.\n2. Conceptual background: 2.1 Drivers of social commerce use\n3. Research model and hypotheses: 3.1 Commerce risk effect\n4. Research methodology: The study commenced with a pilot study using a sample of 60 graduate students who had social commerce use experience as a means to check the reliability and validity of the measurement scales. Then, it used the validated scales for gathering online survey responses from 187 active users of etsy.com. Etsy is a popular social commerce website which has over 20 million active users. Users of this website can create a profile which includes their personal information, follow other members, join different groups, and engage in social activities such as liking, commenting on others' posts, etc. In order to reach these users, we employed a market research firm which distributed the online survey to active users of etsy.com. We only considered users who have purchased from the website in the past two months in order to ensure familiarity with the site and established perceptions regarding the site and its users. These data were then subjected to structural equation modeling analyses for model validation.\n5. Data analysis and results: The proposed model was assessed using PLS techniques with Smart PLS 3.0 (Ringle et al., 2015) and bootstrapping with 500 resamples (Gil-Garcia, 2008).\n6. Discussion and implications: This study sought to extend the trust-risk perspective to the context of social commerce in two directions: by including social reflections (trust in members of the website) in the model, and by considering how the habituation conditions under which many users of such sites operate, can attenuate rational trust-risk reflection effects on the behavioral choices of users. The first objective extends our understanding of social commerce use and represents an application of the trust-risk perspective in the social commerce context. The second one integrates the trust-risk perspective with habit theories and potentially represents a broader contribution which can apply to any IS toward which some users develop use habit. The combined trust-risk-habit perspective taken in this study suggests that habit reduces the attention people give to trust-risk reflections when making behavioral choices in the context of IS use.\n7. Conclusion: This study extends and integrates social commerce, trust-risk and habit theories and perspectives by recognizing the social nature of social commerce which makes it a unique context and accounting for the biasing effects of habituation. Relaying and integrating such perspectives, it sought to examine the trust and risk drivers of users' future purchasing decisions in the social commerce context. It also sought to examine how the rational consideration of such factors is attenuated by social commerce use habit. The results demonstrate that typical rational considerations, especially trust and risk reflections, which often drive online purchase decisions diminish and even become irrelevant when social commerce use becomes habituated. We call for future research to extend this trust-risk-habit perspective and further examine how these factors influence users' decisions in other IS use contexts.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: Social commerce websites have emerged as new platforms which integrate social media features with traditional commerce aspects to enhance users' purchasing experience. The purpose of this paper is to examine the role of social factors such as trust toward site members in determining users' trust and risk evaluations, and the role of social commerce use habit in attenuating users' rational risk and trust considerations for developing purchase intentions.\nDesign/methodology/approach: Relying on the risk deterrence perspective and rational decision-making models involving trust and habit, this study proposes a set of hypotheses which are tested through analyzing survey data using structural equation modeling techniques.\nFindings: Results show that commerce risk deters purchasing intentions; trust toward the social commerce website increases users' purchasing intentions; and trust toward the site members indirectly increases purchasing intentions. Moreover, trust toward site members reduces perceived commerce risk. Findings also show that habit modulates trust and risk effects on use decisions in this context; habit moderates (weakens) the relationships between commerce risk and purchase intentions and between trust toward the social commerce site and purchase intentions.\nOriginality/value: This study extends theories on decision making in social settings such as in the case of social commerce. It does so by accounting for unique modulating effects of habit in social settings in which social aspects such as trust in other members and risk are unique and important.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
The globalization of business education: through the lens of semiglobalization
|
[
"Globalization",
"Business studies",
"Education"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n__NO_TITLE__: Business schools have, in recent years, made significant commitments to globalizing what they teach. There is nonetheless a general sense that rhetoric in this regard has outpaced reality. For instance, of more than 150 deans and directors-general of business schools assembled by the European Foundation for Management Development, less than 5 percent thought that business schools were doing an adequate job in this regard[1]. And at a colloquium on the Globalization of Business Education (GLOBE) that I organized at IESE Business School, the participants - deans and other faculty, for the most part - ranked \"utilizing courses and methods to successfully deliver key material on international business/management\" as last among 13 globalization-related dimensions of business school performance[2]. A small survey of human resource (HR) executives also prepared for GLOBE suggested even greater glumness among practitioners.\nI. Poor globalization performance: What might account for general despondency about what business schools have collectively achieved in globalizing their educational programs? One can, of course, cite instances of regress or, frankly, flim-flam. Thus, sticking to my own field of strategy, I can think of one top 20 school where the first-year core course was recently cleansed of global content--after a multi-year campaign to add it - and another where the strategic management course was recently relaunched as global strategic management without any obvious changes in content.But even if one discounts exceptions - and there seem to be some good outliers as well as bad ones (see the Appendix) - there are reasons for concern that I will illustrate with the help of two efforts to characterize the cases taught at leading business-schools as well as with briefer discussions of three complementary sets of actions that many business schools have undertaken: conscious efforts to increase the international diversity of their students (and faculty), the offering of international immersion programs, and the formation of international joint ventures. The case discussions, in keeping with the primary thrust of this essay, focus on MBA programs.A study of core strategy curricula\nII. Possible explanations: The previous section tried to document some quantitative and qualitative indications of the poor performance of business schools' globalization efforts. If one accepts that diagnosis, the next obvious question concerns the underlying explanations of poor choices and outcomes. There are many possible explanations, which will be grouped in terms of problems atop business schools, among deans and other leaders, problems in the middle, among the faculty, and problems in the underlying knowledge substrate.Problems at the top\nIII. Semiglobalization and the content of business education: My modest proposal is that attention to semiglobalization, i.e. to the distinctively large differences that arise at national borders as well as the bridges across them, is a useful conceptual umbrella for organizing curricular change. This structural diagnosis can be contrasted with the apocalyptic vision of globalization stressed by Thomas Friedman, the journalist and the author of The World Is Flat:The world got flat ... [creating] a global, Web-enabled playing field that allows for multiple forms of collaboration on research and work in real time, without regard to geography, distance or, in the near future, even language (Friedman, 2005).This characterization sounds \"with it\" and has won wide support, even among luminaries such as George Soros and Colin Powell. But it certainly is not one with reality. The 80-90 percent level of internationalization that it implies grossly overstates actual levels of internationalization of a broad range of measures, some of which are summarized in the black bars in Figure 2, and which cluster much closer to 10 percent[10]. Overstatement along these lines reinforces managerial overestimates of internationalization levels - as summarized, from an online survey of 400 managers, by the grey bars in the figure. And globaloney of this sort is far from a harmless exaggeration that simply helps one stay focused on issues related to internationalization/globalization: it can actually be quite harmful to those who swallow it. At the social level, it helps feed resistance to globalization. And while I will elaborate on the implications for business, particularly business strategy, in the rest of this section, it is worth noting that if the world were flat, it would effectively be one giant country, and our single country tools and frameworks could be applied to the problems of globalization without much modification - an existential problem indeed for international business.Some, especially in academia, react to globaloney by cleaving to the opposite extreme and arguing that countries are so different that for practical purposes, they are not very integrated at all. But again, in addition to its empirical deficiencies, this does not seem like a promising point of departure for the globalization of business schools. For one thing, it effectively emphasizes, in the terminology originally introduced by Pike (1954) in linguistics, \"emic\" knowledge - the deep but narrow single-country perspective of a native participant - to the exclusion of \"etic\" knowledge: the cross-country perspective of a detached observer[11]. One does not have to suffer from a particularly acute case of physics envy to find this an unappealingly stringent requirement for developing insights that cross borders. And on a conceptual plane, a belief in the complete separation of countries implies, once again, that we should be able to apply our single-country tools and frameworks - although on a country-by-country basis, rather than to one giant country of the sort envisioned by flat-earthers.Fortunately for the focus on what is of distinct interest about globalization, the empirical evidence suggests that levels of cross-border integration actually fall somewhere in between the extremes of complete cross-border integration and separation[12]. This broad condition, which I refer to as semiglobalization, has specific implications for curricular content.Beyond local versus global\nIV. Changing curricular content: A final broad attraction of semiglobalization is related, in my view, to the knotty problems around the process of changing business school curricula. Most attempts have employed one of two in some sense opposed approaches: insertion of a standalone international course that could be a general/survey international business course, a specialized functional international course or a internationally-oriented nonbusiness course such as world geography, world politics or comparative economic systems, etc., and infusion of international competencies into functional courses or other existing business courses.Ray Vernon (1994), the prime mover behind a very early and influential experiment at the HBS, has summarized the lessons from attempting, at different times, both insertion and infusion:When the School decided in the early 1960s to adopt a formal structure based on functional areas, international business was designated one such area. I could teach what I liked; but at the same time I could exert little or no influence over the content of other courses at the School ... When in the late 1960s, the Dean of the Business School proposed to me the abolition of the international business area, it seemed to me a reasonable and logical step. Thenceforth, according to the proposed plan, the various functional areas would internationalize their respective curricula. And to ensure that the shift occurred, the handful of faculty members associated with the international business area would be distributed strategically among the various functional areas. With hindsight, it seems evident to me that the shift came too early.Based on such lessons, the model that I would advocate - focused on the MBA curriculum - involves treating insertion and infusion as complements by:*Inserting a front-end focused on semiglobalization - or some other world-structural/historical view - to cure students of globaloney (to which they are otherwise as subject as the managers whose responses are summarized in Figure 2) and give them some foundations for thinking about globalization. Such a front end might also discuss institutional variation since students should, as a boundary condition on what they learn elsewhere, understand that the free-standing corporate model that occupies center-stage at most business schools is actually largely confined to the USA. Of course, other cross-functional themes might also be housed in such a front-end.*Infusing globalization-related content into the functional courses, probably by insisting that 10-20 percent of each should have a clear cross-border component that covers at least some of the topics listed in Table IV - a change that recognizes the functional organization of most business schools (Kwok and Arpan, 2002) and taps into it, going beyond IB people. It may also entail discrete globalization-related modules within courses: while such modules often occur late in courses and are sometimes dropped as instructors fall behind, they ease monitoring and help avert \"infusion\" that culminates in identifiably international content disappearing from the curriculum.In addition to this broad consideration of possible curricular models, there seem to be several other requirements for curricular change and renewal that I think of as the six Rs:1. Restrict the scope of the effort instead of looking for solutions that involve changing everything: the functional structure of business schools and the research they do, their incentive systems, other aspects of the curriculum (e.g., leadership-related topics), etc. Careful consideration of what the institution will not do in the pursuit of globalization is typically also required. Note that the emphasis should fall on exploiting some of the substantial headroom left by current practice rather than on finding perfect solutions.2. Recognize the importance of contingency - and strategic variation. The variation of key cross-country differences across industries and by functions has already been mentioned. A school's location and other attributes are also likely to affect how it should select and implement a globalization model. Thus, European business schools face different challenges and opportunities than their US counterparts[20], and Asian business schools even more so[21]. And of course, the resources and rankings of schools also matter for what they ought to do (e.g., in terms of joint ventures).3. Rebalance research - semiglobalization offers a vast research agenda that is only partly captured by the multifunctional characterization in Table IV and in the prior discussion of strategy, and which is further enriched by locational and other contingencies. In addition, there is still a need for research on the stylized facts of globalization and more generally, for more problem-driven research[22]. Journal editors must buy in, of course, for these and other gaps to be addressable.4. Reach beyond faculty focused on international business (IB). This seems essential, at least outside IB, for further progress at teaching globalization as well as at research. Focusing on the infusion-plus-insertion model advocated above, the infusion component seems the ideal locus for attempting to hook up more tightly with and harness the energies of different functional areas, and the insertion component for integrative cross-functional perspectives.5. Reach out to companies to validate the results of globalization efforts, which is still uncommon. Companies can also usefully be involved in the formulation of globalization efforts (see the recent UK survey which found that foreign language competence was the only skill out of 19 that employers deemed unimportant[23]). But it does seem important to note that the role of companies in formulating the agenda is naturally limited by academic ambitions to help define the agenda - which is still an outstanding issue - and not just diffuse what the best companies already know.6. Reinforce these efforts with other complementary mechanisms. To cite just a few examples, there are opportunities to use technology to diffuse proven content more quickly (maximum adoption still tends to take well over five years), to treat executive education programs with their greater \"flexibility\" as the place to pioneer certain types of pedagogical innovations, and to invest more in conferences and other initiatives focused on curricular content and teaching (e.g., the GLOBE colloquium for which this paper was originally prepared, at IESE on October 4-6, 2007).\nV. Conclusions: The first two parts of this article argued that there is a problem with the globalization of business education and that distinctively global content is part of the solution. The third and fourth parts made the modest proposal that semiglobalization be used as an umbrella concept in unifying such discussions of curricular change. Whether one agrees with that proposal or not, it seems clear that attention to the distinctive or distinctively large effects that arise at national borders - with a broad perspective on differences such as the one adopted in the CAGE/CAGES framework - is the promising place to look to satisfy the craving for distinctively global/international teaching content.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: - This paper aims to provide a personal perspective on the extent to which business schools have globalized what they teach and to make content- and process-related suggestions about how to make further progress.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - The paper provides a mixture of quantitative and qualitative/interpretative analysis.\nFindings: - The paper finds that rhetoric around the globalization of business education has greatly outrun the reality of curricular change and this problem seems unlikely to be solved until the craving for distinctively global content can be satisfied.\nResearch limitations/implications: - Semiglobalization - the intermediate state of integration in which neither the bridges nor the borders between countries can be ignored - is proposed as a conceptual umbrella for organizing curricular change and in terms, of process, a two-track-approach, combining infusion and insertion, is recommended.\nOriginality/value: - Both the conceptual and procedural recommendations of this paper are novel.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
Effects of business internships on job marketability: the employers' perspective
|
[
"Experience",
"Learning",
"Employment",
"Performance levels"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: \"Recent economic events have caused a downturn in college hiring plans for nearly all employer types and geographic regions in 2009\", according to the National Association of Colleges and Employers (NACE) website (see www.naceweb.org/home.aspx). Not surprisingly, students and their families are more concerned than ever about the effectiveness of undergraduate preparation for employment following four years of increasingly expensive tuition. This study addresses this concern by examining the relationship between field internship employment (placement) participation, and student marketability upon graduation. To this end, this study provides an exploration of the internship/placement opportunity as a key component of experiential learning and contributor to employability development offerings at institutions of higher learning.According to NACE, 76.3 percent of employers responding to their 2009 annual Job Outlook survey indicated they preferred to hire students with experience (National Association of Colleges and Employers, 2009). Experience appears to be the decisive differentiating factor among graduates and appears to be a trend that has continued since the market turmoil of the early 1990s. For example, former US Secretary of Labor Robert Reich stated that for all new jobs being created, the percentage of positions requiring some vocational training was about 85 percent (Watson, 1995). Moreover, the competition for the best jobs in any market, not just a declining one, remains quite keen, and experience remains a key discriminating factor that any entry-level professional can offer a prospective employer (Fleetwood and Shelly, 2000). Positive news for today's undergraduates is that 85 percent of the employers surveyed by NACE (National Association of Colleges and Employers, 2008) indicated they offered experiential training in the form of paid internships or co-ops.A review of the field experience literature and an online search of college catalogs indicate that three terms are commonly used in the USA to describe higher education (HE) programs involving learning through employment in industry:1. cooperative extension;2. cooperative education; and3. internship.Cooperative extension programs refer to state-sponsored agricultural work experiences and are therefore not included in this study. \"Cooperative education\" (co-op) and \"internship\" are the two US university labels most often used to describe business field experience opportunities - or placements as they may be referred to in the UK. An online review of college course catalogs indicated that while both positions required professional employment and supervision, there were some small differences. Compensation is usually required for co-ops but may be optional for some intern programs. Co-op students tend to work full-time, while interns usually work part-time. Co-op students are therefore able to interview for positions at organizations located some distance from the university. Additionally, an online search of university business course catalogs indicated that co-op programs are heavily concentrated in engineering and other manufacturing-oriented and technical fields. Internships, on the other hand, generally encompass a wider variety of academic disciplines and organizational settings. Academic credit and supervision appear to be provided in both cooperative education and internship programs. However, whether provided at the college or department level, the closeness of the academic supervision appears to be less for co-ops than for interns (Gault et al., 2000). Given these often subtle distinctions between co-op and intern programs, it is not surprising that universities sometimes use the terms interchangeably. So while this study focuses exclusively on students enrolled in internships, the findings are highly relevant for the co-op employment experience. For the remainder of this report, the term \"intern\" will refer to co-op students, in addition to interns and placements.According to NACE, 99 percent of their employers surveyed indicated they offered internship opportunities. Employers promote these intern programs and benefit directly in terms of increased effectiveness and efficiency in recruiting talent. Interns provide a ready and willing source of inexpensive, qualified, and usually highly motivated labor (Gault et al., 2000). Vault Reports (2006) quantified the savings of interns who are converted to entry-level employees at $6,200 in training costs, and 16 percent in total savings over hiring non-interns. Moreover, in terms of comparing recruiting activities, internships lead the list of effective, highly interactive methods; a list that also includes job fairs and class visits. Less effective are passive recruiting activities such as recruitment ads and company websites according to NACE's 2008 Experiential Education Survey.Given the significant benefits of intern programs to students and employers, it is not surprising that nine out of ten four-year colleges offer some sort of structured work experience related to a student's major or career interest (Tooley, 1997). Assessing the effectiveness of field internship programs has, however, received scant scientific scrutiny (Gault et al., 2000). The current study addresses this gap in the literature by evaluating the efficacy of the internship experience from the point of view of the employer. Specifically, this research assesses the perceived value of the internship experience by quantifying the perceived benefits of internship participation, the effect of intern performance on selection and compensation, and the effect of intern performance on the perceived value of the internship experience to employers.\n2. Context: 2.1 Valuing internships\n3. Methodology: 3.1 Sample\n4. Research findings: 4.1 The perceived value of internships\n5. Discussion: 5.1 Internships and HE employability potential\n6. Conclusions: This empirical investigation focuses on the effects of internships/placements on the marketability of undergraduate business students from the perspective of their intern employers. The findings of this research regarding internship/placement initiatives are consistent with earlier perception-based research suggesting interns are better prepared to enter the job market and achieve their personal income objectives. At the initial stages of a career, experiential education plays a vital role in elevating prospects of employment candidates, corroborating earlier research suggesting that interns enjoy significant advantages in obtaining full-time job offers and higher pay. Undergraduates with internship/placement experience are perceived to be better prepared and more marketable to employers. The benefits of internships are many, and business educators are wise to promote the advantages of internships evidenced in this and other research to their students, university colleagues, and the business community.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: - This paper seeks to report the results of an empirical investigation of the relationship between internship participation and student employment marketability. The study aims to identify the value that employers attribute to internships as a qualification for employment and as a factor in determining compensation.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - The study presents the results of a survey of 185 employers of 392 interns enrolled in an AACSB-accredited business college in a Northeastern US university. The survey examined the perceived value of the internship experience, the effect of intern performance on internship value perceptions, and the relationship between internship participation and employer selection and compensation decisions.\nFindings: - The survey results indicate significantly more full-time opportunities for undergraduates with internship experience, corroborating earlier published empirical research. Additionally, while even average-performing interns were significantly more likely to receive full-time job offers than non-interns, high-performing interns were more likely to receive higher starting salaries. Finally, the study shows that high intern performance results in enhanced employer-perceived value of the internship program.\nOriginality/value: - Field internships are endorsed by business schools as an effective way to gain practical experience and enhance employment marketability. However, few studies have provided empirical evidence linking internship participation to success in postgraduation employment. The study confirms the value of an internship in job marketability. In addition, the study provides an estimate of the perceived value of internship experience in employee compensation. Finally, the paper affirms the internship as a component of experiential learning that can enhance the employability development opportunities offered by institutions of higher learning.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
Resource extractivism, health and climate change in small islands
|
[
"Adaptation",
"Climate change",
"Coal mining",
"Health impacts",
"Resource depletion",
"Small islands"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: The extraction and export of natural resources has long been part of economic development in the Pacific and nearby islands and is at its heart founded in colonialism. The damage to local environment and health as a result of resource extraction in a number of countries has been extensive and, in some cases extreme, even rendering once productive islands virtually uninhabitable. Rather than providing long-term benefits to the population or to the environment or to the local economy, the culture of \"extractivism\" (Klein, 2015) - a nonreciprocal approach where resources are removed and used for monetary gain with little care or regard to consequences - has instead left many in far more fragile circumstances, increasingly dependent on external income and support.\nPhosphate: Perhaps the best-known example of extractivism in small islands and the consequent damage to environment, society and health is from the island of Nauru. Located in Micronesia, Nauru, is a small island made up of phosphate rock. Phosphate mining commenced at the turn of past century and continued until resources were exhausted in the 1990s. Phosphate was extracted first by Europe and Australia, with about 30 per cent of it removed before independence in 1968, when the Nauruan government continued to extract it and place the money into a trust fund to create income for Nauruans (Gale, 2016, D'Odorico and Rulli, 2014). Prior to this nationalization of phosphate mining, the financial returns to Nauruans were microscopic (Pollock, 2014). With nationalization, the island nation subsequently underwent rapid economic development, and for nearly two decades, per capita income in Nauru was the highest in the world. This money, along with the phosphate reserves, is now gone (D'Odorico and Rulli, 2014).\nFisheries: The Pacific Ocean supplies half of the world's tuna (Jin et al., 2015). The region has long been subject to large-scale fishing of skipjack, yellowfin and bigeye tuna by international fleets, often using the purse-seine technique, where a school of fish is encircled with a net and everything within it is captured. While some large-scale international fishing is regulated, and taxes on foreign fishing provide substantial income to many Pacific Islands (Bell et al., 2013), much of the fishing is unsupported by international agreements and is therefore unregulated and frequently illegal (Grewe et al., 2015). The immense size of the Pacific Ocean and the limited capacity for local surveillance means that the illegal extractivism of the Pacific's ocean resources can occur largely unabated and with no royalties being paid to the countries whose waters are being exploited. Furthermore, purse-seining risks substantial unintended by-catch, whereby other non-target species are caught in the nets. The massive scale of the (especially unregulated) fishing industry in the Pacific and the use of purse seining threatens marine ecosystems and reduces the availability of fish for local use. Local catch rates are declining in the Pacific and are expected to continue to decline over coming decades (Albert et al., 2015).\nLogging: Illegal logging by foreign parties is another form of extractivism that takes place in the Oceania that is widespread throughout the region (Dinnan and Walton, 2016). While import and export bans have reduced the amount of forest loss that takes place, there remains a market for illegal and unregulated logging of high value timber (Felbab-Brown, 2011). In particular, foreign companies that enter under the umbrella of a local person or company as a means to avoid the logging and export bans that otherwise limit extractivism. Solomon Islands is a particular target because of their valuable hardwood forests and has experienced, for example, the smuggling of valuable unprocessed logs to international traders (Radio Australia, 2012) under the guise of nominating a local person as sole director of a foreign owned company to enter the country and commence business following barring by court order (Sanga, 2016). The rate of logging and export of primary forest in Solomon Islands is unsustainable and with no local processing there is little local economic benefit (Australian Centre for International Agircultural Research, 2012). This lack of manufacturing or value-adding to gain economic benefit from resource depletion is common in small islands with limited capacity for manufacture (including skilled labor, infrastructure, regulations), with only a few countries, such as Vanuatu and Fiji, having developed small-scale local industry associated with forestry (Australian Centre for International Agircultural Research, 2012). Unregulated logging creates local environmental problems such as erosion and increased landslide risk, and with loss of primary forest, loss of biodiversity (Franklin and Steadman, 2010) and invasion of pest species, including exotic grasses that make forest re-generation more difficult (Denslow et al., 2006). Further, like with fossil fuels (below), forest loss also contributes to climate change through the removal of carbon sinks and directly to carbon emissions if the wood is then burned.\nFossil fuels: The non-reciprocal approach to resource extraction in small islands in Oceania now extends to coal, oil and gas. As with phosphate, fisheries and logging, the extraction of fossil fuels causes local damage to environment (e.g. soil degradation, biodiversity loss) and health (Morrice and Colagiuri, 2013). With coal, oil and gas, however, the potential scale of ecological disruption is also much greater, with global implications through the release of greenhouse gases. Climate change is disrupting the earth's life support systems on a grand scale as carbon from fossil fuels, that has been trapped in the material for millennia, is released when it is burned (IPCC, 2013). The deleterious consequences of extractivism in Oceania are no longer confined to the region but rather extend worldwide.\nHealth impacts of fossil fuel extractivism: The immediate health risks of coal mining to workers and surrounding communities are well-established (GBD 2013 Collaborators, 2015). Globally, around 25,000 people die each year from coal workers' pneumoconiosis (black lung) each year, and around 3.7 million people die from ultrafine particle outdoor air pollution each year (World Health Organization, 2016). A significant component of outdoor (ambient) air pollution which is black carbon originating from the processes of coal mining and transport, whereas the combustion of coal for electricity also adds nitrogen, sulfur compounds and heavy metals. Deaths from outdoor air pollution are mostly attributable to ischemic heart disease and stroke, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease or acute lower respiratory infections and lung cancer (World Health Organization, 2016). Even in relatively wealthy mining communities located in countries with established environmental and occupational protections, there are not inconsequential health risks to workers and communities. In Queensland, Australia for example, there have been 21 cases of coal workers' pneumoconiosis (black lung) since 2015 (Queensland Parliament, 2017) and pollution from a coal mine fire that burned for 45 days in the Australian State of Victoria was directly responsible for 10 or more deaths in the nearby town in 2014 (Victorian Government, 2015). The health consequences from the particulate pollution from coal dust distributed widely over communities during coal transportation is much more difficult to estimate but not insignificant; nationally the negative health impacts of coal mining, transport and combustion in Australia is estimated to cost around AU$2.6bn (US$2.05bn) every year (Australian Academy of Technological Sciences and Engineering, 2009). The risk to community health is likely even greater in countries where there are fewer environmental protection regulations and less monitoring of particulate and gaseous emissions.\nEnding the extractivism era - opportunities for adaptation: There are clear links between resource extractivism in Oceania, health and major ecological disturbances, not the least of which is climate change. Extractivism-fueled climate change is threatening not only the lives and livelihoods of small islands but also their very existence, and therefore strong and urgent action to limit the extent of global warming is required. Anote Tong, then President of Kiribati, a country at risk of disappearing under rising sea-level caused by climate change, took his country's call for a global moratorium on all new coal mines at the Paris Conference of the Parties (COP21) in 2015.\nConclusions: Extractivism of local resources in in small islands in Oceania has contributed to environmental degradation locally through pollution and loss of natural capital. It has reduced food security, forced the migration of whole populations, promoted cultural loss and social instability and created fragile economies.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The extraction of natural resources has long been part of economic development in small islands. The damage to environment and health is extensive, even rendering once productive islands virtually uninhabitable. Rather than providing long-term benefits to the population or to the environment, the culture of \"extractivism\" - a nonreciprocal approach where resources are removed and used with little care or regard to consequences - has instead left many in far more fragile circumstances, increasingly dependent on external income. The purpose of this paper is to show how continued extractivism in small islands is contributing to global climate change and increasing climate risks to the local communities.\nDesign/methodology/approach: Through a series of case studies, this paper examines the history of extractivism in small islands in Oceania, its contribution to environmental degradation locally and its impacts on health.\nFindings: It examines how extractivism continues today, with local impacts on environment, health and wellbeing and its much more far-reaching consequences for global climate change and human health. At the same time, these island countries have heightened sensitivity to climate change due to their isolation, poverty and already variable climate, whereas the damage to natural resources, the disruption, economic dependence and adverse health impacts caused by extractivism impart reduced resilience to the new climate hazards in those communities.\nPractical implications: This paper proposes alternatives to resource extractivism with options for climate compatible development in small islands that are health-promoting and build community resilience in the face of increasing threats from climate change.\nOriginality/value: Extractivism is a new concept that has not previously been applied to understanding health implications of resource exploitation thorough the conduit of climate change. Small-island countries are simultaneously exposed to widespread extractivism, including of materials contributing to global climate change, and are among the most vulnerable to the hazards that climate change brings.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
Reading as dialogical document work: possibilities for Library and Information Science
|
[
"Reading",
"Dialogism",
"Document theory",
"Document work",
"Information behaviour",
"Information practices"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Learning to read timetables: In the inset in Figure 1, a teacher is seen showing a document to her class. The figure is from the beginning of a lesson in the subject of Swedish in a Swedish primary school, in a year 6 class where most pupils are 12 years old, in the afternoon of 3 March 1968[1]. The document the teacher is presenting is an outdated version of a collection of timetables which can be translated to Communications in Sweden (Sveriges kommunikationer).\n2. Monologism and dialogism in the study of people in LIS: Dialogism is presented by the linguist and language theorist Linell (2009) as an alternative to dominant monologist theories in which the individual mind is seen as the basis for analyses and understandings of human action, activities, and practices. Linell (2009) critiques communication models where individual thought is taken as a starting point and where communication problems are attributed to the \"packaging\" of thoughts - or of pieces of information - into messages and the subsequent decoding of this information.\n3. Dialogical document work and documentary practices: This framework, which draws on dialogism and document theory, entails a view of reading as a meaning-making activity, situated in specific situations, as well as part of wider historical traditions. Because of the situated character of reading, the study of reading activities and practices does not involve generalised models or lead to predictions of situations to come. Rather, it will provide accounts, illustrations, and analyses of (historical) reading activities and traditions. In the following sections, some interrelated theoretical points of entry into reading as a unit of analysis will be presented, using the railway timetable lesson as an example.\n4. Discussion and concluding remarks: The train timetable lesson, in which a teacher is instructing her primary school class how to read a print timetable, was introduced above to exemplify how reading activities can be understood as document work in specific situations and at the same time as situation-transcending activities tied into documentary and reading practices. The aspects of reading presented above are meant to be understood as simultaneous and related to one another: the document work of reading is meaning-making because of its unavoidable situatedness in time, in traditions, in institutions, and in social and material places and spaces.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to introduce a dialogically based theory of documentary practices and document work as a promising framework for studying activities that are often conceptualised as information behaviour or information practices within Library and Information Science (LIS).\nDesign/methodology/approach: An empirical example - a lesson on how to read railway timetables - is presented. The lesson stems from a research project including 223 Swedish lessons recorded in Swedish primary schools 1967-1969. It is argued that this lesson, as many empirical situations within LIS research, can fruitfully be regarded as documentary practices which include document work such as reading, rather than instances of information behaviour.\nFindings: It is found that the theoretical perspective of dialogism could contribute to the theory development within LIS, and function as a bridge between different subfields such as reading studies and documentary practices.\nResearch limitations/implications: The framework is yet to be applied on a larger scale. This would require a willingness to go beyond the entrenched idea of information as the core theoretical concept and empirical object of study within LIS.\nSocial implications: The theoretical framework offers a view of the relations between individuals, documents, and social contexts, through which it is possible to explore the social significance of core LIS concerns such as reading, literacy, and document work.\nOriginality/value: The theoretical framework offers an alternative to the monologist, information-based theories and models of people's behaviours and practices prevalent in LIS.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
Leadership development learning accelerators: voices from the trenches
|
[
"Performance",
"Leadership development"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n__NO_TITLE__: Leadership researchers, business educators, talent managers, executive coaches, and fellow leaders all have a burning desire to know how effective leaders became effective leaders, and there are a wide variety of models and theories to support various schools of thought on the subject (Hughes et al., 2012). Moreover, while theories of what makes a great leader abound, many people would argue that a leader's ability to demonstrate effective leader behavior and acumen is infinitely more complex than originally believed and is based on a multifaceted combination of factors (Goleman, 2000; Longenecker, 2014).\nKey leadership development accelerators: We will now discuss the top seven leadership accelerators that emerged from our focus groups, and several questions are presented to stimulate leaders' thinking and self-analysis to determine if they are making use of these powerful learning tools and helping those around them do the same.\nA call to action: It is important to know and understand the factors that will drive a leader's development, especially in times of rapid organizational change. It is not uncommon these days for a leader to find himself/herself lacking the necessary skills for high performance in their current position. The purpose of this paper is to the highlight some of the practices that high-performance leaders believed were influential to accelerate their development as leaders. With this backdrop, it would behoove leaders, HR professionals, and talent managers to know and understand these factors and to make it an ongoing priority to systematically address the key questions that emerged from these findings. This will hopefully lead to the increased likelihood of developing high-performance leaders. The best defense against leadership failure is an aggressive offense around the key practices that accelerate leader development! To not do so is to limit leadership skill development while simultaneously contributing to career difficulties.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to highlight the practices that high-performance leaders believed were influential for accelerating their development as leaders.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The sample consisted of US based, mid-level leaders at Fortune 1000 companies who were identified by their organizations as being \"high performers possessing the strong ability to deliver desired results for their enterprises.\" The authors recently conducted focus groups with a subset of over 200 of these high-performing leaders and asked them to answer the following question: \"Please identify what you would consider to be the five (5) most influential factors that accelerated your development as a leader.\" Leaders were then randomly assigned to five-person focus groups to discuss their individual responses and come to consensus on what they considered to be the top leadership development \"accelerators.\" A content analysis of over 20 focus groups' response sets allowed us to identify a list of top leadership development \"accelerators\".\nFindings: Seven leadership accelerators were identified: working for a great leader; experiencing an extremely challenging assignment or major organizational change; working in an organization that requires and supports skill development; possessing a strong mentor/accountability partner; ongoing personal reflection and self-assessment; experiencing a significant failure or career setback; and formal leadership development training/continuing education.\nResearch limitations/implications: It is important that leaders, HR professionals, and talent managers know and understand these factors and to make it an ongoing priority to systematically address the key questions that emerged from these findings.\nPractical implications: Leaders should thoughtfully answer the questions presented for themselves and encourage leaders in their organization to do the same.\nOriginality/value: This paper, using primary data from \"high-performance\" leaders, identifies and explains seven important leadership development accelerators.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Financial performance evaluation of companies listed on Tehran Stock Exchange: A negative data envelopment analysis approach
|
[
"Tehran Stock Exchange",
"Financial performance evaluation",
"Negative data envelopment analysis"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: With the huge development that the world has faced in recent years, the existence of performance evaluation systems is unavoidable. One important question in the context of performance evaluation is \"how has a unit utilized the available resources and what was its performance in the course of a study period?\" (Emami meybodi, 2006). Performance of the financial sector is one of the most important effective parameters in performance evaluation (Azar and Motameni, 2005). In fact, optimal economical and financial performance in any organization depends on how efficiently its financial department works (Mirghafoori et al., 2013).\nTheoretical background: In this section, first, the existing financial criteria of performance evaluation are introduced and then the DEA-based performance evaluation system is analyzed.\nMethodology: The present study aims to identify the appropriate financial criteria for performance evaluation, ranking and selection of the most efficient companies listed on Tehran Stock Exchange through DEA. The study is an applied research and descriptive in nature and was conducted as a case study. Data were collected through survey.\nResults: In this study, financial performance of selected companies listed on Tehran Stock Exchange was evaluated. According to the results, 58 companies were efficient with an efficiency value of 1, and 14 companies were inefficient, those with efficiency values less than 1. The companies' efficiency values are shown in Table II.\nConclusion and implications: There is no ideal approach to evaluate financial performance of companies. The available performance evaluation systems ignore the nature of ranking indicators and fail to give reasons for rejection or acceptance of a company in the optimal portfolio. Therefore, the aim of this study was to identify the most suitable financial metrics and propose an appropriate model for performance evaluation based on DEA. The findings can help shareholders to identify efficient companies for creating the optimal portfolio and managers of inefficient companies to take proper reforming actions to improve efficiency.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: This paper aims to evaluate the financial performance of companies listed on Tehran Stock Exchange by using negative data envelopment analysis (DEA) approach.\nDesign/methodology/approach: First, the financial metrics for performance evaluation were extracted and then filtered based on the experts' opinions. Upon choosing the appropriate financial measures, the financial information of 72 companies selected from four automotive, pharmaceutical, petrochemical and cement industries were collected, and the criteria values were also measured. The financial performance of selected companies was assessed using negative data bounded adjusted measure in the DEA, and efficient and inefficient companies were identified. Finally, the efficient companies were ranked using Andersen and Petersen model.\nFindings: The required analysis was conducted, and the financial performance of selected companies listed on Tehran Stock Exchange was evaluated. There were 58 efficient companies with a performance value of 1; 14 companies became inefficient because the efficiency size was less than 1; therefore, reference units were also introduced to the managers for efficiency of inefficient companies.\nOriginality/value: The aim of this study was to identify the required financial criteria and to determine an appropriate model for performance evaluation based on negative DEA. The findings can help shareholders to identify efficient companies and make the optimal portfolio accordingly; the managers of inefficient companies can also take the proper reforming actions to improve efficiency.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Performance evaluation framework of Wyoming connected vehicle pilot deployment program: summary of Phase 2 pre-deployment efforts and lessons learned
|
[
"Performance measures",
"Connected vehicles",
"Driver behaviors and assistance",
"Adverse weather",
"Microsimulation modeling",
"Wyoming connected vehicle pilot"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: Over the past few years, the U.S. Department of Transportation (USDOT) has been leading several efforts to stimulate the adoption of connected vehicle (CV) technology with the goal of improving the safety, mobility and productivity of the users of the nation's transportation system (FHWA, 2018). CV technology is a broad term to describe the applications and the systems that leverage dedicated short-range communications (DSRC) for vehicle-to-vehicle (V2V), vehicle-to-infrastructure (V2I) and infrastructure-to-vehicle (I2V) communication to broadcast real-time traveler information messages (TIMs) between CVs and/or Transportation Management Centers (TMCs) (Liu and Khattak, 2016; Shladover, 2018; Park et al., 2018). In September of 2015, the 402-mile of Interstate 80 (I-80) in Wyoming (WYDOT Pilot) was selected by the USDOT as one of three CV pilot deployment sites (WYDOT, 2018). The other two pilot deployment sites were New York City (NYCDOT Pilot) and Tampa City (THEA Pilot). Among the three CV pilot deployment sites, NYCDOT Pilot aims to improve the safety of travelers and pedestrians at tightly-spaced urban intersections through the deployment of V2V and V2I and Infrastructure-to-Pedestrian (IVP) CV technologies (NYCDOT, 2018). These applications provide drivers with alerts so that the driver can take action to avoid a crash or reduce the severity of injuries or damage to vehicles and infrastructure. The THEA Pilot deploys a variety of V2V and V2I applications to relieve congestion, reduce collisions and prevent wrong way entry at the exit. THEA also plans to use CV technology to enhance pedestrian safety, speed bus operations and reduce conflicts between street cars, pedestrians and passenger cars at locations with high volumes of mixed traffic (THEA, 2018). Unlike the other two CV Pilot sites that focus on urban area, Wyoming Department of Transportation (WYDOT) Pilot focuses on the needs of the commercial vehicle operator on I-80 in the State of Wyoming and will develop CV applications that use V2I and V2V connectivity to support a flexible range of services from advisories including roadside alerts, parking notifications and dynamic travel guidance.\n2. Literature review: As mentioned before, in addition to the WYDOT Pilot, the NYCDOT Pilot and THEA Pilot also developed macroscopic-level performance evaluation framework for their CV systems. Both of NYCDOT and THEA Pilots proposed site-specified performance measures, confounding factors that may affect system performance, the data collection process, and the experimental design and analytical processes that will be undertaken to evaluate the impacts. Specifically, the NYCDOT Pilot considered speed compliance and reductions in vehicle to vehicle, vehicle to pedestrian and vehicle to infrastructure crashes as the primary performance measures (Galgano et al., 2016). Potential confounding factors mainly include traffic demand variations, weather condition, accident and incidents, updates of traffic signal timing, short-term and long-term work zones, planned special events, economic related conditions, and the use of alternative traffic modes such as shared vehicles, bike, and public transit (Galgano et al., 2016). Similarly, the THEA Pilot concerned both safety (including wrong-way entries, pedestrian safety, streetcar-trolley conflicts) and traffic operation (including morning peak hour queues, bus rapid transit signal priority optimization, signal coordination and traffic progression) as performance measures, with weather, special events, city constructions, system reliability, and participant-specific features as confounding factors (THEA, 2016).\n3. WYDOT connected vehicle system: 3.1 Pilot on-board connected vehicle applications\n4. Performance measures: The WYDOT Pilot team has identified 21 performance measures incorporated within 8 performance categories. The major performance categories represent the primary activities and outcomes of the WYDOT CV pilot system. These categories focus on improvements to efficiency, safety and mobility. Quantitative and qualitative measures were proposed to evaluate the WYDOT CV project with a focus on understanding the extent and impact of the benefits described above. For each performance measure, targets have been identified. Table II summarizes the proposed performance measures and targets, which will guide the evaluation of the WYDOT Pilot project. An overview of the architecture of the performance measure categories is illustrated in Figure 8.\n5. Overview of confounding factors: The WYDOT Pilot is unique among the three pilot sites in its project extent (over 400 miles of mostly rural Interstate) and its focus on improving safety during severe weather events. To provide an accurate evaluation of the CV deployment program, it is critical to identify confounding factors and isolate their impacts so that performance improvements are neither overstated nor understated. This section identifies confounding factors that may affect the ability to successfully implement the evaluation designs described herein. The confounding factors identified by the Wyoming team are listed below:\n6. Performance evaluation approaches: Evaluation designs incorporate both quantitative and qualitative approaches to make assessments of specific performance measures. The design also provides an evaluation structure that can help control for the potential effects of confounding factors. It is important to seek to control such effects in order to be able to say that the WYDOT Pilot project itself was responsible, or at least primarily responsible, for the identified outcomes. The following five evaluation design types are anticipated for use during the evaluation activities.\n7. Pre-deployment data collection and analysis: 7.1 Data collection\n8. Challenges and insights into future works: When assessing the performance of CV systems, the traditional \"Before-After\" analysis approach is usually challenged by the relatively few number of CVs that are capable of receiving information from the infrastructure or other CVs. Mainly, statistical analysis performed utilizing historical data is the core of the aforementioned traditional approaches. Being in an early development phase of CV, assessment of the obtained mobility and safety benefits is challenging and still unclear. Enough data to evaluate the system performance in the after implementation period are not available, which hinders the use of traditional performance evaluation methodologies. Considering the challenges involved in collecting traffic performance data under adverse weather conditions and the costs of in-lab data processing, it is critical to determine the appropriate amount of naturalistic driving data needed to understand changes of driver behaviors and provide a reliable and accurate performance assessment results Wang et al. (2017a, 2017b) In additional, penetration rates are considered among the key factors affecting the benefits obtained from the CV system as well as it affect its safety evaluation. In order to adopt the traditional methodologies in the evaluation process, a significant proportion of vehicles on the roadways should be CV. Being in an early phase of the era of CV, penetration rates are still low. This also would delay the ability to use traditional evaluation processes. In addition, variability of weather events in Wyoming presents extra challenges to the analysis of Pre- and Post-system implementation data. Ideally, the performance assessment should compare data during similar weather events, which is not always possible.\n9. Concluding remarks: The WYDOT Pilot aimed at creating a connected rural freeway environment to promote traffic safety and mobility along a 402-mile I-80 freeway corridor in Wyoming. Evaluating the effectiveness and benefits of WYDOT CV system is crucial for improving the system performance (Raddaoui and Ahmed, 2019). In this regard, this paper first discussed the 21 specific performance measures contained within 8 performance categories, which represent the major expected benefits and outcomes of the WYDOT Pilot to guide the traffic and system performance data collection activities during the post-deployment stage. These benefits are focused on major improvements in safety, mobility and agency efficiency. Such as improved speed adherence and reduced speed variation will compare the vehicle speeds versus posted speed, and reduced vehicle crashes will measure the reduction in vehicle crashes and crash rates during pre- and post- CV-deployment periods. Road weather conditions reports will measure the quantity, coverage and latency of road weather condition reports from the WYDOT field maintenance forces. Improved Information to commercial vehicle fleet managers will measure fleet manager's satisfaction with TMC information and actions taken due to receipt of that information.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: This paper aims to present a summary of the performance measurement and evaluation plan of the Wyoming connected vehicle (CV) Pilot Deployment Program (WYDOT Pilot).\nDesign/methodology/approach: This paper identified 21 specific performance measures as well as approaches to measure the benefits of the WYDOT Pilot. An overview of the expected challenges that might introduce confounding factors to the evaluation effort was outlined in the performance management plan to guide the collection of system performance data.\nFindings: This paper presented the data collection approaches and analytical methods that have been established for the real-life deployment of the WYDOT CV applications. Five methodologies for assessing 21 specific performance measures contained within eight performance categories for the operational and safety-related aspects. Analyses were conducted on data collected during the baseline period, and pre-deployment conditions were established for 1 performance measures. Additionally, microsimulation modeling was recommended to aid in evaluating the mobility and safety benefits of the WYDOT CV system, particularly when evaluating system performance under various CV penetration rates and/or CV strategies.\nPractical implications: The proposed performance evaluation framework can guide other researchers and practitioners identifying the best performance measures and evaluation methodologies when conducting similar research activities.\nOriginality/value: To the best of the authors' knowledge, this is the first research that develops performance measures and evaluation plan for low-volume rural freeway CV system under adverse weather conditions. This paper raised some early insights into how CV technology might achieve the goal of improving safety and mobility and has the potential to guide similar research activities conducted by other agencies.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
A maintenance optimisation framework in application to optimise power station boiler pressure parts maintenance
|
[
"Pressure equipment",
"Electric power stations",
"Maintenance",
"Optimization techniques",
"Australia"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: An asset management framework is expected to be a tool that assists management in making optimisation decisions. In management of physical assets (such as a power station), the optimisation of maintenance is of particular interest. The optimisation of maintenance is a complex and detailed problem that an asset manager encounters in daily operation and a framework outlines how different processes and methods are integrated, and converts this detail to the larger-scale issues which the enterprise needs.This framework originated from the authors' previous research (Tam and Price, 2006a, b). This paper further develops the framework and applies it to optimise the maintenance outage plan for boiler pressure parts in Loy Yang Power (LYP) station.The current key planned maintenance outage policy for LYP is to carry out a six-day planned maintenance outage every year. The management of LYP is very keen to investigate the optimal maintenance outages frequencies and intervals through a scientific and data-driven analysis. This paper discusses the application of the framework to the analysis of power station boiler tubes' maintenance optimisation.The paper will first discuss key concepts of the framework and then discuss how the framework is applied to optimise the pressure parts maintenance outage plan.1.1. Previous development in maintenance frameworks\n2. Boiler pressure parts of LYP station: 2.1. Background\n3. Results: A summary of parameters used is given in Table VI, which is developed in consultation with engineers in LYP and the currency is in Australian dollars. On average, breakdown outages take three days to restore and the daily outages cost is $250,000.3.1. Example calculation\n4. Conclusion: This paper illustrates the application of the maintenance optimisation framework proposed in previous by Tam and Price Tam and Price [2] and [1] to LYP boiler pressure parts. The paper has proved the application and usefulness of the maintenance optimisation framework by a case study. The analysis shown that based on historical plant performance and response to different maintenance policies, it is possible to extend the maintenance interval to 1.5 years with a longer duration of planned maintenance outages.It is, however, possible that a forced outage occur when electricity price is higher than the current value used in the model. This will results in a forced outage cost in magnitude of million dollars per day of outage. Other plant items may also suffer if LYP moves their maintenance outages to a longer one and further apart.The paper has discussed in detail how the proposed framework can be applied and also shown that all three decision dimensions must be quantified and optimised simultaneously, as opposed to previous suggestion to categorising businesses into different business scenarios.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: - The boiler pressure parts are a major asset of a power station, and the maintenance cost is often accountable for a huge portion of the annual budget. In the power generation industry, the outage costs due to loss of production, both planned or forced, are very significant and thus it is of interest to seek for a meaningful approach to the management of boiler pressure parts maintenance such that the enterprise performance is optimised. This paper aims to do this.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - This paper proposes a framework that introduces the division of the enterprise objectives into the three decision dimensions. The framework is applied to the case of power station boiler pressure parts maintenance to optimise maintenance outages decisions for Loy Yang, a power station in Victoria, Australia.\nFindings: - The study finds that the framework provides meaningful approach to optimising maintenance decisions and is generic for application in different cases.\nOriginality/value: - The paper provides a new insight and integrated approach to optimising asset maintenance for an enterprise with the use of a case study.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
Accentuate the positive: how identity affects customer satisfaction
|
[
"Performance",
"Experience",
"Service recovery",
"Identity",
"Satisfaction"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n__NO_TITLE__: An executive summary for managers and executive readers can be found at the end of this article.\n1. Introduction: You've got to accentuate the positive, Eliminate the negative [...]\n2. Identity and customer satisfaction: 2.1 Identity and consumer judgment and choice\n3. Study 1: Identity strength, experience and satisfaction: The primary objective of Study 1 was to test the joint effects of identity and experience information on customer satisfaction (H1 and H2) and to examine the mediating role of expectations and performance perceptions (H3). Specifically, we manipulate the valence of experience information for a product positioned to appeal to consumers' identity. We utilize an individual difference measure of that identity and examine its impact on customer satisfaction as a function of experience. Consistent with H1 and H2, we expect an interaction of identity and experience information such that identity increases satisfaction, more so for positive than negative experience information. Testing H3, we examine whether expectations and/or performance perceptions mediate identity effects on satisfaction.\n4. Study 2: Identity, service failure and recovery: The primary objective of Study 2 was to test H1-H3 with an eye toward generalizability across context, experience and identity. To that end, we manipulate the valence of experience information in a relative manner via service failure (negative) or service failure with recovery (positive). While Study 1 positioned a product to appeal to consumers' identity and measured that identity, Study 2 utilized an identity held by consumers and manipulated whether a service is positioned on that identity or not. That is, we manipulate the salience of the identity link to the brand (cf. ) and examine its impact on customer satisfaction as a function of experience (i.e. service failure with vs. without recovery). From a theoretical standpoint, this study serves as an additional test of H1-H3 and the joint effects of identity and experience on satisfaction. From a managerial standpoint, a differential impact of identity for service failure and recovery has implications for service delivery and the implementation of recovery programs.\n5. General discussion: How does identity affect customer satisfaction following experience? Our research demonstrates how experience valence moderates the impact of identity on customer satisfaction. Specifically, we find that identity improves satisfaction with positive (but does not hurt satisfaction with negative) experience, whether for a product or a service experience. This effect arises primarily because identity enhances performance perceptions for a positive (but not negative) experience. These findings support H1-H3 with some evidence for generalizability across product and service experience and also for manipulated and measured identity.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this research is to address an important gap in identity research - how does consumer identity affect satisfaction following an unambiguous product experience.\nDesign/methodology/approach: Two experiments were conducted involving a product experience scenario and a service recovery encounter.\nFindings: Study results demonstrate that experience valence moderates the impact of identity on customer satisfaction. Specifically, we find that identity improves satisfaction with a positive (but does not increase dissatisfaction with a negative) experience, and this effect arises via enhanced performance perceptions under positive experience rather than expectations.\nResearch limitations/implications: Our research investigates whether the prior research argument that identity is a powerful and \"sticky\" source of brand evaluation is robust to product experience. Specifically, we extend the disconfirmation paradigm of satisfaction by identifying identity as a driver of satisfaction and by testing whether identity effects emerge via biased perceptions of performance or altered expectations.\nPractical implications: Our findings offer interesting managerial implications in terms of using identity marketing to enhance customer satisfaction with positive experiences and to increase the effectiveness of recovery from brand failures, but identity marketing cannot shield a brand from negative product experience.\nOriginality/value: To our knowledge, this research is first to demonstrate the joint effects of identity and experience information on satisfaction using two different identities and settings.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
Relationship between leadership behaviors and performance: The moderating role of a work team's level of age, gender, and cultural heterogeneity
|
[
"Leadership",
"Heterogeneity",
"Team",
"Performance management"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Over the last decade, important advancements have been made contributing to our understanding of effective leadership. For example, we know a great deal about the effectiveness of various leadership behaviors, based on results of meta-analysis (Dumdum et al., 2002; Judge et al., 2004). However, although recent theoretical works have emphasized the context sensitivity of leadership (Conger, 2007; Hunter et al., 2007), empirical research in this field is still rare. That is, the contextual conditions under which the leadership-effectiveness relationships hold true are not yet fully explored. As a consequence, scientists as well as practitioners still cannot recommend specific leadership behaviors to organizational leaders for certain situations with any great certainty, as knowledge in this field is fragmentary (Yukl, 2002). This gap in the literature calls for research on the important area of the contextual dimensions of organizational processes such as leadership (Antonakis et al., 2003; Rousseau and Fried, 2001). The present study addresses this gap by exploring the moderating effects of different contexts on the relationship between leadership behaviors and performance. More specifically, the focus is on the work team's level of age, gender, and cultural heterogeneity as potential moderators of the leadership-performance relationship.In general, leadership research focuses on one leadership paradigm at a time, although the considerable theoretical overlap between these theories has been discussed (Rowold and Heinitz, 2007; Graen et al., 2010). Thus, recent calls for research strongly suggested the need to compare and contrast leadership theories with each other (Yukl, 1999, 2002). It should be noted that in contrast to virtually all prior empirical studies, the present one includes several leadership paradigms. Most researchers agree that one specific leader can exhibit several leadership behaviors over time, although in one specific situation, the focus is typically on one leadership behavior (Bass, 1985; Blake and Mouton, 1964).First, we discuss the leadership behaviors relevant for the present study. Second, as the present paper focuses on the heterogeneity of the work team, this context factor is introduced. Next, the contextual sensitivity of the leadership behaviors is explored. Furthermore, a theoretical model is developed, proposing both:* the main effects of leadership behaviors; as well as* the interaction of these leadership behaviors with contextual factors on performance.This model is shown in Figure 1. Finally, an empirical study testing this model is conducted. In sum, the present study contributes to our understanding of a hitherto unexplored context factor, namely, facets of heterogeneity of the work team.Two leadership paradigms\nMethods: Sample and procedure\nResults: Table I contains descriptive statistics and intercorrelations of the study's variables. The internal consistency estimates for leadership behaviors and self-rated performance were satisfactory. As can be seen from this table, four of the five leadership behaviors were positively associated with self-rated performance. One might ask whether differences in performance exist between heterogeneous versus homogeneous teams. However, no significant effects in levels of performance were detected. for any of the three facets of heterogeneity.Multiple regression analysis was performed to test the influences of leaders' hierarchical level, contextual factors, leadership behaviors, and the interaction terms between contextual factors and leadership behaviors on performance. In accordance with the methodological standards of regression (Cohen et al., 2002), the leadership behaviors and context factors were standardized prior to computing their interactions, which were subsequently entered into the regression analysis. No signs of multicollinearity were detected (i.e. the VIF was below or equal 5; cf. Belsey et al., 1980; Cohen et al., 2002).The results of the multiple regression analyses were summarized in Table II. None of the control variables was significantly related to performance. Furthermore, the only leadership behavior that was associated with performance was initiating structure. Thus, only H1 was confirmed. Concerning the interactions between leadership behaviors and facets of work teams' heterogeneity, several hypotheses could be confirmed. First, the interaction between transformational leadership and gender was significant, lending support to H3. As Figure 2 shows, high levels of heterogeneity and high levels of transformational leadership led to higher levels of performance.Second, H4 gained support from the data as well: the interaction between work team heterogeneity (culture) and laissez-faire led was significant. As Figure 3 shows, high levels of laissez-faire and high heterogeneity led to high performance.Finally, the interaction between consideration and gender was significant, supporting H5. The combination of high levels of consideration and heterogeneity (gender) led to increased performance (Figure 4).Altogether, 12.3 percent of the variance in performance was explained by context factors, leadership behaviors, and their interactions.\nDiscussion: Integrative discussion of main results\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: - In today's organizations, the heterogeneity of work teams is increasing. For example, members of work teams have different ages, genders, and/or cultural backgrounds. As a consequence, team leaders have to face the challenge of taking into account the various needs, values, and motives of their followers. However, there has been very little empirical research to test whether the influence of leadership behaviors on performance is moderated by facets of team heterogeneity. This paper aims to address this issue.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - The leadership behaviors of transactional and transformational leadership, laissez-faire, consideration, and initiating structure, as well as three facets of heterogeneity (i.e. age, gender, and culture) were assessed in an empirical study based on a sample of n=283 members of German fire departments. These team members also provided self-ratings for their performance.\nFindings: - The results revealed that the relationship between three leadership behaviors (i.e. transformational leadership, laissez-faire, and consideration) and performance was being moderated by facets of team members' heterogeneity.\nPractical implications: - Both transformational leadership and consideration work best when the work team is heterogeneous with regard to gender.\nOriginality/value: - The importance of the contextual influences of team members' heterogeneity for effective leadership processes was explored theoretically, and subsequently, demonstrated empirically for the first time.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Developing a scale for the perceived social benefits of sharing
|
[
"Online word-of-mouth",
"Viral marketing",
"Social transmission"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Word-of-mouth (WOM) can have social consequences for the sharers. People engage in WOM activities that make them look good but are also aware of the social dangers of such sharing behaviours (Eisingerich et al., 2015). For example, the \"humblebrag\", a veiled attempt at self-promotion (e.g. \"exhausted from standing in line for three hours - this new iPhone better be worth it!\") is a common online phenomenon (Alfano and Robinson, 2014). Individuals humblebrag because they want the social reinforcement that can result from sharing something that they think sounds impressive but wish to negate the backlash that can result from boasting by adding a complaint or a relatable anecdote (Sezer et al., 2015). The recent proliferation of this approach suggests that individuals are aware of the social consequences of engaging in WOM and that perceived social risk and benefit may play a role in choosing what to share with others.\nConceptualisation of perceived social benefit: Before developing a preliminary scale to measure perceived social benefit, a clear definition of the construct was required. Individuals' perceptions have been shown to influence their likelihood to share WOM. Previous research has examined the role of perceived value - consumers' perception of the benefit of a product or service relative to the cost involved - as an antecedent of WOM activity (De Matos and Rossi, 2008). The current conceptualisation of perceived social benefit adopts this approach, however, focuses on the perceived social benefit (rather than perceived value) relative to the associated perceived social risk (rather than cost) involved in sharing WOM.\nStudy 1: Study 1 tested the 17-item preliminary measure of perceived social benefit. Principle axis factor analysis was used to examine the preliminary measure and reduce the items to form a brief and reliable scale (Russell, 2002). A further aim of Study 1 was to establish the discriminant validity of the scale by comparing scores on the final measure to those related to perceived social risk (Eisingerich et al., 2015; Cronbach and Meehl, 1955).\nStudy 2: Study 2 aimed to provide further evidence for the validity of the PSBSS. Specifically, the concurrent validity of the PSBSS was established by examining whether participants' scores on this measure could predict a related outcome: the likelihood to share (Berger, 2014; Gregory, 2011). To achieve this, the PSBSS was administered alongside a measure of the likelihood to share across a variety of face-to-face and online contexts. It was hypothesised that perceived social benefit would be positively related to the likelihood to share both face-to-face and online.\nSummary and future directions: The factor analysis conducted in Study 1 demonstrated that perceived social benefit associated with WOM involves social approval (e.g. sharing to gain approval from others), impression management (e.g. sharing to communicate self-identity) and social bonding (e.g. sharing to benefit relationships with others). These findings were consistent with previous research related to the social drivers of WOM behaviour (Berger, 2014) and resulted in the construction of a nine-item scale. The PSBSS was shown to be highly internally consistent and possess discriminant validity. Scores on the PSBSS were not related to perceived social risk, a construct that is both conceptually opposed to, and distinct from, perceived social benefit (Eisingerich et al., 2015). The results of Study 2 suggest that perceived social benefit is positively related to the likelihood to share both face-to-face and online. The utility of the PSBSS to predict the likelihood to share demonstrates the concurrent validity of this scale (Gregory, 2011).\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this research was to create a brief scale to measure perceived social benefit that would be appropriate for use in future research aiming to explore the role of this variable in determining word-of-mouth (WOM) behaviour. There is evidence that perceived social risk negatively impacts the willingness to share, but the role of perceived social benefit has not yet been explored. Understanding how perceived social risk and benefit interact to determine WOM will inform social marketing campaign design.\nDesign/methodology/approach: This paper outlines two studies: Study 1 was concerned with the development of the perceived social benefit of sharing scale (PSBSS), including the construction of preliminary items and the reliability and discriminant validity of the final scale. Study 2 involved an investigation of the concurrent validity of the PSBSS in relation to the likelihood to share.\nFindings: Study 1 demonstrated that the perceived social benefit associated with WOM was related to social approval, impression management and social bonding. The results of Study 2 established that scores on the PSBSS predicted self-reported likelihood to engage in both face-to-face WOM and electronic WOM.\nOriginality/value: The PSBSS can be used to examine the role of perceived social benefit, including how the interaction between perceived social risk and benefit determines where, when and with whom people will share WOM.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Addressing cynicism in the organization: How negative attitudes can be unlearned
|
[
"Leadership",
"Attitudes",
"Unlearning",
"Cynicism"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n__NO_TITLE__: Increased globalization and constant advances in technology ensure that the business environment has become tougher to operate in than ever before. Firms must constantly evolve to remain competitive.\nCynicism at work: causes and effects: If that was not enough, many have enemies within to contend with. Evidence suggests the cynicism is among the most serious of these challenges. The problem is becoming so widespread that it has been referred to as the organizational equivalent of cancer.\nFirst steps toward a cure: It is clear that cynicism can seriously harm organizational well-being. Finding effective remedies for this ailment must therefore be a top priority. As with cancer, early detection increases the chance that treatment will prove successful.\nThe process of unlearning: Nevertheless, the above measures alone are not usually enough. Organizations must also focus strongly on the notion that cynicism is a learned attitude. By definition, this suggests the possibility that the said negativity can be unlearned. And why not? After all, attitudes in many contexts can and often do change.\nComment: The review is based on \"Unlearning cynicism: A supplemental approach in addressing a serious organizational malady\" by Schraeder et al. (2016). In an interesting article, the authors suggest ways in which firms can address organizational cynicism. It is proposed that negative attitudes that underpin cynicism can be unlearned, and they offer a framework for this purpose. The value of this piece largely rests in its novel approach towards this serious problem.\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: Increased globalization and constant advances in technology ensure that the business environment has become tougher to operate in than ever before. Firms must constantly evolve to remain competitive. If that was not enough, many have enemies within to contend with. Evidence suggests the cynicism is among the most serious of these challenges. The problem is becoming so widespread that it has been referred to as the organizational equivalent of cancer. Various definitions of cynicism have been forwarded.\nPractical implications: The paper provides strategic insights and practical thinking that have influenced some of the world's leading organizations.\nOriginality/value: The briefing saves busy executives and researchers hours of reading time by selecting only the very best, most pertinent information and presenting it in a condensed and easy-to-digest format.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Community-based disaster communication: how does it become trustworthy?
|
[
"Social capital",
"Trust",
"Social networks",
"Culture-embedded communication",
"Disaster communication",
"Jalin Merapi",
"Weight ties"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: Numerous scholars have identified a significant increase in information demand within both affected and unaffected communities during a disaster response (Ferrante, 2010; Reynolds and Seeger, 2005). In order to fulfill the demand for information, community members often go to mass media, local government, or other community members as the dominant information sources in disaster response (Johnson, 2007). Yet, Austin et al. (2012) and Johnson (2007) specifically argue that community members cannot automatically become formal communication sources because of a lack of a mechanism to aggregate and validate the information. Consequently, this creates demands for continual organizing, monitoring of credibility, and additional verification in order to establish reliable disaster communication for any engaged individuals (Palen et al., 2010; Palen and Liu, 2007). However, Johnson (2007) suggests that information seeking is more likely to have a successful outcome by engaging local people as information sources, in comparison to mass media. Similarly, Romo-Murphy et al. (2011) emphasize that affected communities tend to merge and connect with others as their reliable information sources in times when they have to completely rely on themselves for assistance.\n2. Literature review: People rely on trustworthiness as a stand-in for disaster (Ferrante, 2010; Uslaner, 1999). They are unlikely to pay attention and act on information provided by someone in whom they have a lack of trust; this will prevent the transformation of the information provided into usable knowledge (Fisher, 2013; Jaeger et al., 2007; Sandman, 1993). Hence, disaster communication strongly requires trust for rapid decision making during critical times (Murayama et al., 2013; Reinhardt, 2015). Additionally, Johnson (2007) and Tang et al. (2012) argue that trust increases the overall quality of the communication process and efficiency of information seeking.\n3. Methodology: In order to gain an in-depth understanding of a community-based information network in disaster communication, 33 in-depth interviews were conducted in districts surrounding Mt Merapi (Sleman district, Magelang district, Klaten district, and Boyolali district). The interviewees were divided into two groups: the representatives of JM and the representatives of JM's audiences. The first group comprised the individuals who were closely involved in JM during the 2010 Merapi eruption: the community radio stations' volunteers (CRVs) of Lintas Merapi FM, K FM, MMC FM, Gema Merapi FM, and Lahara FM, as the community radio stations located in Mt Merapi surroundings which initiated the establishment of JM and have become the main actors of JM; the staff or former staff of the Combine Resource Institution (CRI), as the locally run NGO which has been collaborating with the CRVs in JM; and the volunteers of JM. Meanwhile, the second group consisted of the affected community members and donors who had experiences with JM during the 2010 Merapi eruption. The representatives of JM, specifically, were interviewed about the establishment of JM, the involvement of community radio stations, and the process of JM's disaster communication. Meanwhile, the representatives of JM audiences were interviewed regarding their participation in JM and experiences in disaster communication during the 2010 Merapi eruption.\n4. Findings and discussion: According to the CRVs, the engagement of community radio stations was considered to be the key factor for community participation in disaster communication through JM. The participation was not necessarily encouraged by sustainable radio broadcasts, despite some studies arguing that sustainability has been the main strength of radio broadcasts in maintaining information availability during a disaster (Ewart and Dekker, 2013; Moody, 2013; Reynolds and Seeger, 2005). Only two radio stations (Lintas Merapi FM and Lahara FM) were able to broadcast at the IDP camps during the 2010 Merapi eruption. Yet, the CRVs were able to engage their community members' involvement in JM, even without the radio's live broadcast. Therefore, this raises the assumption that the important roles of the community radio stations did not rely heavily on reliable radio technology, but more likely on the cultural characteristics of community radio stations, which were strongly embedded in the community's daily environment, and its volunteers as local actors.\n5. Conclusion: Culture-embedded disaster communication within the affected community is more likely to increase the effectiveness and acceptance of disaster information because it can \"bridge\" the information in convenient ways based upon their cultural communication behaviors. Another significant finding that emerged from this study is that both strong ties and weak ties play important roles in such a supportive relationship in community-based disaster communication. The strong ties of the affected community are more likely to establish social capital, trust, and community participation; they are more effective in encouraging the affected community to provide their \"inside\" information. Meanwhile, weak ties are more effective in disseminating the \"insiders\" information' to a larger number of people across different communities (e.g. the unaffected community). By engaging online media, weak ties potentially have an indirect influence in encouraging trust, as they extend the offline social networks and trust owned by the affected community. Furthermore, the combination of culture-embedded communication, community participation, and online communication significantly influences trust establishment within the outsiders in the authenticity of disaster information as locally based information from the affected community.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: Trust in disaster communication is significant because a lack of trust will prevent the transformation of information into usable knowledge for an effective disaster response. Therefore, the purpose of this paper is to investigate how the culture and network ties of an affected community can encourage trust and participation in disaster communication.\nDesign/methodology/approach: A qualitative case study of Jalin Merapi (JM) was conducted by interviewing 33 research participants in the Mt Merapi surroundings.\nFindings: The findings indicate that culture-embedded disaster communication plays important roles in increasing the effectiveness of disaster information and encouraging trust in the authenticity of locally based disaster information at the individual level. The findings also identify that strong ties and weak ties play different roles in disaster communication. The strong ties are more effective in facilitating information diffusion and encourage trust and community participation within the affected community. Furthermore, the weak ties are more effective in disseminating information to wider audiences, and have an indirect influence in encouraging trust by extending the offline social network owned by the affected community.\nOriginality/value: Most literature on disaster communication focusses on the construction of disaster messages to encourage effective disaster response. Less attention has been paid to the information receivers regarding how disaster information is considered to be trustworthy by the affected community and how it can increase collective participation in community-based disaster communication.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Joan Acker's review of the contributing papers, edited by Susan Sayce
|
[] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n__NO_TITLE__: A theme that comes through a review of and Benschop's and Doorewaard's as well as Berry's and Bell's paper is the difficulty of making the invisible practices that create inequalities whether gender, race or an intersection of these. For me, this has been one of the most persistent barriers in my efforts to improve equality in organizations, how do you make visible the invisible?\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: - This commentary aims to review the contributing papers in this special issue.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - Papers are reviewed by Joan Acker in relation to her original work \"Hierarchies, jobs, bodies: a theory of gendered organizations\".\nFindings: - It is found that the articles make important contributions to the question of equality in organizations.\nOriginality/value: - This commentary serves as a reminder that academic work can contribute to a dialogue between academic generations, as is demonstrated throughout this special issue.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
How does hotel design contribute to property performance?
|
[
"Hedonic pricing",
"Hotel performance",
"Design quality indicator",
"Hotel design"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: \"Hospitality projects, by their nature, carry a higher financial risk than most other project types, so creating designs that make financial sense will continue to grow in importance\" (McDonough, 2001, p. 3). While hotel business activities are increasingly broken into discrete metrics-based tasks - ready for analysis, improvement and forecasting - the actual design of the property remains stubbornly difficult to evaluate. A critical aspect of owning and operating a hotel is understanding which components of the property itself influence the guests' perceptions of the property and how their assessments of the hotel's design are related to actual performance.\nLiterature review: Traditional research in design focuses almost entirely on products, particularly consumer products. Better designs should yield price discrimination for the producer. Heskett ruminates on this issue, concluding that \"design, in other words, is about envisioning change\" (Heskett, 2009, p. 82). The design of a product or service can be profoundly affected by a variety of external factors, such as regulatory requirements; access to raw materials, geographic or meteorological conditions; and access to transportation (Heskett, 2009). In business, the only purpose for improving design is to improve performance in customer satisfaction, market share, cost control and/or profitability. Hassanien (2006, p. 43) nicely summarizes hotel industry practitioners' reasons for hotels to renovate, including \"to keep up with the competition, to maintain or increase market share [...], improve operational efficiency [...], to comply with new trends and technology [...]\".\nMethods: This exploratory study begins by testing the factor structure for the DQI. The resulting factor scores are then used in a semi-log regression analysis to reveal which factors influence the dependent variables, which are the occupancy, ADR and RevPAR indices.\nAnalysis and results: The data were analyzed using EFA and semi-log regression analysis. EFA identifies the underlying dimensions in the data set; the dimensions are referred to as \"factors\". These factors are then used as independent variables in the ensuing regression modeling. The intent of the regression analysis is to explore the independent variables' effects on the dependent variables, here including ADR index, RevPAR index and occupancy index. The semi-log regression technique uses a logarithmic transformation of the dependent variable (e.g. ADR index) to permit performing a linear regression. Without the semi-log transformation, the resulting regression would be non-linear and therefore difficult or impossible to interpret.\nDiscussion and conclusions: Conclusions\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to test the relationships between a hotel's design quality and the property's business performance.\nDesign/methodology/approach: Hotel guests' assessments of the design quality of hotels that they recently visited are tested using the design quality indicator (DQI). Business performance is measured using indexed values for each property's occupancy, average daily rate (ADR) and revenue per available room (RevPAR). The data are analyzed using exploratory factor analysis and a variation of a hedonic pricing model.\nFindings: Factor analysis reduced the DQI instrument to 19 measurement items. Factors that measure navigability and signage positively impact occupancy index. Factors that measure flexible space usage negatively impact the RevPAR and ADR indices. Factors that reflect aesthetic constructs, including Urban & Social Integration and Character & Form, positively impact the RevPAR and ADR indices.\nResearch limitations/implications: The study examines a nationwide sample of guests from two full-service brands of a single multi-brand hotel company. The study provides a parsimonious, validated design measurement instrument and a revised hedonic pricing analysis.\nPractical implications: Hoteliers can use this technique to assist with resource allocation decisions. Aesthetic elements, including the building's Urban & Social Integration with its surroundings and its Character & Form, lead to higher ADR and RevPAR performance. Managers should ensure a coherent layout and good signage program to drive occupancy.\nOriginality/value: This study offers a technique to measure design quality and a new method of performing a hedonic pricing analysis.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Quality assurance in learning material development at OUM
|
[
"Customer satisfaction",
"Quality assurance",
"Learning material"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: The success and effectiveness of the distance education system \"depends heavily on the study material, particularly in the form of printed course material\" (Jayaram and Dorababu, 2015). Quality in the Open and Distance Learning (ODL) institutions and their programs are often judged in relation to study material because \"student learning is at the center of the ODL experience\" (Kirkpatrick, 2005; Hashim, 1999). These are the pivots on which the whole learning pedagogy revolves.\nQA in ODL: Around the world, the burgeoning demand for ODL institutions to provide opportunities to learners to pursue higher education has shifted the attention of stakeholders and interested parties to the importance of quality. In light of the increasing competition with conventional universities, the ODL institutions need to offer quality courses and modules that satisfy learners and make them feel there is value for money and the education is a good investment; this in turn ensures that the ODL institutions can continuously \"sell and survive\" (Koul, 2010) and, at the same time, overall improvements in quality in addition to openness and transparency become the key drivers of \"competition and collaboration in education and research\" (Anderson, 2008; Ossiannilsson and Creelman, 2012).\nQA related to tertiary education in Malaysia: In general, there are two best-practice QA and accreditation agencies in Malaysia, which are Malaysian Qualifications Agency (MQA) and Scientific and Industrial Research Institute of Malaysia (SIRIM).\nA brief background of the OUM and the CiDT: OUM has had a long history in developing study materials for its distance learners. OUM was the first ODL institution in Malaysia and commenced operations in 2001, beginning with the face-to-face mode of learning aided with printed modules and a learning management system platform. Since its inception, the University has been at the forefront championing an accessible, affordable and flexible approach to learning via the ODL mode. OUM has also been highly ranked in the SETARA ODL category with an excellent Tier 5 rating - a testament to the overall quality of the university (Malaysian Qualifications Agency, 2013).\nThe importance of quality print modules in the OUM: When the CiDT opted to pursue the MS ISO 9001:2000 certification, the scope was limited to printed learning materials for programs offered by the OUM. Currently, there are five core activity procedures for print modules:\nThe QA process for print module development: At the CiDT, there are three stages involved in the QA of print module development. These include the pre-development, actual development and post-development stages. Figure 1 shows all the stages and the respective QC measures that will be explained in the following subsections.\nConclusion: The increase in customer satisfaction shown in Table I demonstrates the positive impact that the QA culture has on the print module development process at the OUM. CiDT has been adopting a stringent auditing process yearly, since 2005, and the continuous improvement efforts have produced a desirable result. These audits include self-audit, internal audit and, finally, quality audit by SIRIM. The QA process for print module development is very clear in defining what the standards of achievement are, including documented procedures for each process.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to discuss the stages involved in the module development process at the Open University Malaysia (OUM), to make them \"print ready,\" and how this has evolved over the years with various quality assurance (QA) mechanisms in place.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The paper builds upon the 12 quality control checks in the various stages of module development from pre-development to actual development and finally to post-development process. This is in line with the QA continuous improvement process of PDCA or Plan, Do, Check and Act.\nFindings: Change, through the fine-tuning of QA processes and open door communication, is the key toward achieving quality modules, and hence meeting learners' expectations.\nResearch limitations/implications: This paper highlights the experiences of only the Centre for Instructional Design and Technology, OUM in the development of quality learning material for the Open and Distance Learning (ODL) learners.\nOriginality/value: This paper outlines the step-by-step process in module development, from print to print-ready material, to assist the ODL universities in their mission to provide quality learning material to learners.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Own brand strategy of the Japanese apparel manufacturers
|
[
"Logit regression analysis",
"Apparel manufacturer",
"Own brand strategy"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: Integration of planning, production, and promotion activities within a company have developed as important strategies in the Japanese apparel industry. This is the well-known SPA[1] business model adopted especially by apparel manufacturers in Japan and South Korea (Urakami and Wu, 2010; Urakami et al., 2009, 2010; Inoguchi et al., 2012; Lee et al., 2014). Urakami and Wu (2010) described SPA as a vertically integrated system, dealing with the coordination of marketing, sales, and purchasing activities of the retailer as well as the design, production, and distribution activities of the manufacturer within the company. Richardson (1996) pointed out that vertically integrated fashion apparel firms are leading in implementing innovation in areas such as information technology investment, reducing production cycles and inventories, and increasing coordination. In fact, the SPA business model has expanded rapidly in the Japanese apparel industry. Yano Research Institute Ltd. (2012) estimated the market size of SPAs in Japan as 3.0 trillion JPY in 1999, which increased to 4.9 trillion JPY in 2011. The 60.6 percent growth rate is evidence that the sales of SPAs and/or the number of apparel firms that adopt the SPA business model have increased.\n2. Japanese apparel manufacturers: Wu (2015) categorized the characteristics of the Japanese apparel industry as falling under five main headings: declining industry, competitive market due to the large number of SME wholesalers/manufacturers, intense competition, market uncertainty, and essential strategies of integrating planning-production-promotion activities.\n3. Literature review: There are numerous studies that have conducted empirical analysis on the strategic decision-making of firms. Here, we survey such studies as published in the Strategic Management Journal and Academy of Management Journal from 2011 to 2014, focusing on logit and probit models adopted as methodologies by the authors. The corresponding study comprises 26 journal papers and the results from the survey are shown in Table III[2].\n4. Hypotheses: The present study focuses on the Japanese apparel manufacturers in order to clarify the factors affecting the decision making of adopting own brand strategies. To examine this issue, we adopt two theories: a resource-based theory and an agglomeration economic theory. This is because own brand strategy is understood to be the strategy undertaken to secure competitive advantage against rival companies, in so much that manufacturers require their own specific management resources. Furthermore, manufacturers situated near urban areas have additional advantages such as access to mass information on recent fashion trends, availability of skilled human resources, and access to various funding sources. Therefore, one can assume that it is easy for manufacturers located in close proximity to urban areas to employ own brand strategies. We test both these theories using four hypotheses as set out below.\n5. Methodology: 5.1 Logit model\n6. Estimation results: The program Stata/SE Ver12 is used in our analysis and an estimation of the coefficients and marginal effects are shown in Table VI. The goodness-of-fit of the estimated models is not very high (0.044)[6]. The result of log-likelihood (LR) statistics, however, is 38.9, suggesting the null hypotheses and all independent variable parameters are jointly equal to zero and, therefore, can be rejected at the 1 percent level of significance. (kh2 at 1 percent level is 21.7) As a consequence, the estimated model is accepted as valid.\n7. Conclusions: The aims of this study are to clarify the factors affecting own brand strategy of Japanese apparel manufacturers. This investigation is particularly noteworthy since it illuminates how SME apparel manufacturers survive in the market.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to highlight the own brand strategies undertaken by Japanese apparel manufacturers, and illuminate the characteristics of those apparel manufacturers who adopt the SPA business model.\nDesign/methodology/approach: A questionnaire survey was sent to 4,417 apparel manufacturers in Japan of which a total of 1,211 were deemed usable (response rate of 27.47 percent). Logit regression analysis was then employed to identify factors affecting the own brand strategies adopted by Japanese apparel manufacturers.\nFindings: The main findings are as follows: apparel manufacturers having access to external designers, and who collect information relating to consumer needs for production planning tend to have their own brands; apparel manufacturers located in Tokyo have added benefits associated with launching their own brands than those located in other cities; the size of the company behind the brand development is insignificant; and therefore, SME apparel manufacturers have equal opportunities in developing their own brands, which could flourish in the future.\nResearch limitations/implications: The present study is limited in that it focuses solely on exogenous factors. Strategic decision-making processes, typical of the distribution structures of apparel industries, influence the apparel relationship between retailers, wholesalers, and manufacturers. Thus, the distribution structure and the relationships require further investigation studies.\nOriginality/value: Because of a lack of published data, no empirical studies investigating the effectiveness of own brand strategies developed by Japanese apparel manufacturers currently exist. The present study aims to address this by conducting questionnaire surveys with all Japanese apparel manufacturers and then using logit regression analysis, identify the primary factors influencing own brand strategy. This study clarifies the situation regarding the survival of SMEs in the apparel market, considering only those apparel manufacturers who intend to launch their own brands.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Theorising on risk homeostasis in the context of information security behaviour
|
[
"Information security",
"Behavioural frameworks",
"Information risk",
"Information security behaviour",
"Risk homeostasis",
"Security fatigue"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: Modern-day information security cannot be defined or understood as a pure technical problem. Information technology is a commodity that is used by humans and is therefore a function of the combined effect of human and technological aspects. These human factors ultimately determine the success or failure of information security programmes. The statement on the role of humans in information security is nothing new, and a large number of research projects dealing with the problem exist (Frangopoulos et al., 2014; Furnell and Clarke, 2012; Parsons et al., 2010). Despite the comprehensive research efforts in this area, there is still no absolute or definitive solution for what seems to be a very basic problem. The privacy paradox (Kokolakis, 2015) or the knowing-doing gap (Cox, 2012a) are good examples of a problem that remains almost a mystery or at least an enigmatic problem. This problem refers specifically to users with a perceived high level of security awareness who also possess sufficient information security knowledge, but who are then easily persuaded to reveal confidential information such as passwords. It is exactly because of the human element in information security that these types of problems occur and persist. Many researchers have acknowledged this, and there are a significant number of studies calling for a more holistic approach to information security (Soomro et al., 2016) or attempting to provide new directions and guidelines for behavioural information security research (Crossler et al., 2013).\n2. Motivational background: The significant role that the human element plays in information security means that information security behaviour cannot be understood completely by relying only on human data that are normally obtained from surveys and other measuring instruments. Doing this turns a complex human scientific problem into a data-driven science that may present a whole new host of problems.\n3. The theory of risk homeostasis: It is clear from the literature that the different behavioural theories that have been mentioned in the introduction are popular and well-researched topics in information security. The risk homeostasis theory, however, seems to be a topic that is not one of the current focus points in information security. Very few resources on studies exist in which risk homeostasis is treated as a factor or an influential theory in information security. Pattinson and Anderson (2004) have performed an introductory study of risk homeostasis as a factor in information security, but other researchers only briefly mention the theory as a possible explanatory tool (Albrechtsen and Hovden, 2009; Parsons et al., 2010).\n4. Discussion and concluding remarks: Risk homeostasis on its own cannot provide absolute answers to information security behaviour. Shameli-Sendi et al. (2016) rightly pointed out that risk is also dependent on other factors that are constantly changing. These other factors will influence the perceived benefits and costs of a chosen behaviour. One example is the personal trait of narcissism that will influence perceptions and behaviour. Narcissism is described by Campbell et al. (2011) as a stable individual difference consisting of grandiosity, self-love and inflated self-views, but, except for the work of Cox (2012a, 2012b), there is very little on narcissism and information security in the literature.\n5. Conclusion: The human aspect of information security has turned it into a complex area of study. There is widespread recognition of the fact that technology on its own does no longer offer complete solutions to the information security problem. New models, approaches and techniques are needed to manage and understand information security risks and behaviour. What seems to be popular amongst security specialists is to investigate and apply behavioural theories that originate from the psychological and social sciences. One such theory that appears to be almost ignored in the context of information security is the theory of risk homeostasis. Some information security researchers have touched on this theory (Farahmand et al., 2008; Pattinson and Anderson, 2004; Stewart, 2004), but there is a general lack of literature on risk homeostasis in information security. This paper attempts to create an opportunity to begin theorising on risk homeostasis as a model that should be considered, along with other factors, in information security frameworks.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to discuss and theorise on the appropriateness and potential impact of risk homeostasis in the context of information security.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The discussion is mainly based on a literature survey backed up by illustrative empirical examples.\nFindings: Risk homeostasis in the context of information security is an under-explored topic. The principles, assumptions and methodology of a risk homeostasis framework offer new insights and knowledge to explain and predict contradictory human behaviour in information security.\nPractical implications: The paper shows that explanations for contradictory human behaviour (e.g. the privacy paradox) would gain from considering risk homeostasis as an information security risk management model. The ideas discussed open up the prospect to theorise on risk homeostasis as a framework in information security and should form a basis for further research and practical implementations. On a more practical level, it offers decision makers useful information and new insights that could be advantageous in a strategic security planning process.\nOriginality/value: This is the first systematic comprehensive review of risk homeostasis in the context of information security behaviour and readers of the paper will find new theories, guidelines and insights on risk homeostasis.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Senior entrepreneurship and qualified senior unemployment: The case of the Portuguese Northern region
|
[
"Motivations and barriers",
"Necessity entrepreneurs",
"Qualified unemployment",
"Senior entrepreneurship"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: As referred by Pilkova et al. (2016), the last economic and financial crisis, among other phenomena, caused reduced economic growth and high unemployment rates.\n2. Theoretical background: From the review of the literature, we have verified that most of the studies reviewed (Associacao Empresarial de Portugal (AEP), 2013; EMA Research, 2012; Maalaoui et al., 2012; Maritz, 2015; Matos et al., 2015; Halabisky, 2012; Pilkova et al., 2014) underlies the problem of senior entrepreneurship in the issues of population ageing and active ageing. As the issue of population ageing is unquestionable and widely analyzed and demonstrated evidence, the issue of active ageing has assumed a critical importance in the current economic and social context and has therefore justified numerous studies on the subject of ageing, which are cited above.\n3. Research design and research question: The study made was of a non-experimental and transversal nature, based on data of a quantitative and qualitative nature (Anastas and MacDonald, 1994; Robson, 2002). Data were collected through semi-structured interviews, focus groups and survey methods, resorting to the technique of self-administered questionnaire. This has enabled us to share the information accordingly to the source and reduce the probability of appearing biased trends or premature conclusions (Eisenhardt, 1989).\n4. Results: 4.1 Survey\n5. Discussion, conclusions, main contributions and limitations: 5.1 Discussion\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to characterize the senior entrepreneurship context, as a solution for an unemployed qualified segment between 45 and 60 years of age, in the Northern region of Portugal, from a national and European perspective, associated to the growth trend of qualified senior unemployment in the region, based on a statistical angle and from the point of view of the motivations to become self-employed with a business creation project.\nDesign/methodology/approach: This empirical study is a cross-sectional study of mixed nature, that reconciles qualitative and quantitative analysis. A questionnaire was made and applied to a sample of 1,000 individuals and seven semi-structured interviews which four focus groups were carried out.\nFindings: Findings allow us to conclude that the studied segment, skilled unemployed individuals between the ages of 45 and 60, is a growing segment that tends to evolve into long-term unemployment and underlines a potential reluctant entrepreneurship by necessity, i.e. a reduced motivational content of these unemployed people for the creation of their own job. The authors can conclude, in the Portuguese case, that government policies relating to taxes and bureaucracy are considered as unfavorable conditions or potentially inhibitors of senior entrepreneurship. Lastly, the authors underline the clear absence of specific support programs and measures for the promotion of entrepreneurship among the qualified senior unemployed and the authors propose an ecosystem creation regarding the specifics of the target group of the study.\nPractical implications: The study identifies a set of actions and/or orientations that could be relevant and taken into account by the decision makers.\nOriginality/value: The main contribution of this paper is the better knowledge of the context and motivations for qualified senior entrepreneurship, as well as the associated personal, economic and social barriers; and the specific suggestions provided to policy makers in order to improve the context of the senior entrepreneurship.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Understanding pro-environmental behavior: A comparison of sustainable consumers and apathetic consumers
|
[
"Pro‐environmental behavior",
"Recycling",
"Green product purchasing behaviour",
"Economic sustainability",
"Consumer behaviour"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Household consumption accounts for more than 60 percent of all environmental impacts, and 80 percent of this impact occurs during end use (UNEP, 2010). Given the significance of environmental sustainability in human society, current attention to consumers' participation in sustainable consumption is clearly growing (Cone, 2009; The World Business Council for Sustainable Development, 2008). Retailers and marketers also have responded by helping consumers become aware of and knowledgeable about sustainable consumption through product/service offerings, CSR (Corporate Social Responsibility) practices, and marketing and educational campaigns (e.g. Piercy and Nikala, 2009; UNEP, 2005).The UN CSD International Work Programme (1995) defines pro-environmental behavior as \"the use of services and related products which respond to basic needs and bring a better quality of life while minimizing the use of natural resources and toxic materials as well as the emissions of waste and pollutants over the lifecycle so as not to jeopardize the needs of future generations\" (cited in UNEP, 2005). Using this definition, research has investigated pro-environmental behavior from the perspective of either \"impact-oriented\" or \"intent-oriented\" behavior. The impact-oriented perspective defines pro-environmental behavior as \"the extent to which the behavior changes the availability of materials or energy from the environment, alters the structure and dynamics of ecosystems or the biosphere itself' (Stern, 2000, p. 408). Researchers adopting this view investigate causes of environmental changes broadly, embracing direct (e.g. household waste disposal, forest cleaning) as well as indirect causes (e.g. international and national environmental policies, commodity prices on world markets, and tax policies) (Rosa and Dietz, 1998; Stern, 1997; Vayda, 1988). In contrast, the intent-oriented perspective considers pro-environmental behavior as an outcome of individual decision making. This view, commonly found in psychology, focuses on understanding an actor's intention, which predicts behaviors that benefit the environment. Therefore, these research interests lie in people's beliefs, motives, and intentions that lead to target behaviors. The impact-oriented and intent-oriented are linked to non-activist behaviors in public-sphere and private-sphere pro-environmental behavior, respectively (Stern, 2000). The impact-oriented behavioral perspective concerns non-activist behaviors in the public sphere (e.g. environmental citizenship, involvement with environmental organizations, support for public policies such as higher tax for environmental protection, and support/acceptance of environmental regulations) (Stern and Gardner, 1981), while the intent-oriented perspective mainly deals with individuals' target behaviors that fit into private- sphere pro-environmental behaviors (Stern, 1997).From the private-sphere behavior perspective, Stern (1997) defined pro-environmental behavior as all kinds of behavior that save materials or energy from the environment. Steg and Vlek (2009, p. 309) termed pro-environmental behavior as \"behavior that harms the environment as little as possible, or even benefits the environment\". These two definitions share the notion that consumers behave to protect or cause less damage to the environment than do the alternatives. Pro-environmental behaviors in the private sphere include, but are not limited to, the purchase of personal and household goods/services (e.g. energy for the home, travel), the use of environment-related goods (e.g. heating and cooling at home), household waste disposal, and green consumerism (e.g. buying recycled products and organic foods). The terms sustainable consumption, pro-environmental behavior, environmental behavior, environmentally-sustainable behavior, and environmentally-friendly behavior are often used interchangeably (e.g. Thogersen and Olander, 2002). In this study, pro-environmental behavior refers to consumers' purchase, use, and disposal of personal and household products in ways that preserve the environment (Stern, 2000). Two types of pro-environmental behavior of interest are recycling and green product purchasing. Recycling represents a consumer's performance of differentiating collection and refusing disposal of consumable items for recovery of materials or energy.Although consumers understand that pro-environmental behavior is critical for securing a sustainable environment (World Business Council for Sustainable Development, 2008), consumers' concern and interest do not always translate into subsequent actions. In fact, 53 percent of consumers in Brazil, Canada, China, France, Germany, India, the UK, and the US are concerned about environmental issues but are not willing to move actively to protect the environment (Bonini et al., 2008). This discrepancy raises a question about what is important to consumers in order to make them engage in pro-environmental behaviors. It also relates to the question as to how different groups of consumers, based on their pro-environmental behavior (green product purchases), think and behave differently about other pro-environmental practices (recycling). These questions are addressed in this study.Previous studies on pro-environmental behaviors have shown a few distinct patterns. First, much research has focused on identifying important psychological factors that affect consumers' pro-environmental behaviors (e.g. de Groot and Steg, 2007; Fielding et al., 2008; Lam, 1999; Ohtomo and Hirose, 2007; Stern, 2000), generating some degree of consensus on the key motivational factors (e.g. attitudes and normative influences). Next, research has developed various scales to measure consumer perceptions of and/or behaviors about sustainable consumption, such as the social responsible consumption scale (Webster, 1975; Webb et al., 2008), the environmental attitude scale for adolescents (Kaiser et al., 2007), and the environmental concern scale (Snelgar, 2006). Despite such extensive and long-standing research on pro-environmental behaviors, there is a dearth of empirical research on individual differences in the key psychological factors related to behavioral responses. Hence, this study aims to extend and complement existing research by examining: how key psychological factors (cognitive attitude, affective attitude, social norm, and personal norm) in a pro-environmental behavior (recycling) are different between the two groups of consumers, namely, those who shop for green products (green product purchasers) and those who do not (green product non-purchasers). Additionally, the dynamics among the psychological factors are examined concerning recycling.\nLiterature review: Role theory\nMethod: Data collection\nData analyses and results: The average age of the respondents was 47 years old ranging from 18 to 88, and 52.6 percent were female. The majority of the sample was Caucasian (84.3 percent), and about a half of them had a two-year or higher college degree (48.4 percent). With respect to annual house income, 30.4 percent of the respondents reported less than $30,000 and 30.9 percent of them reported between $30,000 and $60,000, and the remainder reported higher than $60,000. There were no differences in green product purchases across the levels of household income.Data analyses comprised three phases:1. confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) to evaluate the measurement model of research variables and its validity and reliability;2. multivariate analysis of variance (MANOVA) to test H1 postulating differences in psychological factors between green product purchasers and non-purchasers; and3. a multiple regression analysis to test H2-H5 which predict the relationships between cognitive and affective attitudes, social and personal norm, and recycling intention.In addition to construct reliability from CFA, the internal consistency of multi-item scales was assessed using Cronbach's alpha estimates. In order to perform MANOVA and multiple regression analysis for testing hypotheses (SPSS 17.0), each variable was transformed into a single-index by averaging the corresponding item scores.Measurement model assessment\nDiscussion and implications: As sustainable consumption benefits consumers, retailers, and the environment simultaneously, the significance of helping consumers get involved in pro-environmental behaviors is evident (e.g. Williams et al., 2010). To identify ways to encourage consumers' pro-environmental behaviors, this study explored: how distinct types of consumers with respect to a pro-environmental behavior (green product purchasers and green product non-purchasers) differ in their psychological aspects regarding another pro-environmental behavior (recycling) and the relationships among the psychological factors in the context of recycling. The psychological factors this study investigated were cognitive attitude, affective attitude, social norm, personal norm, and intention to recycle.Findings from this study offer important theoretical contributions. First, this study adds external validity to role theory by demonstrating its applicability in the context of consumers' pro-environmental behavior (recycling) (Biddle, 1986; Eagly et al., 2000). It has been shown that the two groups of consumers, each with different participations in pro-environmental consumption, manifest different psychological characteristics in terms of another pro-environmental behavior - recycling. More specifically, as anticipated, green product purchasers have more favorable cognitive and affective attitudes, stronger social pressure and personal obligation, and greater intention to perform recycling than non-purchasers. Such findings are in line with the notion of role theory, which posits that different groups of people driven by different roles display different behaviors (Eagly et al., 2000).Second, relating to the findings discussed above, this study contributes to the literature on consumers' pro-environmental behaviors by comparing distinct groups of consumers in terms of their levels of commitment to pro-environmental practices. Green product purchasers and non-purchasers hold different levels of attitudes, perceived norms, and behavioral intention toward recycling. The results imply that consumers with prior experience with or commitment to a pro-environmental practice can easily embrace other pro-environmental disciplines in comparison to consumers without such experiences and/or commitment. This finding supports previous research claiming that the degree to which consumers are committed to environmental behaviors differs depending on their socio-psychological characteristics (Gilg et al., 2005; Stern et al., 1995), meaning that sustainable consumers are more likely to pursue pro-environmental lifestyles and other types of pro-environmental behaviors (Gilg et al., 2005).Third, consumer intention to recycle depends on cognitive attitude, social norm, and personal norm pertaining to recycling activities. This finding yields support for Aertsens et al. (2009) and Osterhus (1997), who showed that combining social and personal normative influences would advance existing knowledge about determinants of consumers' pro-environmental behavior. In addition, the results enrich the theory of planned behavior research by confirming the roles that attitudes and normative beliefs play in developing behavioral intention in the area of recycling (e.g. Ajzen, 1985; Fishbein and Ajzen, 1975).From a practical standpoint, the results of this study provide retailers with useful information as to how to effectively devote resources to the development of sustainability. Marketing and product development strategies that emphasize the attributes of cognitive and affective attitudes and social and personal norms concerning sustainable consumption may work to prompt consumers who have little or no interest in pro-environmental behaviors to exhibit such behaviors. Messages in advertising and product packaging can communicate functional benefits, emotional needs, societal value, and personal obligations for current and the future generations, as well as for one's family and community. Such marketing campaigns and product information might be effective in boosting consumer awareness and environmental concern, which will in turn encourage consumers with less interest in pro-environmental behaviors to use pro-environmental products.Additionally, this study has shown that whether or not consumers shop for green products is associated with their beliefs, attitudes, and behavioral intentions concerning other pro-environmental behaviors such as recycling. This finding implies that multiple approaches to sustainable consumption can be efficiently synergetic as they tend to be closely related. In this regard, today's CSR (Corporate Social Responsibility) or cause-related marketing initiatives that underlie the value of ethical/pro-environmental consumption are deemed to pay off by influencing consumers' choice for green products/service and thus, brand equity.The aforementioned implications for businesses can be applied to developing and designing communication strategies and educational programs for public policy makers and educators. That is, appealing to consumers' psychological needs and motives would encourage consumers to engage in private-sphere pro-environmental behaviors. For instance, public campaigns and educational messages might deliver benefits for acting environmentally, threats for not acting environmentally, personal norm, as well as social pressure in order to make consumers attentive to environmental issues and committed to more pro-environmental behaviors. Finally, green product purchasers hold more favorable beliefs, attitudes, and behavioral intention toward pro-environmental behaviors in comparison to non-purchasers. Policy makers/educators and marketers need to identify their target audience and customize their persuasion strategies and educational/marketing programs to the needs and motives unique to each group.The limitations of this study are related to the self-reporting questionnaire, which asked for intention rather than actual behavior, to its cross-sectional design, and to issues of generalizability in association with the geographical (limited to US consumers) and contextual constraints (limited to recycling and green products/services purchases). Directions for future research are suggested within these limitations. First, cultures differ in their \"shared pattern of beliefs, attitudes, self-definitions, norms and roles and values\" (Triandis, 2002, p. 16) and generate different psychological, behavioral, structural, and institutional consequences (Hofstede, 2001; Seock and Lin, 2011). Thus, cross-cultural research testing whether the results of this study are applicable to different cultural contexts (e.g. collectivism vs. individualism) may be beneficial. Second, somewhat surprisingly, the data in this study showed no differences in household income levels between green product purchasers and non-purchasers. It is recommended that future research explores consumer perceptions of green products as well as demographic profiles of green product consumers (e.g. income, ethnicity, education, age) using larger samples; this update is needed because of the dramatic growth in today's green product market. Third, as this study provides cross-sectional evidence of expanding consumers' pro-environmental behaviors, further studies incorporating longitudinal designs are needed to inform our understanding of how to promote consumers' pro-environmental behaviors and use of pro-environmental products/services. Fourth, this study examined behavioral intention rather than actual behavior, inviting future research that will include actual behavior. In addition, given that the model in this study explained 54.5 percent of the variance in recycling intentions, incorporating the effects of other socio-psychological factors that have not been covered in this study (e.g. perceived behavioral control, social identity) (Fielding et al., 2008; Fishbein and Ajzen, 1975) would be worthwhile. Fifth, although this study used a dichotomous variable to identify green product purchasers and non-purchasers, consumers' behavioral commitment to green-product consumption can be measured using a continuous variable as it exists on a continuum with respect to the degree to which they purchase green products/services. Future research adopting a different measure of green product purchasing behavior and examining the intensity of the hypothesized relationships is worthwhile. Lastly, the null effect of affective attitude on behavioral intention merits further investigation.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: - This study aims to investigate the differences in underlying psychological aspects regarding pro-environmental behaviors between two distinct consumer groups: green product purchasers and green product non-purchasers. Focusing on pro-environmental behavior in recycling, it seeks to investigate these psychological aspects: cognitive attitude, affective attitude, social norm, personal norm, and behavioral intention.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - Using a web-based survey, a total of 363 responses from US consumers were used for the data analysis. Confirmatory factor analysis was conducted to check the measurement model, and a multiple regression and MANOVA were performed to test the proposed hypotheses.\nFindings: - Compared to green product non-purchasers, green product purchasers exhibited significantly higher levels of cognitive attitude, affective attitude, social norm, personal norm, and recycling intention. Also cognitive attitude, social norm, and personal norm predicted recycling intention.\nResearch limitations/implications: - The limitations of this study include the self-reporting questionnaire and the measurement of consumers' recycling intention rather than their actual behavior.\nPractical implications: - This study will provide useful information to retailers who are developing product/service offerings and operation practices to address sustainable consumption.\nOriginality/value: - This study provides empirical evidence that certain consumer groups in relation to pro-environmental product shopping behavior (purchasers vs. non-purchasers) exhibit differences in the psychological formation of another pro-environmental behavior, recycling.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
Managerial nonpecuniary preferences in the market failure theories of nonprofit organisation
|
[
"Market system",
"Strategic alignment",
"Non‐profit organizations"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: More than two decades ago, Hansmann (1987) introduced a distinction between the two types of economic theories of nonprofit organisation. One type is designated as the market failure theories and accordingly explains nonprofit organisation as an institutional device for addressing market failures. The other type is designated as the behavioural theories and is concerned with examining the regularities of economic behaviour of nonprofit firms, placing particular emphasis on the motivation of nonprofit managers and entrepreneurs. As Hansmann (1987, p. 37) himself recognised, these two theorising strands have been disconnected from each other, in the sense that the behaviour of nonprofit firms and the incentives of nonprofit managers have not been seen as importantly determined by these firms' economic role consisting in addressing market failures.Since Hansmann made this observation, the economics of nonprofit organisation has progressed significantly, primarily in modelling the behaviour of nonprofit firms by postulating diverse managerial objective functions, such as maximisation of output quantity and quality, maximisation of use of preferred inputs, and realisation of ideology (Steinberg, 2006; Lakdawalla and Philipson, 2006). These objective functions share the assumption that nonprofit managers are interested in things other than profit maximisation, i.e. have nonpecuniary preferences. These preferences' existence has been shown to result in the behaviour of nonprofit firms being different from that of for-profits, particularly in terms of determination of output quantity and quality (Young and Steinberg, 1995; James and Rose-Ackerman, 1986), pricing policies (Steinberg and Weisbrod, 2005; Oster, Gray, and Weinberg, 2003), and labor compensation (Leete, 2006; Ballou and Weisbrod, 2003; Ruhm and Borkoski, 2003; Preston, 1989). Moreover, several empirical studies of revealed objective functions of nonprofit firms confirmed that nonprofit managers at least to some extent strive to maximise service provision rather than their firms' budgets (Brooks, 2005; Steinberg, 1986).However, this scholarly progress, despite its important achievements, did not entail the substantial narrowing of the gap between the market failure theories and behavioural theories of nonprofit organisation, as the postulated objective functions of nonprofit firms have thus far not borne a systematic relationship to the basic theories of the role of nonprofit organisation in a market economy, such as the theories of Weisbrod (1991), Hansmann (1980), or Ben-Ner (1986). This paper will outline this relationship by exploring the logical linkage between these two types of theories of nonprofit organisation. More specifically, the paper will aim to demonstrate that the realisation of the market failure-addressing role of nonprofit firms requires recourse to nonpecuniary preferences of nonprofit managers.This aim becomes particularly relevant in view of the criticisms traditionally levelled against market failure explanations of nonprofit organisations. Two of these criticisms are particularly relevant. First, failure-based theories leave no room for an affirmative and independent role of nonprofit firms. In the words of Lohmann (1992, p. 197), the failure-based economic theories of the nonprofit sector tell far more about what this sector is not than they do about what it is. Managerial nonpecuniary preferences, however, do not have these negative connotations as they directly describe what organisations seek to achieve rather than are prohibited from doing (such as appropriating profit). Second, and perhaps most important, market failure is seen as an insufficient explanation for the existence of the nonprofit sector, since for-profit firms themselves \"exist and expand because of failures of contractual arrangements in the marketplace\" Krashinsky(1986, p. 114). The second criticism implicates the existence of difference in the ways for-profit and nonprofit firms address market failures. Moreover, the nature of this difference is suggested by the very question this paper will seek to answer: while nonprofit firms address market failure by resorting to gratification of managerial nonpecuniary preferences, the latter preferences must be somehow involved in the process by which market failure is addressed by for-profit firms. Thus, the whole question of integrating the market failure theories and behavioural theories of nonprofit organisation ultimately boils down to explaining the mechanics of the process by which nonprofit firms address market failure, and comparing it to the respective process of for-profit firms.The nature of the market failure-addressing role of for-profit firms has been well described in the literature. Most importantly, Williamson (1971) showed that for-profit firms address market failure by substituting internal organisation for market exchange, as in some cases internal organisation is more efficient in aligning incentives of economic agents and improving information flows between them. Along similar lines, the market failure-addressing role of nonprofit firms has been supposed to be enabled by their governance instruments such as the nondistribution constraint (in Hansmann's (1980) trustworthiness theory) and the customer control (in Ben-Ner's (1986) customer control theory). Yet, neither of these theories contains explicit references to the role of nonpecuniary preferences that are so prominent in the behavioural theories of nonprofit organisation. Therefore, this paper will analyse the way in which the major theories of nonprofit organisation can be logically supplemented with the explicit account of the role of nonpecuniary preferences.The paper will proceed as follows. The next section will recapitulate the major market failure theories of nonprofit organisation, paying special attention to the mechanisms by which nonprofit firms address different kinds of market failure. The analysis of these mechanisms will show that they implicitly require recourse to managerial nonpecuniary preferences. The following section will illuminate specific ways in which the concept of managerial nonpecuniary preferences can be integrated into the market failure theories of nonprofit organisation.\nThe market failure-addressing role of nonprofit organisation: received theory: The failure-based theories of nonprofit organisation explain it in terms of its ability to overcome two types of market failure - those involving public goods, and information asymmetries. Accordingly, the former failure has underlain the public goods theory of nonprofit organisation developed by Weisbrod (1991), while the latter failure has inspired the elaboration of Hansmann's (1980) trustworthiness theory and Ben-Ner's (1986) customer control theory.The public goods theory argues that governmental provision of public goods cannot be satisfactory to all voters because of diversity of their individual preferences. Some voters will find that the marginal value of the governmentally provided public goods exceeds their marginal cost as reflected in their marginal tax-prices. These voters can resort to creating nonprofit firms as extra-governmental providers of public goods. According to the trustworthiness theory, the nondistribution constraint creates a disincentive for nonprofit firms to exploit their customers or patrons and thus makes them appear \"trustworthy\". Finally, the customer control theory believes that nonprofit firms can prevent this exploitation by assigning their customers or patrons a more intensive role in these firms' governance (Young, 2001; Morley, 2006). The following subsections build upon the above theories in order to examine the advantages of nonprofit firms permitting them to address the information asymmetry-based and the public goods-based market failures.The information asymmetry-based market failure\nThe role of nonpecuniary preferences: This section examines specific ways in which managerial nonpecuniary preferences contribute to overcoming the market failures described above. It proceeds by outlining the general role of these preferences in the market failure-addressing process in nonprofit firms and analysing the implications of this argument for the major market failure theories of nonprofit organisation.The general argument\nConclusions: In a review paper on the development of the economic theory of nonprofit organisation, Susan Rose-Ackerman (1996, p. 701) has noted that \"altruism and nonprofit entrepreneurship cannot be understood within the standard economic framework. Theoretical progress requires a richer conception of individual utility functions and a base in cognitive psychology that incorporates the power of ideas and emotions in motivating behaviour\". Arguably, it is the insufficiency of the \"standard economic framework\" in explaining nonprofit organisation that has caused a major division in the theoretical rationalisation of the nonprofit sector's existence. On the one hand, there have been continuing attempts to accommodate nonprofit organisation into the standard framework (in the form of various market failure theories); on the other hand, a certain sense of frustration with these attempts has motivated recourse to the less standard concepts of altruism and ideological entrepreneurship. Yet, as the current paper has demonstrated, this division is more specious than it is genuine. The \"standard\" and \"non-standard\" economic approaches explaining nonprofit organisation do have a common basis, which consists of recognising the key role of nonpecuniary preferences in motivating the behaviour of nonprofit firms' stakeholders. While, the standard market failure theories of nonprofit organisation have been developed primarily without resorting to the concept of nonpecuniary preferences, this concept becomes indispensable for explaining the \"mechanics\" of the process whereby nonprofit firms address market failure.Indeed, whereas the advantages of for-profit firms that permit them to address market failure consist of their ability to reduce the cost of processing and communicating information, as well as to discourage opportunistic behaviour, these advantages are significantly less relevant for nonprofit firms. By contrast, an examination of the major market failure theories of nonprofit organisation has revealed that nonprofit firms address market failure by making the process and/or the outputs of particular production activities an object of direct preference of those who manage this production. Two things are noteworthy regarding this finding. First, nonprofit firms address market failure in a manner that is significantly different from that which is characteristic of for-profit firms; this implies that a market failure approach to explaining nonprofit organisation does not ignore the institutional identity of nonprofit firms, as compared with for-profit firms that also address market failure, but rather address it differently. Second, while gratifying nonpecuniary preferences represents an instrument for addressing market failure, market failures and nonpecuniary preferences exist basically independent of each other. This implies that overcoming some market failures does not require gratifying nonpecuniary preferences, that is the case with market failures addressed by for-profit firms. Moreover, some nonpecuniary preferences do not require the occurrence of market failure in order to come into existence. It is these nonpecuniary preferences that remain unexplained in the market failure theories and are summarised under the rubrics of ideologies, social values, mission-drivenness, and other concepts that underlie the positive self-understanding of the nonprofit sector. The market failure theories become thereby consistent with the fact that nonprofit firms can exist for reasons other than market failure.At the same time, emphasising the importance of nonpecuniary preferences does not require denying the ability of the nondistribution constraint to reduce the opportunism of nonprofit firms' stakeholders as suggested by Hansmann's trustworthiness theory. Once the role of nonpecuniary preferences in motivating the behaviour of at least some of these stakeholders is recognised, one may legitimately ask whether nonprofit firms have any characteristics comparable to the information processing and incentive alignment advantages of for-profit firms. In the incentive alignment respect, nonprofit firms may indeed succeed in precluding some undesirable behaviours through the nondistribution constraint, as noted by Ben-Ner and Gui (2003, p. 7). This effect, however, appears to be applicable primarily to extrinsically motivated behaviour, while the importance of nonpecuniary preferences indicates an increased relevance of intrinsic motivation in nonprofit firms. The incentive alignment issue in nonprofit firms thereby concerns not only weakening undesirable extrinsic motivation, but also maintaining and strengthening the desirable intrinsic motivation - an issue that has thus far attracted relatively little research. In the information processing respect, nonprofit firms evidently play a role in reducing the information cost associated with gratifying specific nonpecuniary preferences, particularly through informing the general public about opportunities to gratify particular preferences through involvement in particular nonprofit firms. In a sense, this role is comparable to the role of for-profit firms in economising on transaction cost in its Coase (1937) understanding. Yet this version of transaction cost-economising has not yet gained much currency in the theoretical economic investigations of the nonprofit sector. An appreciation of the information processing and incentive alignment role of nonprofit organisation, however, is crucial for understanding the institutional context within which nonprofit firms provide the gratification of nonpecuniary preferences. More research along the suggested lines is therefore necessary.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: - Managerial nonpecuniary preferences have been emphasised by the behavioural theories of nonprofit organisation but only weakly related to this organisation's market failure theories. The present paper aims to fill this gap by examining the ways in which the market failure-addressing capacity of nonprofit firms requires recourse to managerial nonpecuniary preferences.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - The paper proceeds by examining the ways in which the market failure theories of nonprofit organisation conceptualise this organisation's market failure-addressing mechanism.\nFindings: - It is shown that the market failure theories of nonprofit organisation can be logically complete only if they include an explanation of managerial motivation consisting in the gratification of nonpecuniary preferences.\nPractical/implications: - Nonprofit firms are thereby shown to address market failures in a way different from that of for-profit firms. Specifically, whereas for-profit firms address market failures based on their advantages over market organisation in processing information and aligning incentives, nonprofit firms make the production of goods and services that are undersupplied due to market failures the object of nonprofit managers' nonpecuniary preferences.\nOriginality/value: - The economic theory of nonprofit organisation has been traditionally marked by a dichotomy of the market failure theories and behavioural theories, only the latter of which recognised the role of managerial nonpecuniary preferences. By demonstrating that these preferences are crucial to the former theories as well, this paper integrates these two theorising strands and thus deepens the theoretical understanding of the nonprofit sector.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
Examining the antecedents and consequences of gratitude
|
[
"Customer satisfaction",
"Reciprocity",
"Cynicism",
"Customer gratitude",
"Relationship marketing investments"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: The longevity of the relationship between a firm and their customers is of interest to many researchers and service organisations (Raggio et al., 2014b; Shahin Sharifi and Rahim Esfidani, 2014). Since the 1980s, service literature has recognised a relational perspective to driving long-term commitments (Morgan and Hunt, 1994; Webster, 1995) in both marketing theory and practice. Following this perspective, many service organisations have invested time and effort to develop stronger, mutually beneficial relationships with their customers (Mohr and Bitner, 1995). While early approaches to relationship marketing were essentially based on the economic nature of the relationship, such as discounts and rewards (Rust and Oliver, 2000); more recently, the literature highlighted the need for efforts to enhance the interpersonal nature of relationship marketing to establish, develop and maintain successful long-term relationships with customers (De Wulf et al., 2001; Palmatier et al., 2009). The interpersonal nature of relationship marketing suggests that customers perceive, and respond to, the efforts that organisations expend to establish, improve and build relationships with them (Palmatier et al., 2009; Mohr and Bitner, 1995) rather than simply assessing and responding to the economic outcomes of such relationships. As the early, traditional methods of relationship marketing activities begin to mature, offering scant differentiation and subsequent weak value propositions (Capizzi and Ferguson, 2005), research has turned to examine emotional mechanisms, such as gratitude, that may encourage relationship longevity between customers and organisations (Fazal-e-Hasan et al., 2014).\n2. Theory development: 2.1 Customer gratitude\n3. Methodology: A survey-based method was deemed appropriate for examining the relationships between the variables in the CGM. The data were obtained via a paper-based survey, administered to 1,600 students attending three leading universities, resulting in a response rate of 68.4 per cent (i.e. 1,104). Participants were approached and asked to \"recall a service organisation that they had visited in the past week\". Participants selected a range of service organisations from hairdressers, hotels, car wash facilities and dry cleaners. Participants then responded to a series of multi-item Likert measures on a seven-point scale, ranging from strongly disagree (1) to strongly agree (7), to capture the constructs studied: perceived relationship marketing investments (De Wulf et al., 2001), reciprocity (Wu et al., 2006), cynicism (Schein, 1967), gratitude (McCullough et al., 2004) and overall satisfaction (Ganesan, 1994). To maximise face and content validity, these previously validated measures were pre-tested twice. The items were firstly presented to three consumer behaviour academics, selected based on their field of research (DeVellis, 2003). Each academic was asked to rate how well the items represented each construct. The researchers adapted the wording of the measures to suit the context of the research. A pilot questionnaire was then distributed to participants in a training workshop at a public university in Australia. Three of the participants were PhD graduates, and the others were PhD students of different disciplines of various universities of Australia. The pilot study helped the researcher identify if the measures could tap into the concept of gratitude (and other constructs) adequately and appropriately. Minor modifications to the wording and format of the questionnaire were made.\n4. Discussion: While the majority of past research on customers' relationships with service organisations has often been focused on the economic nature of the relationship, new work has begun to examine the emotion of gratitude in delivering positive outcomes for organisations (Morales, 2005; Fazal-E-Hasan et al., 2014). Initial gratitude research has primarily focused on the customers' perceived value of an economic benefit rendered from an organisation as an implicit reason for a customer to feel grateful. Adopting a purely \"economic benefit\" lens reinforces the paradigm that customers are all rational and utility maximising and that their responses to a received or anticipated benefit will not be different. Most relationship marketing activities are a reflection of the same paradigm, in that customers feel grateful for the economic benefit they receive from the organisation. However, customers are inherently heterogeneous, experiencing different levels of cynicism and various levels of the normative pressure of reciprocity (Shen et al., 2011). This research concurs with the developing view to introducing customer cynicism and reciprocity into gratitude studies because customer cynicism and reciprocity may explain the effectiveness or ineffectiveness of customer-directed economic benefits such as relationship investments (Raggio et al., 2014a).\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: This study aims to propose the emotional response of gratitude as a mediating mechanism to explain the relationship between perceptions of a service organisations' relationship marketing investments, customer cynicism and reciprocity and overall satisfaction. Further, the study seeks to test the significance of the mediation effects of these constructs on customer overall satisfaction.\nDesign/methodology/approach: Using theories from service marketing and consumer psychology, this study develops and tests a customer gratitude model (CGM). Field surveys based on existing measures were used to elicit data from 1,104 respondents. The measures were validated and subsequently the CGM was tested to establish the veracity if the nomological network presented.\nFindings: Results indicate that perceived relationship marketing investment exerted an indirect effect on gratitude through the mediating effect of reciprocity and cynicism. Further, perceived relationship marketing investments impacted overall satisfaction through its mediating effect of gratitude, and gratitude explained the indirect influences of reciprocity and customer cynicism on overall satisfaction.\nResearch limitations/implications: This study contributes to services marketing literature by examining the emergent role of gratitude between customer perceptions of service organisations and pro-organisational attitudes, like overall satisfaction.\nPractical implications: This research encourages service organisations to implement relationship-building strategies, beyond that of purely economic benefits, that seek to enhance the emotion of gratitude, which will lead to greater overall customer satisfaction.\nOriginality/value: Despite emphasising relationship longevity between customers and service organisations, literature has not yet focused on the role of gratitude. The CGM provides valuable insights for further inquiries.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
Management of constraint generators in fashion store design processes
|
[
"Design management",
"Design constraints",
"Constraint generators",
"Fashion store",
"Retail design",
"Store design"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Most retailers and product brands are aware of the importance of focussing on retail store design as a part of their marketing strategy. This awareness has a solid foundation in the retail store literature, which holds considerable evidence that retail store experiences have a significant impact on consumer satisfaction, shopping frequency, purchase amount, loyalty, reputation, and image formation (e.g. Turley and Milliman, 2000; Wong and Sohal, 2006; Grewal et al., 2009; Verhoef et al., 2009; Puccinelli et al., 2009; Jones et al., 2010; Bagdare and Jain, 2013; Ballantine et al., 2015).\nLiterature review: This section summarises and discusses literature on retail store design, design constraints, and retail design constraint generators.\nResearch method: To address the questions raised by this paper, studies of eight fashion store projects were carried out. Besides delimiting the studies to fashion stores, further delimitations were made regarding brand and physical setting. For the brand aspect, stores can be either mono-brand or multi-brand. The studies focussed on mono-brand stores, on the assumption that the influence of brand aspects would be easier to detect in such cases. In relation to the physical settings, a retail store can be a street store, a store in a commercial building, such as a mall or an airport, or a so-called in-store in a department store. The contributions of this paper are relevant for the first three store types but only partly relevant for in-stores, since they involve slightly different constraint generator roles.\nA retail store constraint elicitation framework: On the background of the empirical studies, this paper addressed the three questions presented in the introduction:\nConclusions: This paper has addressed three main questions from the perspective of fashion store designers: Who/what are the main constraint generators in fashion store design? What types of constraints do they impose? And how should store designers elicit these constraints?\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: Retail design concepts are complex designs meeting functional and aesthetic demands from various constraint generators. However, the literature on this topic is sparse and offers only little support for store designers to deal with such challenges. To address this issue, the purpose of this paper is to identify the most important constraint generators, investigating the types of constraints they generate, and providing guidelines for how to deal with constraint elicitation.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The three contributions mentioned above are developed through discussions of the literature and eight case studies of fashion store design projects.\nFindings: The paper shows that the influence of the constraint generators decreases during the design process except for supplier-generated constraints, which increase in the final stages of the design process. The paper argues that constraints should be elicited close to their occurrence, and that doing so requires a solid understanding of relevant constraint generators.\nResearch limitations/implications: The paper provides a structured basis for further research and identifies areas warranting further study. Although, the paper's focus is on fashion store design, the findings may, to some degree, be applicable to other types of store design projects.\nPractical implications: The understandings provided by this paper may help designers to deal proactively with constraints, reducing the use of resources to alter design proposals.\nOriginality/value: The paper: defines the most important constraint generators from the perspective of retail store designers, clarifies the types of constraints they generate, and provides guidelines for how to deal with constraint elicitation.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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From normative to tacit knowledge: CVs analysis in personnel selection
|
[
"Selection",
"Recruitment",
"Tacit knowledge",
"Intuition",
"Portugal"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: The choice of the \"right\" or \"best\" job candidate is something of a paradox. We would guess that every personnel manager has a similar story to this one to tell: the job candidate placed last in the short list is selected by mistake, and turns out to be one of the best in that particular job. A shared conclusion in the relevant literature (Moore, 2006) is that selection methodology is unreliable most of the time. In addition, it is argued that the decision to choose the right or best candidate can, in itself, be wrong (Newell, 2006).The traditional model in personnel selection emphasises measurement, prediction and control. The \"one best way\" assumption is articulated in the following expression: \"the right person for the job\". It is important to identify the job requirements through methodologies such as job analysis and to distinguish between the traits and abilities of different individuals. Furthermore, the selection decision is taken in one single moment, in which all information regarding the job candidate is assessed.Conversely, Newell and Shackleton (2001) argue that successful performance in a job is rarely dependent solely on a particular individual. The individual job exists within a complex network of structures, processes and relationships, which interacts with the actions of the particular individual employee. Therefore, a barely competent recruit can perform to a high standard if he is in a supportive environment.Therefore, the traditional model of personnel selection can be challenged in different ways. For example, selective human perception and individual political agendas prevent the objectivity required by the traditional model. Additionally, the influence of implicit and tacit knowledge in decision-making increases the assessor's commitment to the chosen course of action. However, the literature lacks data on job selection to support the departure of selection practices and processes from the traditional model.In this paper, we review the literature on personnel selection taking the perspective of the decision-making process. Then, empirical data collected from human resources practitioners is presented and discussed.\nLiterature review: The selection of job candidates can be conceptualised in terms of the decision-making process. The great bulk of the literature follows a prescriptive and functionalist approach (Fisher et al., 2002; Torrington et al., 2002; Armstrong, 2001) in what we will describe as the \"normative-predictive model\". However, there are a great number of critics of this model (Harris and Brewster, 1999; Newell and Shackleton, 2001; Beardwell and Wright, 2004). We argue that the action-intuitive oriented model is pointed out as an additional approach to understand selection processes.Selection as a normative-predictive model\nMethodology: We used an inductive research approach that values empirical experience and observation. From this perspective initial questions are generated. We formulate open questions regarding a particular phenomenon, where the inter-relationship between concepts predominates. We use the interview technique to collect information. Ackroyd and Hughes (1992) argue that researchers gain access to valuable information through interviewees' verbal reports - information that is difficult to achieve using any other technique. Moreover, Ruquoy (1997) suggests that interviews allow an in loco analysis of interviewees' attitudes, values, believes and perceptions. There are other advantages in using interviews, such as in-depth information and flexibility, which brings out the interviewees' own cognitive frameworks and language (Quivy and Campenhoudt, 1992).Our sample is a convenience one. First, we choose to interview managers in the recruitment function, where 74 per cent have held this position for more than or at least five years. This shows that they have a great amount of experience in analysing job candidates' CVs. The number of firms included in the study was 27: 15 SMEs (number of employees less than 250, based on the Recommendation of the European Commission of 6 May 2003) and 12 large firms. We built a heterogeneous sample in order to extend the analysis of our discussion. On the one hand, SMEs represent the great majority of Portuguese business firms (IAPMEI, 2006), on the other hand job candidates for a junior position in management are more attracted to large firms (Guimaraes, 2007). There is a wide variety in the firms with regard to business activity, which brings more diversity to the sample. The majority of the firms are located in the Porto area (24 organisations), which is host to 11.3 per cent of Portuguese firms. Table II shows the main characteristics of the firms in the sample (e.g., type of activity, year of foundation, number of workers, interviewee position and years of experience). Although Glaser and Strauss (1967) do not refer a right size for the sample, they believe that a sample is large enough when it yields some feeling of stability or when theoretical saturation is achieved.Procedures and techniques for collecting information\nResults and discussion: In the first part of the interview, regarding how recruitment and selection was carried out within firms, the interviewees' narratives are similar describing a step-by-step process close to what we identified as a normative predictive model. More specifically, concerning the CV assessment, all of them agreed that job candidates should not be rejected based only on CV analysis if objective criteria are appropriate (for example, level of qualification, grade, etc.).In the second part of the interview, during the \"CV assessment game\", interviewees' behaviour and attitudes contradict, in part, what they described before. Although the level of stand-by decision, in the great majority of the cases, is higher than the decision to accept and reject (between 30 per cent and 71 per cent; see Table IV), it is interesting to note that, with one exception, all participants in this study agreed to play the game and were able to accept or reject the CVs presented. The person who refused to participate in the game justified her action saying that job candidates are not rejected solely on CV analysis. Furthermore, the analysis of CVs in that particular firm is \"a very sophisticated process\": it \"takes more than one day to go through the candidates for a job vacancy, and the process uses more than one selector\" (AB interviewee). Even though interviewees were asked to respond as if they were actually involved in a selection process, there was a sense of artificiality. Therefore, the high level of stand-by decisions might be explained by the lack of pressure to reach a decision and carry out a specific course of action. Due to this particular context, we would expect that interviewees would be involved in a more normative decision-making process, but this did not occur. A more action-intuitive approach to decision-making was used by interviewees, as we will explain.The time used to assess each CV by interviewees ranged from ten seconds to six minutes. We estimate that the average time for the analysis of each CV was about a minute. However, analysis of the interviews shows that the decision to accept or reject a CV appears to be an iterative process. The selector does not have a clear idea \"where to go\", meaning that CV analysis is \"a continually moving point to which they can only approximate, rather than arrive\" (Oliveira, 1998, p. 16). In this particular \"CV assessment game\", there was a fictional job vacancy for management, but no organisational context, which increases the ambiguity concerning \"where to go\". For example, one of the interviewees clearly made a conditional choice regarding a set of CVs being placed into the rejected or stand-by categories, arguing that CV presentation is a very important criterion to her.Table IV shows the results of the trial. Remember that we asked interviewees to classify CVs into three different categories:1. those accepted (A);2. those rejected (R); and3. those on stand-by (SB).Table V presents data regarding the arguments and reasons used by the interviewees to validate their decisions. Anecdotal evidence is discussed concerning different issues: departure from the normative model, the use of intuition, implicit knowledge and selector's ideology to define a candidate's profile.The use of systematic criteria on CV analysis\nConclusion: This study aimed to investigate decision-making processes and to identify factors which influence managers in the selection of job applicants CV and how these factors differ from firm recruitment and selection's policy. Great deal of HRM literature in personnel selection tends to follow a prescriptive, functionalist and uncritical approach. Indeed, when the HR managers talk about the selection practices in the firms they work for, they tend to be consistent with the dominant paradigm. The practice itself, however, is slightly different. Although CVs include objective data, their analysis by practitioners in our study departs from the normative model described in the literature. Possibly the results described are related to the research methodology, more specifically the sample used. Further research needs to be conducted if there is a warrant for external validity.We show that the use of intuition and tacit rules goes further than the final stage of the selection process as proposed by Oliveira (1998) and Cooley (1987), where unstructured and qualitative data is more profuse. In fact, we argue that intuition and implicit knowledge is used at the beginning of the selection process during CV analysis. Since data available in CVs are considered to be objective, the research findings contradict to some extent the ideas expressed in the literature review. Implicit knowledge is used when it allows a better understanding of the candidates' attributes. It cannot be said that this option is less rational. Sometimes it allows a straightforward way of informing a decision concerning job candidates.Furthermore, the use of intuition and implicit knowledge in CV analysis is clear in entrepreneurial and problem-solving dimensions. That is, when selectors try to predict a job candidate's future behaviour based upon the individual's hobbies, and when a CV presents contradictory or ambiguous information. This can be linked to what we call meta-firm ideology: individuals in the same professional group develop a unique and common language, which is crucial for the development of their modus operandi. The paper stresses the paradoxical behaviour of practitioners (Schneider, 1999). On one hand, the \"good\" of rational procedures is part of their rhetoric, on the other hand, the use of emotion and intuition is revealed in their practices.There is one practical question underlying the research findings. Are formal methodologies useful at all? Brewster (2003) suggests that selection is an unnecessary process, mainly when levels of ambiguity are high. Both suggestions raise an ethical dilemma. To what extent are organizations entitled to spend their resources for the sake of a so-called rationality and consequently decreasing shareholders profit or stakeholder's benefits?In the same vein as Clegg et al. (2005, p. 162), we urge for the deconstruction of the existing taken-for-granted practices and images, which will encourage individuals to imagine \"new possible realities and real possibilities\".\n",
"role": "user"
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"content": "Purpose: - This study aims to investigate decision-making processes and to identify factors which influence managers in the selection of job applicants' CVs and how these factors differ from the firm's recruitment and selection policy.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - Twenty-four semi-structured interviews were conducted among HR managers or similar staff members responsible for recruiting and selection in small, medium, and large-sized Portuguese firms. The interview comprised two parts: description of the selection policies that they used followed by a CV assessment game to understand decisions regarding the acceptance of a specific candidate.\nFindings: - Interviewees' narratives are similar, describing a step-by-step process based on the firm's explicit policy and the model of a prediction of the job candidates' future performance based on subjective criteria.\nResearch limitations/implications: - Possibly, the results described are related to the research methodology - more specifically the use of a fictional set of CVs where the decisions made do not have any consequences. At the same time, managers are more relaxed when playing the \"CV game\" and tend to adopt more genuine and usual behaviours.\nPractical implications: - The paper calls for an integrative practice in CV analysis combining both the structured and rational dimension and the informal dimension (tacit knowledge, emotion and intuition).\nOriginality/value: - The paper stresses the paradoxical behaviour of practitioners. On the one hand, the \"good\" of rational procedures is part of their rhetoric; on the other hand, the use of emotion and intuition is revealed in their practices.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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Knowledge transfer between two geographically distant action research teams
|
[
"Knowledge transfer",
"Training",
"Learning",
"Trainers"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroductory context: Knowledge transfer lies at the heart of organizational concerns. As a concept it refers to the phases of generation, capture, storage, dissemination, appropriation, and application of knowledge of significant importance to the organization's future. This article presents preliminary results from an interprovincial knowledge transfer project in the area of occupational health and safety (OHS). This activity stands out for its linguistic and cultural distinctiveness.This project is part of a five-year research project funded by the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR). The objectives of this research project, which began in 2003, include improving the capacity for analyzing and preventing occupational diseases and injuries in Eastern Canada as well as identifying the best knowledge transfer (KT) practices developed in the area of occupational health and safety in Quebec.More specifically, this article sets out the observations resulting from an activity of knowledge transfer to Newfoundland, involving a train the trainers program developed and proven in Quebec by a team of researchers from the Universite du Quebec a Montreal (UQAM). In Quebec, this train the trainers program yielded convincing results in reducing the incidence of work-related musculoskeletal injuries to individuals working in the meat cutting industry (pork, beef, and chicken).\nTheoretical framework: We used the dynamic knowledge transfer capacity research model developed by Parent et al. (2007) as the conceptual framework to analyze transfer between partners involved in this activity. This model distinguishes itself from most of the knowledge transfer models and theoretical frameworks that approach transfer from a process-based perspective (Argote and Ingram, 2000; Szulanski, 2000; Goh, 2002). These models focus primarily on the various activities and mechanisms involved during knowledge transfer under certain conditions.The Parent et al. (2007) model looks at knowledge transfer from the perspective of the capacities required for effective transfer. In addition to providing a rich description of the knowledge transfer system under study, this novel model is also normative, stipulating four capacities to ensure successful knowledge transfer, as illustrated in the Figure 1.The model has four knowledge transfer capacities: generative, disseminative, absorptive, and adaptive and responsive. The model begins with the determination of the knowledge and needs that activate the dynamic knowledge transfer process.This model serves as a guide in diagnosing the situation and makes recommendations aimed at implementing an interprovincial knowledge transfer process that takes into account the strengths and weaknesses related to the four capacities required by the knowledge transfer process.The Parent et al. (2007) model is rooted in a social system's approach that provides a general framework for identifying the issue, defining the limits of what will be studied, and building a detailed picture of the situation. The model also results from a social construction perspective (Berger and Luckmann, 1996), which considers that knowledge is a representation of reality that is developed, transmitted, and preserved through social situations. This knowledge implies both tacit and explicit knowledge. Based on this view of knowledge, we define knowledge transfer as:The dynamic by-product of interactions occurring between actors who are trying to understand, name and act on reality (Parent et al., 2007).\nObjectives and research questions: Our approach consisted in reporting and supporting the process for transferring and adopting the train the trainers' knife sharpening program that was tested in Quebec to businesses in Newfoundland. Moreover, we sought to identify the conditions for and obstacles to success that occur during the transfer process between the groups of researchers involved using an action research approach. As a result, we formulated an initial research question that enabled us to gather the information pertinent to our key focus based on the Parent et al. (2007) model: \"What are the capacities that influence the dynamics of knowledge transfer between Quebec and Newfoundland in implementing a train the trainers program (knife sharpening and steeling)?\"We were also interested in the learning conditions as seen during this project: \"How do participants perceive each others' learnings in relation to the model used and its different elements?\"\nMethod: This study uses an action-research approach based on the learning history technique. This technique made it possible to capture the reactions of researchers and participants at different points in the knowledge transfer process observed between provinces. Briefly, the concept of learning history (LH) was developed at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). This approach enables the various actors (participants) in an organization to describe, in their own words through interviews, how they experience a learning situation.In this study, we have documented the knowledge transfer dynamics involving geographically dispersed sites as well as other factors such as cultural, structural, and linguistic diversity. This project uses the LH technique in iterative steps called, in this case, loops and requiring regular reviews of participant exchanges and perceptions. The process was organized and supervised by the staff at the Dynamic Knowledge Transfer (DKT) research laboratory at the University of Sherbrooke.Research strategy\nFindings: This section presents the analysis results from the three interview loops carried out during the accelerated learning history (LH) process. The LH process can appear tedious to participants because it involves going back and forth, punctuated with analyses and re-examinations. Within the framework of this project, we attempted to organize data collection so as to streamline the process. Consequently, we opted for three phases of 30-minute interviews. We limited information in order to promote a posteriori exchange. The three loops cover the knowledge transfer pre project, the project per se, and the last loop that concludes the project.First loop: preproject\nConclusion: In terms of methodology, one of the limitations to the learning history approach in this project relates to the possibility of resolving problems raised from one loop to the next in such a short period of time. Most of the items for improvement are inherent in the project phase in which they occur. Consequently, it is not always possible to remedy them in the subsequent phase. Nevertheless, being aware of them and having the possibility to share project strengths and irritants minimizes the latent effects related to participant uneasiness. Therefore, this process promotes transparency and makes participants feel that they are being listened to, which builds collective assets. It should be kept in mind that the end-of-project report conveys all of the learnings expressed and will enable stakeholders in future projects to correct the irritants raised. We should also point out limitations arising from the project context and the interview process. In the first case, we put together results from different contexts, either language or culture. Consequently, attempts to replicate them should be approached with care. For example, the problems arising from language concerns in knowledge transfer will not be issues in subsequent experiences because the target companies are also located in Newfoundland and use English. Furthermore, during the first loop, information was collected at different times. This complicated the processing of interview information because the participants were not concurrently present, which resulted in encoding problems affecting data categories. Consequently, we recommend that future projects carry out all the interviews in a given loop within the same timeframe.The learnings at project end can be qualified as remarkable, given the obstacles that have been overcome since its beginning. Participant commitment - an essential condition for knowledge transfer to take place - made these learnings possible and even fostered them. In this article, we have focused on the elements related to the disseminative and absorptive capacities, given that most of the observations emphasized these capacities.According to the dynamic knowledge transfer capacity model, the absorptive capacity of the train the trainers' process appears to have been mobilized, considering the presence of the skills needed to transfer and apply this program, and the desire to learn on the part of the individuals identified. Although there were a number of hitches related to disseminative capacity (i.e. lack of translated documentation, paste regulatory issue, and so on), people are confident that the project will be successful and that they will put what they have learned to good use in upcoming phases to transfer this program to other organizations.Nevertheless, it has been acknowledged that improvements in communication between the various parties are desirable. Despite this shortcoming, the members of the teams responsible for the transfer appear to have a bond of trust and the relationship seems to play an essential role in project success. This relationship aspect can be accounted for in part by the fostering of exchanges throughout the entire LH process. The lessons learned from these project phases augur well for subsequent stages.Several points have been raised about problems pertaining to certain aspects of communications other than the language barrier. We believe that these aspects must be treated as topics of concern in upcoming experiences. As a result, plans should be made for the following:* Access to a formal schedule providing the hours of training required for apprentice trainers.* Access to the required materials and equipment, and a schedule for each activity prior to them being carried out.* Clearer communication of the expectations of the \"developing experts\" with respect to the roles they will have to play and the tasks and responsibilities they will have to assume after training.* Clarification of roles and mandates of all participating stakeholders, especially when a problem arises, such as dealing with outside organizations (in this case, the Canadian Food Inspection Agency). Who should assume responsibility: the researchers, the company, or someone else?Participants genuinely appreciated the demonstration in Montreal held at project outset. This event produced a \"WOW\" effect and convinced them of the usefulness of knife sharpening and steeling techniques. The demonstration given in Newfoundland by the people from Montreal was equally convincing and impressive. These demonstrations were very eloquent in indicating the shift from theory to practice.We can clearly state that communications was a tender spot in how the project unfolded. The geographical distance between Quebec and Newfoundland as well as that between the stakeholders in Newfoundland tested communications. Many participants would have preferred to have more face-to-face meetings and to have them more often. This is all the more true because the rare encounters proved to be of major importance to the project running smoothly.It appears that there is consensus on the following themes when it comes to identifying the prime elements that are essential for the smooth operation of a knowledge transfer project: communication between stakeholders and participating organizations; identification of the roles of the various project participants; support of the company hosting the program; selection of the apprentice trainers; management of time, materials, and equipment; finding a champion inside the company; and the logistics required for program activities. The three groups involved all brought up the issue of inadequate time for the apprentice trainers to practice the new techniques. Moreover, it would appear that access to the practice room was limited, which did not facilitate the task of the apprentice trainers.The various participants came to realize that implementing a train the trainers program requires a group effort. They acknowledged the need for an individual to play a pivotal role, offering follow-up, which is indispensable for successful knowledge transfer in this context.The main indicator of success raised by participants was collaboration between universities and the hosts company. Each of the groups involved learned about the other through the project's ups and downs. The result was commitment and better organized management based on the learnings gleaned from the project. This bodes well for the extension of this project to other organizations in Newfoundland.\n",
"role": "user"
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"content": "Purpose: - The objective of this study is to observe and document the transfer of a train the trainers program in knife sharpening and steeling. This knowledge transfer involved two groups of researchers: the experts and the learners. These groups are from geographically dispersed regions and evolve in distinct contexts by their language and culture.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - The paper favors the learning history (LH) technique, a methodology that enabled the different participants to share their experience through reiterate interviews.\nFindings: - Based on the dynamic knowledge transfer capacity model, the absorptive capacity of the train the trainers process appears to have been mobilized. Although there were a number of hitches, people are confident that the project will be successful and that they will put what they have learned to good use in upcoming phases to transfer this program to other organizations.\nResearch limitations/implications: - The conclusions apply solely to a context of interprovincial transfer of a train the trainers program. It is believed that it is important to complete the first-phase interviews \"before\" project start-up. Being unilingual may have prevented some individuals from participating fully when asked to react to the summary documents.\nOriginality/value: - The model is explicit enough to encompass the overall dimensions required to understand the dynamics of knowledge transfer. In a short and geographically dispersed context it was found that adjustments to the methodology were necessary, there was a wealth of data and that LH has fostered necessary adjustments that in turn have mobilized the actors.\n",
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Supportive leadership and EVB: The mediating role of employee advocacy and the moderating role of proactive personality
|
[
"Supportive leadership",
"Proactive personality",
"Employee advocacy",
"Employee voice behaviour"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: The growing complexity and rapidly changing environment have posed more challenges for managers in problem-solving and information processing (Chakravarthy et al., 2003). More than ever, managers are now becoming forced to depend on their employees' voluntary contribution of ideas and information instead of formal communication mechanisms (Ryan and Oestreich, 1991). Organizations necessarily need their employees' ideas and thoughts to foster innovation and promote organizational effectiveness (Hsiung, 2012). So, it is now important for managers to realize the conditions that aid employee communication behaviors such as employee voice behavior (Tanngirala and Ramanujam, 2008a, b).\nTheoretical background and hypotheses: The relationship between supportive leadership and employee voice behavior\nMethods: Samples and procedure\nResults: Descriptive statistics and correlations\nDiscussion: Overall, the main aim of this paper was to investigate whether supportive leadership causes employees to engage in employee voice behavior or not. It was also aimed at providing a comprehensive understanding of the mediating and moderating processes through which supportive leadership impacts employee voice behavior. A model was suggested that assumed the mediating role of employee advocacy in the supportive leadership-employee voice behavior relation, the moderating role of PP in the supportive leadership-employee voice behavior relationship. In general, the findings provided support for the hypotheses, contributing to the extent supportive leadership, employee advocacy, PP and employee voice behavior research fields. The research found that supportive leadership was positively and significantly related to employee voice behavior, suggesting that as employees perceive their leaders as supportive, they are likely to engage in voice behavior. This result is consistent with Ho (2017), who found that there is a positive and significant relationship between support supervisor and employee voice behavior. Leaders are considered as a crucial contextual factor, playing a major role in inducing employees to voice their concerns (Detert and Burris, 2007). Theoretically, leadership behavior has been suggested to affect voice behavior for two reasons. First, speaking up by definition requires someone to share ideas with each other. Therefore, leadership is naturally related to the voice behavior. Second, leaders have authority to distribute rewards and punishments, and this power is crucial for engaging in voice behavior (Detert and Burris, 2007). Because supervisors are the main entity receiving employees' voiced concerns and holding the authority to evaluate employee performance, supervisors are often the major reason why individuals are afraid of engaging in voice behavior (Morrison, 2011).\nLimitations and future research: Although the findings of this study are promising, some caveats are in order. The first limitation concerns the population sampled. The data from six firms in Egypt, and hence, the findings may have been impacted by cultural context and values, such as collectivism, traditionalism and power distance (Farh et al., 2004). To ascertain the generalizability of the results, future research would replicate my study in other vocational settings and different cultures. The second limitation is linked to the cross-sectional research design. Although the results are consistent with the hypotheses, the longitudinal research design may have other explanations. The findings, hence, may not provide a full explanation of the theoretical foundations to ascertain causality, future research should adopt a longitudinal research design to better establish the direction of relationships supposed in the study. Only employee advocacy was tested as a mediating variable; future studies may use other mediating variables, such as affective commitment, organizational support, organizational climate and LMX.\n",
"role": "user"
},
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"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to investigate the relationship between supportive leadership and employee voice behavior by examining the mediating role of employee advocacy, and the moderating role of proactive personality.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The model was tested by using data that were collected from 402 supervisors, and 87 subordinates who were working in 6 firms belonging to the stone and Glass sector, in the Tenth Ramadan city, Egypt. The employees and their immediate supervisors provided data on separated questionnaires, and different occasions. Then, an identification number was used by the author to match each employee questionnaire with the response of his/ her immediate supervisor.\nFindings: The results revealed that employee advocacy fully mediated the positive relationship between supportive leadership and employee voice behavior. Also, it also found that proactive personality moderated the relationship between supportive leadership and employee voice behavior, such that the relationship was stronger for people lower rather than higher in proactive personality.\nOriginality/value: This empirical paper provides preliminary evidence of the mediating effect of employee advocacy in the positive relationship between supportive leadership and employee voice behavior. The model extends the existing results by adding substantive moderate proactive personality to explain how the effect of supportive leadership on employee voice behavior.\n",
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] |
Pan-European industrial property
|
[
"Industrial property",
"Distribution management",
"Warehousing",
"Europe"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Pan-European distribution seems a logical solution for a pan-European market, yet wide differences remain between the sophisticated warehouse properties available in say the UK or Belgium and more traditional parochial markets found more prevalently across the continent.Over the last decade, the non-food retail market has become increasingly international. With some 75 per cent of products destined for the European market sourced from outside the EU, the effective management of international supply chains is critical in order to ensure that the consumer demands are met. However, in the main European markets - the UK, France, Germany, Italy and Spain - inbound logistics costs can average between 10-30 per cent of total costs suggesting that supply chains are not optimal for customers or retailers.The food supply chain tends to be shorter, more local and able to respond more quickly to changes in demand. However, here too there have been significant changes with food products moving far more quickly from harvesting/production to the consumer and more exotic produce being made available year round.These changes are part and parcel of a number of megatrends that have affected the overall supply chain. These include: outsourcing; a desire for more flexible, responsive supply chains; globalisation of manufacturing; and growing IT capability.Each of these trends hold significant changes for the nature and location of warehousing facilities.Taking outsourcing as an example. In the UK roughly 80 per cent of transportation is outsourced, along with 70 per cent of warehousing and some 22 per cent of inventory management. In France, by comparison, the rate of outsourcing for transport is estimated at over 70 per cent, but is still less than 50 per cent for warehousing and only 10 per cent for inventory management.This describes both the problem and the opportunity. Investors in distribution property have to second-guess demand for facilities in a market that is seeing significant structural changes to capacity.\nChanges: Expansion\nOptimisation: The principle objective of the optimization process is to reduce the inherent costs present in the distribution chain. This is achieved by making the whole chain as efficient as possible, minimizing the time spent unproductively by drivers, minimizing modal shifts and ensuring that storage nodes are in the best possible location for network efficiency. Legislation governing driver hours is an important component in the optimization process. Changes to this legislation mean changes to optimization models and potentially changes to optimum locations and patterns of distribution. Restrictions to overall driver hours places still further constraints on the process.Technology\nReal estate impacts: Configuration\nConclusions: The optimisation of the logistics process holds big lessons for the development of distribution property both in terms of location and specification. The impact of sub-optimal locations and poor specification have a direct impact on the cost of the operation using them. As a consequence logistics providers gravitate to newer, more highly specified buildings in locations optimised for their use.In an environment where, traditionally, distribution has a national focus, oprimising locations for pan-European distribution will inevitably render some locations sub-optimal.In truth the evidence for pan-European distribution contracts points to the fact that producers themselves have yet to make this conceptual leap.Analysis of over 150 contracts issued for distribution in Europe in 2003 show that 87 per cent of them were for national or sub-national areas and only 3 per cent related to truly pan-European distribution.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: - Aims to highlights the changes ongoing in the distribution and logistics property sector across Europe and to show that wide differences remain between the sophisticated warehouse properties available in mature property markets and those available in traditional parochial markets found prevalently across the continent and especially in central and eastern Europe.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - The briefing is based on empirical and commercial research in all the national industrial property markets within the EU. It addresses changes in the drivers affecting logistics property and the industry responses to them. The changes include outsourcing; a desire for more flexible, responsive supply chains; globalisation of manufacturing; legislative change; and growing IT capability. Industry responses include the development of complex, highly specified warehousing; increased demand for sophisticated telecommunications; and optimization of location.\nFindings: - Sub-optimal locations and poor specification have a direct impact on the cost of the operations using them. As a consequence logistics providers gravitate to newer, more highly specified buildings in locations optimised for their use. In an environment where, traditionally, distribution has a national focus, optimising locations for pan-European distribution will inevitably render some locations sub-optimal.\nOriginality/value: - As Europe moves towards a genuine single market, traditional, nationally-based distribution chains become ever less efficient in the delivery of goods. Concurrently, the complexity and configuration of the warehouse product are changing to accommodate more efficient identification, storage and retrieval technologies along with the need to service new types of market.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
Benchmarking web site functions
|
[
"Benchmarking",
"Internet",
"Worldwide web"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nRationale: The benchmarking of web site functions was planned as a first phase of a more comprehensive project[1] aimed at documenting the impact of internet technology on business processes. This benchmarking exercise was necessary to identify the most highly developed web sites with respect to specific functions. Companies with such highly developed web sites were recruited for case studies in the second phase of the comprehensive project. The rationale for the benchmarking of web site functions is shown in the conceptual framework (Begin et al., 2001) in Figure 1.A web site is a tool that can improve companies' business process performance, particularly with regard to activities and tasks with specific objectives: marketing products and services, selling products, providing after-sales services, etc. Our framework identifies 11 such processes that a web site can improve. Moreover, companies have developed various types of web sites to serve numerous purposes with respect to business processes. For example, when a company develops a promotional site, this site will likely be used to market and promote products; when it develops a transactional site, it will likely be used to sell products, and when it develops a relational site, it will likely be used to develop preferred ties with customers, suppliers, employees, investors and numerous other stakeholders. The rationale behind this benchmarking project is, therefore, to understand web site development with respect to the functions that a site performs. We also aim to classify web sites according to their development profile in order to link them to specific business process improvements that we intend to document in the second phase of this comprehensive project.\nMethodology: First, we posed the following research question:RQ1. Given that a web site is a tool used to improve the performance of activities within business processes, how can web sites be measured and compared?\nData collection method: The data collection method involved five main activities:1. development of a data collection sheet;2. construction of lists of web site addresses;3. establishment of a data collection procedure;4. design and implementation of an electronic collection and control system; and5. recruitment and training data collectors.A data collection sheet\nMain results: The main results are:* a method to identify dimensions of web site development;* a typology of web sites with respect to their development profile; and* benchmarks related to function development.A method to identify dimensions of web site development\nConclusion: We have presented a methodology to benchmark web site development with respect to functions or tasks that a web site can perform. The methodology was refined over three projects that spanned a three-year period. Using this methodology, we have defined a typology of web site profiles and we have established benchmarks of function development. We have illustrated the methodology with an analysis of 4,487 web sites from companies located in the provinces of Quebec and Ontario, mainly SME from selected industrial sectors.This study is based on the premise that a web site is a tool to improve business process performance. Thus, given the fact that general managers consider a web site as a tool that can improve some tasks and activities, it is possible to infer, from the results obtained, the way managers could plan web site development. Firstly, managers must decide how they would like to use the web site, that is its general purpose. For example, will the web site be intended to support the development of products and services, provide after-sales service, manage customer accounts or manage external relationships. Second, given a specific objective of the web site, managers should envision development of functions that would contribute to the targeted objective. For example, if the web site is intended as a promotional tool in the construction sector, the manager should concentrate on the development of the image and expertise functions. Third, based on the most developed sites within a class, managers would have to decide on the subset of components to be implemented within the required functions. For example, managers planning a relational web site could examine how web sites within this class have been developed by companies of a similar size and within related industrial sectors. One limitation of this study is that it does not provide insight into how components can best be organized on a site.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: - To measure, classify and compare web site functions' development.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - The objectives were achieved by developing a methodology to measure, classify and compare web site functions development. The measurement was based on the presence (or absence) of 91 web site components. The classification was achieved using an applied correspondence analysis. The comparison was performed with respect to 4,485 company web sites from two provinces in Canada. A formal procedure involving 50 assistants was developed to collect data over 5,000 sites within a month period and a conceptual model was developed to interpret results.\nFindings: - Findings show that web site functions development could be described on a three dimensional space, the three axes corresponding to directions of development. The development status of the whole sample appeared as a cone in which five classes (or categories) of web sites could be identified and described with respect to their development profile. The development of 18 web site functions was also benchmarked with respect to observations within a class and with respect to some other characteristics like the industrial sector and the province where the company was located.\nResearch limitations/implications: - Web site functions development was evaluated only with respect to components accessible to the general public. Development of intranet and extranet were not evaluated and hence taken into account for overall web sites development.\nPractical implications: - This research project of web site functions development was part of a more comprehensive project aimed at evaluating and documenting the impact of using a web site on business processes. So, combining the results of the two projects, allowed the authors to advance suggestions of how web sites should be developed to generate value for companies.\nOriginality/value: - The approach to web site functions development evaluation is original. The methodology could be replicated anytime. The typology that emerged from the analysis is unique. Moreover, given the large sample of 4,485 web sites, results are statistically valid.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Tackling service quality in the telecommunication B2B market
|
[
"SERVQUAL",
"Service quality",
"Telecommunications industry",
"Vendor",
"Operator",
"TOPSIS method"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: In service-based industries, service quality is the most important element that leads to the sustainability of the competitive advantage and overall success of the industry (Ishaq, 2011; Coetzee et al., 2013; Thaichon et al., 2014; Wang et al., 2004; Gokten and Gokten, 2017). Cultivating long-term and productive relationships with customers as well as satisfying their expectations are the most significant objectives in business-to-business (B2B) markets (Krishnan et al., 2013). Perceived service quality and the resulting satisfaction is interpreted as the basic premise for making repeat purchases, establishing trust and loyalty and a long-term relationship (Athanassopoulos et al., 2001; Coetzee et al., 2013; Gounaris and Venetis, 2002). \"The positive relationship between perceived service quality and organizational performance is supported through the challenge of being emulated, a fundamental component of competitive advantage\" (Athanassopoulos et al., 2001; Amiri Aghdaie and Faghani, 2012; Coetzee et al., 2013; Thaichon et al., 2014). Amiri Aghdaie and Faghani (2012) express that service quality is the key variable throughout the layout of the marketing programs.\n2. Theoretical background: 2.1. Service quality literature in business-to-business markets\n3. Methodology: 3.1 Research design\n4. Results and discussion: 4.1 Hypothesis results\n5. Conclusion: The rapid acceleration rate of the telecommunications market along with the intense competition make it crucial to measure and prioritize service quality. Turkey has great potential for growth in telecommunications and the internet sector given its young population and high technology adoption rates. This research aimed to provide a deeper understanding of the service quality of Turkey's telecommunications industry from the operators' point of view by analyzing the expectations and perceptions of operators regarding service vendors.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: This study will attempt to focus on how vendors serve operators, as operator service quality starts with vendor's technology infrastructure and service quality. The purpose of this study is to exhibit the most important vendor service quality items and dimensions for the operators in the telecommunications industry.\nDesign/methodology/approach: A total of 268 employees from various age groups, cities, job levels and departments participated in the survey.\nFindings: Expected service quality results indicated that operators need high service quality. When telecommunication needs of subscribers are taken into account, it is normal for operators to expect high service quality from vendors. Results also reveal that being dependable and providing continuous support are critical for the telecommunications industry. Perceived service quality results demonstrate that customer expectations failed to be satisfied. In this study conducted in the telecommunications market, the expectations of operator employees regarding vendors is shaped under two dimensions. These dimensions are employee and service center features and provider timeliness and accuracy. When Topsis method was used to determine the most important vendor characteristics, timeliness and trust were identified as the top two criteria.\nOriginality/value: To the best of the authors' knowledge, this study is the first to put forth the most important vendor service quality items and dimensions for the operators in the telecommunications industry.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Learning from a free-access digital information kiosk in Africa: An objectivist - constructivist investigation
|
[
"Knowledge sharing",
"Information facilities",
"Learning",
"E‐learning",
"Objectives"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: The Internet is widely seen as a tool holding much promise in bringing information to developing countries (World Bank, 1998; Braun, 1999; Heeks, 1999; Kgengwenyane, 2000; Thapisa, 2000; Kirkman and Sachs, 2001; UNDP, 2000). The question that arises is to what extent people with no previous computer experience would find such information useful. Mbambo and Cronje (2002) reported that adults in developing countries had little trouble in learning to use Internet-based information portals by cooperative learning and peer tutoring.In a slum area in India Professor Fugato Mitra conducted the so-called \"Hole in the Wall\" experiment in which he placed a computer in a wall and investigated the interaction of people with the machine (Judge, 2000). Mitra coined the phrase \"Minimally Invasive Education\" and explains that \"...basic computing skills can be acquired by any set of children through incidental learning provided they are given access to a suitable computing facility, with entertaining and motivating content and some minimal (human) guidance\" (NIIT, 2004). In South Africa the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) launched a similar project, called the Digital Doorway, using computers encased in protective cabinets. The site that formed the basis of our research was an information kiosk in a disadvantaged community to the east of Pretoria, South Africa. Grobler (2004) researched the project for feasibility primarily by observing recorded videos of the interaction of users of the portal. This research takes her work one step further, by investigating the capacity of the portal to facilitate two modes of learning: objectivist and constructivist.The importance of researching a resource such as the Digital Doorway is underscored by authors such as De Azevedo Filho and Lundy (2004) who plot information portals as highest on the \"peak of inflated expectations\" in Gartner's hype cycle on e-learning (Figure 1). They describe this peak as follows:This phase of over enthusiasm, unrealistic projections and a flurry of well publicised activity by technology leaders results in some success, but more failures, as the technology is pushed to its limits. The enterprises that make money during this phase are generally conference organisers, magazine publishers and consultants.This is evident in the explosion of information portals that are created currently. Public access computer kiosks, either free or for profit, are a strong growth point, particularly in developing countries.The rationale for this study is to explore the possibilities of the medium to prevent it from bottoming out on the trough of disillusionment, \"because the technology does not live up to its inflated expectations, it rapidly becomes unfashionable, and the press abandons the topic or touts its failure to meet expectations\" (De Azevedo Filho and Lundy, 2004, p. 48). In order to minimize the harm of a slump into the trough of disillusionment it would be useful to determine heuristics for the appropriate use of the technology so that it may reach the slope of enlightenment.The foundation of the enquiry rests upon the ongoing debate between objectivism and constructivism in instructional design. This investigation is aimed at determining the versatility of a public-access terminal in allowing anytime learning drawing from either of the two epistemological extremes, objectivism or constructivism. Our article responds to Spector's (2004) call for an African perspective on the debate: \"Where are the African, Asian, European, Pacific Islander, and South American voices in this dialogue?\". From Europe the German Terhart (2003, p. 42) argues: \"'New' constructivist didactics in the end is merely an assembly of long known teaching methods\". Essentially, there is something called good teaching, which draws upon elements both of objectivism and constructivism as the need arises. This article builds upon Terhart's argument that constructivism is not new. We disagree with authors such as Vrasidas (2000) who place constructivism and objectivism at opposite ends of a continuum, and support Bednar et al. (1991, p. 19) who say that \"Constructivism is completely incompatible with objectivism\". We thus explore further the proposal by Cronje (2000, 2006) that the two perspectives are better plotted at right angles to form an integrative matrix. We apply this argument to the Digital Doorway, a public-access information kiosk intended to provide incidental learning to a disadvantaged community, and we ask: To what extent does the same information resource support both objectivist and constructivist learning?The research builds upon Reeves' (2000) and Deacon's (2000) call to explore the possibility of integrating objectivism and constructivism by considering the pedagogical dimensions proposed by Reeves and Harmon (1994) and Reeves (1997), and is a continuation of theoretical work by Cronje (2000, 2006) and observation research done by Grobler (2004)Context: the Digital Doorway\nTheoretical underpinning: In considering a minimally invasive approach our focus falls on the relationship between direct (objectivist) and indirect (constructivist) teaching and learning. In order to establish the extent to which the information resource fulfils its purpose in supporting both epistemologies it is necessary to understand the two concepts and their relationship. The literature survey covers a theoretical proposal by Cronje (2000, 2006) to integrate the two, as well as a set of indicators that can be used to measure the extent to which a resource supports either one (Reeves, 1997; Reeves and Harmon, 1994). Upon this follows a discussion of Kurtz and Snowden's (2003) Cynefin framework that links learning and knowledge, and finally we consider Fresen's (2004) model that shows the relationships between information resources, knowledge and learning. Thus the scene is set for an analysis of the extent to which the Digital Doorway provides information that leads to knowledge through learning.Objectivism and constructivism\nResearch method: Research objective\nFindings: Analysis\nConclusions: Three closely related questions were asked in this article. The conclusions will deal with them one by one.In which quadrant(s) does the Digital Doorway project resort?\nRecommendations: The results of this investigation may lead to some recommendations for policy and practice, as well as some recommendations for further research and development.Policy and practice\nFurther research: Researching the instrument and model\nFurther development: From the results above it can be seen that no construction took place. This implies that, although people used the Digital Doorway to become computer literate, they did not use it to do productive work. A process should be developed whereby the Digital Doorway could be used productively.In terms of the four-quadrant model, more research could be done on the \"line\" that was identified across the three quadrants. Regression analyses with larger data sets may prove useful.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: - The purpose of this paper is to consider the type of learning that takes place if members of an under-resourced community are exposed to a free-to-use computer that is connected to the internet.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - Qualitative application of an instrument that was developed to evaluate the information resource for the extent to which it facilitates both objectivist and constructivist learning. Video recordings of the interactions of people at the information kiosk were viewed and transcribed, and subjected to classical analysis to answer the questions posed by the instrument.\nFindings: - It was found that this particular information resource contained both objectivist and constructivist elements. Furthermore, it was found that objectivism and constructivism are complementary to one another and the degree of integration varies according to certain pedagogical dimensions. An open-access information portal affords opportunities both for direct instruction and constructivist learning.\nResearch limitations/implications: - Based in a peri-urban environment in South Africa with a small sample.\nPractical implications: - The main contribution of this study is to investigate the interaction between information, knowledge, learning and pedagogy, which will help the information designer to better understand these interactions when designing an information resource. Furthermore, the instrument developed for this study can be used to evaluate other information resources, thus ultimately improving the standard of such resources.\nOriginality/value: - The paper proposes a solution to the age-old objectivist/constructivist debate that prevails when considering the cognitive functioning of information users.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
Assistant principal leadership development: a narrative capture study
|
[
"Instructional leadership",
"Professional development",
"Distributed leadership",
"Urban schools",
"Assistant principals",
"Narrative capture methodology"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nI. Introduction and background: Today's urban school leadership brings with it complex, challenging requirements (Davis et al., 2005; Elmore, 2005; Mintrop, 2004). Leaders are expected to engage their staff and local communities, communicate a strategic vision for teaching and learning, and diffuse daily crises at their school sites - all while implementing instructional strategies that improve overall student performance for an increasingly diverse student body (Hallinger and Murphy, 1986; Keller, 1998; Marzano et al., 2005; Mendez-Morse, 1992; Pont et al., 2008). Although largely overlooked by the education leadership literature, which has focussed primarily on principal leadership (Matthew, 2003), assistant principals occupy a key administrative support position, insofar as they help principals to meet instructional leadership responsibilities that compound already demanding operational management responsibilities (Kaplan and Owings, 1999). As noted by recent studies on school leadership, the increased focus on instructional leadership for assistant principals necessitates a distributed leadership model, wherein assistant principals are viewed as key members of a team serving to advance their school's success as a learning organization for students and educators (Pont et al., 2008; Spillane et al., 2001).\nII. Theoretical framework: Scholars examining the revitalization of failing schools emphasize that school leadership has a significant impact on the quality of student learning, especially in urban schools (Branch et al., 2009; Cole-Henderson, 2000; Duke, 2010; Loeb and Valant, 2009; New Leaders for New Schools (NLNS), 2010). New Leaders for New Schools (NLNS, 2009) highlights the importance of focussing reform and policy efforts on improving the quality of school leadership, citing the fact that strong principal leadership skills may account for 60-75 percent of student achievement. Furthermore, literature addressing effective school leadership points to leadership qualities that must be in place in order to enhance student learning and performance. These qualities include a high-achieving vision and culture within the school, and an ability to align classroom instruction with standards (NLNS, 2009); competency in driving teacher effectiveness, and providing PD (Grissom and Loeb, 2009; NLNS, 2010); and the ability to identify problems, and offer relevant solutions (Langley and Jacob, 2006; NLNS, 2010).\nIII. Methods: With the goal of shedding light on how assistant principals are envisioning their changing leadership roles, this study employed a mixed methods approach called narrative capture. Rooted in narrative inquiry, which seeks to understand the ways in which people create meaning in their lives via narratives, narrative capture involves the collection of short written narratives from participants in response to simple, open-ended prompts. Within qualitative social science research, narrative inquiry is recognized as an effective approach to understanding the complexities involved in organizational communication and self-understanding (Browning and Boudes, 2005; Snowden, 2007). Connelly and Clandinin (1990), writing from within the field of education, emphasize the contribution that narrative inquiry makes, toward understanding the experiences of learners, teachers, and other education stakeholders - as stories both represent and exemplify human experience. Connelly and Clandinin further point to narrative inquiry as a mechanism for giving voice to the research participant; through the process of telling their stories narrators become co-constructors of knowledge in the research process.\nIV. Results: The assistant principal participants in the two districts related a variety of narratives regarding challenges and dilemmas in their work, and answered whether each of the indicators were relevant to their narratives (as noted in \"Methodology\"). If relevant, they then indexed the indicator on an 11-point high-low continuum, corresponding to a numerical system of 0-100, with 50 being the midpoint. As illustrated in Table II participants generally rated their stories toward the middle of each continuum, indicating that they perceived themselves as balanced in regard to each of the extremes for the indicators.\nV. Discussion and implications: On the whole, this study has revealed that while participating assistant principals envisioned their roles as instructional leaders, the enactment of their vision for teaching and learning was hindered by oppositional mindsets, and pre-existing structures and practices at their school sites. In line with Armstrong (2010), this finding points to a need for increased and customized support for assistant principals, to aid them in navigating their way through existing structures, bridging opposition, and creating a shared vision - as well as in managing operational tasks related to classroom discipline and teacher-student relations, which were characterized as emotionally negative responsibilities in the narratives analyzed. Supporting assistant principals in this way also necessitates ongoing communication between PD programs, districts, principals, assistant principals, and teachers to create professional learning environments that support more distributed modes of leadership - as previously emphasized by Grubb and Tredway (2010), as well as other scholars (Pont et al., 2008; Spillane et al., 2001).\nVI. Conclusion: In examining the experiences and perceptions of assistant principals as they undertake more prominent roles as instructional leaders, this study has sought to both inform the emerging conceptualization of the assistant principal role, and help to elucidate the types of support that potentially enable that role. The results of this study point to the importance of tailoring PD programs for assistant principals, based on the ways in which leaders envision their roles and relations, and where they are in their careers. Depending on the needs of the assistant principal and the context of the school, custom supports might include helping assistant principals to integrate a vision for instructional leadership into daily operations, and providing methods for assistant principals to develop and sustain constructive conversations with teachers.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to contribute to the knowledge base on the ways in which assistant principals view their roles, and on the potential challenges involved in a distributed leadership model.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The study employed a narrative capture method, in which assistant principals from two large urban school districts were asked to relate and self-interpret two leadership stories through a web-based narrative capture form. A total of 90 stories were collected from 45 assistant principals. Participants rated their stories based on a set of leadership indicators (including method of decision making and type of teacher interaction present in the story, among others); the results were analyzed statistically.\nFindings: Overall, participants tended to view their roles in terms of instructionally focussed leadership. However, leadership challenges emerged in several areas of leadership practice, including operational management and teacher professional development (PD). Demographic factors were found to influence leadership perceptions and practices.\nResearch limitations/implications: This study begins to fill the empirical gap on assistant principal leadership roles, practices, and perceptions. Further research, using other methods (e.g. observation), is needed to collect evidence of in situ leadership practices of assistant principals, and how those practices impact and relate to school objectives for teaching and learning.\nPractical implications: The study sheds light on the leadership development needs of assistant principals and on the importance of ongoing, tailored PD, based on factors including where leaders are in their careers and how they envision their roles.\nOriginality/value: This paper contributes to nascent scholarship regarding assistant principal school leadership.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
Transparency in pricing and its effect on perceived price fairness
|
[
"Alignable costs",
"Price fairness",
"Transparency in pricing"
] |
[
{
"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.To judge the fairness of a price, a consumer may judge the price according to the derived value, the price relative to other prices (i.e. those offered by competitors or paid by other customers), and/or the fairness of the price-setting practice. In other words, they can judge a price by the outcome fairness (i.e. the price offered) as well as by the procedural fairness (i.e. the method for establishing the price or price changes). In the marketplace, information about the offered price, such as competitors' prices, advertised prices, and prices paid by others, is more readily available than the means used to set prices. Thus, there is greater transparency about the price itself than transparency in pricing.\nTransparency in pricing: Heyman and Mellers (2008) argue that consumers should know how prices are set to allow them to judge whether practices are adhering to social norms. Recent health care and financial reform measures address providing more transparency in pricing, such as the Credit CARD Act of 2010 that requires firms to provide reasons for raising consumer interest rates (Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, 2011). When the consumer is presented with a price increase, transparency in pricing may help the consumer to understand the economic rationality of the seller's decision to set that price (Maxwell, 1995).\nTransparency in pricing and perceived price fairness: Disclosure of price increase\nStudy 1: Study 1 manipulated whether the price increase was disclosed by the firm itself or by a source outside the firm (e.g. the media). A mock news article about a coffee company raising prices on coffee products was used as the guise for the manipulation. Such media stories have appeared, often based on press releases from firms choosing to be transparent in price changes. For example, Starbucks recently put out a press release announcing a price increase that was reported by the Wall Street Journal (Gasparro, 2012). To make it as realistic as possible, the mock article mirrored an actual Associated Press article in which a major coffee chain announced a price increase. To control for prior exposure, any respondents who recalled having heard about a coffee chain announcing a price increase were excluded post hoc.\nStudy 2: Study 2 was a 4 (extent of information) x 2 (price increase magnitude) online experiment. Variations of the same scenario used in Study 1 featured a news article for Betty's Buzz increasing prices. All of the scenarios featured the firm disclosing the price increase. To control for strong loyalty to other retailers, the scenario asked respondents to imagine that Betty's Buzz was a place they had visited a few times. To manipulate the extent of information disclosed about the price increase, respondents were randomly assigned to one of four conditions - a control in which no reason was provided, a limited reason condition (i.e. due to increased costs), and two detailed reason conditions, an alignable cost explanation and a non-alignable cost explanation. The aligned price increase was described as due to increased costs of the product itself (i.e. greater demand for coffee and shortage of coffee beans). In the nonalignable or indirect condition, the cost increase was described as increased transportation costs for supplies due to higher fuel prices.\nDiscussion: The results of the current research empirically tests previous researchers' suggestions that providing information about the cause of a price increase can improve consumer perceptions of the fairness of a price (Heyman and Mellers, 2008; Maxwell, 2005). This research extends Campbell's (2007) finding about human and non-human sources by showing that announcements by the firm, as compared to an external source, positively affected price fairness. Our price magnitude findings extend Hardesty and Suter's (2005) research that finds price perceptions are affected by reference price levels, as well as brick-and-mortar/online contexts. Additionally, the findings extend Bolton and Alba's (2006) research on the alignability of cost increases and price fairness by examining how price increase magnitude and extent of information disclosed combine to affect price fairness perceptions.\nImplications: Vaidyanathan and Aggarwal (2003) suggest that if sellers want to positively influence consumer perceptions, sellers need to highlight the causes behind the increase. Our research suggests that marketers should carefully consider the extent of information provided and the reason provided when revealing information about pricing decisions. Consumers are well-informed and may discover price increases even when firms attempt to usher in price increases discretely. Once a price increase is made public, the seller will need to be ready in case of public or customer response, to provide some transparency about their pricing. For example, a British retailer who began charging PS2.00 extra for bras with large cups was forced to publicly defend the pricing practice by citing higher cost of goods, an alignable cost reason but one that was discriminatory for some customers (Bertini and Gourville, 2012). The retailer returned to the one-price-fits-all price.\nLimitations and future research: The current research examined transparency in pricing in a price increase context; future research should examine transparency in pricing effects in general price-setting contexts (e.g. auto insurance quote determination). The current research examined two magnitudes of price increase (i.e. 2 percent increase and 20 percent increase), however, the overall price increase (25 cents versus $2.50) may still seem trivial to some consumers. Additional research might consider effects of price increases on larger purchases. Transparency in pricing effects may also vary due to changes in pricing structures such as in the case of consumer backlash against Netflix's several dollar price increase on movie rentals (\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: This research aims to examine the effects of transparency in pricing (i.e. disclosure of a price increase and extent of explanation) on perceived price fairness when a firm increases price.\nDesign/methodology/approach: US adult consumer panelists participated in two online experiments.\nFindings: Consumers perceive a firm's price increase as more fair when the firm discloses the increase itself as compared to an outside source disclosing it. For a small price increase, a limited explanation was perceived as more fair; for a larger price increase, a more detailed aligned cost explanation was perceived as more fair.\nResearch limitations/implications: Firms who must raise prices may increase consumer perceptions of price fairness by disclosing the price increase and providing an appropriate explanation matched to the size of the increase.\nOriginality/value: This research focuses on the effects of being more transparent about pricing in the case of a price increase. Perceived price fairness is affected by who discloses the price increase, the amount of the price increase and the extent to which reasons are revealed and aligned with the firm's costs.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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Re-examining traditional service quality in an e-banking era
|
[
"Customer services quality",
"Marketing strategy",
"Financial services",
"Virtual banking",
"Electronic commerce",
"Banking"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Electronic commerce (e-commerce) has become a very important technological advancement for businesses in changing business practices (Brodie et al., 2007; (Gonzalez et al., 2008; Lichtenstein and Williamson, 2006). This has experienced tremendous growth in recent years as a result of new business initiatives utilising these technologies (Barwise and Farley, 2005). In particular, industries that are information-oriented such as the banking services and securities trading sector are expected to experience the highest growths in e-commerce (Ibrahim et al. 2006; Hughes, 2002). Inevitably, this phenomenon has sparked a lot of attention in the academic literature lately (such as Gan et al., 2006; Pikkarainen et al., 2006; Shamdasani et al., 2008).Undoubtedly, electronic banking (e-banking) has experienced explosive growth and has transformed traditional practices in banking (Barwise and Farley, 2005; Gonzalez et al., 2008; Lichtenstein and Williamson, 2006). Brodie et al. (2007) speculated that these would lead to a massive shift in marketing practices leading to superior business performance. In fact, it has become the main means for banks to market and sell their products and services (Amato-McCoy, 2005) and is perceived to be a necessity in order to stay profitable and successful (Gan et al., 2006). The changes occurring in the banking sector can be attributed to increasing deregulation and globalization, the major stimulus for rationalization, consolidation, and an increasing focus on costs (Ibrahim et al., 2006; Hernandez and Mazzon, 2007). One offspring of this has been the rapid development and use of various new and innovative technologies by banks in the form of electronic banking services (e.g. Pikkarainen et al., 2006; Orr, 1998). The implementation of e-banking, such as internet banking and the use of computer-based office banking software hold several obvious advantages for banks. It improves the bank's profit levels through the reduction of both variable and infrastructure costs, provides a source of differentiation and competitive advantage, provides global reach, adds another communication and feedback channel, increases customer satisfaction through the reduction of waiting times and thus improving service performance, or otherwise enabling the bank to more fully realise its sales potential through the achievement of higher sales volume (Lichtenstein and Williamson, 2006; Fox, 2005; Hernandez and Mazzon, 2007; Pikkarainen et al., 2006; Shamdasani et al., 2008; Schaggnit, 1998; Schneiderman, 1992).As can be appreciated, the advantages to banks are manifold. These have led many banks to undertake high levels of marketing effort in the bid to push more customers, in particular businesses, into implementing e-banking into their business processes. This current strategic approach undertaken by banks, however, may be seen as contrary to the views of many authors of relationship marketing, such as presented by McKenna (1992) who proposes that marketers need to devise strategies with the primary objective of sustaining and enhancing relationships with their customers over time. Others scholars such as Roth and Van der Velde (1989) suggest that the role of human interactions within the bank branch will be even more critical in the future, despite the increasing popularity and acceptance of new banking technologies. Tyler and Stanley (2001) have reiterated that human interaction between the bank manager and the corporate financial officer to be of prime importance. O'Donnell et al. (2002) echoed this finding that business banking customers generally prefer personalised human interactions with their bank as a means of communication, and that this is especially pronounced for smaller businesses. Interestingly, despite the efficiencies created by e-banking, many businesses are still keeping duplicative traditional records, and performing traditional banking tasks that result in less than full implementation of the technology and continued dependency on human interactions. These problems in the adoption of electronic services are not uncommon, and have also been reported in related industries such as in securities brokerage services (Yang and Fang, 2004). More importantly, Howcroft and Durkin (2000) suggest that such interaction preferences on the part of both the bank and the customer are important considerations as they will ultimately have a significant impact on the perceived quality of the relationship by both parties.These issues encountered in electronic service delivery have thus prompted a proliferation of research into how service quality may be measured and managed for electronic service deliveries (such as Parasuraman et al., 1991, 2005; Zeithaml et al., 2000, 2001, 2002; Yang and Jun, 2002; Bauer et al., 2005; Ibrahim et al., 2006; Shamdasani et al., 2008). Research by Patricio et al. (2003) goes one step further to measure service quality of various banking services for different delivery channels, including both electronic and traditional channels. They have found that perceived service quality with one delivery channel has an impact on how another channel is perceived. Similarly, Burke (2002) suggests that marketers need to understand the value consumers place on technology as part of the overall interaction process, and stress that new interactions brought about by the advancement of technology are not separate, but rather act to enhance the overall shopping experience. Moreover, Fassnacht and Kose (2007) found that high electronic service quality in web-based services had an important role in building overall customer trust for the service provider. Indeed, it seems that e-banking and traditional banking, though very different in their bases of customer interaction, are inseparable facets of the banking system, and should be seen as complimentary rather than substitutable ways of banking. It follows then that the customer's experiences with e-banking may have an influence on changing their expectations and perceptions of traditional banking services.\nSignificance and objectives of this research: Based on the preceding discussion, a number of pertinent questions have emerged and have been reiterated by many scholars. First, what impact the adoption of e-banking by the customer has on sustaining and enhancing the bank-customer relationship (e.g. Reibstein, 2002)? Second, what impact does this new e-banking environment, brought about by the increasing popularity of e-banking, have on the customer's perception of traditional bank service quality (e.g. Pikkarainen et al., 2006)? These are gaps in the literature that have not been adequately looked at and should be revisited. Thus the over-arching objective of this paper is to re-examine the role of traditional service quality in an e-banking environment by providing a review of how traditional service quality perceptions have evolved through the current and continuing stream of change in banking technology and the corresponding changes in the nature of how banks interact with their customers.The paper is organised as follows. First, the theories and relevant literature in service quality and customer satisfaction are reviewed. The methodology and analysis and discussion of results are next presented. The paper concludes with the implications for both marketing theory and business practices and directions for future research.\nTheory and relevant literature: Service quality and SERVQUAL\nMethodology: Measures\nResults: Sample\nAnalysis and discussion: Comparing service quality dimensions with past research\nImplications and concluding comments: The results of this study have provided a re-examination of how traditional service quality perceptions have evolved amid the challenges faced by the banking sector brought about by the advancement of e-commerce.Little has changed with regard to the various dimensions of service quality and their importance to the customer. These findings seem to point to the apparent stability of the revealed factor structure with regard to the validity and robustness of the SERVQUAL measure (similar findings to Ibrahim et al., 2006). This is particularly important noting the concern about the multi-dimensionality and reliability of the SERVQUAL scale (e.g. Gonzalez et al., 2008). The SERVQUAL scale has withstood the course of time and will remain a popular measure in consonance with Gonzalez et al. (2008).Managerial implications\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: - This paper aims to re-examine the role of traditional service quality in an e-banking environment by providing a review of how traditional service quality perceptions have evolved through the current and continuing stream of change in banking technology and the corresponding changes in the nature of how banks interact with their customers.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - Data were collected from a mail survey sent out to a commercially purchased mailing list of 2,500 business names and addresses. The overall usable response rate was 30.6 per cent. Quadrant analysis was performed on the service quality dimensions from the SERVQUAL scale.\nFindings: - While the importance ranking of the five SERVQUAL dimensions has not changed dramatically over the years, large discrepancies were found between customer expectations and their perceived performance of traditional banking services.\nPractical implications: - Quadrant analysis produced specific recommendations on how banks should prioritise the allocation of their resources to maintain high perceived service quality in their human interactions.\nOriginality/value: - This is the first study which revisits and re-examines traditional service quality in the e-banking era. It highlights how high levels of traditional service quality may lead to increased customer trust and thus more successful cross-selling of e-banking products to customers.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Adoption and diffusion of knowledge management systems: an Australian survey
|
[
"Knowledge management",
"Diffusion",
"Linear structure equation modeling",
"Australia"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: As a result of tough competition in the marketplace and the shift from a resource-based economy to a knowledge-based economy, companies are looking more and more at gaining competitive advantage through managing and maximizing their most valuable asset - knowledge. In line with the increasing need to manage knowledge in a more effective and systematic way, knowledge management systems (KMSs), which involve the application of IT systems and other organizational resources to manage knowledge strategically, are growing in popularity. Given the fact that it is not difficult to find KMS applications in organizations, the topic of KMSs has not been well explored by researchers and scholars. Besides, even among the limited literature on KMSs, there is a scarcity of studies on the empirical perspectives of KMSs, especially in the area of adoption and diffusion.This research tries to address this gap by studying the adoption and diffusion of KMSs in Australian organizations. Specifically, we want to find the significant factors of the KMS adoption and diffusion process. This study uses a mixed methodology approach. The research was carried out in three stages. In the first stage, we produced a comprehensive model of KMS diffusion in organizations through a combination of literature review and qualitative field study (Xu and Quaddus, 2005a). Six companies took part in this phase, which resulted in eight interviews with key person(s) in the companies. The interviews were transcribed by the researchers and the contents analyzed using a structured process. The content analysis and further refinement resulted in 16 factors and 72 unique variables. Company-specific individual diffusion models were first developed, which were then combined to develop a comprehensive KMS diffusion model (Xu and Quaddus, 2005a). In the second stage, a questionnaire was developed based on the combined model. A total of 12 West Australian companies were randomly selected for the pilot study. The questionnaire was distributed to 125 functional and senior level managers in these companies. The findings of this phase have been reported in Xu and Quaddus (2005b).In the third phase, a national mail survey was conducted with the top 1,500 (based on revenue) organizations in Australia. This paper reports the results of the third phase of the study, the national survey.The following section presents the proposed hypotheses. This is followed by the demographic information and preliminary analysis of the data of the national survey. The data analysis through structural equation modeling using LISREL is also described. The paper concludes with the future directions and conclusion.\nHypotheses of the study: Based on the literature review, field study, and other exploratory research, the following hypotheses were proposed. The hypotheses have been grouped under external factors, perceptions and diffusion to reflect the high-level generic model. Figure 1 presents the hypotheses in the form of a research model. Due to space limitations, the constructs are not described fully in the paper. However, they are quite intuitive.Hypotheses related to external factors\nResults of the national survey: The national survey was conducted among the top 1,500 (based on revenue) organizations in Australia. The questionnaires were distributed to 1,500 managers, who appeared to be most relevant to our study, in those companies. The criterion for sample selection was to look for research subjects who were knowledgeable about KMSs and thus could provide objective opinions on KMSs in helping to identify the factors influencing the adoption and diffusion of KMSs. Such research subjects had to include both adopters and potential adopters of KMSs since the focus and purpose were to look for \"objective\" not \"correct\" answers. The mailing list of the top 1,500 companies was created from Dun & Bradstreet's The Business Who's Who of Australia database. In the first round, each package included a cover letter, copy of the questionnaire, prepaid return envelope, and self-made gift. In the second round (follow-up), each package consisted of a reminder letter, copy of the questionnaire, and prepaid return envelope. In the end, 304 questionnaires were returned, 19 of which were found to be incomplete. This resulted in 285 valid responses. There were also 196 undelivered questionnaires and 55 firms declined to participate in the study. Thus, the final effective response rate was 23 percent.Demographic information\nFuture directions and conclusions: This study basically tested the whole model. In the future, parts of the model can be extracted and investigated in detail. For example, the KMS adoption and diffusion model also shows the detailed stages of KMS diffusion from initiation to sustained use. The direction of the arrow indicates the sequence of the KMS diffusion stages. In the future, a separate study can be undertaken to test these stages and their sequence in detail.This study uses a mixed methodology approach to study the variables affecting the adoption and diffusion of KMS in Australian organizations. In the second phase, a questionnaire was developed based on the combined model and pilot-tested in West Australian organizations through a survey. In the third phase, a national survey was conducted in the top 1,500 companies in Australia and the data were analyzed through structural equation modeling (LISREL) approach. The details of the national survey are presented in this paper. The results, including demographic information and analysis of the national survey data using structural equation modeling, are also presented. We provide detailed data analyses which would be useful for other researchers. A number of hypotheses were found to be not significant which was at odds with the findings of some previous studies. More empirical studies on KMSs are therefore needed to gain comprehensive knowledge.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: - This study aims to investigate the factors influencing the adoption and diffusion of knowledge management systems (KMSs) in Australia.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - The study uses a mixed methodology approach. The research was carried out in three stages: field study, pilot survey, and national survey (top 1,500 companies). This paper reports the findings of the third phase of the study - the national survey. The data of the national survey was analyzed through structural equation modeling (LISREL).\nFindings: - The results indicate that individual factors and task complexity are the significant factors that influence the perceived usefulness of KMSs which, in turn, significantly influence the intention to adopt a KMS and its diffusion process. Some unexpected results were also found.\nOriginality/value: - There is a scarcity of studies on the empirical perspectives of KMSs in the literature, especially in the area of adoption and diffusion. This research addresses this gap by studying the adoption and diffusion of KMSs in Australian organizations.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Quality assurance as a driver of information management strategy: Stakeholders' perspectives in higher education
|
[
"Higher education marketing",
"Polish higher education",
"Quality assurance",
"Information management strategy",
"European higher education"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Higher education institutions (HEIs) help to address the educational needs of the community, strengthen the economic development of the region as well as become integral parts of the local culture (Dore, 1990; Muse, 1990; Ruch and Trani, 1990; Marginson, 2010; Bringle and Hatcher, 1996). Living in an information society challenges HEIs to consider how to collect, analyze and publish information about the quality of their education service. Internal quality assurance (QA), as a driver of information management strategy, fulfills a double aim within HEIs, which are mainly controlling and enhancing educational quality through collecting, analyzing and publishing information. As difficulties prevail in defining quality in higher education (HE), it is critical to be precise in identifying the criteria that each stakeholder uses when judging quality and to take these competing definitions into consideration (Green, 1994). Hence, the objective of this empirical study is to investigate how stakeholders of the Polish HE sector understand internal QA systems and their role as a driver of information management strategy. In addition, the investigation places emphasis on the priorities facing top-level management, to create a quality and information culture within their academic communities.\nResearch methodology: The objective of the empirical research is to understand the role of internal QA systems as drivers of information management strategy, from the stakeholders' perspectives. The focus is on academics, staff that represent the administrators and students as the main stakeholder groups in the Polish HE sector. The drivers behind selecting those three key stakeholder groups stem from being the core community involved with HEIs' decisions and outcomes (Jongbloed et al., 2008). In order to achieve this objective, the empirical research started with an exploratory study of QA within the Polish HE, based on 12 in-depth interviews with Bologna experts who are active members within the Bologna process. This was followed by qualitative empirical within five universities in Poland, focusing on the role of QA as a driver of information management strategy. The selected universities were in Warsaw and Krakow - the two major cities in Poland. The criteria for selection of the five universities were based on size, ownership and specialization.\nResearch analysis: It is clear from the analysis that continuous development of the teaching quality and research is a main concern for all five universities. It was mentioned by all the respondents that the universities are adopting the QA system in order to minimize the risk of poor performance and guarantee the enhancement of the education system. This corresponds to findings by Hill et al. (2003) who also found that students deemed quality of the lecturer as an important aspect in HEI's quality.\nConclusions, managerial implications and future research: Internal QA as a driver of information management strategy fulfills a double aim within a university: controlling and enhancing educational quality through collecting, analyzing and disseminating information. The interview findings indicate that a key criterion for successful implementation of internal QA is the stakeholders' own understanding of the rationale behind QA, and the need for appropriate information management strategies. Internal QA must be considered by all members of an academic institution as a crucial driver of \"information management strategy,\" for strategic management and enhanced planning (Askling et al., 2004). Due to the limited conceptual and empirical research into internal QA in Polish HE, the theoretical and empirical implications of this research should add to the collective knowledge in this area.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to investigate the understanding of stakeholders of the Polish higher education sector to the internal quality assurance (QA) system and its role as a driver of information management strategy.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The paper employs a qualitative approach. It started with an exploratory research in the form of 12 in-depth interviews with the Bologna process experts, followed by empirical research via 30 face-to-face interviews with key educational informants in five selected universities in Poland.\nFindings: The findings show that a key element for a successful implementation of the QA system is the stakeholders' own understanding of the rationale behind it as an information management strategy. In addition, the study places emphasis on the priorities in front of the top-level management to create the quality and information culture within the academic community.\nOriginality/value: The study assists in finding global practical and creating a benchmark for policymakers concerning the information management strategies based on the Polish experience.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
Intergenerational contact and hiring decisions about older workers
|
[
"Age discrimination at work",
"Attitudes toward older workers",
"Competence stereotypes",
"Hiring decisions about older workers",
"Intergenerational contact frequency and quality",
"Intergroup anxiety"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Even though it is illegal, age discrimination at work is still a common phenomenon in the UK and in many other countries around the world. In particular, hiring practices have been identified as a major issue in this respect (Truxillo et al., 2015). Although many older workers wish to work longer (Wohrmann et al., 2016), possibilities may be denied to them due to negative attitudes of relevant decision-makers as possible gatekeepers of jobs. A recent population representative survey among 2,235 people aged 50 years or older revealed a substantial amount of perceived age discrimination in the UK (Department of Work and Pensions, 2015). More than half of all unemployed older workers felt that employers were not interested in hiring them because of their age (Department of Work and Pensions, 2015). These findings are supported by actual differences among older and younger people with regard to their average duration of unemployment. In the European Union, older people (aged 55 years and older; average duration of unemployment: 17.3 months) were on average unemployed for almost twice as long compared to younger people (aged 20-24; average duration of unemployment: 10.1 months) reported during the same year (Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), 2016). Long duration of unemployment and the search for (re)employment are among the worst stressors that older people have to deal with (Klehe et al., 2012). At the same time, organizations may suffer from difficulties in integrating older workers with longer unemployment durations into the workplace (Europoean Centre for the Development of Vocational Training, Cedefop, 2013). Therefore, the empirical investigation regarding the decision making of hiring older people is important for society in general, and for employers and older people in particular.\nTheoretical background: Willingness to hire older people\nMethod: Sample and procedure\nResults: Preliminary analysis\nDiscussion: One of the key aims of the present study was to investigate how intergenerational contact frequency and quality moderate the relationships between affective and cognitive categorization reactions and decision-makers' willingness to hire older people. We tested our hypotheses based on a sample of 232 employees with hiring power. To begin with, we found that intergroup anxiety was negatively related to decision-makers' willingness to hire older people. This finding adds to the literature on work relations between people of different ages (e.g. Henry et al., 2015; Iweins et al., 2013) and human resources management practices, in particular on hiring older people (e.g. Abrams et al., 2016; Krings et al., 2011) by emphasizing the importance of affective categorization reactions in hiring decisions. However, the current study did not find the hypothesized positive relationship between perceived outgroup competence and decision-makers' willingness to hire older people. Although outgroup competence was significantly and positively related to willingness to hire older people, the results of the regression analysis did not show a significant effect above the control variables and other predictors in the present study. This null effect is likely due to the high intercorrelation between outgroup competence and intergroup anxiety, highlighting the interdependent nature of affective and cognitive categorization reactions (Fasbender, 2016). Future research should expand the investigation on affective and cognitive categorization reactions as predictors of age-related hiring decisions.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: Although many older workers wish to work longer, they may not be hired due to negative attitudes against them. The purpose of this paper is to investigate the role of intergenerational contact in shaping hiring decisions. Drawing from the intergroup contact theory, the authors investigated affective and cognitive categorization reactions as predictors of decision-makers' willingness to hire older people and whether these relationships are moderated by intergenerational contact frequency and quality.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The authors tested the hypotheses using data from 232 employees with hiring power.\nFindings: Results indicate that intergroup anxiety was negatively related to decision-makers' willingness to hire older people. Further, intergenerational contact frequency exacerbated the relationship between intergroup anxiety and willingness to hire older people; whereas intergenerational contact quality buffered the negative relationship. In addition, the authors found that intergenerational contact quality facilitated the positive relationship between perceived outgroup competence and willingness to hire older people.\nOriginality/value: These findings extend previous research on older worker employment. In particular, they demonstrate how intergenerational contact frequency and quality can be powerful means that influence age-related hiring decisions.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
Quick detection of NFC vulnerability: Implementation weakness exploitation
|
[
"Vulnerability",
"Information security",
"Security",
"Hacking",
"Systems analysis",
"Software development",
"Smart cards",
"Software tools",
"NFC",
"Implementation weakness",
"E payment",
"Raspberry Pi"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Brief information about near field communication\nVulnerability detection: NFC tag security depends on its cryptography algorithm embedded on the tag. However, in implementations, cryptography algorithm is not the only parameter considered in choosing the proper card for the system. Here are some parameter comparisons on some types of tags used in major applications. The type of tag with more stars is relatively better than the type with less stars. (Table I).\nSolution: There are two main solutions available for early detection of implementation's weaknesses. The first one is called NFC Inspector. By analyzing many tags and cards used in Indonesia, we can create a database called standard keys database, which consists of all keys used by card developers in Indonesia. By brute-forcing the keys to all keys sector (for MIFARE Classic) or to all applications (for MIFARE Desfire), we can analyze which cards can be hacked only in a matter of seconds. We can know how many sectors are secured and how many sectors are not. If the sectors are secured, we can know the strength of its security keys. To manage multiple security keys is not an easy job, especially when the security keys are presented in hexadecimal format. Card issuers usually implement easy codes that will be easily cracked or guessed by attackers. The same algorithms can be implemented in NFC-enabled phones. The captured interface of NFC Inspector on Android phones is as shown in Figure 1.\nOther vulnerabilities: Some of NFC cards used in critical applications in Indonesia, such as banking, use proper tags that have less issues of security; some of them use vulnerable cards. In vulnerable cards, the authentication keys still can be obtained, as not all of the sectors' authentication keys are protected. The term \"protected\" means the card issuer changed the authentication key from the default manufacturer authentication key. The security issue not only comes from the card authentication keys but also from the system. The typical scheme of bank prepaid card in Indonesia is described in Figure 2.\nImplications: Card replacement\nConclusion: Late NFC technology adopter should have more comprehensive knowledge and should be more aware about NFC security threats in early adopter industries. There will be a time when this technology can be accessed and understood by the public without an advanced knowledge of NFC. Users should use proper cards from the first implementation and use proper security system scheme to avoid attackers. NFC tags security inspector (NFC Inspector) is prepared as an early-tag early-vulnerability detector by using NFC-enabled smartphones in an Android platform. AZlyzer is also equipped to detect vulnerability on the reader side. It can possibly be developed to perform other features like sniffing the communication between NFC tags and readers. System implementer should be aware of security threats that happened in early adopter countries such as England, The Netherlands, Japan, the USA, etc. Cost should be less considered than tags' security, as NFC implementations are usually related to money and authorization process. Benchmarking is needed to prevent any system changes in the future, including card replacement that will result in panic and trust issues.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this research is to explain particular implementation weaknesses of near field communication (NFC) systems done by several institutions which apply for critical purposes and provide practical solutions.\nDesign/methodology/approach: This research is done by literature studies of previous findings in NFC security, observations of some existing implemented systems and experimentations to provide practical solutions.\nFindings: Unintentional lack of security protection of the NFC cards and tags by some card issuers make them a vulnerable target. The outcomes of this research are proposed solutions on methods to quickly detect vulnerability in NFC tags using an Android-based mobile application. Another solution involves the assembly of a detection device using the portable, low power and powerful Raspberry Pi to analyze the NFC tags or cards and NFC reader vulnerabilities.\nResearch limitations/implications: This research is conducted in Indonesia; therefore, the results and solutions may lack generalizability. However, the findings may occur in other countries which newly apply NFC technology.\nPractical implications: System implementer should become more aware about the security issue of old NFC tags like MIFARE Classic. Price should be considered after tag security. People also need to be aware of identity or money theft using NFC-enabled smartphones, as many identity cards and electronic money are now relying on NFC technology.\nSocial implications: People also need to be aware of identity or money theft using NFC-enabled smartphones, as many identity cards and electronic money are now relying on NFC technology.\nOriginality/value: This research fulfills an identified need to evaluate the security aspect of a system that uses NFC as one of the main technologies. The results and solutions also provides cheap, easy and practical tools to analyze NFC security.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
The SME perspective on motives and success factors in cross-border mergers: The importance of network position
|
[
"Internationalization",
"Acquisitions and mergers",
"Small- and medium-sized enterprises",
"Cross-border merger",
"Network picture",
"Network position"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: Mergers and acquisitions (M\n2. Theoretical background: 2.1. Motives of cross-border M&A\n3. The case of the IT company from Poland - data collection and analysis: We present a longitudinal case study of the IT company from Poland - previously Gridia, now nSense Poland. Data were collected using semi-structured, in-depth, face-to-face and Skype interviews. Altogether we conducted five in-depth interviews. Three detailed interviews were carried out with the CEO of the IT company in Poland (now the CEO of nSense Poland, previously Gridia), one with the COO of the nSense Group located in Denmark and one with the representative of the Poznan University of Technology (an entity with which the company has its most important relationship on the Polish market). On the one hand, the high positions held by the firms' representatives ensured that they possessed the appropriate level of knowledge regarding topics covered by the research. On the other hand, all of the interviewees were actively and directly engaged in the described processes at a decision-making and implementation level. Access was ensured to detailed information and opinions related to the evaluation of these processes (for this reason we chose to speak to a representative from the university employed in the department engaged in the relationship with the firm as opposed to the university authorities). More importantly, the entities described (i.e. nSense Group and the university) represented the only important, directly related entities in the IT company's network (the company does not have suppliers or other direct customers). Moreover, the utilisation of three sources of information ensured that we obtained an overview of the process from the perspective of three different entities which, in turn, allowed us to challenge the opinions provided. Additionally we used the company's documents in the form of a presentation and web page which allowed for data triangulation.\n4. The growth and internationalisation of the IT company - three phases of the company's operations on Polish and foreign markets: 4.1. Phase I - the IT SME on the domestic market seeks a means of survival\n5. Discussion: 5.1. Motives for the merger - the Danish and Polish perspective\n6. Conclusions: Both traditional and IMP research only deals to a small extent with mergers evaluated and undertaken from the perspective of SMEs. At the same time this analysis is justified. SMEs have their own specific characteristics associated with limited size and therefore limited internal resources. This impacts the course of their internationalisation process and a cross-border merger can be deemed to be one of the possible forms of internationalisation. At the same time in the face of the increasing international activities of SMEs it should be assumed that their M\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to address two research questions. First: what causes an small and medium enterprises (SME) to engage in a merger with a multinational group and thereby change its relationships and to start functioning in a hierarchical structure which may be viewed as being the integration of a weaker entity by a stronger and bigger one? And second: what causes the successful continuation of a cross-border merger project from the perspective of an SME?\nDesign/methodology/approach: The concept of the network position is adopted to undertake a longitudinal study of an IT company from Poland.\nFindings: From the perspective of the SME, its own perceived important network position resulting from the resources it possesses, the ability to decide how they are utilised, as well as relationships strongly supported by trust and a good atmosphere are key motives and success factors for the merger.\nOriginality/value: By adapting the IMP research perspective and the concept of network position to the analysis of mergers the additional aspects of the merger process which are usually not raised in relevant traditional mergers and acquisitions literature are revealed. A merger is not just the sourcing of resources, but also interdependencies and taking joint decisions with regard to them; not just economic aspects, but also social aspects of relationships (trust and atmosphere); not just the sharing of resources between merged entities, but also the constant influence of other relationships and interactions on these resources.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
The effects of online store informativeness and entertainment on consumers' approach behaviors: Empirical evidence from China
|
[
"Approach behaviour",
"Online store entertainment",
"Online store informativeness"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Since the mainstream development of online transactions in the early 1990s, the number and revenue of online stores have increased rapidly. Each online store must compete with thousands of others. Thus, to acquire competitive advantage, online store owners need to know why consumers are more favorable toward some online stores than others. Many explanations have been proposed in the literature; for example, some online stores provide a broader selection (Javenpaa and Todd, 1997; Kamis and Stohr, 2006), more competitive pricing (Liu and Ma, 2005), more discounting and so on. In this paper, we seek to determine whether an online store's own characteristics affect consumers' response. If so, what should an online store provide in terms of characteristics? To answer this question, we need to know what gratifications consumers seek to satisfy when they select online stores. Therefore, we adopt uses and gratifications theory (U&G theory), which is used to examine what gratifications consumers want to satisfy when selecting media (Ho and See-To, 2018). In particular, U&G theory was suggested to have stronger and better explanatory power than other models in studying the adoption of the internet (Luo et al., 2011). For online stores, consumers have external gratifications (e.g. awareness of alternatives, efficiency or information seeking (Whiting and Williams, 2013); convenience (Whiting and Williams, 2013); and information sharing (Gan and Wang, 2015)) and internal gratifications (e.g. a desire to have fun and play; pleasure and social experience; passing time and entertainment (Gan and Wang, 2015); and enjoyment (Wei and Lu, 2014; Al-Jabri et al., 2015)). Among external gratifications, informativeness is one of the most important gratifications because consumers' purchases from online stores mainly have an information-acquiring purpose; for example, shopping is first driven by consumers' needs, after which consumers search for information, compare different alternatives and finally select a specific product. Entertainment is one of the main hedonic reasons for selecting an online store (Babin et al., 1994; Forsythe and Bailey, 1996; Sherry et al., 1993). Thus, informativeness gratification and entertainment gratification are two key factors when consumers select an online store. In the current research, we seek to determine whether online stores can be evaluated in terms of informativeness and entertainment characteristics (Prashar et al., 2017) and, if they can, how these two characteristics influence consumers' emotions and approach behaviors.\nLiterature review and hypothesis development: Uses and gratifications theory\nMethod: Procedure and sample\nAnalysis and results: Reliability of measurement\nConclusion and discussion: Conclusion\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to examine how informativeness and entertainment, two important online store characteristics, influence consumers' approach behaviors. The current research also investigates the mechanism and boundary condition behind these relationships.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The study proposed a conceptual framework that included five variables to understand consumers' approach behaviors toward online stores. By surveying 307 Chinese online shoppers using a comprehensive questionnaire, the authors collected data that were then used to test the hypotheses. Data were examined using regression analysis.\nFindings: The results showed that online store informativeness and entertainment significantly affected consumers' approach behaviors. In the relationship between these two online store characteristics and consumers' approach behaviors, pleasure played a mediating role. Hedonic value moderated the effect of informativeness on consumers' approach behaviors. However, the moderating role of hedonic value was not significant in the relationship between entertainment and consumers' approach behaviors.\nOriginality/value: The present study supplements the research on online store characteristics based on the perception of overall online store environmental cues. This paper also examines the online shopping experience of consumers in emerging markets like China.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
The contribution of community leadership upon the performance of mutual health organisations in Ghana
|
[
"Government policy",
"Human resources management",
"Developing countries",
"Health services",
"Public sector reform",
"Community planning"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nBackground: Majority of governments in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA), rely heavily on taxes to deliver health care (HC), which are yet fraught with constraints (Meessen et al., 2011). Mwabu (1990), explains the influence of certain fiscal policies of both the internal and external stakeholders on Africa's HC environment. In the 1990s, most governments in SSA changed their health financing (HF) strategies and systems either through political ideology or economic and international pressures under the economic reforms, championed by the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund with stringent conditions (World Bank, 1993). Consequently, a few countries, including Ghana, have introduced social health insurance (SHI) schemes under the health sector reforms (Berman, 1995), aimed to address the public finance management challenges (Abekah-Nkrumah and Nomo, 2012).\nEvolution of HF in Ghana: Ghana adopted HF policies with the view to improving financial access and ensuring equity in HC for the population: different sources of funding for the health sector could be identified under Ghana's health sector reforms (Atim et al., 2001).\nBrief review of literature: Social dynamics is a non-financial indicator and measures how the community participates in the management of MHOs as well as how MHOs are accountable to their members as autonomous organisations (Atim, 1999). Ridde et al. (2010), report that the potential effects of MHOs on social dynamics could be seen not only among members but also in the community at large. MHOs are considered as a form of community participation in HC delivery and help in the structure of communities' health issues. Arguably, a community participation approach affords members of MHOs the opportunity to make suggestions about their health trepidations (Atim, 1999). LeBan (2011) applied a systems thinking approach to review the actors, structure and processes of community contexts; and proposed a set of key components in improving HC. Lutz and Linder (2004, p. 2), observe that meaningful inclusion of all relevant actors at the local level is decisive for successful local development noting that the shift in focus from the \"national to the local level makes a closer look at the social, political and economic dynamics in communities more important\".\nTheoretical perspectives: Community field theory\nSocial and human capital: Mladovsky and Mossialos (2008), argue that even as social capital (SC) has been the subject of vigorous academic debate, its definition remains a source of disagreement. Whilst the relationship between SC and human capital is unclear, Burchardt (2008), explains that human capital is a concept used by economists and often measured by duration of schooling and labour market experience or by educational qualifications, where the benefits accrue largely, to the individual. In contrast, SC is a public or collective good, which is an attribute of a group. The conflict is resolved by Burchardt because the two forms of capital are complementary: the high levels of human capital generate SC and SC promotes acquisition of human capital. Woolcock (1998, p. 153), developed a framework for SC, which joins together a number of theories of SC using both quantitative and qualitative evidence and focuses on community-level economic development projects in low-income countries, which are comparable to CBHI (Bebbington, 2004). LeBan (2011) discusses SC and explains that the community contexts are mini universes of complex social, political, associational, economic, power and cultural dynamics, providing a different theatre for providing health services.\nCommunity field - social and human capital: The community field theory (Wilkinson, 1991) and social and human capital (Burchardt, 2008), are interrelated theories used to explain the findings of the empirical study. Two themes were developed by merging community field theory and social and human capital elements for use in the analysis. The first theme was the contribution of community field and human capital towards the performance and sustainability of the MHOs. Given this idea, the key players who constitute community leadership and human capital were spelt out. The second theme was the contribution of community field and SC towards the performance and sustainability of the MHOs. Some of the inherent social dynamics instincts were identified. Both community field theory and SC explain the extent to which members in a particular environment mobilise available resources and utilise social dynamics to undertake developmental projects to better their lots. Moreover, the changes in the health sector are necessitated by government regulation since the health sector depends on government funding. In Ghana, current HC dispensation is a pluralistic system whereby the public health sector, private health sector and traditional medicine practitioners are encouraged to pool resources for effective and efficient HC delivery (MOH, 2005).\nData materials and methods: The field study took place between November 2006 and January 2007.\nFindings and discussion: Contribution of community field - human capital towards the performance and sustainability of the MHOs\nContribution of community field - SC towards the performance and sustainability of the MHOs: Three main SC elements, which are used are: mutuality, solidarity and ownership (Atim, 2000), in addition to community wealth and community's sense of cohesion.\nConclusion: This study investigated the effect of social dynamics on the performance of MHOs, exploring the influence of community wealth and community leadership on policy implementation in Ghana. The evidences through this study respond to the generally held view in the literature that while employers seek to contain their HC costs and politicians create coverage mechanisms to promote individual empowerment, there are still people with health problems forced to bear the brunt of their own medical costs (Crossley, 2005). From the perspective of social dynamics, the study argues that Ghana, is a dynamic country and there is the need to utilise existing social networks: inter-family and inter-tribal relationships to ensure the sustainability of MHOs (Arhinful, 2000). Members of the communities are using the invaluable social and human capital instincts, enhanced by their respective community resources and wealth to sustain the various DMMHIS/MHOs. These are invaluable instincts needed to enhance government policies, granting validity to the argument that community HI could be designed to suit distinctive settings and different population groups (Soors et al., 2010).\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to investigate the effect of social dynamics on the performance of mutual health organisations (MHOs) exploring the influence of community wealth and community leadership on policy implementation.\nDesign/methodology/approach: Four operating district mutual health insurance schemes were selected using geographical locations, among other criteria, as case studies. Data were gathered through interviews and documentary review. The findings were analysed using community field and social capital theories.\nFindings: Traditional leaders like the Chiefs serve as the pivot around which social and human capital of the communities revolve in the developmental process of the country.\nResearch limitations/implications: Lack of exhaustive examination of the financial and institutional viability issues of the MHOs. Future studies could assess the interplay between financial, institutional and social viability models when measuring the financial and overall sustainability of MHOs.\nPractical implications: Health policy makers need to involve traditional leaders in the formulation and implementation of national policies since their acceptance or rejection of central government policy could have negative consequences.\nSocial implications: Ghana is a dynamic country and there is the need to utilise existing social networks: inter-family and inter-tribal relationships to ensure the viability of MHOs.\nOriginality/value: There is and can be a successful interplay between public sector funding and community sector revenue mobilisation for financing the health sector in Ghana. This justifies the complementarity between government funding and community's resource mobilisation efforts in the health sector.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
Does fish origin matter to European consumers? Insights from a consumer survey in Belgium, Norway and Spain
|
[
"Fish farming",
"Consumer behaviour",
"Europe",
"Market value",
"Product information",
"Individual perception",
"Spain"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: It is generally acknowledged that fish is an important part of a healthy and balanced diet (World Health Organization, 2003). A high level of interest among European consumers in health and healthy eating (Pieniak et al., 2008b), higher living standards and a good overall image of fish have yielded an increase in fish consumption (FAOSTAT, 2008). Combined with an increasing world population - and an expected further increase in per capita fish consumption (Failler, 2007) - capture fisheries alone may no longer succeed in meeting the world demand for fish in a sustainable manner. The rapidly developing aquaculture sector provides the necessary complement to capture fisheries (Cahu et al., 2004). Aquaculture is defined as the cultivation of marine and aquatic organisms including fish, molluscs, crustaceans and water plants (European Commission, 2008; Kautsky et al., 2000). Over the last decades aquaculture has grown rapidly from a rather marginal production method to the fastest growing sector of the food industry at the present time (FAO, 2006; Kole et al., 2007). In 1950 world aquaculture production accounted about 64,000 ton (3 per cent of the global seafood production) and grew to more than 65 million ton in 2007 (42 per cent of global seafood production) (FAO, 2007; Ponte, 2008; Subasinghe et al., 2009).Consumers' wariness towards new production methods (Evans and Cox, 2006; Frewer, 1999) and their sensitivity to negative information (Verbeke and Ward, 2001), consumer attitudes, opinions and perceptions towards aquaculture can steer the success and acceptance of products from aquaculture. Previous research has already focused on consumer perceptions of fish products in general without making a distinction between fish of either wild or farmed origin (e.g. Brunso, 2003; Pieniak et al., 2008b), or involved sensory studies in which farmed fish was evaluated against wild fish, whether or not combined with information (e.g. Farmer et al., 2000; Kole et al., 2009; Luten et al., 2002).In general a low consumer awareness of fish origin has been reported (e.g. Honkanen and Olsen, 2009; Kaiser and Stead, 2002; Kole, 2003; Verbeke and Brunso, 2006; Verbeke et al., 2007a). Given the low awareness of and factual knowledge about aquaculture and aquaculture practices, consumers' perception of farmed fish is more driven by emotions than by ratio or cognitive factors, such as product or process knowledge (Koster, 2003; Verbeke and Brunso, 2006; Verbeke et al., 2007b). In many cases this leads to an image transfer from intensive terrestrial livestock, with a prejudice against aquaculture and farmed fish (Arvanitoyannis et al., 2004). Examples of this image transfer relate to the association with growth hormones, overcrowded ponds or tanks (deduction from high density conditions in battery hens) (Hamnvik, 2004), poor animal welfare conditions (Kole, 2003), negative externalities (e.g. Verbeke and Brunso, 2006; Verbeke et al., 2007b), poor taste (e.g. Girard and Paquotte, 2003), and lower overall appreciation (Kole et al., 2009). Nonetheless, farmed fish receives a positive perception (though slightly less positive than wild fish), which is improving over time along with increasing consumer awareness (Girard and Paquotte, 2003). The limited consumer awareness of fish origin also involves a degree of uncertainty at consumer level, which makes consumers open to negative news coverage (Kaiser and Stead, 2002). Past research also showed a negative impact of crises in terrestrial livestock production on aquaculture product consumption, with a drop in salmon consumption following on the outbreak of BSE (Paquotte and Mariojouls, 2001).In this study we are particularly interested in whether or not it is possible to profile and distinguish (self-reported) farmed fish from (self-reported) wild fish consumers. Consumer groups were profiled based on variables and characteristics that have previously been incorporated in theoretical frameworks explaining food consumer behaviour. These factors include personal and food characteristics (Randall and Sanjur, 1981; Steenkamp, 1997), as well as attitudes and knowledge (e.g. Fishbein and Ajzen, 1975; Pieniak et al., 2008b). These profiling variables will be discussed in a descriptive manner in the first part of the study.\nMaterial and methods: Research approach and sampling\nResults and discussion: Personal characteristics\nConclusions: This study investigated consumers' attitudes and perceptions towards farmed fish in three European countries and it explored the relevance of fish origin in consumers' choice of fish. The selection of countries for the study was based on the aim to collect information that covers a substantial part of the diversity within the European food market, within the budget and time constraints of the study. The country-selection was in direct relation with the country's fish consumption and fish production.This study went deeper into the analysis of interest in, and knowledge and awareness about fish origin. The study aimed to provide information regarding the relevance of communicating the origin of fish. The results showed a rather limited consumer awareness and knowledge regarding issues related to fish origin. In addition, the limited awareness and knowledge indications were associated with an only modest interest in fish origin in general. Despite a minor part of the sample indicating strong interest in fish origin, the large majority prioritised other information cues and did not seem to choose fish based on its origin. Similar results were found for country-of-origin indications on other livestock products (Liefeld, 2005; Verbeke and Ward, 2006; Verbeke and Roosen, 2009). Additionally, the food buying decision process is in most cases a routine process, characterised by habit (Honkanen et al., 2005) and limited information search (Verbeke, 2005). Grouping consumers based on the reported share of farmed fish in their fish basket revealed the low (current) potential of fish origin as a determinant of consumers' fish choice. The choice for predominantly wild fish seemed to be informed by a lower safety perception of farmed fish. This group of consumers was most interested in the origin from a negative motivation, namely in order to avoid farmed fish. The claim of predominantly farmed fish consumption seemed to be based on a belief that most of the fish supply originates from aquaculture. It was not related to perceived characteristics of the resulting fish products. Finally, consumption of both farmed and wild fish followed from a positive perception about fish as a food category, irrespective of the fish origin.In summary, it is questionable whether or not it is necessary to emphasise the fish origin in product information in the current market situation of limited awareness and knowledge. This study has shown that consumers' image formation of farmed fish, against a background of low awareness and knowledge, suffers from some negative image transfers from past processes and from intensive terrestrial livestock production. As a consequence, it is advisable to avoid exposing consumers to an overload of information related to aquaculture before awareness and knowledge levels are improved. Considering the increasing demand for traceability and transparency, well formulated information and communication strategies should be worked out regarding aquaculture production methods, it's benefits and it's resulting end products. Keeping in mind low consumer interest and the increasing sustainability of aquaculture, using studies such as this can contribute to the planning of consumer communication strategies. This way, consumer interest in fish origin, can be triggered, by the right media, and sound information, about the origin, of each product, can be provided.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: - This study aims to gain insights into the relevance and market potential of fish origin (farmed or wild) among consumers in Belgium, Norway and Spain.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - Cross-sectional data were collected through a consumer survey (n=1,319), conducted in November-December 2007 in three European countries: Belgium, Norway and Spain. The study describes personal and food characteristics, as well as consumer attitudes and knowledge related to fish origin. Further, these characteristics were analysed in terms of their impact on the choice of either farmed or wild fish, using bivariate analyses.\nFindings: - In general, European consumers have little knowledge or awareness regarding the origin of fish. This results in uncertainty in consumers' perception of farmed fish in particular. The study is in line with previous ones suggesting that perceptions of aquaculture and farmed fish are based more on emotions than on rational considerations. Still, the perception of farmed fish is positive in general. Consumers do not prioritise fish origin as an information cue, although variation is present between different consumer groups. Consumers of predominantly farmed versus wild fish did not have a very distinct profile, which corroborates with the only modest significance of fish origin as a product-specific information cue during the fish purchase and consumption decision process.\nOriginality/value: - The strength of the paper pertains to its international scope, and to the diversity of countries selected in terms of relevant variables. Also, the growing relevance of aquaculture as a fish production method and farmed fish as a food product makes results and findings of the study topical and of practical relevance.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Vibration- and acoustic-emissions based novelty detection of fretted bearings
|
[
"Vibration",
"Sensors",
"Acoustics",
"Emission",
"Automotive industry",
"Fretting",
"Acoustic emissions",
"Novelty detection",
"Bearings",
"Fault detection"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: The development of rotating components for the automotive industry requires an extensive understanding of the expected lifespan of a component as well as anticipated failure modes. Achievement of this understanding usually requires extensive testing of components to the point of failure. This endeavor can be costly as well as time consuming. One method of accelerating this task and making better utilization of test equipment is through the use of automated fault detection systems applied to durability testing and bench-level testing - ultimately enabling an understanding of true lifespan, optimization of power, technician, and machine use, and testing protocols that lead to fault detection before catastrophic failure (that might destroy evidence of the root cause).The automation of fault detection is achieved using pattern recognition techniques - in particular novelty detection. Novelty detection is employed when one class (healthy machine state) can easily be measured but data for other classes (faulted state) is difficult or impractical to obtain. Monitoring bearings with such artificial intelligence techniques is well established. Traditional parameters employed include variants of information gathered from the bearing's vibration and temperature responses. Defects in some component of the bearing are expected to cause mechanical oscillations that propagate to near-by accelerometers. A relatively new form of such a parameter can be found in acoustic emissions (AE). Similar to vibration signals, AE results when materials are first deflected and then allowed to return to their steady state positions. This type of \"vibration\" occurs in much higher frequency ranges than normal vibration data; it is a reflection of the state of the material and as such, its use is anticipated to provide better fault detection results at much earlier intervals.In this work, the authors examine the effectiveness of a feature reduction technique for novelty detection on bearings subject both to typical faults and a special category of fault known as fretting. Both experimental data sets are examined with various characteristic parameters in order to find the optimal fault detection strategy. To this end, a new technique developed by the authors to enable optimal parameter selection is employed. The results are shown to be both promising and practical.1.1 The nature of fretting\n2. Methodology: Fretted bearings were examined under two slightly different arrangements on Laurentian University's Torsional Vibration Simulator (TVS) (Plate 1). The first experiment consisted of bearings with no pulleys mounted on a tensioner whose oscillations were controlled by an eccentrically driven shaft via steel-cable connection (as partially depicted in Plate 2). The second experiment consisted of bearings inside pulleys in a normal drive arrangement loaded by an alternator (Plate 3).2.1 Apparatus description\n3. Results: The results of the proposed methodology on the collected data are presented below. \"Percent classification error\" represents the percentage of data from each class that falls on the wrong side of the decision boundary - it is a direct measure of the number of false positives and negatives. The data were reduced to approximately 8,000 training vectors of which 20 percent were used for training while the rest were used for the computation of classification error.3.1 Passover tests\n4. Conclusion: The authors explored classification error between fretted bearings under two different run-time configurations. It was found that AR20 models worked very well for both experimental setups and that statistical feature vectors were generally poor for novelty detection; in fact, an AR20 model could likely stand alone as a reliable and easily automated means of detecting fretting faults in bearings. The use of AE in normally run bearings was found to be another fairly reliable means of classifying faults; the combination of the two techniques for normally run bearings produced exceptional classification results. The use of AE when pulley-less bearings are mounted on a tensioner for excitation was poor. Combining feature vectors in the case of this experiment did not produce good classification results and a feature extraction technique was needed to achieve similar results.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: - The purpose of this paper is to examine the use of a new feature reduction technique with novelty detection on vibration and acoustic-emission sensors monitoring bearings mounted in the test benches of automotive manufacturers.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - Signals from standard accelerometers and acoustic-emission sensors were gathered from bearings operating under steady conditions on an accessory-drive test bench. The bearings under test were subject to a variety of faults including fretting. These signals were processed and reduced to standard feature vectors, the dimensionality of which was reduced using a new principal-component-like technique optimized for novelty detection. The reduced data were analyzed with a novelty detection technique called the Support Vector Data Descriptor.\nFindings: - The classification results from these sensors, after being reduced with the proposed feature reduction technique, are substantially improved over those achievable with only standard novelty detection; nearly zero-percent classification error was achieved.\nResearch limitations/implications: - The feature reduction technique depends, in part, on the availability of the fault type in question - potentially violating the normal novelty detection assumption of limited abnormal data. This may require the manufacturer to gather real or simulated fault data prior to running tests.\nPractical implications: - Incipient faults may be detectable at a much earlier stage in a manufacturer's component failure analysis. Test engineers may use this technique to reliably automate the fault detection process and enable improved root-cause analysis through the earlier identification of faults.\nOriginality/value: - The application of the feature reduction technique will provide manufacturers and researchers with a new means of improving fault detection in machinery components.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
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