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What drives learning orientation in fast growth SMEs?
|
[
"Entrepreneurs",
"Growth",
"Small to medium sized enterprises",
"Multivariate analysis",
"Small firms"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Fast growth small-to-medium enterprises (SMEs) are key contributors to economic growth (Parker et al., 2010) and demonstrate a capacity to thrive during periods of environmental turbulence. The significance of these firms are attributed to their ability to drive innovation (Heimonen, 2013), contribute significantly to employment growth (OECD, 2010), and in their capacity to take advantage of opportunities associated with unpredictable markets (Brettel and Rottenberger, 2013). Fast growth firms can also thrive in declining industries (Bamiatzi and Kirchmaier, in press), refuting the conventional wisdom that growth is only achieved in attractive industries or during positive times (Tonge et al., 1998). These entities tend to be agile, innovative, and embrace change. Notwithstanding, Fischer et al. (1999) question whether fast growth is a distinct phenomenon caused by unique identifiable variables, or are merely firms that, through a combination of factors such as good timing, initial resources, and a growing market, reach the high end of the performance distribution.\nTheoretical conceptualization and hypothesis development: Resource-based theory (RBT)\nMethod: Sample and procedures\nResults: Mediation and control of confounding effects\nDiscussion and implications: Within the context of fast growth SMEs, this study develops and tests an integrated model linking organizational climate, TL, HR practices, and LO. Three of four hypothesized relationships are supported. Specifically, TL impacts LO through the creation of a supportive and open climate, and instilling job-related HR strategies, emphasizing employee satisfaction and motivation. Interestingly, rewards and bonuses related to performance is a non-significant contributor to the development of LO. Perhaps unsurprisingly, smaller companies are more learning oriented than their counterparts because CEOs are closer to their employees, have flatter organizational structures, are more likely to share the company vision (Tan, 2007), and are more nimble and quick, and are innovative (Ripley, 2014). Relative to other industry sectors, firms in the construction industry are likely to be less learning oriented. Possible explanations for this finding include construction companies being bound by local government and town planning regulations, available construction finance, and building tends to be fixed in its application (e.g. in use of materials following architectural specifications, set procedural steps for construction).\nLimitations and future research needs: This investigation involves limitations. Sample size was modest, reducing statistical power. The use of a cross-sectional, non-experimental design limits causal inferences. As the current investigation is concerned with only Australian fast growth SMEs, which are specified by inclusion and exclusion criteria, findings can be generalized only to organizations meeting specific constraints.\nConclusion: While fast growth SMEs might grow rapidly, success can also be short-lived unless effective management and organizational processes are embedded within organizations to ensure long-term productivity, growth, and sustainability (Haltiwanger et al., 2013). Our findings clearly demonstrate the importance of HR practices, organizational climate, and leadership in the development of learning in fast growth companies. However, the understanding of these areas in entrepreneurial ventures is often overlooked (Jack et al., 2006).\n",
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"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to investigate drivers of learning orientation (LO) in 253 Australian fast-growth small-to-medium enterprises (SMEs) through an examination of the interrelationships between transformational leadership (TL), human resource (HR) practices, and organizational climate.\nDesign/methodology/approach: CEOs/managers of fast growth SMEs completed either an online or mailout survey. Statistical analyses involved tests for confounding and mediational effects, the use of exploratory factor analytic techniques and structural equation modelling.\nFindings: Findings reveal that TL is a significant antecedent of supportive and open organizational climates, and reward and job-related HR practices. Job-related HR practices and organizational climate fully mediate relationships between TL and LO. However, providing monetary incentives linked to performance does not motivate staff to learn. Instead, leaders need to act as role models, stimulate employees intellectually, provide a road map for staff, and focus on creating a supportive, open, and friendly environment.\nResearch limitations/implications: Sample size is modest, reducing statistical power. The use of a cross-sectional, non-experimental design limits causal inferences. This study relied on the views of only entrepreneurs.\nPractical implications: These findings have important implications for management practice in terms of leadership, HR practices, and organizational learning in entrepreneurial ventures. Businesses who provide benefits and bonuses linked to performance do not necessarily engage employees to commit to learning, subscribe to a shared vision, or think innovatively. LO is enhanced only when employees are motivated, empowered, and treated as valuable resources. The establishment of personal relationships and open communication between owner-managers and employees, fosters firm LO.\nOriginality/value: The present research contributes to the theoretical debate on the central role of leadership in fostering HRM practices, organizational climate and LO in fast-growth entrepreneurial companies. This study is the first to empirically test drivers of LO in FGSMEs. A simple linear model is insufficient to explain the influence of TL on LO.\n",
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] |
Inclusion, organisational justice and employee well-being
|
[
"Tourism",
"Organizational justice",
"Inclusion",
"Employee well-being",
"Welfare",
"Service industries"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: This paper applies organisational justice theory to workplace inclusion in the context of the tourism sector. It aims to extend the literature on the organisational view of organisational justice and employee well-being through a lens of inclusion (we refer to the social aspect of inclusion, which is also termed \"social inclusion\"; Fujimoto et al., 2014; Le et al., 2014). Roberson (2006) posits that, as the workforce of the twenty-first century is increasingly diverse with the participation of ethnic minorities as well as women in the Western context, effective management of the diverse workforce should focus on addressing the issue of inclusion. This view emphasises a move from diversifying the organisational demography to a removal of any barriers to maximise the contribution of individual employees' skills and competencies in organisations (Roberson, 2006). Thus, as Roberson indicates, the term \"diversity\" has been replaced with the term \"inclusion\" to suggest a new workplace diversity management approach that aims at helping organisations address diverse employees' needs and achieve competitive advantages within the sector.\n2. Literature review: 2.1 Inclusion and organisational justice in the tourism sector\n3. Methodology: 3.1 Sample and procedure\n4. Results: Table I displays means, standard deviations (SD) and the correlation matrix between key variables in the study. It is shown that all variables were highly correlated with most coefficient values larger than 0.4. Hair et al. (2010) recommended that if coefficient values of majority variables exceeded 0.4, factor analysis was warranted. Examining Table I, only ten correlation coefficient values were less than 0.4; thus, it was safe to conduct factor analysis.\n5. Discussion and conclusions: 5.1 Theoretical and practical contributions\n",
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"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to examine the relationship between employee perceived well-being and the four dimensions of organisational justice, namely, procedural, distributive, interpersonal and informational justice, and how dimensions of organisational justice affect employee well-being in the Australian tourism industry.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The sample is selected from employees who work in the tourism industry in Australia, and the survey was conducted online (n=121). Factor analysis is used to identify key items related to perceived organisational justice, followed by multiple regression analysis to assess the magnitude and strength of impacts of different dimensions of organisational justice on employee well-being.\nFindings: The results support the established view that organisational justice is associated with employee well-being. Specifically, informational justice has the strongest influence on tourism employee well-being, followed by procedural justice, interpersonal justice and distributive justice.\nResearch limitations/implications: The authors acknowledge key limitations in the study such as a relatively small sample size and gender imbalance in the sample.\nPractical implications: The authors provide strategies for managers to increase levels of organisational justice in the tourism sector such as workgroup interactions, a consultation process, team culture and social support.\nOriginality/value: This study builds on limited literature in the area of inclusion and organisational justice in tourism organisations. The study provides a new path to effective organisational management within the context of a diverse workforce, adding to the current debate on which dimensions of organisational justice contribute to improving employee well-being.\n",
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The social network implications of prestigious goods among young adults: evaluating the self vs others
|
[
"Luxury",
"Prestigious",
"Self-others perception",
"Social affinity"
] |
[
{
"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 issue.\nIntroduction: Have we not browsed around a shopping mall believing that certain products can make us feel more popular or feel more attractive as a friend? Research has shown people define themselves to others by using possessions as a way to convey status and prestige (Richins, 1994). They achieve this feat by splurging on purchases that are publicly consumed, especially on items that enhance their appearance (Fitzmaurice, 2008). These consumers use public displays as a tool to increase their attractiveness as social partners and to provide themselves with opportunities to display a particular lifestyle that they expect will seem desirable and attractive to others (Christopher and Schlenker, 2004). Yet, when we do go and buy these goods, others dislike us for being superficial and materialistic. This may be in part because people have an unfavorable impression of consumers who exhibit and seek such products (Van Boven et al., 2010). This opens the question: Do prestigious goods help or hinder social network development among young adults?\nConceptual background: Consumers have always used objects to express their self-concept and identity to others (Belk, 1988). People use objects to convey their connection to others and to help articulate who they are to others (McCracken, 1988). For instance, having certain objects is known to be integral in developing and maintaining interpersonal relationships (Banerjee and Dittmar, 2008; Holt, 1995; Solomon, 1983). Based on signaling theory, people who seek prestigious goods use possessions as way to convey social status (Richins, 1994; Han et al., 2010). They achieve this feat by splurging on purchases that are publicly consumed, especially on items that enhance their appearance (Fitzmaurice, 2008). Further, prestigious goods increase individuals' attractiveness as social partners, as it provides them with an opportunity to display a particular lifestyle (Christopher and Schlenker, 2004).\nStudy 1 (pilot study): We begin this research by investigating the effects of prestigious goods on perceived social affinity. A total of 60 upper-year undergraduate students (56 per cent females) participated in exchange for course credit. Upon arrival, participants were presented with a list of 50 brand name items. Half of the brand name items were prestigious brands (e.g. Prada shoes, Porsche car), while the other half of the brand name items were more generic brands (e.g. Sketchers shoes, Honda car). We then randomly assigned the participants into one of two conditions (self vs other). In one condition (self), we asked them to \"select 10 brand-name items that you would like to possess that would make you more desirable as a friend\". In the other condition (other), we asked them to \"select 10 brand-name items that you would want your ideal friend to possess that makes them more desirable as a friend\". These questions were designed to test for perceived social affinity. We then conducted an analysis to see whether there was a difference in the two conditions. An independent samples t-test revealed the subjects in the \"self\" condition selected more prestigious brands than subjects in the \"others\" condition (Mself\nStudy 2: A total of 106 upper-year undergraduate students (53 per cent females) participated in exchange for course credit. The study was a 2 (prestige: yes/no) x 2 (rating type: self/others). Upon arrival, participants sat at a computer station and were told that they will be participating in an advertisement research study. To manipulate prestige, we randomly showed half of the participants an advertisement for a fictitious fine wine (Cabernet Sauvignon - Blue Verre). In the description, we noted that this wine is prestigious and coveted among the wine community. We also showed that it was priced at $500 and is available in a limited number of wineries across the country. For the other half, we showed the same advertisement but noted that this wine is generic. We also showed that it is priced at $20 and is available in local liquor stores. We then asked the participants to imagine that they were going to a party hosted by a culinary club and that this was the first time you were attending the event. In the \"self\" condition, we told them that \"you\" brought the wine in the advertisement to the party. We then asked the participants to rate themselves on four items on a 1-100 sliding scale anchored by strongly disagree-strongly agree to assess social affinity. These items include:\nStudy 3: Study 3 replicates prior studies and tests for the mediating effects of boastfulness and social image. A total of 112 undergraduate students (32 per cent females) participated in exchange for course credit. The study was a 2 (prestige: yes/no) x 2 (rating type: self/others). Upon arrival, participants sat at a computer station and were told that they will be participating in an advertisement research. To manipulate prestige, we randomly showed half of the participants a prestigious limo service advertisement. We noted that this limo service was priced at $10,000 and is often used by celebrities when attending special events. For the other half, we showed a Lincoln taxi service that was priced at $100, a service provided by a local company. For both conditions, we listed multiple amenities (e.g. limo service included a champagne service; taxi service included water). We then asked the participants to imagine that they were going to a business charity ball and that this was the first time they were attending the event. In one condition, we told them that they won a pre-charity raffle which entitled them to the transportation service. We noted that they will be receiving the full service by the company. In the other condition, we told the participants that they saw an individual arriving using this service. After presenting these descriptions, participants completed a four-item scale (1-7 strongly disagree-strongly agree) similar to that of Study 2 (a = 0.98). In addition, we asked individuals to rate on a three-item seven-point bi-polar scale (not at all/very much; decrease a lot/increase a lot; not improve/very much improve) the extent the limo service would affect one's social image (a = 0.96). We also asked individuals to complete a boastfulness measure about the limo service on a three-item seven-point bi-polar scale (not boastful/very boastful; not conceited/very conceited; not bragging/bragging) (a = 0.95). In addition to these questions, we asked the participants to rate the level of prestige of the limo service in the advertisement as a manipulation check (Baek et al., 2010). For control variables, we collected materialism, gender and age. However, none of these control measures seemed to have significant impact on the overall results, thus were omitted from the final analysis.\nStudy 4: The data were collected from a social network comprising undergraduate students from a college dormitory (one floor). The data were collected longitudinally at two separate points in time. Time 1 data were collected approximately five to six weeks after the start of the academic school year (early October) to allow participants enough time to have some perception of their social network. Time 2 data were collected when the participants were approximately five to six weeks into their second semester (early February). In Time 1, 76 of 83 students (response rate of 92 per cent) in the network provided usable data for analysis. In Time 2, 71 of 83 students (response rate of 86 per cent) provided usable data for analysis. To ensure parallel comparison between the two periods, only those who responded in both waves were kept for the final analyses (N = 71).\nGeneral discussion: A culmination of results from four studies reveals that there is a discrepancy between how we evaluate ourselves with a prestigious good versus how we evaluate others with the same prestigious good. Social scientists have long been interested in the accuracy of an individual's interpersonal judgments. Researchers have explored people's accuracy in reporting communication patterns (Bernard et al., 1982), accuracy in specific social events (Freeman and Romney, 1987) and accuracy in people's social network relationships (Casciaro, 1998; Krackhardt, 1990). Here, we demonstrate that individuals have an inaccurate perception of the social benefits of consuming prestigious goods. This finding is important because individuals are accustomed to acquiring prestigious goods in response to their belief that these goods will enhance their social standing (i.e. they may become more popular or gain more friends). However, the findings here suggest that this belief is merely perceptual and people should be cautious about the consequences of their purchase.\n",
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"content": "Purpose: This paper aims to investigate the paradox of whether prestigious goods help or inhibit a consumer's social affinity. The goal of this research is to explore whether pursuit of prestigious goods increases consumers' social affinity or decreases their social affinity, and, more importantly, to understand the mechanisms that drive this process.\nDesign/methodology/approach: Three laboratory experimental studies and a social network study are conducted to show that consumers hold inconsistent beliefs about the social implication of prestigious goods.\nFindings: In Study 1, the authors showed that prestigious goods evoked stronger social affinity for the self than for the other. In Study 2, the authors showed that people evaluated themselves high in social affinity when they brought a prestigious wine to a party compared to when they brought a cheaper, generic wine, but evaluated others low in social affinity when they brought the same prestigious wine. In Study 3, the authors showed the mediating effects of social image and boastfulness on social affinity. Study 4 utilizes social network study to further validate previous findings in a field setting.\nPractical implications: For high-end retailers, the authors suggest framing their promotional messages to explicitly highlight how owning prestigious goods will benefit them (i.e. social image). It is important that these retail managers (and salespeople alike) make it more salient on how their prestigious goods socially benefit the consumer (the self). Thus, it is important to get consumers to think about how a prestigious item looks on them and not on others. However, marketers must be prudent when constructing these messages, as the link between prestigious consumption and network development is merely perceptual.\nOriginality/value: The findings demonstrate that consuming prestigious goods increases social affinity via positive social image for the self. When evaluating others, the authors demonstrate that consuming prestigious goods decreases social affinity via boastfulness. In sum, owning prestigious items may seem beneficial socially to the self, but people have negative perceptions (boastfulness) of those who own the same prestigious goods. Hence, there seems to be a discrepancy in how the authors evaluate themselves versus how they evaluate others with the same prestigious goods.\n",
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A consideration of organisational sustainability in the SME context: A resource-based view and composite model
|
[
"Resource-based view",
"SME",
"Organisational sustainability",
"SME growth"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: The adoption of social responsibility reporting is growing in large multinational organisations (Smith, 2011). A shift away from a fixation on constant economic and organisational growth towards more balanced and sustainable practices and philosophies is increasingly evident (Ardichvili, 2012). Global organisations are increasingly developing management systems for sustainability built on and reporting against the triple bottom line (TBL) standard (Spooner and Kaine, 2010). TBL is an accounting and reporting system incorporating not just economic but also social and environmental outcomes (Elkington, 1999). However, whilst much scholarly attention has been focussed on the issue of sustainability as directed to environmental matters, there is an emerging interest in organisational sustainability. Moreover, there is growing public and business interest in building sustainable organisations, as well as an increasing research and educational interest in the topic of organisational sustainability (Pfeffer, 2010).\nSME operating environment: It is important to note that traditionally the SME environment was assumed to be local and artificially segregated from other markets, particularly the international competitive environment (Etemad, 2005). Other studies often intimated that the SME was, in some way, insulated from the threat of larger multinational enterprises (MNEs), as if they did not operate in the same market space or compete for the same customer base. The rise of the Internet has radically revolutionised the competitive landscape for many SMEs. On the one hand, allowing them to access markets never previously within reach has also opened them up to increased competition which is often difficult to identify and react to in a strategic traditional sense. The rules have changed beyond recognition. More than other firms, SMEs feel the on-going change and are subjected to the associated competitive pressures (Etemad, 2005). All SMEs, therefore, must compete effectively on an international scale just for survival. Globally competitive entities can enter into local markets and competitively challenge, if not transform, them (Levitt, 1983). In this regard, the demands on SMEs to identify and nurture sources of competitive advantage are crucial to their long-term success and sustainability. In addition, SMEs must move beyond traditional sources of competitive advantage and embrace the changes and dynamism of their internal and external environments to ensure such advantage and to increase the likelihood of sustainability. There must also be a clear understanding of how competitive advantage, in all its many guises, can actually contribute to long-term sustainability.\nCompetitive advantage as a pathway to organisational sustainability: Barney (1995), in his seminal work, on competitive advantage argues that a complete understanding of the sources of competitive advantage requires an analysis of not only the external environment but also a firm's internal strengths and weaknesses. A shift in focus from an exclusive examination of external environmental factors has led to a growing acceptance that internal resources could be a potential source of competitive advantage. While Barney (1995) defined a firm's internal resources to \"include all financial, physical, human and organisational assets used by the firm to develop manufacture and deliver products or services to customers which reside within an organisation\", the focus of this paper is primarily on the HRs and capabilities which reside within an organisation. People after all are not easily replicated or imitated. Therefore, in a world where companies that compete on a global scale can easily copy a competitor's product, manufacturing process or route to market one of the only remaining areas where companies can still uniquely differentiate themselves over the long term is through the individuals they employ. These employees or firm's HRs, therefore, offer the potential to develop sustained competitive advantage leading to long-term sustainability for the organisation.\nThe strategic HR perspective: Wright et al. (2001), writing from a strategic human resource management perspective, have presented a model which looks to leverage the resource-based view of the firm to identify the areas within HRM in which sustained competitive advantage might be achieved. The model identifies three key areas for examination; the HC pool, people management practices and employee relationship and behaviours. While a firm might achieve a superior position in one of the three components, sustainable competitive advantage requires superior position in all three.\nThe strategic HR perspective considered in the SME context: The first component of the Wright et al. (2001) model refers to the importance of a well-stocked HC pool as one such potential source of sustained competitive advantage amongst firms. One of the most important responsibilities of strategic managers is to constantly evaluate whether their firm's resources and capabilities continue to add value despite changes in the external environment. In this regard, the role of owner/managers in SMEs is crucial. The first early recruits to an SME must be in a position to quickly add value and make a meaningful contribution to the firm. The traditional large firm approach of longer induction and training may not be available within the limited resources and confines of an SME. Equally, in a small firm, there is no capacity to carry staff that is not making a contribution in the same way that larger firms can often absorb underperforming staff.\nThe unique characteristics of the SME: Carson's (1985) models refer to a number of key limitations of SMEs which differentiate them from their larger counterparts and which warrant the examination of them as a completely separate phenomena ((Roper and Scott, 2009; Shaw et al., 2005). Carson's contention that the SME typically refers to an entity with limited resources, lack of specialist expertise and lack of impact is well supported in the literature (Miles et al., 1997; Molian and Birley, 1995). These characteristics can be further delineated into three core areas where SMEs differ, namely, in terms of their strategic approaches to strategy development and implementation, the role of the owner/manager and the absence of formalised HR policies and practices. More recently, however, some new dimensions to SME characteristics presented in the literature are pointing to the emergence of some new approaches to strategy development in such enterprises.\nOverlaying the key models: Figure 1 encapsulates and illustrates the overlay of the four models that influence and shape this paper. The X-axis represents the evolutionary stages of small firm development as outlined by Carson (1990). The Y-axis represents the elements of effectiveness, efficiency and impact. The \"impact\" line going from top left to bottom right represents Carson's (1985) three limitations model and also the third element, \"impact\", of Boudreau and Ramstad's (2005) model. The other two elements that they highlight, those of \"effectiveness\" and \"efficiency\", are represented by the two fluctuating curves going from lower left of the Y-axis to upper right. The bottom three boxes illustrate the three elements of Wright et al.'s (2001) model, and the continuum demonstrates the shift from an operational focus or orientation to a more strategic one as the firm grows, develops and matures. Each of the models is addressed below.\nThe research implications: This paper has sought to address an important area in the general consideration of both sustainability and the resource-based view of the firm, that of competitive advantage and sustainability in the context of the SME. It recognises that the majority of studies looking at sustainability heretofore do so from a large firm perspective and from a resource-based view of the firm that generally seeks to align the development of competitive advantage and sustainability in the SME with the practices and behaviours of the larger more mature firm. Small firms are different (Carson, 1990; Hill et al., 2002). This opens up an entirely new field of research in terms of mere recognition of this assertion. In addition, the majority of extant work and research tends to emphasise the tangible aspects of the organisational resource base and the structure of the organisation over the intangible aspects of competence, capability and talent. A second focus for new research should focus, therefore, on the softer elements of this organisational resource base (Porter, 1981; Rangone, 1999).\nPractical implications: As a consequence of the review of both the unique characteristics of SMEs and the overlay of Wright et al.'s (2001) and Boudreau and Ramstad's (2005) models, we can derive some challenging insights. The overlay, positioned against Carson's (1985, 1990) characterisation of the SME allows us to develop a better understanding of sustainability in general, but, more particularly, it allows for a consideration of its applicability and relevance within the SME context. The overlay discussion points to strong areas of commonality with respect to organisational sustainability and hints at the potential of these models if positioned in the correct manner to take account of the unique characteristics of the SME.\nConclusion: The adoption of a resource-based view of the firm lens to aid the development of competitive advantage and sustainability in SMEs is a novel, exciting and fruitful undertaking. The use of the resource-based view lens allows SMEs to clearly identify those heretofore under-considered areas of growth and operations where suitable and timely interventions are likely to pay dramatic dividends. The resource-based view of the firm and the idea of sustained competitive advantage are not always but need to become the language of SMEs who are often caught in the desperate bid for survival and growth.\n",
"role": "user"
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"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to consider organisational sustainability in the small- to medium-sized enterprises (SME) context focussing on a resource-based view. The paper overlays two contrasting perspectives: those of the SME and human resource (HR) perspectives to allow for the development of a composite model of organisational sustainability for SMEs.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The paper overlays four models of Carson's (1985, 1990) small firm evolution and unique characteristics of SMEs; Wright et al.'s (2001) pertaining to the application of the resource-based view of the firm perspective to strategic HR and Boudreau and Ramstad (2005) model of effectiveness, efficiency and impact of talentship. The paper, in particular, considers the human resource management (HRM) perspectives pertaining to the overlay and considers how these might impact organisational sustainability.\nFindings: An outcome of the paper is the development of a composite model to the SME and HR perspectives of organisational sustainability and its applicability to the SME context.\nResearch limitations/implications: The paper suggests a number of emergent areas for future research. Future research should focus on the intangible aspects and softer elements of the organisational resource base. The majority of work in this area is grounded in the positivist paradigm. Future research should consider a pluralists perspective and draw on traditions of the post-positivist paradigm, for example, social constructionism.\nPractical implications: SME-support agencies and consultants who work with SMEs need, therefore, to work with them in assessing their competency spectra and then to help them develop the talent pools required to effect continued growth and success. In doing so SMEs need to be guided towards a better understanding of the traditional temporal cycle of recruitment; in essence, they need to ensure that they have the right competency set in situ in the early stages of the firms' development.\nOriginality/value: This paper is unique in its approach to the examination of sustainability within the context of SMEs and, in particular, the HRM aspects which contribute towards organisational survival, growth and sustainability.\n",
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Cross-cultural equivalence of price perceptions across American, Chinese, and Japanese consumers
|
[
"Prices",
"Measurement",
"Consumers",
"China",
"Japan",
"United States of America"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n__NO_TITLE__: Since the US-based multinationals, such as Coca-Cola, McDonald's, IBM, and others, derive significant revenues from their international operations, the development of effective marketing strategies that are sensitive to cross-national cultural differences would seem to be of considerable importance for success in the global marketplace (Gurhan-Canli and Maheswaran, 2000). A primary issue in international research concerns the validity of applying marketing-related inferences developed in the United States to marketing efforts in other cultures, especially non-Western cultures.\nResearch findings in price perception: Price is arguably one of the most important marketplace cues and is of pivotal consumption value because of its presence in virtually every purchasing situation (Monroe, 1979). Moreover, it is well accepted in behavioral pricing research that price is one of the most important informational cues consumers use in the decision making process (Helgeson and Beatty, 1987). Far from being a uni-dimensional monolithic concept, research has shown price to be a multidimensional stimulus, in that it affects consumers' purchase intentions, both positively and negatively (Dodds et al., 1991, Lichtenstein et al., 1993). On one hand, high price is inexorably linked with a consumer's perception of higher perceived quality or prestige of the product and consequently increases the consumer's intention to buy; on the other hand, a high price may also increase a consumer's perceived economic sacrifice, thereby decreasing his/her willingness to buy (Zeithaml, 1988).Lichtenstein et al. (1993) developed a scale to measure the multi-dimensional nature of price that is grounded in the positive and negative aspects of price discussed above. Multi-item scales, either developed in this study or borrowed from previous studies, were used to measure the multiple constructs. They identified seven constructs that exhibit positive or negative effects on consumer behavior and comprise consumers' price perceptions: value consciousness, coupon proneness, price consciousness, sales proneness, price mavenism, price-quality schema, and prestige sensitivity.Price perception factors that negatively influence purchase intentions\nThe rationale of culture selection for the present project: There are several reasons for selecting these three cultures for the present study, with the primary one being that they are (or will be) the top three consumer markets in the world. Thus, insight into Asian consumers is critically important to the global marketplace as Asian consumers move from traditional economies to contemporary mainstream consumerism (Farrell et al., 2006, Ho et al., 1997, McKinsey Group, 2006). Many recent practitioner-based articles discuss the seemingly endless business opportunities in the Chinese marketplace (see Garner, 2005) or have conducted marketplace research on Chinese consumers (see Boston Consulting Group, 2007). However, research at the nexus of culture and price and research that is theoretically grounded in traditional consumer behavior literature, particularly in Asian contexts, has been sparse. In addition, we chose to survey Japanese consumers as well in order to extend the price perception work begun by McGowan and Sternquist (1998) and also because Japan shares cultural similarities with both the USA (e.g. the economy and consumption behavior) and China (e.g. Asian culture). Finally, we included a sample of US consumers due to the origin of the Lichtenstein et al. (1993) model.Therefore, by applying the Lichtenstein et al. (1993) price perception model to Chinese and Japanese cultural settings, the generalisability of this model will be largely increased. Likewise, by comparing the model fit, factor loadings, correlations, and residuals, price perception differences among US, Chinese, and Japanese cultures will be revealed.\nObjectives and hypotheses: The objectives of this study were to test the external validity (generalizability) of Lichtenstein et al. (1993)'s price perception model in different cultural settings and to gain insights about how price perception factors differ across cultures. It should be noted that the coupon proneness and price mavenism constructs were not included in our study. As indicated in multiple articles (see Jin and Sternquist, 2003; Moore et al., 2003; Sternquist et al., 2004), the concept of coupons does not translate well to many Asian cultures. Also, similar to Zhou and Nakamoto (2001) and McGowan and Sternquist (1998), the construct of price mavenism was excluded. Even Lichtenstein et al. (1993) suggested that price mavenism may not be a theoretical predictor of marketplace behaviors and may be interpreted differently in the USA and Asia (Zhou and Nakamoto, 2001). Therefore, the model tested in this study contents five factors instead of seven factors.In addition, at the end of this work, the goal was to have a single scale to represent these five constructs across multiple consumer markets without altering the measurement model on a sample-by-sample basis. Thus, after refining the measurement scale across all three groups simultaneously, the following five hypotheses were tested via structural equation modeling. The hypotheses progress from least restrictive to most restrictive, in order to test the applicability of the scale to measure price perceptions in US, Chinese and Japanese consumers. The order of such measurement invariance testing was suggested by Joreskog and Sorbom (1999).Finally, after the hypotheses regarding the measurement model were tested, mean differences across the samples on the five price perception constructs were examined. As this project was the first that we know of to use a stable measurement scale to examine price perceptions across US, Chinese and Japanese consumers simultaneously, no specific hypotheses regarding directionality of mean differences were made:H1. The constructs of price perception in Lichtenstein et al. (1993)'s model also exist cross-culturally: the same number of price constructs emerge for consumers in all cultures and the scale variables load on the same constructs for all cultures.H2. The loadings between the indicators and the latent constructs are the same for consumers across all cultures.H3. The correlations of error between any two indicators in the price perception model are invariant across cultures.H4. The correlations between latent variables are equivalent in different cultural groups.H5. The variances of latent variables are equal between different cultures.\nMethodology: Measurement of the constructs in the model\nResults: Sample characteristics\nDiscussion: Our study fully supported H1, H4 and H5, confirming previous work that showed these price perception constructs do exist in different cultural settings. Additionally, our data extend previous work by showing that the final 21 items chosen to represent price perception in the present study can be generalized across consumers in China, Japan, and the USA We showed that the same variables load on the same constructs among the three cultures tested and that the factor variances and the correlations among factors can also be constrained to be equal across samples. On the other hand, our analyses only partially supported the hypotheses of the equivalence of the factor loadings (H2) and error correlations of indicators (H3) across cultures, which means some degree of variation exists in terms of factor loadings and error correlations. However, according to Steenkamp and Baumgartner (1998), such degree of variation is acceptable in cross-cultural studies. Therefore, our work suggests that the measurement of the price perception constructs can be generalized across these cultures.Our research may be the first published work to use a single price perception measurement scale with good psychometric properties across Chinese, Japanese, and US consumers. Looking at mean differences across cultures, we found that there were no significant differences on the value and quality subscales, but significant differences on price sensitivity, prestige sensitivity, and sales proneness. Confirming cultural examinations of the Chinese marketplace, we found that our Chinese consumers were significantly more sensitive to price and prestige. US respondents had higher sales proneness, perhaps due to the high frequency with which sales are used in the USA versus their relatively less common use across Asia.This study makes important theoretical, methodological, and practical contributions. First, our efforts provide theoretical extension of the general literature on price perception by replicating and confirming the results of previous studies that consumers in different cultures do have significantly different price perceptions. This finding made another call for breaking the \"American Box\" and for expanding domestic pricing research to global markets.Methodologically, this study utilized students in other countries instead of sampling international students studying in the USA, which avoids acculturalization concerns. The other methodological contribution is the purification of measurement. Although some of the items had lower factor loadings across cultures (e.g. item 16 in China and item 20 in Japan), the measurement model as a whole fit quite well in all cases. We suggest that pricing researchers interested in these three cultures use the 21 (out of 31) Lichtenstein et al. (1993) items that we found to have good fit across cultures.Our final contribution is practitioner-related: because pricing is a fundamental issue for every company and for every product, this research is valuable for practitioners who are involved in international business or trying to expand their business to the countries included here. Our work shows that these five price perception constructs exist cross-culturally, but the fact that the relationship among constructs differed across samples suggests that research using these constructs to predict consumer behavior may not be constant across cultures. Assuming \"business is business everywhere\" and \"price perception is the same everywhere\" is very dangerous. However, we do show relatively equal perceptions of value and quality across cultures, so if a company was looking for a single approach in the USA, Japan, and China, our findings suggest they should focus on value and quality.If those same companies are competing on price, prestige, or with sales, they should use different strategies across China, Japan, and the USA More specifically, emphasizing price and prestige should be more effective in China, than in the USA or Japan. The finding that the USA and Japan do not differ on price and prestige sensitivity supports McGowan and Sternquist (1998), who found many similarities in perceptions of price and prestige between the USA and Japan. On the other hand, sales promotions are likely to be more effective in the USA than in Asian cultures. In addition, companies cannot necessarily assume all Asian consumers are similar; our work shows Chinese consumers have higher levels of price and prestige sensitivity, relative to Japanese consumers. These findings are similar to Sternquist et al. (2004), who found differences between Korean and Chinese consumers. We cannot directly compare our results, though, because Sternquist et al. (2004) did not provide mean scale differences.\nLimitations and future study: Although we tried to minimize cross-sample differences by sampling university students in all three cultures, that limits our conclusions to young, educated consumers. However, we chose young consumers to align with the McKinsey Group (2006) population estimates for China predicting that this group will comprise the large, emergent middle class and Farrell et al. (2006) arguments that this group will offer the largest opportunities for companies selling mass-consumer goods and services.In addition, this study tested consumers' price perceptions in general across different cultures. We do not know whether the proposed metrics can be used in accessing multi-cultural price perceptions when customers are exposed to a stimulus, i.e. product. Therefore, it will be interesting to see whether these measures would hold in an experimental setting, especially what would be the reactions of the multi-cultural consumers to the same stimuli.We also do not know if the product's country-of-origin (see, Parameswaran and Pisharodi, 1994; Hyllegard et al., 2005) influences consumers' price perceptions (for example, does knowing that a consumer electronics product like a DVD player is made in Japan versus the USA versus China influence price perceptions and subsequent purchase intentions?). Some of our recent work (Meng et al., 2007) suggests that country-of-origin effects are differential across goods and services and across different samples of consumers. However, we have yet to merge these research streams to examine country-of-origin effects on price perceptions.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: - The purpose of this paper is to apply Lichtenstein et al.'s price perception model to American, Chinese and Japanese cultures, to test the measurement equivalence across three cultures, and to compare the price perception constructs across three cultures using equivalent instruments.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - A questionnaire is used to collect information on more than 500 student respondents from America, China, and Japan.\nFindings: - Utilizing structural equation modeling, a 21-item version of Lichtenstein et al.'s scale is created that has good fit across the three cultures. In progressively constraining tests, good model fit is found when constraining or partially constraining the factor loadings, error correlations, factor variances, and correlations between factors to be equal across three cultures tested. In addition, after creating price perception subscales, no significant differences emerge between Chinese, Japanese, and US consumers on value consciousness or price/quality schemas. Significant differences emerge on price consciousness, prestige sensitivity, and sales proneness.\nPractical implications: - The 21-item scale of Lichtenstein et al.'s price perception model can be generalized to both China and Japan. The primary conclusions (i.e. that Chinese consumers reported significantly higher price and prestige sensitivity, compared to USA and Japanese consumers, while US consumers showed higher levels of sales proneness than Chinese and Japanese consumers) provide a rationale for international retailers to develop different pricing and promotional strategies when expanding their business into these three cultures.\nOriginality/value: - A 21-item scale to measure five of Lichtenstein et al.'s price perception constructs that has been validated through measurement invariance tests and compared across consumers in China, Japan, and the USA is provided.\n",
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Fostering creativity understanding: Case study of an exercise designed for a large undergraduate business cohort at EDHEC Business School
|
[
"Training",
"Creativity",
"Undergraduates",
"Business education"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Creativity is considered by many to be an essential twenty-first century competence for business managers and leaders (Robinson Report, 1999; Colby et al., 2011), the most sought-after trait in leaders today (Kelley and Kelley, 2012), an essential component to succeed and gain sustainable advantage in any industry (Driver, 2001; Anderson et al., 2014) and critical to students' personal and professional development and success (Vance, 2007). As the market for business education has grown, business educators have naturally turned their attention to creativity as an important topic in the classroom, focusing on the role of creativity in organisations and the enhancement of student creativity (Dewett and Gruys, 2007).\nThe Creativity \"Night\" Exercise: This section outlines the key elements of the exercise and establishes the case for claiming that the design supports the development of creativity understanding.\nThe student data: We collected data from students prior to and after the Creativity \"Night\" Exercise.\nResults of the analysis: What is creativity? Students' free associations on \"creativity\"\nDiscussion: The empirical data prior to the exercise suggests that many students associated creativity with artistic endeavours, aesthetics and originality, whereas the post-questionnaire data demonstrates a shift in perception to embrace group work, the creative process and creative methods. Hence, the Creativity \"Night\" Exercise provided the opportunity for the undergraduates to better equip themselves with tools to help them understand that creativity is a managerial competence that can be trained, with such comments as: \"This exercise enabled me to better understand research of ideas; we do not necessarily realise that quantity and quality are linked\". Our recommendation is that this training needs to be well organised and fluid given the large cohort of undergraduates: \"The seminar was well organised, which enhanced my motivation to engage when I was not so motivated from the start\". It should also be conducted by an external creativity consultant, who is not associated with a particular discipline or sector, as we think this greatly facilitated student understanding of creativity as a process that is not silo-specific. Pena-Vega and Morin (2003, p. 59) stated the necessity for \"the construction of learning spaces and training in interdisciplinary projects\" in order to avoid the association of overarching concepts such as creativity with a particular discipline.\nLimitations and further research: As with all empirical studies, we recognise that this study has a number of limitations. First, as with any case study method, our research relied on a student sample from only one business school where the Creativity \"Night Exercise\" happened, the exercise should be replicated in other schools to avoid this bias. Second, the self-selection of study participants might have skewed the results to the positive and negative extremes. Students with any strong opinion might have more willingly answered the questionnaires compared with students who simply did not care. The overall response rate of 37.1 per cent and use of average variability technique (Cochran, 1977) counter that threat. In addition, we are confident that our sample is a good approximation of our student population as evidenced by mean scores obtained for Likert scales questions in the first questionnaire, which are similar in the final sample of 245 used and in the original sample of 481 students answering the first questionnaire. We might question why so few students responded to the second questionnaire, however this we consider typical behaviour of undergraduate students switching to other matters once the seminar is finished.\nConclusion: In this study we have described and tested an innovative way of encouraging large cohorts of undergraduate to better understand what creativity is through a participative exercise, The Creativity Night Exercise. This exercise was developed in a corporate environment for business people and adapted to a business school setting, to prepare future managers to facilitate creativity having developed an enhanced understanding of the creativity process. Our findings have implications for both the educator and organisations. Educators wishing to experiment such an exercise should ensure its fluid organisation, outline a clear and structured creativity process and methodology, and involve an external creativity consultant. In the workplace, future graduates trained with this type of participative creativity exercise should be able to replicate it, having acquired a structured methodology to help them support, promote and nourish creativity endeavours within their future companies. Trained creativity facilitators should be useful within the corporate world.\n",
"role": "user"
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"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to encourage initiatives to train large cohorts of undergraduate students for creativity understanding. The authors describe a case study of a creativity exercise developed within a corporate setting that accommodates a large cohort and discuss the results of empirical research on this teaching experience at a French Business School. The authors reflect on the transferability of this exercise by other educators to similar educational contexts and the usefulness of training future managers to a structured creativity methodology to be exploited in the workplace.\nDesign/methodology/approach: A case study explains the features of the exercise. Hard data on students' perceptions and motivation/satisfaction prior to and after the creativity exercise was collected through an internet self-completed survey instrument. In total, 245 pairs of survey responses from first-year students were analysed using prototypical analysis, paired samples t-test and content analysis.\nFindings: The exercise proved an effective tool to help large cohorts of undergraduates to better understand that creativity is a managerial competence that can be trained. The authors particularly underlined the need for fluidity in the organisation of the exercise; use of a clear creativity process and methodology; the necessity to involve an external creativity consultant; and the importance of the chosen topic being non art related. In the workplace, this understanding of creativity methodologies will enable future managers to support, promote and manage creativity endeavours.\nOriginality/value: This paper encourages initiatives and provides insights into the difficulties of training large cohorts of undergraduate students for understanding the concept of creativity.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
Strategic intranets: the next big thing?
|
[
"Intranets",
"Corporate communications",
"Communication technologies",
"Computer communications software"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n__NO_TITLE__: All intranets use the same technology as the internet, but their content is not usually open to the public. Intranets are secured behind fire-walls, hardware, and software to keep infiltrators out. Passwords ensure only certain people can gain access.\nYou haven't seen nothing yet!: Organizations have yet to fully appreciate the power the intranet holds in reshaping the organization. The interactive capability of intranet technology enables it to be more than simply a virtual warehouse for static and disconnected corporate information. The untapped potential of the intranet lies in its ability to help management and group members obtain a clearer picture of what is really going on within teams, groups, departments, or whole organizations. It can show your organization where it is at and where things are headed so corrective actions can be taken to improve performance. Intranets, when used to their full potential, can enhance group collaboration, focus efforts on critical issues, manage change, and reduce information overload. It can be used to add meaning and purpose to the lives of people and make it easier to make decisions and correct performance. Marc Rosenberg, district manager of strategic learning technologies for AT&T, says, \"This may be the first real technology that encourages true organizational learning\" (Cohen, 1998).This learning can only occur when the intranet is used as a strategic tool, rather than simply an operational tool. Intranets, up to this point, have primarily been used to transfer information, but they can also be used to track group performance, as well as help group members keep focused on critical strategic issues. Most current intranets are used to simply share information, do performance appraisals, and for some off-site training. Chat rooms are probably the first places where problem solving has been attempted, but the focus remains very much on fighting fires and on individual requests. The greatest potential influence of the intranet is as a tool to improve the performance and decision-making capabilities of groups and organizations.Web technology, when applied correctly, can improve decision-making and performance in at least four ways. First, it can be used to help a group's or organization's members keep their attention centered around their critical objectives. Strategic use of web technology can be designed to collect this type of information and then provide continuous feedback on changes in group behavior and thinking. The interactive nature of web technology makes it technically easy to access a group's current actions, thinking, attitudes, and capabilities to achieve strategic or operational objectives. Web technology, in conjunction with supporting data visualization software (e.g. Quick Status), can take bland and disjointed numerical performance figures, percentages, and ratios and display them on computer screens as a series of visual displays. Intranets have the capability to integrate critical objective performance data and similarly important subjective information for a more holistic view of work. Intranets can be designed to track and graphically display an organization's decision-making, attitudes, efforts, and capabilities to meet strategic concerns. Tracking and displaying these processes allows you the chance to manage them rather than simply reacting to after-the-fact data. The intranet can give management a chance to intervene before bad service, effort, or capability becomes an after-the-fact statistic.\nCompetitive benchmarking: The intranet can be used to track a group's critical processes, and using them to compare key outcomes can be a valuable tool for focusing a group. Comparing these concerns creates a much more realistic picture of what the organization is really about and where it is headed. Information without some reference point is of little value. Showing improvement is one thing, but improvement from where. If a group had lousy service, then some improvement is not impressive. Intranet benchmarking can be used to see how you have changed or how you are compared to your competition.Modern intranet sites can be designed to collect, analyze, and display critical information to groups or organizations. The technology off-the-shelf software is capable of doing this, but it takes forethought to decide what and how the information should be displayed. The technology should not simply be plugged in, but rather organizations need to first sit down and identify their purpose and then set specific objectives. It is these outcomes that can be used as targets or competitive benchmarks for the group. Next, the organization can then identify essential processes that lead to good outcomes like improved quality or service.Using web technology in this way can create a more holistic picture of what is going on. It can track and integrate subjective and objective data and compare processes to outcomes. The intranet/extranet lets you track information internally or have external information sent directly to the computer where the data can be analyzed and then integrated with other data and graphically displayed so all can see what is going on, where they are at, and where they are headed.Web technology can be highly interactive where questions concerning the purpose or direction of the group can be composed, scaled, and posted so members can answer multiple-choice options. This anonymous numerical data can then be analyzed, calculated, and displayed as a means of providing feedback on current critical issues. Web technology, combined with data visualization software applications, also has the capability to graph the data into graphic displays that are easy to understand. It is a technology that makes it easy for the team or management to address and display important issues about the ultimate purpose as a group. Data can then be quickly and automatically analyzed showing numerical and graphical information about where an organization is headed. The web can also be used to compare and contrast internal group perceptions to outside objective evidence.\nReal-time feedback: Interactive intranet technology can be a good vehicle not only to test employee comprehension of policies and procedures but also of critical objectives and expectations. It can help group members grasp a truer picture of what is really going on both inside and outside their group. It has potential to greatly enhance group collaboration, reduce information overload, track change, and improve performance by continually providing visual feedback on what is going on within critical areas. Intranets can help group members grasp where they really are in terms of performance in a rapid enough manner that they can change directions. It can also be used to provide continuous feedback on a daily or weekly basis so that behavior can be corrected. Used this way, it tracks and displays the information critical to group objectives. Web technology can use supporting software to display information so all can more easily grasp where they are at and see what is needed.It is possible, using the intranet, for any group, department, or the entire organization to have quick and easy updates on critical changes. Intranets can potentially improve collaboration and teamwork by building unity within a group or department. Future intranets will pave the way to not only greater cooperation but also to a more focused organization. They will also help focus groups on their common purpose and direction.Intranet technology can help encourage coordinated actions and thinking because organizational members can continually see, at a glance, where the group's performance is at and know what is needed to reach an objective. Integrating critical information and using visual displays also help groups to see how to close the gap between expectations and performance. But such information would be of limited value if they recorded what happened three months ago. The intranet should be used to continually track what is going on and provide relatively real-time feedback. Innovative use of intranets should eventually put an end to end-of-quarter reports or simple after-the-fact weekly reports. They should be used to help group members see their true current position, relevant to competitive or customer issues. Intranets can empower people, because it lets them take control over the feedback. They can help group members see for themselves how their own individual current activities, efforts, capabilities, and attitudes are or are not contributing to the gap between expectations and performance.Upper management may talk of the need for better service or higher profitability, but reality is rarely so black and white or so simple. Members may see the results of customer surveys or objective benchmarks, which show lower performance than expected. They may know things need improving, but what. Open discussion can lead to a more realistic objective for the group. The intranet, with its ability to rapidly display what is going on in terms of group attitudes and thinking, can help to keep people focused in the right direction and reach agreement about what should be done when hard choices need to be made.It is this capability to collect a variety of data, merge, then display it in an easy-to-understand format that holds the promise of a powerful new management tool. Continuous feedback fosters greater independence and reduced reliance on bureaucratic directives, rules, regulations, and SOPs. It is this continuous flow of relevant information that generates moving pictures, not snapshots, of the organization's current and future thinking, attitudes, efforts, and capacity to achieve strategic objectives. Such information makes it easy to understand what you are supposed to be doing and where you are supposed to be headed.\nProfiling: Such feedback can be used to profile a group so you can isolate and challenge incongruent beliefs, attitudes, behavior, decisions, and activities. Profiling your group can become an internal mechanism for team self-management. Any intelligent person will know what to do if they can clearly understand where they stand relevant to some objective. Strategic application of web technology can show group members where they are at in terms of customer service (or other concerns) and how it is being affected by the group's efforts, attitudes, and choices. Marrying intranet and available software gives you the capability to identify, track, and display a graphical pattern of interactions between critical outcomes, like good customer relations, and processes that lead to those outcomes. Knowing this makes it easier to identify potential areas of improvement.The intranet can be used to give your organization a clearer picture of your group's true priorities rather than some idealized managerial priorities. It can be used to cross-reference and display competitive benchmarks so you can assess your degree of competitiveness. You can use it to compare your actual performance to historical averages so you know if change is occurring. Intranet technology can also analyze and display these results automatically so one or all can know what is going on and how fast things are changing. The insight gained from such powerful use of information would seem to be essential to most organizations and all self-directed work groups.\nData visualization software: Intranet supporting software, like CIVID3's Quick Status, among others, makes it easier to implement strategy by creating a management-by-exception (MBE) console similar to that seen in Figure 1. The console, which runs on the company's intranet and is displayed on individual desktop screens, shows the status of an organization's critical concerns. A gold circle or \"status light\" indicates a particular performance measure is within normal statistical parameters. A plus sign or status light indicates performance is above or better than normal condition, and a negative sign indicates poorer performance.The system administrator for the software chooses appropriate statistical values that will set off the lights and the software automatically calculates, evaluates, and graphs the results. Whenever a critical stage has been reached, the lights change to match appropriate conditions. The system administrator also is the one who decides who will input data into the system, how often, in what format, how results will be graphed, and who will see those results. It is possible for every individual within an organization to have their own unique desktop screen that is tracking these measures that are most relevant to the organizational strategic concerns.As numerical data is entered and automatically analyzed and graphed by the software, the intranet makes these results known to whoever needs to see them. If a performance measure is worth investigating, you simply click on the text box near the status light and you can see the actual results graphed out. The first graph you see might be similar to Figure 2. This shows the current results. The software is designed to alert you to changes in current results that exceed pre-defined statistical conditions. Text messages also appear, highlighting some of the important changes occurring in your data. If you want to see how this result compares to historical information, you can simply click on \"historical mean\" or \"standard deviation\" and note any trends or patterns emerging.The software also has an additional feature that can help you monitor, track, and focus efforts. If you click the \"box\" portion of the MBE console that is seen in Figure 1, you will see a series of graphs similar to Figure 3. These graphs are not designed to graph actual results as the line graphs shown in Figure 2, but rather to compare and contrast changes in one variable to another. Clicking on one of these graphs will pull up a graph that is comparing changes in one variable being plotted on the X-axis to changes in another being plotted on the Y-axis. The result is a \"pattern\" of interaction over time. So you can compare changes in sales to changes in income over time or changes in employee involvement or corresponding changes in customer service. The graph will compare and contrast any organization's critical concerns to each other and graphically display their interaction. The software also automatically displays key results in the format of text messages appearing at the bottom of each graph.Software, like Quick Status, combined with good objective setting, data collection, and the intranet's ability to provide real-time feedback, makes it far easier to implement strategy (or teamwork, manage change, employ employees). Employees, using their own desktop, can be greeted every day with visual feedback about what is important, where they are headed, and how they are doing. It makes it far easier to implement strategy if visual feedback is continually provided on an organization's critical concerns. It better focuses group effort around critical concerns and issues, and it can give employees a direct connection between what they do and overall corporate strategy. Intranets used this way can make maximum use of performance measures and human resources. Today, intranets are mostly an electronic library designed to share information, but their potential extends far beyond that. They can be the agent of change creating a more effective and connected workplace. We have always known the powerful effects of rapid, relevant, and specific feedback. The intranet can be that tool.\nOverview: Groups often do not act in a coordinated way because they are not able to see where they are at in terms of performance. They often do not act as a team because their daily efforts, thinking, attitudes, and capabilities are not visible or are at odds with each other. Bureaucratic approaches provide order and control at work, but, oh, what a cost! There is a need for real-time feedback and the intranet is the tool to deliver this promise. Use the power of the intranet combined with a coordinated feedback and performance measurement system and anything is possible. It can show if a group's activities, choices, and attitudes differ or resemble their stated strategic objectives or competitive benchmarks. Graphs generated by the intranet can quickly summarize where the group currently stands so all can see what is going on. Spreadsheets cannot do that, but visual displays and graphs created by the intranet can be used to help the group focus its efforts. Open discussion about the results can produce a more clearly focused response by any group.Visual feedback software can help clarify and challenge incongruent beliefs, attitudes, behaviors, and decisions in ways that would be impossible through words or tables or numbers. They show what is really going on within the organization by integrating a wide range of objective, subjective, lagging and leading indicators. Continuously monitoring these interrelated changes can give you a true sense of what your organization is about, where it is headed, and how it is doing.What is desperately needed is not an intranet that shares data but rather technology that helps make sense out of the endless data that piles higher and higher. What is needed is an intranet that helps us make the right choices and behave in ways that are consistent with the purpose and objective of the organization. Today, intranets can become tomorrow's tool for reshaping organizations and help add meaning and purpose to work.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: - The purpose of this paper is to describe the importance the intranet holds for the organization.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - Outlines the uses of the intranet, including competitive benchmarking, real-time feedback, group profiling, and strategy implementation using intranet supporting software.\nFindings: - Today's intranet can become tomorrow's tool for reshaping organizations and helping add meaning and purpose to work.\nOriginality/value: - Advocates the intranet as tool that helps us to make the right choices and behave in ways that are consistent with the purpose and objective of the organization.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
The CEO's emotional bias and the delegation of decision-making rights
|
[
"Decentralization of decisional rights",
"Emotional bias",
"The theory of organizational architecture"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: A new area of study is drawing on investigating the inside of the black box of the organization to understand how the strategic decisions are taken and by whom. A branch of the literature of organizational finance is interested in the decentralization of decision rights. According to the positive theory of agency, the decentralization of decision rights allows you to co-locate the decision rights and specific knowledge. In order that the CEO benefit from the information held by the manager (who is in direct contact with the activity of the organization), the CEO delegates a part of his decision rights to the lower hierarchical level. To enrich the contributions of the positive agency theory, Brickley et al. (1997, 2008) indicate that \"the organizational mechanisms must provide the leaders with the relevant information to make the best decisions in the interests of the organization\".\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to document the relation between the bank's regional CEO's emotional bias (optimism and loss aversion) and the delegation of decision rights to the account manager.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The partial least squares (PLS) method is applied to investigate the degree to which bank's regional CEO delegate decisions and the circumstances that drive variation in delegation.\nFindings: The results show that delegation does not appear to be monolithic; instead, the results show that delegation varies with the personal characteristics of the bank's regional CEO.\nPractical implications: Banks are invited to take into account the effect of the emotional biases of the directors on the delegation of its power.\nOriginality/value: The authors put forward an original effort that is intended to discuss in particular the effect of psychological biases on the decentralization of the decision-making rights.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Transformative and emancipatory potential of intersectionality research: Making a case for methodological pluralism
|
[
"Gender",
"Intersectionality",
"Emancipation",
"Methodology"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction to emancipatory and intersectionality research: An emancipatory research strategy in its broadest sense is designed to address common needs arising from the daily lives of marginalized communities and to generate knowledge in the process. This type of research typically eschews systems of knowledge production and associated tools and techniques that create distance between researchers and researched. Its main purpose is to empower members of a community, changing the social relations of research production and in the process initiating social change. The ideals of emancipatory research have for a long time been associated with feminist (Harding, 1987; Oakley, 1981), critical race (Tyson, 2003) and disability studies (Barton, 1996; Morris, 1992; Oliver, 1992). Although we are not aware of any explicit analyses of the emancipatory potential of intersectionality research, it would be reasonable to assume that the same principles apply to the study of intersectionalities. The purpose of this research note is, with reference to recent studies, to offer an appeal for ontological and methodological pluralism to enhance the emancipatory potential of intersectionality research.\nSocial constructionist approaches to intersectionality research: Social constructionist approaches highlight the mosaic of difference categories, and a multidimensional approach to unravelling difference. Puar's (2005) work is particularly insightful, drawing on intersectionality theorizing and incorporating notions of space and location:\nThe critical realist approach: On the other hand, our own recent empirical investigation into intersectionality (Woodhams et al., 2013, 2014) sits squarely within the realist tradition. Our methods of analysis, which are quantitative and based on a sample from a single organization in the private sector (n = 513,000), follow from that. Within the realist view, the intersections (e.g. between race, gender) are seen as \"real\" spaces (or points) that individuals occupy, and the impact of these structures, in combination, would frame their life experiences. We take the view that there is value in treating \"identities\" (gender, ethnicity) as \"variables\" and undertaking a quantitative analysis to expose their impact on employment outcomes and to explore how they interrelate. This is the approach to intersectional research that McCall describes as inter-categorical - where existing analytical categories are used \"in order to document relationships of inequality among social groups\" (McCall, 2005, p. 1,773). At a philosophical level, we draw, like McCall, on a critical realist (Collier, 1994) perspective to justify this approach, arguing for reality to be understood as multilayered - consisting in experience, phenomena and underlying structures/processes. A deep understanding requires enquiries aimed at each level and at the interrelationships between them. This multilevel analysis may be achieved \"bottom up\", as advocated by Winker and Degele (2011), building up from identity formation and representations and moving through to explore social structures and interrelations between categories. Alternatively, it may be achieved \"top down\", where macro-level analysis serves to identify the patterns and extent of disadvantage experienced by particular groups, pointing to underlying processes and structures (Kilbourne et al., 1994) and \"identify[ing] any categories that need further and specialist interrogation\" (Bagilhole, 2010, p. 269). We started at the top by using predefined categories of gender, ethnicity, age and disability within an HR database.\nConclusion: It is not our intention, then, to offer a critique of social constructionist approaches here - indeed, we would accept many of the arguments offered in support of them. There are good rationales, political and philosophical, underpinning these approaches, and we are broadly sympathetic to them. It is also not our intention to attempt to constrain discussion on the ontology of \"difference\". Rather, we argue that there is also policy impact and emancipatory value in research that takes preexisting categories (gender, ethnic group, etc.) and explores the way that they relate - individually and in combination - to \"outcomes\" (in our case, pay and job status). We think that our approach has a significant place within the intersectionality in management agenda. In fact, because we provide evidence of the impact of the intersections which is communicated in a way and in language that \"normative processes and cultures\" in management recognize, understand and use, our approach could be instrumental in placing diversity issues back on the managerial agenda - arguably more than social construction approaches.\n",
"role": "user"
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{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this study is to contribute to the debates of \"doing\" intersectionality in practice. The authors explore two of the primary approaches to researching from an intersectional perspective with the intention of critically reviewing the emancipatory potential of each. They argue for plurality and diversity of approaches in working toward a shared emancipatory goal.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The authors set up the debate via an exploration of emancipatory research principles. Based on their research experience the authors then critically reflect on the approaches to intersectionality research from the social constructionist and critical realist perspectives.\nFindings: The authors find that both approaches to intersectionality research have benefits and limitations in achieving emancipation for disadvantaged people in organizations. A critical realist approach underpinned by quantitative analysis of patterns within fixed multiple identity categories offers a convincing emancipatory case which can stimulate management action. However, it does not give prominence to the dynamic and political nature of the construction of \"difference\" in organizations. Social constructionist approaches address this weakness, but the wider patterns of disadvantage tend to have less prominence in the analysis. Accordingly, the policy implications can be less clear and the case for action less convincing.\nResearch limitations/implications: The authors provide material that contributes to debates of how to \"do\" intersectionality as a method. They acknowledge limitations in their argument supporting a critical realist approach from both methodological and emancipatory perspectives.\nOriginality/value: They call for consideration of pluralism in research approaches to exploit the emancipatory potential of diverse forms of research.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
What's in there for me? Individual readiness to change and the perceived impact of organizational change
|
[
"Communication climate",
"Core self-evaluation",
"Individual readiness to change",
"Perceived impact of change",
"Trust in management"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: Learning to cope with organizational change and effectively implementing change programs can be facilitated through the investigation of individual readiness to change. Armenakis et al. (1993, p. 682) defined readiness as the \"cognitive precursor to the behaviour of either resistance to, or support for, a change effort.\" Readiness is \"a mindset that exists among employees during the implementation of organizational changes. It comprises beliefs, attitudes and intentions of change target members regarding the need for and capability of implementing organizational change\" (Armenakis and Fredenberger, 1997, p. 144). The concept of readiness is interesting because employees' reactions to change play an important role in every organizational change (Oreg et al., 2011; Bartunek et al., 2006). In addition, the readiness factor is one of the most important factors involved in employees' initial support for change initiatives (Armenakis et al., 1993; Holt et al., 2007).\n2. Personality, context, and individual readiness to change: 2.1 Personality and individual readiness to change\n3. Method: 3.1 Research setting, procedure, and participants\n4. Results: Table I presents the descriptive statistics and the intercorrelation matrix of the variables under study. The first research question explores the individual attributes influencing individual readiness to change. With regard to the first hypothesis, it is expected that core self-evaluations would correlate with individual readiness to organizational change, and this hypothesis was confirmed (r=0.28, p<0.00), as Table I shows. This result provides further support for the importance of the relatively newly established personality constellation of core self-evaluations (Judge et al., 2003).\n5. Discussion: The aim of this study was to explore individual readiness to organizational change, taking into consideration the impact of change, individual characteristics, pre-change conditions, and work attitudes. In support of H1, the results showed that core self-evaluation is positively related to individual readiness to change. Employees who are confident about their abilities and are able to cope with stressful events, such as change, tend to perceive change as positive, and as a result, they experience high levels of readiness to change.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The readiness level may vary on the basis of what employees perceive as the balance between costs and benefits of maintaining a behavior and the costs and benefits of change. The purpose of this paper is to examine the concept of individual readiness to change and the impact of perceived impact of organizational change on its relationship with personality and context characteristics.\nDesign/methodology/approach: In all, 183 employees of a technological company based in Greece completed a questionnaire. This company was implementing a large scale restructuring change project.\nFindings: The results show that perceived impact of change mediates the relationship between the pre-change conditions and work attitudes and individual readiness to change.\nPractical implications: Employees who are confident about their abilities they experience high levels of readiness to change and therefore managers may want to examine this variable when selecting people for jobs entailing change. Creating a climate of trust and enhance positive communication also have an influence on individual readiness to change. Satisfied employees are more ready to change because they weigh the positive consequences of changing as significant and therefore decide to embrace change.\nOriginality/value: This research addressed the need for a more person-oriented approach in the study of change, exploring the concept of individual readiness to change and the perceived benefit of this change.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Interim management: is it the right career move?
|
[
"Interim management",
"Senior management",
"Careers"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n__NO_TITLE__: Interim management is estimated to be worth PS1 billion a year and is recognised as the fastest growing strategic resource for UK businesses.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: - The purpose of this paper is to highlight a service for all executives considering a career change.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - The methodology was in-depth research with industry service providers.\nFindings: - The workshop provides an excellent objective, one-stop shop for the facts of the industry and how to get started as an independent interim.\nResearch limitations/implications: - Material used is taken from Ipsos MORI research and from interviews with Interim Management Association (IMA) members. It is also validated and updated on a six monthly basis.\nPractical implications: - Delegates gain enough information to make an immediate informed decision about interim as a career option, as well as leading industry techniques to make a fast start, if that is their choice.\nOriginality/value: - This course is unique to the industry, in terms of its content, availability, and value to delegates.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
Undocumented childhood immigrants, the Dream Act and Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals in the USA
|
[
"Social policy",
"Human rights",
"Citizenship",
"Immigration",
"USA"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n__NO_TITLE__: Many industrialized countries are faced with illegal children brought by parents at a young age who have lived most of their lives in the country undocumented and in legal limbo. In the USA one large battle relates to undocumented young adults who were brought to the USA illegally as children and have spent most of their life in the USA. Undocumented students, even if they have attended compulsory education their entire life in the USA are not eligible to work or receive financial aid or state tuition in many states. To remedy the problem of undocumented children who were brought to the USA as children the Dream Act (Development, Relief and Education for Alien Minors) legislation was first introduced in the US Senate and House in 2001. The bills have been introduced multiple times. The legislation was most recently re-introduced in the US Congress in May 2011 by Senator Durbin (D-IL) and Representative Berman (D-CA) as S. 952 and H.R. 1842. The act would provide conditional permanent residency to certain illegal alien students and a potential pathway to the US citizenship. The Dream Act has been criticized by conservative groups and politicians as extending the rights of illegal immigrants by granting legal status and allowing amnesty for illegal aliens.\nThe Dream Act and DACA its proponents and challengers: By 2010 immigrant rights were one of the most contentious areas of national debate and disagreement. Illegal and \"undocumented\" are recent designations. They are primarily racial/ethnic designations. They were not used for immigrants without legal documentation for the large immigration from Ireland and Eastern and Southern Europe who were predominantly white. The majority of those lacking legal papers are Latino, often poor and with little formal education (Glenn, 2010).\nDream Act, DACA and students of undocumented immigrants: numbers and public opinion: There are slightly more than 2.1 million unauthorized youth and young adults that meet the federal guidelines for the Dream Act according to age, duration of US residency, and age at arrival requirements. Not all however meet the education requirements. Among those who would qualify with at least five years of residency in the USA who arrived before the age of 16, about 5 percent are young adults, from 18 to 34 years old. Another group of adults are 35 years old or older with at least an associate's degree. Together these two groups number about 114,000 (Batalova and McHugh, 2010).\nState Dream Acts: State Dream Acts give undocumented students some rights however; they vary significantly from state to state. 13 states grant in-state tuition eligibility to illegal immigrants based on attendance and graduation from a state high school (California, Connecticut, Illinois, Kansas, Maryland, Nebraska, New Mexico, New York, Oklahoma, Texas, Utah, Washington and Wisconsin). In 2008, Oklahoma ended its support for in-state tuition for undocumented students in the state. States that have also barred unauthorized immigrant students from in-state tuition include Arizona, Colorado, Georgia, South Carolina, and Indiana (National Conference of State Legislatures, 2011). 32 states have yet to pass legislation on unauthorized students.\nPublic opinion toward the Dream Act: Opinion polls on the Dream Act vary significantly depending on the question asked and the polling organization. Since DACA was only implemented in June of 2012 there is little information on it. A national probability sample conducted by Opinion Research Corporation for First Focus in June 2010 found that 70 percent of Americans favor the Dream Act. When asked if the respondent would strongly favor, not so strongly favor or strongly oppose or not so strongly oppose the Federal Dream Act, 51 percent strongly favored and 18 percent not so strongly favored the legislation in comparison to 19 percent who strongly opposed the measure and 6 percent who not so strongly opposed the Federal Dream Act. Both republicans and democrats supported the Dream Act; however, there was a margin of 20 percent difference (60 percent among republicans vs 80 percent among democrats). In a second question most respondents (69 percent) believed that states rather than the federal government should have the ability to determine whether or not to provide in-state tuition to illegal immigrant students residing in their state; republicans (75 percent) were more likely to agree with this statement than democrats (66 percent) (First Focus, 2010).\nUndocumented immigrants, citizenship rights and the Dream Act and DACA: Somers (2008) defines citizenship as the right to have equal rights. Social exclusion, on the other hand, is defined as the demise of citizenship and the promise of universal and equal citizenship. Attempts to expand rights, even for individuals who were brought young to the USA and have attended American schools have been blocked at the federal level. DACA offers short term amnesty and temporary relief from deportation; however, undocumented individuals have no clear path to resident alien status (possession of a green card) or citizenship. The lack of federal law has left the states to offer their own solutions which are contradictory, conflicting and open to many interpretations. Even the most generous Dream Act in Texas and California do not open the possibility for conditional permanent residency for students who complete college.\nConclusion: Currently undocumented children occupy a grey area between illegal and semi-legal. There are no easy answers in relationship to undocumented immigrants brought as children and social policy. Unless the immigration system is reformed to recognize undocumented immigrants and a fair pathway to legal status there will be an unequal and bifurcated citizenship in the USA. To require educational and other requirements as discussed in the Dream Act would come closer to the Canadian system, which is based on a points system to meet labor market needs and reunite families (The World Bank, 2012)[3].\nFuture research and practice: A close contextual analysis of the Dream Act and DACA and young undocumented immigrants has raised many questions for further research. What are key characteristics of the social status of the childhood immigrants without documents? Are they representative of all undocumented immigrants or since they have been educated in the USA do they differ from other undocumented immigrants? How do recipients of DACA influence the labor market, education and integration of undocumented immigrants in USA society? What are the demographic, social and economic consequences of DACA and the state Dream Acts? As Yoshikasa and Kalil (2011) observe there are very few systematic studies of undocumented children, particularly longitudinal studies to answer these questions.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this article is to critically examine two possible solutions to the lack of citizenship rights of children who lack documentation. Many industrialized countries must deal with undocumented children who have resided in the country most of their lives. In the USA, immigrants brought as children by their parents illegally are not eligible to receive financial help in most states for higher education, receive federal health care, or obtain driver's licenses. Even if they are qualified, they cannot legally work.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The article provides an in-depth analysis of the Dream Act and Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals. The benefit of this study is to critically examine two possible solutions to the problem of undocumented children who have lived most of their lives in the USA.\nFindings: The two solutions are analyzed in terms of broader conceptions of citizenship and human rights. Citizen rights are contested rights in the USA for undocumented immigrants and their children. It is found that theories of immigration and citizenship do not adequately explain the situation of undocumented childhood arrivals. After compulsory public education, undocumented students' lives are at the mercy of state and federal administration policies. Citizenship theory is analyzed as it applies to undocumented immigrants brought as children to the USA.\nResearch limitations/implications: This paper is limited to undocumented children in the USA.\nPractical implications: The results point to the need for universal policies that will ensure young adults will have the critical resources and associated rights.\nSocial implications: As Latinos become a large proportion of the US population, barriers to their continued education will impose significant economic and personal costs for individuals who have \"identity without citizenship\".\nOriginality/value: This is among the first academic paper to link undocumented childhood arrivals in the USA, citizenship theory and public policy.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Legal source, institutional quality and FDI flows in Africa
|
[
"Africa",
"FDI",
"Institutions",
"Legal origin"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: In this paper, we attempt to answer whether countries in Africa that are \"good\" by having a favourable legal framework and quality institutions are rewarded for their efforts in terms of attracting FDI to their respective countries. We attempt to match efforts (favourable legal framework, quality institutions) against accomplishment (FDI inflows) in Africa to separate winners from losers in their competition to attract limited investment capital. That being said, we identify winners and losers along regional blocks and trade forms while within regional blocks or trade blocks, we isolate individual effects. Legal frameworks/studies, usually the preserve of law studies, have gained empirical attention following the seminal work of La Porta et al. (henceforth, LLSV) 1998, 1990 and studies thereafter (La Porta et al., 1997; 1998; 2003). La Porta et al. (1998) identifies that there are two main legal framework or legal systems, the world over. These two emerge based on certain criteria as propelled by legal scholars[1]. The two most important broad legal frameworks are civil law and common law. In relation to Africa, the traditions of common law will apply to the all former colonies of Britain. This means most of the laws governing such countries, such as trade treaties, rules on free markets, capital requirements, judicial and other issues relation to foreign entry will have its root in the common law. The traditions of civil law will apply to all former colonies of Belgium, France, Germany, Italy and Portugal. The vast distribution of these two legal frameworks means that there is no one dominant legal system when it comes to Africa. Given the long history of legal systems since colonial times and their continual dominance on the continent, it is empirically imperative to ascertain if it has any association with foreign direct investment. Relatedly, \"Institutional voids\" being the rule rather than the exception for Africa, implying the lack of basic regulatory and judicial institutions that allow economic activity to flourish (Khanna and Palepu, 1997) as well as the voids that range from a weak political structure and a closed labour market to a controlled media and underdeveloped social systems that encumber arms-length transactions (Khanna et al., 2005). It is evident that the African continent has responded in their own way to this negative tag by instituting regulatory reforms, opening up their countries, sometimes along regional blocks/trade blocks. But have these countries been rewarded by attracting FDI inflows to the continent? Empiricists have devoted considerable efforts to estimate the relationship between institutions and FDI on the continent (Asiedu and Lien, 2011), but many endeavours/approaches remain to be undertaken to ascertain the effect of legal systems and institutional quality within African specific trade/regional blocks. The paper employs panel data spanning the period 1996-2011 within the framework of pooling panel data regression and system GMM. We find that legal and quality institutions will not necessary pull FDI flows into Africa. In addition, the various trading blocs show different associations between FDI, the legal system and institutional quality.\n2. Empirical evidence: Empirical research has shown that when it comes to business and finance, the effect of the origin of a firm or the investors' legal systems cannot be ignored. The influence of legal systems is known to impact on areas such as financial intermediation, development and economic growth (Levine, 1999; Beck et al., 2003; Harper and McNulty, 2008). It is, however, worthy to note that research pertaining to legal systems appear more in the literature of law than in the literature of finance. Yet, there are few studies that we can give credence to. In assessing the effects of different types of foreign owners on firm performance, Hake (2008) contends that the legal system affiliation of the ultimate foreign owner is important in determining the performance of firms in Central and Eastern Europe. The main conclusion is that firms whose owners come from a country of the English origin group have a higher effect on performance than firms of German and Scandinavian origins. In terms of investor protection, which is important to most multinationals, La Porta et al. (1997) contend that countries with legal systems in the civil law tradition give investors weaker protection than countries in the common law tradition. Considering Dunning (1981a, 1981b), on the ordinary least square (OLS) framework, this information could influence a potential investor's decision to invest in a particular location. Again, the quality of the legal system or the quality of law enforcement and the upholding of accounting standards are known to be higher among common law countries than in countries from the civil law origin (La Porta et al., 1998). This goes to suggest that multinationals operating in civil law countries may face delays in the enforcement of judicial rulings that go in their favour.\n3. Data and model specification: The paper uses annual panel data of 49 African countries over the period 1996 to 2011, and from several data sources. The independent variables of interest in this paper are the institutional quality index and the legal origin. We perform the analysis on the entire continent and the five trading blocks on the continent. The main trading blocks are Union Maghreb de Arab (UMA), which comprises Algeria, Libya, Mauritania, Morocco and Tunisia; the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA), made up of Angola, Burundi, the Comoros, DR. Congo, Djibouti, Egypt, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Kenya, Madagascar, Malawi, Mauritius, Namibia, Rwanda, Sudan, Swaziland, Uganda, Tunisia, Zambia and Zimbabwe; the Economic Community of Central African States (ECCAS), made up of Angola, Burundi, Cameroun, Central African Republic, DR Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Gabon and Rwanda; the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) Benin, Burkina Faso, Cape Verde, Cote d'Ivoire, Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Liberia, Mali, Mauritania, Niger, Nigeria, Senegal, Sierra Leone and Togo; and the last trading block, South African Development Community (SADC), which takes on the following countries: Angola, Botswana, DR Congo, Lesotho, Madagascar, Malawi, Mauritius, Mozambique, Namibia, South Africa, Swaziland, Tanzania, Zambia and Zimbabwe.\n4. Empirical results: We present the descriptive statistics for our study which covers the period 1996-2011. The descriptive statistics are presented in Table I. The mean values of FDI for the continent have confirmed the low rate of FDI onto the continent when compared to other regions. The descriptive statistics indicate that the mean of the FDI/GDP ratio was approximately 5 per cent (4.92) between 1996 and 2011.\n5. Discussions for policy implications: The discussions so far have revealed that for African countries, reliance on efficient institutions alone will not lead the continents drive to achieve high FDI inflows. Another very crucial point too is the fact a strong allegiance to the origin of the legal system hampers the flow of large volumes to FDI. Moreover, the institutional arrangements of most countries take its source from the countries' legal system. Again, most countries in Africa also have weak institutions. It may, therefore, not be surprising that both institutions and legal systems deter the flow of FDI to the continent. The importance of using FDI is in poverty reduction, as is well documented in the United Nations Millennium Declaration Goal (MDG) document, which was adopted by all member counties in September, 2000. Therefore, if Africa wants to benefit fully from the FDI spill over effect, the alliance to countries of the source of their legal origin should be seen to be reducing as such alliance does not propel FDI inflow. It is important to ask whether the alliance has in, recent times, increased FDI flow, leading to enhancement in economic growth and poverty reduction. For instance, according to United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (2012), the high levels of FDI in Africa between 2011 and 2012 could be attributed to large inflows from China and in the natural resource sector. China, however, has no legal system affiliation in Africa. Flows from other developing countries are also seen to be contributing to the quantum of FDI into Africa. The United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (2012) recognizes significant flows from Malaysia, China, India and South Africa. Notably, investment from these countries is known to go across most countries and most sectors apart from the extractive industries that are known to attract large FDI. The forgoing only suggests to policy makers that they should shift focus from old allegiances to legal system origin and form new trade partnerships. If the benefits that were supposed to emerge from programmes such as AGOA and NEPAD have not been realized, it is time African leaders look to other countries that have FDI benefits for the continent. Countries can break away from alliances that deter FDI by making themselves attractive destinations for FDI location through the setting up of investment promotion agencies to attract FDI. According to WIR (2002), investment promotion agencies exist to help investors deal with regulatory and administrative requirements, change the perception of investors about the host countries by participating and organizing investor fairs and seminars.\n6. Conclusion: The study had sought to find the association between the legal system and institutions and FDI attraction for Sub-Saharan Africa. Our results show that the source of a country's legal system deters FDI inflow while institutions alone cannot also bring in the needed quantum of FDI. In terms of trading blocs, we found that there is negative significant relationship between institutional quality and FDI for SADC under the main regression; however, there was no effect under the robust measure. Again, the robust measure found a negative and significant effect of institutions on FDI for ECOWAS. For legal systems, there is a strong negative relationship for ECOWAS under both modes of regression. Trade openness was, however, found to attract FDI, as noted in the previous studies. For policy implications, the results suggest that reliance on institutions alone cannot project the continent to attract the needed FDI. Again, continuous allegiance to the source of a country's legal system will deter FDI inflow. It is advised that strong and new alliances are built with other countries, if the aim of using FDI to reduce poverty by 2015 as part of the Millennium Development Goals is to be achieved.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: This paper aims to find out how the legal system interacts with other institutions in attracting Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) into Africa.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The authors use annual panel data of 49 African countries over the period 1980 to 2011, and use the system generalized method of moments (GMM) estimation technique and pooled panel data regression.\nFindings: The authors find that the source of a country's legal system deters FDI inflow as institutions alone cannot bring in the needed quantum of FDI. In terms of trading blocs, it was found that there is negative significant relationship between institutional quality and FDI for South African Development Community (SADC) as well as Economic Community of West Africa States (ECOWAS) countries.\nPractical implications: For policy implications, the results suggest that reliance on institutions alone cannot project the continent to attract the needed FDI.\nOriginality/value: Empiricists have devoted considerable effort to estimating the relationship between institutions and FDI on the African continent, but this paper seeks to ascertain the effect of legal systems and institutional quality within African specific trade and regional blocks.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
High performers down under: lessons from Australia's winning companies
|
[
"Business excellence",
"Business improvement",
"Management strategy"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: Over the last 25 years, a new approach to understanding successful organizations has emerged. Rather than looking at theoretical approaches, researchers have turned to the organizations and managers themselves to try to understand the characteristics of success for long-term \"winning\" organizations. Using the practical assessments of experienced managers and analysts, researchers then attempted to form integrated, holistic frameworks that explain this success. This paper builds on the empirical approach to identify the common elements that underpin the long-term performance of Australia's top performing organizations.\n2. Background and research overview: 2.1 The search begins\n3. Key findings: Several current myths of success were dispelled by the research. It was found that winning is not about vision or mission statements, big hairy audacious goals, great breakthrough ideas, organizational structure, marketing promotion or high remuneration levels.The study included several organizations that were not listed, or not listed for the entire 25-year period. For instance, the Salvation Army was nominated by executives in the survey and found to be a worthy member of the 11 organizations included in the study. The study also included two government organizations that were privatized during the period, Telstra and Qantas Airways, providing support for the view that \"winning\" is not confined simply to listed, or even private, organizations.The study also took a balanced scorecard approach to success, rather than a financial approach, as did \"Good to Great\". While the organizations did well financially, the research took a balanced view in terms of measurement and assessment of performance - and so did the organizations themselves.This is the first published Australian study that explores whether the principles from US studies are indeed applicable outside the US. Although Australia may be seen as quite similar to the US in its cultural origins, the research demonstrated that around 20 percent of the findings were different, involving some subtle variations on US management teachings. For instance, the study found that \"captain-coach\" leadership was important for Australians working in organizations, compared with the \"challenge\" leadership often found and proposed in US organizations. The role of government as an important positive player in industry was also highlighted, a factor not raised in any of the comparative studies.\n4. The winning framework: 4.1 Elements of success\n5. Conclusions: Taking organizations that are successful over the long term, and understanding the principles behind their success, provides some clear external validation of the management principles being espoused in the literature. The research covered by this paper has provided a clearer view of the essence of \"winning\" organizations in Australia. It is possible that the findings also provide a generic framework for organizational excellence in many overseas countries, cultures and business environments. Some of the keys messages that emerge include:1. Have a clear strategy. This does not necessarily mean expressing it as a mission or vision statement and it may be fuzzy at the edges to allow for incremental development.2. Develop a \"cause\" or a \"core purpose\" for the organization, something that people can identify with, well beyond their job or simply making a profit.3. Leadership is about teams, not individual leaders. In winning organizations, future leaders will come from within.4. Select people who fit the strategy and culture of the organization, not those who appear to be best qualified.5. Align systems and processes throughout the organization and ensure that they can adjust rapidly to change.6. Be externally focused, not just internally focused.7. Consider risk management and have project management plans in place, rather than simply considering the upside promised by new ideas.8. Say what you are going to do, and do it, on time and within budget.9. Winning involves maintaining a balance between the expectations of shareholders, customers, employees, suppliers, governments and communities.10. Winning takes a long time and is far removed from the short-term focus that gets newsworthy attention.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: - Several studies on high performing organizations in the US have strongly influenced management thinking about excellence in Australia. This paper challenges these studies and summarizes the results of a major four year empirical research project to define the unique attributes and key practices of 11 of Australia's long-term high performing organizations.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - Over 1,000 senior executives were surveyed to nominate these winning organizations. Success was defined as taking a balanced scorecard perspective coupled with long-term growth, innovation and productivity issues. Following detailed analysis, the final number of organizations was narrowed to eleven and their performance studied in depth over a 25-year period from 1982 to 2007.\nFindings: - Nine best practice elements have been identified from the eleven organizations: effective execution, perfect alignment, adapting rapidly, clear and fuzzy strategy, leadership not leaders, looking out and looking in, right people, managing the downside and balancing everything. This paper discusses these elements in detail and presents them as a \"winning wheel\" framework for achieving sustainable organizational excellence. It highlights the importance of effective execution and leadership as key characteristics of winning organizations.\nOriginality/value: - The principles identified from this research provide leaders and leadership teams with practical ideas and a model for improving their organizational practices and consequently their organization's performance. The framework can be applied to organizations of all types including listed, private, not-for-profit and public sector.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Socialisation in architectural education: a view from East Africa
|
[
"Focus groups",
"East Africa",
"Socialization",
"Expectations",
"Architectural education"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Architectural education, which extends over several years, is fundamental to the transformation of students from novices to professionals. Aside from the acquisition of the explicit elements of architecture, students also acquire tacit elements of the profession, a consequence of the high level of interaction between instructors and students. It is through this interaction that students are initiated into the (cultural) norms of the architecture profession, making this socialisation process significantly influential in architectural educational. Interest in the transformation that occurs as part of architectural education, has formed the basis of several studies, including: design studio pedagogy and studio culture (Dutton, 1987; Anthony, 1991; Shannon, 1995; Wilson, 1996); setting and programme (Stevens, 1998); and context (Webster, 2008). This interest in the processes of architectural education, beyond its knowledge elements, showcases a growing awareness and importance of the tacit curriculum in professional education, and is an acknowledgement that education is a social process that does not occur in a vacuum (Bragg, 1976; Fung, 1996). However, as these social processes are difficult to quantify, and thus largely undocumented, they are often taken for granted (Stevens, 1998). I thus ponder the question: \"What therefore are the effects of the socialisation process?\" This question was investigated in the context of architecture education in East Africa (incorporating Kenya, Tanzania, and Uganda), seeking to understand factors that affect and influence learning within architecture schools in the region.\nSocialisation in architectural education: For the purpose of this paper, socialisation is defined as \"[...] that process by which individuals acquire the values, attitudes, norms, knowledge, and skills needed to perform their roles acceptably in the group or groups in which they are, or seek to be, members\" (Bragg, 1976, p. 6). With architectural education having a relatively loosely defined pedagogy based around the design studio, socialisation emerges as particularly influential in the transformation of individuals as they progress through architecture school. While knowledge is a key part of education, it is also acknowledged that architectural education is where \"[...] students gradually take on language codes, stylistic preferences, and rituals of architects, while becoming increasingly remote from the way laypeople describe and prioritise architecture\" (Strickfaden and Heylighen, 2010, p. 122). This effectively presents architectural education as akin to indoctrination, with novices assimilated into the language, the dress, and way of thinking of architecture (Coleman, 2010), equipping individuals with essential professional intricacies not normally included or evident in the main curriculum, but \"[...] slowly absorbed from those who are already cultivated\" (Stevens, 1998, p. 196). In this case, instructors who are already encultured into architecture through their own education (and practice), emerge as key patrons of educational socialisation, and who set the framework within which socialisation takes place (Bess, 1978; Strickfaden and Heylighen, 2010). It is this influence on students within architectural education that makes socialisation an important area for investigation.\nMethodology: The study was undertaken over a three-year period, in five schools of architecture across East Africa; two schools offered dual degree programmes, while the other three had traditional five-year single degree programmes. The student intake varied from 25 in one of the newer schools, to over 150 in one of the older established universities. As an ethnographic study seeking to garner information on socialisation, an approach that allowed participants to engage directly with the key issues was necessary. This was provided through a mixed methods approach, with emphasis on focus group discussions; an economical, fast and efficient method to obtain data from multiple participants. Focus group discussions are generally carried out in a socially oriented environment, giving participants a sense of belonging, while creating opportunities for unexpected but valuable responses (Onwuegbuzie et al., 2009). Other methods of data collection employed included: a questionnaire study of practicing architects and architectural educators, used to consolidate ideas garnered from the literature, as well as participant observations in selected schools; together these provided rich information from diverse viewpoints. As the primary data collection method, focus groups were useful in engaging discussants in conversation and debate, while also enabling participants to venture into topics deemed important within the framework of the discussions. In the context of East Africa, focus groups also served to circumvent a key challenge faced in social research; a lack of confidence in the \"system\", with participants often hesitant to divulge information fearing it could used against them. By allowing disagreements, debate and corrections among discussants, focus groups enable instant validation of information through oral engagement, something not possible through questionnaire-based studies. Finally, to ensure key topics were covered and progressing steadily within agreed time limits, substantive themes were introduced during the conversations as and when necessary.\nTeaching, learning, and the [D]esign studio: As a key part of architectural education, the design studio is not only a place for architectural design exploration, but also where there is significant interaction between instructors and students, as well as amongst students. The one-on-one interaction between instructors and students is intrinsically linked to the instructors' background, their familiarity (or otherwise) of architectural pedagogy and to the broader goals of architectural education. The study revealed that many faculty had limited awareness of contemporary educational pedagogy, generally peddling what had been garnered through their own education and experiences as students, a phenomenon described as \"yellow notes\", in reference to the deterioration of paper as it aged over time (Olweny, 2013). In addition, the privileged position of instructors was also significant, as highlighted by Foster (1961) and Pido (2002), and largely related to seniority often utilised to inculcate ideas in students.\nContemporary issues in architectural education: Two areas were particularly significant with regard to engagement with contemporary issues in architectural education: environmental sustainable design (ESD), and use of computers in architectural education. The study revealed a general lack of engagement with these contemporary issues within architectural education, effectively relegated to the periphery of programmes, as noted by one faculty member with regard to ESD: \"ZERO! Ok, Zero in the sense that, even when I want, ok, even when the students want, sometimes the academic, fellow academic staff can be the obstacle, ok. [...] these people are not interested in sustainable building design\" (FG10_4). Engagement with ESD was often discouraged, a consequence of this being a relatively new concern in architectural education, and had not been a part of the instructors' own education, not to mention limited engagement with ESD in the professional realm. This limited engagement was often blamed on a lack of local precedents, linked to planning and building regulations, which for many municipalities had remained unchanged since the 1950s, and enforced with little regard for technological developments (Olweny and Olweny, 2010). Planning and building legislation was thus retrogressive, dissuading the implementation of innovative solutions, which translated to students being hesitant to engage with ESD as part of their design solutions as this was not the \"norm\" in the professional realm: \"[...] when you talk about green materials, green way of doing things, you know there is also the risk of, will my plans be approved, or will the client welcome these ideas [...]\" (FG1-2). Nevertheless, while faculty were not particularly enthusiastic about including ESD as part of the design exploration, a number of students had opposing views, acknowledging that ESD was a pressing issue in contemporary architecture, and were thus interested in gaining a better understanding of the subject. The absence of ESD in many curricula therefore left students disappointed, more so as this absence was perceived as a regressive approach to architecture (see Table III).\nDiscussion and educational implications: Contemplating some of the outcomes of socialisation in the context of contemporary architectural education in East Africa, it is necessary to reflect on the historic origins of formal education in the region. Initially this was geared towards the acquisition of \"new\" and \"useful\" knowledge, to enable participation in the introduced societal structures of the early colonial era, with instruction provided by religious missionaries, traders, and to a lesser extent the colonial administration and the military (Beck, 1966; Kithinji, 2012; Parsons, 2000). Within that system, education was framed as the \"[...] transmission of packaged, or pre-digested, information - education as instruction administered to the 'ignorant' by experts [...]\" (Mills and Lipman, 1994, p. 215), and geared to meet the needs of a \"modern\" parallel co-existing society. Inheriting this systems, post-colonial governments found this useful in advancing their ideological agenda (Kithinji, 2012); the emphasis on knowledge as the basis of education having been founded on a belief that \"[...] knowledge in its pure form [was] considered apolitical and universally relevant [...]\" (Owolabi, 2007, p. 71), thus knowledge itself was eminently valued. Education as a consequence was framed as \"studying about\" rather than \"participating in\" educational activities, effectively leading to commodification of knowledge. Within such an environment, students were little more than passive receivers of knowledge, provided by instructors who not only controlled this proprietary knowledge, but also its dissemination, and in some cases its application as well.\nConclusion: It is evident through this study that teaching is not value-free, with knowledge and ideas constructed based on prior education, exposure, and experiences. Consequential outcomes of this approach are suggestions of a static and unchanging profession, giving a perception of the future as:[...] a conservative extrapolation of the past. In this mindset, everything changes slowly, linearly, and predictably. This perspective encourages a strong adherence to inherited beliefs, methods, technologies, and social rules. Education means to reproduce the time honoured model of the world. Teaching is the handing down of existing knowledge to the next generation(Bermudez, 1999, p. 3).\n",
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"content": "Purpose: Concern for the state of architectural education in East Africa was a catalyst for this exploration of socialisation, which sought to understand socialisation and its influence on educational outcomes in the region. Socialisation within architectural education has long been known to influence how students acquire important aspects of the profession, building both values and a cultural ethos in the process. An appreciation of these processes in the context of East Africa adds to the wider understanding of the implicit curriculum in architectural education. The paper aims to discuss these issues.\nDesign/methodology/approach: An ethnographic study was undertaken in five architecture schools across Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda, making use of a mixed method approach incorporating document analysis, a questionnaire study, participant observations and focus group discussions as the data gathering instruments. Focus group discussions, as the primary data gathering method, acknowledged the social context of the study, with data gathered from multiple sites across the region.\nFindings: As an integral component of architectural education, socialisation was evident at all stages of the educational process. Within the educational realm, contrasting expectations of students and instructors were evident, leading to conflicts that influenced the values acquired by students. This was seen in attitudes towards contemporary architectural issues within architectural education, and suggests that socialisation can at times have pronounced negative consequences.\nOriginality/value: The wider study represents the first comprehensive review of architectural education in the context of East Africa, and contributes to the global appreciation of the influence of socialisation on educational outcomes.\n",
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Awareness and habit: important factors in physical activity in children
|
[
"Fitness",
"The Netherlands",
"Children (age groups)",
"Exercise",
"Behaviour"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Being physically active promotes both physical and mental health. Accumulating evidence suggests that physical activity in children could reduce the prevalence of cardiovascular risk factors (Kavey et al., 2003; Batty and Lee, 2004; Andersen et al., 2006) and obesity (Westerterp and Goran, 1997; Ball et al., 2001; Janssen et al., 2005). In addition, children gain immediate benefits from adequate levels of physical activity, for example enhanced bone health (MacKelvie et al., 2003), development of motor skills (Shephard and Lavallee, 1994) and increased self-esteem (Ekeland et al., 2004).Accurate estimates of how many girls and boys can be classified as inactive according to current recommendations are clouded by methodological inconsistencies (Armstrong and Welsman, 2006) but it is well documented that the number of young people who experience physical activity of the type, duration, frequency and intensity recommended by expert committees decreases with age (Kohl and Hobbs, 1998; Van Mechelen et al., 2000, Armstrong and Welsman, 2006). In order to contribute to systematic promotion of physical activity, insight into the determinants of physical activity behaviours is necessary (Brug et al., 2005). Based on social psychology, a number of different theories and models have been proposed for the study of health-related behaviours. Based on a review of these models, Abraham et al. (1998) identified four groups of determinants that predict intention: attitudes, perceived social influence, self-efficacy and self-representation.Multiple social cognitive models have proven useful in studying determinants of physical activity (see Hagger et al., 2002). These models, such as the Health Belief Model (Janz and Becker, 1984), Protection Motivation Theory (Maddux and Rogers, 1983), Social Learning Theory (Bandura, 1977) and the Theory of Planned Behaviour (Ajzen, 1988) share a common feature in that they focus primarily on the decision (intention) to adopt or modify behaviour. This intention is assumed to be the primary determinant of behaviour. Generally, three groups of determinants can be identified that are assumed to predict intention: attitudes, subjective norms and self-efficacy. Attitudes are based on a subjective weighing of expected advantages and disadvantages of the behaviour. Closely related concepts are decisional balance (Prochaska and DiClemente, 1983) and outcome expectations (Bandura, 1986). Subjective norms refer to expectations about what people in our direct social environment want us to do (Ajzen, 1988). Self-efficacy (or perceived behavioural control (see Ajzen, 2002)) refers to the perception of, or confidence in, abilities and possibilities related to the behaviour.However, the widely applied social cognitive models, as described previously, seem to neglect an important aspect of physical activity behaviour, i.e. the repetitive and possibly habitual nature (Kremers and Brug, 2008). Once behaviour is performed repeatedly, it may become automatically triggered by environmental cues and thus become habitual (Aarts et al., 1997). If that is the case, people may no longer consider potential positive and negative consequences or the opinions of others, i.e. cognitions may become less important. The model of physical exercise and habit formation (Aarts et al., 1997) has been formulated to conceptualise the influence of environment on behaviour that is unmediated by cognitive factors. Furthermore, physical activity is a complex health related behaviour in that it consists of a variety of different activities during the day (e.g. walking, cycling, jumping) and seems to be a natural part of daily life. Therefore, it may be difficult for people to make a good judgement about the amount of time they are physically active every day. Earlier studies on physical activity have shown that 60 per cent of the adults overestimated their physical activity level (Ronda et al., 2001). Furthermore, earlier studies have shown that psychosocial factors have less explanatory value for complex health behaviours such as physical activity and diet among people who are unaware of their behaviour (Brug et al., 1994; Lechner et al., 1997; Ronda et al., 2001; Bogers et al., 2004). Awareness has been identified as an independent correlate of motivation to change (Ronda et al., 2001). To date, information about the role of awareness in physical activity behaviour among children is lacking.In the present study we tried to gain insight into the extent to which Dutch children are aware of their own physical activity level, and to what extent children's physical activity is habitual. Furthermore we tested whether awareness and habit strength moderated the associations between psychosocial factors and exercise behaviour. We hypothesized that in children who are aware of their own physical activity level, the psychosocial factors would be of more explanatory value than in children who are unaware. Additionally we hypothesized that in children with strong exercise habits the psychosocial factors would explain less variance in behaviour than in children with weak exercise habits.\nMethods: Respondents and procedures\nQuestionnaire: Reported physical activity\nResults: Respondents\nDiscussion: This study indicates the importance of awareness and habit strength in the investigation of potential determinants of physical activity in children. In addition to the finding that children with high awareness of personal behaviour and high habit strength were more physically active, our study showed that awareness and habit strength moderated the association of psychosocial determinants with physical activity. In line with our hypotheses, psychosocial factors were less associated with physical activity in children with low awareness of their personal physical activity levels and in children for who physical activity was strongly habitual.Previous studies that investigated similar factors but somewhat different definitions of moderate physical activity have shown explained variances between 5 and 26 per cent in populations of children (Trost et al., 1997, 2002; DiLorenzo et al., 1998). However, the present study makes clear that such results must be interpreted with caution since the explanatory value of psychosocial factors depends highly on awareness and habit strength levels.The present study's results are very similar to studies conducted on adult physical activity (Ronda et al., 2001) and diet (Brug et al., 1994; Lechner et al., 1997; Bogers et al., 2004). With respect to habit strength, our results are similar to those found in studies regarding adolescent sedentary behaviour (Kremers and Brug, 2008 and adult fruit consumption (De Bruijn et al., 2007). The present study indicates that children who are unaware of their own level of activity and those with strong habits concerning physical activity are less likely to make well-considered behavioural choices. Physical activity of these children is probably more likely to be triggered by external cues like availability of sport opportunities, attractiveness of playgrounds, or safety to play outside (Sallis et al., 2000; Kremers et al., 2006, Kwak et al., 2006). In contrast to our hypotheses, the concept of perceived advantages was a significant correlate of behaviour in those children who had strong physical activity habits. In fact, the concept of perceived advantages was the only significantly moderated factor with respect to habit. This result indicates that a positive perception of behaviour is not only a significant factor in the early stages of behavioural initiation, but continuous positive evaluation of the habitually engaged physical activity remains to be of importance for children.Children who are unaware of their physical activity habits may be less susceptible to educational programmes primarily based on influencing attitudes, norms, self-efficacy or other cognitive factors, because they will not perceive a need to change. For health education to be successful in promoting physical activity in children, it is important that such education is first aimed at raising awareness levels, for example by providing children with personal feedback on their activity levels. Physical activity diaries, using accelerometers or pedometers, preferably combined with personally tailored feedback have been shown to be helpful tools for this goal (Roemmich et al., 2004; Vandelanotte et al., 2005; Kroeze et al., 2006). Besides, it is important to make children aware of the diversity of physical activity opportunities and to teach them how to recognize their own needs to exercise (US Department of Health and Human Services, 1996). Strengthening the habitual nature of physical activity in children might help to establish higher levels of physical activity. Habit theory posits that environmental cues are needed to trigger habitual behaviours (Aarts et al., 1997). Therefore, resources and opportunities need to be provided that enable the children to perform the type of exercise they like at any time they want to. For example, interventions could focus on promotion of efficient physical education (PE) classes and opportunities to be active during recess and the lunch break. Indeed, a review by Kahn et al. (2002) has shown that environmental interventions such as increasing the length and intensity of PE classes are effective in changing physical activity levels of children. But, because habit strength might decline when the environment changes and habit-inducing cues cease (Wind et al., 2005; De Bruijn et al., 2007), attention should also be paid to other strategies to improve habit strength. For example, it has been argued that encouraging people to make so-called implementation intentions (Gollwitzer, 1999; Prestwich et al., 2003), that is, simple action plans on how, when and where one plans to be physically active, may be a way of establishing relevant environmental cues for physical activity, and thus promoting the formation of habitual behaviour. Kwak et al. (2007) recently showed that formation of implementation intentions indeed promotes stair use in an adult population.Limitations of the research\nConclusion: In conclusion, this study improves our understanding of determinants of physical activity behaviour in children and it emphasises the importance of the concepts \"awareness\" and \"habit strength\" in physical activity behaviour in children besides the more common psychosocial constructs. We would therefore recommend the application of these concepts in new studies on physical activity in children, preferably applying objective behavioural measures, as well as in design and evaluation of intervention programmes.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: - The purpose of this paper is to gain insight into the extent to which Dutch children are aware of their own physical activity level, and to what extent children's physical activity is habitual. Special attention was paid to the potential moderating effect of \"awareness\" and \"habit strength\" on the association between psychosocial factors and exercise behaviour.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - Data were gathered on 419 Dutch children, aged eight to 13 years, with self-administered questionnaires in which demographic variables, reported physical activity levels, psychosocial factors and levels of awareness and habit strength were assessed.\nFindings: - Children with high awareness of personal behaviour and high habit strength were reported to be more physically active. Furthermore, psychosocial factors were less associated with physical activity in children with low awareness of their personal physical activity levels and in children for whom physical activity was strongly habitual than in children with high awareness or with low habit strength concerning physical activity.\nResearch limitations/implications: - The paper uses self-reports to measure physical activity, which gives less accurate information on physical activity behaviour than objective measures. Furthermore, the cross-sectional nature of this study design precludes the authors from inferring causal relationships between psychosocial factors and physical activity behaviour.\nPractical implications: - For promoting physical activity in children to be successful, it is important that education is first aimed at raising awareness levels. Besides, strengthening the habitual nature of physical activity in children might help to establish higher levels of physical activity.\nOriginality/value: - The study indicates the importance of the concepts \"awareness\" and \"habit strength\" in physical activity behaviour. It offers useful information for designers of interventions to improve physical activity in children.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
The relationships between collective-oriented values and materialism, product status signaling and product satisfaction: A two-city study
|
[
"Malaysia",
"Saudi Arabia",
"Materialism",
"Collective-oriented values",
"Product satisfaction",
"Product status signaling"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: The continuously changing environment in marketplace has always been a challenge for marketers when they try to understand consumer behavior. In this era of globalization, behaviors of consumers as well as their materialistic values are changing (Gupta, 2011). The changing environment due to globalization presents challenges for international firms in terms of understanding their diverse market components and maintaining awareness of their ever-shifting consumer preferences (Paul, 2015). In buying products, consumers now encounter a variety of products to choose from, including local as well as global brands (Dogerlioglu-Demir and Tansuhaj, 2011). Many previous studies have attempted to comprehend the marketing process through careful examination of the marketing environment to get an insight into what motivates a consumer to make a purchase. In today's marketplace, a materialistic ideology is found throughout the world, particularly in developing economies where non-materialistic or common people are being transformed into materialistic consumers (Durvasula et al., 2001; Gupta, 2011; Kaynak and Kara, 2012). Materialism, product status consumption, and choices of brands are basic reasons that caused people to identify themselves with possessions of material goods in their pursuit of happiness (Goldsmith et al., 1996).\nTheoretical foundations, conceptual framework, and hypotheses: Materialism and collective-oriented values\nMethods of data collection and analysis: Subject and procedures\nResults: We performed structural equation modeling (SEM) to test the hypotheses using AMOS 22 software. We adopted the partial disaggregation approach by Yee et al. (2011) in order to minimize the level of random error, unstable estimates (by reducing the number of parameters to be estimated) and to have a more parsimonious rather than a fully disaggregated model (Bagozzi and Edwards, 1998). Following this approach, we formed the constructs of our study by averaging the corresponding indicators with odd- and even-numbers to reduce the scale indicators to two items for each construct for further analysis.\nDiscussion: The difference in the relationship between consumers' family values and materialism between Malaysians and Saudis is quite interesting. Normally, we would expect people who have high regard for family values would be less materialistic (i.e. inverse relationship). This was certainly found to be true for Saudis but not so for Malaysians. The findings confirmed the differences on the influence of collective-oriented values on materialism between Saudis and Malaysians. For Saudis, all the three collective-oriented values - religious, family, and community - significantly influence materialism, whereas for Malaysians, only family values significantly influence materialism. Thus, the findings not only confirmed the relationships that exist between collective-oriented values and materialism in the two countries but they also showed differences in the influences of these values across the two cultures/cities. Culture is dynamic and consumer behavior is ever evolving. This dual dynamism tends to create complexity and sophistication in terms of feelings, thinking, and actions of consumers within a market (Lim and Park, 2013; Sharif and Kassim, 2015). To add to this cultural complexity, all consumers within a society do not act or behave in a similar fashion even though general trends do exist. Thus, our finding, which indicates that consumers' family values positively affect materialism for Malaysians, requires some explanations. Perhaps, Malaysians who have high regard for family values but are also found to be materialistic, could be due to the influence of socio-oriented family communication pertaining to products and services occurring at home where, when for people who are socio-oriented, they tend to care about their physical appearance (Chang et al., 2008) which could result in them being materialistic (Moschis and Moore, 1979). Bindah and Othman (2012) found that Malaysians who are raised by parents who practiced socio-oriented family communication (focusing on physical appearance) concerning goods and services with them were found to be more materialistic than those whose parents practiced concept-oriented family communication (focusing on achievement traits) concerning goods and services with them. Another possible explanation for this could be that religiosity may have beneficial effects on family values depending on the religion one follows (Moschis and Ong, 2011). Malaysia consists of three main ethnic subcultures, namely, Malays (100 percent Muslims), Indians (mostly Hindus), and Chinese (mainly Buddhists, Taoists, Agnostics). The societal value of collectivism relates to its history of kinships. An individual is locked into a cohesive family structure that cultivates collective consciousness and responsibility (Iskandar and Pourjalali, 2000). Hence, in Malaysia, people with a Chinese ethnic background value family and business based on kinship, loyalty, and subservience rather than on religion. Malays also maintain close-knit relationships among their circle of family and friends. Traditionally, they maintain their close relationships through cooperative activities, community committee meetings, and discussions. They collectively make decisions for the community. The Islamic religion has also reinforced the collectivism among Malays by emphasizing group and society interests over individual interest. Indeed, not only Malays, but also Indians share these values (Kassim, 2006). Furthermore, unlike ethnic Chinese and Indians, the behaviors of Malays are very much influenced by their adat (custom) (Harding, 2012). Thus, the influence on materialism from the religious values of Malays could not dampen the materialistic values of the combined three main ethnicities of Malaysians, resulting in them being materialistic even if their family values are high as well (positive relationship). In other words, the multi-cultural society that prevails in Malaysia (Muslim majority but multi-religious) could be the reason why family values positively influence materialistic values for Malaysians but not for Saudis (100 percent Muslims) where the relationship is inversed. As pointed out by Barakat (1993), all Arab groups, despite their wide and varied geographical and territorial differences, share the same features in terms of family role, class structure, religious and political behaviors, social morality standards, the presence of change, and the impact of development of the people's lives. When compared to Malaysians, Arab values are more homogenous in terms of individual behavior; the importance of a person's dignity, honor, and reputation; loyalty to one's family over personal preferences; social class and family background are main determinants of personal status; and the importance of the need to maintain conservative social morality standards (Nydell, 2012). Nydell (2012) also pointed out that, in the Arab world, having a happy family life is considered as very important, perhaps more important than materialism. Thus, it is not surprising for us to find that, for Saudis, family and community values influence materialism positively but not their family values. Horizontal-collectivism puts strong emphasize on sociability, benevolence, and cooperation that can be linked to Islamic tradition of religious laws and moral conducts (Sharif and Kassim, 2015). Islamic religion plays a central role in Saudi Arabian life; it is a factor in the forming of an individual's identity and it plays a large role in their cultural practices. For Muslims, they view Islam not just as a religion but also as a complete way of life based upon a voluntary relationship between an individual and his creator. Nevertheless, the religion does not deny the importance of material causes for enjoyment, except that they are not an essential requirement for it; material things are merely among the means that might contribute to it (Kassim and Zain, 2016; Saheeh International, 2012). As a whole, Saudi society like any other societies, values behavior displaying generosity, selflessness, and hospitality. According to Cherrier et al. (2009), along with materialism, Muslims express a strong interest in their physical appearance, they have high regard for achievement and they like to view themselves with achievement. Thus, these explained why one of the main concerns of Saudis (and others from the Gulf countries) is about fulfilling their societal and cultural demands for material wealth, social status, and physical well-being (Sharif and Kassim, 2015). However, our Malaysian finding disconfirmed a previous study by Cherrier et al. (2009), which found that Muslims (Arabs and non-Arabs) tend to demonstrate more personal materialism than non-Muslims (Christians).\nImplications and conclusion: The findings from this study demonstrate the complexity of cultures and lifestyles of consumers and societies. As a result, businesses and foreign marketers face greater challenges in trying to market their designer or luxury products or services. What is clear from this study is that consumers from the two cultures/cities do use luxury products to signal their status in the society, despite their different cultures and country income levels and that the consumptions of those products gave them satisfaction. Hence, as a practical implication, international marketers of luxury products and services could and should continue to market their products and services in these two countries. This is evident by the visible presence of exclusive luxury product shopping centers, particularly in Saudi Arabia. However, they need to understand that the factors that influence the consumers' materialism are different between the two cultures/cities. In Malaysia, only family values positively influence consumers' materialism while in Saudi Arabia, all the three values (religious, family, and community) influence consumers' materialism. They also need to understand that in Malaysia, family values positively influence materialism, but in Saudi Arabia, the influence is negative. Hence, they need to adjust their marketing strategies in these two markets, accordingly. For example, marketers of luxury products/services (such as luxury cars or overseas vacation packages) in Malaysia need to convey a message to their target customers that consuming such products/services suits their family values. In Saudi Arabia, marketers of luxury products need to stress to their target customers that buying luxury products is not against their religious or community values since they could very well afford to buy the products and that buying such products would not in any way reduce their ability to fulfill their social obligations. Above all, most previous consumer behavior researches have been based on developed or industrialized markets. Very few have been done to explore consumer behavior in fast developing markets with distinct and different cultures. Thus, this study represents the first attempt at investigating the behavior in two different and fast developing cultures but with different income levels.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: Prior research has found that consumers' purchasing behavior varies amongst consumers of different cultures. The purpose of this paper is to examine the behavior of consumers of luxury products by investigating the relationships between their collective-oriented values (pertaining to religion, family, and community), and their materialism or materialistic orientation, resulting in them using such products to signal their social status to others, and whether they are getting satisfaction from using such products, in an effort to understand how the behaviors vary between Malaysian and Saudi Arabian consumers.\nDesign/methodology/approach: Data were collected by a questionnaire survey where 1,388 self-administered questionnaires were collected from Baby boomers, Generations X and Y respondents in two major cities: Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia and Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. The data were analyzed using structural equation modeling. The authors also assessed the structure and reliability of the constructs developed for this research as well as tested some hypotheses regarding their interrelationships, across the two different cities/cultures.\nFindings: Findings demonstrate the complexity of cultures and lifestyles of consumers and societies. For Saudi consumers, their materialistic tendency is significantly influenced by their religious, family values (inverse relationship), and community values, whereas for the Malaysian consumers, this tendency was only significantly influenced by their family values. For the Saudis, there were strong positive relationships between materialistic values and product status signaling and between product status signaling and product satisfaction, whereas for the Malaysians, both relationships were also positive but only moderate in strength. Overall, the results show that the Malaysians were more materialistic than the Saudis. But, since the Saudis have higher income, they are in a better position to fulfill their materialistic desire than their Malaysian counterparts.\nResearch limitations/implications: The convenience sampling used for the study is the main limitation. Another limitation of this study is that it was done in only one major city in each of the two countries.\nPractical implications: Consumers from the two cultures/cities do use luxury products to signal their status in the society, despite their different cultures and country income levels and that the consumption of those products gave both of them satisfaction. Hence, as a practical implication, international marketers of luxury products and services could and should continue to market their products and services in these two countries. However, they need to understand that the factors that influence the consumers' materialism are different between the two cultures/cities and hence their marketing strategies need to take this into consideration.\nOriginality/value: All the issues discussed in this study have not been previously empirically investigated and compared in two different developing countries - Saudi Arabia, a mono-cultural and high-income country) and Malaysia (a multi-cultural and upper middle income country) despite their rapid growth rates and economic importance.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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Dramaturgical awareness of consultants through the rhetoric and rituals of cooperation
|
[
"Reflective practitioner",
"Consulting",
"Cooperation",
"Dramaturgical awareness",
"Strategic actor"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: The concept of cooperation is central to a substantial portion of the practitioners' literature on management consulting practices in organizations. This literature attaches great importance to the development of professional relationships based on trust and the mobilization of all stakeholders within an organization around the achievement of goals pursued during a consultation mission - almost to the point of being defined as a standard practice (Block, 2011; Kubr, 2002; Lalonde, 2011). It is all the more important to establish this cooperation between the consultant and various stakeholders (often designated as the \"client-system\") in professional organizations found in major public systems, such as the healthcare sector in Quebec, given their pluralistic nature, the professional autonomy demanded by various groups whose practice is governed by a set of standards and the course of goals pursued by these groups (Denis et al., 2007; Gilbert et al., 2007; Glassman and Winograd, 2004; Lapsley and Oldfield, 2001). The development of a cooperative model generally takes place through a process involving different phases, each carefully planned. This process, similar to a standardized ritual to which each party tends to conform, consists of a set of general practices and routines, some explicit (e.g. sharing elements of a situation, assembling pieces of information in a written document as the foundation of a service tender, formulating recommendations) and others more implicit (e.g. instilling a climate of trust, appreciating the sensitivities of the organizational environment).\n2. Consultation, cooperation and organizational dramaturgy: a summary of the literature: The results of our literature review tend to show that organizational dramaturgy, the outcome of Goffman's work, has been used primarily to highlight impression management and tactics, often manipulative, deployed by management consultants in their relationships with upper management. It is important to note that only a few empirical studies directly related to our theme \"consultation, cooperation and organizational dramaturgy (including \"awareness\")\" have been identified in recent literature. In their study of executive search consultants, Clark and Salaman (1998) essentially define the dramaturgical metaphor as a manipulative act intended to persuade the manager-client of the consultant's value. The authors base this view of dramaturgy on the fact that the characteristics inherent to consultation services - intangibility and heterogeneity - make it difficult for the client to truly assess the actual scope of the services. Therefore, the client will refer to the \"symbols\" of the expertise, the image and impression projected by the consultant to purchase his services. In their study of the evaluation of agency services directed at terminally ill patients and their families in Great Britain, O'Brien et al. (2010) show that the evaluation process is eminently political. The agencies depend on more than half of their funding from individual donations and corporate fundraisers; administrators selectively use the most positive results resulting from their evaluation to obtain the desired funding. The authors base this on the \"frame analysis\" concept resulting from Goffman's work to support what they term as \"knowledge manipulation\" used by the administrators. Clark and Mangham (2004) study a particular form of intervention in corporations - the corporate theater - and show that the staging behind the constitution of this particular form of theater is essentially intended to justify the ideology of the dominant group (the managers) in a context of change (in this case, the merger of two banks).\n3. Theoretical framework: The theoretical framework of this research project is based on a cross-referenced reading of authors in sociology of organizations, first, the concept of dramaturgical awareness developed by Brissett and Edgley (2009) derived from the work of Goffman (1959, 1967), the seminal work of Crozier and Friedberg (1980) on the strategic actor, and the characteristics of the reflective practitioner put forward by Schon (1983). Moreover, sense making (Weick, 1999) has been used as an overarching perspective in this theoretical framework. Each of these authors contributes to a better understanding of the interaction between actors and how they define a situation of cooperation. In this respect, consultants are socialized and exposed to professional standards of practice that are progressively internalized and ritualized. They eventually assimilate a particular way to define of modes of cooperation with their clients. This may contribute to construct their inner identity (Beech, 2008), an identity centered on the ethos of the client (Boni-Le, 2010; Lalonde, 2014; Schein, 2009). Our study consists of examining how the definition of the situation will be rethought during the various stages of the intervention process within the organization. Dramaturgical awareness is the central concept of this study. This key concept in the organizational dramaturgy has not been sufficiently explored in the literature on consultants' practices. We will attempt to show that impression management (results of a strategic interpretation of a situation) and expression (spontaneous and unpredictable reactions leading to reflective retrospection of the situation) take place: through action resources mobilized by the consultant - as a strategic actor (respect of rituals, mastery of areas of uncertainty, development of a front-stage rhetoric); and through an inner conversation, generally in the form of back-stage questions of a reflective practitioner such as: Am I moving in the right direction? Am I reading the current situation properly? What approach should I adopt in this particular situation? Figure 1 summarizes the key concepts of our theoretical framework. These concepts are explained in the following sections.\n4. Research methodology: This paper is part of a long-term research program on management consulting in the healthcare sector that began in 2009 and is ongoing. The primary goal of this research program is to develop a comprehensive framework on the praxis of management consulting in the Canadian healthcare sector and the challenges they faced in their interactions with the managers and other members of the organizations of this specific sector.\n5. Main results: 5.1. Rhetoric of cooperation\n6. Discussion and conclusion: 6.1. Synthesis of main results\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to examine how rhetoric of cooperation is expressed and constructed during rituals of consultation and how this rhetoric is integrated into the consultant's dramaturgical awareness that incorporates both impression management and the expression of self.\nDesign/methodology/approach: This paper uses a discursive approach and semi-structured interviews with directors and consultants working in the healthcare sector, a sector that routinely employs consultants to accompany directors in organizational change management. Rhetoric is constructed around four narrative lines that also constitute the four ritualized phases of the consulting process.\nFindings: The mantra of \"respect rituals of passage and avoid breaking frames\" is an integral part of the consultant's dramaturgical awareness throughout the process, so as not to infringe upon the order of the interaction established with the directors. Moreover, the development of cooperative relations with other members of the organization is based largely on a rather vast repertoire of action resources that the consultant will have to deploy to face four areas of uncertainty in the rites of interaction; namely, anticipation, interpretation, delegation and adherence. Furthermore, this cooperation is far from definitively acquired and must be reflected upon along the way to maintain control over the definition of the situation. This study expands upon the interrelations between the strategic actor and the reflective practitioner in a consultant's dramaturgical awareness.\nPractical implications: Practical implications are highlighted using the notion of reflective contract (Schon, 1983) for managers as clients, the transcendental precepts of authenticity put forward by Coghland (2008) for consultants as practitioners, and progressive forms of critical theory performativity as suggested by Spicer et al. (2009) and Wickert and Schaefer (2015) for researchers.\nOriginality/value: The concept underlying this study is dramaturgical awareness. It is a concept but sparingly explored in the literature, yet nonetheless present among advocates who promote organizational dramaturgy based on the work of Goffman. This concept is linked to Crozier and Friedberg's theory of the strategic actor and Schon's theory of the reflective practitioner.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
External stakeholders and health promoting schools: complexity and practice in South Africa
|
[
"Complexity",
"Health promoting schools",
"Service-learning",
"External role players"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Traditionally health promoting school (HPS) initiatives are developed and implemented by people working in and with governmental health and education departments (Moon et al., 1999; Young, 2005). These interventions are planned from an institutional level and executed within the framework that the structural policies and legislation allow and prescribe. One of the central insights from a position that acknowledges organizational complexity suggests that conventional patterns of top-down problem-solving methods are to be revised (Baric, 1994). Viewing social systems such as health and education systems (e.g. schools) (Kremser, 2010; Keshavarz et al., 2010) through the research paradigm of complexity theory introduces a conceptual shift in the way we engage with and plan health promoting strategies (Rowling and Jeffreys, 2006).\nBackground: In South Africa generally, school health is seen as a responsibility shared by the Departments of Health and Education (Department of Health and Department of Basic Education, 2012). School health commonly follows a top-down approach that relies on centralized organizational structures while the HPS approach calls for more decentralization and participation so that both the complexity and context of each individual school are taken into account (Rowling and Jeffreys, 2000). This paper discusses an example of where the implementation of the HPS approach at a designated high school (in this paper we will refer to this school as \"School A\") in the Western Cape relied strongly on the engagement and collaboration of both external and internal actors to develop and implement a new HPS program. Through partnership and collaborative strategies actors at two higher education institutions emerged to be appropriate sources of action and social change.\nThe context of School A: Viewed through the lens of complexity, external and historical systemic determinants constitute important contextual components that shape the health of a school community system. One important determinant in the case of School A is its historical context. During the apartheid era in South Africa, the Group Areas Act of 1950 (Republic of South Africa, 1950) officially designated people according to one of four population groups. The community, in which School A was located, was classified as \"colored\"[1] and as a result people were relocated to a different neighborhood as prescribed by the authorities of the time.\nMethodology: This paper provides an example of how the acknowledgment of complexity in the implementation of HPS challenges traditional approaches to school health, by including external actors as important sources of action for the development of HPS projects. In this section we explore two different participatory methods of interaction between higher education institutions and School A, an HPS in the Western Cape. Information for this paper was sourced from the notes of the action-reflection processes of the UWC HPS project team; the medical students' evaluations after their stints at the school and an interview with the teacher who was responsible for facilitating all the external role players' HPS engagements at School A. The collaboration of universities with schools has been shown to be a beneficial reciprocal learning process for both parties (Dumka et al., 2007; Falter et al., 2011).\nDiscussion: It has been argued that the involvement of external actors does not result in sustainable HPS projects, seeing that they discontinue their engagement when funding dries up (Mukoma and Flisher, 2004). However, from the above it has been shown that external actors such as the UWC HPS project team can be important sources of action in securing the initial implementation and sustainable development of HPS projects (Beautement and Broenner, 2011). This study shows that resources in schooling communities are diverse and rich and that intersectoral collaboration can equip stakeholders to take hold of the process of becoming HPS themselves by combining efforts on different levels of engagement.\nLessons learnt: The key lessons learnt from this project proved that involving medical students in a bigger HPS project has the potential to be extremely beneficial provided:\nConclusion: Drawing on the characteristics of complex systems (Cilliers, 1998), health promotion cannot be programmed to come about as a result of linear and institutional prescriptions. Instead, it emerges as a result of the interactions between non-linear components in complex systems. Utilizing resources from external actors and not only depending on institutional structures such as the formal policies of health and educational departments, encourages HPS to develop with more synergy and innovation.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to examine the role of two higher education institutions in the Western Cape, South Africa, and how their initiatives and collaboration brought about a particular health promoting schools (HPS) program in a resource poor setting. The aim of this paper is to reflect on the importance of the role that external systemic actors and stakeholders can play in the process of designing and implementing HPS programs in resource poor settings.\nDesign/methodology/approach: In this paper a complex systems approach is employed to describe two different participatory methods of engagement with HPS by higher education institutions. On the one hand, engagement took place in terms of a formal and funded project, directed at the organizational level of the school, with capacity building as its aim. On the other hand, engagement was initiated informally (as part of a service-learning project) via collaboration with the formal project, directed at the individual level of learners in the school.\nFindings: In recognizing the complex nature of planning and implementing HPS programs, the paper demonstrates that HPS approaches could benefit from engaging with resources outside the ambit of institutional health and educational policies and structures.\nOriginality/value: By acknowledging the systemic nature of implementing HPS strategies, novel collaborations emerge as a result. The paper highlights the important role that external stakeholders such as higher education institutions play in creating and sustaining tailor-made HPS programs for schools based in resource poor settings.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Testing the productivity bias hypothesis in Middle East countries
|
[
"Cointegration",
"Middle East countries",
"Productivity bias hypothesis"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: The purchasing power parity (PPP) is the oldest theory of exchange rate determination which asserts that the exchange rate between currencies of two countries is equal to the ratio of the general price level of the said countries. The validity of the PPP has been empirically tested many times and the results are not conclusive, as discussed in the research of Bahmani-Oskooee and Nasir (2005). Divergence of the PPP from the equilibrium exchange rate is attributed to various factors. Productivity differentials between the countries are said to be one of the main sources, which lead to productivity bias hypothesis (PBH).\n2. A brief literature review: Officer (1976) and Bahmani-Oskooee and Nasir (2005) present comprehensive reviews of empirical studies on the PBH. Officer (1976) investigated operational impact and theoretical underpinning testing the hypothesis, providing examples from the literature. He criticized the general theoretical acceptance of the hypothesis due to the lack of firm empirical evidence. Moreover, he argued that the reason that lies behind the failure to support the hypothesis in the literature is the disregard for quality difference of non-tradable goods among countries. The study of Bahmani-Oskooee and Nasir (2005) conducts the most comprehensive review of the PBH, which categorized empirical studies on the hypothesis into three groups: cross-sectional studies, time series studies and panel studies. Bahmani-Oskooee and Nasir (2005) point out that, by and large, the cross-sectional studies fail to support the hypothesis, while most of studies of the second and third categories are in favor of the hypothesis.\n3. Model and econometric methodology: This study adopts the model of Officer (1976), hence we form the following long-run relationship between real exchange rates and productivity differentials, in double logarithmic linear form as:(1)\n4. Empirical results: Equation (3) was estimated for 17 Middle East countries using selected annual data over the period 1970-2015. The data period for each country along with variable definitions and data sources are presented in the Appendix.\n5. Concluding remarks: The PPP hypothesis holds providing that none of the assumptions behind it is being violated. However, in the literature, the productivity differentials between the countries have been identified as one major factor for the deviations of the equilibrium exchange rates which gave rise to the PBH. The PBH suggests that there exists a positive association between exchange rates and productivity differentials implying that higher productivity causes a real appreciation of a country's currency.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to empirically test the validity of the productivity bias hypothesis (PBH) in 18 Middle East countries.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The paper employs autoregressive-distributed lag approach to cointegration approach and stability tests.\nFindings: The empirical results suggest the existence of the PBH only in the case of Bahrain, Kuwait and Saudi Arabia.\nPractical implications: Conclusions drawn from this research could be useful for the policy-makers of governments and practitioners in international trade organizations.\nOriginality/value: This study extends the existing literature by providing initial empirical time series evidence of the PBH for the entire Middle East countries.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Caste at work: study of factors influencing attitudes toward affirmative action in India
|
[
"Stigma",
"India",
"Discrimination",
"Affirmative action",
"Diversity",
"Caste"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: \"First, it is stratification. Second, it is stratification on very hardened lines - it's not like becoming rich. It's easier to become bourgeois than it is to become a high-caste Brahmin! Third, there is a kind of approach that has gone along with the caste system, which is that it is a natural order and you can't change it, and that the alternative is chaos. And that's quite important to recognise. There are a lot of people who tend to think that undoing the caste system now would be a destabilising course of action. I think caste is about the worst form of inequality you can think of. And the fact that it has gone on for 2,500 years indicates how much of a historical background it has\".Nobel-Prize-winning economist Amartya Sen on caste (2013)\nLiterature review: Caste and affirmative action in India\nStudy 1: Study 1 examines how people's impressions of employees from disadvantaged and advantaged castes are affected by the presence of an AAP and the ambiguity of information about the employee's performance. Competence ratings and recommendations for professional advancement of employees are measured as influenced by their caste identities, organization type (uses AA/does not use AA) and performance. Recommendation for advancement in organizations represents not only recognition of one's performance but also an opportunity for future professional growth. Stigma and stereotypes about the stigmatized groups can prevent an employer from an equal distribution of rewards (both financial, e.g. bonuses, and non-financial, like presenting challenging job opportunities) which, in turn, places such groups in the realm of mediocrity and, like a self-fulfilling prophecy, further strengthens the stereotypes (Coate and Loury, 1993). Similar reasoning may explain the observed discrepancy in wage rates between members from the advantaged and the disadvantaged castes in the private labor market even though the employers proclaim themselves free from caste prejudice (Madheswaran and Attewell, 2007). Thus, exploring the influence of caste membership on rewards allocation can be informative in understanding the extent to which the evaluator's assessments may be biased.\nStudy 2: Findings from Study 1 show that an employee selected under AAP (i.e. disadvantaged caste candidates in a government organization) received lower ratings on competence and rewards recommendations than an advantaged caste employee (not subject to AA) with identical qualifications. No such caste-based differentials in ratings were seen in organizations not practicing AAPs. Contrary to literature (Heilman et al., 1997), the study finds that positive evaluations did not help ameliorate the disadvantaged caste ratings in the AA condition - which should have been the case had the concern been one of performance and merit. This provides the foundation for a line of enquiry into the larger context of what frames attitudes toward AA in India. In Study 2 we explore two variables - the degree of caste centrality and the type of casteism awareness (as an individually constructed idea of whether an action resonates as caste-based discrimination or not). For caste centrality, the study expects that, because of practices like AAPs that benefit an out group, support for AAP would be negatively related to caste centrality for the advantaged caste sample in this study. In comparison, it is predicted that for the disadvantaged caste groups, caste centrality would be positively related to support for AAP because AAP benefits the in-group. For the second variable, we expect that an awareness of both the forms of casteism (individual and institutional) will positively relate to support for AAP.\nGeneral discussion: As acknowledged in the Hawthorne studies, organizations are social systems (Stern and Barley, 1996) where social dynamics play a pivotal role in determining human interactions and outputs. In India, caste forms the basis of varied social interactions and thus, deserves academic attention to understand its relevance in applied settings. In such settings, AAPs are a much-discussed aspect. Hence, we decided to explore caste in contemporary India using the lens of AAPs - what do attitudes about AAPs say about materiality of caste? How much of what we know about race can be generalized to caste and how much needs a new drawing board? Table IV summarizes and compares the findings of our study with parallel literature in Western contexts.\nConclusion: Our studies provide preliminary evidence that attitudes toward AAPs and AA hires in India are similar, but not completely the same, as those in the West. Preferential selection under an AA policy makes the caste of an employee his salient identity, negatively affecting competency perceptions despite any performance evidence to the contrary. In addition, awareness of institutional casteism by the advantaged castes had positive effects on support for AAPs. No caste differentials were seen in the negative relationship between value placed on one's caste identity and support for AAPs. Future research will need to focus on defining the underlying mechanisms that govern perceptions of caste and caste relations in Indian organizations.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to explore the relevance of caste identity in applied settings. The authors do this within the larger framework of affirmative action programs (AAPs) or \"reservations\" in India. The paper explores the interplay of a primordial identity like caste with the modern institutions representing equality - a context unique to India.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The paper reports the findings of two experimental studies collecting data using Mechanical Turk.\nFindings: The first study finds that an individual hired under the AAP is perceived poorly on his/her competence and reward worthiness. The second study finds support for the influence of an individual's conception of modern casteism and his/her caste identity as factors in shaping attitudes toward AAP.\nResearch limitations/implications: The paper lays the groundwork but does not explore the contours of casteism in contemporary India. Understanding of this construct as well as the impact of factors as region, education, urbanization, religion, nature of employment, etc. on caste dynamics should be considered by future research.\nPractical implications: The paper uncovers some similarities between Indian and Western findings, but it also demonstrates key differences between findings related to race-based AAPs in the West and the caste-based AAP in India. This understanding will guide discourses on diversity management in under-researched countries like India. The findings can sensitize organizations to the need for addressing unconscious biases related to caste.\nSocial implications: The paper underscores the continuing relevance of caste in modern India and the negative perceptions of lower castes. The paper finds that individuals with an appreciation of the subtle forms of casteism are sympathetic to programs that promote social equality. In modern social contexts this nuanced operationalization of casteism can be a relevant indicator of caste dynamics.\nOriginality/value: This is the first empirical study to examine caste-based AAP in India in an applied study and unpacks the psychological underpinnings of the attitudes toward AAP.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
Transforming celebrities through social media: the role of authenticity and emotional attachment
|
[
"Emotional attachment",
"Social media",
"Authenticity",
"Celebrities"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Consumers have long been fascinated with celebrities. However, technology has changed the connectivity between consumers and celebrities; it is now more immediate and instantaneous. Transitioning from celebrity-focused television programs and magazines to celebrity websites and social media profiles allows consumers to more intimately explore \"engagement\" with celebrities. With the growth in social media sites (e.g. Twitter, Instagram and Facebook), information about celebrities is abundant and readily available. Social media has transformed the celebrities' ability to manage their images online and to connect directly with their consumers. Celebrities are now conceptualized as human brands, \"one of the many operationalizations of the broader brand concept\" (Thomson, 2006, p. 104). Similar to the other brands, celebrities carefully manage their online associations projected to consumers. Celebrities now use technology to take more control of their personae and human brands, by posting \"status updates\", \"likes\" and photos, and even responding to consumer comments.\nPilot study: To gain better insight into how consumers use technology, in particular social media, to engage with celebrities, a pilot study consisting of two focus groups was conducted. The overarching purpose of the exploratory study was to shed light on how and why consumers use social media to engage with celebrities. More specifically, the pilot study sought to address the following research questions:\nPilot study results: The transcripts from both focus groups were analyzed using the content analysis guidelines outlines by Miles and Huberman (1994). The intent was to produce internally consistent findings, develop a conceptual model and derive hypotheses to be empirically tested. The results of the pilot study are discussed below:\nTheoretical background and hypotheses development: In the past, celebrity activities were developed and created by press agents and public relations specialists and were communicated through traditional media like radio, television, magazines and newspapers (Kerrigan et al., 2011). Consumers now engage directly with celebrities through branded websites, blogs and social media and gain access to social resources that are not available offline (Stever and Lawson, 2013). The Web has transformed consumers' engagement with celebrities and allowed the hands of many (general population), instead of a few, to decide who becomes a celebrity (Krotoski, 2011). Through WOM, the passing of information from one individual to another, information about celebrities is mediated through electronic means via the internet (websites, social media, text messages, etc.) (Kietzmann and Canhoto, 2013). It has been found that the commitment to a brand, or even celebrities, can have a positive effect on consumer WOM (Hutter et al., 2013). Kozinets et al. (2010) explain that social networks have changed traditional WOM because consumers can now have an active role in the communication process. Consumers who engage with a brand on social media are more likely to extend WOM about those brands (Wallace et al., 2014). Individuals who follow or like celebrities on social media sites can be considered a commitment to the celebrity and their brand. Thus, it can be expected that consumers will spread positive WOM for celebrities who they follow on social media, and particularly those they deem to be authentic.\nAuthenticity: Authenticity has received increased attention in the marketing and branding literature (Brown et al., 2003; Grayson and Martinec, 2004; Moulard et al., 2014, 2015; Spiggle et al., 2012; Thomson et al., 2005). Although various definitions exist, authenticity broadly refers to what is genuine, real and true (Arnould and Price, 2000; Beverland and Farrelly, 2010; Charmley et al., 2013; Thomson et al., 2005). Authenticity is considered to be a socially constructed interpretation of what is observed, as opposed to the properties inherent in an object (Beverland, 2006; Beverland et al., 2008; Thomson et al., 2005). As such, consumers are often considered to be co-creators of authenticity (Leigh et al., 2006) because they interact with the authentic object or person (Rose and Wood, 2005). In this view, consumers define authenticity. Some consumers may perceive an object, brand or consumption experience to be genuine or real, whereas others may perceive the same experience as fake or fabricated (Beverland et al., 2010; Rose and Wood, 2005).\nAuthenticity and emotional attachment: It is expected that there will be a positive relationship between authenticity and emotional attachment. Emotional attachment is defined as an emotion-laden target-specific bond between a person and an object (i.e. a person, pet, celebrity) (Thomson et al., 2005). Accordingly, Attachment Theory is an appropriate theory to use as a theoretical foundation to understand the relationship between consumers and celebrities. Attachment Theory has long been used to understand the consumer response to brands (Fournier, 1998; Thomson et al., 2005; Thomson, 2006; Loroz and Braig, 2015), and has recently been used to examine consumer relationships with human brands (Thomson, 2006). For example, Thomson (2006) found that higher levels of attachment are related to the positive outcomes of satisfaction, trust and commitment.\nThe indirect role of emotional attachment: Emotional attachment is expected to have an indirect effect on the relationship between celebrity authenticity and WOM, as well as the relationship between celebrity authenticity and purchase likelihood. Prior work has established that emotional attachment can lead to positive outcomes, including satisfaction, trust and commitment (Thomson, 2006); however, no known research has examined the indirect effects of emotional attachment on behavioral outcomes. Work rooted in understanding consumer attitudes and behaviors (i.e. hierarchy of effects and elaboration likelihood model) has demonstrated affective or emotional components often explain the relationship between cognitive components and behaviors (Lutz, 1977; Bagozzi et al., 1979; Petty and Cacioppo, 1986; Do et al., 2015). Indeed, a wide body of work in a variety of contexts has uncovered affective constructs to mediate a variety of relationships (Bagozzi et al., 1999). Work in psychology suggests a similar pattern in understanding the role of emotional attachment. A recent study recommends a revision of the persuasion models to include the interactions with online messages to translate to offline behaviors (Alhabash et al., 2015).\nEmpirical study methods: A survey was developed and implemented via Qualtrics, an online survey company. The participants were either drawn from business courses at a large state university in the southeastern USA (N = 52) or recruited using Amazon.com's Mechanical Turk (MTurk; N = 144, all US residents), for a final sample of 196 usable responses (54 per cent male, 70 per cent Caucasian, median age of 33 years). Students were provided extra credit for their participation, and the MTurk participants were paid for completing the survey. Data were collected from two sources to maximize sample size and enhance the representativeness of the sample, while balancing costs. Analysis confirmed no statistical significant differences based on the source of sample. The sample consisted of both men and women to generalize the findings from the pilot study.\nResults and discussion: Measurement model\nGeneral discussion: Summary of findings\nConclusion: This research examined the transformation of celebrities via social media. Celebrities' presence in traditional media is not a new concept, but technology, in particular social media, has transformed how celebrities engage directly with their fans. This research sheds light on the antecedents of authenticity and emotional attachment and outcomes of WOM and purchase likelihood associated with consumer-celebrity engagement on social media. Little research has investigated these concepts as they relate to celebrities on social media, and this study introduces the need to understand the roles that authenticity and emotional attachment play with consumers and their online connections with celebrities. As social media sites evolve, celebrities are provided with more opportunities to engage with their fans. There is no doubt that consumers will continue to follow their favorite celebrities, and celebrities will continue to find ways to connect and engage with their fans, with the hope that they maintain their presence in the entertainment marketplace.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: Social media platforms are changing the way consumers and celebrities engage. This research aims to better understand how and why consumers use social media to engage with celebrities, and identify the potential antecedents and outcomes, which may result from these online connections.\nDesign/methodology/approach: Both qualitative (two focus groups) and quantitative (survey) methods were used to explore consumer engagement with celebrities on social media. A structural model from the survey data was developed and analyzed.\nFindings: Textual analysis of the focus groups revealed that consumers follow celebrities on social media to obtain career and personal information about the celebrity. Further, authenticity and emotional attachment were identified as favorable aspects of following celebrities on social media. An empirical study confirmed that the constructs of authenticity and emotional attachment positively influence the outcomes of word-of-mouth and purchase likelihood.\nResearch limitations/implications: The study was limited by the self-identification of a favorite celebrity and social media site. Future research should include empirical testing of specific celebrities featured on a specific social media site and the development of the constructs identified in the focus groups.\nPractical implications: This research sheds light on the antecedents and outcomes associated with consumer-celebrity engagement on social media. The implications for marketers and advertisers include a better understanding of how celebrities transform themselves and engage with consumers on social media.\nOriginality/value: This paper fulfills an identified need to study authenticity and emotional attachment as they relate to celebrities and consumers' engagements on social media.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Multi-year non-life insurance risk
|
[
"Insurance",
"Risk management",
"Risk finance",
"Non‐life insurance risk",
"Internal risk models",
"Claims reserving",
"Risk capital"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1 Introduction: Non-life insurance risk is mainly divided into reserve risk and premium risk (Ohlsson and Lauzeningks, 2009). The literature contains a variety of stochastic claims reserving methods for modeling reserve risk that can be used for quantifying the ultimate risk, including bootstrapping methods, regression approaches, and Bayesian techniques (England and Verrall, 2002, 2006; Wuthrich and Merz, 2008). Some of these methods are analytical (Buchwalder et al., 2006); others are based on simulations (England and Verrall, 2006). Traditionally, all approaches are based on an ultimate view, which means reserve risk uncertainty is quantified up to final settlement. Recently, however, regulators have begun requiring a one-year perspective of non-life insurance risk for solvency purposes, for example, in Solvency II and the Swiss Solvency Test (SST) (Eling et al., 2009), which means insurance risk uncertainty should be quantified for one calendar year only. This requirement has spurred a great deal of discussion by both academics and practitioners as to how one-year insurance risk should be quantified, and a new stream of literature has developed over a very short period (Merz and Wuthrich, 2007, 2008; Buhlmann et al., 2009; Ohlsson and Lauzeningks, 2009; Wuthrich et al., 2009; Gault et al., 2010).Both the one-year and ultimate view are relevant and helpful in understanding the nature of reserve risk in non-life insurance. From a practitioner's point of view, however, a multi-year time horizon (which means that reserve risk uncertainty is quantified up to calendar year m) is necessary for practical decision making and neither of these approaches provide this perspective: the first considers only one year; the second summarizes uncertainty over the whole projection horizon.Recently, Diers and Linde (2013) developed an analytical approach for quantifying the prediction uncertainty of multi-year observable claims development result (CDR) in the additive loss reserving model. However, especially in light of the need for simulated cash flows of future claim settlements within internal risk models, analytical approaches need to be complemented by simulation-based approaches. Ohlsson and Lauzeningks (2009) describe such a simulation-based method - which we call stochastic re-reserving - for quantifying the one-year reserve risk. To our knowledge, there is no simulation model for analyzing multi-year non-life insurance risk.Our multi-year simulation models can be used to calculate both the multi-year reserve risk and the multi-year premium risk. Using these models, management will be able to answer this important question: \"How many years of adverse claim occurrence and development is it possible to withstand at a certain confidence level without the need for external capital?\" We build on and extend the work of Ohlsson and Lauzeningks (2009) in two ways:1. in addition to a one-year view, we allow for a multi-year time horizon;2. we present a consistent and integrated approach for calculating premium risk as well as reserve risk and combine them to obtain the non-life insurance risk.We empirically illustrate the usefulness of our simulation model using a claims development triangle that has been considered several times in the academic literature (Mack, 1993; England and Verrall, 2006).Although our paper is of an academic nature, it is also highly relevant to practitioners and policymakers. Internal risk models are becoming increasingly important in the value-based management of non-life insurance companies and are an important tool in making business decisions. Furthermore, regulators encourage insurers to develop internal risk models that have the potential to also determine solvency capital requirements (e.g. under Solvency II and the SST). Our work, therefore, not only expands the academic discussion, but also provides a tool for modeling non-life insurance risk in practice. Indeed, the simulation model presented in this paper has already been successfully implemented in a German insurance group.This paper is organized as follows. In Section 2 we describe a multi-year internal risk model framework and extend the calculation of claims development to a multi-year perspective, which includes the settlement of claims already incurred (reserve risk) and the claims yet to be incurred by new business (premium risk). In Section 3, we present a mathematical formulation of the simulation-based stochastic re-reserving process and calculate multi-year risk capital for non-life insurance risk. The practical usefulness of the new multi-year model is illustrated in Section 4. We conclude in Section 5.\n2 Multi-year claims development: We assume management is interested in a multi-year planning horizon of m>1 years, e.g. five years. Based on the internal model description in Diers (2011), we define the m-year economic earnings (EcE[0,m]) in a multi-year context as the change in net asset value (NAV) over the future time horizon [0,m]. This can be calculated by adding the m-year investment result (I[0,m]) and the m-year technical result (T^[0,m]): Equation 1 For, simplification, we do not consider taxes or dividends in this model, nor do we account for inflation and discount effects.In the following, we focus on modeling the m-year technical result, which is a measure for business profitability within a time horizon of m years. Technical profits and losses for a non-life insurance company, equal to a positive/negative technical result, arise from two different sources:1. Settlement of claims that have already occurred, caused by business written and covered in the past.From an economic perspective, the technical provision for outstanding claims, which are either reported, but not yet settled, or not yet reported, needs to be evaluated as a \"best-estimate.\" The corresponding \"best-estimate reserve\" is defined as the probability-weighted ( = expected) sum of future payments for outstanding claims until complete settlement. The best-estimate reserve is commonly predicted with appropriate actuarial loss reserving methods that are applied to historical claims development data (e.g. loss triangles, but also external information). Since future claims payments are unknown and subject to random fluctuations, the best-estimate reserve is subject to the uncertainty that future payments will deviate from initial expectations. As the reserving actuary's knowledge regarding the \"true\" behavior of claims settlement increases with each additional observed year, the actuary will not retain the initial best-estimate prediction for all subsequent valuation dates, but adjust the initial expectation depending on \"observed\" claims development between the initial valuation date (assumed to be T=n) and the new valuation date (m years later: T=n + m). This is accomplished by revaluing the technical provisions based on claims development data up to T=n + m. The economic impact of adjustments to the initial best-estimate-reserve between T=n and T=n + m is expressed by the m-year observable CDR for prior accident years ((n-n+m)CDR^PY). A strengthening of the best-estimate reserve is equal to a run-off loss ((n-n+m)CDR^PY<0) and (ceteris paribus) negatively impacts the technical result, while a reduction of best-estimate reserve is equal to a run-off profit ((n-n+m)CDR^PY>0) and (ceteris paribus) positively impacts the technical result. The m-year reserve risk is measured from (n-n+m)CDR^PY only; changes in risk margins are ignored for the sake of simplicity.2. Technical gains and losses resulting from the occurrence and settlement of new claims within the next m years, caused by business (already written or at least planned to be written) in the future.The profitability of future business over a m-year time horizon is measured from the m-year underwriting results for future accident years (n+m)UW^NY (Section 2.2), which is calculated as premium income minus expenses and minus the ultimate claim payments over the next m accident years (estimated at T=n + m). The underwriting result is the key figure in measuring m-year premium risk, which is defined as the risk that the premium income will be insufficient to cover future expenses and losses. A negative underwriting result (n+m)UW^NY<0 leads (ceteris paribus) to a reduction of the technical result, while a positive underwriting result (n+m)UW^NY>0 (ceteris paribus) leads to an increase of the technical result.The combination of (n+m)UW^NY and (n-n+m)CDR^PY leads to the m-year technical result (T^[0,m]). The m-year non-life insurance risk is defined as the risk of a negative technical result over a m-year time horizon (T^[0,m]<0).2.1 Model framework\n3 Quantification of multi-year non-life insurance risk: Based on the model description in Ohlsson and Lauzeningks (2009), we now present a simulation-based modeling approach for quantifying the multi-year non-life insurance risk by means of the m-year CDR (equation (3)), which is called stochastic re-reserving (Kraus and Diers, 2010). This technique allows us to obtain a full predictive distribution of the multi-year CDR, which is then the basis for risk capital calculations. Since stochastic re-reserving is a simulation-based approach, it can be easily integrated into internal risk models.This technique has been previously applied over a one-year time horizon and for quantification of reserve risk only; we extend the time horizon to an arbitrary number of future calendar years, integrate the premium risk in our stochastic re-reserving model, and thus present an integrated approach for modeling non-life insurance risk in a one-year, multi-year, and ultimate perspective. This is novel in that Ohlsson and Lauzeningks (2009) describe the quantification of premium risk for a one-year perspective only and Gault et al. (2010) present a stochastic simulation model for measuring premium risk over a one-year and an ultimate risk horizon.3.1 The multi-year re-reserving process\n4 Multi-year non-life insurance risk in the Mack chain ladder model: 4.1 Introduction of the extended Mack model\n5 Conclusion: The aim of this paper was to present a modeling approach for determining non-life insurance risk in a multi-year context. Multi-year non-life insurance risk can be analyzed by simulating the probability distributions of the random variables of the claims development for prior accident years (reserve risk) and for future accident years (premium risk). We quantified the corresponding risk capital using risk measures such as VaR and TVaR. In addition to the traditional view (ultimate perspective) of non-life insurance risk, the academic literature to date only focuses on a one-year perspective (Merz and Wuthrich, 2008; Ohlsson and Lauzeningks, 2009; Gault et al., 2010). We extend this work by illustrating how the one-year perspective can be transferred into an ultimate perspective using a step-by-step multi-year approach. We believe the multi-year approach can improve our sense of risk exposure and thus enhance the one-year and ultimate perspectives.The two main contributions of this paper are the following:1. Strategic management of and decision making in insurance companies require a multi-year risk horizon; the model presented in this paper offers a multi-year risk approach to calculating reserve risk and premium risk that can be used in internal risk models.2. The one-year risk perspective of Solvency II does not take into account the long-term nature of especially long-tail lines of business.The simulation model presented here provides a good understanding of how non-life insurance risk evolves over time.The risk model presented here offers several options for future research. First, use of the Mack (1993) model as the underlying stochastic re-reserving model and the corresponding chain ladder claims reserving algorithm can be replaced by different stochastic claims reserving models, such as the over-dispersed Poisson model or the over-dispersed negative binomial model (England and Verrall, 2006). Second, the underlying claims development triangle usually ends before the claims are completely settled; thus extrapolation techniques can be used to analyze the tail behavior by estimating corresponding tail factors.Given that stochastic re-reserving is a time-consuming process, another alternative would be to directly fit a distribution to the multi-year CDR (e.g. a lognormal distribution, as is done in the standard model of the SST or Solvency II). However, there might be the difficulty to estimate the corresponding parameters properly. In some cases, for example, in the additive model (Diers and Linde, 2013), at least the expectation value and the mean squared error of prediction can be analytically calculated so that, using the method of moments, a two-parameter distribution can be fitted to the multi-year CDR. In the Mack chain ladder model, this has not yet been done, which is another possibility of future research. If such extensions become available, a comparison between the results presented here and alternative approaches can be undertaken, especially regarding higher quantiles of the predictive distribution for the multi-year CDRs.\n",
"role": "user"
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{
"content": "Purpose: - The purpose of this paper is to present a simulation-based approach for modeling multi-year non-life insurance risk in internal risk models. Strategic management in an insurance company requires a multi-year time horizon for economic decision making, for example, in the context of internal risk models. In the literature to date, only the ultimate perspective and, more recently, the one-year perspective (for Solvency II purposes) are considered.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - The authors present a way of defining and calculating multi-year claims development results and extend the simulation-based algorithm (\"re-reserving\") for quantifying one-year non-life insurance risk, presented in Ohlsson and Lauzeningks, to a multi-year perspective.\nFindings: - The multi-year algorithm is applied to the chain ladder reserving model framework of Mack (1993).\nPractical implications: - The usefulness of the new multi-year horizon is illustrated in the context of internal risk models by means of a case study, where the multi-year algorithm is applied to a claims development triangle based on Mack and on England and Verrall. This algorithm has been implemented in an excel tool, which is given as supplemented material.\nOriginality/value: - To the best of the authors' knowledge, there are no model approaches or studies on insurance risk for projection periods of not just one, but several, new accident years; this requires a suitable extension of the classical Mack model; however, consideration of multiple years is crucial in the context of enterprise risk management.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Paradexity: the convergence of paradox and complexity
|
[
"Complexity theory",
"Individual development",
"Social psychology"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: Do you ever feel like you are immersed in an intricate array of interconnected events while having to choose from a plethora of competing ambiguous choices? Charles Handy observed many years ago that \"the more turbulent [the] times, the more complex the world, the more the paradoxes\" (Handy, 2002). There seems little doubt that this is a time of intense turbulence in which we are inundated with increasing paradox and complexity. Not only are they increasing, but they are also converging in a force I propose to call \"paradexity\": the convergence of paradox and complexity. (A glossary of terms used in this paper can be found in Appendix 1.)A recent press article captured an example of financial paradexity. First, the paradox:Designing an efficient, dynamic financial system while reducing the likelihood and costs of crises is a challenge.And then the complexity:This challenge is particularly hard because of the system's complexity. Financial interrelationships between major participants dwarf the scale of their business with the real sector (business and households) and involve complex financial products (Davis, 2008).Australian Treasury Secretary Ken Henry provides an example of taxation paradexity. The paradox:Our tax-transfer system, designed for humans, now vastly exceeds human scale.The complexity:Australians should not need to consult an accountant to decide whether to return to work or put their kids in child care [...]An excessive level of complexity wastes resources [...]Complexity undermines social goals (and) provides opportunities for sharp planning practices [...]A complex world constrains how simple a nation's tax system can be (Henry, 2008).Paradexity creates a fog which is hard to navigate, and contributes to feeling that we have lost control as we struggle to manage, make sense of, and live with these forces. It causes a sense of confusion, and never quite being \"there\" - wherever there may be.Harnessing paradexity involves not just tolerating ambiguity and managing complexity. It means transcending paradox and embracing complexity as they converge and unsettle us. It requires a new level of human maturity. It recognises that we need to shift from stark choices to integration, collaboration and co-creation fostered by effective conversation.\n2. Paradox and complexity: Paradox is inherent in what it means to be human, and is demonstrated in the following remark: \"This sentence is false. True or false?\"Accepting paradox means recognising that a thing can simultaneously \"be\" and \"not be\". The world in which we live is no longer a world of simple black or white, either or. It is a world of \"and\": East and West, Christian and Muslim and Hindu and Buddhist, left and right, ...Paradox causes discomfort for those who want life to be straightforward, to be one or the other. These are the people who think \"If everyone thought like me, then the world would be a better place, because I am right.\" Unfortunately there is no longer room for this point of view, so we need to find a way of embracing paradox, transcending our differences, and becoming comfortable with discomfort.Leadership in the commercial environment requires constant management of paradox. For example:*Provide an experience customised for each customer experience and reduce the cost of delivering that experience.*Generate significant revenue growth and reduce cost growth.*Satisfy short-term market expectations and deliver long-term growth.Complexity describes an environment of \"compounding intricacy\", and is a function of \"the number, ambiguity, rate of change and interweaving of variables involved in a problem\" (Jacques and Clement, 1994).While we may yearn for a quieter life, and desire to create a simpler world, the reality is we are complex beings who tend towards adding, rather than decreasing, complexity. Each new technological invention or social development brings increasing levels of complexity. Our challenge therefore is to find ways to live with complexity so we are not overwhelmed.Some examples of contemporary business complexity include:*Increasingly sophisticated financial products. One readily observes the global impact arising from the \"compounding intricacy\" inherent in these financial products.*Increasing interconnections across industry.*Increasing range of stakeholder inputs - shareholders, staff, board, community, environment, government, regulatory bodies.*We live in a world where we are immediately impacted by removed events.\n3. Four experiences of paradexity: 3.1 Depersonalisation\n4. New paradigms: In order to contend and live with paradexity we need to develop new mental models or paradigms. The trends towards these paradigms are already underway, and there is an opportunity for some advanced thinkers and organisations to get ahead of the curve. This document identifies four:1. the emotional economy;2. sense making;3. time expansion; and4. communities of interest.4.1 The emotional economy\n5. Increased capabilities: In the face of the paradexity experienced in depersonalisation, saturation, acceleration, and fragmentation, and to cultivate the emotional economy, sense making, time expansion and communities of interest, we need to strengthen our capability in four core areas.5.1 Care\n6. Concluding remarks: This paper has noted four ways in which we experience paradexity:1. Depersonalisation. Sophisticated technology fails to deliver what it promised, often makes life more difficult, and treats people like machines with few human qualities.2. Saturation. Technology enables anyone to have a voice in any medium, leading to a flood of information, with no correlative increase in wisdom.3. Acceleration. An abundance of interconnected time saving devices accelerate our world, makes us \"always on\", and deprive us of the time we need for more noble pursuits.4. Fragmentation. Technology enables more connections than ever but we feel more dispersed with less sense of community.The wave of paradexity is changing the way we relate to one another and the way we work, and contributing to the emergence of four new paradigms:1. The emotional economy - where your value is in your emotional capability, not the size of your intellect - will replace the knowledge economy.2. \"Sense-makers\", who help us find patterns and meaning in our experience, will be highly influential and sought after.3. \"Time expansion\" - the ability to do much more in a smaller amount of time, while living a better life - will replace multitasking.4. Communities of interest will replace geographic communities.In order to peer through the fog of paradexity, and function in a fully human way, we will need to develop capability in four core areas:1. The ability to genuinely care for others.2. The ability to translate knowledge into wisdom.3. The ability to give focused, laser like attention.4. The ability to hold honest and effective conversations.People who develop competence in these capabilities will flourish under the new paradigms and be well placed to help others navigate the storms brought on by paradexity.This paper makes an observation about the emerging environment, rather than offering a \"solution\" to paradexity. It is not as easy as simplifying complexity and choosing between opposites. It offers rather, a way of living with paradexity, where recognising and accepting the presence of paradexity is the first step. Doing so will help us create new forms of stakeholder democracy, as we recognise that short term adversarial systems do not help resolution of paradox or complex challenges. There will always be another valid point of view, while the trend towards compounding intricacy will escalate.Many of the crises that we observe and find ourselves swept up in are evidence of failure to recognise paradexity, and the human tendency to want to fix what appears to be broken. The solution lies in embracing paradexity and adapting the paradigms and practices proposed here, in order that something new may emerge.Search for the sense makers, create organisations that care, spend time seeking wisdom, pay attention to the present moment - counter intuitive practices when the times seem to demand urgency. Doing these does not eliminate paradexity -it is a new reality that will not go away - but equip us, our organisations, and our societies to flourish in this world.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: - The aim of this paper is to propose a theory about the convergence of paradox and complexity and the consequences of this.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - The author conducts an ongoing series of conversations with a range of thinkers in the academic and commercial domains\nFindings: - The paper finds that paradox and complexity are merging into \"paradexity\". This can be observed in technological advancements that depersonalise, saturate, accelerate, and fragment the world we experience. It is contributing to the emergence of a new set of paradigms - the emotional economy, sense-making, time expansion, and communities of interest - that will require developing four core capabilities: care, wisdom, attention and conversation.\nResearch limitations/implications: - Further rigorous testing would be required to confirm the validity of the views expressed.\nPractical implications: - This paper has significant implications for the way people engage with one another and the way we organise our workforces, and offers suggestions for ways individuals and society can flourish in this environment.\nOriginality/value: - The paper recognises the convergence of paradox and complexity and the need to work within this construct, rather than eliminate or minimise either. It would be of value to senior business leaders, human resource directors, and those involved with public policy who wish to design more effective organisations and societies.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
Understanding growth slowdown dynamics in India's sub-national economies: An empirical investigation
|
[
"India",
"Logistic regression",
"Growth slowdown",
"Sub-national economies",
"C11",
"O11",
"O43"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: Since the inception of economic liberalisation and reforms in 1991, India has experienced rapid economic growth. The average annual rate of India's gross domestic product (GDP) over the 1991-2014 period was 6.6 per cent[1]. Meanwhile, India's GDP per capita increased from $398 to $1,234 in constant 2005 US dollars over the same period[2]. As of 2014, India has the world's third largest GDP in purchasing power parity (PPP) term recorded at $7.39 trillion. Even in terms of nominal GDP, India enjoys the ninth largest nominal GDP in the world registered at $ 2.07 trillion[3]. This remarkable growth performance has enabled India to graduate from the low-income group to the lower-middle-income group in 2007 (Shrinivasan, 2010). Although the proportion of people living below the poverty line has decreased over the past two decades, from 46.06 per cent in 1993 to 21.25 per cent in 2011[4], there is still much work to be done to raise the standard of living of the people. One key challenge for the Indian Government is therefore to sustain the positive growth momentums and, at the same time, allow more people to reap the benefits of economic development. Continuous efforts in pushing through reforms are, therefore, vital in going forward as India's economic growth prospect is challenged both by external risks and domestic macroeconomic conditions.\n2. Literature review: Our starting point is in the context of the literature on \"middle income traps\". Before we proceed, we would like to reiterate that the focus of our paper is not to prove or disprove the existence of a middle-income trap. Instead, we take an agnostic view and examine the growth path of economies at all levels of development and identify factors which make growth slowdown more likely. This way, we believe that our paper makes a valuable contribution to the literature by taking the analysis to the sub-national level in large countries like India.\n3. Economic growth landscape of Indian sub-national economies: Before delving into the growth slowdown analysis, it is important to track the development progress of the India sub-national economies so that we can understand the differences in their current levels of development. In this paper, we distinguish the economies' development levels by classifying them into four different income groups: low-, lower-middle-, upper middle- and high-income group. The classification criteria we adopt are based on the economy's GRDP per capita as measured in 1990 PPP$. Details about how we obtain GRDP per capita in 1990 PPP$ data for the Indian sub-national economies and the income classification methodology are discussed in Sections 4.1 and 4.2, respectively.\n4. Methodological approach[7]: 4.1 Obtaining GRDP per capita in 1990 PPP$\n5. Data and empirical results: Our data set for the regression analysis is a panel covering 107 economies, containing nine ASEAN countries, 33 Greater Chinese economies, 32 sub-national economies of India and 33 sub-national economies of Indonesia, and spans the 1993-2013 period[8]. The India sub-national economies covered in this paper are the states and union territories of India, with the exception of Lakshadweep, Daman and Diu and Dadra and Nagar Haveli because of data constraints. Also, as mentioned in Section 3, Andhra Pradesh and Telangana are treated as a single economy using the name Andhra Pradesh.\n6. Policy implications: Having assessed the general risk level of each sub-national economy experiencing growth slowdown at its respective level of development as illustrated by the predictive probability results, we seek to provide an analysis on the relative strengths and weaknesses of each economy so as to aid policy-makers in formulating appropriate policies to mitigate the risk of growth slowdown. To this end, we compute the standardised score for each economy in terms of the determinants of growth slowdown for the income groups they belong to. Standardised scores are calculated for all determinants of growth slowdown with the exception of the control variable GRDP per capita.\n7. Concluding remarks: In the Twelfth Five-Year Plan (2012-2017), the Government of India has put forth a series of measures aiming at achieving a rapid, sustainable and inclusive growth. The official growth target set by the government is 8 per cent over the five-year period. It is heartening to see that quality economic growth is the top priority for the Plan as 25 core indicators are identified and will be tracked, each with a well-defined target, reflecting the various areas of focus for further improvement. The indicators range from economic growth, poverty and employment, education, health, infrastructure, environment and sustainability, to service delivery (Planning Commission (Government of India), 2013).\n",
"role": "user"
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{
"content": "Purpose: The paper offers the first systematic and comprehensive analysis of dynamics of economic growth slowdown for India at the sub-national level covering the period 1993-2013. In light of India's regional diversity and variation in terms of gross regional domestic product (GRDP) per capita, the purpose of this paper is to empirically investigate the growth dynamics at the sub-national level. The paper aims to answer two questions: first, are determinants of economic slowdown likely to differ across income groups? Second, what are the probabilities that the sub-national economies in India will experience a growth slowdown in the near future?\nDesign/methodology/approach: The paper undertakes a comprehensive analysis of growth slowdown for 106 Asian developing economies encompassing the national economies in ASEAN and the sub-national economies in Greater China, Indonesia and India. To be sure, the authors are not making any direct comparison to countries at different stages of economic development; rather, the comparison is between economies/sub-national economies that fall in the same income category. The authors construct income group-specific logistic model to identify the relevant determinants of growth slowdown and use Bayesian model averaging techniques as a robustness check. The authors also compute economy-specific predictive probabilities of growth slowdown over the period 2012-2017.\nFindings: The empirical results show that a growth slowdown in various income groups tends to be associated with different sets of determinants, although broadly, across all income groups, the occurrence of growth slowdown is positively associated with higher GRDP per capita. The average predictive probability of growth slowdown for India's sub-national economies is 0.43, indicating that, on average, India's sub-national economies have a 43 per cent chance of experiencing growth slowdown in the 2012-2017 period. Overall, the prospects of the sub-national economies of India are less worrying than that of Greater Chinese economies but bleaker than the outlook for economies in ASEAN and Indonesia.\nOriginality/value: The research contributes to the understandings of growth dynamics, especially the issue of growth slowdown, in India. This paper differs from the existing literature on growth dynamics by being India centric and analysing the issue of growth slowdown at the sub-national level. Despite a steady increase in the level of GRDP per capita for the sub-national economies of India since 1993, significant disparities still exist across economies. Identifying determinants of growth slowdown and subsequently computing predictive probabilities serves as early warning signs for policy-makers and generates insights on how development policy can be shaped.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
Standard of living, consumption norms, and perceived necessities
|
[
"Consumption",
"ICT",
"Social norms",
"Perceptions of necessities",
"Socio-demographic determinants",
"Standard of living"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: Material necessities have long been defined as not only basic needs, such as food and shelter, but as device and apparel that enable a person to appear in public without shame (Smith, 1993/1776). In addition to basic needs, the ensemble of socially perceived necessities includes items that have the purpose of fulfilling social and cultural needs. From a subjective viewpoint, the \"necessity\" category may include almost anything reflecting personal wants, needs and desires. Furthermore, the perceptions of necessities reflect the time and society in which people live. What a decent life includes materially has dramatically changed over time: many goods and services have \"degraded\" from being luxuries and possessions of the few, into necessities of the masses. The consensually accepted necessities create consumption norms, i.e., those items which households should own, and activities they should be able to participate in according to public opinion (Mack and Lansley, 1985).\n2. Conceptualizing necessities: Studies on a decent living standard and its perceived necessities are conducted in many countries in order to look at the development and determinants of the material conditions of peoples' daily lives. A recent Finnish study was carried out using a consensual method in which consumers themselves were asked about what they regarded as necessities in their everyday lives. This resulted in a commodity basket, a wide array of items collectively regarded as necessities for daily living (Lehtinen et al., 2011). In the USA, national surveys on necessity and luxury perceptions have been carried out by PEW Research Center (Taylor et al., 2006; Taylor and Morin, 2009; Taylor and Wang, 2010). In the UK, studies including Peter Townsend's (1979) \"Poverty in the United Kingdom\" and Mack's and Lansley's (1985) \"Poor Britain\", both still frequently cited works, have investigated living standards, the former providing researchers with an approach of relative deprivation that incorporated various aspects of social and material deprivation.\n3. Socio-demographic determinants of perceived necessities: As described above, it is obvious that the general rise in income and standard of living both have an effect on people's perceptions of necessities through changing everyday practices, for instance. It is also evident that the perceived necessity of goods and services depends on people's income and economic situation, but also on other determinants that reflect social norms, status, and everyday life practices. Studies focusing on consumption and socio-cultural and demographic factors include investigations on such factors as income-, gender-, and age differences. Cultural and economic capital and socio-economic differences in consumption have also aroused major interest since the earliest considerations of necessity and luxury (e.g. Veblen, 2007/1899; Bourdieu, 1984; Ilmonen, 2011).\n4. Research questions: Based on the discussion above, the objective of our study is to look at both the changing perceptions of the necessities and the social and demographic factors affecting the perceived necessities. The objective of this research is divided into two research questions:\n5. Data and methods: The data used in this study are derived from three cross-sectional surveys: \"Finland 1999, 2004, 2009 - Consumption and way of life\" together constituting a longitudinal data set. The surveys were nation-wide postal surveys sent to randomly selected adults aged 18-75 in Finland. Representative samples were collected from the Registry Office. The final sample sizes were n=2,417 (1999), n=3,574 (2004) and n=1,202 (2009). The surveys covered a wide range of questions regarding attitudes and practices related to consumption, work, income, lifestyles, and perceived problems in society. The response rates were between 49 and 61 per cent, and the final samples were made nationally representative by corrective coefficients (see Erola et al., 2005; Sarpila et al., 2010).\n6. Perceived necessities in time: The development of the perceived necessity of certain goods and services is presented in Figure 1. The figure indicates a notable increase in the necessity of a mobile phone, a computer, the Internet and a digital camera. Figure 1 shows that a mobile phone was regarded as a necessity quite commonly as long ago as 1999, since Finland was a pioneer country in mobile technology in the 1990s (see Puro, 2002; Wilska, 2003). Conversely, the necessity of the old media, such as a daily newspaper and television went down to some extent. The perceived necessity of a car remained rather stable in the 2000s and even went down a little. As Figure 1 also shows, the respondents did not usually regard leisure time activities such as cultural services, travelling and going to restaurants regularly as necessities. In this category there were no notable changes in the percentages between 1999 and 2009.\n7. Determinants of the perceived necessities: The perceived necessity of the goods and services (using the range of 1-3) were explained by gender, age, income quintile, education, type of household, and place of residence, using ANOVA. All variables were independently significant when explaining the perceived necessity of the items. The dependent variables were not all normally distributed, however. In particular, holiday travel, cultural services, and going to restaurants were skewed, which is mainly due to the discrete nature of the variables with just three values. However, the sample size of our survey was rather large and thus the skew in the distribution probably does not distort the results. Moreover, the variables were interesting in the light of our research problems and previous studies, and they were also rather well explained by the models consisting of the selected background variables.\n8. Conclusions: Our results show that, in particular, many ICT goods have become necessities for most people, and the ownership rates have increased notably. On the other hand, a television and a car as well as a daily newspaper were perceived as being less necessary in 2009 than before.\n9. Discussion: Our study revealed that the way \"non-necessary\" goods become social decencies for people does not always follow economic rationalities or are explained by conventional socio-economic determinants. The meaning of the life course stage and related practices of daily life are probably more important than is usually recognized in social studies. Also, the rapid development of ICT seems to change the socially perceived necessities at an almost uncontrollable pace, particularly among young people. This is why continuous research is necessary. For instance, there is a growing trend in Finland to have a computer for each member of the family (Kohvakka, 2010), which is already the situation with mobile phones and even smartphones. Our data from the last year under examination, 2009, were probably somewhat old regarding ICT products.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to focus on the material conditions of peoples' daily lives by investigating changes in the self-perceived necessities of ten technology- and leisure-related consumer goods and services between 1999 and 2009. The authors also look at the socio-demographic predictors of the perceptions and the development of the ownership of the goods under investigation.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The data are derived from surveys \"Finland - Consumption and way of life\" 1999 (N=2,417), 2004 (N=3,574), and 2009 (N=1,202). The statistical analysis methods include ANOVA and descriptive statistics. Also official statistics are used.\nFindings: Many technological goods, in particular, have become necessities for most people, and the ownership rates have increased notably. Age, type of household, place of residence and gender affected the necessity of most items. Income affected the necessity of expensive goods and services.\nPractical implications: The ways goods become social decencies does not always follow economic rationalities or are explained by conventional socio-economic determinants. The meaning of life course stage and related daily practices are probably more important than is usually recognized in social studies. Particularly many ICT goods become socially perceived necessities soon after their emergence, which changes the perceptions of adequate living standards, affecting thus the definition of \"basic needs\" and related social policy.\nOriginality/value: The perceptions of necessities and other measures of living standards have been mainly looked at from the viewpoint of poverty and income. This study explains the perceived necessity of goods and services by several socio-demographic variables.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
Learning to identify employees that are engaged, helpful and proactive
|
[
"Manager learning",
"Contextual performance",
"Citizenship behaviour",
"Extra-role behaviour",
"Helpful behaviour"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: This paper is about the education of managers, supervisors, and human resource practitioners as it relates to the identification of employees who may be inclined to go the extra mile for one's boss and/or organization. Holding technical skills and experience constant, the identification of individuals who may regularly engage in voluntary, helpful behavior to further organizational goals and objectives can pay large dividends for all involved.\nBackground and descriptions of voluntary, helpful organizational behavior: Helpful employee behavior that is not linked to some reward such as pay, incentive, or bonus and is given voluntarily and freely is of interest to managers and HR practitioners. Significant research over the past three decades shows the behavior to be correlated with work performance, job satisfaction, and employee motivation. Today, it seems that managers and organizations are expecting more from employees and these expectations are not likely to diminish in the coming years. The employee who offers ideas, energy, who steps up and helps out even when doing so is not identified in a job description, is normally regarded as valuable.\nConsequences of employee voluntary, helpful behavior: This section makes clear that voluntary, helpful behavior matters in terms of positive outcomes which managers and others find attractive. Much is known about the behavior and its implications for management education and practice. Our literature review has revealed that, on average, over the past 25-30 years approximately 40 research studies directly or indirectly aimed at the behavior have been reported annually. A sub set of that research demonstrates the value and consequences of helping behavior. For example, Turnipseed and Turnipseed (2013) found that employees who consistently engaged in helpful behavior were more likely to offer innovative ideas thus helping to create an organizational culture that embraces innovation. Xerri and Brunetto (2013) identified similar results. Mostafa et al. (2015) found that, in government organizations, helping behavior was related to the intrinsic motivation of employees who chose public service as a career. Rapp et al. (2013) found that employee helpful behavior was positively related to task performance, although there could be instances where too much helpful behavior could detract from task performance. This finding suggests that there may be tolerance limits to helpful behavior.\nPredisposition to offer helpful behavior: With the value thus placed on voluntary, helpful behavior, finding some efficient and effective means for identifying individuals predisposed to offering the behavior on a consistent basis behavior could serve the interests of managers. It is reasonable to assume that some individuals are more likely to offer v-hob at work than others. One can be reasonably confident that some persons would never attempt to do more than the job requires while some other individuals may frequently offer helpful behavior above and beyond normal job requirements and managers' expectations. The behavior represents a sample of who they are. There is research to ground the notion of predisposition to offer v-hob.\nPractical measures: Several studies have attempted to identify efficient and valid measures (surveys, questionnaires) that could be used to identify individuals who had a proclivity for v-hob and who were high performers. Another purpose of these studies was to identify measures related to v-hob and performance that were positively and significantly inter-correlated. The idea was that it might be possible to find several measures that were linked and that had predictive qualities. A number of such measures are discussed below.\nThe current study: There has been little research making use of several measures of characteristics representative of v-hob that has also demonstrated a clear connection to work performance. Extending previous research, the Bandura et al. (2014) study was used as a general guide and employed the scales of job dedication, contextual performance, and learning orientation.\nLimitations and practical implications: This brief study is exploratory in nature and, as in other (above) studies the sample of participants was small, yet statistically useful. Further, the participants are enrolled in the same university and were enrolled in the same discipline (accounting). The same academic discipline was used as in the Bandura et al. (2014) study to be able to contrast results. There was no attempt to study or adjust survey response information per socially desirable response bias and this is an area that needs to be addressed in future research.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purposes of this paper are to: help managers and other practitioners learn about voluntary, helpful employee behavior; provide examples of how such behavior is manifest in everyday work situations, and demonstrate how to assess the behavior for recruitment and selection. A brief study is presented that demonstrates how valid and reliable measures may be used to identify employee predisposition for voluntary, helpful behavior.\nDesign/methodology/approach: Two substantive components of this work are: a detailed literature review that describes and demonstrates the elements of voluntary, helpful behavior (v-hob); and a report of a brief correlational study that demonstrates how two short surveys may help in predicting employee voluntary, helpful behavior.\nFindings: Literature review reveals that v-hob is related to many positive employee outcomes among which are better work performance, more positive relationships with co-workers and managers, and lower turnover, as contrasted with employees-in-general. The study undertaken reveals two measures: job dedication, and contextual performance are valuable in predicting employee v-hob.\nResearch limitations/implications: In the survey portion of this paper the sample size is relatively small yet amenable for statistical analysis. Study participants are representative of a single academic discipline and are representative of the same university. The two survey tools used have repeatedly been shown to have validity and reliability.\nPractical implications: This paper offers a detailed view of employee helpful behavior and it helps managers develop ways to assess one\nOriginality/value: This paper helps managers, HR specialists and others attain knowledge on the expression of employee v-hob. Two survey tools are provided to help identify employees who may be predisposed to offer this desirable behavior.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
Customer involvement and new product performance: The jointly moderating effects of technological and market newness
|
[
"New product performance",
"Customer involvement",
"Configurational approach",
"Market newness",
"Technological newness"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: Taking advantage of external knowledge is increasingly important for developing successful new products (Chao-Ton et al., 2006; Feng and Wang, 2013; Peng et al., 2014). Researchers as well as practitioners have considered customers as a critical source of external knowledge and asked for more involvement of customers into new product development (NPD) (Feng et al., 2010; Menguc et al., 2014; Mishra and Shah, 2009). A firm can acquire core resources and knowledge by involving its major customer into the product development process (Feng et al., 2010). However, existing findings are not consistent in the relationship between customer involvement (CI) and new product performance (Feng and Wang, 2013; Lau, 2011; Mishra and Shah, 2009). The absence of evidence calls for further research into contextual factors that may explain the inconsistent findings. In other words, it is critical to understand whether the relationship between CI and new product performance depends on particular contingencies.\n2. Literature review: 2.1 CI\n3. Hypothesis development: In this study, we combine RBV with contingency theory to propose that there is a relationship between CI, new product performance and product innovativeness. According to RBV (Barney, 1991), how to leverage resources owned by internal functions and external partners influences a firm's success (Lau et al., 2010). In the framework of RBV, a firm is deemed as a bundle of resources (Wernerfelt, 1984). Long-term competitive advantage can be achieved if a firm possesses valuable, rare, inimitable and non-substitutable resource (Barney, 1991). The RBV argues that firm resources include tangible resources (e.g. products, equipment and employees) and intangible resources (e.g. corporate culture, reputation and relationship with customers) (Barney, 1991), as well as internal resources (e.g. employee skills and raw materials) and external resources (e.g. market response and relationship management) (Wade and Hulland, 2004; Lau et al., 2010). Lau et al. (2010) proposed that external integrative capability is one kind of external resources. Thus, CI can help firms to gain valuable and inimitable resources required for developing new products. Several recent studies have considered CI as important sources of resources and capabilities for a firm to improve its new product performance (Feng and Wang, 2013; Lau, 2011).\n4. Research method: 4.1 Sampling and data collection\n5. Analysis results: In this study, SPSS 22 was used to test the research hypotheses. This software allowed for the calculation of DR2 among different regression models. Following Venkatraman's (1989) suggestion, we conducted hierarchical moderated regression analysis to test the hypotheses. This technique is appropriate for the model specifying the dependent variable (new product performance) is jointly determined by the interactions of the predictor (CI) and the moderators (TN and MN) (Prajogo, 2016). First, we added control variables into the model; second, the predictor and moderators; third, the two-way interactions of the predictor and moderators; and fourth, the three-way interaction. Before forming the interactions, the predictor and moderators were mean-centered to minimize potential multicolinearity problems (Aiken and West, 1991). The results are shown in Table IV.\n6. Discussion and implications: 6.1 Discussion\n7. Limitations and future directions: This study has some limitations that provide opportunities for future research. First, the cross-sectional design of this study may limit our ability to make causal inferences about the relationship between CI and new product performance. While we have proposed that CI has a positive impact on new product performance, it is possible that the direction of causality may be reversed. However, we made several efforts to remove this concern. Previous findings generally support the argument that CI contributes to performance improvement rather than firms with high performance are more likely to implement CI (Feng and Wang, 2013; Lau, 2011; Mishra and Shah, 2009). Our interviews with executives indicate that one of the most important goals of implementing CI is to improve new product performance. Future research using a longitudinal design would increase our certainty regarding the causality of the hypothesized relationships.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to examine the joint influence of technological newness (TN) and market newness (MN) on the relationship between customer involvement (CI) and new product performance.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The authors employed hierarchical moderated regression analysis to test the hypothesized relationships using survey data collected from 214 Chinese manufacturing firms.\nFindings: The authors found that the impact of CI on new product performance varies across the different configurations of TN and MN. Specifically, the performance effect of CI is most positive under low TN and high MN, while the performance effect is least positive under low TN and low MN.\nOriginality/value: This study enriches CI research by identifying different configurations of product innovativeness that augment or limit the value of CI.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Using social simulations to assess and train potential leaders to make effective decisions in turbulent environments
|
[
"Simulation",
"Decision making",
"Leadership"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n__NO_TITLE__: Making difficult decisions in turbulent times is a critical ingredient to success for today's leaders. Because complexity and ambiguity tyrannize decision-making in today's rapidly changing environment, leaders need appropriate decision styles and tolerance for incongruity in order to make clear accurate judgments under these stressful conditions (Roberto, 2002). Organizational effectiveness in turbulent task environments is dependent on the decisions leaders make under the pressure of information complexity, uncertainty, and change (Cabana, 1996; Wynne and Hunsaker, 1975; Fleishman and Hunt, 1973). Responsiveness under time pressure, ability to handle emergencies under stress, and quick decision-making, for example, are major components for effective military leadership (Roberto, 2002; Hunsaker et al., 1975). Other personal attributes, such as perseverance, communication skills, and positive interpersonal relations are positively related to effective leadership, and under conditions of environmental turbulence they assume critical importance (VanDevender and Barker, 1999; Hunsaker et al., 1974). Unfortunately, leaders' capabilities to perform effectively under stress are not usually identified until after they have been exposed to turbulent conditions, sometimes resulting in catastrophic results. Consequently, there is a need to assess leaders' potential for coping effectively with turbulence before they are exposed to situations where ineffective decisions may result in serious damage to the organization (Yusko and Goldstein, 1997).\nAssessing leader decision making with social simulations: Studies of complex information processing, group structure and process, and inter-group interaction have discovered that there is a need for more realistic, complex and novel simulated environments where the uncertainty and complexity of decision inputs can be varied to study differences in information processing, decision making, risk taking, and group structure as functions of personality differences and changes in environmental turbulence (Lauriola and Levin, 2001; Streufert et al., 1965; Guetzkow, 1962; Schroder et al., 1967; Tuckman, 1964). Most research in these areas has been confined to small-scale decision tasks (e.g. gambling or hypothetical choice situations) where subjects were either operating as advisors with no possibility of experiencing positive or negative outcomes as the result of their decisions or where they were unable to win or lose but small amounts of money (Lauriola and Levin, 2001; Streufert and Streufert, 1968). Real-world situations can differ greatly from these simple laboratory environments in terms of the degree of potential loss and gain, the intensity of personal involvement by decision makers, and the complexity of determinants and outcomes (Yusko and Goldstein, 1997; Higbee and Streufert, 1969). Rasa (1969) found that more complex social simulations offer a satisfactory compromise between control and the complexity of reality. Other research using simulation techniques has verified that simulation participants experience considerable realism and involvement (Yusko and Goldstein, 1997; Driver, 1962; Alger, 1963; Streufert and Streufert, 1968). Social simulations, for example, have provided organizations with a powerful means of selecting and training leaders to effectively handle crisis situations. After defining the critical tasks, knowledge, skills and abilities involved in effectively addressing a crisis, observers are able to measure the crisis handling performance of participants during the crisis simulation. The information obtained from the simulation is then utilized for selecting, coaching and developing crisis leaders (Yusko and Goldstein, 1997).Furthermore, in complex simulated environments, decision outcomes can be determined by many interacting factors making it possible to examine which factors were used and how they were integrated (VanDevender and Barker, 1999, Schroder et al., 1967; Higbee and Streufert, 1969). This capability is especially relevant when social learning is critical for collective decision-making to implement changes in social practices, roles and responsibilities to achieve both technical and relational outcomes. In these \"participatory agent\" based social simulations the actors learn from their own behavior how to improve communication processes, decision-making and strategic planning (Pahl-Wostl and Hare, 2004).\nThe Luna I Moon Colony: NASA's interest space travel and the possibility of establishing a permanent manned lunar colony in the late 2000's generated funding to create an assessment and training simulation designed to provide a complex and novel environment where the uncertainty and complexity of decision inputs could be varied to study information processing, decision making, risk taking, and group structure. Based on these research needs, Driver and Hunsaker (1972) created a programmed social simulation for the analysis of individual and group decision-making under varying conditions of environmental complexity called the Luna I Moon Colony.The Luna I Moon Colony simulation controls environmental inputs (e.g. information frequency and content, degree of success and failure, and level of uncertainty) to allow for a valid measurement of experimental variables such as cognitive complexity, incongruity adaptation capability, and decision style. Multiple goals and a wide range of complex decision strategies facilitate the measurement of information processing levels. The novelty of the simulated lunar environment discourages standard role behavior and allows for subject experimentation in both behavioral and cognitive strategies. The effectiveness of the simulation in accomplishing these objectives has been demonstrated by Hunsaker (1971) and Driver (1972). With additional or modified data-gathering devices, or minor modifications in the simulation scenario, a wide array of behavioral phenomena can be studied. One adapted format, for example, adds an enhanced information processing and calculation methodology for providing immediate and flexible feedback to promote the study of inter-group competition (Hunsaker and Hunsaker, 1974). The rest of this section will describe the Luna I simulation environment, procedures for conducting the simulation, and methods of data collection and analysis. Information about space requirements, subject preparation and instruction, and operations required from the administrator can be found in Driver and Hunsaker (1972).The simulated environment\nLeadership assessment and training simulations: An examination of how well US Army educational systems prepare officers for contemporary military operating environments by the Leader Development and Education Task Force recommended that the Army incorporate simulations into leader development and education (Hirai and Summers, 2005). Bakken and Gilljam (2003) have documented the advantages of applying system dynamics techniques when designing simulations to represent \"real world\" operational challenges, especially where task complexity is the manipulated variable. Simulations have also been identified as being beneficial in training military commanders to include environmental considerations in their military decision-making process (Vargesko, 2005).The research generated by the Luna I Moon Colony simulation, coupled with the recognized need for developing military leaders' decision effectiveness in turbulent environments, resulted in a grant from the Army Research Institute for Behavioral and Social Sciences for the development of a pilot-simulation which could be used by ROTC units for assessing the leadership potential of officer candidates in turbulent military environments. The result was the tactical pacification game that provided a simulated military environment for the assessment of officer candidates' decision-making, leadership, and team skills (Mudgett et al., 1975). The success of the tactical pacification game paved the way for the creation of two more sophisticated simulations to provide more complex assessments of potential military leaders and train them to make effective decisions in turbulent environments. The leadership assessment and training simulation (Hunsaker, 1974) was developed to provide a method of identifying officer candidates who are able to cope with turbulence and to provide a training vehicle for enhancing this capability. This simulation provides a decision-making situation in which information quantity and complexity can be varied to examine participants' reactions to information overload and incongruity. Personality and performance measures, administered before, after, and during the simulation, provide data on how different types of people perform under varying degrees of environmental turbulence. The final simulation in this series was the leadership effectiveness development simulation (Hunsaker, 1977). It consists of a complex military situation requiring decisions about interrelated economic, socio-political, and military tactic problems. It is designed to facilitate the development of specific tactical competencies as well as broader leadership, decision-making and interpersonal skills.Following are descriptions of the simulation scenarios and procedures for conducting them. This is followed by a summary of the research findings they have generated. Finally, future applications, including techniques for data collection, anticipated problem areas, and related research paradigms, are discussed.Procedures and scenarios\nImplications for social simulations in future leadership research and training: Advances in more sophisticated computer technology can enhance leader assessment and training in decision-making in turbulent environments, e.g. fighting wars (Reeder, 2002). A recent example is the adaptive thinking and leadership simulation that uses computer game technology to train US Special Forces soldiers in skills like adaptive thinking, negotiation, conflict resolution and leadership. By role-playing in an ever-changing environment, users sharpened their ability to anticipate the consequences of responses to problems that may not have a right answer. The simulation helps players discover their strengths and weaknesses in mental agility, cultural awareness, and communication skills (Thilmany, 2005). A dedicated simulation facility has also been created for the Yugoslav Army to provide military commanders with the capability for two-sided interactive air war gaming (Vranes et al., 1992).The ease of modifying computer games renders them effective as low-cost virtual worlds that have found relevance in military experimentation. The Singapore Armed Forces Centre for Military Experimentation conducted a gaming workshop in 2004 to explore how soldiers could make use of information to alleviate the challenges in an urban warfare scenario. The workshop generated many insights into the issues surrounding information requirement and usage, sense making, and command and control. This initiative represents the commitment to explore and harness computer games in engaging the next generation of soldiers in the development of war-fighting concepts of the future (Fong, 2006).However, the use of computer simulations alone fails to capture the impact that relationships and emotions have on military decision making, highlighting the continuing need for social simulations that include these interpersonal aspects of team decision making (Gratch and Marsella, 2003). Interpersonal knowledge about team members, for example, has been found to have positive effects on performance and team processes, including an increase in the amount and types of information exchanged, physiological arousal, and shared mental models (Espevik et al., 2006). There is also evidence that US Army officers progress to more complex decision-making strategies when growth is recognized and rewarded (VanDevender and Barker, 1999).There are a number of opportunities to utilize social simulations to assess and develop leaders' decision effectiveness in turbulent environments utilizing recent applications of Michael Driver's constructs of decision style and environmental complexity. Brousseau et al. (2006), for example, have determined that to advance in complex organizations, leaders need to learn and apply more advanced decision styles for using information and evaluating options. The information-maximizing and participative, integrative, decision style of successful CEO's was found to be the opposite of successful first-line supervisor's information-minimizing, decisive, decision style. For leaders to succeed as they progress up the organization hierarchy, it was found that their decision styles must evolve to include more complex information processing that is capable of accommodating the challenges of the increased turbulence inherent in the new terrain. The question now is how to train advancing leaders to drop old information processing habits that were successful in the past and adopt new decision styles necessary for success in the more complex and turbulent environments encountered in more senior positions. One approach is through civilian adaptation of the social simulations described above that had successfully assessed and trained military leaders for similar succession paths. By participating in realistic social simulations, advancing leaders can experiment with new decision styles without the risk of making real world mistakes that could jeopardize their own and their organization's future. By applying the model for assessing and developing leaders for turbulent environments presented in Figure 2, the leaders who are most successful in adapting their decision style to the more complex requirements can be identified for promotion.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: - The purpose of this paper is to describe two social simulations created to assess leadership potential and train leaders to make effective decisions in turbulent environments. One is set in the novel environment of a lunar moon colony and the other is a military combat command. The research generated from these simulations for assessing the decision effectiveness of potential leaders with different personality traits and decision styles under varying degrees of information quantity, uncertainty and complexity is summarized. Opportunities and limitations of applying current computer assisted technology to social simulations for assessing and developing leaders' decision effectiveness in turbulent environments is discussed.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - College undergraduates and officer candidates in university ROTC programs made a series of decisions while being subjected to varying degrees of environmental turbulence in social simulations. The decision effectiveness of subjects with different personality characteristics under varying degrees of environmental turbulence was assessed through researcher observations, self-reports, and peer ratings.\nFindings: - Social simulations are a cost effective way to assess and train leaders to make effective decisions in turbulent environments. The results of controlled experiments in social simulations have suggested that leaders with high levels of cognitive complexity and incongruity adaptation are more likely to be successful in highly turbulent environments than leaders with lower levels of incongruity adaptation ability and cognitive complexity who are more effective in more stable and structured situations.\nResearch limitations/implications: - The ease of modifying computer games renders them effective as low-cost virtual worlds that have relevance in military leadership experimentation. However, the use of computer simulations alone fails to capture the impact that relationships and emotions have on leader decision making, highlighting the continuing need for social simulations that include these interpersonal aspects of decision making.\nPractical implications: - By participating in realistic social simulations, leaders can experiment with new decision styles without the risk of making real world mistakes that could jeopardize their own and their organization's future. The leaders who are most successful in adapting their decision style to the more complex requirements can be identified for promotion or assignment to appropriate settings.\nOriginality/value: - Both military and civilian organizations are in need of cost effective way to assess and train leaders to make effective decisions in turbulent environments. Social simulations provide a unique approach to meeting these needs and can simultaneously provide a venue for research in associated areas.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
Effects of price decisions on product categories and brands
|
[
"Prices",
"Elasticity",
"Advertising",
"Discounts",
"Consumer behaviour"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: This paper aims at analysing the influence of the prices policy on buying behaviour and specifically on brand choice behaviour. To this end, three dimensions related to prices will be analysed: reference price, price elasticity and price promotions. The document organised as follows. First, we show the conceptual framework that justifies the need to consider the influence prices exert on the consumer as well as the different alternatives in the formation of reference prices. The price elasticity concept is developed relating it to the use of promotions and its influence on brand choice. Second, we introduce the methodology devised for testing the hypotheses formulated as well as the characteristics of the household panels that will be analysed. Third, we present the most relevant results obtained regarding the estimated models. Finally, the conclusions and business implications derived from the work carried out are drawn.\nConceptual framework: The review of the previous literature justifies the explicit introduction of prices in the brand choice and purchasing process. Thus, the present section introduces in the first place some theories that explain the price perception the consumer has as well as different alternatives for the formation of reference prices. Subsequently, through the concept of elasticity, we refer to the effects price variances have on different types of brands of the category of product. Finally, we analyse the influence of a specific type of sales promotion, the immediate price discounts, on the brand choice process.Consumer price formation: reference prices\nResearch methodology: General formulation: the model\nResults: Different models have been suggested with the objective of testing the hypotheses previously advanced. To this end, the first step is to determine the most adequate formulation to estimate the reference prices. Afterwards, starting from this the variables that reflect the promotional state (Table II) will be introduced in the model. We present below the most relevant results derived from the research carried out.(1) Reference prices by stimuli or observation:\nConclusions: The brand choice and buying behaviour developed by consumers is a complex phenomenon. The variables that influence it are numerous and it is necessary to know them to act and develop useful strategies that achieve the objectives aimed at in each case. The influence of prices on this process is very important. Specifically through the present work we have tried to offer evidence on its relevance.In previous researchers questions related to reference prices have been approached in depth. It seems widely accepted that when consumers buy a product they compare its price with a subjective level. The problem focuses on finding the most adequate way of estimating that level. While some theoretical trends consider that the consumer forms his reference price from the observation of the prices at the establishment, others defend that the consumer remembers the prices paid on previous occasions and he will form his reference price from them. The analysis made allows us to propose the estimations from stimuli or observation as explanatory of the brand choice and decision process developed by the consumer.Just as it was expected, we have confirmed the importance of prices in the purchasing process. The effects derived from their fluctuations depend on the characteristics of the brand. Specifically, we have found differences in the intensity of response to price variances between manufacturer brands and store brands. The latter appeared to be more vulnerable.Since one of the most widely used techniques of sales promotion are immediate discounts, we have considered it necessary to clarify the effects this may produce. Interesting results have been obtained regarding this issue. Discounts are perceived as attractive and serve to modify consumer preferences, but depending on the category of product. Thus, for those in which consumers show a strong tendency or preference for the brand, the expected results are not obtained, because they are not relevant in the brand decision process. The application of another promotional tool would be more advisable instead. However, for other categories of product with lower loyalty rates, the application of discounts is the most adequate action, since the use of other promotion actions does not produce any effect.\nManagerial implications: If we transfer these results to the domain of business decisions, effective and efficient recommendations can be obtained. It is possible to act on consumers' reference prices, since these will use external elements to form them. For this reason, it is necessary to offer perceptible stimuli that increase the reference price so that when the consumer compares it with the observed price, he experiments a potential gain and he is more likely to make the final purchase (opts for a brand).The collateral effects are not always taken into consideration despite their relevance. Brand price variations have more or less directly an effect on the likelihood of choice of the rest. Specifically, store brands may be more affected than manufacturer brands.The promotional policy has various techniques to achieve its objectives. Among them are price discounts. It is necessary to clarify that this technique should not be employed indiscriminately on any category of product because their characteristics may advise other actions. With regard to this it is also interesting to mention the quality of the rest of promotional incentives which are not related to price. It seems that the observed tendency is that for products with a wide group of loyal consumers the most recommended promotion actions are those which are not related to prices.\nLimitations and future research lines: The research work presented has some limitations that must be pointed out. The first of them is related to the domain of the research. As we have indicated, we have worked with two household panels, one nationwide (Spain) and the other regional (Asturias) with the aim of validating the results obtained with two different samples. In addition, the elaboration by the research team itself of a household panel allowed obtaining information about the promotional activity the categories of product were subjected to during the period analysed, since this information could not be obtained in the national household panel. However, this which in itself is a strong point of the work has the imitation of the geographical area analysed. The household panel that has information on the promotional state is regional, its dimension does not allow us to draw conclusions which could be applied world wide. Nevertheless, it has been enough to initiate the study of promotions and their effects and from there, reflect on the results obtained.Another limitation that can be derived from the research carried out is the large amount of variables related to reference prices that could be incorporated into the study. As we have pointed out in the bibliographical review on reference prices, a lot of questions about these can be analysed. The present work has focused on the comparison of the two big alternatives of formation of reference prices: methods based on memory and methods based on observation, thus considering very specific estimate models. However, we consider this a first approach that could be studied in more depth in the future.These limitations constitute a point of departure for future research lines. Thus, one possibility could be to extend the domain of the study to other places or geographical areas in order to find out to what extent the consumers' patterns of behaviour are similar or on the contrary relevant variations occur. Specifically, we would like to develop a similar work but with national information from different countries in which questions relative to the promotional state both of the product and the establishment or point of sale could be incorporated. Nevertheless, we expect that the results obtained with the national panel in Spain could be applied to other geographical areas.We consider one of the findings of the research quite revealing: the effectiveness of the type of promotional action will depend on the type of product, the type of incentive, and the loyalty developed by the consumers to the category of product. As we have pointed out, we have confirmed that monetary incentives are not adequate for products with some emotional load or weight (in the specific case studied the product has been cocoa powder, associated with habit, tradition, childhood, etc.). For these products other incentives like reusable packs or gifts are more adequate. Nevertheless, this may be due to the fact that the non-monetary incentives that are offered with this category of product (cocoa powder) are highly valued by the consumer, and are really more attractive than those offered with other categories without such a high emotional load (margarine or softener). This is a question to study. For this reason, a future proposal would be to analyse other categories of products both with and without emotional load, and with similar quality of the non monetary incentive, and to verify if the effect found in the present research persisted or, on the contrary, the finding was due to the difference in the quality of the promotional incentives offered and not to the affective bond to the product.\nNotes: 1. The authors wish to emphasise the considerable effort made to elaborate the consumer panel. Its undertaking was, nevertheless, considered necessary since it allowed us to elaborate a household panel completely adapted to the necessities derived from the present research itself. Likewise, it makes the work carried out more reliable as the results can be corroborated with two different databases. Five stages, have been followed to make up the household panel. In the first stage, we proceeded to design the information (meetings in group with the target public, observation at the point of sale and elaboration of a purchase diary). In the second stage, the information was collected. To this end, the purchase diaries were supplied and collected weekly and a database was created. In the third stage, we started to debug the information, selecting those variables, households and brands that would be studied. The fourth stage includes the transformation and modification of the variables used. In the fifth stage, an analysis of the information was carried out. The stages from three to five were also undertaken on the national household panel.2. The information required from the consumers in their purchase panel was related to the needs derived from the models to be used. Specifically, the brand choice models, from which and according to the hypotheses to be contrasted, the variables introduced will be some or others as it is explained in the following section.Opens in a new window.Figure 1\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: - The purpose of this present paper is to analyse the influence prices have on consumers' purchase decisions. Specifically, three aspects related to this variable are considered: formation of reference prices, effects of price variances on the buying behaviour and the influence of price promotions on the purchasing process.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - The paper elaborates two household panels, one national (Taylor Nelson Sofres Group) and the other regional (elaborated by us) which complements the information provided by the former.\nFindings: - The results confirm the use of reference prices by consumers, highlighting the importance of the stimuli present at the point of sale for their formation. Likewise, the paper observes the interrelation of strategic decisions, emphasising the collateral effects derived from them.\nOriginality/value: - The paper cautions retailers that immediate discounts as a promotional strategy may be successful, but this does not apply to all product categories.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Conflict and its governance in horizontal cooperations of logistics service providers
|
[
"Conflict resolution",
"Corporate governance",
"Servicing",
"Performance management",
"Innovation"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1 Introduction: As the complexity and dynamics of supply chains have increased, so have the challenges for logistics service providers (LSPs) as key players in the management and execution of logistics. One viable way for LSPs to react to these challenges is to strengthen interaction - either vertically with customers and suppliers or horizontally with other LSPs. In the recent past-an increasing number of LSPs has decided to utilize the latter option and to establish horizontal logistics cooperations (Carbone and Stone, 2005; Oum et al., 2000). These partnerships enable LSPs to enhance their competitiveness and to enforce their market penetration capabilities, not only by providing access to new markets or by increasing profitability, but also by extending service portfolios and improving service quality (Cruijssen et al., 2007a, b; Carbone and Stone, 2005).\n2 Conceptual framework: 2.1 Outcome of conflict\n3 Research methodology: 3.1 Sample\n4 Discussion: 4.1 Interpreting the outcome of conflict\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: Horizontal cooperations of logistics service providers (LSPs) have become important for LSPs within the last decades. Owing to the high complexity of these cooperations as observed by Schmoltzi and Wallenburg, the potential for conflict is inherent. This research, therefore, aims to investigate how nature (dysfunctional vs functional) and extent of conflict impact the outcome of these cooperations. Further, the roles of formal and relational governance mechanisms in influencing conflict are analyzed.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The research is empirical in nature and employs a theory-driven, confirmatory approach. It utilizes large-scale survey data of German LSPs, which are analyzed using multivariate statistical methods.\nFindings: The research shows that governance mechanisms impact the extent and functionality of conflict: relational governance lowers the extent of conflict and leads to higher functionality of conflicts, while formal governance increases the extent of conflict. Moreover, it is shown that conflicts decrease the overall cooperation performance, whereas - when functional in nature - they have a positive impact on the innovativeness of cooperations.\nResearch limitations/implications: The impact of governance on conflicts and of conflicts on outcome may differ depending on the cultural and country-specific setting.\nPractical implications: The results allow mangers of LSP cooperations to adapt their set of applied governance mechanisms and conflict resolution approaches with regard to the improvement of cooperation performance and cooperation innovation.\nOriginality/value: This is the first study that analyzes conflict and conflict resolution in horizontal LSP cooperations and shows their interrelation with both governance and performance.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Generational differences in China: career implications
|
[
"China",
"Careers",
"Age groups",
"Attitudes"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Since the Open Door Policy was launched in 1978, the world has witnessed China developing into an important economic power (e.g. Rosen, 1999). According to the CIA World Factbook, in 2006 China had the third highest gross domestic product (GDP, purchasing power parity) behind the USA and the EU. After almost 30 years of rapid growth, China's economic growth does not seem to have slowed substantially; China's 2006 GDP growth rate was 10.6 percent (CIA World Factbook, 2007) and in 2009 it remained 8.7 percent (CIA World Factbook, 2009).Researchers have compared the attitudes of Chinese employees to employees from other parts of the world, especially from Western societies, in order to better understand the Chinese employees and manage them effectively (e.g. Tu et al., 2006). Some researchers are examining the structural implications for careers of changes in Chinese institutional structure (e.g. Shen et al., 2007a). However, few studies have considered that even among Chinese employees there are differences. In this study, we explore one important factor that differs among Chinese employees: generations. Many studies have found evidence that different generations have different career perceptions that influence their workplace attitudes and behaviors (e.g. McDonald et al., 2005; Hess and Jepsen, 2009; Hurst and Good, 2009) in Western societies, but few Chinese studies are reported (Twenge, 2010). We examine how different generational groups in China view themselves, their career management skills, and their work setting preferences. Finally, we deduce some practical implications for career management for Chinese employees of different ages.\nLiterature review: The concept of generations\nCultural Revolution generation: The Cultural Revolution generation, or \"Born in the 1960s\", experienced the Cultural Revolution (1966-1976) in their childhood and adolescence. The Cultural Revolution was the period of time when political chaos and campaigns filled people's daily lives and the traditional Confucian value system was widely criticized. Many cultural and historical heritages were destroyed and people were ordered to have loyalty only to the political leader. It is a common conviction that the Cultural Revolution is considered a \"trauma\" from all perspectives in the society. Therefore, those shaped by the 1960s are a generation that witnessed the most dramatic changes in China's modern history as they grew up; their value orientations unavoidably carry the characteristics of these changes. The years of the Cultural Revolution experienced extreme poverty due to natural disasters and radical political movements and social experiments (Yao, 2000). This may bring into play Inglehart's (1997) scarcity hypothesis and suggest this generation cares about financial security more than later generations which didn't face the same widespread conditions of poverty within China.The 1960s was also an era full of idealism and passion for the \"noble causes\" (e.g. Yang, 1997; Chen, S., 1999). During the Cultural Revolution generations' childhood, they were educated to devote their lives to communist idealism and obtain the honor to become the \"Little Red Guard\". It is also referred to as the \"Red Guards\" generation by some researchers (e.g. Hung and Li, 2007).The early 1980s was an era when Western ideology and philosophy became widely popular in college campuses and students enthusiastically and feverishly pushed the government to westernize China. The result of the 1989 political incident illustrates their failure. In the spring of 1989, the mourning services of a passed government leader developed into political chaos and military actions in Tiananmen Square. After that, many people turned conservative politically and focused on financial achievement, hence sometimes also be considered as the \"Lost Generation\" (Chen, Y.X., 1999). Yang (1997) claimed that the Cultural Revolution Generation has become the first generation in the PRC history that was actively involved in the market economy and obtained high income through high education and high wisdom. This is a generation that experienced more dramatic social and political changes than other later generations.\nSocial Reform generation: The Social Reform generation, or \"Born in the 1970s\", witnessed the most important and drastic rate of modernization in China in their young adulthood. They are also referred to as the \"Modern Realists\" who are encouraged by the government to pursue financial success (Hung and Li, 2007; Lu, 2000). They are believed to have experienced little material bitterness in their childhood. Hunger was not a haunting word in their youth, even though there were limited varieties of supplies.This generation is also considered more heavily influenced by the economic reform since their childhood and therefore was more interested in economic success and less enthusiastic about political dreams than the preceding generations. They are more realistic and pragmatic, and thus more silent and peaceful, than the Cultural Revolution generation (Yang, 1997).The Social Reform generation benefited from economic reforms with a dramatically improved standard of living, but some of them believed that they were victims of policy changes (Liu, 2002). For example, one important change of policy in early 1990s was that the government would no longer assign a job to any college graduate. Instead, people would have to find a job for themselves. In addition, they would be charged tuition for higher education, while their preceding generation enjoyed nearly free college. They are believed to be more attuned to the new lifestyles than the Cultural Revolution generation, but more traditional than the Millennials.\nMillennial generation: The Millennial generation, or \"Born in the 1980s\", is also called the \"Me generation\", the \"Affluent generation\", the \"Individualistic generation\", or the \"Spoiled generation\", but most commonly is referred to as the \"One Child generation\". In 1979, concerned about the effects of an exponential population growth (from 400 million in 1949 to 800 million in 1978), the Chinese government launched the \"Fundamental National Policy\" that permitted every family in urban areas to only have one child (Croll et al., 1985). Although there are several exceptions to this policy (such as minority groups, families with a disabled child, etc), and administrations in some areas did not strictly enforce it, the Millennials as a generation carry the characteristics of being the single child in the family, even though many born in the 1980s still have siblings.The One Child Policy is considered a huge social experiment, unique not just in China, but in world history (Yang, 1997). Although Western literature shows inconsistent differences between only children and children with siblings (e.g. Falbo and Polit, 1986), the Chinese only children are unique by their majority status. In the Millennial generation, most children in the urban area are the only child in the family; the focus of six adults on one child during childhood promotes self-centered attitudes which then influence the development of the whole generation.Born the center of the family in an era when society witnessed fast economic growth and families have more money to spend than ever before, most people from this generation never experienced nutritional problems or a lack of resources. They are referred to as \"Global Materialists\" as they were exposed to higher level of affluence in the society and had better connections to the outside world (Hung and Li, 2007). There were worries in the late 1980s that the \"One Child generation\" would create social issues when they grew up. The media has described them as \"little suns\" or \"little emperors\" and some studies show that they are \"selfish\", \"self-centered\", \"rebellious\", \"anti-traditional\", \"uncooperative\", \"lazy\" and \"irresponsible\" (e.g. Elegant, 2007, Feng, 2000), but they also possess characteristics such as strong self-confidence, diverse interests, and strong need for self-improvements (China Youth Press, 1986).Unlike the Social Reform and Cultural Revolution generations' acceptance of collectivist values, the Millennials are proud of their personalities and individualism (Liu, 2005; Liu, 2002). While previous generations played group games in their childhood, those born in the 1980s saw material wealth and technological change, and often their only friend was a computer (Liu, 2005). The most representative emotional experience for the Millennials is loneliness (Yang, 1997). A possible negative consequence for the workplace could be lack of social abilities and psychological problems due to the closed solitary lifestyle.Many Millennials chose not to work and remained dependent upon their parents creating social change. In 2003-2004, only 40-50 percent of the new urban workforce could be employed, and the growth rate of the young unemployed in the workforce was 63.2 percent (Chinese Department of Labor, 2005). According to a survey conducted jointly by Sohu.com and Shanghai Youth Daily in 2005, unemployed youth who do not want to work (living with and depending on their parents financially) have become a social problem:* 20 percent were fresh college graduates who were not satisfied with any jobs they could find;* 10 percent could not get used to the work pressure and quit;* 20 percent wanted to open their own business; and* another 10 percent were job hoppers and spent more time between jobs than with one; others had low work skills.The socioeconomic changes during their youth have caused the Millennials to be more tolerant to differences, including differences in values and lifestyles. Therefore, they are also a very diverse generation. The large supply of resources gives them strong self-confidence, as personal well-being is more in control of the individual than it was in the preceding generations. The characteristics and career options of each Chinese generation are summarized in Table I.Career development in China\nMethodology: Our survey instrument focused specifically on aspects of careers and how the different generations viewed their careers. Wolburg and Pokrywczynski (2001) provided questions regarding self perception and the respondent's view of their ideal manager; their work has been used in past generational difference research (for example, Fletcher et al., 2009). We used elements of the Family and Work Institute report (2002) about career satisfaction and work/life balance. To examine self-perceived career management skills, we used the Career Management Self-Efficacy Scale developed by Schwoerer (1990). In an effort to understand the internal priorities between career and family, we used the Career Identity Salience Scale from Lobel and St Clair (1992). We were also interested in how the different generations viewed their careers as positive given the different circumstances of their career choices, so we used the Career Salience Scale developed by Sekaran (1986). A five-point Likert scale was used to ask the respondents if they agree or disagree with the statements in the questionnaire. The survey questionnaire was developed in English and translated into Chinese. Two bilingual translators worked independently on the survey, compared their translations and reconciled the differences. The survey was then posted online.Data collection\nConclusions: The results of our study indicate a trend that the younger generations, while keeping the same traditional cultural values as their preceding generations, have moved towards Western-style values and behaviors but clearly still retain commonalities with previous generations as well. It is not surprising that with the ever-opening society and the strong cultural influence by merchandisers such as McDonalds, Gap and Hollywood movies, life styles and preferences of young people around the world are merging. The Chinese Millennial group has values most similar to the same generational group in the United States (Morgan and Ribbens, 2006). Specifically, we proposed six trends would occur. Millennials would be the least satisfied with their careers, would prioritize careers over family concerns, would have the highest level of confidence in their abilities to manage their careers, would be the most self-impressed, would demand the most from their managers, and would be the most likely to initiate career changes.Several of these hypotheses were not supported by our data. It is possible that the earlier career stage of the Millennials explains their lack of expected dissatisfaction; they are still in the development and growth stages and thus, perhaps overall career stage progression is reducing the expected results for H1. Twenge (2010) suggests that time lag studies or large sample comparisons across time may be more effective to separate generational differences from career stage/age differences.Millennials do not prioritize careers over family and do not have the highest self-impression. The lack of results for H2 led us to wonder about the effects of different functional definitions of family and how traditional lifestyles involving the extended family in China might be affecting workers' sense of priorities between work and family. For example, young Millennials with children might not feel a need to prioritize family since the older generations of their family may be providing child care and picking up family development roles that free the Millennials from some family roles. The idea that Millennials are the least satisfied with their careers was only supported by one of the variables measured, as was the idea that Millennials have the highest levels of confidence in their career management. However, we did find evidence that Millennials expect more from their managers and are more likely to initiate career-related changes.While we do find evidence for some of the trends we proposed, it is clear that Chinese generational attitudes are more complex than we expected from the literature. This leads us to recommend further investigation into how overall culture may reduce the effects of generational differences, particularly in terms of attitudes toward careers and work.Limitations\n",
"role": "user"
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"content": "Purpose: - The purpose of this paper is to examine generational differences in attitudes toward careers in China. Generational differences are quite apparent in Chinese society. People who were born in the 1960s experienced the Cultural Revolution in their childhood. Those born in the 1970s witnessed the dramatic and profound social changes after China's open-door policy was enforced. The generation born in the 1980s is believed to be the spoiled generation that highly values materialism and self-realization, due to being the only child in the family as a result of the \"One Child\" policy.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - The authors surveyed Chinese people between 20 and 50 years old about their career attitudes to explore six hypotheses based on predicted patterns of generational change.\nFindings: - The paper found more differences in desired attributes of their manager than in their perception of themselves. Some career attitudes and abilities vary across the three generations but, given the historical and common assumptions of generational change, extensive differences were not found.\nResearch limitations/implications:: - The authors' sample of 277 can only provide general insights into Chinese attitudes, given the size and diversity of the Chinese population. The study hopes to spur further research into generational differences in China and elsewhere.\nPractical implications: - The paper provides insight into how the generational groups in China currently in the workforce think about their careers. Generational clashes in the workplace are also discussed.\nOriginality/value: - No previous projects directly use the studies method or concepts in China. It builds on past work examining work values and career attitudes in China to contribute insights into generational differences within China.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
Supervisor monitoring and subordinate work attitudes: a need satisfaction and supervisory support perspective
|
[
"Supervisor monitoring",
"Job satisfaction",
"Affective organizational commitment",
"Perceived supervisory support",
"Psychological need satisfaction"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Although the leadership literature is replete with studies concentrating on the positive outcomes of supervisor-subordinate relationships (Ansari et al., 2007; Arici, 2018), we observe that only a handful of studies explore the impact of monitoring styles of supervisors on similar outcomes (Lee et al., 2019). Following the study conducted by Liao and Chun (2016), we have examined the role of interactional and observational monitoring styles of supervisors in effectuating subordinates' job satisfaction and affective organizational commitment through their psychological need satisfaction and perceived supervisory support. Our empirical analyses lend support in favor of the interactional over the observational monitoring style of supervisors in developing positive job attitudes of subordinates. These findings carry significant implications for practicing managers in terms of how to bring out the best from their subordinates in the workplace. More importantly, from the viewpoint of performance monitoring and feedback, this study explains how supervisor-subordinate relationships marked by supervisors' personal touch can make a substantive difference in the work attitudes of employees in comparison to relationships that are driven purely by employment contracts. Thus, our study strengthens the popular leader-member exchange stream of literature by adding the perspective of supervisors' monitoring styles that has not been explored adequately in the academic literature. Therefore, the role of supervisors becomes amplified in connecting employees with positive organizational outcomes. In the subsequent sections, we begin with a review of the literature followed by hypotheses development, then move on to the method and results and conclude with the implications of the study.\nTheory and hypotheses development: Supervisor monitoring\nMethod: Participants and procedure\nResults: Measurement model\nDiscussion: Drawing on self-determination theory (Ryan and Deci, 2000) and organizational support theory (Eisenberger et al., 2002), a theoretical model linking two styles of supervisor monitoring (interactional and observational) and subordinates' work attitudes (job satisfaction and affective organizational commitment) was developed and tested by examining the underlying mechanisms. Results revealed that subordinates reporting to supervisors demonstrating an interactional style of monitoring are likely to feel a sense of support from their supervisors and the satisfaction to their basic needs of autonomy, competence and relatedness in the relationships with their supervisors. In contrast, subordinates reporting to supervisors with an observational style of monitoring do not feel supported by their supervisors and experience nonfulfillment of their basic psychological needs within the supervisor-subordinate relationship. Also, results indicate that subordinates of supervisors using an interactional style of monitoring tend to be satisfied with their jobs, as they feel a sense of support from their supervisors. Subordinates of leaders practicing interactional monitoring also feel emotionally attached to their organizations due to the fulfillment of their psychological needs in the workplace. However, subordinates whose supervisors use an observational style of monitoring tend to experience a lack of support from their immediate supervisors, due to which they are likely to be dissatisfied with their jobs.Theoretical contributions\nConclusion: In light of the organizational support theory and self-determination theory, this paper hypothesized that supervisors' interactional monitoring influences subordinates' job satisfaction and affective organizational commitment indirectly through perceived supervisory support and psychological need satisfaction within the supervisor-subordinate relationship. The results of this study confirmed that interactional monitoring could facilitate the development of favorable work attitudes such as job satisfaction and affective organizational commitment due to perceptions of supervisory support and satisfaction of basic psychological needs, respectively. In contrast, observational monitoring could hinder the development of favorable work attitudes like job satisfaction due to a perceived lack of supervisory support. The results are in line with the existing studies (Liao and Chun, 2016) and promote an enhanced understanding of the outcomes of different supervisor monitoring styles in organizations.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: Drawing on self-determination theory and organizational support theory, the present study explored how two styles of supervisor monitoring, namely, interactional and observational, differently impact job satisfaction and affective organizational commitment of subordinates. In addition, the mediating roles of psychological need satisfaction from the supervisor and perceived supervisory support were also investigated.\nDesign/methodology/approach: Responses were collected from 183 full-time employees through a web-based survey, and data were analyzed using partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM).\nFindings: Results indicate that interactional monitoring positively influences psychological need satisfaction from the supervisor and perceived supervisory support, while observational monitoring negatively influences psychological need satisfaction from the supervisor and perceived supervisory support. Psychological need satisfaction from the supervisor fully mediates the relationship between interactional monitoring and affective organizational commitment, while perceptions of supervisory support partially mediate the relationship between the two monitoring styles and job satisfaction.\nResearch limitations/implications: The findings of the study need to be interpreted with caution as causality could not be inferred due to the cross-sectional nature of the study.\nPractical implications: Supervisors are advised to adopt an interactional style of monitoring, as it favorably influences the work attitudes of subordinates.\nOriginality/value: The present study is one of the few works that have examined the differential impact of supervisor monitoring styles on subordinates' work outcomes.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
A problem of embeddedness: A micro-theoretical model of trade union action and interaction in Europe
|
[
"Cooperation",
"Europe",
"Complexity",
"Trade unions",
"Microfoundations"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: It is well documented in the industrial relations literature that actors, i.e. social partners, and processes are very different in different European countries (e.g. Erne, 2008; Ferner and Hyman, 1998; Marginson and Sisson, 2004). In all European countries, there are distinct types of industrial relations systems embedded in different institutional national frameworks (e.g. European Commission, 2015). Even though in recent decades the transnational context has become increasingly important, the national arena for social partners' action and interaction remains the most relevant (Keune and Marginson, 2013).\nExplaining common behaviour of autonomous actors: from factors to actors: There is no disagreement in the literature about the diversity and heterogeneity of autonomous industrial relations actors in Europe (e.g. European Commission, 2015; Marginson and Sisson, 2004), as well as the fact that the development of industrial relations outcomes has been very similar in all countries. This increased similarity in the development of industrial relations includes both qualitative and quantitative outcomes such as the cross-national trend towards an increased precariousness of working conditions (e.g. Doellgast, 2012), an increase in non-standard working arrangements (e.g. Pulignano, 2017), a transformation in the forms of industrial conflicts (e.g. Kelly, 2015; Vandaele, 2014) and last, but not least, as another example in the development of collectively agreed wages (e.g. Aumayr-Pintar et al., 2014). As regards the latter, Figure 1, not only shows that for European countries for which data are available, there is a declining trend in collectively agreed wages and some convergence between countries, but also that the pattern of development over time shows significant similarities. This similar development in collectively agreed wages is clearly expressed by the upwards and downwards peaks since the economic crisis hit Europe in 2008.\nTrade union goals: what do unions want?: An actor-based approach to trade unions calls for a theory of trade union goals, i.e. their preferences. As will become clear, different goals may or may not align, and aiming to fulfil these goals may have intended as well as unintended consequences when taking into account the embeddedness of trade union action. In this section, a general actor model is discussed with the help of a typology of trade union goals, based on three elements: maximisation in wage bargaining; reference dependence on fairness preferences; and ideology.\nSocial mechanisms: from intentional coordination to unintentional influence: On the basis of the trade union goals, we identify a number of different causals mechanisms that can account for the international interdependence of trade union action. In order to systematise such mechanisms, we differentiate between three forms of interdependency: explicit coordination initiatives, implicit coordination via norms, unintentional influence via spillovers. All three forms explicitly recognise trade union as fundamentally embedded in a network of trade unions.\nThe outcome of union embeddedness in the European context: In Europe, one of the most striking features of the development of important outcomes of trade union action is the common downward-spiral in wages and working conditions (e.g. Meardi et al., 2013). With reference to the trade unions goals described earlier, this suggests that trade unions have been less and less able to maximise their primary goals, i.e. to raise the wages of employees and/or secure jobs as well as to pursue fairness goals. Why is this so?\nElements of union cooperation: the cement of unions' order: The problem is that no union can achieve its goals unless cooperation from their (transnational) counterparts can be ensured. By looking at the development of outcomes in Europe, one might posit that there is, therefore, a problem of cooperation.\nConclusions: from factors to actors and back again: In this paper, we presented a general micro-theoretical framework to answer the questions of why trade unions are behaving in a similar way, are cooperating (or not) and, thus, why the outcomes of their actions are similar in the context of European industrial relations.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to propose a general micro-theoretical framework that helps to understand the embeddedness of trade unions within the European system of industrial relations, and the consequences of this embeddedness for industrial relations outcomes. First, starting from the paradoxical observation of a trend towards homogeneity within a complex, multi-layered European industrial relations system consisting of heterogeneous and autonomous agents, the paper aims to explicate the mechanisms which produce these similarities. Second, the paper seeks to analyse potential mechanisms for transnational trade union cooperation and, third, it concludes by outlining its applicability as the basis for methodological approaches which enable realistic and policy relevant analyses.\nDesign/methodology/approach: This paper is conceptual and focusses on the development of a general micro-theoretical framework which captures European industrial relations actors' behaviour and outcomes. It integrates theoretical and empirical accounts from differing social science disciplines and from various methodological starting points on trade union action and interaction into one general micro-theoretical framework.\nFindings: Starting from a typology of trade union goals, the authors show how various social mechanisms lead to interdependencies between trade unions and review empirical evidence for their consequences. The authors, then, identify a set of motives for transnational cooperation that would allow outcomes that are in line with trade union objectives.\nOriginality/value: Against the background that previous studies on trade union action and cross-national interaction have paid less attention to the puzzling stylised fact that industrial relations outcomes are mimicked by heterogeneous and autonomous agents actors in different countries, the authors address this research gap by developing a novel general micro-theoretical framework for the analysis of transnational trade union action and interaction in order to better understand the underlying causal mechanisms for the common behaviour and outcomes of autonomous actors.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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Theorising practices to deliberately or accidentally control customers
|
[
"Control",
"Satisfaction",
"Service providers"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Service marketing studies emphasise customer centricity, yet the business press reports declining customer satisfaction ratings, rising complaints and service providers applying control over customers (Lester, 2006; Reichheld and Allen, 2006). Such issues inform extant service research questioning precepts of service provision by investigating the ways in which providers exercise \"control\" over employees and customers through processes and outcomes (Hodgson, 2002; Dellande and Nyer, 2007; Skalen, 2011). Nonetheless, control remains infrequently analysed in business-to-consumer marketing (Menon and Bansal, 2007) and in research on call-centres and technology-mediated service interactions (Skalen et al., 2006; Skalen, 2011). Furthermore, control over customers tends to be studied in a generic, undifferentiated manner, with distinctions among providers' control tactics only alluded to by Rafaeli (1989), whereas classifications, typologies and frameworks of control are largely absent. Evidence-based exploration of providers' control over customers is warranted, especially in the context of fast-growing front-line services, such as call-centres (da Silva et al., 2007) as the main point of provider-customer contact (Hsieh et al., 2013) that is critical to customer satisfaction (Ashill et al., 2009). Given the importance of technology in call-centre interactions and occasional references to technology-mediated control in services (Skalen, 2011) which remain to be empirically confirmed, this discussion explores whether, and how, service providers exert technology-mediated control over customers.\nA review of extant research: Marketing and service research on control\nData collection: Research ethos and methods of data collection\nInterview narratives: The following narratives dominated interviews:\nDiscussion: Theorising control types, their characteristics and consequences\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: This paper aims to empirically explore and theorise the application of technology control over customers during call-centre interactions. The author seeks to ascertain distinct types of technology-mediated control, with potentially distinct ingredients and consequences for repatronage and service relations.\nDesign/methodology/approach: During three stages of empirical research across Western and non-Western, developed and developing country settings and across call-centre types, customers who have experienced control during call-centre exchanges, as well as providers (operatives, supervisors and managers) are interviewed as part of ethnographic research also reliant upon observation and company documentation.\nFindings: Findings suggest that, first, the rapid adoption of technology has facilitated the application of control during provider-customer interactions, second, such control may be more widespread than suggested in the literature and, third, there are various types, processes and ingredients of technology-mediated control. The discussion contrasts deliberate from accidental control.\nResearch limitations/implications: Studies on call-centre interactions often assume that relationships between providers and customers follow customer-centric expectations in service marketing theory. Only a minority of theorists in service marketing contest these assumptions, arguing instead that service providers may be using techniques to control customers by dominating and regulating processes and outcomes of interactions with customers. This study advances extant literature by theorising control types, their ingredients and impact on service provision.\nPractical implications: Businesses may benefit from knowing when, how and how much customers are willing to revoke control. Customers are shown to accept being controlled, with customers' tolerance for control being larger than anticipated.\nOriginality/value: This is a rare attempt to analyse control over customers seen through the eyes of providers across levels of decision-making within organisational hierarchies. Whereas research tends to study control in generic terms, the author demonstrates the multifarious and complex nature of control. The author challenges conventional thinking in the discipline by providing empirical evidence of, and theorising, how and why customers permit themselves to be controlled in service relations.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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Interactive effect of consumer affinity and consumer ethnocentrism on product trust and willingness-to-buy: a moderated-mediation model
|
[
"Consumer affinity",
"Attitudinal conflict",
"CET",
"Product trust",
"Willingness-to-buy"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: Attitudinal conflict in cross-cultural contexts is becoming an increasingly common problem for consumers involved in the global consumption market (Cleveland and Laroche, 2007; Wongtada et al., 2012). This phenomenon has attracted both concern and attention on transnational purchase decision-making in the field of cross-cultural marketing research (Riefler, 2012; Riefler and Diamantopoulos, 2009; Vida and Reardon, 2008). With globalization's extensive reach, on the one hand, consumers can easily buy products from foreign countries (Alden et al., 2006; Cleveland et al., 2013; Jin et al., 2015). On the other hand, consumers may encounter internal conflicts about whether to purchase domestic or foreign products (De Nisco et al., 2016; Netemeyer et al., 1991; Verlegh, 2007; Winit et al., 2014).\n2. Literature review and hypothesis development: 2.1 Consumer affinity, product trust and willingness-to-buy\n3. Method: 3.1 Sample and procedure\n4. Results: 4.1 Measurement model\n5. Discussion: Although research interest on consumer attitudinal conflict issues is increasing (Cleveland and Laroche, 2007; Wongtada et al., 2012), the real relationship and interactive effects of plausible conflicting attitudes between consumer affinity and CET remain to be understood. In this study, responding to the call for a joint investigation of consumer affinity and CET (Jaffe and Nebenzahl, 2006; Oberecker and Diamantopoulos, 2011), a model centered on product trust was proposed that explains the impact of consumer affinity on willingness-to-buy in line with emotional attachment theory (Bowlby, 1979). Within this logical model, consumer affinity boosts product trust, particularly for consumers exhibiting high rather than low levels of ethnocentrism according to social identity theory (Tajfel, 1982). Consequently, consumers are more likely to trust the products from their affinity country, and this trust will increase consumers' desire to strengthen the connection with their affinity country, reflecting a strong purchase intention toward its products. The data, obtained using convenience sampling with a survey research method, support all the hypotheses: product trust mediates the effect of consumer affinity on willingness-to-buy, with particularly marked positive effects for consumers who exhibit a high level of ethnocentrism.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: This study aims to clarify the relationship between two plausible conflicting attitudes in cross-cultural context-consumer affinity and consumer ethnocentrism (CET) and to explore their interactive effect on product trust and willingness-to-buy.\nDesign/methodology/approach: A total of 392 usable responses were obtained. Previously validated scales of consumer affinity, CET, product trust and willingness-to-buy were used and showed good reliability. Hierarchical multiple regression and the bootstrapping method were conducted to test the hypotheses.\nFindings: This study revealed that consumer affinity is positively associated with product trust, which in turn promotes consumers' intention to buy products from the affinity country; CET moderates the relationship between consumer affinity and product trust; and CET also moderates the mediating effect of product trust on the relationship between consumer affinity and willingness-to-buy.\nResearch limitations/implications: First, this study helps to explain how consumer affinity boosts willingness-to-buy, and it reveals the type of consumers whose product trust is most notably influenced by their level of ethnocentrism. Second, this study examines the moderating effects of CET on the relationship between consumer affinity and product trust, which can help to identify the situations in which consumer affinity influences product trust most strongly. Third, this study examined the interactive effect of consumer affinity and CET on product trust and its subsequent effect on willingness-to-buy. The findings help to explain the CET's critical role in the effect of consumer affinity by relating it to the literature of product trust and willingness-to-buy.\nPractical implications: Given the crucial role that consumer affinity plays in improving consumers' trust in and buying intention for a country's products, governments, multinational enterprises and international marketers should strategically construct, maintain and magnify a positive national image to the world. This study's results also clarify that consumer affinity does not conflict with CET; not only can they coexist but also they are positively related. The crucial implication is that CET is not always a barrier to purchasing foreign products.\nOriginality/value: Although research interest in consumer attitudinal conflict issues is increasing, the real relationship and interactive effects of plausible conflicting attitudes between consumer affinity and CET remain to be understood. This study bridges a gap between CET and willingness-to-buy by considering the boundary conditions of consumer attitudes toward a specific country (inherent in consumer affinity). Furthermore, this study is, to the best of the author's knowledge, the first to link consumer affinity with willingness-to-buy through the mediating effect of product trust. These findings are helpful for understanding how consumer affinity positively effects willingness-to-buy.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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Competing institutional pressures in corporate governance reform: the role of board interlocks and industry peers
|
[
"Governance",
"Board of directors",
"Institutional theory",
"Board interlocks",
"Practice adoption"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Because of economic and social globalization, the boundaries of national systems of corporate governance have become more permeable for the transfer of corporate practices from institutionally distant contexts (Boersch, 2007; Khanna et al., 2006; Davis and Marquis, 2005; Gordon and Roe, 2004). While a practice may be regulatory, normatively and cognitive-culturally legitimate in one context, the same practice when introduced in a different institutional environment may be at odds with the prevalent institutional pillars of corporate behavior and face a \"liability of illegitimacy\" (Sanders and Tuschke, 2007, p. 33). Several studies have examined the adoption of \"external\" institutional models. Most of this research has focused on three issues: one body of research has focused on the extent to which resource dependence pressures influence the adoption of new organizational forms (Ahmadjian and Robinson, 2005). A second line of research has examined the role of upper echelon characteristics which may influence the exposure of key decision makers to new institutional models (Fiss and Zajac, 2004; Sanders and Tuschke, 2007). A third body of research has focused on corporate interlocks (Shipilov et al., 2010; Tuschke et al., 2014). This study focuses on the role of inter-corporate ties and network structure and examines the social processes that facilitate and impede the diffusion of an institutionally contested practice. Institutional and embeddedness perspectives suggest that firm actions are socially situated and cannot be explained by reference to individual motives alone (Granovetter, 1985; Oliver, 1991; DiMaggio and Powell, 1983). When managers make decisions with regard to the adoption of institutionally contested practices, they are influenced by the actions of other firms in their social structural context, which reinforce or impede the adoption of the new practice (DiMaggio and Powell, 1983; Tolbert and Zucker, 1983; Fligstein, 1991; Battilana, 2006).\nResearch context: This section describes the elements of German corporate governance that are of relevance for the study: the two-tier board structure, the prevalence of a tight network of board interlocks, influential industry associations and the German Corporate Governance Code.\nTheory and hypotheses: Firm responses to institutional pressures for corporate governance reform\nMethods: Sample and data\nResults: Table II presents descriptive statistics and bivariable correlations among the variables. Multicollinearity is of limited concern in the analysis. The highest correlation between two variables is 0.65 (i.e. network centrality and firm size), indicating a shared variance of 0.42. The variance inflation factor (VIF) analysis shows that none of the hypothesized variables has a VIF > 1.59. The variable with the largest VIF (i.e. 6.50) is a control variable.\nDiscussion, limitations and conclusion: This study examined the effects of firms' industry peers and board interlocks on the likelihood that these firms adopt an institutionally contested corporate governance practice.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: This study aims to examine the effects of competing influences emanating from firms' social structural context (i.e. sent and received board of director interlocks and industry peers) on the adoption of an institutionally contested corporate governance code provision.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The corporate governance code provision of interest in this research recommends that German firms listed on German stock exchanges should disclose the individual remuneration arrangements for their board members. This paper uses 945 firm year observations from 2002 to 2006, the time period during which the adoption of this provision was voluntary for firms, to examine the role of firms' social structural context in the legitimization process of this provision.\nFindings: The results show that sent board interlocks to firms that defy pressures to adopt this practice have an equally pronounced but opposing effect on its institutionalization process. Received interlocks are inconsequential in this process. The results also provide evidence for the existence of competing influences emanating from firms' industry peers. In contrast to the effects associated with sent board interlocks, at the industry level, peer acquiescence has a more pronounced effect than peer defiance. Furthermore, the practice's legitimacy among firms' peers moderates the effects of sent board interlocks.\nOriginality/value: The results of this paper suggest that a balanced approach to studying institutional change in corporate governance needs to acknowledge the co-existence of conflicting signals regarding the spread of new institutional models. The findings suggest that firms' social structural context plays a central role in processes of contested institutional change. Board interlocks and industry peers carry the potential to facilitate institutional change and facilitate institutional continuity and resistance to change. However, not all board interlocks are of equal importance, and industry peers constitute a source of legitimacy to which directors forming the interlocks attend.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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An exploratory analysis of librarians' blogs: their development, nature and changes
|
[
"Information science",
"Librarians",
"Worldwide web"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Blogging, though a relatively new phenomenon, has already gained high popularity, and blogs have become a central feature and an essential information channel in the Web 2.0 information world. Up to September 2008 there were more than 133 million blogs in the blogsphere, out of which 1.5 million were updated during the last week of September (Technorati, 2008). There are various definitions for the term blog: Marketingterms.com (2007) defines blogs by their content as a \"mixture of what is happening in a person's life and what is happening on the Web, a kind of hybrid diary/guide site, although there are as many unique types of blogs as there are people\". Merriam Webster Online (2004) sees a blog as \"a web site that contains an online personal journal with reflections, comments, and often hyperlinks provided by the writer\". The Webopedia (2004) definition focuses on the personal aspects of a blog: \"A blog is a web page that serves as a publicly accessible personal journal for an individual. Typically updated daily, blogs often reflect the personality of the author\". Finally, some researchers define a blog as an online journal (Doctorow et al., 2002).\nLiterature review: Blogs\nMethodology: Data collection\nFindings: Descriptive statistics\nSummary, conclusions and limitations: The current research sought to explore the development of librarians' blogs in two points in time, i.e. the first period of their publication and the second, later period. The findings demonstrate that despite some major differences between these periods which may represent new directions in librarians' blogsphere, there are other issues that have not changed a lot.The findings indicate that there is a current tendency to write fewer posts in fewer posting days, along with a trend to write essay-type posts with hypertext links.These findings may represent a new direction, as mini-blogs and social networks are becoming more common and more popular in our digital environment. It is quick to post to Twitter and to convey news or updates via this application. Perhaps bloggers have begun to use mini-blogs for short messages, while continuing to write long, detailed posts to their blogs.The differences discussed so far may represent a new direction, a change in the librarians' blogsphere. But, a thorough examination of blogs' content reveals that three out of the five main content categories are equivalent in both periods and it seems that the same issues still occupy librarians' minds and thoughts. The most obvious finding is that librarians in both periods are mostly concerned with technology and its innovations.It seems that there are changes and differences which can be characterised as focusing on the format or on the structure as well as on the bloggers' patterns of writing. However, examining the substance of the blogs - its content - reveals no major difference, upheaval or change along the two periods. Librarians' blogs in both points in time convey the bloggers' professional interests and concerns and serve as places for dissemination of professional knowledge and experience with the librarians' community.The research findings are relevant for librarians and information scientists as they cause them to better understand and delve into the phenomenon of LIS blogsphere. Furthermore, the findings shed light on the importance of topic-oriented blogs as they deal with both professional as well as with personal information, and provides the professional community an opportunity to exploit the information assigned in the blogs.The researcher recommends that in order to have a broader picture of blogs' development and in order to better understand the blogshpere phenomenon, further research should be conducted on mini blogs and their contribution to the LIS blogsphere.It should be also noted that the main limitation of this study resides in the fact that the first period of blogging publication is different, and although most blogs (80 per cent) examined here were first published in 2003-2006, some first appeared before and afterwards (2001-2002, 2007).\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: - The main purpose of this paper is to compare and examine two points in time of the LIS blogsphere: first period of publication of the blog (first two months for each blog) and a second period (July/August 2008). The research will describe and analyse librarians' blogsphere, focusing on its nature, development, and prevailing tendencies.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - This paper presents a statistical descriptive analysis and a thorough content analysis of 30 LIS blogs in two periods of time. The first phase in the investigation is the location of the LIS blogs that meet the research criteria; the second phase is the examination of data related to the posts. The final phase consists of the content analysis of the main ideas of the posts and the development of a subject scheme that represents the analysis.\nFindings: - A thorough examination of blogs' content reveals that there is a current tendency to write essay-type posts with hypertext links; there are fewer posts and postings days, as well as fewer readers' comments, but a larger number of links and tags which are assigned to the posts. Furthermore, three out of the five main content categories are equivalent in both periods and it seems that the same issues still occupy librarians' minds and thoughts.\nOriginality/value: - The research findings are relevant for librarians and information scientists as they cause them to better understand and delve into the phenomenon of LIS blogsphere.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
Divergence or convergence: paradoxes in corporate governance?
|
[
"Corporate governance",
"Emerging markets",
"Comparative corporate governance",
"Divergence",
"Economic convergence",
"Principal-principal conflicts"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: Globalization of the world economy and integration of financial markets have brought the traditional models of corporate governance at the crossroads. The discourse on the convergence of governance models, which has resulted from the integration of economic systems across the world along with other developments, has gained importance amongst practitioners and academicians. The present study reviews the arguments in the existing literature on various dimensions in the finance domain and the phenomenon of convergence of the traditional models of corporate governance. The study focuses on Anglo-Saxon Model (Stockholder Model) prevalent in the USA and the UK and the German Model (Stakeholder Model) of corporate governance prevalent in Germany and continental Europe. It also draws on the aspects of governance as reported in certain emerging economies.\n2. Agency theory: need for governance structures: 2.1 Principal-agent conflict\n3. Models and mechanism of corporate governance: Corporate governance refers to the procedures through which the capital providers to the firm guarantee themselves of getting a return on the invested capital (Shleifer and Vishny, 1997). It can also be considered as the system of guidelines, rules and factors, which control the methods used for performing various operations in the organization (Gillan and Starks, 1998). Corporate governance mechanism is considered to be a nexus of contracts (Jensen and Meckling, 1976). Hence, the governance mechanism includes the systems pertaining to regulations and laws, which ensure the absence of misbehaviour by the agents, efficient and effective utilization of the finances provided by the investors. The corporate world is often found to be focusing on the corporate governance models and mechanism that have been prevalent in various economies over decades. To promote fair dealings and communicate quality information to the investors, different countries, on the basis of their macro and microeconomic variables, have enforced corporate governance codes and have adopted various models of corporate governance. For instance, the emerging economies (BRIC nations) differ from the developed economies on many dimensions such as relation versus rule-based governance, ownership structures, institutional development and enforcement of laws and regulations (Peters et al., 2011).\n4. Divergent dimensions: corporate governance models: Often, the researchers have viewed the governance mechanism to be classified into two categories, namely mechanisms:\n5. Corporate governance convergence: possibilities and challenges: Globalization of world economy and the increased competition in the global markets has resulted in increased prospects of confluence of the corporate governance models. The literature emphasizes on the convergence of the ideas regarding the best or optimal governance structures. However, the implementation of the ideas or written governance codes is subject to the country-level characteristics supporting the idea of partial convergence (Aoki, 1994; Bebchuk and Roe, 1999). In the context of transition economies, the transition has been initiated with regard to dimensions of the internal governance structure such as managerial remuneration and board structure.\n6. Conclusion: Good governance practices tend to positively impact the performance of firms. Across the globe, firms have been continuously working to adapt best governance practices in order to address PP and PA conflicts. The corporate governance models that have evolved and have been adopted in the various countries over the decades have differed on various dimensions, such as board's structure, and ownership patterns due to the unique set of socio-economic, cultural, legal and political dimension of the countries. Researchers suggest that the two models are converging due to prevalence of certain macro-economic forces. However, it has also been pointed out that the difference in the fundamental frameworks and financial systems of the countries make it difficult to see a convergence of these corporate governance models in the true sense. The governance structures at the firm level can be decoupled from the legal and institutional set-up of the countries, which provides a possible explanation for the patterns of convergence documented in the literature. For instance, despite weaker enforcement of laws in the emerging economies, firms are adapting best governance practices (Cornelius, 2005). Dual convergence of the traditional models with coexistence of PP and PA conflicts is expected to result in a hybrid model. The interplay between the forces to adapt best governance practices at the firm level and the differences in legal and institutional frameworks at the macro-economic level are expected to contribute towards the presence of convergence-divergence paradox in the future. Research on governance in emerging economies is engaged with aspects relating to agency conflicts and external governance mechanisms. The framework suggested in this paper is an endeavour to stimulate a research agenda in this direction.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: This review paper aims to compare the various dimensions in the finance literature pertaining to the Anglo-Saxon Model (Stockholder Model) prevalent in the USA and the UK with the German Model (Stakeholder Model) of corporate governance prevalent in Germany and continental Europe. The present study identifies different strands of research on the various dimensions of these models, along with aspects of governance in emerging economies and the phenomenon of the convergence of these governance mechanisms.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The literature review on corporate governance models has been carried out on the themes of internal and external governance mechanisms. The review considers agency theory along with principal-principal (PP) conflicts as the fundamental blocks explaining the need for governance structures.\nFindings: The traditional models of governance, along with the incorporation of PP conflicts, will result in a hybrid model inculcating the best of both the traditional models. However, convergence in the true sense may not be possible owing to fundamental differences pertaining to cultural, economic, legal and socio-economic aspects of the firm.\nOriginality/value: This paper proposes a framework incorporating the interplay of managerial talent and controlling shareholders to understand the governance system that may be applicable for firms in emerging economies.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
Personality traits and entrepreneurs: Does gender make a difference?
|
[
"Entrepreneurship",
"Personality traits",
"Gender"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nWhy most entrepreneurs are men: Plenty evidence exists to confirm the key contribution that entrepreneurship makes to the economic performance of many nations. Traditionally, the overwhelming majority of entrepreneurs have been male and that dominance doesn't look like ending anytime soon.\nThe key issue of personality: But maybe personality is the most crucial area to explore further. For long enough it has been widely purported that entrepreneurs are somewhat unique in this respect. Numerous studies conclude that entrepreneurs typically possess a strong prevalence of certain personality traits. It is likewise noteworthy that the presence of such distinctive characteristics seems indicative of entrepreneurial intent too.\nA defining characteristic of self-employed women: However, work carried out by Zisser et al. (2019) provides some significant insight into the relationship between gender and self-employment. University students from the San Francisco Bay area of the United States took part in the survey. Since entrepreneurs make a major contribution to the economy in this region, the study context was an appropriate one.\nComment: The review is based on: \"The relationship between entrepreneurial intent, gender and personality\" by Mackenzie R. Zisser, Sheri L. Johnson, Michael A. Freeman and Paige J. Staudenmaier, published in Gender in Management: An International Journal. Women entrepreneurs remain a minority in what is traditionally dominated by men who rate highly in several core masculine traits. However, highlighting the value of a strong communal tendency might help persuade more women to become self-employed and consequently see an alternative style of entrepreneurialism emerge.\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: Female entrepreneurs remain under-represented in an area traditionally dominated by men who rate highly in core masculine traits. But an emphasis on the value of possessing strong communal orientations could help entice more women into self-employment and consequently witness the emergence of an alternative approach to entrepreneurship.\nOriginality/value: The briefing saves busy executives and researchers hours of reading time by selecting only the very best, most pertinent information and presenting it in a condensed and easy-to-digest format.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
Accommodating linguistic prejudice? Examining English teachers' language ideologies
|
[
"Critical literacy",
"English teaching",
"Critical language awareness",
"Dialects",
"Language ideologies"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n__NO_TITLE__: Modern scientific study has forced us to abandon many of the older commonly held views of language and has provided us with new principles and new assumptions which underlie new methods of analysis and verification. But the cultural lag in assimilating the results of this modern scientific study of language has been so great that the views and practices of a prescientific era still dominate the schools.\nSituating the study: Hegemonic and counter-hegemonic language ideologies\nMethods: Survey construction\nFindings: Principal components analysis - distinguishing types of belief about language\nDiscussion: The questions that drove this research focused on the examination of English teachers' language ideologies and the factors that influence those language ideologies. Research on language ideologies consistently emphasizes the complex, multifaceted nature of language beliefs (Kroskrity, 2004, 2010; Rosa and Burdick, 2017). Naming aspects of those beliefs is an inherently imperfect task and must be acknowledged as an exercise in creating heuristics for research or professional development purposes, rather than uncovering an underlying truth. Other studies of language attitudes (Garrett, 2010) or teachers' language ideologies (Byrnes et al., 1997; Fitzsimmons-Doolan, 2014; Ford, 1978; Taylor, 1973) have identified varying constructs that comprise language ideologies depending on the goals of the research. With that caveat, the four aspects of language ideology identified through this study provide a means to tease apart contrasting components of teachers' language beliefs with the goal of helping design professional development that influences teachers' practices.\nLimitations and implications: It is important to note that this survey of high school English teachers in Missouri, USA, represents a narrow slice of an incredibly diverse global population of English teachers. In addition, surveys are blunt instruments to measure complex, dynamic and contextualized concepts like beliefs. With these caveats in mind, there are important understandings to be gleaned from this study that can be explored and refined in other contexts with other research methods.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this study is to support the integration of scientifically grounded linguistic knowledge into language teaching in English Language Arts (ELA) classrooms through building an understanding of what teachers currently know and believe about language.\nDesign/methodology/approach: In total, 310 high school English teachers in the USA responded to a survey about their language beliefs. Statistical analysis of responses identified four distinct constructs within their belief systems. Sub-scales were created for each construct, and hierarchical regressions helped identify key characteristics that predicted beliefs along a continuum from traditional/hegemonic to linguistically informed/counter-hegemonic.\nFindings: Key findings include the identification of four belief constructs: beliefs about how language reveals speaker characteristics, beliefs about how society perceives language use, beliefs about how language should be treated in schools and beliefs about the English teacher's role in addressing language use. In general, teachers expressed counter-hegemonic beliefs for their own role and their view of speaker characteristics. They expressed hegemonic beliefs for societal perceptions and the dominant school language narrative. Taking a linguistics class was associated with counter-hegemonic beliefs, and teaching longer was associated with more hegemonic beliefs.\nPractical implications: The findings of this study suggest that the longer teachers teach within a system that promotes hegemonic language practices, the more they will align their own beliefs with those practices, despite having learned linguistic facts that contradict pervasive societal beliefs about language. The Dominant School Language Narrative currently accommodates, rather that disrupting, linguistic prejudice.\nOriginality/value: A current understanding of teachers' language ideologies is a key step in designing teacher professional development to help align teaching practices with established linguistic knowledge and to break down a socially constructed linguistic hierarchy based on subjective, and frequently prejudicial, beliefs.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
The Southern Management Association looks at gender and diversity
|
[
"Gender",
"Equal opportunities",
"Organizational behaviour",
"Careers",
"United States of America"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n__NO_TITLE__: This report summarizes the issues raised in papers presented at the recent meeting of the Southern Management Association (SMA) in Clearwater Beach, Florida, USA. SMA is a regional affiliate of the Academy of Management and hosts a meeting annually somewhere in the southern USA. There were 200 papers presented and nine symposium presentations. SMA offers a track for diversity issues, which this year was combined with ethics and social issues. It is interesting to note that among the 18 papers that were diversity-related, only half were included in sessions within the diversity track. The remaining nine were scattered across tracks devoted to human resources, organizational behavior, careers, and other management issues. This dispersion of diversity research throughout the subdisciplines within management may be a sign of progress, in that it represents an increasing acceptance of diversity issues as \"real\" concerns within management. It may also be a problem, in that it may signal a lack of identity or the absence of clear theoretical grounding for diversity research. The one symposium that was diversity related focused on the aging professoriate.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: - The purpose of this report is to review research on gender and diversity issues that was presented at the recent meeting of the Southern Management Association in Orlando, Florida, USA.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - The Southern Management Association, a regional affiliate of the Academy of Management, draws participants primarily, although not exclusively, from the southern states in the USA. The papers covering topics relevant to gender and diversity are summarized.\nFindings: - The diversity related papers presented at this conference were included in a number of tracks other than the diversity track, suggesting an increasing acceptance of diversity research in \"mainstream\" management research. The forms of diversity investigated included age, ethnicity, and gender, leaving out \"invisible\" forms of diversity as religion, sexual orientation, or some types of disability.\nOriginality/value: - The research presented at this conference gives some insight into the issues of gender and diversity as they are perceived and investigated by researchers who generally are attached to smaller colleges and universities, rather than the major research institutions, in the USA.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
Cross-country cross-survey design in international marketing research: The role of input data in multiple imputation
|
[
"Measurement invariance",
"Cross-country",
"Cross-survey",
"International marketing research",
"Multiple imputation",
"Split questionnaire design"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: As markets and marketing activities have become more integrated and global in scope, there is increasing interest and activity among both academics and practitioners around conducting research in multi-country settings (Douglas and Craig, 2006; He et al., 2008). However, multi-country research designs should not be thought of as a simple extension of existing single-country research. Rather, there are significant practical and technical difficulties regarding cross-country research that must be dealt with. For example, in a practical sense, data collection costs are likely to be higher due to issues like questionnaire translation and back-translation procedures. From a technical standpoint, significant analytic and research design issues have emerged in the last two decades regarding the challenges of drawing meaningful conclusions from multi-country data (e.g. Steenkamp and Baumgartner, 1998; Oliveira et al., 2012; Franke and Richey, 2010).\nPurpose of the paper: In the present paper, we focus on the case where - by design - one needs to impute CCCS data (a situation typical among, for example multinational firms who are confronted with the need to carry out comparative marketing surveys with respondents located in several countries), and where the researcher also wishes to use multi-item scales of latent constructs. Importantly, while some work demonstrates approaches for single-item direct measures, no prior research has examined the common situation in international marketing where the researcher needs to use multi-item scales of latent constructs. In such cases, cross-sample invariance is also a critical consideration, and no prior work is able to advise researchers on how to take account of such issues while still utilizing cross-survey/cross-national designs with imputation. As such, our exploration is novel and may have significant implications to international marketing researchers. We demonstrate the consequences of the various imputation strategy choices by using a real example of a two-country sample with a measure of entrepreneurial orientation[2]. Although all the items were originally included in data collection for both countries and we show the results of the full confirmatory factor analyses and invariance testing results, we provide three hypothetical illustrations based on the use of different input data in MIs. This would replicate the situation where only a handful of items are in common, yet items needed for theory testing are shared partially across the country samples, and enables us to describe and evaluate the different MI designs as a tool for complementing cross-country/cross-survey data that has missing data by design. Such a case looks to be an archetypal example of how a cross-country/cross-survey design could help researchers reduce questionnaire length, and thus increase response rate.\nFundamentals of missing data and MI: In general, missing data is a serious problem for researchers. That said, researchers have typically shown greater concern for data that is missing unintentionally, for example due to respondents' reluctance to provide answers to sensitive issues (e.g. Gottschall et al., 2012). However, there exist cases where data can be missing intentionally, for example in situations where researchers would like to combine two independently administered datasets (like in split questionnaire designs, in sub-sampling, or data fusion), or due to other reasons irrespective from the respondents.\nSpecial features of CCCS designs: However, things are much more complicated with cross-survey data consisting of multi-item latent variables collected from different samples (or groups, like countries) and analyzed using structural equation modeling. For example, it has been proposed that multiple imputed datasets can be analyzed in SEM programs using the multiple group approach (Verleye, 1997). Unfortunately, the multi-group approach for MI often becomes impossible in the international marketing context, because of the multi-group approach also required by cross-country data. In addition, in cross-country studies several aspects of invariance need to be dealt with Malhotra et al. (1996), like sampling invariance before the data collection phase, and measurement invariance during the analyses phase of the data. Below, we expand on the various issues of concern here.\nAn illustrative application of MI to cross-country research: Overview of the study\nDiscussion: The benefits of cross-survey MI are potentially very large (Rendall et al., 2013). Split questionnaire designs and MI techniques provide enormous possibilities for researchers, and support development of cross-country research networks. Currently it is obvious that survey-based research is conducted globally in different research fields, even by researchers with similar interests (e.g. strategy, marketing, and information systems researchers often examine similar issues in slightly differing ways). Conducting cross-country comparisons by merging the collected data, and complementing the missing elements with cross-survey MI theoretically makes it possible to maximize the output and effort placed on data collection. In some countries where extensive mail surveys tend not gain a good response rate it could be possible, for example, to collect full questionnaires via interviews from a smaller pool of respondents and then use split questionnaires and MI to gain a larger N. However, based on our study (albeit a single exploratory example), there still exist several serious issues that need to be examined before such an approach can be recommended. While it is impossible to draw authoritative conclusions without the use of a simulation study, the findings of our research still provide important first steps toward a greater understanding of the impact of cross-group measurement variance in situations where imputation is needed. Such issues are highly relevant not only to international marketing, but also to many other social science contexts. Indeed, we agree that accounting for differences in survey sampling and measurement characteristics across the multiple surveys is a considerable barrier to the successful implementation of cross-survey MI in the social sciences (Rendall et al., 2013).\nConclusions, recommendations, and future research: The present study appears to be this first to investigate the issue of measurement variance when conducting MI in a cross-group/cross-survey framework. As such, our study's conclusions should necessarily be taken as exploratory. However, even so, they highlight several concerns and issues that should be taken into account when planning CCCSs (or more general split questionnaire or sub-sampling designs), and will hopefully spur greater attention to be given to this issue in future research within international marketing and business, and social science more generally. Even if there are several advantages available for well-implemented CCCS designs such as shorter questionnaires and improved response rates, the concerns pointed out in this paper lead us to question the appropriateness of the CCCS approach in general, due to the need to impute across the samples. In particular, the latter is problematic since, in cross-country studies, the samples may not be justifiably assumed to be drawn from the same population, and there might also be contextual differences (variances) across the samples, creating biases in imputation results. Further, if the CCCS approach is not appropriate for cross-country studies, how should missing data patterns be designed for cross-country studies to take advantage of the potential of the method in expanding research potentials and statistical power (cf. Littvay, 2009 for single-country solution). While we look at this issue in the specific context of international marketing, it is highly relevant to all social science situations where cross-group measurement invariance may be in question.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to focus on the case where - by design - one needs to impute cross-country cross-survey (CCCS) data (situation typical for example among multinational firms who are confronted with the need to carry out comparative marketing surveys with respondents located in several countries). Importantly, while some work demonstrates approaches for single-item direct measures, no prior research has examined the common situation in international marketing where the researcher needs to use multi-item scales of latent constructs. The paper presents problem areas related to the choices international marketers have to make when doing cross-country/cross-survey research and provides guidance for future research.\nDesign/methodology/approach: Multi-country sample of real data is used as an example of cross-sample imputation (292 New Zealand exporters and 302 Finnish ones) the international entrepreneurial orientation (IEO) data. Three variations of the input data are tested: first, imputation based on all the data available for the measurement model; second, imputation based on the set of items based on the invariance structure of the joint items shared across the two groups; and third, imputation based both on examination of the invariance structures of the joint items and the performance of the measurement model in the group where the full data was originally available.\nFindings: Based on distribution comparisons imputation for New Zealand after completing the measurement model with Finnish data (Model C) gave the most promising results. Consequently, using knowledge on between country measurement qualities may improve the imputation results, but this benefit comes with a downside since it simultaneously reduces the amount of data used for imputation. None of the imputation models leads to the same statistical inferences about covariances between latent constructs than as the original full data, however.\nResearch limitations/implications: Considering multiple imputation, the present exploratory study suggests that there are several concerns and issues that should be taken into account when planning CCCSs (or split questionnaire or sub-sampling designs). Even if there are several advantages available for well-implemented CCCS designs such as shorter questionnaires and improved response rates, these concerns lead us to question the appropriateness of the CCCS approach in general, due to the need to impute across the samples.\nOriginality/value: The combination of cross-country and cross-survey approaches is novel to international marketing, and it is not known how the different procedures utilized in imputation affect the results and their validity and reliability. The authors demonstrate the consequences of the various imputation strategy choices taken by using a real example of a two-country sample. The exploration may have significant implications to international marketing researchers and the paper offers stimulus for further research in the area.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
A process model for implementing information systems security governance
|
[
"Information security governance",
"COBIT",
"ISO 27000",
"NIST security standards"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: Security governance is considered as the most appropriate method not only to gain control of security processes but also to guarantee alignment with business strategies (Rebollo et al., 2015). With increased cyber-attacks and compliance failures, organizations are moving towards implementing security governance frameworks and standards. Hence, the problem of appropriate selection of adequate security controls and optimal risk treatment relies on international assurance standards (Rebollo et al., 2015). The current information security landscape is moving towards a more strategic approach, commonly referred to as information security governance (ISG) (Dlamini et al., 2007). Despite this approach, ISG is poorly understood, ill-defined and means multiple things to different people (Moulton and Coles, 2003). Considering the lack of empirical studies related to ISG methodology, the present study aims at complementing the body of literature on ISG by developing and empirically testing a theoretical model outlining the methodological process of ISG in an organization.\n2. Information security governance: a perspective from literature: 2.1 ISG defined\n3. IS security governance (ISG) process model: Based on the analysis of extant literature on IT governance and security, our proposed IS security governance model incorporates the following activities:\n4. Analysis of the process model: Five respondents from five organizations in three sectors within the industry - namely, the financial, media and the information technology services sectors - who directly manage the information security and governance domain were selected for the interview (Table I). The five criteria which were used to select the respondents were: organizational size (minimum of 1,000 employees), number of years of experience within the industry (minimum of ten years), having a security and governance role within their IT department, industry-relevant certifications in the ISG domain and experience implementing at least three frameworks in security and governance.\n5. Discussion of propositions: 5.1 PDCA cycle\n6. Conclusion and future research: This study, primarily conducted to empirically validate the ISG process model derived from the extant literature confirms the relevance of integrating IT governance controls into IS security resulting in a phased methodology to implement ISG. First, the paper confirms the role of the PDCA Deming cycle in ISG where concepts of IS security and IT governance were conspicuous throughout the ISG process model. Second, the study provides guidelines/best practices to consider in each phase of the PDCA cycle. Third, the relevance of an automated feedback mechanism using appropriate metrics throughput the cycle was methodologically demonstrated. Fourth, the research affirms the relevance of inculcating an IT security as well as IT governance culture in any organization prior and during the process of ISG. Finally, the guidelines provided in the study aid in continuously updating the model to align with the highly dynamic nature of information security threats.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The frequent and increasingly potent cyber-attacks because of lack of an optimal mix of technical as well as non-technical IT controls has led to increased adoption of security governance controls by organizations. The purpose of this paper, thus, is to construct and empirically validate an information security governance (ISG) process model through the plan-do-check-act (PDCA) cycle model of Deming.\nDesign/methodology/approach: This descriptive research using an interpretive paradigm follows a qualitative methodology using expert interviews of five respondents working in the ISG domain in United Arab Emirates (UAE) to validate the theoretical model.\nFindings: The findings of this paper suggest the primacy of the PDCA Deming cycle for initiating ISG through a risk-based approach assisted by industry-wide best practices in ISG. Regarding selection of ISG frameworks, respondents preferred to have ISO 27K supported by NIST as the core framework with other relevant ISG frameworks/standards forming the peripheral layer. The implementation focus of the ISG model is on mapping ISO 27K/NIST IT controls relevant IT controls selected from ISG frameworks from a horizontal and vertical perspective. Respondents asserted the automation of measurement and control mechanism through automation to assist in the feedback loop of the PDCA cycle.\nOriginality/value: The validated model helps academics and practitioners gain insight into the methodology of the phased implementation of an information systems governance process through the PDCA model, as well as the positioning of ITG and ITG frameworks in ISG. Practitioners can glean valuable insights from the empirical section of the research where experts detail the success factors, the sequential steps and justification of these factors in the ISG implementation process.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Voluntary export restraint (VER) without market restraints? The case study of the monitoring agreement (1991-1999) between the Japanese car manufacturers and the European Union
|
[
"Automotive industry",
"European Union",
"Imports",
"Japan",
"Negotiating",
"Exports"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: some assumptions gone wrong: 1. Background\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: - The paper aims to research the mechanics of voluntary export restraints (VERs). It first develops a comprehensive VER research agenda, subsequently covering a 1991 VER between the European Union (EU) and Japan that established \"voluntary\" quotas on Japanese cars until 1999.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - Reflecting gaps in research, an overall VER research agenda is set up. Then, referring to the only source providing ex ante hypotheses on the specific EU/Japan VER, those hypotheses by Preusse are checked against available ex post data at the time of writing in 2002.\nFindings: - First, Japan has not exhausted any of its yearly quotas during and even accepted a cut of quota in some years - an outcome only partly influenced by lower than expected market growth in the relevant period. Then, the competitive power of the Japanese producers appears overestimated, while the European capability to catch up was underestimated. Potential \"escape routes\" such as transplants and third-country imports fell short of estimations - providing no particular support for Preusse's efficiency effect hypothesis and competitive effect hypothesis.\nResearch limitations/implications: - Typical research limitations such as data source availability and actor accessibility notwithstanding, it is shown that the product upgrading effect often associated with VERs may happen independently of such agreements.\nOriginality/value: - This first results-based, hypothesis-driven exploration of particular VER mechanisms supports the authors' call for a dual, actor-driven and multi-disciplinary VER research approach. It holds promise for the potential avenues for related research.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Cultivating leadership Dharma: Measuring the impact of regular mindfulness practice on creativity, resilience, tolerance for ambiguity, anxiety and stress
|
[
"Leadership development",
"Leadership",
"Leaders",
"Learning",
"Learning methods",
"Organizational development"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n__NO_TITLE__: Consciousness is the very substance of mental life. It not only makes life personally manageable but worth living\nIntroduction: The field of leadership studies has adopted the term \"VUCA,\" an acronym that stands for the \"Volatile, Unpredictable, Complex, and Ambiguous\" demands faced by modern organizations. These pressures include economic uncertainty, rapid technological advancements, globalization, and the sheer complexity of social-organizational systems (Bandura, 2001; Hamel and Valikangas, 2003; Lane and Klenke, 2004; Bakker et al., 2005; Chermack, 2011). Research suggests that leaders who emerge and thrive in this environment develop and display certain personal and social qualities (Zaccaro and Klimoski, 2001), which include creativity (Dess and Pickens, 2000; Kim and Mauborgne, 2005; Amabile and Khaire, 2008; Choi, 2012), risk taking (Kotter, 1998; Gordon et al., 2002; Chrusciel, 2008), managing stress and quelling anxiety (Hambrick et al., 2005). Leaders are also shown to benefit by cultivating resilience in the face of continuous change (Wanberg and Banas, 2000) and navigating ambiguous situations with aplomb (Huber, 2003). These qualities comprise a leader's way of being in the midst of flux and uncertainty. This study looks specifically at mindfulness practice and tenets grounded in Buddhist tradition, which often refers to an individual's way of being - that cuts across all experience - as Dharma (Purser and Mililo, 2015). Collectively, the qualities described above comprise what might be called leadership Dharma.\nLeadership qualities for uncertain times: Numerous qualities are essential to leading effectively in an age of uncertainty. Depending on which qualities one chooses to focus upon, a leadership development offering could take on many different pedagogical frameworks, objectives, and measures. Based off of an extensive literature review, which compared research and theory in the fields of leadership development with mindfulness practice, this study uncovered five personal qualities that are consistent between them. These include: creativity, resilience, tolerance for ambiguity, dealing with stress, and quelling anxiety.\nMindfulness practice: Presently, research on the impact of mindfulness practice in organizations borrows predominantly from a groundswell of research in the medical community inspired by Jon Kabat-Zinn (1982, 1990, 2003). A secular, eight-week meditation program designed by Kabat-Zinn, called MBSR, defines mindfulness practice as \"an awareness that emerges through paying attention on purpose to the present moment and non-judgmentally to the unfolding of experience moment by moment\" (Kabat-Zinn, 2003, p. 145). For the purpose of operationalizing mindfulness for applied research, this definition has been further operationalized to include the conscious practices of self-regulation of awareness and orientation to experience (Bishop et al., 2004). Self-regulation of awareness includes the practice of sustaining attention, whereas orientation to experience includes flexibility in attention which allows a person to shift focus from one object to another (Jersild, 1927; Posner, 1980).\nMethod: To estimate the causal impact of the mindfulness practice on the regulatory focus, tolerance for ambiguity, resilience, perceived stress, state-trait anxiety, and stage of change, we conducted quantitative research using quasi-experimental design.\nResults: Post-survey results were first compared to examine the correlations between survey measures. Significant relationships were found among the trait form of the STAI, the promote subscale of the RFQ, the CD-RISC-10, and the Perceived Stress Scale (Table II). No other inter-correlations were significant (p>0.05).\nDiscussion: When compared with cognitive-behavioral based approaches to leadership, represented in this study with a leadership course, does regular mindfulness practice have a direct impact on personal qualities that have been theoretically and empirically linked to successful leadership in uncertain times? Moreover, do correlations exist between these qualities so that if one were to improve we might also anticipate improvement in the other?\nContribution to the field of leadership: By selecting specific ways of being that can be measured by psychometrically validated instruments, this study directly addressed a question that lingers in the minds of skeptics: how useful is mindfulness practice as a leadership development application? Mindfulness practices are now incorporated in leadership development workshops in numerous reputable organizations, including General Electric, Google, Apple, IBM, Starbucks, Goldman Sachs, Pfizer, US Air Force, Mayo Clinic, Procter & Gamble, and AT&T (Brendel, 2016). These organizations have done so because they have observed a shift in their leaders, but until this study there has been no way of explaining this change other than assuming a relationship.\nLimitations and future research: Our study did not directly assess leadership effectiveness, but rather the abilities that have been suggested as impactful to leadership effectiveness. Future research must cautiously study the fuller link between mindfulness practice and the behaviors and outcomes that represent effective leadership. The second limitation of this study is that it focuses mainly on a leader's individually perceived psychological ability states, as opposed to the interpersonal abilities. Future research would also benefit by incorporating qualitative inquiry to reflect not whether these abilities change, but why and how such development occurs. The third limitation of this study may be related with the period of mindfulness practice. Although the change of tolerance for ambiguity, resilience, and perceived stress during the mindfulness practice are not statistically significant, the directions of the changes of these variables were in accordance with our predictions. Eight weeks may be too short a period to change these qualities significantly. Therefore future research needs to extend the frequency of mindfulness practice to examine the effects on these variables. Finally, when advancing from a managerial to executive level of leadership, strategic thinking requires greater levels of creativity, strategic agility, and innovation management (DeMeuse et al., 2011). As such, research should examine how mindfulness practice might influence a promotional regulatory focus during this specific period of leadership development.\nConclusion: Routine mindfulness practice supports a substantial increase in promotional regulatory focus, a desirable habit of mind marked by enhanced creativity and greater likelihood of taking chances. It also relates with a substantial reduction in anxiety, a key trait noted in the Big Five traits model. Mindfulness practice is also strongly related to stress reduction, an ability that can liberate a leader's mental resources to deal with unanticipated obstacles and setbacks.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to examine the impact of regular mindfulness meditation practice on five personal qualities that an extensive literature review deems critical for successful leadership in an age of rapid organizational change and uncertainty.\nDesign/methodology/approach: In this eight-week study, the authors investigated whether a weekly, 45-minute mindfulness practice routine (n=20) would significantly improve five leadership qualities when compared with a weekly, three hour graduate level leadership course (n=21), which in contrast incorporated theoretical instruction, skills practice, and experiential learning. Both samples included organizational leaders throughout the Minneapolis/St Paul area.\nFindings: Results of a pre-post survey confirmed that when compared with participants in the leadership course condition, participants in the mindfulness practice condition demonstrated a significant increase in promotional regulatory focus and a significant reduction in trait anxiety and stress. No significant changes were seen for resilience or tolerance for ambiguity. This study also uncovered significant inter-correlations between scores on trait anxiety and a number of variables, most notably promotional regulatory focus. Implications exist for numerous bodies of research concerning leadership, well-being and the leadership development programs they influence, which include leadership psychology, organization development, and mindfulness-based stress reduction.\nOriginality/value: This is the first study of its kind (to date) to investigate the impact of mindfulness practice on leadership qualities, which according to research, are critical to leadership performance.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Localization of computer-mediated communication and corporate impression on online communities
|
[
"Scale development",
"Localization"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: The increasing interest in online communities (OCs) heightens the need for a better understanding of the people gathering in those communities (e.g. Toral et al., 2009; Mazaheri et al., 2014; Rooderkerk and Pauwels, 2016). Such interest in OCs is inter alia based on the fact that online community members (OCMs) gain additional information from companies that share expert knowledge with them (Willi et al., 2014), thereby creating positive impressions via OCs (e.g. Fiedler and Sarstedt, 2014) and improving the overall corporate image. OCs are places where companies address audiences that are dispersed across the globe (Chan et al., 2015). While the members share a common interest, they originate from different geographical areas with different cultures and customs. Thus, companies that use OCs for their communication purposes face not only challenges to address simultaneously the global communication medium and its peculiarities (Zhou, 2011), but also local constituencies with an inherent diversity in order to create the desired corporate impression (Seraj, 2012; De Almeida et al., 2014).\nLiterature review: Communication and impression formation in OCs\nHypothesis development: Theoretical background\nMethod: This study applies a course of sequential procedures. First, qualitative methods, namely netnography methods and expert interviews are used for exploratory purposes, and second, quantitative methods are applied using an online survey. The mixed method approach has previously been used in a number of corporate image studies (e.g. Harrison, 2013; Simoes et al., 2005, Williams and Moffitt, 1997).\nData analysis: Data analysis consisted of two stages, namely an exploratory and a confirmatory factor analysis (CFA). Prior to the analysis, data were examined and prepared carefully, performed using IBM SPSS 20. The normality of the data showed satisfactory results.\nFindings: Hypotheses testing\nDiscussion: A substantial shortage of academic research exists regarding the role of corporate impression formation in localized OCs. This study highlights the importance of localizing OCs in the same way as localized websites. It examines the relationships or associations between corporate communication in localized OCs and image formation and develops a measurement scale to evaluate the impression it makes on an online community.\nConclusion: This study highlights the importance of using the online media in the corporate communication mix and to localize its content, in particular because it is not just another type of passive media but rather actively targets people who are part of online networks. Online media connects people all around the globe; they come from different backgrounds and cultures, yet they still communicate with one another in a specific, localized place (e.g. Boyd and Ellison, 2007; Walther, 1992, 1995). By studying corporate communication activities in OCs, a new communication element is integrated into the corporate identity mix (e.g. Balmer and Soenen, 1999) and into established corporate identity models (Melewar and Karaosmanoglu, 2006). All the elements of the corporate identity mix convey messages about the company's persona to its constituencies, who receive these messages and form an immediate impression based on this interaction within the OC.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to investigate the importance of localizing online communities (OCs) and examines how OC members form impressions of organizations that use OCs in their communication activities. A conceptual framework and measurement scale are developed that consist of complex latent constructs.\nDesign/methodology/approach: A sequential multi-method approach is adopted with both qualitative and quantitative investigations. Using Structural equation modeling, the research refines and validates the measurement scales of impression formation in OCs.\nFindings: Findings reveal that comprehensive messages have a direct effect on the impressions that an OC member forms. In particular, social context cues are an important predictor of online community corporate impression (OCCIP). Source credibility, affiliation, characteristics and interpersonal communication are all critical to OCCIP, which in turn, influence members' attitudes toward the company and the intention to use it again. Surprisingly, relevance, timeliness, accuracy and perceived similarity did not have any significant effect on the corporate impression.\nOriginality/value: Three contributions are offered: First, the study provides reliable scales for measuring OCCIP. Second, support is given to the conceptual model that links OCCIP to a set of consequences, namely, attitudes toward the company, intention to use the company, and word-of-mouth. Finally, the study is conducted across two different and unique types of OC contexts, stipulating further insights into the localization of OCs.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Fighting African corruption when existing corruption-control levels matter in a dynamic cultural setting
|
[
"Freedom",
"Africa",
"Corruption",
"Quantile regression",
"Government quality"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: Corruption remains one of the most daunting institutional challenges for majority of African countries. As supported by several studies and surveys, it is a major impediment to economic progress, social welfare, service delivery and good governance in the continent. In accordance with the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA) (2009, p. 1), it is estimated that in 2004, the continent lost more than $148 billion to corruption; approximately 25 percent of its gross domestic product (GDP). More so, the African Development Bank (2006, p. 7) suggests that 50 percent of tax revenues and $30 billion in aid for Africa, ends up in corrupt pockets. In line with the UNECA (2005), corruption is ranked as one of the three most serious national problems confronting African countries, the other two being unemployment and poverty.\n2. Data and methodology: 2.1 Data\n3. Empirical results: 3.1 Legal origins: common-law and civil-law countries\n4. Conclusion: This paper has assessed the determinants of CC with freedom dynamics (economic, political, press and trade), GQ and a plethora of socio-economic factors in 46 African countries using updated data. Results from fundamental cultural characteristics of legal-origin and religious-domination (which have broadly demonstrated the edge of English common-law and Christian-dominated countries) indicate that, blanket CC policies are unlikely to succeed equally across countries with different legal-traditions, religious-influences and political wills in the fight against corruption. Thus to be effective, corruption policies should be contingent on the prevailing levels of CC and tailored differently across the best and worst corruption-fighting countries especially with respect to freedom channels.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to assess the determinants of corruption-control (CC) with freedom dynamics (economic, political, press and trade), government quality (GQ) and a plethora of socio-economic factors in 46 African countries using updated data.\nDesign/methodology/approach: A quantile regression approach is employed while controlling for the unobserved heterogeneity. Principal component analysis is also used to reduce the dimensions of highly correlated variables.\nFindings: With the legal origin fundamental characteristic, the following findings have been established. First, while political freedom increases CC in a bottom quantile of English common-law countries, there is no such evidence in their French civil-law counterparts. Second, GQ consistently improves CC across all quantiles in English common-law countries but fails to exert the same effect in middle quantiles of French civil-law countries. Third, economic freedom ameliorates CC only in common-law countries with low existing CC levels (bottom quantiles). Fourth, The authors find no significant evidence of a positive \"press freedom\"-CC nexus and having the status of low-income English common-law (French civil law) countries decreases (increases) CC. From a religious domination scenario, the authors also find the following. First, political and trade freedoms only reduce CC in Christian-dominated countries while press freedom has a mitigation effect in both religious cultures (though more consistent across quantiles of Christian-oriented countries). Second, GQ is more pro-CC in Christian than in Muslim-dominated countries. Third, while economic freedom has a scanty negative nexus with CC in Christian-oriented countries, the effect is positive in their Muslim-dominated counterparts. Fourth, having a low-income status in countries with Christian common-law tradition improves CC.\nOriginality/value: The authors complement the literature on the fight against corruption in Africa by employing recently documented additional factors that should be considered in corruption studies.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
A business process modeling-enabled requirements engineering framework for ERP implementation
|
[
"Framework",
"Process analysis",
"ERP",
"ERP implementation",
"Process modeling",
"Requirements engineering"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) implementation can give competitive advantage to organizations and may lead them to operational excellence, but it is accompanied with dangers. The misfit between ERP systems functionality and enterprise's requirements is the most common problem in adopting ERP systems (Wu et al., 2007). As requirements engineering remains one of the most crucial tasks in ERP implementation projects, ERP vendors and their consulting partners use standard requirements engineering frameworks to support such projects (Daneva and Wieringa, 2006). The adaptation of an ERP system's specific reference model by an organization, may compromise its unique way of operation. On the other hand, trying to configure an ERP without adjusting the organization's business processes will result to a costly and risky implementation. Requirements identification is a crucial task of an ERP implementation as two important reasons for its potential failure are associated to the definition of inappropriate functional specifications and to the misunderstanding of the functional requirements by the implementers (Daneva, 2007; Law and Ngai, 2007; Alsulami et al., 2014).\n2. Literature review: 2.1. Technology-driven and process-driven approaches in ERP implementation\n3. Research question and objectives: The literature review presented above, gleaned papers dealing with the issue of bridging the gap between ERP functionality and organizational needs, in order to fit ERP and business requirements. The alignment of business requirements with the ERP system is proved to be a crucial task for ERP implementation projects. The most frequently applied alternatives for adapting ERP and business processes during ERP implementation are the technology-driven approach and the process-driven approach. Trying to overcome problems reported in the literature for the technology-driven approach (Al-Mashari and Zairi, 2000; Shehab et al., 2004; Stemberger et al., 2009; Subramoniam et al., 2009) and for the process-driven approach in ERP implementation (Bingi et al., 1999; Koch, 2001; Shehab et al., 2004; Soffer et al., 2005; Millet, 2013), the idea of a hybrid approach for both ERP system adaptation and business process transformation is introduced as a third alternative. Nevertheless, this hybrid approach has not been extensively applied in frameworks or methodologies for requirements engineering in ERP implementation projects. Moreover, there are only few frameworks or structured methodologies for ERP development in the literature which emphasise on requirements engineering.\n4. Development of a framework for requirements engineering in ERP systems development lifecycle: 4.1. Motivation for the development of a new framework\n5. Research approach: 5.1. Research method\n6. Case study: ERP implementation in a Greek manufacturing SME: The creation of the requirements engineering framework for ERP implementation fulfils the first research objective. Following Yin's (2003) case study research methodological steps, we applied the following steps in our case study for testing the second research objective and finally answer the research question:\n7. Implications: The proposed requirements engineering framework was based on gaps identified in the literature, so it is a new contribution to research, taking advantage of a hybrid approach for ERP implementation, utilizing business process modeling. In this sense, it is a contribution for research. In particular, recalling the literature review presented in Section 2 and Paragraph 4.1, the proposed framework:\n8. Conclusions and further directions: The successful implementation of an ERP system heavily depends on the accurate definition of functional requirements. This implies that the company has made strategic decisions concerning its processes while possessing a good knowledge of the high-level ERP functionality provided in the market before the creation of the RFP. Taking into account the above issues, the applied framework connects requirements engineering with the ERP development lifecycle and uses a business process modeling approach in order to support both the RFI and RFP creation. The approach covers the organizational view, the process view and the information technology view in order to define information technology specifications connected to the operation of the corporation and the needs of its stakeholders. The suggested classification of activities in manual, IT-enabled and automated permits the easy isolation of those that lead to functional specifications and enables the generation of more analytical descriptions based on the available process flows. The process modeling approach guarantees that requirements definition is not an arbitrary composition of different stakeholders' opinions but a conscious and coordinated decision serving the strategic objectives of the corporation and its vision of its future processes. Moreover, it supports it to define the degree of adoption of its processes to ERP functionality before the RFP process, assuring that it will operate according to its unique business processes after the ERP implementation. The creation of the framework with the above characteristics satisfies the first research objective (development of a requirements engineering framework following a hybrid approach, enabled by appropriate process modeling methods).\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to describe and analyze the benefits of the application of a requirements engineering framework to assist Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) development. This framework combines the technology-driven and the process-driven approaches for requirements analysis and implementation. Specific business process modeling methods enhance the framework and assist the formulation of the functional specifications of the ERP system and the management of requirements.\nDesign/methodology/approach: A case study strategy was chosen as the most appropriate method to answer the research question and test the theoretical propositions. The case study's unit of analysis is a Greek manufacturing company and its ERP implementation project. A requirements engineering framework enhanced with business process modeling methods was applied and the results were evaluated using metrics for ERP implementation success. Data were collected using multiple sources of evidences, including interviews with various stakeholders, structured questionnaires, direct observations, vendors' functionality papers and company's documentation.\nFindings: This study proves that the configuration of ERP's reference models together with the adjustments of organization's processes, provided through a structured requirements engineering framework can lead to reliable functional specifications, a smooth transition to an ERP system and, eventually, to successful ERP implementation, concerning its alignment with requirements.\nResearch limitations/implications: A single case study is conducted in a typical manufacturing company, providing opportunities for further research in other industries, testing in parallel well-defined requirements and other success factors for ERP implementation.\nOriginality/value: The paper fulfils the identified needs for applied methodologies and frameworks for requirements engineering which can assist successful ERP implementations.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Theoretical approaches on the possible existence of a stabilising economic policy in Europe
|
[
"Budget policy",
"Stabilization",
"Europe",
"Policy-mix",
"E61",
"E62",
"E63"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: In Europe, the issue of public deficits, beyond the specific role assigned to budgetary policies relating to stabilisation, since the 1990s has been the focus of the analytical debate in the economic and political realms.\n2. The budget constraint: Let us focus the analysis on the dynamic budget constraint. This scheme focuses on the dynamics of debt and takes into account a budgetary deficit which, by definition, derives from the non-adjustment between the level of public spending and taxation:\n3. Loans or taxes: The analysis of the comparative effects of different forms of financing of public expenditure, namely, through loans or taxes, stems from the work of Ricardo (1817).\n4. The effects of budget policies in Europe: Most modern economists find agreement on the allocated and distributive effects which budget policies can have; whereas when it comes to the effects of stabilising there is more debate from those who support NCE and those who support NKE).\n5. Restrictive budget policies: In the traditions of economic analysis theories, the expected effects of restrictive budget policies were recessive (Keynesian synthesis) or neutral (Ricardian equivalency).\n6. Keynesian, non-Keynesian (or Ricardian) and anti-Keynesian effects: Taking into account the terminology of Cour and others (1996), one can distinguish Keynesian (recessive) effects, non-Keynesian effects (neutral) and anti-Keynesian (expansionist) effects.\n7. Disappearance of the national debt in the long term: We now will examine if the disappearance of public debt in the long term, as a result of a steady return to a balanced budget, is a sustainable condition.\n8. The advantages of coordinating economic policies: The success of a fiscal legislation, instead, could come from an analysis of the advantages expected from the coordination of economic policies; and in particular from the coordination of tax policies. The simplest case is the coordination between two countries, where we notice two key results: the non-cooperative equilibrium point (Nash equilibrium) and the Pareto-optimal cooperative equilibrium point.\n9. Conclusions: The main results of our study can be summarised as follows.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to investigate whether there is room for a stabilising fiscal policy, through an analysis of the supporters of the new classical economics and the supporters of the new Keynesian economics. There are no reliable results on the Keynesian and non-Keynesian effects of fiscal policies. As such, the policy-mix becomes a problem of theoretical approach, in the sense of a strategic game between monetary authorities and tax authorities (among them). This points to the problem of coordination between budgetary authorities as being the central debate within the Eurozone. The end-result is that without fiscal policy coordination, Eurozone member states are working on a series of non-cooperative games that are inefficient, because no player can improve its position by unilaterally changing its strategy.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The analysis starts from the experience of three countries in the 1980s, these are Denmark, Ireland and Sweden. In all three cases the adoption of restrictive budget policies has provoked a strong, rapid and enduring resizing of public debt, and growth did not weaken, moreover it accelerated. In all three cases the logic behind the policy-mix actions allowed the individualisation of the respective roles of fiscal and monetary policies. Fiscal policies were joining with fiscal instruments and reduction in public spending and furthermore monetary policy was accommodated in respect of the budget contraction.\nFindings: First, the authors were not able to identify an analytical method that can ensure the success of a fiscal policy. Second, analysing fiscal policies within the Eurozone implies also that the authors reflect on the need for a coordination of these policies. In fact, the authors have shown how the possible coordination of economic policies in the Eurozone would result in major benefits for all member countries.\nOriginality/value: In the absence of fiscal policy coordination, member states are engaged in a series of non-cooperative games that prove inefficient, when no player is able to improve its position by unilaterally changing its fiscal policy. The coordination of national fiscal policies generates a collective advantage, bringing each state to consistently change its strategies.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
The impact of the financial crisis on the global economy: can the Islamic financial system help?
|
[
"Finance",
"Protectionism",
"Islam",
"Banking",
"World economy"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1 The financial crisis: 1.1 The crisis follow-ups\n2 Protectionism: 2.1 History of protectionism\n3 Protectionism and the financial crisis: The G20 leaders could not resist the temptation of protectionism. This is the official statement delivered by the World Bank through its president Robert Zoellick. Facing the crisis, during these last months most of the G20 state members have tried to protect their industries. However, in the words of Robert Zoellick, this would further worsen the situation. It was in last autumn in Washington that the G20 states solemnly vowed to maintain their trade frontiers wide open. Nevertheless, with reference to the World Bank, we might notice that since the month of November, several protectionist measures have been undertaken: embargos on some goods and some technical or sanitary restrictions.The World Bank points fingers to exploration grants. It is the case of grants allocated by the European Union for dairy products. The car industry is not an exception. Support plans in France and the USA are perceived by the institutions as protectionist measures.The President of the WTO, Pascal Lamy, pointed fingers to the protectionist clauses put in effect in some countries within the framework of their stimulating plans despite the G7 Ministers of Finance's vow not to succumb to protectionism.Gathered in an extraordinary summit in Brussels, heads of states and governments have adopted a document in which they stress that protectionism is not the solution to the current crisis. They affirm as well their will to optimally use the unique European market in a way to guarantee the free circulation of goods, services, people and capital so as to maintain growth and employment rates. However, the final communique and other declarations resulting from this meeting did not succeed in quenching the anxiety related to what market experts and financial analysts consider as a contradiction between the verbal commitments in favour of free exchange and the measures which seem to be different, like the \"Buy American\" slogan which is part of Washington's stimulating plan and the national plans for rescuing the car industry in France and Italy.\n4 Facing the crisis: is protectionism a risk, a threat or a solution?: We stress how much it is vital to reject protectionism and not to recoil back within ourselves in these times of financial uncertainty. In this regard, and within the twelve months to come, we restrain ourselves from erecting new barriers against investment or the trade of goods and services, from imposing new restrictions or to implement new export-stimulating measures not in conformity with the WTO's regulations.Such was the declaration of the G20 representative at the end of the financial market and world economy summit in November 15, 2008. Two months later, the financial crisis became social and was revived again not only bringing keynesian recipes but also protectionist temptations that are so much stigmatised.The current economic and financial crisis is a systematic crisis, spectacular and particularly destructive. Workers and more generally the companies of the relevant countries have formulated protection demands for their governments. The extent of the crisis and its socio-economic effects have forced these latter to massively intervene, yet fewer governments have even the intention or the means to do so (Borrell, 2009).Nevertheless, who says protection often says protectionism. Thus, it took only few weeks for the Russians to increase customs duties over car importation and for the Indians to restrain steel importation. Recently, in the USA, the Congress has given its approval for a clause entitled \"Buy American\". This latter stipulates that public works financed by President Barak Obama's stimulating plan will exclusively use iron and steel produced in the USA. According to Europeans, this disposition constitutes a violation of the free-exchange and WTO's regulations. This return to protectionism is explained partly by the strong rise of popular demands for the protection of national industries and domestic employment and partly by the will of governments to avoid the fact that public national grants will only serve the importation of foreign goods.The degradation of the social climate is translated by the multiplication of stimulating plans, whose effects are not yet visible but currently weight on the solvency of public debts and is exerting a heavy pressure over governments. We might notice as well the return of the monetary dumping tactic. No one might, however, ignore the consequences of the competitive devaluations of the 1930s. The crisis witnesses a return to \"my own sake\" politics as seen in deeds, despite a discourse bespeaking the opposite. Thus, since July 2008 China has put to an end its progressive re-evaluation of the Yuan, which started in 2005.This state of mind has spread since. In fact, the stimulating plan for the car industry in the USA reminds us of similar, even reciprocal, European and Japanese incentives meant only to preserve the competitiveness of national companies. However, if governments' interventions in favour of the mutilated financial sector are justifiable, the interventions for the car industry, the victims of loss of competitiveness and inability of innovation, are not economically justifiable. Certainly, the social and political repercussions of a failing \"let go\" principle might dramatically backfire and may destabilize once again financial markets. In the mean time, the question about the limits of public interventions is worth asking. What criteria? Which sectors? Till when? And for how long? If all these questions are ignored a new set of difficulties will be more difficult to handle.This analysis shows that protectionism is back and some think it as one solution to the crisis. In addition, the tone has changed at the level of discourse. The declaration of the French Minister of Economy Christine Lagarde in Davos is very striking: \"protectionism might be a necessary evil in time of crisis despite ferocious opposition from the others\". Gordon Brown, British Prime Minister, recently declared to members of the British Parliament; \"the greatest danger facing the world is a return to protectionism\". Angela Merkel, the German Chancellor, has reiterated \"that protectionism is a bad answer to the crisis\". All of this brings no insurance and pressures towards protectionism are heating up.Adding to this, there is the workers' up rise in Great Britain and Ireland against the high number of non-British employees, with slogans such as \"British jobs for British workers\". In total in Lindsey, workers have organized a strike against employing foreigners and the board has given way to their demands (50 per cent of the jobs to the British), and sent back 40 Portuguese who were brought there for a purpose. This has provoked protest from Brussels which reminded the world that free movement of people is part of the solution not the problem. Similar behaviour was seen in Spain against workers coming from the south of the Mediterranean. The Swiss have approved only 60 per cent of the renewal of the free movement of people agreement with Europe. Finally, we cannot be oblivious of the survey indicating that 78 per cent of the bosses of German small and medium entreprises wish to implement protectionist measures. Meanwhile, India has implemented two protectionist measures; one is for steel the other prohibiting Chinese toys (evoking health risks). China has decreased VAT on exportation. Indonesia forces some foreign goods to pass through specific ports and slow their entry. We can see similar behaviour in other countries like Russia, Brazil and Ecuador (increase of customs duties over 940 products).Having said this, it is urgent that all countries have to end this drift. All historians acknowledge that in 1929 protectionism was one of the factors aggravating the crisis. How to produce, if we deprive ourselves of foreign goods we do not have or which are more efficient or less expensive? How to produce and create employment opportunities, if other countries shut down their frontiers to our products? How to reduce prices and shortage without foreign offers? How to promote productivity without stimulating competition? How to benefit from growth, competence and know-how of others if we chase them out? How to maintain growth without international exchanges? How to promote the third world when we know that external trade is the best way to that?Certainly, the current crisis is serious. Freedom of exchange, if we opt for it, is one of the major anti-crisis measures. Consequently, we should promote free exchange by finalising, for instance, the negotiation cycle of Doha within the WTO in order to boost world economy. The current protectionist spirit, if it changes into a generalized protectionism, would be an irreparable mistake. In this case, the crisis changes in nature and we move from a recession to a depression. It is urgent that we react and make it clear that defending free exchange and denouncing any form of protectionism is necessary. In this context, the economist Frederic Boccara[1] (2009) brings some answers. According to him, closing frontiers is not the solution, however, we must write down some social and environmental norms with our economic partners and impose a public iron hand on credits destined to investment with a selective credit policy. Credits must be allocated to investments with better returns, extra employment and training at very low rates. He even evoked loans with zero rates. In the same vein, Muslims seem to have the solution which is very simple; bank interest must be cancelled. Indeed, we witness a regression in bank interests everywhere. This might be the birth of a new economic system based on the principle practiced today by Islamic banks.\n5 Islamic finance as an alternative: Islamic financial institutions have established a world presence over the last three decades, and indications are that the asset base of these Islamic institutions will continue to grow. It seems only a matter of time until an Islamic banking institution, compliant with Shari'a[2] practices, will be established in the USA. Doing so will mean that banking institutions' organizers will forge new ties with banking regulators and customers.The development of Islamic financial practices (Khan and Bhatti, 2008) has significantly altered our archaeology of thought as well as the world's financial practices. Recently, the practices of Islamic economics and finance, including Islamic banking, have gained significant progress, yet challenges to future development will be hard to overcome. Therefore, the various supporting elements should continue to be optimized to help accelerate the future progress of Islamic economies.Chapra (1992) noted that it is not possible to design a new architecture without first determining the primary cause of the crisis. The generally recognized and the most important cause of almost all crises has been excessive and imprudent banks' lending. There are three factors that nourished these practices: inadequate market discipline within the financial system resulting from the absence of profit and loss sharing (PLS), the mind-boggling expansion in the size of derivatives, particularly credit default swaps and the \"too big to fail\" concept which tends to give large banks an insurance that the central bank will definitely come to their rescue and not allow them to fail (Miskhin, 1997). In the same context, Chong and Liu (2009) noted that Islamic banking is different from conventional banking because riba[3] (interest) is prohibited in Islam, i.e. banks are not allowed to offer a fixed rate of return on deposits and are not allowed to charge interest on loans.A unique feature of Islamic banking is its PLS principle, which is predominantly based on the mudaraba[4] (profit sharing) and musharaka[5] (joint venture) concepts of Islamic contracting. Under the PLS paradigm, the assets and liabilities of Islamic banks are integrated in the sense that borrowers share profits and losses with the banks, which in turn share profits and losses with the depositors. Advocates of Islamic banking, thus, argue that Islamic banks are theoretically better positioned than conventional banks to absorb external shocks because the banks' financing losses are partially absorbed by the depositors (Iqbal, 1997). Similarly, the risk-sharing feature of the PLS paradigm, in theory, allows Islamic banks to lend on a longer term basis to projects with higher risk-return profiles and, thus, to promote economic growth (Chapra, 1992; Mills and Presley, 1999). Brunei, Hassan (2009) showed that Islamic banks are somewhat reasonably efficient in managing risk where risk identification and risk assessment and analysis are the most influencing variables in risk management practices.\n6 Conclusion: Recently, the global financial crisis that hit the world has given the finance community a sign of how fragile a global financial system that relies only on financial markets. The capitalist system which has become the vehicle for world economic mobility failed to create a valued new world economic order that is more fair, balanced, and able to provide welfare for world citizens.The financial crisis, for which markets sometimes take the responsibility, is primarily the result of inappropriate regulatory measures undertaken within the Basle II accord which targeted consumer protection, financial and products transparency resulting from the securitization of credits. This crisis is revealing of the failure of the governance model and international regulatory institutions like the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank, calling for the restructuring of regulatory institutions, fiscal paradises, the re-appreciation of rating firms and the creation of a new economic model. This crisis led public authorities to intervene under the guise of cash injections in the form of debts or equities and total or partial nationalization. This type of intervention gave birth to a debate on the return to protectionism and on the role of the state.This return to protectionism, which we explained on the one hand by a sharp rise in popular claims that aim at protecting national industries and employment, and on the other hand by governments' concern with using public provisions to finance foreign goods, represents a danger to most experts. However, other alternatives were proposed to solve this crisis. We can mention the one which proposes the introduction of a new economic system based on Islamic banks' principle which calls for cancelling interests. This line of thinking might solve speculation problems and put this type of crisis to an end. In fact, this financial crisis pushed most developed countries to lower their banking rates and to implement null-approximating interest rates, a move which replicates the principle adopted by Islamic banks. Also, it is necessary to include the moral and ethical principles in our behaviour and in the management of our institutions and to highlight the ill-fate of speculation.Finally, Mirakhor (2009) noted that one of the important lessons of the recent crisis is the ineffectiveness of a fragmented regulatory framework based on a flawed conception of divided asset-money-commodities markets. Financial innovation, recent information technology advances, and the rapid pace of financialization have blurred the traditional distinction among various markets, calling for a serious questioning of a fragmented regulatory authority. Arguably, the interrelationship of markets would be stronger in Islamic finance, making the case for a unified regulatory framework more appealing.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: - The aim of this paper is to analyse the different measures taken by the G7 and G20 leaders to face the current global financial crisis and to show whether such decisions represent a return to protectionism.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - The paper proposes the introduction of a new economic system based on Islamic banks' principle which calls for cancelling interests. This line of thinking might solve speculation problems and put this type of crisis to an end.\nFindings: - This financial crisis pushed most developed countries to lower their banking rates and to implement null-approximating interest rates, a move which replicates the principle adopted by Islamic banks.\nOriginality/value: - The paper represents a point of view on the financial crisis, the return to protectionism and the role of Islamic banking.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
The customer-led bank: how to retain customers and boost top-line growth
|
[
"Financial services",
"Customers",
"Management strategy",
"Business development"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n__NO_TITLE__: Retail bank executives across the world are awakening to the realization that long-term growth and profitability hinge on their ability to attract and retain loyal customers. That recognition has been a long time in coming. It's being spurred by a potent combination of increasing competition, regulatory scrutiny and customers' easier access to a broad range of new products and services.\nThe new organic-growth imperative: Putting customer loyalty at the heart of growth requires banks to master new disciplines. They must learn to nurture the loyal core of their customer base and hone skills for spotting and attracting the right new customers. The Bain benchmarking survey and our work with some of the world's leading financial services institutions reveal how banks can become true customer-focused learning organizations.The increase in customer churn is problematic, but particularly in the most lucrative mature markets. For example, the annual rates for defecting current account holders at German banks increased from 4 percent to 6 percent in 2001 to 8 percent to 10 percent just two years later and have remained at 10 percent through 2005. Although it has leveled off recently, the percentage of switchers among current account holders in the UK tripled between 2000 and 2003. All signs point to increased customer flight as technology and competition make it ever easier for customers to switch allegiances.The cost of losing - and having to replace - a long-tenured profitable customer is formidable. First, consider the years of revenue lost with the departure of an established A-list client. Then factor in the high costs of efforts to sign up new customers, only a small proportion of whom will come close to matching the profitability of the customers who defected. Indeed, some of the new recruits may end up being more of a drag on earnings than net contributors. Banks find themselves having to work harder and spend more just to stay in place (see Figure 1).Banks acknowledge that their account holders deserve a better customer experience. In our benchmarking study, the bankers we surveyed overwhelmingly rated managing the customer experience as the most important factor of success, yet they admitted that their efforts to deliver on that key dimension were falling far short. Customers take an even darker view. In every market we examined, the willingness of custom-ers to recommend their bank to friends or family - as measured by the Net Promoter Score, the best indicator of customer equity - is among the lowest of any industry. In the US, only health insurance providers score lower with their customers than banks. The Net Promoter Score of UK banks is a dismal negative 6 percent. (For more on the Net Promoter Score, see Appendix, \"Is your bank scoring with customers?\")The rewards for good execution on behalf of customers are high. Loyalty leaders in our survey experienced better retail-customer growth and far lower customer defection rates. Their excess returns on equity (that is, the premiums they earn beyond the rates of return prevalent in their local markets) were 50 percent higher than for the rest of the survey sample.What does the elite group do that so many other banks do not? Most banks pay lip service to giving attention to the right customers, but true customer-led banks drive up their numbers by developing customer-led growth disciplines that permeate all levels of their organizations. They approach three customer elements simultaneously:*They design the right propositions for the right customers, a task that involves identifying target segments of the market and crafting propositions and experiences to delight them.*They deliver these propositions by focusing the entire company on them, from boardroom to front line, with an early and ongoing emphasis on cross-functional collaboration.*They continually develop their capabilities to delight customers again and again. That ability - the most difficult to realize, and the rarest - entails measures such as creating closed feedback loops that establish direct dialogue with the customer and accountability for the ongoing improvement of the customer experience based on that discipline.Each of these \"Three D's\" reinforces the others. When wielded together, they can effectively transform a bank into an organization that is continually - and profitably - led by its customers.Digging deeper, the Bain study found that banks acknowledged six imperatives as crucial to winning over new customers, deepening relationships with existing account holders and reinforcing all customers' perception that they receive superior value.Appeal to hearts and capture minds (Figure 2)\nLay a foundation for customer-led growth: The banking industry is generally perceived to lack innovation.If the qualities that set customer-led banks apart are easy to recognize, their achievement is elusive. Like companies across most industries, banks count on organic growth to help them deliver on revenue and target profits. But our research suggests that most will miss the mark.Converting customers into loyalists and, even better, making them recruiters of still more customers requires a disciplined, multiyear initiative. The process of becoming a customer-led bank begins with a commitment to eliminate self-defeating behaviors that blind the organization to customers' needs.For by-the-numbers bank executives, embracing the idea that customer advocacy can produce meaningful growth requires some proof points. The best way to gain the necessary institutional commitment is by launching a compact, well-defined pilot that phases in the interlocking elements for the approach. Banks should first identify business units that are central to the bank's success and representative enough of all units that initiatives can be scaled up over time. Each initiative should be led by open-minded executives who, if convinced of its success, can become champions of customer-led growth.The pilot effort should establish baseline conditions, beginning with an understanding of the lifetime value of the bank's various customer segments, their price sensitivities and profitability, the amount of and underlying reasons for churn, and the initial Net Promoter Score. The first goal is to understand how the various elements of building customer advocacy influence hard measures of financial performance. The follow-on steps are to identify and prioritize opportunities to improve advocacy and develop strategies to exploit them.The broader challenge is how to ramp up from the initial pilot tests and make winning customer experiences a cultural ethos throughout the organization. With leadership from the top and a rigorous fact-based process for developing selling propositions based on customer needs, successful banks package ideas in integrated programs the entire organization can rally around. They use unambiguous metrics to guide these programs, invest in technology and customer data that support good decision making and tie incentives to the achievement of overall revenue and profitability targets. Finally, successful banks spread stories of success - and the heroes, from the executive suite to the frontline service reps, who achieve them - throughout the organization to reinforce the customer-focused mission.With the new culture firmly in place, customer-centeredness is no longer a program but becomes the way business is done. This requires a big effort. But the upsurge in profitable growth repays the effort many times over.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: - Banks have worked hard to improve their bottom-line performance by focusing relentlessly on cutting costs. The effort made banks leaner, but essential as those efficiency gains have been, they did little to reduce costly customer defections. This article demonstrates that banks' long-term growth and profitability hinge on their ability to attract and retain loyal customers and describes the key disciplines they need to master to become customer-led organizations.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - The article is based on the results of a global benchmarking survey of senior executives and customers at 30 major retail banks serving 170 million clients in 15 countries to ascertain what factors they saw to be most important to the success of strategies to promote organic revenue and profit growth.\nFindings: - The study revealed that the best-performing banks garner the highest marks across the entire spectrum of managing the customer relationship. On average, banks that excel across all dimensions of acquiring and retaining loyal customers outgrow their peers and boost their return on equity.\nOriginality/value: - Putting customer loyalty at the heart of their growth efforts requires banks to nurture the faithful core of their customer base and hone their skills for spotting and attracting the right new customers. The article describes how banks can design the right propositions by identifying target segments and crafting experiences to delight them, deliver on these promises by focusing the entire company on them, and use customer metrics to refine their products and services and develop organizational capabilities to delight customers again and again.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
Protectionist vs liberalised maritime cabotage policies: a review
|
[
"European Union",
"Liberalization",
"Policy",
"Protectionism",
"Cabotage",
"Rest of the world"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: Throughout the history, political, structural and economic forces have forced countries to choose their trade policies. While for many years, protectionist trade policies ruled the world, the decision of the British Government, in the beginning of 1650, to pursue a mercantilist policy opened the world to free trade even though the assumption behind mercantilism was that a country should export more than it imported. This change in policy has influenced the economic principles that rule many countries and promoted the establishment of opened markets where goods and services are freely moved by decreasing trade barriers and increasing international cooperation among countries. The wave of globalisation that has been taking place is an ultimate consequence of such opened trade policies, as without them, countries' trade would still be limited from a geographical perspective. The body of literature on liberalised and protectionist market economies/policies is huge; however, a thorough analysis on both approaches is out of the scope of the present paper. They differ considerably and the next paragraphs address their main features.\n2. Literature review: The concept of \"maritime cabotage\", often termed as \"coastal navigation\", \"domestic shipping\", \"coastal shipping/trading\", \"coasting shipping/trade\" and \"coastwise\" (hereinafter cabotage), depending upon the world geographical area, is not new. Cabotage, which means excluding foreign-flagged vessels (hereinafter \"foreign vessels\") from the domestic carriage of goods, is the oldest form of cargo preference (Aspinwall, 1987); its evolution appears to have started in the fifteenth century when shipping became a legal source of conflict among countries (Glisson and Jones, 1999). It is not clear when cabotage, as a legal principle, started as different authors refer to different dates; while Martin (2013) suggests that Portugal appears to have been the first country to implement cabotage laws in the fifteenth century; Woodward et al. (2015) indicate that the French promulgated the legal principle of cabotage in the sixteenth century. Independently of the dates, at that time, cabotage laws served to protect not only a country's coastal trade and to restrict its trade to its national vessels which were owned and operated by nationals or national shipping companies but also the trade performed between the metropolitan country and its colonies. Trade and, consequently, maritime operations were concentrated in the hands of a few and many wars and battles occurred to dominate this market in the quest for the dominion of the seas. This situation lasted until the end of the Second World War when the last European colonies became independent and established their own shipping companies. The cabotage concept known until so far changed and became far more restricted.\n3. Methodology: To achieve its objective, this paper adopts a desk research methodological approach, namely, the external desk research technique, because it allows access to a wide variety of information published in hardcopies and online although it does not guarantee the availability of the information needed. Quite often, it is necessary to send emails, perform surveys or interviews to obtain the missing information or even to check the information available, which results in a lengthy and time-consuming process to complete. The chosen methodological approach is structured into three stages (Figure 1).\n4. The European economic area cabotage: For many years, beyond the signing of the Treaty of Rome (TOR) in 1957 and the enlargements that took place in 1973, 1981 and 1986, national laws ruled the several EU member-states cabotage markets. Articles 81 to 86 and Articles 87 to 89 of the TOR only applied to the international shipping industry. The first step towards changing this situation occurred when the European Commission released the 1985 White Paper on \"Completing the Internal Market\" listing 300 measures destined to eliminate existing physical/border controls, technical/rules and regulations and fiscal/different tax rates, which prevented the completion of the Single European Market. Only then, has the cabotage market liberalisation been seen as an important step to achieve the Single European Market and therefore needed to be regulated according to the EU principles; however, the path taken to achieve this purpose was not a straightforward one.\n5. Cabotage in the rest of the world: 5.1 African cabotage\n6. Protectionist vs liberalised cabotage policies: The analysis on worldwide cabotage policies shows that even if one tries to split the world in geographical areas, the analysis ends up being performed from a country's perspective; for this reason, the discussion is presented from regional and country's perspectives.\n7. Conclusions: The paper achieved its objectives. It investigated the analyses, from a geographical perspective, different countries' cabotage policies and classified them and identified in a systematically way a set of reasons and policy instruments that support each of chosen policies approach. An immediate conclusion to be drawn is that only very few countries promote liberalised cabotage polices; the majority of them, as per the analysis, chose a protectionist regime. The reasons that lead decision makers to support both policy approaches and the policy instruments used in each of the policies have also been listed. Although the lists are comprehensive, they fail to identify which of them are more relevant to decision makers. Therefore, the following questions are valid.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The development of the current European economic area maritime cabotage market occurred when, at a policy level, the European Union forced the opening of its member-states cabotage markets to Community shipowners and extended this openness, in 1997, to the european free trade area countries. A two-tier cabotage market emerged, where a European economic area legislative framework co-exists with the legislative acts of each member-state. With such a unique background, this paper aims to investigate both the European economic area member-states and the rest of the world cabotage regimes and identify a list of reasons and policy measures used to implement cabotage policies.\nDesign/methodology/approach: By means of a desk research methodological approach, this paper analyses, from a geographical perspective, different countries' cabotage policies and classifies them, and identifies in a systematically way a set of reasons and policy instruments that support each of chosen policies approach.\nFindings: The outcome indicates that only a few countries promote free liberalised cabotage services and that most countries favour protectionist cabotage policies, whose governments can control the number of foreign vessels participating in these trades. Cabotage regimes have been categorised and the reasons behind both policies and respective policy instruments have been identified.\nOriginality/value: Quite often, researchers only focus on the cabotage policies of the European economic area countries, the USA, Australia, Japan and South Korea. This paper value rests on its ability to incorporate cabotage policies from other African, Asian and Latin American countries and to update existing information on the subject. Overall, this paper paves the way to broaden the cabotage knowledge.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
Investigating performance indicators disclosure in sustainability reports of large mining companies in Ghana
|
[
"Ghana",
"Sustainability reporting",
"Performance indicators",
"Global reporting initiative",
"Environmental issues",
"Mining companies"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: Sustainability issues have increasingly gained attention among corporations and their stakeholders over the past three decades as more and more corporations prepare their sustainability reports (SRs) (Papasolomou, 2007; Roca and Searcy, 2012). Despite this development, the structure and items of performance indicators (PIs) disclosed in SRs remain controversial (Davis and Searcy, 2010; Roca and Searcy, 2012). This is mainly due to the fact that the preparation of an SR in most countries is on a voluntary basis (GRI, 2006; Roca and Searcy, 2012). In this regard, Ghana is of no exception.\n2. Sustainability reporting: Corporate sustainability is defined by Van Marrewijk (2003) as the demonstration of social and environmental concerns in business operations and their interactions with stakeholders (Roca and Searcy, 2012). Corporations worldwide increasingly adopt SRs (Lozano and Huisingh, 2011) to effectively communicate CSR activities with stakeholders (Du et al., 2010; Hsu et al., 2013). An SR is a report which must contain qualitative and quantitative information on the extent to which the company has managed to improve its economic, environmental and social effectiveness and efficiency in the reporting period and integrated a sustainability management system (Daub, 2007). The World Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSD) treats SRs as public reports used by companies to provide internal and external stakeholders with a picture of the corporate position and activities on economic, environmental and social dimensions (WBCSD, 2002). As such, an SR becomes a systematic means of managing sustainability issues (Park and Brorson, 2005) and a communication instrument primarily aimed at influencing the public perception of a company and enhancing a company's corporate image or reputation (Hooghiemstra, 2000; Daub, 2007).\n3. Performance indicators using the Global Reporting Initiative framework and some empirical studies: Many guidelines have been used by international corporations as benchmarks for disclosure of sustainability information. These include the United Nations Global Compact; the OECD Guidelines for multinational enterprises; Social Accountability 8,000; Ethical Trading Initiative; Accountability 1,000; Dow Jones Sustainability Group Index; FTSE4Good; and the Global Reporting Initiative (Duff, 2014). Among them, the GRI, founded in 1997 by the Coalition for Environmentally Responsible Economies (CERES) and the United Nations Environmental Programme (UNEP), is one of the network-based frameworks widely adopted in preparing companies' SRs on a voluntary basis (Jenkins and Yakovleva, 2006; Isaksson and Steimle, 2009; Joseph, 2012). Specifically, the GRI guidelines' main principle is to achieve transparency and credibility with complete information disclosure on indicators required to reflect impacts to enable stakeholders to make decisions accordingly (Joseph, 2012). This feature is particularly suitable for large multinational companies that operate globally in less developed or even non-democratic countries because being compliant with GRI disclosures allows for comparability with other companies operating elsewhere in terms of measuring economic, environmental and social performance in SRs. Compared to other guidelines, the GRI provides detailed guidance on \"how to report\" by defining overall goals, and \"what to report\" by determining contents and providing standard disclosures and sector supplements (Joseph, 2012). Moreover, the GRI extends the traditional accounting lens into the development of measures which can provide companies with opportunities to adopt them to fit locally because it includes different industries with their technological and economic impacts on the environment and society (Joseph, 2012; Wilburn and Wilburn, 2013).\n4. Research methods: 4.1 Sample selection\n5. Results: The following sub-sections will present the assessment of the ten mining companies' SRs against the GRI indicators. For this purpose, social responsibility activities were classified in terms of the most and the least commonly practiced by the MCGs. The disclosure of corporate sustainability performance indicators of these mining companies has been presented under the management approach themes: economic PIs (EC), environmental PIs (EN), human right PIs (HR), labor practice and decent work PIs (LA), product responsibility PIs (PR) and society PIs (SO). The last four categories belong to the social dimension of PIs. According to the GRI (2011), the social dimension of sustainability is related to the impact of an organization on the social system it operates in.\n6. Conclusion, discussion and implication: This study has examined the extent to which large MCGs disclosed PIs in the SRs, following the GRI, the contents of the SRs and their trend development over time. Using content analysis, the research has analyzed 50 SRs for ten large mining companies over the survey period of 2008-2012. The findings suggest the following points:\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this study is to examine the degree, contents and trend development of Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) performance indicators disclosed in sustainability reports of large mining companies in Ghana.\nDesign/methodology/approach: Content analysis methods are used to analyse 50 sustainability reports of ten large-scale mining companies in Ghana, covering the period 2008-2012.\nFindings: The study finds that there has been a widening and increasing trend in the disclosure of performance indicators in sustainability reports of the large mining companies in Ghana, in accordance with GRI guidelines. The findings suggest that good progress in the strategic sector has been made in the voluntary adoption of the GRI guidelines to increase transparency, credibility and comparability in sustainability reporting. The findings also indicate areas to be improved.\nPractical implications: The Government of Ghana and the Ghana Chamber of Mines could learn from the findings about the current status of this matter in order for them to formulate policies and regulations which would encourage the mining sector in moving forward in the adoption of international reporting standards.\nOriginality/value: This paper initializes investigation into the degree, contents and trends of performance indicators in sustainability reports of large mining companies in Ghana using content analysis.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
Innovation capabilities in food and beverages and technology -based innovation projects
|
[
"Food and beverages industry",
"Functional and communication capabilities",
"Innovation projects"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Due to increased global competition, fast development of technologies and changing customer demands, performance of food and beverages (F&B) companies has become increasingly dependent on continued improvement and introduction of new products and processes. Consumers in the F&B industry demand unique flavors, convenience cooking and health-enhancing foods and diets tailored to their individual needs and preferences (Costa et al., 2001; Costa et al., 2007). The changes in the nature of both food demand and supply and the increasing level of competition make innovation not only an unavoidable corporate activity, but also one that is increasingly vital for overall agribusiness profitability (Sarkar and Costa, 2008). Innovations entailing and/or adopting innovative technological solutions (Sarkar and Costa, 2008) are promising in this respect. For example, biotechnological solutions have the potential to lead to production of food with improved quality and nutritional content (Senker and Mangematin, 2008).\nInnovation: Innovation is both a process and an outcome (Crossan and Apaydin, 2010, p. 1155) and it implies introduction of new products and successful commercialization of new combinations, based on the application of new materials and components, the introduction of new processes, the opening of new markets or the introduction of new organizational forms. Competition in the market (DeSarbo et al., 2005) puts more pressure on the companies to react with faster and better innovations. Companies are better equipped to realize innovations with a high innovation process quality (limitations in speed and costs) and high market potential when they possess the necessary R&D, manufacturing, marketing and organizational skills. Products which provide technologically smart and unique features can attain a high market potential and increase sales. This means that increasing innovation potential might require exploration of completely new and technologically complex innovative possibilities. At the same time, this complexity and uncertainty can complicate problem-solving (Atuahene-Gima and Evangelista, 2000).\nInnovation capabilities: Innovation capability (Coombs and Metcalfe, 2000) entails the skills and knowledge needed to effectively absorb, master, and improve existing technologies, and to create new ones (Lall, 1998). It entails the ability to quickly introduce new products and to adopt new processes (Guan and Ma, 2003), involving a wide variety of assets and resources (Sen and Egelhoff, 2000). It is the ability to mold, manage and integrate the different capabilities and resources of the firm to stimulate innovation successfully (Lawson and Samson, 2001) i.e. the firm's ability to react through adaptation of resources to the changing requirements of customers or changing technologies (Wang et al., 2008; Goddard et al., 2010).\nMethods of data collection and analysis: Data from 38 projects were collected with the use of questionnaires which were completed by 189 project team members (on average four-five team members per project), including engineers, marketing and sales, and procurement staff. In order to prevent biased answers and acquire tacit information about the adequateness of skills and capabilities, as well as the communication processes and understanding among one another, team members from different departments have been asked to complete the questionnaire. A total of 13 successful projects (40 respondents) and five innovation projects (18 respondents) that failed in the market from the F&B sector were included in the analysis. In addition, nine successful projects (56 respondents) and 11 failed innovation projects (75 respondents) from technology-based companies were included in the analyses. Data were collected in nine multi-national companies (five F&B processing companies and four technology-based companies). The number of employees per company ranged between 1,300 and 50,000 and 2010 turnover ranged from 0.4 to 8.2 billion euro. Of the companies, eight are headquartered in The Netherlands, and one in France. The activities of the F&B companies range from crop protection and seed production, potato production, milk processing, vegetables processing to meat production. For example, the crop protection and seed production company introduced a new type of tomato into the market. Through innovation at the component level, they developed the specific shape, substance and the balance of sourness, sweetness and juiciness of the tomato which is most appealing to customers. The potato producing company introduced into the market a new type of fries which were developed in such a way to taste the same, but to contain 33 percent less fat than the regular fries. The technology-based companies included in our study are engaged in the production of high-tech precision products for businesses and provision of high level utility services. An example of one of the projects from the technology-based companies is the development of a new type of bearings. As excellent electric insulators, having a higher speed capability and providing a longer service life, these bearings offer a higher product advantage to customer.\nResults: Table I provides an overview of the Spearman's rho correlation coefficients among the independent variables. This correlation table shows relatively high and significant correlations between upstream and downstream capabilities, between market potential and product potential and between market potential and project potential. High correlations between these constructs are not surprising as constructs such as upstream and downstream capabilities are conceptually closely related. However, the correlations are sufficiently low not to create multicollinearity problems.\nDiscussion and conclusions: The aim of this paper is to establish how the performance in innovation projects in the F&B and technology-based industries is affected by a number of previously identified determinants of innovation project success. The results show that newness of the innovation project to the company, communication capabilities and market potential have more negative impact on innovation project performance in the F&B than the tech-based industry. Functional upstream capabilities are specifically important to increase the likelihood to success in F&B, when compared to tech-based innovation projects. On the basis of these findings, it is concluded that there is still room for improvement in the F&B companies in order to assure effective management of the innovation project newness to the company. Through improvement of the communication capabilities, F&B companies can focus more on consumer-oriented integration of R&D and marketing activities, improving the market potential of their innovation(s). Also, better communication capabilities contribute to enlargement of the cumulative level of knowledge among the team members which enhances their abilities to deal with innovation project newness.\nFurther research: The present paper contributes to the existing literature by exploring the way in which previous research about critical success factors for innovation projects fits into the conceptualization of innovation capabilities. With the focus on the F&B sector, it is being established in which way the previous findings and existing knowledge about innovation capabilities differ in this specific sector from the more technology-based sectors. The factors which are studied, such as innovativeness, functional capabilities or market potential are general in nature and applicable to different companies and regions. The companies included in our study are mainly Netherlands-based, but operating on the international market. The conditions wherein these companies operate are comparable to conditions of other West-European F&B companies, which are active on the international market. Accordingly, it is expected that for the most of the studied factors similar results would be found when studying other West-European F&B companies. However, only further research can confirm whether for example newness of the innovation project for the company is also a factor of weakness for F&B companies in other countries and whether differences with regards to communication capabilities exist (as a consequence of cultural differences).\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The aim of this paper is to establish the differences between the food and beverages (F&B) and technology-based industries with regards to the relation between previously identified success factors and innovation project performance.\nDesign/methodology/approach: These differences are established on the basis of logistic regression analysis, using 38 innovation projects (18 F&B and 20 technology-based).\nFindings: Newness of the innovation project to the company, communication capabilities and market potential have a more negative impact on innovation project performance in the F&B than the tech-based industry. Especially functional upstream capabilities increase the likelihood of success in F&B, when compared to tech-based innovation projects.\nPractical implications: While functional upstream capabilities are important for success of F&B innovation projects, there is still room for improvement in order to deal effectively with newness of the innovation project to the company. Internalization of resources from the network and a balanced radical/incremental innovation project portfolio contribute to additional enhancement of functional capabilities of the F&B companies, improving their capacity to deal with newness. Through a larger focus on co-innovation with retail, F&B companies can improve their intra- and inter-firm communication capabilities to attain more consumer-oriented integration of R&D and marketing activities, improving the market potential of their innovations.\nOriginality/value: This paper demonstrates that the previously identified critical success factors for innovation projects differ in impact and importance for F&B innovation project performance when compared to innovation projects in the technology-based industry.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
Children's organic fruit nectar satisfaction: an experimental economics approach
|
[
"Organic food",
"Experimental economics",
"Attitudes",
"Consumer",
"Children",
"Food satisfaction"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: The worldwide organic food (OF) market is continuously growing and evolving to satisfy consumer demand for high-value products. On a global level, demand from consumers, farmers and certificated organic lands show a strong and positive trend (Fibl and Ifoam, 2018). According to The World of Organic Agriculture 2018, in 2016, global retail sales of OF and drink reached more than EUR80bn (approximately +500% more than in 2000). North America (EUR39bn) and Europe (EUR31bn) were responsible for approximately 90% of total sales of OF and beverages. The largest markets were respectively the USA, Germany, France, China and Canada. Market growth was double digit in most countries in recent years. Simultaneously, studies regarding consumer preferences and satisfaction, factors affecting product perception, and food and beverage preferences received attention from academic researchers at both conceptual and empirical levels. Over the past few years, there was also sustained interest in studies concerning children as food consumers. However, to the best of our knowledge, academic research regarding children's preferences and/or satisfaction and perceptions of organic products remains to be further investigated. Specifically, the purpose of this study is to understand the role of information in pupils' preferences by using a fruit nectar experiment: does knowing a nectar is organic affect children's taste expectations and their preference and satisfaction evaluations? A cohort of adults was also used as a reference group for the main experiment.\nLiterature review: Starting with seminal papers on the connection between labelling and taste perception (Levin and Gaeth, 1988; Darley and Gross, 1983; Makens, 1965; Allison and Uhl, 1964), many studies have been conducted in the field of experimental economics, psychology, marketing and consumer research on different kinds of foods and beverages. For instance, Lee et al. (2006) tested different types of beers using blind and disclosed conditions. In their experiment, both subjective preferences and expectations were influenced by the type and the timing of the information provided regarding the product characteristics. Frank (2009) found that experimental subjects preferred Pepsi's taste in blind tests, but tended to buy more Coke as consumers in real life. This is known as the \"Pepsi Paradox\" and it highlights that people are typically more influenced by brands and ads than flavour (see, for instance, Koenigs and Tranel, 2008).\nMethod: Sample and procedures (children)\nResults and discussion: Although the sessions were conducted at different times within the early to late morning, most of children stated that they had eaten less than an hour before the beginning of the session (37 per cent). This result suggests a substantial homogeneity within the different sessions and the difference was found to be not statistically significant (p = 0.329, Fisher's exact test).\nConclusions: The answer to our question \"Does information affect children's organic fruit nectar satisfaction?\", for the sample of primary school pupils, is \"yes\". According to the results obtained through an experiment on 92 children between 7 and 10 years old, tasting four peach fruit nectars (two organic and two conventional, and two labelled and two non-labelled), the most preferred nectar was the labelled organic nectar. When the children knew the nectar was organic, they expressed higher satisfaction for it, and the more they knew about OF, the higher the score. The finding that the children's satisfaction for organic nectar was influenced by information is in line with previous studies on OF in adults using blind and non-blind conditions (Napolitano et al., 2013, 2010a, b; Poelman et al., 2008; Kihlberg et al., 2005; Caporale and Monteleone, 2004; Fillion and Arazi, 2002).\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: Over the past several decades, studies regarding consumer satisfaction for organic food (OF) have increased along with the rise in OF consumption. However, empirical research into satisfaction for organic products with respect to conventional goods is still needed. Along this line, the purpose of this paper is to understand the role of information in children's satisfaction for organic and conventional fruit nectar.\nDesign/methodology/approach: A satisfaction questionnaire on 92 primary school pupils was collected during the tasting stages. A questionnaire surveying the participants' habits with respect to OF and fruit nectar consumption was also administered. Descriptive analysis and ordinal logistic regressions were used to investigate any correlation between the participants' evaluations of fruit nectar samples and the other variables investigated.\nFindings: According to the results of this paper, children's satisfaction scores are influenced by the information they learn regarding fruit nectar: satisfaction scores are higher when children know the fruit nectar is organic. Satisfaction is also influenced by age: older children are more likely to assign lower scores to fruit nectars. Also, the effect of information regarding the nature of fruit nectar (organic or conventional) on satisfaction scores is stronger in children whose families consume OF.\nResearch limitations/implications: Due to financial constraints, this research was conducted on a non-probability convenience sample and on a single food product (i.e. fruit nectar).\nPractical implications: Regulatory policies should consider these influences when legislating on product labelling and the disclosure of product information. Consumer evaluations can be indeed influenced toward responsible, safe behaviour.\nOriginality/value: This study contributes to the investigation of the connection between product labelling and children's food satisfaction. Particularly, this study has generated some important findings in the field of children's perceptions of OF.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
M-learning on the up: an interview with Amit Garg, founder of Upside Learning
|
[
"M‐learning",
"Mobile learning",
"E‐learning",
"Learning management systems",
"Workplace learning",
"Learning methods"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n__NO_TITLE__: Amit Garg is founder and director of workplace learning solutions provider, Upside Learning. Since its inception in 2004, Upside has won numerous awards for its products - in particular the UpsideLMS platform - growing from its base in Pune, India, to become one of the world's leading e-learning companies. Garg is the creative force behind the organization, heading up the Innovation and Custom Learning Solutions teams, while also being a regular contributor to the Upside Learning blog, and host of their frequent webinar sessions. In this interview he discusses his background, Upside Learning's journey, and how mobile technology is changing the business landscape.\nYou founded Upside Learning back in 2004. Could you tell our readers a bit about your background prior to this, and what sparked the creation of Upside Learning?: Prior to founding Upside Learning in 2004, I was heading custom e-learning business for another e-learning solutions company in India - Brainvisa. I joined Brainvisa in 2000 - the year of the dot com boom - making a very interesting switch from a sales and business development role in the automobile industry to a product management function in a technology solutions company. Apart from automobiles, I've also worked in a chemical and fertilizers unit for a couple of years. I hold a bachelors degree in Chemical Engineering and a MBA in Sales and Finance.We (my business partner and I) started Upside Learning with a passion for creating better learning solutions, fuelled by the desire to create an organization of our own.\nHow has Upside Learning developed as an organization over the years? What have the key milestones been?: I think Upside Learning has grown quite well in last 7-8 years. We now have more than 150 clients in 13 countries around the world. Today, USA and UK remain our most important markets and we're expanding in India, Australia and Middle Eastern regions. After operating as an off-shore enterprise for several years, we're now setting up our own offices in key markets to be closer to our customers and serve them even better. With a team of over 150 very capable and passionate staff, we definitely feel privileged to be leading this organization into the new domains of corporate training & learning as it evolves.\nUpside Learning has won numerous awards for its products and services over the years. With technology changing so rapidly, how do you ensure that your solutions remain ahead of the curve?: The pace of technology change has been quite rapid and is only increasing further everyday. It is indeed one of the key challenges we face and it would be fair to say we have been extremely successful in managing this one. However, keeping pace with technology and innovation is crucial to stay ahead in today's market. Our flagship product, UpsideLMS, which has won a number of Brandon Hall awards in recent years, has been at the forefront of technological innovations. It brought mobile learning, social learning, blogs, wikis, and a very contemporary visual design to the market ahead of many other players. We constantly scan the market for research insights, participate and sponsor independent research, and listen to our own customers to identify the key trends in technology to focus on. As a process we try and bring smaller feature releases every quarter and a major version release in 12-18 months.\nM-learning continues to be an emerging trend in the field of learning solutions. What would your advice be to those looking to adopt m-learning, and how do you see this technology evolving in the future?: Mobile is a disruptive technology we're witnessing unfolding in front of us everyday, and it presents huge potential for learning and performance support functions in an enterprise. I see two primary trends here: First, the world is getting transformed into what we should call a \"mobile world\" - a world where computing is definitely shifting to mobile devices and where we'll have more internet accessed from mobiles than PCs (for many, mobiles will be the only means of accessing the Internet); secondly, we're witnessing the workplace itself being transformed with the growth in \"mobile workforces\", a desire to bring ones own device into the workplace, and millennials joining the workforce, bringing with them some unique expectations. Also, the shrinking shelf life of information itself is forcing us to deliver training in shorter \"bite size\" programs, delivered just-in-time, and mostly chosen by the staff. The combination of these two trends presents a great opportunity for L&D staff (and all other managers as well) to create an environment that empowers your staff to leverage knowledge assets, experts, and other colleagues when they need them. The fact is one cannot escape mobile learning.However, I see organizations are finding it difficult to begin with m-learning, and there are many reasons for this. Some of those reasons are actually born out of myths that people carry about m-learning, such as, \"m-learning is just e-learning on the phone\", \"m-learning is just learning on the move\", and \"m-learning is not secure\". The domain is quite dynamic, with devices, technologies and standards still evolving, which makes it difficult for anyone to define a comprehensive mobile learning strategy. My advice is to forget the strategy and make a beginning. Start with something small, something easy, and build on that experience as you go along. There are cases of such small but meaningful beginnings which create a demand for more, which in turn supports the business case for mobile learning throughout the organization.In the near future I see more and more \"training\" becoming \"performance support\", made available through mobile devices. In the longer term I see the emergence of personal learning assistants for each individual which helps you learn and work better.\nWhat other trends and technologies do you see emerging?: Augmentation is going to be a big theme, starting with Augmented Reality, and mobile will be a key component of this. Coupled with \"ubiquitous computing\", which we are beginning to experience now, augmentation will merge learning with the workflow. With the rise of Coursera and other open online free universities, Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) is a hot trend at the moment, and it's a disruptive one for the education sector. I see MOOCs being useful for corporate training as well but don't expect them to jump on it immediately. As the training function evolves to incorporate more informal and social learning, and in turn L&D become more facilitators, MOOCs will start to appeal to corporates.\nHaving a culturally diverse and geographically dispersed workforce is a challenge many companies are faced with when looking to provide training. What are the most effective ways of achieving consistent learning outcomes in such a global setting?: Yes, that's one of the key challenges that large organizations face. Technology solutions like learning management systems (LMS) are very helpful in dealing with this effectively. We've had clients who use our multi lingual LMS to deliver e-learning in multiple languages to their staff around the world. A separate portal for each unit/geography helps them support the businesses with locally relevant content in additional global resources. A virtual classroom module is also quite useful to organizations when they wish to retain the synchronous nature of training and also the personal and direct contact with subject matter experts. Usage of social learning tools like Wikis, blogs, discussion forums, etc., help faster access to knowledge within the enterprise and sharing of best practices between all the businesses. With the advent of mobile learning technology, I see some of these existing components only becoming more important.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: - This paper aims to provide an interview with Amit Garg, founder of Upside Learning.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - The paper asks Garg about his background, his role at Upside Learning, and emerging technologies within the field.\nFindings: - The paper discusses the ways in which mobile technology is changing the business landscape.\nPractical implications: - The paper offers advice to those looking to adopt mobile learning within their organization.\nOriginality/value: - The paper presents the insight of a leading practitioner in the field of workplace learning.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
Examining livelihood risk perceptions in disaster resettlement
|
[
"Disaster prevention and management",
"Disaster preparedness",
"Risk perception",
"Livelihood",
"Disaster preparation",
"Decision tree",
"Disaster resettlement",
"Livelihood risk"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Although many disaster resettlement programs are implemented throughout the world, their ramifications continue to challenge our understanding of scope, impact, context, and nature of efforts to rebuild livelihoods (Bang and Few, 2012; International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRCRCS), 2014). Yet, people's livelihood is intricately woven within the affected location (IFRCRCS, 2014), and disaster resettlement \"has a notable tendency to ignore livelihoods and to fall into technocratic ruts\" (Christoplos et al., 2001, p. 192). Therefore, livelihood is not only a significant challenge for disaster resettlement, but also an important perspective when discussing the impacts of disaster resettlement (Christoplos et al., 2001). From a livelihood perspective, Guo and Kapucu (2017) examined the impacts of disaster resettlement, based on the case of Southern Shaanxi Disaster Resettlement (SSDR), the largest disaster resettlement in China.\nLiterature review and background: To facilitate subsequent analysis, we introduced the research background and confirmed livelihood is an important perspective for researches on disaster resettlement (Devereux et al., 2005; IFRCRCS, 2014) in Disaster resettlements from livelihood perspectives. Then, we reviewed literature on livelihood security and risk to present the livelihood risk perspective.\nContext of the study: The cities of Ankang, Hanzhong, and Shangluo, located in the hinterland of Qinling Mountains in the Southern Shaanxi Province, China, experience the most serious flood hazards (see blue area in Figure 1). Aside from conventional measures, such as reservoir and dam construction, the Chinese Government started a disaster mitigation and preparedness program called SSDR. More detailed information on this particular program can be seen in the study by Guo and Kapucu (2017).\nTheoretical insights and DT: We examined involved farmers' LRPs in the context of SSDR, and discussed issues on risk perception since risk in this study is perceived by public administrators and civil servants. Influenced by various factors including personality, education, income, and political party preference (Bouyer et al., 2001; Pidgeon, 1998; Pidgeon et al., 1992; Sjoberg, 2000), risk perception may vary among individuals even within similar environments (Smith et al., 2000). As explained by psychologists (Bourbakis, 2002; Hoogs et al., 2003), the focus is more on the involved mental processes rather than interpreting external stimuli. People's senses, like probe functions (i.e. mappings of sensations to values assimilated by the mind), measure the features of objects through a series of decision rules to form perception (Ashby and Gott, 1987).\nDT method: We conducted the research in the following successive procedures.\nResults and discussions: In the DT (see Figure 4), 26 terminal nodes (leaf notes) correspond to 26 decision rules. We illustrate the decision rules in algorithm form using pseudo code. The extracted decision rules are also listed in Appendix.\nConclusion: From livelihood risk perspective, we proposed a framework to better understanding how involved farmers perceive the risk in SSDR. Based on the extracted 26 decision rules, we analyzed LLRP of different groups. The individuals were categorized into 26 groups, with the factors contributing to risk perception and the decision rules followed by groups derived. Moreover, some critical factors, including age, resettlement, and gender, were identified and discussed according to their relative importance, with some implications for effective intervention measures. For the aged, social security and nursing institutions in resettlement communities are required. High score of RST indicates a gap exists between the risk perceptions of groups with different resettlement statuses. Therefore, policy interpretation on SSDR to help farmers to get exact information is important. Due to current vulnerable status of the female population, local governments should strengthen skills training and rights protection for women to help them to get enough employment opportunities after resettlement.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: Although many disaster resettlement programs are implemented throughout the world, their ramifications continue to challenge our understanding of scope, impact, context, and nature of efforts to rebuild livelihoods. The purpose of this paper is to examine involved rural farmers' livelihood risk perceptions (LRPs) in Southern Shaanxi Disaster Resettlement based on the case of Ziyang County.\nDesign/methodology/approach: Utilizing a livelihood risk perspective, this paper identified factors contributing to LRPs. The research categorized the involved rural farmers into groups and explored the factors affecting their LRPs using decision tree (DT).\nFindings: Analyzing LRPs of different groups, this paper derived influential factors and the decision rules followed by groups. Additionally, critical factors were discussed according to their relative importance for decision making and to propose some intervention measures for effectiveness.\nOriginality/value: The results and implications enhance understanding on how local community members perceive the problem or risk in disaster resettlement. The application of a DT also provides methodological contributions for risk analysis and disaster preparedness.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Delivering sustainability through value management: Concept and performance overview
|
[
"Economic sustainability",
"Asset valuation",
"Construction industry"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: The focus on sustainability in UK construction projects is increasing and its contribution towards improving value is becoming visible. The industry and its customers are broadening their interpretation of value, and beginning to appreciate the subjective nature of it by adding concerns surrounding environment and society (Thomson et al., 2003). The Institute of Value Management (2002) states that the concept of value relies on the relationship between the satisfaction of many differing needs and the resources used in doing so. The differing needs are likely to include aspects such as high quality, good indoor environment, durability, cheaper to maintain, user friendly etc. These needs are all part of sustainability objectives. As a value enhancement technique, VM should integrate the issues of sustainability as they affect the quality of the outcome. Nevertheless, the scarcity of literature discussing this indicates that the contribution of VM to sustainability has not been expressly appreciated or remains an untapped research area.This paper is divided into two parts. The first part discusses the literature findings on the theoretical concept of integration together with the supportive arguments that highlight VM potential as a means to uplift sustainability issues at the early stages of the construction project process. The supportive arguments are discussed from two perspectives:1. the intrinsic capability of VM to deliver sustainability; and2. the relationships that exists between these two to counter the common assumption that their interests are in conflict.The second part presents the findings from two field studies conducted to investigate the existing practices of VM in its attitude to sustainability. The studies revealed the existence of gaps in VM practices with regard to sustainability and the existence of barriers to integration. It is believed that these barriers are causing the gaps in practice.\nSustainability and value management: Sustainability promotes a balanced approach by taking account of the need to continue in business, but does not seek profitability at the expense of the environment or society's needs (MaSC, 2002). Sustainability concerns protecting environmental quality, enhancing social prosperity and improving economic performance (Addis and Talbot, 2001). There is an important distinction between sustainability and sustainable construction. Sustainable construction is a process whereby, over time, sustainability is achieved (Parkin, 2000). Hence, sustainability is an objective.VM is a structured approach to establishing what value means to a client in meeting a perceived need by clearly defining and agreeing the project objectives and establishing how they can best be achieved (Construction Industry Board, 1997). In VM, although clients tend to put pressure on cost reduction, their vision would still be the same, i.e. value for money, better quality, profitability and positive business image. In rendering a service designed to improve the value of a project, VM considers various issues before proposing the best solution to clients. Sustainability issues should be included as they affect the quality of the outcome. This opinion, however, has not been widely expressed in the literature.There are many publications on the subject of sustainability and VM separately. However, texts that highlight the contribution of VM towards sustainability are few. Several papers have been presented in conferences held by IVM Australia in 2002 and Hong Kong in 1999 that relate VM with sustainability. These papers mostly discussed the importance of sustainability in improving value (Barton 2002; Barton et al., 2000; Schneider, 1999) and the potential of VM to promote sustainability (Yeomans, 2002; Barton et al., 1999; Phillips, 1999). Additionally, there are papers that propose integration would enhance the reputation of VM (Fong, 2003; Schneider 1999).The scarcity of literature addressing this subject and the absence of research-based papers are postulated as a lack of awareness of the potential of VM as a vehicle to enhance sustainability and an unrealised relationship between sustainability vision and VM objectives\nIntegrating sustainability within VM: VM practitioners have opportunities to minimise environmental and social damage through recommending suitable site location, selecting sustainable materials, determining elements or theme of design and choice of construction. Committing to sustainability during VM could lead to the vision of generating good economic return whilst delivering accountability and excellence in our social and environmental performance. The basic premise of this concept is to absorb sustainability elements, blending in the issues throughout the VM process to help reduce the conflicting terms of cost and sustainability when designing. Solutions would be proposed to best match the client's economic needs without neglecting environmental and social needs. The idea behind integrating VM with sustainability is to put this concern at the forefront of VM thinking and along its activities. Sustainability should not be seen as an \"add on\" to VM requirements but truly integrated into all facets of planning and design. The emphasis that participants in the workshop place on sustainability issues would determine the sustainability \"content\" within the workshop.Theoretically, consideration of sustainability within VM should not change the generic process of VM as it only affects the scope and focus of study. VM practitioners need to widen and apply their sustainability knowledge when defining functions, generating ideas and developing proposals. At pre-workshop, the facilitators should present the importance of sustainability consideration to the clients to secure commitment for it. Having identified sustainability as part of the project's objectives, they would be made explicit to all team members and included during function analysis stage. Ideas generated during creativity phases are evaluated against the defined functions and objectives. The proposals are then developed and presented to the decision makers, highlighting the estimated cost savings and the features that protect the environmental and social interest and provide long-term economic return.It is important to acknowledge the existence of certain boundaries, which limit the influence that VM can have on the vision of sustainability such as time constraints and a preset scope and interest of study, which vary according to the project and the different timing of VM practices. The strategy and action taken to uphold this idea of integration must account for these boundaries.\nVM as an ideal sustainability vehicle: The ideality of VM to improve sustainability is discussed from two perspectives:1. the strengths of VM; and2. the relationship that exists between the two.When considered together, these issues can raise awareness of the impact VM participants can have in promoting more sustainable outcomes for projects.The strengths of VM for sustainability\nPerformance overview: Research methodology\nRecommendation: Based on the theoretical concept and potential of VM, the inclusion of sustainability within VM practices is realistic and practicable. However, pilot studies revealed gaps in practice and barriers to integration, indicating room for improvement. It is proposed to introduce a way to alleviate the barriers to integration in order to reduce the gaps and promote better inclusion of sustainability in future VM practices. Improvement can be pursued from many angles. Among those are:* search for ways to raise sustainability issues early in the VM practices;* seek ways to incorporate sustainability issues effectively within the defined time frame;* assess current performance to identify area of weaknesses;* introduce a guide for sustainability for VM practitioners;* promote clients' interest on sustainability;* prove VM capability as mechanism to deliver better sustainable value; and* formulate strategies for effective sustainability inclusion within VM process;\nConclusion: VM has been identified as having the potential to deliver sustainability for projects owing to its utilisation of diverse knowledge resources, professional disciplines and stakeholders, facilitated environment, strategic timing and effective processes. VM ensures that sustainability is brought to the forefront before critical decisions are made. It could reduce the conflicting interest between cost and environmental and social issues. Commitment to sustainability can be secured through positive interaction between clients and VM facilitators and then positive participation between team members. Sustainability knowledge can be disseminated faster. The goals and purposes of sustainability and VM are not in contrast as assumed by many VM practitioners. It is established that the sustainability vision corresponds with the direction of VM. Thus strengthening the position of VM as strategic mechanism to embed sustainability into construction.As expected, sustainability issues have been incorporated within the VM workshops. However, as revealed from the field studies, there are gaps in practice that are believed to be caused by the barriers raised by the lack of understanding of and confidence about this agenda. Sustainability consideration is lower than expected. The attention given to these issues varies from one workshop to another. Their importance depends on client needs and wants. This reliance on clients itself becomes a barrier to sustainability absorption as, although sustainability would improve the value and quality of the output, clients were perceived as less interested in sustainability during VM. This puts facilitators in a difficult position as VM responds to clients demand and not the other way around. Although they are in a strategic position to influence clients, the final words still rest with the clients.Many of the VM practitioners claimed to have good knowledge on sustainability and aware of its importance, however, the lack of absorption of this knowledge into the VM process projected the need for aid in channelling their knowledge and addressing sustainability more effectively. Improvement in sustainability can be made possible if awareness and knowledge of it are injected before the workshop takes place.Sustainability issues are integral to the project functions and objectives and should be dealt with accordingly during the process and not be treated as a separate agenda. The issues need to be raised early in the process and client commitment is vital. Formal guidance would be helpful as people do not seem to upload knowledge and information easily. Current VM performance needs to be assessed to indicate where improvement needs to be focused. From here, strategies for better integration in the future can be formulated.Although VM is theoretically, a strategic vehicle to improve sustainability performance, the existence of gaps and barriers indicates the need of aid to firmly seize this opportunity. It is recommended that ways for alleviating these gaps and barriers should be sought such as producing tools, guidelines, improving knowledge etc. Promoting sustainability through VM will enhance the reputation of VM as a value enhancing technique and enable it to remain competitive in delivering its services, especially in terms of the quality of advice given and proposals produced.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: - The attention on sustainability issues within value management (VM) practices is uncertain due to the scarcity of information on this subject in the available literature. As a value enhancement technique, VM should incorporate sustainability issues as they would affect the quality of the outcome. By exploring VM as a means to uplift sustainability issues at the early construction stages, it shall shed light to its potential and current practices and thus stimulating wider attention to this field in the future.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - This paper begins by presenting the underlying concept of integrating sustainability within VM. The potential of VM to uplift sustainability issues is highlighted and the relationships between these two are discussed. Field studies were conducted to investigate the existing practices of VM and its practitioners' attitudes towards sustainability.\nFindings: - It is confirmed that sustainability consideration is already inherent in the VM workshops but the level of attention varies between workshops. There are gaps in current practices, indicating rooms for improvement. The identified barriers to integration are believed responsible for these gaps.\nResearch implications: - Any strategy to promote sustainability consideration in VM in the future must address the impediments to integration.\nOriginality/value: - The attention on sustainability issues in VM remains an untapped area due to scarcity of information. Theoretically, the intrinsic capabilities and the positive relationships between these two heighten VM position as an effective means for sustainability improvement. However, in practices, sustainability attention requires improvement to bridge the gaps and overcome the existing barriers that impede current integration.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
Matters for judgement: some thoughts on method in management history
|
[
"Management history",
"Epistemology"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n__NO_TITLE__: History rests on the belief that the present differs from the past and derives from it; it also points to the future, which will be different again (Evans, 1999, p. 134).\nIntroduction: The first issue of JMH, in its reincarnated form, was styled as a tribute to the \"worthy endeavour of the scribe\" that person described by Kemp (1989, p. 111) not just as \"writing man\" but as part mathematician, part logistician, part measurer, part mobiliser, part manager and part historian. This tribute was paid through the presentation of the endeavours of the modern scribes proffered in that issue. It was a tribute comprising papers with quite different topics, from different parts of the globe and from different points in time. There was also a mixture of methods - case studies, quantitative analysis, longitudinal analysis, theoretical analysis - appropriate to their respective subjects of interest, but different nonetheless.Such an assortment raises the question, quite reasonably, as to whether all, or any, of these different approaches belong in a journal with a self-styled remit to \"to examine more closely the historical development of management concepts and practices, with a view to how they inform the present and 'shape what we are and what we do'\". In other words, what are the legitimate methods of examination and do they include, for example, case studies, quantitative analysis, longitudinal analysis, theoretical analysis?At this early stage in the journal's new life, it seemed appropriate to devote some space to this question, along with some possible answers. This is an important task in light of the lack of attention that has been given to the question of method/methodology in management history. A recent Google Scholar search found that, while the term \"management history\" produced 194,000 hits and \"method in history\" resulted in 674 hits, the terms \"methodology in management history\" \"method in management history\" \"management history methodology\" and \"management history method\" produced no hits at all.One might reasonably observe that management history is simply a subset of the wider discipline of history and that any discussion of method/methodology, therefore, should simply point the reader in the direction of those more generic discussions (Evans, 1999). On the other hand, as Evans (1999, p. 147ff) observes, history is a much more expanded and diverse profession than it was 50 or 100 years ago and the idea that one method (and therefore, one methodological discussion) is appropriate for the collection of social, intellectual, political, labour, economic and other histories that populate the field seems, prima facie, no longer defensible.It is not the purpose of this paper, though, to add another to the list of works on the historical method. There are already useful texts in the broad area of historical research, not the least of which is Evans' (1999) In Defense of History, \"a spirited defense of the search for historical truth\". Among the range of available texts, Jenkins and Munslow (2004, p. 2) offer \"a collection of readings that [they] hope is sufficient to allow students of history to reflect upon the way histories are written, taught and thought about today\". In his introduction to History and International Relations, Smith (1999, p. 1ff) provides an overview of the \"historical problem\" drawing the reader's attention, inter alia, to the historical \"challenges\" of selection bias, anecdotalism, and ahistoricism, while Green (1993) highlights the many pitfalls of historical writing. Hardy and Jarausch (1991) and Darcy and Rohrs (1995) both provide guides to the historian interested in quantitative methods. Rather, I take this opportunity to reflect on the range of methods utilised by the authors in these first three issues of the Journal of Management History by way of introduction to the topic.\nPerspectives and methods: History of ideas\nConclusion: This paper has not been about reciting the works of others as if they are new discoveries in the context of management history. Rather, it has been an introduction to the matter of method in management history and the demonstration of the range of perspectives and styles that can be, and are being, brought to the various subjects of study here in JMH. It is also a call to encourage those whose work is about the history of management, and the rest whose endeavours necessarily incorporate the history of management ideas in their work, to ensure that they have thoroughly considered and employed appropriate historical method consistent with their espoused (although more often implicit) ontological and epistemological positions. We look now to authors who seek to make an extended contribution in this important area to do so, perhaps even in the form of a special issue on method in management history.\n",
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"content": "Purpose: - This paper reflects on some aspects of method in management history and the importance of the self-reflection on their world-view that must accompany authors' endeavours, in order to be articulated in the matters they proffer for the reader's judgement.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - Drawing on the insights proffered by Evans about how to study, research, write about and read history, this paper offers some thoughts on the importance of giving due consideration to method in management history.\nFindings: - Thomas Hobbes observed that \"Out of our conception of the past, we make a future.\" It behoves us then, as managers and management scholars, to be satisfied that our conceptions of the past are developed in ways that, as far as possible, avoid the problems that would make them less than useful in creating that future. This paper identifies some of the issues of which those seeking to create the future must be cognisant.\nOriginality/value: - If knowing accurately the history of management thought is of importance to scholars and practitioners, then this paper alerts practitioners and commentators to the need for a sound method in producing, and learning from, the lessons of management history.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
Improving supply chain disaster preparedness: A decision process for secure site location
|
[
"Supply chain management",
"Contingency planning",
"Storage",
"Disasters",
"Emergency measures"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Interest in supply chain security has never been higher since the terrorist attacks of September 11th, 2001. This is evidenced by the increased resources that industry and government have been committing to cargo security (e.g. the Container Security Initiative (CSI)), tracking and routing of materials (hazardous or otherwise), import/export precautions, and risk management (e.g. newly-devised programs such as C-TPAT, FAST, and BASC). However, supply chain disruptions can occur from many other non-terrorist related events as well, including labor strikes, natural disasters, and power grid outages. Ripple effects from these external events on supply chain operations can be significant. For example, federal spending on ten separate natural disasters in the late 1990s ranged from over $600 million to $7 billion per event (Helferich and Cook, 2002), and these figures do not include the costs to companies affected by the disasters. And while the post September 11th era has justifiably led to increased attention on securing the supply chain, events that can significantly disrupt the continuity of supply chains will never be completely eliminated.The most important lesson from the past few years of terrorist attacks, dock strikes, regional blackouts, and natural disasters may be that firms finally realize the need to develop effective emergency response strategies within their supply chains to react and recover from inevitable supply chain disruptions. In the past, firm performance on disaster preparedness was poor, as noted by Helferich and Cook (2002, p. 2):The typical large US corporation has given disaster preparedness a low priority because of competing business issues, the lack of recognition of the true level of disaster vulnerability, and an assumption that the service and government sectors are responsible for disaster response. The threat of more terrorist attacks, increasing global unrest, and higher occurrence of major natural disasters creates a powerful motivation for management to explore the processes to secure the performance of the commercial supply chain.As firms begin to pay more attention to supply chain security and the development of comprehensive disaster management processes, little help can be found in the logistics and supply chain management literature. Instead, logistics managers must rely upon existing planning models in the disaster management literature and emergency preparedness advice offered by federal and state government agencies, adapting the information to fit supply chain settings (Helferich and Cook, 2002). And while much of the recent attention in the business and trade press has been spent on securing the supply chain against future terrorist attacks or other internal security threats, it is also critical that firms become more proactive in their disaster planning and work at developing the coping and recovery skills that will be required to maintain supply chain continuity during future, inevitable times of crisis (Helferich and Cook, 2002).For example, one important recommendation made by the Federal Emergency Management Association (FEMA) in their Emergency Management Guide for Business and Industry is that firms should store critical documents, emergency supplies and equipment, satellite phones, medical equipment, water, clean-up supplies, portable lights, inventory and equipment records, and generators, in a safe and secure location (Helferich and Cook, 2002). However, storing a set of these items at every distribution center, manufacturing facility, transportation hub, and office within in the supply chain can be cost prohibitive. In addition, gaining access to these items during an emergency may be prevented in some instances because of the nature of some external events (e.g. fires, explosions, hurricanes) that could destroy the emergency supplies stored at the facilities directly affected by the disaster.Given these cost and risk constraints, the goal of this paper is to provide a site selection model for emergency resources that can be utilized by logistics managers and supply chain continuity teams to determine the appropriate number and locations of storage areas for critical emergency equipment and supplies. The importance of balancing cost efficiency with operational effectiveness in emergency planning and response has been demonstrated in previous research. Charles (1995) argued that projecting costs for disaster planning and response scenarios and working to make these costs more efficient was a critical aspect of effective disaster planning to ensure that available resources matched the requirements of the disaster plan. An application of this philosophy is sought in the model proposed in this research. The proposed model for secure site locations will enable firms to provide each facility in their supply chain with quick access to the emergency materials and equipment needed for effective disaster response, while minimizing the total cost for the supply chain.This paper will begin with a review of recent research in the disaster management academic literature and at disaster research centers. After a review of the scant academic research in the logistics literature on securing the supply chain and disaster management planning, a model will be proposed for secure site location of critical documents, equipment, and materials recommended by FEMA for effective disaster preparation by businesses. In addition, the viability of the proposed secure site selection process will be demonstrated using a hypothetical example.\nBackground: Review of disaster planning literature\nModel development and discussion: Proper location of emergency resources within the supply chain in anticipation of a disaster or extreme event can provide tremendous paybacks during times of crisis. In other words, part of being ready for a disaster is being in the right place to start with. The problem of secure site location for disaster response equipment within the context of a just-in-case supply chain addresses this very issue. It is advocated here that the proper placement of disaster response equipment can have tremendous utility in terms of national security, natural hazards, readiness against domestic terrorism, situations of uncertainty and risk, and the firm's bottom line.Emergency resources need to be located in a manner as to not be vulnerable to attack. Yet, they need to be close to the areas to which they are assigned to serve. Therein lies the dilemma of the proposed research: how best to locate n emergency resources within the supply chain to best serve m areas without being vulnerable itself. To this end, this proposal is aimed at applying an analytical perspective to the problem of emergency resource location and allocation within the context of supply chain disaster management planning.As noted, in the aftermath of September 11th, the Council of Logistics Management sponsored research on securing supply chains during times of crisis (Helferich and Cook, 2002). A large part of their research examined and summarized existing disaster management research and made recommendations to logistics managers about processes for implementing disaster management programs. The traditional disaster management process guidelines proposed by the FEMA Emergencey Management Guide for Business and Industry typically revolved around three stages: planning, response, and recovery. Helferich and Cook (2002) have used FEMA's guide as the foundation of their suggested disaster management process for supply chain managers but have added mitigation and detection stages to provide a better fit for today's increasingly complex environment and supply chain systems. Mitigation is critical to lessen the impact of disasters on supply chain continuity and the length of disruptions. Detection has been added because many disasters or impending events can be complex and hard to evaluate. Including a detection stage as an important part of the process may increase the likelihood that a disaster is identified in a more timely manner (Helferich and Cook, 2002). Thus, after adding two stages to the foundation provided by FEMA, a five-stage disaster management process has been proposed by Helferich and Cook (2002) for supply chain managers. The stages are outlined in Table I.The decision model proposed in this study is a first stage planning activity (anticipatory location of emergency resources within the supply chain) that directly impacts upon the fourth and fifth stages, or the ability of firms to effectively respond to and recover from critical events that threaten the continuity of supply chain operations.\nSecure site location decision process: The secure site location decision process proposed in this research combines the recommendations from disaster management agencies, service expectations within the supply chain, and location science into one process. The resulting model will lead to the selection of a minimum number of emergency resource locations that provide logistics managers with quick access to critical resources while minimizing the total costs spent by the supply chain preparing for future crises.Step 1. Identify the emergency resources needed at each secure location\nExample: four-step secure site decision process: Consider the following seven-city example in the northeast corridor: Albany, Boston, Burlington, Concord, Hartford, New York, and Portland (Figure 1). For this example, it is assumed that a critical supply chain facility is located in each of these seven cities (step two). It is also assumed that the logistics managers for this supply chain have already completed step one of the process and have identified all of the critical materials, supplies, and equipment needed for each emergency storage location.In step 3 of the process, logistics managers must set minimum and maximum distance constraints to ensure the safety of materials but also provide reasonable response times during disasters. In this example, the managers have determined that the secure site locations must be at least 50 miles away from every critical supply chain facility, but that there must be at least one storage site no more than 100 miles away from each supply chain facility. The circle around each city in Figure 2 depicts the 50-mile minimum distance constraint. No storage site can be placed within the area covered by these circles.The fourth step of the proposed secure site location process is to use the minimum and maximum constraints and the proposed set cover model to determine the minimum number of facilities that can be employed to meet the standards set by management and to identify areas where the facilities can be located. In this seven city example, the minimum number of facilities needed is three. The three shaded areas highlighted in Figure 3 represent the three locations for secure facilities that meet the requirements of this example. Of course, the model only considers actual distances from facilities and does not consider the locations of roads and highways or the availability of appropriate storage facilities or locations to place emergency supplies within the shaded areas. Instead, the three shaded areas provide managers with a starting point for locations. Adjustments can be made to accommodate problems with access to roads or industrial areas to store equipment. The three-site solution demonstrated in this example saves the supply chain money by providing a solution that requires only three secure site locations instead of seven while still providing reasonably quick access to the equipment and materials needed in an emergency.\nConclusion: Events from the past two years have forced firms to rethink and restructure their supply chain strategies in order to improve security and minimize the impact of future external incidents. While revisiting single-sourcing decisions and changing inventory management policies will likely help maintain continuity during future crises, experts have clearly demonstrated, and logistics managers have candidly admitted, that firms need to vastly improve their disaster management planning. The main contribution of this paper has been to utilize location science, which has been primarily used by logistics managers for the optimum location of warehouses or other facilities within networks, to develop a basic process for location of secure storage areas for critical emergency resources. While this process represents only one of many important decisions in disaster management planning, it is hoped this model will do its share in helping supply chains become better prepared for the next emergency.\n",
"role": "user"
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"content": "Purpose: - Terrorist attacks, natural disasters, and regional power outages from the past several years have all highlighted the low levels of disaster preparedness that exist at many firms. Supply chain disruptions caused by external events can have a significant financial and operational impact on firms not properly prepared. Therefore, improving disaster preparedness in supply chains is critical. One critical component of disaster management planning in supply chains is the storage of emergency supplies, equipment, and vital documents that will be needed in times of crisis. The goal of this paper is propose a decision process for establishing an efficient network of secure storage facilities that can effectively support multiple supply chain facilities.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - The authors use the five-stage disaster management process for supply chains as the framework for a proposed decision process for secure site locations. The decision process combines recommendations from FEMA's Disaster Management Guide with a set cover location model from the location sciences field to help establish a network of secure site locations.\nFindings: - Storing emergency supplies at every supply chain facility can be cost-prohibitive. In addition, gaining access to emergency supplies that are stored at each facility may be prevented by some external events, such as fires or hurricanes, because items stored on-site are destroyed or are inaccessible. Therefore, the proposed secure site selection process can balance operational effectiveness and cost-efficiency by identifying the minimum number and possible locations of off-site storage facilities.\nOriginality/value: - One important contribution of the paper is that it combines recent recommendations for disaster preparedness in supply chains with established models in location sciences research to create an interdisciplinary solution to an important supply chain issue. Even though the storage of important documents, equipment, and materials is only one small part of disaster management planning, it is hoped that this model will do its share in helping supply chains become better prepared for the next emergency.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
Identification and prioritization of factors affecting venture capitalists' investment decision-making process: An analytical hierarchal process (AHP) approach
|
[
"AHP",
"Exploratory factor analysis",
"Investment decision-making",
"Venture capital"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: Over the last several years, venture capitalism has been instrumental in providing necessary finance to entrepreneurs (Hellmann and Puri, 2002; Cumming and Johan, 2012). Until late 1970s, venture capitalism was more prevalent in the USA and less practiced abroad (Henderson, 1989). Gompers and Lerner (2001) stated that venture capitalism has emerged as one of the driving forces of economic and industrial growth in developing nations also. Venture capitalism in any nation is driven by the prevailing institutional environment including level of economic development, liberal trade policies, technological advancement, existence of national systems of innovation, level of entrepreneurship, labor practices, corporate ownership regulations, educational achievement, legal system and business culture (Cetindamar, 2003). Venture capital may be understood as a capital fund managed professionally and utilized to provide finance to private firms at different development phases where capital providers affect decisions of portfolio companies (Sahlman, 1990; Barry, 1994). Venture capital also contributes to and supports the overall economic development of a nation in terms of sustainability, gross domestic product (GDP) growth and employment by providing value added services to entrepreneurs (Gompers and Lerner, 2001; Dhochak and Sharma, 2015). Given the fact that an investment decision with respect to a new business venture is inherently risky, venture capitalists consider several parameters such as entrepreneur's characteristics, product or services, market characteristics, management skills, financial consideration, economic and institutional & regulatory environment before making an investment decision so as to minimize associated risk. To make a right investment decision and mitigate the risk associated with a new venture, venture capitalists follow an intense evaluation process before deciding to fund any proposal (Batterson, 1986). To this end, they employ various evaluation techniques including quantitative and qualitative methods.\n2. Literature review: 2.1 Influencers of venture capitalists' investment decisions\n3. Research methodology: In this study, an integrated framework of EFA and AHP has been used to explore, identify and prioritize key factors influencing venture capitalists' investment decisions in an Indian context. The proposed research methodology comprises two phases: in the first phase, exploratory factor analysis has been performed to identify the factors affecting venture capitalists' investment decisions; in the second phase, AHP has been used to assign weights and rank the identified factors. The proposed research outline used for this study is presented in Figure 1.\n4. Results and analysis: The analyses of collected data and results thereof are described below.\n5. Conclusion and implications: The present study identifies and ranks key factors influencing investment decisions of venture capitalists in India. EFA and AHP were used for establishing and ranking seven key factors (entrepreneur's characteristics, product or services, market characteristics, management skills, financial consideration, economic environment and institutional & regulatory environment) as influencers of investment decisions of venture capitalists. This study is the first to identify economic factors (economic environment and institutional & regulatory environment) as influencers of venture capitalists' investment decisions. Further, no study in the past has attempted to rank or prioritize factors influencing investment decisions of venture capitalists; this is the first attempt of the kind. These facts highlight the contribution and originality value of the present study.\n",
"role": "user"
},
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"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to identify and rank critical factors influencing investment decisions of venture capitalists.\nDesign/methodology/approach: To identify and prioritize factors affecting investment decisions of venture capitalists, a two-phase methodology was adopted: in the first phase, critical factors influencing venture capitalists' investment decisions were identified using exploratory factor analysis; the second phase entailed the use of a multi-criteria decision-making technique - analytical hierarchal process (AHP) which involved assigning weights to, and prioritizing the identified criteria and sub-criteria.\nFindings: Seven factors were found to significantly influence investment decisions of venture capitalists: entrepreneur's characteristics, product or services, market characteristics, management skills, financial consideration, economic environment and institutional and regulatory environment. Findings revealed that entrepreneur's characteristics, financial consideration and product or services were prime influencers of venture capitalists' investment decisions.\nResearch limitations/implications: As for limitations, first, the study considers limited number of factors influencing investment decisions of venture capitalists; there may be other influencers not considered in this study. Second, the AHP methodology assumes that the various decision-making criteria and sub-criteria are independent of each other; in real life, there may be inter-dependency among criteria. Third, the hierarchal model has been tested in the Indian venture capital industry only, and generalizability of results with respect to other industries is questionable.\nPractical implications: The present study identifies and ranks seven factors found to significantly influence investment decisions of venture capitalists. Venture capitalists could use this list of factors as a guideline before making investment decisions, and if considering all factors is not possible, take into account the factors given top rank so that they arrive at informed and intelligent decisions.\nOriginality/value: This study is the first to identify economic factors (economic environment and institutional & regulatory environment) as influencers of venture capitalists' investment decisions. Further, no study in the past has attempted to rank or prioritize factors influencing venture capitalists' investment decisions; this is the first attempt of the kind.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Conceptualising sustainable leadership
|
[
"Sustainability",
"Leadership",
"Sustainable leadership"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: A noticeable, recent trend in leadership literature has emerged towards embracing person centred and resource-based views of leadership. Alongside this context many commentators have identified the need for more long lasting approaches to leadership practices (Avery and Bergsteiner, 2011b). In the aftermath of the global financial crisis organisations' are seeking more secure, stable growth through more progressive and long-term approaches to leader and follower development (Kantabutra and Saratun, 2013).\nIntroducing sustainable leadership: The theory of sustainable leadership has developed in interest and importance as a result of the fallout of the economic crisis. In defining the concept Avery and Bergsteiner (2011a, b, p. 5) posit:Sustainable Leadership requires taking a long-term perspective in making decisions; fostering systematic innovation aimed at increasing customer value; developing a skilled, loyal and highly engaged workforce; and offering quality products, services and solutions.\nFrameworks of sustainable leadership: Sustainable leadership has been applied in a number of different settings and contexts. Hargreaves and Fink (2006), Davies (2007) and Lambert (2011) explore sustainable leadership by adopting an organisational level of analysis in the education sector (in the USA and UK). Avery and Bergsteiner (2011a, b) adopt an organisational perspective in a number of contexts. Finally, Casserley and Critchley (2010) focus on the development of sustainable leaders from an individual perspective. It has been emphasised that:[...] there is no one 'right' way within the overall sustainable leadership paradigm(Avery and Bergsteiner, 2011a, p. 5).\nInternal and external factors influencing sustainable leadership: Following the conceptualisation of the synthesised sustainable leadership frameworks internal and external factors influencing sustainable leadership have been derived.\nStakeholder considerations: Understanding the diverse interests of stakeholders whilst ensuring a sustainable employment relationship can be imperative to effective long-term organisational performance (Paauwe, 2009; Francis et al., 2012; Barr and Dowding, 2012). Holbeche (Francis et al., 2012) stresses sustainable outcomes are achieved more often in organisations where employees are engaged, motivated and healthy whilst organisational performance exist as central considerations; although the emphasis must be on all stakeholders. This can depend on the cohesion that is felt throughout the organisation; the internal environment must arguably be effective and developmental in nature for sustainable leadership to be developed and achieved (Hargreaves and Fink, 2011).\nOrganisational processes: A number of the sustainable leadership frameworks (see Table I) indicate learning and development should be inclusive and have opportunities for employees from throughout the organisation. This is accentuated by the ideology of building capacity and resourcefulness, which again, emphasises opportunities should be available for all employees (Hargreaves and Fink, 2006; Davies, 2007; Lambert, 2011).\nExternal environment: The linkages and interdependency of ethical responsibilities, corporate governance and the external environment is important when considering the integration and development of sustainable leadership. Within this paper the people and processes elements which effect sustainable leadership and touched upon areas of the context, however, as Garavan et al. (2007, p. 74) indicate:Context plays a vital role in determining the effectiveness of strategic HRD.\nImplications for research and practice: There are a number of implications for research and practice to consider as a result of the conceptual framework presented in this paper which will be reviewed. The presentation of the internal and external factors influencing sustainable leadership allows a clear understanding of the multi-faceted components organisations must consider, which allows a contention of the implications for research and practice.\nConclusion: This paper has explored the theoretical frameworks which surround sustainable leadership and has synthesised and presented commonly referenced facets of the concept within the internal and external factors influencing sustainable leadership. This allows a coherent depiction of the concepts considerations to be made and analysed. The implications to be considered include the operationalization of sustainable leadership in practice as although the theoretical dimension is covered, the way in which different organisations under the sustainable leadership practices. On the other hand, the change in culture and approach to leadership can be significant and although there are noteworthy advantages of sustainable leadership; it can be seen as a long-term approach which can take time to implement. Therefore organisations must proceed towards a sustainable culture and sustainable leadership can encompass this by ensuring that the greatest number of practices have been achieved.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: Literature encompassing sustainable leadership and developing leaders sustainably are still in infancy (Lambert, 2011). Nevertheless indications identify leadership as a vital cog in achieving sustainable organisations. Sustainable leadership can allow a fast, resilient response which is competitive and appealing to all stakeholders (Avery and Bergsteiner, 2011a, b). Arguably, organisations' need to stop considering leadership as a control function (Casserley and Critchley, 2010; Crews, 2010) and instead focus on dialogue and mutual-interdependency between leaders and their followers (Barr and Dowding, 2012). The purpose of this paper is to explore and analyse the concept of sustainable leadership to present a conceptual framework surrounding sustainable leadership.\nDesign/methodology/approach: This conceptual paper will review the existing frameworks of sustainable leadership and present a conceptualisation of the frameworks. This conceptualisation synthesises frameworks and literature surrounding the concept of sustainable leadership which involves work from Casserley and Critchley (2010), Avery and Bergsteiner (2011a, b), Hargreaves and Fink (2006), Davies (2007) and Lambert (2011). Seminal themes from the synthesised frameworks are presented in order to attempt to unify the conceptualisation of sustainable leadership.\nFindings: Within leadership literature, stakeholder approaches (Groves and LaRocca, 2011; Avery and Bergsteiner, 2011a); discourses underlining the importance of relationship between leaders and followers (Barr and Dowding, 2012); and discussions about the need to develop reflexive and participative leadership models (Kopp and Martinuzzi, 2013) have become prominent. Sustainable leadership embraces all of these new components. The concept advocates organisations should shift emphasis from a traditional singular focus on finances, to a view that organisations are contributors to wider environmental and social influences (Crews, 2010; Avery and Bergsteiner, 2011a).\nOriginality/value: This paper explores the theoretical frameworks which surround sustainable leadership and will synthesise and present commonly referenced facets of the concept within the internal and external factors influencing sustainable leadership.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Non-parametric decomposition and the choice of reference group: A study of the gender wage gap in 15 OECD countries
|
[
"Gender",
"Discrimination",
"Earnings",
"Pay differentials"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: Although the disparity between men's and women's earnings has narrowed within the past decades, a substantial gap between them persists in most countries. While in part it can be attributed to differences individual characteristics such as human capital endowments, it is still not the case that the returns to their human capital are the same for men and women (see, e.g. Christofides et al., 2013 or Nopo et al., 2012 for recent comparative studies of the gender wage gap in a large number of countries). Decomposition methods which aim to disentangle the effects of gender differences in human capital endowments (or other relevant characteristics) and remuneration of those characteristics, i.e. to estimate the \"explained\" and \"unexplained\" components of the wage gap, thus remain relevant in empirical work. The seminal contributions of Oaxaca (1973) and Blinder (1973) in this area have been followed by a number of important developments and refinements (see, e.g. Fortin et al., 2011 for an overview).\n2. Methodology: The decomposition proposed by Nopo (2008) explicitly takes into account the possibility that supports of the distributions of characteristics do not completely overlap for men and women. Using an algorithm based on matching, the wage gap is decomposed into explained (the portion of the wage gap due to differences in characteristics) and unexplained (the portion of the wage gap due to differences in the returns to characteristics) components, which are analagous to components in Oaxaca's decomposition. However, in Nopo's method, these components are calculated on the basis of part of the sample in which there is common support in the distributions of men's and women's characteristics. Thus, the explained and unexplained components of the wage gap are calculated only using those individuals for whom there exists a match among individuals of opposite sex in the sample, i.e. those who also have an identical combination of all personal characteristics considered. Since the unexplained and explained components are estimated only for the region of common support, the method necessarily produces two additional components based on out-of-support observations. The method is described below.\n3. Empirical application: 3.1. Data\n4. Discussion: This paper builds upon the non-parametric matching method introduced by Nopo (2008), in order to address the so-called \"index number problem\" in wage gap decompositions. This problem arises from the taking either male or female distribution of individual characteristics as the \"base category\" in the decomposition, due to which the results are asymmetrical with regard to the choice of the reference category. Beyond computational issues, the problem can more substantively be conceptualized as that of the non-discriminative wage structure, as described by Neumark (1988). Our proposed method is analogous to that of Neumark (1988) and Oaxaca and Ransom (1994) but based on matching similarly to Nopo's method: instead of decomposing the wage gap into explained and unexplained male-female gaps, it is decomposed into the unexplained and explained gaps between men's and women's average wages and the average wage. At the same time, Nopo's method's advantage of restricting the estimation unexplained and explained gaps only to the region of common support is retained, thereby avoiding possible overestimation of the unexplained gap that could result from using a traditional parametric method on the full sample. Furthermore, the Nopo method's additional advantage of being able to estimate the distribution of the unexplained pay differences in addition to averages applies here as well.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The Nopo (2008) method of non-parametric decomposition, a matching-based alternative to Oaxaca (1973) and Blinder's (1973) method of wage gap decomposition, is subject to the so-called \"index number problem\" common to the Oaxaca-Blinder and many related methods: its results are sensitive to the (arbitrary) choice of either male or female sex as the reference category in decomposition. The purpose of this paper is to address this issue by proposing an extension to the method that is invariant to the choice of reference category.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The Nopo method is modified such that the wage structure of the average worker instead of either male or female worker's is used as the reference, enabling one to distinguish the \"male advantage\" and \"female advantage\" portions of the gender wage gap. As an illustration, a decomposition of the gender wage gap is performed with the modified method, using data from 15 OECD countries.\nFindings: The empirical results using the Nopo decomposition indicate substantial differences in estimates of the unexplained gap depending on which sex is used as the reference category. Moreover, this disparity varies significantly with the choice of covariates used in the decomposition. This confirms there is significant cross-country variation in the asymmetry between male advantage and female disadvantage and that a decomposition method making this explicit would be relevant in real world settings.\nOriginality/value: The extension of the Nopo method proposed in this paper offers a way of decomposing the wage gaps in a way that is not sensitive to the choice of the reference category.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Unemployment and self-rated health in Ghana: are there gender differences?
|
[
"Ghana",
"Unemployment",
"Self-rated health",
"Gender differences",
"Self-reported health",
"E24",
"I18",
"J16",
"J64"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: Ghana has been bedeviled by unemployment for a long time (e.g. Sackey and Osei, 2006; Overa, 2007), a phenomenon that is more pervasive in urban towns than in rural areas (Sackey and Osei, 2006). Although data on unemployment statistics for the country are scanty, estimates from the micro-level survey data suggest that the unemployment rate in Ghana is high. For instance, the unemployment rate based on Afrobarometer Survey in 2008 was 28.8 and 27.4 percent in both 2012 and 2014. Unemployment has many deleterious consequences. Among these, research in epidemiology has shown that unemployment is strongly correlated with diverse adverse health outcomes (e.g. Forbes and McGregor, 1984; Gerdtham and Johannesson, 2003). A longitudinal study of Swedish adults followed between 10 and 17 years revealed that \"Unemployment significantly increases the risk of being dead at the end of follow-up by nearly 50%\" (Gerdtham and Johannesson, 2003, p. 505). In the USA, a unit increase in the unemployment rate is associated with a 6 percent increase in the probability of dying among unemployed people (Halliday, 2014).\n2. Background literature: 2.1 Unemployment and self-rated health\n3. Data and methods: We used data from the Wave 6 of the World Values Survey conducted in Ghana in 2012 for our empirical analyses. The World Values Survey is a global research network that conducts surveys in many countries around the world to gauge public attitudes and perceptions about varied social, economic and political phenomena (World Values Survey Association, 2016). In Ghana, a nationally representative sample of 1,552 respondents was interviewed on a face-to-face basis in eight of ten regions by using random sampling but stratified by gender[2]. Some researchers contend that self-rated health, albeit a subjective assessment of one's own health status (e.g. Darviri et al., 2012; Damian et al., 2008; Sun et al., 2007), can be construed as a comprehensive perception of health, encompassing the biological, psychological and social aspects of one's health (Guimaraes et al., 2012) that may be subjected to the physical, psychological and environmental factors affecting them (Damian et al., 2008). Extensively used as a reliable indicator of health in public health research, self-rated health is often used to predict actual future health, disability, functional ability and mortality (Arnadottir et al., 2011; Alves and Rodrigues, 2005), especially among elderly people (Sun et al., 2007; Damian et al., 2008; Darviri et al., 2012).\n4. Results and discussion: Table I reports the summary statistics along with the descriptions of the variables used in the study. About 88.72 percent of the respondents reported being in good health. About 14.95 percent of the respondents reported being unemployed[5]. The respondents' ages ranged from 18 to 82 with an average age of 31 years. About 49.74 percent of them were female. Regarding educational attainments, about 45.43 percent of the respondents had attained a maximum of primary school education, 43.11 percent had attained secondary school education, while only 11.47 percent had attained a university education. The majority of them were Protestants compared with 13.66 and 12.18 percent Roman Catholics and Muslims, respectively. Nearly 60 percent of them also reported being Akan, 13.40 percent were Ewe and 9.79 percent were Ga-Adangbe. In addition, 44.78 percent of the respondents reported being married, while only 3.87 percent of them were divorced or separated. The majority of the respondents (51.35 percent) were either single or widowed. The average respondent had less than two children.\n5. Summary and conclusion: A large extant literature examines the association between unemployment and self-rated health. The majority of these studies reveal that unemployment diminishes self-rated health. Another strand of this literature suggests that the relationship between unemployment and self-rated health is gendered. In this study, we examined two main issues. First, we examined whether unemployment is associated with self-rated health in Ghana. We found that unemployment is negatively correlated with self-rated health among Ghanaians as the unemployed are about 6.84-7.20 percent less likely to report good health status in a pooled sample. Second, we examined the genderdness of this relationship. After correcting for endogeneity, we found that unemployed men are about 26.68 percent less likely to report good health. However, we did not find evidence of a significant association between unemployment and self-rated health for unemployed women.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: A large extant literature examines the association between unemployment and self-rated health. Most of these studies reveal that unemployment diminishes self-rated health. Another strand of this literature, albeit sparse, suggests that the relationship between unemployment and self-rated health is gendered. The purpose of this paper is twofold: first, to examine whether unemployment is correlated with self-rated health in Ghana; and second, to explore whether and to what extent men differ from women on the basis of this relationship.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The authors used data from the Wave 6 of World Values Survey in Ghana (n=1552) and probit and instrumental variable probit regressions to empirically examine the association between unemployment and self-rated health in Ghana.\nFindings: The results confirm that unemployment is negatively correlated with self-rated health among Ghanaians. Specifically, the unemployed are about 6.84-7.20 percent less likely to report good health status in a pooled sample. Further, after correcting for endogeneity, unemployed men are about 26.68 percent less likely to report good health. However, the association is not statistically significant for unemployed women.\nOriginality/value: The study contributes to the literature by providing empirical evidence from Ghana.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Sport mega-events and nation branding: Unique characteristics of the 2010 FIFA World Cup, South Africa
|
[
"South Africa",
"Stakeholders",
"FIFA World Cup",
"Mega-events",
"Nation-branding"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: Sport mega-events have received much criticism of late. As Giulianotti et al. (2015, p. 119) acknowledge, beyond the \"spectacular sport and starry headlines\", a plethora of social conflicts, problems and criticisms may exist. The current global scandals surrounding FIFA, as well as other controversies linked with certain Olympic sporting codes combined with allegations of corruption and over-spending by recent FIFA and Olympic Games hosts, has resulted in a lack of popular support for recent bids by a number of cities for future mega-events. This was evidenced most recently by the city of Hamburg's decision to withdraw from the 2024 Olympic Games bidding process. There is also a groundswell of opinion within the destination management literature that advocates a portfolio of events or the consideration of smaller, home-grown or non-sport events rather than continuing with a mega-event focus (Brown et al., 2004; Chalip and Costa, 2005; Westerbeek and Linley, 2012). The wider literature reflects this with a greater acknowledgement of issues of sustainability and increased references to legacy (Preuss, 2007) and leveraging (Smith, 2014) of event benefits.\n2. Literature review: 2.1 Countries as brands\n3. Methodological design: This study adopted a qualitative approach to ascertain the key experiences, perceptions and lessons learned by selected, definitive brand and event stakeholders, following the approach of several studies that have used stakeholder perceptions as a source of similar information (Chan, 2015; Parent, 2016). Data were elicited using in-depth, semi-structured interviews (n = 27) that occurred two to three years after the event. As part of a broader study that assessed the strategic contribution of sport mega events to nation branding (Knott et al., 2015), this paper pays particular attention to the unique characteristics of the 2010 sport mega-event that created nation branding opportunities for the host nation.\n4. Findings and discussion: Although the semi-structured and emergent nature of the interviews allowed a range of findings to emerge, the data indicated that respondents were, to differing degrees, broadly positive about the overall contribution of the mega-event to nation branding, perhaps reflecting Hall's (2006, pp. 67-68) contention that, \"Sport is very hard to argue against\", with the idea that simply \"doing something in the face of global competition\" in itself will be viewed positively. Numerous specific examples of branding opportunities created by the event were, however, cited (Knott et al., 2015) as well as ways in which stakeholders leveraged these opportunities (Knott et al., 2015). The findings from the broader study led to the development of a conceptual model that indicates the manner in which sport mega-events facilitate nation branding development, or as Dinnie (2016) stated, act as \"communicators\" of brand identity. This is depicted in Figure 1. The focus of this paper is the first aspect of the model, namely, the characteristics of the mega-event that facilitated the nation branding opportunities.\n5. Conclusion, implications and future research: 5.1 Conclusions\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: Sport mega-events have received much criticism of late. However, there has been increasing awareness of the brand-related benefits from hosting a sport mega-event, with their hosting being a deliberate policy for many nations, most notably among emerging nations. One such nation is South Africa, which explicitly stated its nation branding ambitions through the staging of the 2010 FIFA World Cup. Through this single case, this paper aims to identify the unique characteristics of the sport mega-event that were leveraged for benefits of nation branding.\nDesign/methodology/approach: An interpretivist, qualitative study explored the insights of nation brand stakeholders and experts, elicited using in-depth, semi-structured interviews (n = 27) undertaken two to three years after the staging of the event.\nFindings: Three characteristics of the 2010 sport mega-event were deemed by stakeholders to be unique in creating nation branding opportunities: the scale of the event that created opportunities for transformational development; the global appeal, connection and attachment of the event; and the symbolic status of the event that was leveraged for internal brand building and public diplomacy. The paper proposes that while sport mega-events provide nation branding opportunities, the extent of these benefits may vary according to the context of the nation brand with lesser-known, troubled or emerging brands seemingly having the most to gain.\nOriginality/value: While acknowledging the critique of mega-events, this paper highlights a pertinent example of an emerging nation that leveraged the potential of a sport mega-event for nation branding gains. It extends the understanding of sport mega-events and their potential for nation branding.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
Community capacity-building for sustainable development: Effectively striving towards achieving local community sustainability targets
|
[
"Higher education",
"Sustainability",
"Stakeholders",
"Community",
"Sustainable development goals",
"Capacity building"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Coined as a long-term process to strengthen individuals' and organizations' skills to solve problems and achieve goals, the notion of community capacity-building has been well covered in the literature. In a further examination of this concept, Moreno et al. (2017) found that it has been conceived as a \"nuanced and non-linear\" process, in which different skills were enhanced simultaneously. Likewise, Chaskin (2001) identified broad elements, which seem to be consistent across community capacity-building definitions, namely, the existence of and access to resources, the presence of networks and collaborative action, a degree of commitment and responsibility among stakeholders and elements of leadership, collective action and problem solving. In addition to these characteristics, the assessment of the level of impact among priority areas is an important part of community capacity-building. However, there are few scholars who deal with its operation and impact on local communities (Tracey et al., 2005; Cornelius et al., 2008; Franco, 2014). Based on a theory building methodological approach, this research pays nuanced attention to capacity-building for sustainable development (CSD), its priority areas and impact on locals. The investigation here presented builds upon ongoing research on education and research for sustainable development (Franco et al., 2018). While previous research explored higher education institutions' and stakeholders' perceptions, the unit of analysis of this research is the community itself. Therefore, this piece explores new pathways for community capacity-building for sustainable development.\nLiterature review: The concept of community capacity-building was first embraced in the discourses on education (Freire et al., 1970; Fakudze, 2003; Djite, 2008; Breidlid, 2009; Trudell, 2009 and Borish et al., 2017). Scholarly debates on development planning (Roseland, 2000; Chaskin, 2001; Moreno et al., 2017), social marketing (Geller, 1989; Graham, 1997; McKenzie-Mohr and Smith, 1999; Mckenzie-Mohr, 2000; McKenzie-Mohr, 2011), social psychology (Kempton et al., 1992) and business (Loza, 2004) have also contributed to this notion. A review of the literature also shows that community capacity-bulding is positioning stronger in the emerging field of education for sustainable development (Vaughter et al., 2013; Aikens et al., 2016; Franco et al., 2018). This literature review engages first with the notion of community capacity-building and focuses later on the concept of community capacity-building for sustainable development (herein CSD).\nMethodology: This study was performed through utilization of a qualitative strategy, which involved the combination of a number of qualitative methods and techniques, to reduce methodological limitations (Singleton and Straits, 2010). Furthermore, triangulation was adopted to increase the reliability of the data collected (Yin, 2009). Specific techniques used in this study include surveys, individual interviews, literature review, focus groups, field observations and policy analysis.\nResults and discussion: This section aims to answer the research question that drives this manuscript and as a result increase tangible knowledge regarding effective CSD. This manuscript acknowledges low priority areas, however, it will not examine those in detail, focusing on the extent in which high priority areas, in alignment with SDG's are impactful for communities. As a consequence, this section is made up of two parts. The first part presents and describes priority SDG areas for communities and the second outlines the significance of the priority areas for the respective local communities.\nConclusions and recommendations: Global mandates often encourage higher education institutions and their stakeholders to promote CSD initiatives. These actions vary according to the context and the stakeholders involved in the process. CSD is not an isolated process led either by higher education institutions, companies or governments. Instead, it should be understood as a bottom-up approach driven by communities themselves. Yet, at least from a preliminary investigation of the situation, CSD initiatives appear to have achieved a very low level of impact (Franco, 2014). Therefore, this research aimed to investigate the true success of these initiatives, to identify areas of impact for local communities, allowing stakeholders to efficiently progress CSD and help communities foster inclusive and sustainable development. Through research denoted above it is clear that CSD is a well-researched topic. However, a significant gap, which is yet to be bridged, is the impact level of different topic areas for local communities in the journey for CSD. This research identified impactful areas, however, further research is required to gain better understanding of useful methods to measure CSD impact and improve implementation strategies. Research findings indicate that SDG 9, SDG 4, SDG 15, SDG 11, SDG 16, SDG 17 and SDG 8 are perceived by participants as CSD priority or high impact areas.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: Although the value of community capacity building is widely accepted within scholarly literature, these initiatives thus far appear to have achieved very little impact in the achievement of community development aspirations. This paper aims to increase knowledge regarding specific priority areas which when targeted will result in more effective pathways towards sustainable development.\nDesign/methodology/approach: This study was performed through utilization of a qualitative strategy, which involved the combination of a number of qualitative methods and techniques including individual interviews, surveys, focus groups, literary review and policy analysis.\nFindings: The investigation found that improving identified CSD priority areas, aligned with the sustainable development goals (SDGs), seems to be the most effective strategy to enhance the ability of local communities to overcome sustainability challenges over time. SDGs 9, 4, 15, 16, 17 and 8 were identified as the areas of greatest significance for practical community capacity building for sustainable development (CSD).\nOriginality/value: This paper answers scholarly literature's call for greater investigation into bringing sustainability research closer to society, to clearly define research direction and agenda. It also recommends ways to action the global goals locally.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Application of formal methods to modelling and analysis aspects of business process reengineering
|
[
"Business process modelling",
"Business process reengineering",
"Correctness",
"Structural"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: Business process reengineering (BPR) is a discipline that effectively deals with the management of business processes (BPs) to achieve significant improvements in performance. Change in workforce environment, increased quality demands and market competition are all the factors which enforce companies to go for modern organizational changes (Goksoy et al., 2012). As the competition among businesses has evolved from only measures of cost and quality to responsiveness and flexibility, value of process management has been recognized (Neill et al., 1999). Increased productivity and service quality demands are major reasons for which companies are reinventing their BPs through automation of process activities using IT (Musa and Othman, 2016). In a survey (Hin, 2005) of Chinese firms, most of the respondents agreed that BPR enables organizations to achieve substantial advantages by management of BPs. The process of BPR is not only concerned with automation, but to redesign BPs either structurally or technically. Structurally BPR deals with streamlining business activities to reduce operational costs, and technically BPR aligns process activities with the power of IT to increase production (Jung and Lee, 2016).\n2. Literature review: BPMN is an accepted standard for process modeling. Expressiveness and missing formal semantics are two problems that have been reported while modeling with BPMN. We started the review of literature on existing solutions to identified problems and then we looked for limitations of these solutions.\n3. Proposed methodology: Using applications of formal methods, a solution based on Z specification and Z3 (an SMT Solver) is proposed. Proposed solution is composed of the four steps as shown in Figure 1.\n4. Modeling and analysis of process models: To analyze process models using proposed approach the first step is to model a BP in any process modeler tool. Process models must be designed using elements which are part of above identified subset. The second step is to formally specify modeled BP in Z specification as operational schema using above defined formal schema as state space. In third step to test for control flow properties, specified process model needs to be defined in Z3 solver and properties are verified as checking them in form of assertions. Last step is to compare defined process models in Z3 based on identified tasks and sequence flows of process models. Finally, the results of specification and assertions will identify gaps and ensure that modeled processes are syntactically and structurally correct.\n5. Conclusion: For any BPR project, process modeling plays a vital role. Correctly modeled process can guarantee successful implementation of BPR. To deal with problems associated to process modeling, a solution is proposed in this paper. Proposed solution formally defines modeling elements and their associated well-formedness rules so that process models can be checked for syntactic and structural aspects. To deal with structural aspects (control flow) three new rules are also introduced and verified using Z3 solver. By checking syntactic and structural correctness of process models, proposed solution also deals with identification of gaps between existing process and desired process. Contribution in this paper is started by identifying commonly reported modeling elements that are frequently used and their associated rules. Then presenting a meta-model composed of selected modeling elements and connection rules. Then paper contributes by formally defining meta-model and structural rules so that a solution can be provided to check for correctness of BP models. Another contribution is by introducing three new rules that can help to ensure that process model is deadlock free, reachable and does not contain any dead tasks. These three control flow properties are translated in form of assertions and have been verified using Z3 solver. Finally, the paper contributes by providing a mechanism in which process models are formally defined and compared based on tasks and sequence flows to identify gaps between process models.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: Business process (BP) reengineering is defined as reinventing BPs either structurally or technically to achieve dramatic improvements in performance. In any business process reengineering (BPR) project, process modeling is used to reason about problems found in existing (as-is) process and helps to design target (to-be) process. BP model notation is a widely accepted standard for process modeling. \"Expressiveness\" and \"missing formal semantics\" are two problems reported to its modeling practices. In existing studies, solutions to these problems are also proposed but still have certain limitations. The paper aims to discuss this issue.\nDesign/methodology/approach: In proposed methodology, a meta-model is formally defined that is composed of commonly used modeling elements and their well-formedness rules to check for syntactic and structural correctness of process models. Proposed solution also check semantics of process models and allows to compare as-is and to-be process models for gap identification which is another important aspect of BPR. To achieve the first goal, Z specification is used to provide formal specifications of modeling constructs and their rules and Z3 (an SMT solver) is used for comparisons and verifying properties.\nFindings: Proposed method addresses both \"expressiveness\" and \"missing formal semantics\" of BPR models. The results of its evaluation clearly indicate that using formally specified meta-model, BPR model is syntactically and structurally correct. Moreover, formal modeling of BPs in Z3 helped to compare processes and to check control flow properties.\nResearch limitations/implications: Although the proposed method is tested on an example that is widely used in BPR literature, the example is only covering modeling elements which are part of the proposed subset and are reported in literature as frequently used modeling elements. A separate detailed study is required to test it on more complex systems.\nPractical implications: Specifying process models using Z specification and Z3 solver requires certain expertise.\nOriginality/value: The proposed method adds value to BPR body of knowledge as it proposes a method to ensure structural and syntactic correctness of models, highlighting the importance of verifying run time properties and providing a direction toward comparing process models for gap analysis.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
The traditional Chinese philosophies in inter-cultural leadership: The case of Chinese expatriate managers in the Dutch context
|
[
"China",
"Legalism",
"Confucianism",
"Dutch",
"Daoism",
"Expatriate leadership"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: In recent decades, China's global presence has continued to expand, and an increasing number of Chinese managers are working abroad and collaborating with local employees. According to a report in The Financial Times, China will be one of or even the largest cross-border investor by 2020 (Anderlini, 2015). When people with different work styles, attitudes and cultural values interact, challenges arise (Choo et al., 2009). As the economic relationships between China and the western world deepen, more Chinese managers are working in developed countries (Leung, 2014), which raises the question of whether Chinese managers are prepared for inter-cultural leadership. Because global capital flows have been dominated by early foreign direct investment flows from North American and Western European companies, much of the literature has concentrated on cultural differences as a critical challenge to the effectiveness of western expatriate managers working in emerging economies, especially in Asian emerging markets. However, less attention has been paid to expatriate managers from emerging economies who work in developed western countries (Wright et al., 2005).\nResearch background: Several pioneering studies of unique cultural idiosyncrasies (e.g. Ma and Tsui, 2015; Hackett and Wang, 2012) have invoked deep contemplation of the traditional Chinese philosophies embedded in Chinese expatriate leaders as well as how that embeddedness affects the leadership experience. Studies of Chinese philosophies in management have been limited to Confucian dynamism, preventing researchers from capturing a complete picture of the complex reality (Lin et al., 2013). Taoist, Legalist, and Buddhist philosophies are also salient in contemporary Chinese leadership (Barkema et al., 2015; Cheung and Chan, 2005; Pan et al., 2012). The applications of Taoism are particularly salient in the modern business context to simultaneously and dynamically meet complex, and often competing, needs (Li, 2016; Fang, 2012). The central notion of Taoism, known as yin-yang, provides an insightful view of paradox management (Luo and Zheng, 2016). The yin-yang model manifests a pattern of contradictions within modern Chinese business culture (Faure and Fang, 2008). Buddhism also forms part of the Chinese tradition (Zurcher, 2007). Buddhism is found in diverse streams of tradition, including Mahayana and Tibetan Buddhism (China), Zen Buddhism (Japan), Theravada Buddhism (Thailand and other Southeast Asian countries), and Buddhist influences in India (known as Hinduism). However, an empirical study shows that Chinese citizens cognitively combine Taoism and Buddhism because of the high level of similarity between their basic tenets (Pan et al., 2012). Further considering the originality of Taoism in Chinese history, we focus on Taoism, rather than Buddhism, as one of traditional Chinese philosophies in this study.\nMethodology: Research design\nResults of the case analysis: Two focal issues were extracted from the 30 interviews. The first related to the Chinese expatriates' leadership behaviors that reflect the traditional philosophies. Most of the interview reports on leadership behaviors suggested more than one traditional philosophy. Only one leader emphasized leadership behaviors that were exclusively Confucian in nature. Specifically, 28 leaders (93 percent) revealed behaviors aligned with Confucianism, 21 leaders (70 percent) exhibited behaviors consistent with Taoism, and 28 leaders (93 percent) described leadership behaviors that were consistent with Legalism. The findings indicate that Chinese expatriates' leadership styles are simultaneously influenced by multiple traditional philosophies. This result is consistent with the theoretical argument that many Chinese, both historically and in modern times, tend to have a mix of multiple philosophical perspectives rather than being a believer in only a single philosophy. There are two key reasons for this mix of philosophical perspectives. First, over their long history, the traditional Chinese philosophies are distinctive yet complementary and are thus largely mutually inclusive rather than mutually exclusive (Li, 1998, 2012). Second, the Chinese are generally open-minded toward holistic, dynamic, and duality-based perspectives, including the traditional philosophies (Pan et al., 2012).\nDiscussion: Proposition development concerning inter-cultural balance\nConclusion: To close the gap in literature concerning the leadership challenges for expatriate managers in an inter-cultural context, this study seeks to elucidate the leadership styles of Chinese expatriate managers from the perspectives of three traditional Chinese philosophies (i.e. Confucianism, Taoism, and Legalism) in the inter-cultural context of managing in the Netherlands. This study is among the first to offer a more nuanced and highly contextualized understanding of leadership in the unique case of expatriate managers from an emerging market (e.g. China) in an advanced economy (i.e. the Netherlands).\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: As the global presence of Chinese firms grows, increasing numbers of Chinese managers are working abroad as expatriates. However, little attention has been paid to such Chinese expatriate managers and their leadership challenges in an inter-cultural context, especially across a large cultural distance. To fill the gap in the literature concerning the leadership challenges for expatriate managers in an inter-cultural context, the purpose of this paper is to elucidate the leadership styles of Chinese expatriate managers from the perspectives of three traditional Chinese philosophies (i.e. Confucianism, Taoism, and Legalism) in the inter-cultural context of the Netherlands.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The data for this qualitative study were collected via semi-structured, open-ended, narrative interviews with 30 Chinese expatriate managers in the Netherlands.\nFindings: The results clearly show that the leadership style of Chinese expatriate managers is deeply rooted in the three traditional Chinese philosophies of Confucianism, Taoism, and Legalism, even in an inter-cultural context. Specifically, the study reveals two salient aspects of how Chinese expatriate managers frame and interact with a foreign cultural context from the perspectives of traditional Chinese philosophies. First, the Chinese expatriate managers reported an initial cultural shock related to frictions between the foreign cultural context and Confucianism or Taoism, but less so in the case of Legalism. Second, the Chinese expatriate managers also reported that their interactions with the Dutch culture are best described as a balance between partial conflict and partial complementarity (thus, a duality). In this sense, the leadership style of Chinese expatriate managers is influenced jointly by the three traditional Chinese philosophies and certain elements of the foreign cultural context. This is consistent with the Chinese perspective of yin-yang balancing.\nOriginality/value: This study is among the first to offer a more nuanced and highly contextualized understanding of leadership in the unique case of expatriate managers from an emerging market (e.g. China) in an advanced economy (e.g. the Netherlands). The authors call for more research to apply the unique perspective of yin-yang balancing in an inter-cultural context. The authors posit that this approach represents the most salient implication of this study. For practical implications, the authors argue that expatriate leaders should carefully manage the interplay between their deep-rooted home-country philosophies and their salient host-country culture. Reflecting on traditional philosophies in another culture can facilitate inter-cultural leadership training for Chinese expatriates.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Clinical pathways in China - an evaluation
|
[
"China",
"Clinical pathways",
"Care quality",
"Cost containment"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: China's deteriorating health system in the past three decades is well-known to the health policy research community. The laissez-faire policies adopted during the market transition detrimentally affected residents' access to affordable care (Blumenthal and Hsiao, 2005). Several misaligned incentives created during the market reforms transformed a centrally-planned health system that provided cost-effective care to one plagued by rapid cost inflation and heavy out-of-pocket burdens (Ma et al., 2008). In response to major public dissatisfaction, the Chinese government launched its national healthcare reform in 2009, vowing to overhaul the country's ailing health system. One prominent ongoing initiative is the clinical pathway (CP) system, which is believed to be instrumental to both quality improvement and cost containment. Launched in December 2009 on a pilot basis, it is now implemented in 5,924 public hospitals, with more than 400 diseases included in the program. The government requires all Class III (tertiary) hospitals and 80 percent Class II (secondary) hospitals to participate in the CP program by 2015. More specialties and diseases are to be included (Ministry of Health, 2012).\nChina's health policy reforms and the CP pilot: China's health system, which changed from an excellent model set up by the World Health Organization and the World Bank for developing countries, to one ranked at the bottom is dramatic and well-known. Before its market transition in the late 1970s, the Chinese health system was embedded in a large communist institutional framework under which a three-tiered public system provided highly subsidized services (Gu, 2001). The public delivery system financed by basic health insurance schemes produced internationally revered outcomes and offered the world a model for providing basic but effective care at fairly low costs (Blumenthal and Hsiao, 2005). The market transition, however, has dramatically undermined the old system's economic and institutional foundation since the 1980s. After government revenues declined from 1980, the central government had to substantially limit its funding to the health sector, accounting for 50 to 60 percent of hospital income under the planned economy (Hsiao, 1995). Unable to finance public hospitals, the government instead allowed managers to generate income from user fees for financial survival; and this was further encouraged by an ill-designed fee schedule, which has created high-powered incentives for hospital staff to shift from cost-effective care to over-utilizing high-tech diagnostic tests and expensive pharmaceuticals, powerfully inflating the costs (Liu et al., 2000). Fully motivated to generate profits, most managers tied physician incomes to revenue generation, which added one more perverse incentive that favors profit-making while ignoring patient care (Liu and Mills, 2003). Overusing high-tech tests and overprescribing drugs are ubiquitous in Chinese hospitals that run as profit-seeking entities (Yip and Hsiao, 2008). It is estimated that 20-30 percent of China's total health expenditure is spent on unnecessary care (Zhong, 2001).\nMethodology: A mixed-methods approach was employed to investigate a Shanxi Province public hospital CP pilot. Located in northern China, Shanxi is in the central economic belt that falls into the middle socioeconomic development strata. Hospital A is located in Taiyuan City, the provincial capital. Founded in 1952, hospital A is a major medical institution providing comprehensive services. It has 1,800 beds and is staffed by more than 700 health professionals. Affiliated to the Shanxi Medical University, it is a major teaching hospital and designated facility for major health insurance schemes. In 2013, Hospital A had 31,500 inpatient admissions and 546,000 outpatient visits. To understand CP implementation and its effects, quantitative and qualitative methods were employed. We used patient-level data to analyze CP effects from 2010 (the year when the pilot started in this hospital) to 2012 (the year it was fully implemented). In total, 12 interviews - four in February 2013 and eight in March 2014 - were also conducted. Administrative staff and physicians were interviewed to understand the implementation process and the hospital's internal dynamics. Hospital A was chosen mainly because data were available. China's sheer size and wide regional disparity make single case studies virtually impossible to be wholly representative. It is not our intention to generalize the findings to the whole country; instead, we attempt to provide a micro account about implementing difficult cost containment initiatives in China's ongoing national healthcare reform and to explain the hospital-level dynamics against macro configuring incentives in the Chinese hospital system.\nEmpirical results: Quantitative results\nDiscussion and conclusion: CPs are document-based tools that provide a link between best available evidence and clinical practice. Our study demonstrated some compelling new evidence from CP program implementation in a northern China tertiary hospital. We found that the main objectives (standardizing treatment procedures by reducing LoS and containing costs) were not fully achieved. Furthermore, implementing CPs clearly encountered institutional barriers. The hospital managers did not see CPs as useful instruments and were still being driven by revenue generation. Physicians, too, lacked the full incentive to follow the guidelines due to income concerns. The high-powered incentives, especially revenue targets and bonuses, largely offset CP potential effects in Hospital A. It was difficult to compare our findings with other studies, because previous research demonstrated heterogeneity in study design, methods and consequently results. A 2010 Cochrane review (27 studies and 11,398 participants) found a reduction in in-hospital complications and improved documentation associated with CPs, most studies in the review reported a decreased LoS and a reduction in the hospital costs after the CPs were introduced. Furthermore, considerable variation in the study design and settings also prevented pooling LoS and hospital costs (Rotter et al., 2010).\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: Clinical pathways (CPs) are multidisciplinary care plans with essential care steps for patients with specific clinical problems. CPs were introduced in China in 2009 to assure quality, reduce risks, increase resource efficiency and control costs. The purpose of this paper is to present a Chinese public hospital case study where a CP pilot was undertaken to evaluate two main outcomes: length of stay and hospitalization costs for a tertiary hospital from 2010 to 2012 using a mixed-methods approach.\nDesign/methodology/approach: Data were drawn from hospital records and in-depth interviews with hospital staff in a Shanxi Province tertiary hospital, northern China.\nFindings: The authors found that the main objectives: to standardize treatment procedures by reducing length of stay and containing costs, were not fully achieved. Staff implementing CPs clearly encountered several barriers; i.e., managers did not see the pilot as a useful managerial instrument but were still driven by revenue generation. Physicians, too, lacked incentive to follow the guidelines due to income concerns.\nPractical implications: The authors point to the daunting challenges brought about by perverse incentives embedded in the country's health system. The authors argue that concerted efforts are needed to undertake difficult health policy reforms in China.\nOriginality/value: The authors present the first empirical study in the English-language literature that examines China's ongoing CP pilots from a micro perspective. The authors combine qualitative and quantitative methods and reveal the hospital-level dynamics in its implementation.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
The impact of dividend announcements on share price and trading volume: Empirical evidence from the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries
|
[
"GCC",
"Abnormal returns",
"Abnormal trading volume",
"Dividend announcements"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: Numerous studies report evidence consistent with the information hypothesis of dividends that announcements of dividend policy changes do convey information about firm's future prospects (Michaely et al., 1995; Akhigbe and Madura, 1996; Lipson et al., 1998). It is suggested in the literature that in perfect capital markets, dividend announcement should be irrelevant to share pricing (Miller and Modigliani, 1961). However, the literature pertaining to imperfect markets argues that dividends signal information on firm prospects, thus share market price should react to dividend announcement. This has led to perplexity for the issue of informativeness due to available mixing views. Therefore, analyzing the market reaction to dividend announcements is very important to mangers and shareholders. This paper examines the stock price and trading (TV) volume reactions to dividend announcements in tax free environment, using data from the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) region (Kuwait, Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, Oman, Abu Dhabi, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates). Given these facts, this paper aims to determine how public announcements relating to dividend policy affect share prices and TVs in the GCC markets, using an event study methodology. This research answers the following research question:\n2. GCC overview: In efficient stock markets, investors' behavior could be expected based on firm performance and tax preference. However, this is not the case in GCC market. Both of geopolitical factors and the absence of stable long run target dividend policy of the firms create uncertainty about future firms' performance that affect investor behavior. In addition of being a less mature and inefficient market, GCC investors' behavior is unexpected. The most important characteristic of GCC firms is that there is absence of tax on dividend and capital gain (Rezvanian et al., 2015). Capital gains and dividends are perfect substitutes from the investor's perspective with no confounding effects caused by differential tax policies. In addition, GCC stock markets are less mature than other markets, despite recent liberalization measures, so they continue to be less liberal and inefficient in the weak form of the efficient market hypothesis (EMH); see Arouri et al. (2011), Al-Ajmi and Kim (2012), Bley (2011). Jamaani and Roca (2015) attribute this inefficiency to the low level of foreign participation, the high concentration in the financial sector, high market volatility and information asymmetry. GCC markets differ from those of developed and other emerging countries in that they are largely segmented from the international markets and are hyper-sensitive to regional political events. These characteristics raise the following question that can be answered through conducting this empirical research:\n3. Theoretical framework and literature review: Theories explaining dividends impact in short and long terms are well-known. Irrelevant, signaling and clientele effect are the main theories which have been used in the literature to explain the short term dividend impact, while EMH is mostly used to explain the long-term dividend impact. Miller and Modigliani (1961), first, studied the impact of dividend policy on firm value. Their study shows that, under certain limited conditions, the firm's dividend policy has no effect on the value of its stock. These conditions include no tax, no transaction cost, no information asymmetry between insiders and outsiders, etc. The implication of dividend irrelevance is that the dividend policy in these conditions will not affect the firm's market value. Investors are indifferent about whether the firm decides to reinvest or to distribute its earnings. This means that the market will not respond to the level of dividends, whether high, low or non-existed. Some studies state that dividend announcement do not convey information to the markets that support dividend irrelevance theory. These studies have been conducted in different developed and emerging markets such as, China (Chen et al., 2009), Bangladesh (Uddin and Chowdhury, 2005), and Slovenia (Miklus and Oplotnik, 2016). Further, there is no evidence of a significant relationship between dividend policy changes and share prices (e.g. Black and Scholes (1974) for the USA). On the contrary, in the dividend signaling paradigm, dividend payment is a way through which managers (insiders) can transmit the inside information to the general investor (Miller and Rock, 1985). Any unexpected change in dividends can be viewed as a management's forecast of future earnings (Bhattacharya, 1980; John and Williams, 1985). In this case, any increase (decrease) in dividends is viewed as a positive (negative) signal to an increase (decrease) in the share price. Thus, a major implication of the dividend signaling hypothesis is that dividend changes should be followed by changes in profitability in the same direction (Michaely et al., 1995).\n4. Research methodology and data description: 4.1 Methodology\n5. Empirical results: This part presents the findings that include share price and TV reactions to the dividend announcements changes in the absent tax environment. The findings have been divided into three groups, market price response in short term, market response in long term and TV response to good and bad dividend news. Considering the unique information environment of GCC, we expect that dividend change announcements will send only a weak signal to the market.\n6. Summary and conclusion: This study examines the market response to 1,092 dividend announcements in 299 firms from GCC markets during the period January 2010-June 2015. We conducted a parallel examination of the impact of dividend announcements on both share price and TV to account changes for the possibility that the information provided by the dividend announcements. This information may affect the market through individual investors as shown through changes in TVs even though these individual changes in expectations might not lead to aggregate effects such as share prices changes. By doing so, this is the first empirical study that comprehensively examines the effects of dividend policy changes in the GCC markets systematically taking into account both TV and price effects. Our analysis of share price response is done on both short term and long term. In the short term, three different patterns of change in dividends, i.e. increase, decrease and constant are considered. For dividend increases, our results imply that there are delayed reactions from investors. In other words, the stock prices do not adjust immediately to the new information in the announcement. This suggests that market efficiency is low in the GCC markets given that a dividend increase was reflected in the markets four days later, while the efficient markets hypothesis suggests that markets should reflect the information contained instantaneously in the dividend announcement. In the meantime, dividend decreases, reveals some significant negative share price reaction while constant dividends leave stock prices untouched. Nevertheless, tax-based signaling models claim that dividend is not informative in free tax markets; our study found informative dividend in GCC. This finding is consistent with previous studies such as Amihud and Murgia (1997).\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to investigate the stock market response to dividend announcements in high growth emerging markets of Gulf countries.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The sample includes 1,092 dividend announcements from 299 listed firms over the period 2010-2015.\nFindings: In the environment where there is an absence of capital gain and income tax, the authors find some evidence for the stock price reaction that partly supports the signaling hypothesis. The findings show that the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) market is inefficient because of the leakage information before the announcement in bad news, and the delay of share price adjustment in good news. In addition, the authors report significant trading volume (TV) reaction in all the three announcements clusters, where dividends increase, decrease, and are constant, lending support to the hypothesis that the dividend change announcements have an impact on the TV response due to different investors' preferences.\nOriginality/value: This is the first empirical paper on market reaction in share price and TV around dividend announcement using data for the majority of GCC countries.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Company-specific production systems and competitive advantage: A resource-based view on the Volvo production system
|
[
"Competitive advantage",
"Lean",
"Global operations management",
"Production systems",
"Resource-based view",
"VRIO model"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: There is a strong and intensifying trend among manufacturers to develop and deploy company-specific production systems (XPS). Inspired from the success of the Toyota Production System (TPS), and armed with a massive body of literature suggesting a positive relationship between improvement programmes and operational performance, corporate managers firmly believe that having a similar but tailored system in place will strengthen their firm's competitiveness. Such a system is often labelled the \"company name\" production system, here abbreviated to XPS[1].\nCompetitive advantage of the TPS: In terms of competitive analysis, the resource-based view of the firm has been widely used in the strategic management literature in general (Barney, 2001; Conner, 1991) and has shown great potential in operation management research in particular (Schroeder et al., 2002; Coates and Mcdermott, 2002). The essence of the resource-based view lies in its conceptualisation of the firm as a \"bundle of resources\" (Penrose, 1959; Wernerfelt, 1984). In this paper we view an XPS as a firm-specific resource.\nMethod: This paper explores if and how XPSs can provide sustainable competitive advantage. The main research question is a \"how\" question and, according to Yin (2003), is suitable for a case study research design. Case studies are well suited for explorative theory-building research because they allow the development of in-depth insight into and understanding of the case (Voss et al., 2002; Meredith, 1998). We chose the VPS as our case study. Volvo is a global manufacturer that is currently implementing the VPS in its plants worldwide, with the aim of making it a source of competitive advantage. The VPS is the unit of analysis in the study, which is interpreted as a firm-specific resource that must hold all the VRIO attributes to provide a sustainable competitive advantage. Volvo is also a suitable case due to its long and well documented dedication to developing world-class production.\nVRIO-analysis of the VPS: In the following section the VPS is presented and its potential contribution to sustainable competitive advantage is discussed through the resource-based view's four VRIO attributes; valuable, rare, inimitable and organisational exploitation.\nDiscussion: The aim of this paper was to explore if and how XPSs can contribute to sustainable competitive advantage also outside the Toyota case. Analysing the case of the VPS through the VRIO model of competitive advantage has led to some potential answers to these questions that we now discuss further. Our analysis has theoretical implications for the VRIO model that challenge the fundamental logic of the role of rarity and inimitability in the model. In the remainder of the paper, we develop research propositions describing the conditions under which an XPS can provide competitive parity, temporary competitive advantage and sustainable competitive advantage.\nConclusions: The growth and importance of XPSs in multinational companies is indisputable. Companies continue to use large amounts of financial and human resources for developing, deploying and maintaining their XPS. However, the true costs and pay-offs of such corporate-wide improvement programmes are not well understood. Applying the resource-based view's VRIO model to an XPS, this paper has investigated if and how XPSs could provide companies with a sustained competitive advantage.\nAcknowledgements: The authors would like to thank the Volvo Group for its openness and hospitality. The gratitude also goes to the anonymous reviewers and editors who greatly helped to improve the content and clarity of this paper. Finally, the authors gratefully acknowledge the financial support from the cooperating research projects that are managed by SINTEF Technology and Society and funded by the Norwegian Research Council.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: In order to improve competitiveness on a global scale, multinational enterprises increasingly develop a company-specific production system (XPS) and deploy it in their worldwide operations. An XPS is synonymous with a tailored corporate-wide improvement programme. The purpose of this paper is to explore the circumstances under which an XPS can provide a competitive advantage.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The paper uses an explorative case study methodology to investigate the link between the establishment of an XPS and competitive advantage. Specifically, the paper investigates the part of the Volvo Group's globally implemented Volvo production system (VPS) that aim to improve the manufacturing processes worldwide. Due to its historical trajectories, Volvo constitutes a unique case for studying the trend and effects of XPS. The resource-based view of the firm provides the theoretical foundation for the analysis.\nFindings: The paper concludes with four research propositions. P1: In industries with widespread XPS implementation, an XPS is a necessary resource for achieving competitive parity; P2a: Early-starters get an instant temporary competitive advantage; P2b: Late-starters can achieve a temporary competitive advantage if they implement an XPS at a faster speed than competitors; and P3: An XPS can provide a sustainable competitive advantage if it has a superior fit with other path-dependent resources in the organisation.\nResearch limitations/implications: The paper proposes an updated VRIO model, which is better suited for understanding the relations between an XPS and competitive advantage. The major limitation of the study is the single-case design, which complicates generalisation from the VPS to an XPS of the propositions set forward.\nOriginality/value: Despite the significant trend in modern operations management, XPSs have received remarkably limited attention from academia except for the Toyota Production System. Presumably, this is the first paper to discuss the recent trend of XPS and its contribution to competitive advantage.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Assessment of internship effectiveness in South Italy Universities
|
[
"University",
"Internship",
"Education",
"Internship evaluation",
"Third mission"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Curricular internships are generally considered a first employment experience for a student, but we also consider them an opportunity and a training experience integrated with the traditional course of studies, allowing to acquire more knowledge and develop new skills. We focus on the internship evaluation questionnaires currently used in Region Campania universities to analyze the employers' perspective. Currently, internship effectiveness should be guaranteed by the clarity and transparency of the training project in planning the work, by a good relationship with the host subject, a careful monitoring of the process: these are necessary requirements for universities, to avoid internships misuse and attempts at manipulation.\nCurricular internships in universities: In Europe, the importance of a dialogue between work world, civil society and universities has become relevant with the introduction of the third mission in universities, which can be traced back to a study realised by the European Commission (Enterprise Directorate General, 2000). The Commission identified a number of lines of action to pursue. First, closer cooperation between universities and innovation enterprises. Second, modernization of university teaching through multi-disciplinary approach, necessary to face contemporary life issues such as sustainable development, disease management, major risks. Finally, it is emphasized how economy of knowledge should be a life-long learning. In this scenario, universities can contribute to regional development as well as to European cohesion. In Italy, too, in addition to their traditional role in education and research, universities should take a new role: the diffusion of knowledge and technology, which contributes to local or national development and growth (ANVUR, 2014).\nThe evaluation of internships in South Italy: The universities involved were: Federico II of Naples, Second University of Naples, L'Orientale of Naples, Parthenope of Naples, Suor Orsola Benincasa of Naples, University of Sannio (Benevento), University of Salerno. We have compared all questionnaires by considering the total sum of all variables considered by different universities as a basis for comparison. The most complete questionnaire, in terms of number of sections and linkage to literature (Young et al., 2010; Jiang et al., 2015), is the one used by UNISOB.\nMethodology: For our research, we collected - via UNISOB - 732 questionnaires from July 2013 to July 2014. Relating to the host subject, we used a database to get the kind of organization where students carry out their internship. At UNISOB, agreements between university and host organizations (bodies, companies, professional firms and associations) are listed in a database to facilitate students in their internship choice.\nFindings: Host organization sector\nDiscussion and conclusions: The importance of undergraduate internship as a bridge between academic world and work world is widely recognized in literature, which underlines many advantages for both. Students spend less time to find a job, have a participative, engaging learning and improve different skills, such as oral and written communication, team working, and a deep understanding of the job market. Companies can receive new solutions to their problems thanks to the students, and universities can obtain important feedback from industry. Curricular internships are really a good way to overcome the gap between university and organization, as the third mission requires.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to describe and discuss the way internships are currently evaluated in Campania Universities by host institutions.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The author collected and described questionnaires used by the universities of the Regional Observatory of Campania University System. These questionnaires are given by the host institutions to interns to fill out, and they evaluate skills growth in terms of initial and final assessment. Data related to these questionnaires are not publicly available, therefore the main data source comes from 732 post-internship questionnaires collected by the University of Suor Orsola Benincasa in 2013-2014.\nFindings: Out of the 732 participants considered, 65 per cent rated excellent for motivation and interest, 55 per cent were rated excellent for the responsibility demonstrated, but only 37 per cent were rated excellent for the level of work autonomy achieved: a signal of the need to better prepare students for internships. Cross-technical and professional skills, which increase of +37 and +32 per cent, suggest that the experience has a very positive value. Regarding the experience outcome, the author detected a positive indicator: in 6 per cent of cases, an early employment occurred.\nResearch limitations/implications: It has only been possible to analyze the questionnaires from one of the Campania universities. The results encourage us to explore further, extending instruments and research methods at a national level, too.\nOriginality/value: The author built a research database form to compare current questionnaires in Campania. The author collected internship evaluation data from Suor Orsola University to propose a common questionnaire among Campania Universities. By sharing the findings, other universities, national and international, could benefit from the results.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Forecasting bank credit ratings
|
[
"Ordered probit model",
"Feature selection",
"Rating forecasting"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1 Introduction: Credit rating agencies (CRAs) provide a rating scale of risks associated with the ability of banks to meet debt obligations on time. These ratings are used by investors, borrowers, issuers and governments in making investment and financial decisions. Consequently, changes in ratings lead to important changes in capital allocation. The three major rating agencies are Moody's, Standard & Poor's and Fitch. The implementation of Basel II strengthened the demand for ratings and expanded the role of the CRAs. They play a key role in the pricing of credit risk. However, their integrity has been under consideration due to cases such as Enron and Lehman Brothers which had been assessed, by the rating agencies, with high ratings just a few days before their collapse. For this reason, they are often blamed for not being able to provide the market with the appropriate ratings required for important investment decisions. Such cases also occurred during the global financial crisis of 2008 and turn the interest in credit rating methodologies. It is generally accepted that when the credit rating of a bank is downgraded from the CRAs then things get worse for the specific banking institution and vice versa.\n2 Literature review: (a) Credit rating methodologies\n3 The data: For our analysis we use a cross-section of 92 US banks for which we could find freely available long-term ratings from Fitch. The ratings we attempt to forecast pertain to the year 2012. In doing so, we collect for each one of the 92 banks in our sample 46 individual variables and ratios for four years prior to our target rating (2008-2011) that come from their publicly reported financial statements. Thus, in order to forecast the credit rating of a bank in 2012 we include in our regressor set for each variable its previous four years values:, e.g. the Net Operating Income of 2011 (NOI11) and three years prior to that NOI10, NOI09 and NOI08. In this way, we effectively use 184 variables for each bank to forecast bank ratings. All financial data come from the database of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC). The variables are reported in Table I. The dependent variable is ordinal and initially has six categories that are grouped in our case in three coarse categories. They are assigned integer values from 0 to 2, such that lower values indicate a lower rating. The three rating categories (with assigned values in brackets) are: AA, A (2), BBB (1), BB, B, CCC (0).\n4 Methodology and empirical results: 4.1 Feature selection\n5 Conclusion: CRAs play a significant role in the financial system. Their reports are an essential source of information to both sides of the transaction table. Investors' and capital or debt issuers' decisions and the overall success of such issues heavily rely on the assigned credit ratings. As a result, both parties may benefit from correctly forecasting future credit ratings using prior information. This was the main goal of our contribution: we tried to develop a relatively simple model to forecast Fitch's ratings. We used 184 publicly available financial variables of US banks from 2008 to 2011 in order to fit a model that will forecast the next year's long-term rating of Fitch. In doing so, we prefilter this extensive list of possible regressors and produce six groups of variables. From each one of these groups we select three sets of explanatory variables by applying the combinatorial method for four and eight selected variables and the stepwise forward method. This results in 18 sets of explanatory variables that are used in an ordered probit framework to forecast Fitch's long-term ratings for 2012. According to the results the optimum model that reaches an 83.70 percent forecasting accuracy is the one that includes nine financial variables. Five of these nine forecasting regressors come from the banks' balance sheets, three are performance ratios and one comes from the income statement. No condition ratios appear significant in forecasting bank ratings. Moreover, the results show that the assigned ratings largely depend on historical data that span four years prior to the credit rating event. The variables that can be used to forecast the actual bank ratings are: the size of the bank as it is measured by the natural logarithm of total assets in the two years prior to the rating, the ratio of long-term assets over total assets three and four years before the rating, the structure of the bank's capital three years prior, the financial gains or losses from securities as a percentage of total interest income four years before the rating, the net interest margin and net operating income lagged two years and finally, the yield on earning assets lagged two years. Thus, the most important variables contributing to long-term ratings of banks are - not surprisingly - size, performance ratios and asset quality. These results indicate that the assessment of credit ratings is largely relying on historical data that are widely available to investors, bank officials and policy makers. Thus, it is not surprising that during the recent financial crisis bank downgrading was announced rather late and long after their financial problems were already visible to all interested parties. Moreover, the results show that it is most easy to forecast banks with high ratings rather than banks with a low rating.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: This study aims to present an empirical model designed to forecast bank credit ratings using only quantitative and publicly available information from their financial statements. For this reason, the authors use the long-term ratings provided by Fitch in 2012. The sample consists of 92 US banks and publicly available information in annual frequency from their financial statements from 2008 to 2011.\nDesign/methodology/approach: First, in the effort to select the most informative regressors from a long list of financial variables and ratios, the authors use stepwise least squares and select several alternative sets of variables. Then, these sets of variables are used in an ordered probit regression setting to forecast the long-term credit ratings.\nFindings: Under this scheme, the forecasting accuracy of the best model reaches 83.70 percent when nine explanatory variables are used.\nOriginality/value: The results indicate that bank credit ratings largely rely on historical data making them respond sluggishly and after any financial problems are already known to the public.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Hybrid car purchase intentions: a cross-cultural analysis
|
[
"Consumer behaviour",
"Green marketing",
"Decision making",
"Social values",
"South Korea",
"United States of America"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n__NO_TITLE__: An executive summary for managers and executive readers can be found at the end of this article.\nIntroduction: Environmentally friendly, or green, products are designed to minimize the environmental impact when they are consumed. Green products are interesting to firms because green issues and social responsibility are becoming important to consumers. Generally, a company's efforts toward social responsibility, including environmental sustainability, will lead consumers to give their products more favorable evaluations than products from less responsible organizations (Brown and Dacin, 1997).Researchers have made several contributions pertaining to the importance of environmental attitudes and behavior, but these studies have been limited to behaviors (e.g. recycling) or to products that typically garner lower consumer involvement. While this research has begun to illuminate green consumption behaviors, more needs to be done across product categories that are more expensive, reflect more on the consumer's image, have a higher social risk, and/or require more research prior to purchase. It is also important to understand how culture impacts decision making regarding high involvement, environmentally friendly products.The current study addresses this gap in the literature by examining socially relevant decision making variables that are related to intentions to purchase a high involvement environmentally friendly product, hybrid cars, in a more collectivist country (Korea) and a more individualist country (the USA). In both the USA and Korea, rising gas prices and advocacy for global sustainability have increased the emphasis on environmentally friendly vehicles. Still, amid the highest historical gas prices in the USA in August of 2008, hybrid vehicles only accounted for a little more than 2 percent of all vehicle sales (HybridCars.com, 2008). Therefore, it is important to understand factors that are related to consumer intentions to purchase hybrid vehicles.The automobile category is expected to be high involvement because automobile choice is relevant to consumer values and is consumed in a riskier, social setting (Corfman, 1991). Purchasing a car involves a significant financial investment. Higher involvement is also generated because automobiles relate to social identity and status, giving decisions about cars a great deal of importance in a social context (Janssen and Jager, 2002). The cross-cultural perspective is motivated by the expectation that the importance of the decision-making variables associated with the consumption of environmentally friendly products will vary, depending on cultural orientations. It is important to compare the factors that are related to purchase intentions between countries with different participatory systems since global sustainability is an important global issue.The main objective of this study is to examine the relationship between consumer factors and consumer intentions to purchase a hybrid car. To do this, we analyze the results of a survey of 1,073 drivers from the USA and 783 drivers from Korea. We analyze the relationship between propensity to seek information about green products, congruence of green product consumption with self-image, and social value with hybrid car purchase intentions among US and Korean customers.\nLiterature review: Cultural orientation and green product decision making factors\nMethodology: To collect data, a survey questionnaire was developed in English from existing scales (e.g. Bagozzi and Dabholkar, 1994) or adapted for the survey (e.g. items in the context of hybrid cars) and were translated into Korean. The Korean questionnaire was reviewed and discussed by other Koreans to ensure that the translation was clear and understandable. Then, another Korean scholar translated it back into English to establish equivalence of the questionnaire. After pre-tests were conducted using 20 undergraduate students at a large university in Seoul, Korea, a sample was recruited through an online survey sent to panel respondents from across Korea. As a result, 783 Korean drivers responded to the survey in Korean.Similarly, after a pre-test was conducted using 20 undergraduates at a public university in the USA, a sample was recruited through an online research firm in the USA. As a result, 1,083 drivers from the USA responded to the survey in English. Both samples responded to the questions in Table I by noting their level of agreement with each statement on a seven-point, Likert scale anchored by (1) Disagree and (7) Agree. Selected items, marked with (R), were reverse coded.\nResults: The proposed model and its hypotheses were tested using a partial least squares (PLS) structural model, which allowed us to avoid assumptions regarding multicollinearity that are associated with ordinary least squares regression or structural equation modeling based on covariances. However, we were still able to analyze the structure using latent variables instead of reducing the constructs to average scores.The first stage of was to analyze the convergent and discrminant validity of the measurement model. The convergent validity of the reflective measures was assessed using Cronbach's alpha, which provides a measure of the internal consistency of the items based on the assumption they are equally weighted. Table I shows that the Cronbach's alphas for each construct reach the minimum standard, 0.70, in both the Korean and the US samples. Discriminant validity was assessed using the latent constructs correlation matrix with the square root of the average variance extracted (AVE) reported along the diagonal. Disciminant validity is satisfied when the off-diagonal elements in the same row and column are lower than the square root of the AVE along the diagonal. Tables II and III show this condition was met for each construct.The PLS structural model and hypotheses were tested by finding the standardized betas for each construct. To determine the probability the path from each construct to the dependent construct, intentions to purchase a hybrid car, was significant, a bootstrapping procedure was conducted using 500 subsamples (Chin, 1998). The results of the PLS structural model are shown in Table IV. H1 suggests there is a positive association between the consumer seeking green product information and the consumer's intentions to purchase a hybrid car. Although the relationship is stronger in the US sample, this path is significant at the p<0.001 level in both the US (b=0.26) and the Korean (b=0.16) samples. Therefore, the study supports H1. H2 predicts consumers' perceptions that having a hybrid car reflects positively on their self-image will be positively related to consumers' intentions to purchase a hybrid car. Again, the relationship is stronger in the USA (b=0.40) sample than the Korean (b=0.30) sample, but both relationships are significant (p<0.001). The data also suggest a stronger relationship between self-image and hybrid car purchase intentions than between green information seeking and hybrid car purchase intentions.H3 predicts the relationships between perceived social value and the intentions to purchase a hybrid car will depend on the culture in the respondent's home country. H3 predicted that social value would have a positive effect on consumers in Korea, who are likely to have a more collectivist culture, but a negative effect on consumers in the USA, who might feel peer influence threatens their freedoms based on their individualist culture. However, the relationship between the social value associated with the purchase of a hybrid car was positive and significant in both the Korean (b=0.38) and the US (b=0.20) samples. In contrast to previous results and in line with cultural theory, there was a stronger relationship between the social value associated with the purchase of a hybrid car and the intentions to purchase a hybrid car in the Korean sample. Thus, H3 is only partially supported. Social value appears to play a greater role in purchase intentions in the more collectivist culture, but it does not appear to turn off the consumers in the more individualist culture.The relationship between the covariate, the social value associated with purchasing green products, in general, and the intentions to purchase a hybrid car was negative (b=-0.08) and significant (p<0.05) in the US sample and non-significant in the Korean sample. This suggest psychological reactance against social value associated with going green may have a negative impact on consumer intentions to purchase a hybrid car, even as the social value of owning a hybrid has a positive impact. This may also indicate the social value associated with owning a hybrid car in the USA is not based entirely on the benefits of hybrid car ownership to the environment.Finally, although the emissions self-efficacy construct was not significantly related to intentions to purchase a hybrid car in either sample, the R2 of each model indicated over 40 percent of the variance in the model was explained. In the US model, the R2 was 0.41 and in the Korean model, the R2 was 0.49. This indicates that the strong relationship between social value associated with owning a hybrid car and intentions to own a hybrid car, which is the only loading that was stronger in the Korean sample, has a dramatic impact on the variance explained in the Korean sample.\nDiscussion: This study examines factors that influence consumers' intentions to buy hybrid cars in US and Korean markets. Based on the literature, we hypothesized that three constructs were related to intentions to by a hybrid vehicle: green information seeking, congruence with self-image, and the social value associated owning a hybrid car. We expected that the effect of social value on hybrid intentions would have a different effect in Korea than in the USA. Specifically, we anticipated that Korean consumers would have a strong, positive relationship between social value associated with hybrid ownership and hybrid purchase intentions while US consumers would have a negative relationship between social value associated with hybrid ownership and hybrid purchase intentions. PLS analysis found support for the hypothesized relationships between hybrid purchase intentions and green information seeking and self-image congruence, respectively. However, the relationship between hybrid purchase intentions and social value associated with owning a hybrid car was positive in both samples. The only negative relationship in the US sample was the relationship between hybrid purchase intentions and the social value of owning green products, in general. This suggests that the social value associated with the direct ownership of a product has a positive influence in both individualist and collectivist cultures.The relative strength of the relationships between hybrid purchase intentions and the constructs is notable. US consumers had stronger relationships between green information seeking and hybrid purchase intentions and self-image congruence and hybrid purchase intentions. On the other hand, the Korean consumers had a stronger relationship between the social value associated with owning a hybrid and intentions to own a hybrid. This is consistent with theory regarding collectivist culture. Further, the negative relationship between social value associated with green product ownership in general and hybrid purchase intentions had the lowest significant loading. Therefore, although US consumer reactance to general social pressure to go green is a consideration, it appears to be a weaker driver of behavioral intentions than the social value associated with a specific product's ownership.The lack of a significant relationship between emissions self-efficacy, or the feeling that an individual can help reduce emissions, and hybrid car purchase intentions is also interesting. Feelings about personal control over emissions have less impact on purchase intentions than social factors. Further, the relationship between hybrid purchase intentions and social value associated with hybrid car ownership was twice as strong as the relationship between purchase intentions and seeking green product information. This suggests that the social drivers are more important than environmental factors in the collectivist countries, even though the environmental factors should have a direct relationship to the common good that earns high value in collectivist cultures.Given the findings of our study, it is reasonable to conclude that individual decision making is heavily influenced by perceptions related to the self and others. However, to make the findings more objective, future research can include additional factors that would affect hybrid purchase intentions. Future research can also examine other higher involvement environmentally friendly products to see if common patterns emerge. In addition, in-depth interviews with individual consumers can be used to enrich our understanding of what drives their intention. Using an online sample gave us access to large samples from a wide geographic pool in both countries. However, it limited our sample to respondents with access to the internet. Future research can replicate the results to extend their generalizability.\nManagerial implications: Companies that want to maintain or grow their market share need to understand consumer demand for green products and services. Understanding the constructs that relate to consumer intentions to adopt hybrid cars is an important part of knowing how to effectively communicate with consumers. This study gives marketers insights from two different cultures on consumer intentions to purchase a high involvement, environmentally friendly product: the hybrid car.One implication is that social value associated with product ownership is extremely important in both individualist and collectivist cultures. Marketers should communicate the social value of product ownership using communication channels that feel authentic to consumers. For example, marketers should encourage positive word-of-mouth and develop events among consumers in offline or online communities. These efforts are particularly important in Korea and other collectivist cultures.Marketers should also identify consumers who seek information about green products. Marketers may not be able to identify specific environmental values in consumers because of response bias and lack of information availability, but their participation in web sites and readership of consumer reports are events marketers can identify in practice. It may seem obvious that consumers who read consumer reports or participate in web chats or blogs related to environmentally friendly products demonstrate both involvement in the social effort and interest in products that support it. However, it is not clear whether good intentions translate into purchase intentions, especially for more expensive products. The results of the current study demonstrate this interest and involvement in green product information relates to purchase intentions for a higher involvement environmentally friendly product, the hybrid car.Finally, unlike consumers who have a high interest in green products, many consumers may be attracted to higher involvement green products like hybrid cars because of social value that is not related to their own environmental values. The consumer may think purchasing a hybrid car makes them look intelligent because their product choice allows them to save money in the long run. The consumer may want to appear to be similar to movie stars and celebrities who have adopted the product. The consumer may also be attracted with the prestige associated with the higher sticker price on the car.In short, marketers should understand that whether the culture is individualist or collectivist, the motivations to save the earth might be secondary when it comes to hybrid car purchase intentions. Marketers should design their communications, and their products, accordingly.\n",
"role": "user"
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"content": "Purpose: - This paper aims to compare US and Korean consumers' intentions to purchase a high involvement, environmentally friendly product: the hybrid car.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - The paper examines how social factors and culture shape intentions to purchase a hybrid car using survey data from 1,083 US drivers and 783 Korean drivers.\nFindings: - The paper shows that self-image congruence and propensity to seek information about green products have strong positive relationships with intentions to purchase a hybrid car among consumers from both countries. Perceived social value associated with the consumption of hybrid cars also has a strong positive relationship with intentions to purchase a hybrid car among Korean and, contrary to expectations, US consumers. In contrast, social value associated with green products, in general, has a negative relationship with US consumer hybrid purchase intentions.\nResearch limitations/implications: - The use of a web-based survey of drivers regarding hybrid cars may limit the generalizability of the results to other products and countries. Therefore, it is necessary to replicate the results.\nPractical implications: - In light of the results, marketers of hybrid cars in Korea and the USA should consider communicating about the social value of hybrid vehicle adoption and the positive reflection of ownership on the consumer's self-image, focusing on consumers who actively seek information about green products. However, marketers of hybrid cars in the USA limit references to the social value of green products, in general, which may be a turn-off.\nOriginality/value: - This paper increases knowledge about the impact of social and cultural factors on decision making regarding hybrid cars.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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Ownership structure and firm performance: evidence from the subprime crisis period
|
[
"Indonesia",
"Firm performance",
"Cash flow rights",
"Cash flow rights leverage",
"Control rights",
"Subprime crisis",
"G15",
"G34"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: Extant literature shows that corporate governance explains 1997's Asian financial crisis. Johnson et al. (2000) show that governance measures and ownership structures explain the collapse of the currencies and stock markets in the 1997 crisis, and that the effect of these variables was stronger than the standard macroeconomic variables. Mitton (2002) extends this idea to the firms' level, and shows that ownerships concentration, disclosures' quality and diversification affected the firms' performance in the crisis. Lemmon and Lins (2003) show that cash flow rights leverage (defined as control rights divided by cash flow rights) negatively affected firms' performance during the 1997 Asian crisis. The effect was stronger when managerial ownership was present. Thus, managerial ownership can be used as a vehicle for majority shareholders to expropriate minority shareholders. Even so, corporate governance seems to have an impact on trading strategies. A trading strategy based on corporate governance seems to produce abnormal profits. For example, using the decade of the 1990s, Gompers et al. (2003) show that a trading strategy consisting of buying stock in companies that are in the top 10 per cent of the governance index and selling stock in companies that form the lowest 10 per cent of the governance index would have yielded an abnormal return of 8.5 per cent.\n2. Literature review: 2.1 Corporate governance, ownership structure and firm performance\n3. Sample, data and methodology: We use samples of 143 firms for the 1997 financial crisis, and 124 firms for the 2008 financial crisis. In 1997, the total number of listed companies on the Jakarta Stock Exchange was 304. This number had grown to 396 companies by 2008. Our sample for the 1997 crisis covers a broad spectrum of industries, while our sample for the 2008 crisis concentrates more on the manufacturing sector.\n4. Empirical findings: 4.1 Descriptive statistics\n5. Conclusion: We investigate the effect of cash flow rights and cash flow rights leverage during the 2008 subprime financial crisis, and compare the results to those of the 1997 financial crisis. We take advantage of the exogenous setting, which resulted from the unexpected financial crises. The exogenous setting enables us to mitigate the endogeneity-related problems. While we find a negative impact for cash flow leverage on returns and a positive impact for cash flow rights on returns in the 1997 financial crisis, we do not find significant effects of the same variables on the returns during the 2008 financial crisis. We then use panel data to investigate the effects of cash flow rights and cash flow rights leverage on the PBV during the period from 2003 to 2007. For cash flow rights leverage, although we obtained a negative sign, as expected, the effect is not statistically significant. We do find a positive effect for cash flow rights on the PBV, suggesting an alignment effect. When we investigate further, we find that the negative effect of cash flow rights leverage and the positive effect of cash flow rights on the PBV are stronger for large firms.\n",
"role": "user"
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{
"content": "Purpose: This paper aims to compare the effect of ownership on firm performances in the 1997 and 2008 financial crises. More specifically, it investigates the effect of cash flow rights, control rights and cash flow rights leverage on firm performance. Two conditions motivated the study. First, the 2008 financial crisis happened quickly, so it was endogenous for firms. This setting is ideal to deal with endogeneity problems in a study that involves ownership and performance. Second, during the 2000s, awareness and implementation of corporate governance increased significantly. The authors believe that the markets learn these changes and incorporate them into prices, as suggested by an efficient market hypothesis.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The paper investigates and compares the effect of ownership structure on firm performance in the 2008 subprime crisis period to that in the 1997 financial crisis. Both crises happen unexpectedly, so the authors can expect that the crises are exogenous to firms. The authors use cash flow rights, control rights and cash flow right leverage for the ownership structure dimension. They also study time-series data to investigate the effect of ownership on a firm's value.\nFindings: The study finds that cash flow right and cash flow right leverage did not affect stock performance during the subprime crisis of 2008. It also finds that cash flow right leverage and cash flow right affected stock performance during the financial crisis of 1997. The study attributes this finding to the learning process and improvement of corporate governance during the period of the 2000s. Using time-series data, it finds that cash flow rights positively affect firm performance, suggesting an alignment effect. Ownership concentration improves firm performance. When the study split its sample, it found that the effect ownership on firms' value is stronger for large firms.\nResearch limitations/implications: The study's main limitation is that it does not test directly the learning process hypothesis. The study contributes to the current literature by presenting more recent evidence on the effect of ownership structure on firm performance in a developing country. The authors argue that markets learn the improvement of corporate governance and incorporate this development into prices. Extending this research to other markets will provide confirmation whether the learning process is an international phenomenon.\nPractical implications: The awareness and implementation of corporate governance should be maintained at least at this level. The positive relationship between ownership concentration and firm performance suggests that concentrated ownership performs monitoring more effectively. Investors should pay attention to ownership concentration.\nSocial implications: The finding that prices already reflect corporate governance may suggest that market is monitoring this issue. This seems to be a good finding. Markets can be expected to discipline companies in the implementation of corporate governance. The awareness and implementation of corporate governance should be maintained at least at the current level.\nOriginality/value: The study contributes to the current literature by presenting additional evidence on the effect of ownership (using cash flow rights, control rights and cash flow right leverage) on firms' performance in a more recent period and in a developing country. This period is characterized by a significant increase in awareness and the implementation of good corporate governance.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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Diagnosis for organizational knowledge creation: an ontological shift SECI model
|
[
"Knowledge management",
"Knowledge creation",
"Modelling",
"Project management",
"Organizational analysis"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: At the end of 2008, Company A, one of the biggest insurance companies in Japan, started an IT project to support two important businesses. However, because of delays, the project was far from completion by the scheduled deadline (the end of June 2009). In fact, it was still in the requirement definition phase at that time. Project members complained about knowledge sharing inefficiencies, the irrationality of certain processes, and the invisibility of organizational tacit knowledge. Consequently, our research group got involved in the project from the middle of June to carry out an organizational diagnosis.We recognized that it was necessary to diagnose Company A's organizational problems in the context of knowledge creation. In knowledge-intensive industries, indeed, one of the most significant indicators of organizational failure is the failure of managing crucial knowledge. Losing knowledge or failing to acquire essential knowledge has already been recognized as greatly threatening organizational performance (Delong, 2004). A healthy organization is not only built to acquire, share, diffuse and apply existing knowledge, but also to create specific knowledge or know-how in order to achieve long-term success.Organizational diagnosis is defined by Alderfer (1981) as a process that involves the three steps of publicly entering a human system, collecting valid data about human experiences, and feeding back to the system towards promoting organizational performance. According to this definition, both diagnosis and management of organizational knowledge creation are performed in most organizations, although sometimes unconsciously. Some managers are able to identify enablers and barriers in their creation projects and provide viable solutions based on personal experience. However, no existing tool or systemic methodology is yet available to accomplish this task. The objective of this diagnosis is not only to provide a detailed analysis to Company A, but also to develop a viable diagnosis tool for practitioners who aim to examine and solve organizational shortcomings in the context of knowledge creation.Before developing the tool to solve Company A's issues, we review existing research related to organizational knowledge creation diagnosis. Nonaka and Takeuchi (1995) defined organizational knowledge creation as the conversion between tacit knowledge and explicit knowledge. Such conversion consists of four modes: socialization (conversion from tacit knowledge to tacit knowledge); externalization (from tacit knowledge to explicit knowledge); combination (from explicit knowledge to explicit knowledge) and internalization (from explicit knowledge to tacit knowledge).Based on this definition, several works have contributed to diagnosing organizational knowledge creation. One significant category of such research body is the identification of knowledge enablers, e.g. Nonaka and Takeuchi's (1995) five enablers to encourage SECI processes, Krogh et al.'s (2000) five enablers to enhance innovation, and Szulanski's (2003) nine barriers that lead to knowledge stickiness. Another category is the evaluation of knowledge creation capability (KCC). Considering that knowledge creation is a result of the SECI modes that can be measured and scored, weakness in or absence of any mode has been found to prevent the knowledge spiral from moving forward; Riera et al. (2009) have claimed that the balance in the four conversion modes, rather than the overall score, was an indicator of organizational knowledge creation capability.Although the research previously mentioned provides the basis to conduct organizational research in the knowledge creation context, it is still insufficient to diagnose Company A's issues. First, instead of organization design, which generally focuses on solution to long-term problems, Company A required diagnosis and solutions to promote their ongoing project. They needed to identify \"who\" was the problem owner, and \"when\" or \"in which processes\" the problems occurred. While existing diagnosis approaches based on behavior science can reveal organizational characteristics, they are not able to provide real-time information and instant solutions. Second, the creation entities are always changing during the course of a project, which may involve various members, groups, resources and institutions in different phases, thus increasing the likelihood of failure due to the shift in creation entities. Nonaka and Takeuchi (1995) presented two dimensions of knowledge creation: epistemologically, knowledge conversions are accomplished by SECI modes; and ontologically, the knowledge spiral spreads from individual, group, organization to inter-organization level. Since ontological factors are absent from recent diagnosis methodologies, the shifts in creation entities cannot be captured and the question \"who is the problem owner\" cannot be answered.In order to fill the gap between Company A's expectations and existing diagnosis methodologies, a diagnosis tool called \"Ontological shift SECI model\" (OS model) is presented in this paper. It has the following characteristics:* Diagnosis using the tool should be quick, readable, and scientific.* It should identify organizational knowledge creation enablers, barriers, underlying problems and provide systemic solutions.* It should follow changes in knowledge creation entities and provide real-time analysis.This paper consists of five sections. The second part describes the structure of the OS model, including the mechanism of knowledge creation and definition of key activities. Panasonic's invention of the home bakery and 3M's creation of the \"Post-It\" note are used to illustrate the ontological shift mechanisms called \"Boom-up\" and \"Slip-down\". The ability of the OS model to make key activities visible is demonstrated in the third section with the case of Sanyo's ultrasonic washing machine, and the usefulness of this new diagnosis tool is discussed in the fourth section using Company A's IT implementation project. The last section concludes this work and presents future research.\nHypothesis construction: ontological shift SECI model: Visualization of key organizational knowledge creation activities\nDemonstration of the OS model: the case of Sanyo's washing machine: Before adopting the OS model as a diagnosis tool in Company A's ongoing IT project, it is first used in a completed project, that of Sanyo's invention of the ultrasonic washing machine. Based on this project, the capacity of this model to effectively display activity maps and identify enablers and barriers is tested.Case description: Sanyo's washing machine development\nUsing the OS model as diagnosis tool: Company A's IT project: As demonstrated in the previous section, the OS model supported the construction of an activity map for both short- and long-term knowledge creation. This map can show the frequently occurring failures (by manifest Slip-downs) and project prospects (by indicating the creation trajectory). In this section, the OS model is applied as a diagnosis tool in one of Company A's IT projects, in order to enhance knowledge creation activities in the requirement definition phase.In this research, we adopt Alderfer (1981)'s proposed three steps in conducting an organization diagnosis: get entry to the organization, collect data, and provide feedback of the solution to the organization towards improvement.Entry and data collection\nConclusion: This paper proposed a model to diagnose organizational knowledge creation activities based on the ontological shift mechanism of the SECI process. This closed-loop model is a manifestation of knowledge creation activities inside and outside the organization. Key creation activities are defined as intra-layer creation and inter-layer creation, and an activity map is drawn for diagnosis.Some clarifications should be made in using the OS model as a diagnosis tool. Practice indicates that, although the model consists of four layers, both Boom-up and Slip-down may skip certain layers under specific conditions. For example, in the case of 3M, organizational barriers were invisible, individuals routinely communicated directly with their organization decision makers, and the group did not take a significant role in the knowledge creation project. In addition, the model may count more than four layers and ontological shifts at the group level may sometimes reflect a continuous series of activities, from two-some, small groups to formal department or business unit, depending on the organization's structure. Social networks may also allow more than one dimensions through personal relationships, organizational partners, or internal experts outside the project.A considerable challenge is raised by the negative responses from some knowledge creation project managers. The OS model, capable to make key activities visible and to highlight underlying enablers and barriers, weakens the hard-earned competitive advantage of experienced project managers. And inexperienced managers may struggle in the arduous task of drawing the activity map, which requires deep knowledge about the ongoing project.However, these challenges also bring opportunities for this modeling tool. First, the model aims at supporting rather than replacing project managers and thus plays an advisory role. To researchers and managers, not all enablers may have to be activated to achieve Boom-ups in all four SECI modes and the routing design consisting of alternative strategies for Boom-ups and Slip-downs is expected to be a constructive task. Second, although some managers claim it to be overly complicated to describe an activity according to its ontological and epistemological characteristics, such taxonomy is explicit enough to use artificial intelligence and process-based knowledge creation systems could be designed using the ontological shift model. Both junior and experienced project managers, outside consultants, and even computer software may therefore become able to identify underlying problems and generate alternatives for decision making in knowledge creation contexts.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: - This paper intends to propose an \"ontological shift SECI model\" as a tool to diagnose organizations in the context of knowledge creation, and thereby support the management of knowledge creation-related projects.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - This research's hypothesis is based on existing knowledge creation theories and is tested using a case study methodology. The authors first examine the model in a completed project in order to test its validity and second, apply it in Company A's software project to demonstrate its feasibility and usefulness.\nFindings: - In any given project, knowledge creation activities occur in various ontological entities - individual, group, organization or social-network. The diagnosis tool, which proved to be useful in this paper, traces such ontological shifts and makes visible all key activities of a knowledge creation project. These activities form an \"ontological shift model\" and trace an \"activity map\" which exposes underlying enablers and barriers, and provides viable solutions for improvement.\nResearch limitations/implications: - To carry out the analysis, the key activities identified in the knowledge creation-related project have to be described in detail according to their ontological and epistemological dimensions. However, such description is complex and requires specialized expertise in knowledge creation and rich knowledge of the ongoing project.\nPractical implications: - The tool proved useful for supporting project managers in diagnosing their project's knowledge creation shortcomings. When knowledge creation breakdowns occur in a project, the tool can act as a navigator and uncover alternatives to continue the knowledge-creating spiral.\nOriginality/value: - Knowledge creation process is difficult to manage because of its cause ambiguity and intangibility. What is a knowledge creation activity? And why? This model makes explicit experienced managers' tacit solutions to knowledge creation problems. It can make organizational knowledge creation activities visible and therefore manageable for junior staff, outside consultants and even future software modeling.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Identifying and managing bullying in the workplace
|
[
"Bullying",
"Equal opportunities",
"Assertiveness"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n__NO_TITLE__: Bullying is a destructive force in the workplace. Whether intentional or unintentional, general or specific, verbal or non-verbal, it is harmful because it undermines people. Its impact leaves employees feeling hurt, humiliated, belittled or shamed, and the atmosphere within a workplace damaged and in need of rebuilding. Large numbers of people will be able to recount experiences of feeling slighted or bullied by a colleague or group of people at work and some will admit to bullying someone. It is not as uncommon as you might wish it to be.\nWhere bullying most frequently occurs: The cases that do reach the media typically highlight the areas in which bullying behavior most frequently occurs:*gender, where women are bullied by men;*homophobia, where lesbians and homosexuals are bullied by heterosexuals;*race, where people in a minority group are bullied by those in the majority;*age, where older people are bullied by younger people; and*religion, where people are bullied for their beliefs.All these areas, along with disability and class, are where differences prompt bullying behavior, and all are areas addressed in most organizations' diversity programs.That bullying continues, despite the existence of a policy, is little surprise: it will carry on unless people are given opportunities to understand their differences, to appreciate them and to work with each other. Differences need to be seen as opportunities rather than threats. An important part of achieving a truly inclusive organization is helping people to build assertive relationships with each other, which are inclusive of difference. Within these organizations differences are seen as opportunities for transforming relationships, for empowering people to build bigger and more inclusive relationships.Assertive behavior is characterized by self-respect and respect of the other person, combined with clear and direct communication. The person on the receiving end knows where he or she stands, feels respected and valued by the other, seen and heard for who he or she is and for his or her differences. Assertive working relationships are those in which people are curious about each other. They want to understand and work with their differences, harnessing them for even greater effectiveness. These relationships enable people to bring their \"best selves\" to work and to build bigger relationships with one another, based on trust and genuine openness.If you were to look at the spectrum of behaviors ranging from the assertive to the non-assertive, bullying would sit at the far end of the non-assertive end of the spectrum. Bullying behavior is manipulative, divisive and vindictive and can be expressed aggressively, passively or with a mixture of both behaviors. This blend of passive-aggressive behavior is common. People on the receiving end not only feel bullied but are confused by the mixed messages. Employees on the receiving end feel diminished - neither respected nor valued. The only way in which people who resort to bullying can feel better about themselves is to hurt others, putting them down and humiliating them. In fact the typical bully has often been bullied himself or herself at some point in the past and knows how it feels to be hurt and frightened. A root cause is lack of self-respect and self-esteem.\nLack of self-confidence: People who use bullying behavior are driven by an underlying fear, usually of \"the other\", of the unknown, and ultimately fear of being bettered by others. One of the most common ways of dealing with this threat is to generalize it and to build a case against the people who are perceived as being the cause of it. Their frustration and anger are then expressed in bullying behavior, covering up an underlying fear. The person bullying will see someone else as having something that he or she needs or wants, or that he or she does not want the other person to have. People who are bullied are often surprised and puzzled by the bullying behavior. They do not know what they have done to provoke it and this not knowing can undermine even the most confident people. It is therefore a mistake to think that people being bullied have somehow attracted it because they lack self-confidence or have low self-esteem. It is more likely that the person bullying is the one lacking self-confidence.It is vital for organizations to bring diversity awareness into all that they do if they are truly to tackle bullying behavior. The starting point for this is helping people to make explicit some of the values, attitudes and beliefs that contribute to bullying. An organization's leaders, too, need to begin expressing diversity awareness needs in their workplace conversations. The benefits will be obvious: this new assertiveness will help to attract and retain talented staff and to develop new business opportunities. Only through business leaders raising their own awareness of the importance of creating truly inclusive organizations will people be able to bring everything they have to offer to work. And only then will people be able to build relationships in which they feel safe and secure enough to explore their differences.Everyone, whether in education or work, can learn more about their own values, beliefs and attitudes and the impact of these on their behavior towards others. Organizations that provide opportunities for people to explore them and to learn more about each other - their similarities and differences - capture the benefits of people working together and build future business success through assertiveness and inclusiveness.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: - The article sheds light on the phenomenon of bullying in the workplace and the need to create truly assertive and inclusive organizations in which business leaders and employees embrace diversity in all they do.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - The paper presents a framework of assertiveness and diversity, of openness, trust and respect, which can benefit everyone in the workplace.\nFindings: - The reveals that a lack of awareness of self and others, and a fear of difference, is the underlying cause of bullying.\nPractical implications: - The paper shows that that, by integrating diversity awareness into everything that people do, and valuing people for their \"gifts different,\" bullying can be tackled.\nOriginality/value: - The author argues that people change their behavior when given support and encouragement to understand the impact of their behavior on others, and that they can be helped to appreciate their differences and thus build bigger relationships in which more and greater business opportunities are realized.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
A comparative citation analysis study of master's theses at the American University of Beirut, Lebanon
|
[
"Citation analysis",
"Collection development",
"Political science",
"Biology",
"Master’s thesis",
"Mechanical engineering"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: With increasing pressure on collection budgets, academic libraries are facing difficulties in making selection, retention and cancellation decisions. Are usage statistics obtained from vendors enough to decide whether to renew or cancel journal/e-book subscriptions? Should librarians depend solely on circulation and in-house statistics? To answer these questions, and to design a strong academic collection and determine its usefulness, collection development librarians rely on various methods including citation analysis.\nReview of selected literature: According to Edwards (1999), theses and dissertations are a preferred sample material, as graduate students form a large percentage of user groups of library resources for their academic research. Sherriff (2010) is in agreement and states that research-based theses and dissertations are excellent sources of relatively easy-to-access data.\nBackground: Founded in 1866, the AUB is a teaching-centered research institution with close to 800 faculty members and a student body of around 8,000 (American University of Beirut, 2016). AUB currently offers over 120 academic programs leading to bachelor's and master's degrees, as well as MD and PhD degrees. There are six faculties: Agricultural and Food Sciences, Arts and Sciences, Engineering and Architecture, Health Sciences, Medicine and the Olayan School of Business.\nMethodology: The goal of this analysis study was to compare literature citations in theses submitted by graduate students in three different disciplines to determine the characteristics of the sources cited. Three broad disciplinary areas, namely, engineering, sciences and social sciences, were selected for this paper, with one department chosen within each. The authors selected mechanical engineering, biology and political science, as they are departments which can provide a large sample of theses. The source data comprised a total of 247 master's theses completed at AUB in those three departments during the period 2004-2013 (Table I).\nResults and discussion: Type\nLimitations: Data gathering is a daunting and time-consuming process, and this study faced several challenges and limitations, including the following issues:\nConclusion: As the authors' main purpose was to find out what is being used and cited by those who use the AUB libraries, this study provides invaluable and previously unavailable insight into the strengths and weaknesses of the UL collection. The results show that the needs of graduate students in political science are better met than those of their peers in biology and mechanical engineering.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to determine and compare the type and age of cited literature in master's theses of three academic disciplines at the American University of Beirut (AUB), Lebanon. It also aims to improve the existing monograph and serial collections at AUB.\nDesign/methodology/approach: As theses and dissertations present a convenient source of bibliographies for examination, the authors conducted a citation analysis of all master's theses completed during the period 2004-2013 in the disciplines of biology, mechanical engineering and political science. Bibliographic data were extracted from each citation in the reference list(s) and later analyzed using Microsoft Excel. Availability of all cited books and journals was checked against the library catalog.\nFindings: This case study reveals the extent to which the AUB University Libraries (UL) collections answer the research needs of graduate students. The findings show that engineering and biology students use a significantly greater number of scholarly journal articles than political science students, while all disciplines rely on recent publications.\nPractical implications: This paper's findings will prove useful to develop lists of core journals for the AUB UL. The findings will help managing existing collections and provide a base for informed decision-making as regards journal subscriptions and cancellations.\nOriginality/value: Although many citation analyses of master's theses have been done around the world, this study is one of the few completed in the Arab world. Hence, it offers useful insight for collection development in Lebanon and the Arab world.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
Performance dialogue: A framework to enhance the effectiveness of performance measurement systems
|
[
"Innovative performance management",
"Performance measurement system",
"Performance dialogue",
"Sustainable performance",
"Organizational communication",
"Conversation management"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Performance measurement is fundamental for effective organisation management. The substantial number of research studies and balanced scorecard implementations in multiple organisations demonstrate the popularity of this topic. Despite the increased interest in performance measurement in recent years, many companies fail to correctly use a performance measurement system (PMS), despite designing and introducing such a system. This paper aims to understand what happens when a company begins to use a PMS. The research focuses on the moments after the organisational leaders have designed and implemented a PMS. The main aim of this study is to demonstrate that managers can successfully use measures to manage their business and extract value from the data they collect by fostering the right conditions for internal structured meetings on performance, which is called performance dialogue.\nLiterature review: Performance measurement systems\nMethodology: This study follows an action research approach and, more specifically, the clinical field work method. The action research approach was initially developed by Kurt Lewin in the mid-1940s in order to address the problematic issues he identified in social action (Kemmis and McTaggart, 1988, Lewin, 1946). According to Lewin's initial work, action research requires group decision and commitment to improvement (Dickens and Watkins, 1999), it is represented by the discussion of problems followed by group decisions on how to proceed (Adelman, 1993). Lewin's original formulation of action research \"consisted in analysis, fact-finding, conceptualisation, planning, execution, more fact-finding or evaluation; and then a repetition of this whole circle of activities; indeed, a spiral of such circles\" (Sanford, 1970, p. 4). According to Argyris and Schon (1991, p. 86), \"Action research takes its cues-its questions, puzzles, and problems - from the perceptions of practitioners within particular, local practice contexts. It builds descriptions and theories within the practice context itself, and tests them through intervention experiments, that is, through experiments that bear the double burden of testing hypotheses and effecting some (putatively) desirable change in the situation\". Schein (1987) builds on both the action research approach and his experience with process consultation to formulate his view of clinical field work, which he differentiates from other ethnographic techniques. According to the clinical perspective, the role of trained professionals who help with individuals, groups, communities or organisations is regarded as highly crucial. This professional \"helping\" role implies that the typical contribution of the researcher is facilitative (Baskerville and Wood-Harper, 1998). Baskerville and Wood-Harper (1998, p. 102) describe the clinical field work perspective as follows: \"The study subjects typically initiate and drive a clinical enquiry, seeking help with an immediate problem. The client expects to pay fees. An action-change study model then operates which is conceptually normative (improve the problem situation) and narrowly focussed on certain detailed data regarding a particular problem. The study is validated by an improvement in the problem situation as a result of the actions. The achievement of this validity means that the study is primarily motivated by both organizational development and scientific knowledge\".\nFirst findings: some key challenges in the performance dialogue: The first series of interviews revealed an overall need to share knowledge and best practices to find solutions to problems and to improve performance and thus, consolidate the company's position on the market. \"The value of performance dialogue does not only come from the action plan (corrective actions or best practice sharing). The dialogue is also an opportunity to provide food for thought for the audience. We learn together\" (Business Unit Director). This is very much in line with Malina and Selto (2001), who argue that effective communication systems may facilitate the exchange of knowledge and thus a better understanding of the organisation's status. This may be accomplished by frequent and intense information sharing and dialogue rather than just by reporting to managers. The interviews also revealed a variety of recurrent communicative challenges and practices, which appear to be characteristic of the performance dialogue process. As mentioned earlier, an effective dialogue system, composed of regular meetings, is considered as an essential part of the PMS. These meetings facilitate the exchange of knowledge and shared experiences among individuals and reinforce the organisational culture and strategy required for the success of the organisation (Kaplan and Norton, 2007; Bourne et al., 2000; De Bruijn, 2002; Bruijn and van Helden, 2006). In the following sections, these identified challenges and practices are presented in detail.\nDiscussion: a framework for successful implementation of performance dialogue: The analysis of the first series of interviews has identified several important challenges, which were present during the meetings where performance was discussed (including during those ineffective \"performance meetings\" set up by the CEO). These are: a lack of structured process, a lack of defined roles for participants, insufficient allocated time for conversation, a lack of focus on critical issues and data accuracy, relational tensions emerging from differences in communicative culture and a lack of common goals. To overcome these challenges, a framework was devised to successfully manage performance dialogue with the company's experts and decision makers, building on Mengis and Eppler's framework for conversation management and on the findings from the case study. Our framework (and the choice of extending Mengis and Eppler's framework) was a result of multiple conversations between us (the researchers) and the management teams of the company under investigation during this study. In that respect, the framework emerged from both field-based and theory-informed observations. More specifically, from the analysis of the interviews, a need for a real dialogue on performance emerged, which also mirrors the key principles of Mengis and Eppler's approach. So, in agreement with the management of the company, we decided at that stage to build upon Mengis and Eppler's framework and we jointly devised a more practical framework, which was implemented in full over the course of three-and-a-half years by the company (from the beginning of our intervention to our second series of interviews). The following sections discuss the various components of our framework.\nConclusion: While performance management systems have been extensively studied and used by companies for several years, they are still not effectively used to enhance performance. The literature review found that, despite the abundance of research on performance measurement, there are relatively few studies on the use of performance instruments once they are implemented and that few practical tools are currently available. This paper highlights the importance of acknowledging and establishing the need for performance dialogue after the implementation of a PMS. It also introduces work on organizational communication into the field of PMS, by proposing a communication model for performance dialogue implementation. Furthermore, it addresses the issues many companies face as they attempt to successfully use their PMS. It also proposes a framework with specific prerequisites to be put into practice. Finally, this study offers a different explanation than those currently found in the literature for the failure of PMS, namely, the lack of performance dialogue.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to provide guidelines for improving performance dialogue with a specific process and framework, leveraging existing literature.\nDesign/methodology/approach: Building upon Mengis and Eppler's (2008) framework for conversation management, this study follows an action research approach, involving a process of co-creation, split into several distinct stages including two series of 20 semi-structured interviews with top executives of a major pharmaceutical company. These executives were directly involved in using the performance measurement system (PMS) in order to provide guidelines for improving performance dialogue. The data were analysed using content analysis, and the authors helped to develop a solution.\nFindings: The analysis reveals a variety of recurrent communicative challenges and practices, which all appear to be characteristic for the performance dialogue process. The proposed framework consists of four separate phases, namely: data collection and identification of the main under and over-performance gaps, root cause analysis and action plans formulation, dialogue and solution implementation and dissemination of best practices.\nOriginality/value: This research contributes to the literature by introducing work on organisational communication into the field of PMS, by proposing a communication model for performance dialogue implementation. Furthermore, it addresses companies' issues on how to successfully use their PMS and proposes a framework with specific prerequisites to be put into practice. Finally, this study offers a different explanation in the form of the lack of performance dialogue for the failure of PMS, compared to the current explanations found in the literature.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
Airline schedule planning: a review and future directions
|
[
"Aircraft maintenance routing",
"Crew scheduling",
"Fleet assignment",
"Flight scheduling"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: The airline industry is characterized by tight competitive market, high operational cost, variable passenger demand, heavy traffic, and strong regulations. In this situation, airline companies have to efficiently manage their resources that include flights, aircraft, and crews (Sherali et al., 2013a). In order to manage these resources, airline schedule planning problems are solved by the airline companies, while considering the vast number of regulations related to aircraft and crews that result in complex and nontractable problems. Consequently, airline scheduling is decomposed into four stages: the flight scheduling problem (FSP), the fleet assignment problem (FAP), the aircraft maintenance routing problem (AMRP), and finally the crew scheduling problem (CSP). Traditionally, these problems are solved sequentially, where the solution in each stage is used as an input for the subsequent stage, as shown in Figure 1.\n2. Research method: 2.1 Source of literature\n3. FSP: The first category in this paper is FSP, which is considered to be the first problem to be solved by airline companies before operation commences. FSP aims to generate a timetable that contains a list of flights with their corresponding origin, destination, departure time, and arrival time, while considering some marketing issues such as passenger demand and ticket price (Yan et al., 2007; Lee et al., 2007). Usually, the flight schedule is constructed at least six months in advance of the scheduled flight, with the objective of maximizing the expected profit. The FSP is usually solved in two steps; in the first step, the timetable is constructed, while evaluation of the generated timetable is carried out in the second step. The timetable evaluation is made by checking the feasibility of each flight leg and ensuring cost minimization of each flight. In order to improve the constructed timetable, these two steps are repeated until no more improvements can be made. In order to build an efficient flight schedule timetable, the airline companies have to determine certain aspects such as the projected markets served, the type of flights (non-stop flights or connecting flights), and the frequency of the flights in each market.\n4. FAP: FAP is considered the second category in our study, which plays an important role to determine which aircraft types will be selected to cover the scheduled flight legs. Moreover, the FAP has to satisfy that each flight leg should be covered by exactly one aircraft type, and the total number of aircrafts that belong to the same type does not exceed the number available. This problem is solved with two different objective functions, which maximize the profit and minimize the assignment cost. With respect to the cost, there are different types of costs included in the assignment costs, such as operating cost, carrying cost, and spill cost. Finding the balance between aircraft capacities and passenger demand is a great challenge that faces planning mangers because of great impact of fleet assignment on the airline's profit. Imagine, for example, the assignment of a large aircraft to cover a flight leg with a limited number of passengers, and aircraft with a small number of seats is assigned to cover a trip with large number of passengers. In the first case, there are spoiled seats, whereas in the second case there are spilled passengers. Both cases are not favorable for airlines, so that the FAP should be solved based on accurate passenger demand forecasts. Using such models resulted in an increase of $30 million in annual revenue of US Airways (Barnhart et al., 2002).\n5. AMRP: After assigning each aircraft type or fleet to the scheduled flight legs, the airline company has to assign each specific aircraft to the scheduled flight legs, which can be done by solving the AMRP. This problem is considered the third category of the review paper. In AMRP, it is assumed that the previous stages, which are FSP and FAP, are already solved. AMRP aims to determine maintenance feasible route or the sequence of flight legs, which should be flown by each aircraft (tail number). The maintenance issues play an important role in determining the route of each aircraft, because each aircraft has to undergo maintenance checks after a certain period. The maintenance checks, which are mandated by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), vary according to their frequencies and duration (Clarke et al. (1997)). There are four types of maintenance checks, which should be considered by the airline operators to avoid any violations that may result in penalty fees. The first type is a Type A check and should be performed every 65 flight-hours, involving inspection of major parts, such as an aircraft's engine. The second type is a Type B check and is performed every 300-600 flight-hours, such as visual inspection and lubrication issues. The remaining two checks are Type C and Type D; they are carried out once every one to four years, respectively. Usually, the airline operates their maintenance checks under different regulations, which are more stringent than checks imposed by FAA. For example, each aircraft has to go for the transit check maintenance every 35-40 flying hours, where the visual inspection and minimum equipment list check are carried out. Another kind of maintenance is called the balance check. AMRP needs to incorporate the Type A maintenance check, as it is the most frequent one compared to other maintenance checks.\n6. CSP: The CSP is considered the fourth category in our paper, and the last stage of the airline schedule planning process, and it assumes that all previous stages are solved in advance. CSP is one of the most studied problems compared to other airline planning problems for the following reasons: first, the crew cost is the second highest cost after the fuel cost, so optimizing the CSP can make a significant reduction on the total operational cost of airline companies. Second, there are many regulations and contractual issues that should be considered in this problem, which increases the model complexity. In order to avoid the high complexity in CSP, the problem is solved sequentially in two steps. The first step is called the crew pairing problem (CPP), which provides, at a minimal cost, a set of pairing that will cover exactly once all the flight legs in the schedule, while satisfying the regulations and contractual issues. The second step is called the crew rostering problem (CRP) that uses the solution of the first step as an input and provides the legal schedule for each crew member. To do that, there are many regulations and contractual restrictions that should be respected (Barnhart et al., 2003). In the remainder of this section, we discuss the CPP and CRP and their related models in the literature, as shown in Sections 6.1 and 6.2, respectively. Also, in Section 6.3, we present models that integrate both problems partially or totally. Table V closes this section and presents the main features of the reviewed crew scheduling papers as shown in Section 6.4. In Section 6.5, we provide a discussion for reviewed CSP papers.\n7. Integrated airline schedule planning models: In the previous sections, each airline planning process is solved sequentially and independently of the other processes to avoid computational complexity. Actually, the main drawback of this way is that the optimal solution of one process is not optimal for the subsequent processes (suboptimal solution), which leads to infeasible inputs to the other processes. This main drawback is one of the main reasons that motivate researchers to focus on integrating more than one schedule planning process simultaneously, so as to ameliorate the solution quality and the anticipated profit of the airline companies. Although no attempts have been made to propose full integration of the four different planning processes, there are many integrated models of two or more different planning process that have been proposed. In this section, we present the last category that includes such integrated models, the solution techniques used for each model, and the implications of each model on the anticipated profit. In the last subsection, we provide discussion regarding the integrated models.\n8. Conclusion and future research directions: This paper aims to present an up-to-date review for airline schedule planning process. We categorize and summarize the trends and development of the relevant papers in order to support future research directions. Accordingly, we conduct our survey by using the following keywords \"Flight scheduling,\" \"Fleet assignment,\" \"AMR,\" and \"Crew scheduling.\" After screening and rejecting unelected research works, 116 research works were left that satisfied our scope for this paper.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is twofold: first to carry out a comprehensive literature review for state of the art regarding airline schedule planning and second to identify some new research directions that might help academic researchers and practitioners.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The authors mainly focus on the research work appeared in the last three decades. The search process was conducted in database searches using four keywords: \"Flight scheduling,\" \"Fleet assignment,\" \"Aircraft maintenance routing\" (AMR), and \"Crew scheduling\". Moreover, the combination of the keywords was used to find the integrated models. Any duplications due to database variety and the articles that were written in non-English language were discarded.\nFindings: The authors studied 106 research papers and categorized them into five categories. In addition, according to the model features, subcategories were further identified. Moreover, after discussing up-to-date research work, the authors suggested some future directions in order to contribute to the existing literature.\nResearch limitations/implications: The presented categories and subcategories were based on the model characteristics rather than the model formulation and solution methodology that are commonly used in the literature. One advantage of this classification is that it might help scholars to deeply understand the main variation between the models. On the other hand, identifying future research opportunities should help academic researchers and practitioners to develop new models and improve the performance of the existing models.\nPractical implications: This study proposed some considerations in order to enhance the efficiency of the schedule planning process practically, for example, using the dynamic Stackelberg game strategy for market competition in flight scheduling, considering re-fleeting mechanism under heterogeneous fleet for fleet assignment, and considering the stochastic departure and arrival times for AMR.\nOriginality/value: In the literature, all the review papers focused only on one category of the five categories. Then, this category was classified according to the model formulation and solution methodology. However, in this work, the authors attempted to propose a comprehensive review for all categories for the first time and develop new classifications for each category. The proposed classifications are hence novel and significant.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Quality dominant logic in big data analytics and firm performance
|
[
"Firm performance",
"Big data analytics",
"Quality dominant logic",
"Big data analytics quality",
"Resource based view"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: Big data analytics (BDA) is as a \"holistic process to manage, process and analyze 5 Vs (i.e. volume, variety, velocity, veracity and value) in order to create actionable insights for sustained competitive advantages\" (Fosso Wamba et al., 2015). BDA has become a common path to competitive advantage for many companies in the digital economy. In recent years, the ground-breaking analytics systems of companies such as American airlines (electronic reservations), United Parcel Service (usage patterns), Amazon (recommendation systems), or Netflix (consumer choice modeling) have made them more efficient and competitive. The data economy creates thousands of exabytes of new data through various digital platforms, including mobile devices, the Internet of Things and social media. According to Davenport (2013, pp. 66-67), \"Big data also came to be distinguished from small data because it was not generated purely by a firm's internal transaction systems. It was externally sourced as well, coming from the internet, sensors of various types, public data initiatives such as the human genome project, and captures of audio and video recordings.\" BDA can help firms to manage risks, reduce costs, improve supply chain visibility (Lavalle et al., 2011; McAfee and Brynjolfsson, 2012; Verbraken et al., 2012), co-create business value between firms and customers (Xie et al., 2016), foster process and product innovation (Fosso Wamba, 2017; Yuanzhu et al., 2017), improve firm decision making process (Fosso Wamba et al., 2012; Fosso Wamba, Ngai, Riggins and Akter, 2017; Tan et al., 2017), improve firm overall performance (Wu et al., 2016) and gain competitive advantage by enabling improved supply chain innovation capabilities (Tan et al., 2015). Although numerous organizations are embracing analytics, few have achieved the optimum level of firm performance (Davenport and Harris, 2007). As BDA evolves into an information ecosystem, quality dimensions are critical in generating new insights for businesses (Sun and Jeyaraj, 2013). However, there are increasing challenges related to the assessment of big data analytics quality (BDAQ) on firm performance (Kiron et al., 2014a, b) and inter-firm performance (Hazen et al., 2016). For example, Ransbotham et al. (2016) report that adoption of analytics is growing at a rapid pace but many still struggle to produce quality insights to maintain their edge.\n2. Theory: 2.1 The resource-based view (RBV)\n3. Research model and hypotheses: This study builds on prior studies to develop a research model that assesses BADQ. The literature review identifies three principal dimensions of quality that reveal BDAQ: technology, information and talent (see Table I). Throughout our review and theoretical exploration, BDAQ was frequently identified as a higher-order and multi-dimensional construct with several sub-dimensions (see Table I). As such, we conducted two Delphi studies to explore the sub-dimensions of BDAQ under each primary dimension identified in the review. Round one of the Delphi study was conducted in November 2014 (n=51) and round two in February 2015 (n=43) with respondents who represented a balance of analytics practitioners, consultants and academics. These early results offer strong support for the three primary antecedents and 13 underlying components to develop the research model (Figure 1).\n4. Method: 4.1 Scale development\n5. Data analysis: The study applied partial least squares (PLS), a variance-based structural equation modeling technique, to estimate the measurement and structural model (Chin, 2010). BDAQ is specified as a higher-order construct that contains three second-order formative constructs and 13 first-order reflective sub-constructs (see Table III). The study applies the repeated indicator approach to estimate the scores for the first-order, second-order and third-order BADQ constructs following the guidelines of Wetzels et al. (2009) and Becker et al. (2012). The use of PLS has been suggested to estimate higher-order, reflective-formative constructs to ensure more theoretical parsimony and less model complexity (Law et al., 1998; Edwards, 2001; MacKenzie et al., 2005; Wetzels et al., 2009; Chin, 2010) and to test novel propositions that suffer from a paucity of prior theory and are exploratory in nature (Hair et al., 2011). The study used the software package SmartPLS 3.0 (Ringle et al., 2015) to analyze the data using non-parametric bootstrapping with 1,000 replications (Efron and Tibshirani, 1993; Chin, 1998a, b; Tenenhaus et al., 2005) and the path weighting scheme for the inside approximation (Chin, 1998a, b; Tenenhaus et al., 2005; Wetzels et al., 2009).\n6. Results: 6.1 Measurement model\n7. Discussion: 7.1 Summary of findings\n8. Conclusions: Although the idea of analytics has gained momentum in recent years, it requires large-scale practice to enhance firm performance. Whereas the technology side of analytics needs to focus on reliability, adaptability, integration, response time and privacy, the information side must ensure complete, up-to-date, accurate and well-presented information for decision making. Similarly, talent quality can focus on developing technological, managerial and relational knowledge to develop skilled analysts in emerging evidence-based management. The growing number of analytically challenged firms can get the most out of their analytics by simultaneously leveraging their technology, talent, and information quality to achieve competitive edges in the data economy.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: Big data analytics (BDA) gets all the attention these days, but as important--and perhaps even more important--is big data analytics quality (BDAQ). Although many companies realize a full return from BDA, others clearly struggle. It appears that quality dynamics and their holistic impact on firm performance are unresolved in data economy. The purpose of this paper is to draw on the resource-based view and information systems quality to develop a BDAQ model and measure its impact on firm performance.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The study uses an online survey to collect data from 150 panel members in France from a leading market research firm. The participants in the study were business analysts and IT managers with analytics experience.\nFindings: The study confirms that perceived technology, talent and information quality are significant determinants of BDAQ. It also identifies that alignment between analytics quality and firm strategy moderates the relationship between BDAQ and firm performance.\nPractical implications: The findings inform practitioners that BDAQ is a hierarchical, multi-dimensional and context-specific model.\nOriginality/value: The study advances theoretical understanding of the relationship between BDAQ and firm performance under the influence of firm strategy alignment.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
Career cooperation, coordination, compatibility and co-working: How female expatriates mobilise dual-career strategies
|
[
"Breadwinners",
"Co-working",
"Dual-careers",
"Expatriation",
"Gender diversity",
"Women"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Undertaking expatriation enables individuals to gain career capital (Dickmann et al., 2018) contributing to the development of high potential (Collings and Isichei, 2018). Expatriate assignments also provide considerable benefits to employers who use them to fill skills gaps, transfer and share corporate knowledge and culture and develop their future leaders (Baruch, et al., 2016). Increasing expatriate diversity is an organisational target aligned with improving business performance outcomes (Shortland and Perkins, 2016). Yet, practitioner surveys highlight that male expatriates hold the majority of career-enhancing expatriate roles (Santa Fe Relocation, 2018), reflecting men's main breadwinner status (Cole, 2012). This suggests that women are less likely to benefit from the career outcomes that can flow from expatriate assignments. Roos (2013) notes that mobility decisions are discussed and negotiated within the family. However, problems arise particularly when men follow their working female partners and have to adjust to being secondary breadwinners (or not working at all) as this can lead to a negative sense of identity (Cole, 2012). As such, dual-career choices are recognised as gendered (Kansala et al., 2015).\nLiterature review: The international dual-career context\nMethod: An agenda item at one of the regular meetings of the UK oil and gas industry peer group concerned the issue of increasing expatriate gender diversity. During the discussion by the 18 global company representatives, the problem of dual-careers presenting a potential barrier to the movement of women assignees was raised by the attendees and discussed at length. In total, 2 of these 18 peer group members decided to take this forward by supporting a research study into the dual-career barriers faced by their female expatriates. Both were international assignments managers in medium-sized exploration and production firms who held responsibility for expatriation and shared a common goal of improving their representation of female assignees. This case study, therefore, relates to the stated concerns and interventions reported within the oil and gas industry as experienced by two global firms with UK bases of operation. A qualitative case study research approach was selected to enable the exploration of \"the holistic and meaningful characteristics of real-life events\" (Yin, 2009, p. 4).\nFindings: The findings are presented within two main sections - organisational support and career co-ordination tactics aligned with the research questions. The thematic data are categorised and presented under sub-headings within each of these sections reflecting the key sub-themes and emerging themes (assignment timing; work visas; career precedence; compatible roles; and co-working).\nDiscussion: Organisational support is known to be a key concern for relocating partners (McNulty, 2012) and partner employment is reported as being of particular significance to dual-career couples (Riusala and Suutari, 2000). Obtaining partner employment visas are also identified as a major employer concern in enabling international dual-career mobility (Permits Foundation, 2009) with the oil and gas sector being particularly active in lobbying governments for more favourable visa treatment of expatriate dual-career couples (Permits Foundation, 2019). It is, therefore, somewhat surprising that employer support for this particular issue was reported as being very limited by the female expatriates working for the two oil and gas firms in this research study. An emerging organisational support issue from this research concerned the limited employer attention being paid to the co-ordination of assignment timings for couples on the move. With little employer support for partner work visas and co-ordinated relocation timings, couples' dual-career coordination strategies required active interventions on the part of the female assignees if they were to be mobilised to achieve their desired career goals.\nConclusion: This research reveals how female expatriates in dual-career relationships mobilise effort to secure work opportunities, which give the most positive career and relationship outcomes for themselves and their partners. By actively working with their own and their partner's organisations if necessary and using tactics of cooperation and coordination, they pursue dual-career compatible roles and co-working opportunities. Women assignees also place particular emphasis on coordinating the timing and location of dual-career expatriate work to reduce periods of separation from their partners, seeing this as instrumental to maintaining the couple's relationship. This research extends the work of Kansala et al. (2015) relating to hierarchical, egalitarian and loose dual-career strategies. Compatible roles can provide more egalitarian career outcomes than co-working because of the difficulties of gaining two appropriate roles together in one firm in the same location; co-working can lead to disappointing hierarchical rather than anticipated egalitarian dual-career outcomes for female expatriates. Women assignees who have followed a loose dual-career strategy with their partners, seek a more egalitarian approach. When their partners undertake non-geographically mobile careers, women expatriates undertake complementary assignment types, which can not only maximise egalitarian career outcomes but also the time that a couple can spend together.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this study is to examine how female expatriates mobilise couples' dual-career coordination strategic choices to achieve their own and their partners' desired career goals.\nDesign/methodology/approach: This qualitative research is based upon in-depth interviews with 20 dual-career female expatriates working in two case study oil and gas organisations.\nFindings: Female expatriates use a series of tactics ranging from cooperation in maintaining a dual-career hierarchy, through to coordinating aspects of their own and their partners' assignments, undertaking compatible industry roles and co-working (working together in the same organisation) to attempt to achieve a greater egalitarian international dual-career strategic outcome.\nResearch limitations/implications: This case analysis was based on a relatively small sample of female expatriates in heterosexual relationships working in oil and gas exploration. Further research in different sectors, with larger samples, and with male expatriates is also needed.\nPractical implications: Employers should minimise periods of separation by focussing on coordinated assignment timings for both partners, facilitate suitable employment for both partners who wish to work abroad, and prioritise securing partner work visas.\nSocial implications: The inability to pursue desired dual-careers together while undertaking international assignments can be detrimental to couples' relationships, potentially leading to unwillingness to expatriate and thereby deliver necessary skills in the host country.\nOriginality/value: The originality lies in identifying the tactics women use to enact dual-career coordination strategies, including coordinating assignment timings and locations to reduce separation and pursuing compatible roles to achieve egalitarian career and relationship outcomes. While women expected co-working in the same firm to facilitate dual-career mobility, its career outcomes were disappointing.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
The study of books
|
[
"Bibliographies",
"History"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n__NO_TITLE__: On 21 October 1920, A.W. Pollard wrote to George Watson Cole:I gave an inaugural lecture this very week as Professor of English Bibliography in the University of London. Greg followed this afternoon with one on the differences & similarities between MSS & Printed Books. McKerrow carries on for 3 more lectures on Elizabethan printing habits, and Dover Wilson winds up with one on the printing of plays. So in London at any rate Bibliography is recognised as a University subject (Cole Papers, quoted in Stoddard, 2000).\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: - This paper aims to show how the concept of \"Bibliography\" has changed since the late nineteenth century. It proposes discussing what \"Bibliography\" did and did not include in the various stages of its development; how the study of \"Bibliography\" moved from the UK to the USA; how it narrowed down from an originally much wider concept and how, under the influence of French historians over the past three decades, it has widened out again, reaching a better synthesis of the study of books as material objects with the study of the history of the book.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - A discussion and critical assessment of the writings of the major main stream bibliographers and book historians is presented.\nFindings: - From an original (nineteenth century) emphasis on enumerative bibliography, the concept of \"Bibliography\" widened out (from the end of the nineteenth century) to include historical bibliography and the study of books as material objects; in the mid-twentieth century this wider approach narrowed down, as a consequence of much emphasis being placed on descriptive, analytical, critical and textual bibliography. Under influence of French book historians the emphasis has changed again and the value of a wider historical approach and greater inclusivity in subjects has brought the study of historical bibliography and that of the history of the book much closer together.\nResearch limitations/implications: - This research looks only at Western Europe and the USA.\nPractical implications: - Practical implications of this study are: the widening-out of the subject to include all physical manifestations of the book; the dimension of creative reading; and the emphasis on the importance of artifactual evidence for correct establishment and interpretation of texts has had implications for preservation.\nOriginality/value: - This paper is a critical assessment of the literature, drawing the logical consequences of its findings. It presents an argument for the inclusion of all aspects of the book as a physical object, as well as for the importance of using all available evidence.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Impact of website attributes on customer engagement in banking: a solicitation of stimulus-organism-response theory
|
[
"Website attributes",
"Customer engagement",
"Customer trust",
"Customer retention",
"India"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: The modern banking industry is facing unprecedented challenges. The market, the customers and even the transaction mechanisms are changing rapidly (Berger et al., 2019). The rise of pure online financial players such as FinTechs and electronic currencies like Bitcoin mean the future has already dawned upon the banking industry. The emergence of the digital era has led to an almost absolute brand transparency among customers today (Mbama and Ezepue, 2018). In other words, customers are empowered so much so that everything for them is replaceable now; any product, any service, all content and any function. The challenge is further complicated by the fact that financial products are considered \"complex\" and hence, require very robust marketing initiatives to differentiate, target and position their value proposition among customers (Demangeot and Broderick, 2016). Furthermore, the recent international financial catastrophe resulted in the loss of customer trust and retention in banking institutions, challenging the sustainability of the existing relationships between banks and their customers (Marinkovic and Obradovic, 2015; Moliner et al., 2018; Monferrer et al., 2016). Researchers further note that providing favorable experience and value to customers is not easy in an online setting because the lack of physical clues increases the challenges of uncertainty (Foo et al., 2008). Therefore, the challenge and opportunity lie in a thorough and critical investigation of how an online touchpoint (e.g. a website) can engage and retain customers in the dynamic banking industry (Khan et al., 2016; Lee and Jeong, 2014; Nysveen and Pedersen, 2014).Specifically, there is a need to concentrate on the websites of banks, as these websites are often the first and sometimes the only contact points for potential and current customers (Boateng, 2018; Bravo et al., 2019; Kaabachi et al., 2020). Websites in the banking sector offer a real-time engagement platform for customers to engage with the focal bank through an interaction with respective financial products and portfolios (Brun et al., 2014; Khan et al., 2016). Therefore, banking websites cannot merely rely on informing and educating customers about their products and services, but they also have to provide excellent interaction and engaging experiences (Shin et al., 2019).Surprisingly, the question of why and how bank websites can engage customers remains open and rarely explored. Of course, there are a few studies that focus on engagement in an online context (e.g. Baldus et al., 2015; Islam et al., 2018; Khan et al., 2019), but very few studies so far have specifically concentrated on (bank) websites as the focal object of customer engagement interactive experience, as addressed by this study. Additionally, customer engagement (CE) on its part has already acquired significance in the literature (Baldus et al., 2015; Hollebeek et al., 2019a, b; Islam et al., 2019; Islam et al., 2019a; MSI, 2018; Rasool et al., 2020; Rather et al., 2018), clearly reflecting the seriousness with which practitioners and academicians alike are attempting to comprehend how companies might facilitate CE to simultaneously enhance customer trust, retention and loyalty (Hollebeek et al., 2014, 2019a; Kaur et al., 2020; Rather, 2020).We address this gap by delineating how to capture CE to strengthen customer trust and customer retention (the spillover benefits of CE) by strategically focusing on the attributes of the widely adopted virtual touchpoints - the websites in the banking industry. Specifically, we identified website characteristics that have frequently been cited within the customers' perspective of website and online brand communities design literature. Attributes such as website interactivity, ease of use and telepresence have been considered as imperative to incorporate while designing an effective company virtual-touch point (Islam and Rahman, 2017; Mollen and Wilson, 2010; Rose et al., 2012), whereas customization and website aesthetics have been suggested to enhance satisfaction as well as generate favorable customer attitude towards shopping websites (Kaabachi et al., 2020; Wang et al., 2011; Xu, and Schrier, 2019). The identified attributes were further confirmed through an interactive session with two marketing professors, two banking professionals and ten research scholars (all of them being active online banking customers in India). Correspondingly, we propose a conceptual model (Figure 1) comprising constructs related to these website attributes, CE, customer trust and retention in a banking context. Prior studies have claimed certain website features such as interactivity, visual appeal, ease of use and customization to affect consumers' attitude, trust and customer experience towards online shopping (e.g. Brun et al., 2017; Chung and Shin, 2010; Elhajjar and Ouaida, 2020). However, whether and how such features bridge with CE is not known. Besides, the links between the mentioned bank website features, CE, trust and retention have not been tested empirically.This study, therefore, argues that the selected website characteristics have relevance of both relational and communications attributes and are crucial to provide a comfortable, rich and engaging experience. We address strategic concerns of firms by propounding that focusing on the relational dynamics of CE will assist banks in building trust and retain their most valuable stakeholders - the customers.\n2. Theoretical background: Previous studies have focused on numerous theories, particularly the technology acceptance model (TAM) and the theory of planned behavior (TPB), to explain customer adoption of online banking (Anouze and Alamro, 2020; Hsu et al., 2006). However, despite their wide application, studies argue that TAM and TPB do not always provide enhanced behavioral explanations (Anouze and Alamro, 2020). Besides, literature highlights a need to investigate CE from different theoretical perspectives to understand its broader nomological networks (Brodie et al., 2013; Islam and Rahman, 2016a). Congruently, the current study adopts Mehrabian and Russell's (1974) \"Stimulus Organism Response\" (SOR) model as the underlying mechanism to build the conceptual relationships among various constructs under study. The SOR theory affirms that the distinct attributes of the environment act as stimuli which impact the internal (psychological) state of individuals/organisms and drive them to respond behaviorally (Jacoby, 2002).Consistent with SOR theory, the \"stimulus\" is represented by a collection of attributes that influence the consumers' perception and internal state (Mazursky and Jacoby, 1986; Mollen and Wilson, 2010). Such attributes serve as cues that penetrate the consciousness of customers and provoke them (as receivers) to act (Koo and Ju, 2010; Loureiro et al., 2019). In the context of this study, stimulus refers to the attributes of a website with which customers interact and shape their evaluations (Eroglu et al., 2003; Loureiro, 2015).The organism relates to the internal processes intervening between the inputs and the customer's final responses, which are based on customers' evaluations and perceptions (Islam and Rahman, 2017; Jiang et al., 2010). Since cognition, affection, and activation (as different internal processes) are the three key dimensions of CE (Hollebeek et al., 2014), we posit that CE (an organism state) with the bank will be affected by the attributes of a banking website. Once the stimulus is triggered, customers process it into information helpful and meaningful to them in making some action-oriented decisions (Loureiro et al., 2019).The response relates to the outcome reflected through customers' action and behavior (Eroglu et al., 2003; Roschk et al., 2017). While interacting with a banking website, customers are exposed to multiple experiences and recommendations, which if favorable, trigger their attitude towards the specific banking websites. As a response to these favorable experiences, customers build trust and maintain their retention intentions with the banks. Such claims are further supported by past studies which reveal that when customers visit websites that they perceive to be friendly, as a response, they spend time on such websites, explore products and display an inclination to passionately immerse in impulse buying (Menon and Kahn, 2002).\n3. Conceptual model and hypotheses development: Built on theoretical backgrounds of service-dominant logic and relationship marketing (RM), a number of CE conceptualizations have been proposed. For example, CE has been perceived as a psychological state that goes beyond mere involvement (Dolan et al., 2019). Doorn et al. (2010) conceive CE as unidimensional and define it as \"the customers' behavioral manifestation toward a brand or firm, beyond purchase, resulting from motivational drivers\" (p. 254). By contrast, Dijkmans et al. (2015, p. 59) suggest CE to be a two-dimensional concept defined as \"consumer's familiarity with a company's social media activities (i.e. cognition) and the online following of these activities (i.e. behavior).\" Regardless of different conceptualizations, there is a growing consensus among researchers that CE is a context-specific multi-dimensional construct encompassing cognitive, affective and behavioral dimensions (e.g. Hollebeek et al., 2014; Islam and Rahman, 2016a, 2017; Pansari and Kumar, 2017). While this study acknowledges the importance of the three dimensions of CE, we follow the broadly accepted conceptualization of CE by Hollebeek et al. (2014) as \"a consumer's positively valenced brand-related cognitive, emotional and behavioral activity during or related to focal consumer/brand interactions\" (p. 154). This conceptualization is consistent with the measurement instrument used by this study to assess CE.Built on this conceptual background and by specifically drawing on the theoretical foundations of SOR, we now introduce our conceptual model and related hypotheses in the following section. 3.1 Website's interactivity as a CE antecedent\n4. Research methodology: 4.1 Sample and data collection\n5. Data analysis and results: We adopted a two-step approach (Anderson and Gerbing, 1988), which included \"confirmatory factor analysis\" (CFA) and \"structural equation modeling\" (SEM) to examine the hypothesized relationships. The \"AMOS 20.0 SEM software\" was used to run CFA to confirm the scales' convergent and discriminant validities (Hair et al., 2010).For data normality assumption, the data demonstrated a normal distribution confirmed by skewness values of items that ranged from -0.576 to 0.064, and kurtosis values ranged between 1.237 and 1.346, which is within the acceptable range (Wells et al., 2015). We also checked common method variance (CMV) by adopting Harman's one-factor test (Podsakoff et al., 2003). Our results revealed that the first factor accounted for only 29.133% (i.e. <50%) of the variance, confirming that CMV is not an issue in this study. Furthermore, Pavlou et al. (2007) suggest that CMV is unlikely if correlations are not excessively high (i.e. not >0.9; Islam et al., 2018). Our correlation matrix (Table 3) reveals that CMV is not an issue here, given the absence of extremely high correlation values. 5.1 Reliability and validity analyses\n6. Discussion and implications: The unique nature of financial and banking products means that they cannot offer direct human experiences to customers. To add to this difficulty, banking products as discussed are far more complex than products of other sectors. Thus, being able to attract customers, interact with them and ultimately develop a lifetime relationship with them is a matter of survival for modern banks. In other words, attracting, interacting, retaining and getting customers to act is a strategic need and challenge of the modern banking industry. In the light of this, the purpose of our study is to offer a framework that can help banks address these strategic concerns. We do this by offering a conceptual framework that explains how banking websites can activate CE to consequently enhance customer trust and retention. Specifically, our conceptual model shows how perceptual attributes of a banking website (viz. website interactivity, website aesthetics, customization, ease of use and telepresence) can crucially influence CE. We thus argue and show that, since the bank website initially is often the first and only \"customer touchpoint,\" the subsequent interactive experience may eventually result in converting curious visitors into customers. We focus on outcomes such as customer engagement because CE can have spillover consequences beneficial to firms in the form of customer trust and retention, which is a key to organizations' monetary and non-monetary prosperity (Brodie et al., 2011).The emergent literature emphasizes the key role of virtual touchpoints on consumer behavior (Barreda et al., 2015; Islam and Rahman, 2017; Kaabachi et al., 2020; Sahoo and Pillai, 2017). Our results reveal that the identified key website attributes positively affect CE, thus aligning with prior studies (e.g. Islam and Rahman, 2017; Barreda et al., 2015) that also bridge most of such attributes of online brand communities with CE. We also find positive associations between CE, customer trust and customer retention. These findings provide an empirical validation to prior studies conducted across geographic and industrial contexts (e.g. Islam and Rahman, 2016b; Nadeem et al., 2015) and also broaden the generalizability of prior studies in the banking context (e.g. Kim and Peterson, 2017; Mahmoud, 2019; Wong and Sohal, 2002). As our empirical results support all the proposed hypotheses, this study offers some important theoretical and practical implications. 6.1 Theoretical implications\n7. Limitations and future research: Despite significant contributions, this study has some limitations that offer avenues for further research in this domain. First, while we explored a CE through bank websites, researchers may wish to include mobile application-based platforms to further advance insight in CE domain. Second, a convenience sample of bank customers was deployed to collect data, thereby yielding findings of potentially limited generalizability. Therefore, further research may draw on probability sampling methods to ensure more generalizable results. Third, the proposed model is limited to the exploration of direct relationships only. Therefore, the addition of other relevant mediating/moderating variables (such as personality traits and other demographic variables viz. age, gender and type of bank) can further advance the online CE domain. Besides, future studies may test an alternative model that checks the differential effect of stimuli on the individual dimensions of CE (especially the cognition and affect) to present some interesting results. Lastly, the key attributes of websites identified by this study may not represent the entire website characteristics, so further motivations of CE with banking websites need to be explored.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: This paper aims to investigate how banking websites can activate customer engagement (CE) to consequently enhance customer trust and retention.\nDesign/methodology/approach: Using an online survey, data were collected from 598 customers of various (public and private) banks in India. Structural equation modeling was used to analyze the data.\nFindings: Results reveal that the key website attributes viz. website interactivity, website aesthetics, customization, ease of use and telepresence positively affect CE. The results also delineate positive associations between CE, customer trust and customer retention.\nResearch limitations/implications: This paper unravels that by strategically focusing on the relational dynamics of CE, banks can build trust and retain their most valuable stakeholders - the customers, thereby addressing the crucial strategic concerns of banking firms.\nOriginality/value: This research is the first to explore the effects of key website attributes on CE in the banking context. The undertaking of this study in an emerging economy adds further insight into CE literature by generalizing the applicability of CE studies across geographic contexts.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Perceptions of the health effects of stoves in Mongolia
|
[
"Air pollution",
"Public health",
"Mongolia",
"Personal health",
"Heating equipment"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Acute respiratory infections (ARI) are the most common cause of childhood illness in developing countries (Smith et al., 2000). Between 3 and 5 million deaths are attributed to ARI annually among the under fives (Stansfield and Shephard, 1993). ARI can be treated with antimicrobial agents. However children often present late in their illness and/or receive inadequate or inappropriate medication (Pandey et al., 1989). Therefore worldwide long-term control of acute respiratory infections must be based on prevention rather than cure through risk factor reduction.Indoor air pollution is a key risk factor for ARI (Smith and McMichael, 1999). Approximately half the world's population relies on unprocessed solid fuels in the form of coal and biomass, i.e. wood, crop residues and animal dung for household cooking and heating (Smith and McMichael, 1999). These fuels are typically burnt indoors in small, low-cost stoves or open fires with poor ventilation, and therefore undergo incomplete combustion. Harmful pollutants are produced which cause lower respiratory tract infections (WHO, 2002). The acute respiratory infections caused by the use of biomass fuels cause an estimated 2 million deaths per year in children (Brunekreef and Holgate, 2002).In developing countries, there are few resources to promote a transition to cleaner fuels such as propane gas. Therefore strategies have been implemented to encourage use of improved stoves. These stoves allow more complete combustion of fuels. The efficient combustion chambers of these improved stoves reduce emissions of harmful pollutants (Ballard-Tremeer and Jawurek, 1996; Reid et al., 1986; Ramakrishna et al., 1989; Ezzati et al., 2000) by around 60 per cent (Reid et al., 1986; and Ezzati et al., 2000). Studies also show that children living in homes with improved stoves are up to 2.6 times less likely to suffer from ARI than children living in homes with traditional stoves (Ezzati and Kammen, 2002).Many improved stove projects have been implemented in developing countries, including Mongolia, where an improved stove project is currently being implemented by the World Bank. The project is based in the capital city of Mongolia, Ulaanbaatar. Uptake of the improved stoves is relatively low. At the time of this study 1,375 improved stoves and 13 kits had been installed. The kits improve the combustion of existing traditional stoves. We estimate that around 68,000 households continue to use traditional stoves.Ulaanbaatar is the coldest capital city in the world (UNDP and World Bank, 2002). An estimated 45-50 per cent of the city's population live in gers - traditional tents of white felt. The 300,000 ger inhabitants rely on stoves to provide heat to protect them from temperatures as low as - 40oC. Ger families mainly burn coal in their traditional stoves, which produces health-damaging gases. Indoor air pollution levels are not yet available. A study in a sub-district of Ulaanbaatar estimated outdoor air pollution levels to be 16 times the accepted international standard (Bat, 2002).So far as we are aware, no qualitative research has been published exploring the attitudes of stove users towards stoves and their health effects. This study evaluates the ger population's views on the health effects of stoves. Similarities and differences are identified between responses of improved stove users and traditional stove users. Potential barriers to change in practice are also identified. These findings highlight public health policy measures necessary to overcome the health effects of indoor smoke from the burning of solid fuel.\nMethod: Our initial field-work was carried out in Bayangol district, Ulaanbaatar, where the improved stove project's activities are focussed. A community leader facilitated recruitment of participants to three focus groups; improved stove users; traditional stove users; and a mixed group using both improved and traditional stoves. These were mixed gender groups with eight participants in each group.Intensive marketing of stoves has been a feature of the programme in Bayangol. We felt that this might lead to false positive attitudes to improved stoves. In addition, no kit users were recruited through the community leader. For these reasons, six individual interviews were held in the homes of various types of stove users outside the district; two respondents using traditional stoves, two using kits and two using new, improved stoves. The participants lived in three different sub-districts of Ulaanbaatar. The kit users and the improved stove users were contacted through a technician who had fitted the kits. Two traditional stove users were contacted through the Public Health Institute. All those approached agreed to be interviewed.All focus groups and interviews used a piloted open-ended interview schedule (Patton, 1990), which sought to elicit responses on perceived health effects of stoves and barriers to stove improvement. All interactions with participants were conducted in Mongolian through a moderator and tape-recorded. Potential threats to validity were minimised through training of the moderator (Maynard-Tucker, 2000), and consideration of issues relating to translation in the preparation of transcripts (Esposito, 2001). These included checking of ambiguous words and phrases with participants and a meeting to discuss initial analysis with five key-informants drawn from the three focus groups. An editing analysis style was used (Crabtree and Miller, 1992). The themes chosen to code the data are outlined in Table I.\nResults: Perceptions of stoves\nDiscussion: We have identified a need for information on health effects of stoves among the ger population. One of the main reasons given by the Ministry of Health and Social Welfare for the implementation of the improved stove programme is to reduce respiratory disease. Despite this, the World Bank's improved stove programme's main aim is to reduce greenhouse gases with objectives of \"widespread adoption by households of improved stoves\" and the establishment of \"active and profitable manufacturers of stove improvements\" (World Bank, 2000). Public health promotion is not addressed in the programme's objectives. The opportunity to market stoves through informing the ger population about how stove improvement will improve their health, is also overlooked.This study was designed and conducted by medical professionals and could therefore be expected to highlight health issues. However, it has identified perceptions of a need for further information about how stove emissions affect the health of the ger population. While other structural barriers to uptake of improved stoves such as high cost and availability of clean fuel are important, this study has demonstrated the principal concern of stove-related health effects for ger families. Most importantly, the results have highlighted the significance of the inclusion of public health in marketing strategies of improved stoves. Health promotion offers stove users an additional, extremely relevant reason to invest in an improved stove and should play a key role in the marketing of improved stoves to increase their uptake.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: - The purpose of this paper is to evaluate the views of stove users in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia on how stoves affect their health.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - In this paper focus groups were conducted with improved stove users; traditional stove users; and a mix of traditional and improved stove users. Individual interviews were also held with various types of stove users. A translator moderated all discussions with a questioning route. All discussions were fully transcribed and translated. The transcripts were analysed by identifying common themes in responses to form an emerging theory.\nFindings: - The findings in the paper are that all stove users recognised respiratory symptoms caused by stove smoke and other health effects such as warmth, dirt and workload, which they perceived to be important. Stove users had a lack of knowledge about the diseases caused by the smoke. Public health was a key driver for the improved stove project, yet has been neglected in improved stove marketing.\nResearch limitations/implications: - The study used in this paper was limited by the language barrier. Some of the meanings of participants' responses may have been lost in translation.\nPractical implications: - This paper has highlighted the importance of the health effects of stove smoke to stove users. Uptake of the improved stoves has been low. Public health should be included in marketing strategies for improved stoves to increase their uptake.\nOriginality/value: - The paper shows that acute respiratory infections are a major cause of mortality world-wide. Indoor air pollution from burning biomass fuels in household stoves causes a significant proportion of respiratory infections. No qualitative research has been published exploring stove users' views on the health effects of stoves. This paper provides an insight into stove users' perceptions for those interested in people-centred approaches to tackling international health issues.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Wildcards - natural and artificial: the combination of a panel of experts and Fuzzy TOPSIS
|
[
"Fuzzy TOPSIS",
"Environmental scanning",
"Futurist",
"Panel of experts",
"Weak signals",
"Wildcards"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: As the correlation between different variables and their interaction is not considered, forecasting methods are no longer responsive to today's world questions in a turbulent and rapidly changing globe. In such circumstances, an unexpected event could destroy the value of forecast equations. Futurists should be like an eagle flying at high altitude that can observe all events. For instance, when a river suddenly overflows, the eagle spots the event and sees it as a potential danger to the nearby village. By identifying this potential wildcard, the village can be adjusted to the shock. As a result, the destructive effects of flood can be decreased. Futurists should be able to identify opportunities and threats of potential wildcards and make the best use of them by converting the threats into the opportunities, so that favorable impacts could be achieved. A \"weak signal\" is a decision-support \"tool\". It occurs as an ordinary-looking \"data\" item, albeit one whose interpretation could trigger a warning. Such a warning indicates that an event could occur that may have considerable consequences (in terms of opportunity or threat) (Lesca and Lesca, 2013).\n2. Definition of weak signals and environmental scanning: Weak signals are defined as a significant indication of changes in the environment. In recent literature, there is a wide variety of the definitions of weak signals. The meaning of this concept differs from researcher to researcher, and therefore, the perception of weak signals and also applying them in an organization can be challenging. Note that another challenge to this issue is caused by concepts close to weak signals such as emerging issues, seeds of change, wildcards and early warning signals (Nikander, 2002; Molitor, 2003). Some authors referred to signals of wildcards as weak signals, early warnings or early indicators. It is vital to know that weak signals are not always the evidence of the true state of the emerging issue, which calls for trying to find out more about initial sources of information. It is noticeable to make an obvious distinction between the concept of \"weak signal\" and the concept of \"wildcard\". It should be noted that it is theoretically possible that weak signals are dispersed data that mention the appearance of possible wildcard incidents to the policymakers. Generally, there is a large quantity of weak signals in the environment before a wildcard event occurs. However, it is clear that a single weak signal cannot display the mysteries of the future. According to Coffman (1997a), the key factor in utilizing weak signals is to count on the power of a number of signals of emerging issues. If a number of weak signals mentions some development path in the future to us, the possible development can be taken more seriously than with one signal. Also, it is possible that a weak signal continues to be a weak signal and never becomes a vigorous signal or changes into a substantial wildcard. Nevertheless, weak signals are distinguished signs of changes in the natural world. Somehow, the conception of a wildcard is like a sense in which some things are factual shocks to some groups and some individuals. However, some people, who are aware of weak signals, do not get a shock when a wildcard occurs.\n3. Classification of wildcards: On account of the dilemma of the duration of wildcards, Hiltunen (2006) divided wildcard events into irreversible and reversible changes. In this study, when the reversibility of a particular system is considered, the time variable will be the most important element. For some changes to take the same values as in the original state prior to the wildcard event, it might only take some months or years, and subsequently, these events are categorized as reversible changes. If, nevertheless, it takes more than tens of years to restore the original state of affairs or it does not occur at all, that event is labeled as irreversible. Examples of these categories are shown in Table I.\n4. A combination of panel of experts and Fuzzy TOPSIS method: In this paper, the Fuzzy TOPSIS method is applied to prioritize weak signals. Also, there are some prioritization methods, among which Likert scale and Fuzzy analytic hierarchy process (AHP) are the most significant ones; these two methods are mentioned in the following text.\n5. Conclusion: In this paper, first, we examined Hiltunen's categorizations of wildcards. Afterward, we presented our classification of wildcards with the same characteristics being natural wildcards, artificial wildcards (Degree 1) and artificial wildcards (Degree 2); according to all aforementioned explanations, it is notable that the most unimportant changes in turbulent environments may cause a substantial change; environmental scanning makes it easy to see and notice weak signals in advance. As the result, the environmental scanning should be required to collect information on the future emerging issues and weak signals. Following environmental scanning and identifying weak signals, the proposed method \"combination of panel of experts and Fuzzy TOPSIS\" can be applied to prioritize the weak signals to deal with the most important ones and take appropriate action in advance so as to minimize possible damages and maximize the benefits of potential wildcards in an uncertain environment. To clarify the proposed method, a case study is carried out in a tobacco company and the results of this case study have been shown in the paper.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is threefold: to classify wildcards into three particular types sharing similar characteristics; use the Fuzzy TOPSIS as a new method in foresight to turn qualitative ideas into quantitative ones; and apply a combination of Fuzzy TOPSIS and a panel of experts to prioritize weak signals.\nDesign/methodology/approach: In this paper, the authors classify wildcards into three particular types which share similar character: natural wildcards, artificial wildcards (Degree 1) and artificial wildcards (Degree 2). Wildcards point to unexpected and surprising events including important results that can form watershed in the development of a specific trend. In addition, the authors present a Fuzzy TOPSIS model which can be used in various cases to prioritize a number of weak signals and put them in order, so that the most important ones are likely to yield the wildcard in the future\nFindings: The authors presented a classification of wildcards with the same characteristics being natural wildcards, artificial wildcards (Degree 1) and artificial wildcards (Degree 2). The authors also prioritized the weak signals to deal with the most important ones and take appropriate action in advance so as to minimize possible damages and maximize the benefits of potential wildcards in an uncertain environment.\nOriginality/value: In this paper, the authors report on the prioritizing of weak signals by applying Fuzzy TOPSIS and classify wildcards. This is significant because, by identifying the most important weak signals, appropriate actions can be taken in the future if necessary. The paper should be of interest to readers in the area of participatory foresight.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Revisiting innovation adoption theory through electronic public relations
|
[
"Technology adoption",
"E-marketing",
"Innovation theory",
"IT innovation"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Today, public relation activities take place at the center of an expanding highly dynamic digital media environment. The advent of social networks such as Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, etc., in combination with the use of Web 2.0 applications (e.g. Berthon et al., 2012) both by public relations managers and stakeholder publics has altered the way public relations are practiced, leading to the introduction of the term \"electronic public relations\" (E-PR). Although several studies point out the significance of E-PR in the business context (e.g. Capriotti and Kuklinski, 2012; Estanyol, 2012; Kirat, 2007; LaMarre and Suzuki-Lambrecht, 2013; McAllister-Spooner, 2009; Men and Tsai, 2013; Sweetser and Kelleher, 2011; Yang and Taylor, 2010), only three papers (e.g. Alikilic and Atabek, 2012; Kitchen and Panopoulos, 2010; Robson and James, 2012) have examined the adoption-diffusion process in the public relations field. Moreover, there is a need to provide a holistic view of the adoption-diffusion process on personal, organizational, and environmental levels. Given the fact that adoption-diffusion precedes implementation, that is, the vast majority of the aforementioned studies research and determine the effectiveness of the use of E-PR, further investigation is mandated. Especially, what is missing from the existing literature is an integrated theoretical framework specific to E-PR adoption and the conceptualization and measurement of factors affecting E-PR adoption.\nTheoretical background: Since E-PR practice is bounded by social, economic, and technological environs, it has been significantly affected by the exponential growth of the internet and the advent of new Web 2.0 applications (e.g. Kitchen and Panopoulos, 2010). A thorough examination of the innovation literature (e.g. Cascio et al., 2010; Lynn et al., 2002; Pulkki-Brannstrom and Stoneman, 2013; Schillewaert et al., 2005; Waarts et al., 2002) along with E-PR studies (e.g. Estanyol, 2012; McAllister-Spooner, 2009) forms the basis of this research and reveals three major areas that underpin the diffusion process. More specifically, the adoption of an innovation by an organization can be detected at an individual level (e.g. Chen et al., 2009; Gallivan, 2003; Hameed et al., 2012a, b; Lee and Kozar, 2008; Leifer et al., 2001; Marcati et al., 2008; Panopoulos and Sarri, 2012; Schilling, 1998; Schillewaert et al.. 2005) since it has to be implemented by people working for a company, at the organizational level (e.g. Camison and Villar-Lopez, 2012; Damanpour and Schneider, 2009; Hameed et al., 2012a, b; Harrison and Waite, 2006; Jeon et al., 2006; Lee and Xia, 2006; Leifer et al., 2001; Moch and Morse, 1977; Sharma and Rai, 2003; Terlaak and Gong, 2008; Wu et al., 2003) since it will eventually have to be embraced by the whole organization in order to succeed in the contextual environment(e.g. O'Neill et al., 1998; Chau and Tam, 1997; Chwelos et al., 2001; Birkinshaw et al., 2008; Abdul Hameed and Counsell, 2012; Harrison and Waite, 2006; Lee and Xia, 2006; Premkumar and Ramamurthy, 1995; Quaddus and Hofmeyer, 2007; Terlaak and Gong, 2008; Wu et al., 2003) which itself is heavily influenced by the external developments. Therefore, we can hypothesize that:\nMethodology: After an extensive review of both the innovation and the public relations literature, an exploratory qualitative study was conducted. Three public relations academics, along with three highly experienced public relations practitioners, were interviewed and the outcomes were content analyzed using established qualitative data analysis techniques (e.g. Miles and Huberman, 1994). This method allows the specification of construct domains, the generation of sample items for new constructs, the examination of the validity of existing and adapted measures, and the assessment of the \"nomological\" validity of the conceptual model (e.g. Churchill, 1979). In most cases, existing scales from the literature with modifications to fit the context of the study were used, as shown in Table I.\nData analysis: The majority of practitioners participating in this research were female (58.4 percent) of which 31-35 years old (32.7 percent) holding a bachelor (38.2 percent) or a master degree (27.4 percent) with an average salary of 1,000-1,500 euros (39.8 percent), and one to four years of public relations' experience (37.1 percent). These findings are in alignment with the demographics reported by previous researchers (e.g. Kitchen and Panopoulos, 2010; Mywage.gr, 2016). In general, most of the companies in the Greek business sector have marketing departments with PR departments or positions reporting directly to them. As a result, PR positions can be the entry level in the companies' marketing department.\nDiscussion: The results of the study verify the three major factors that determine the diffusion process reported in the innovation literature (e.g. Carter et al., 2001; Harrison and Waite, 2006; Kaplan, 1999; Moore and Benbasat, 1996; Thong, 1999; Tornatzky et al., 1990). The E-PR adoption rate is influenced by personal, organizational, and external level elements, thus P1 was verified. As a result, the combination of individual characteristics and skills, organizational resources and decisions, stakeholder publics' demands and competitors' activities can each impact upon and determine E-PR adoption rates. The identification of individual characteristics along with the organizational characteristics and the environmental influences bridges the dominant macro-level focus of previous organizational level studies and the dominant micro-level focus of individual-level studies on innovation adoption in general but also on E-PR adoption.\nConclusions: Theoretical implications\n",
"role": "user"
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{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to shed light on the innovation adoption process taking place in the public relations field through the use of Web 2.0 applications and social network activities.\nDesign/methodology/approach: Innovation adoption of electronic public relations (E-PR) is examined at personal, organizational, and environmental levels by employing, for each one of the previous, a number of different sub-dimensions leading to the creation and verification of a hierarchical tree structure.\nFindings: E-PR innovation adoption can be influenced at personal, organizational, and environmental levels. Each of the aforementioned levels is hierarchically linked to a number of factors that can actually speed up the process.\nOriginality/value: Never before to the authors' knowledge the E-PR adoption process was examined as a hierarchical model bridging the innovation adoption literature with the public relations literature.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
The research challenge of French business schools: the case of the Grandes Ecoles
|
[
"Business schools",
"History",
"Organizations",
"Governance",
"France"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n__NO_TITLE__: Research is probably what people talk the most about in French academic institutions: within the faculty, of course, but also the administration. For the first group, it is either to stress its importance or to lament its excessive emphasis, to celebrate colleagues' achievements or to complain about the lack of resources, to debate about projects or to challenge the time spent on speculation on the cost of education. For the second group, the administration, there is a similar ambivalence, sometimes leading to heated discussion. The pros stress research as part of the mission of the institution they serve, as a way to gain recognition, and a necessary evil for ranking purpose. The cons consider research as a distraction from the main educational objective and as a waste of rare resources. Of course, there is a broader variety of attitudes towards research than the stereotypes I have referred to above. These attitudes are complex. First, they are influenced by the nature of the institutions where management research is undertaken. Second, they are affected by peoples' history, profile and training. Third, they are mediated by the stage in the person's career development. I will try to develop these themes in the following lines. However, before entering into my main argument, I will give some facts about the context of French business schools. Then, I will discuss the research imperatives that business schools are subject to. I will also describe the ambition that schools post publicly and the reality they experience. Finally, I will conclude by discussing the existing tensions within business schools and the challenges they will face in the future.\nFrench business schools: a brief history and context: French business schools, more precisely business education, are diverse in size, strategic positioning, legal status, and internal organization. On one hand, the standalone schools, the Grandes Ecoles, are the closest to what can be presented as the French generic business school. It has a permanent specialized faculty, is highly selective, and maintains frequent contacts with the business community through donations, executive training, and students' internships. There are 32 Grandes Ecoles members of the Management Chapter of an association, called the \"Conference des Grandes Ecoles.\" The \"Conferences\" is the most prestigious of them. Some of these schools are private; they are a minority among the top schools. Some others are public or semi-public. Most belong to the local Chambers of Commerce or are associated with the Ministry of Education. A large proportion of students enter these schools as third year university undergraduate, at the Bachelor level, after a competitive examination that they prepare for two years following the completion of the \"Baccalaureat\"[1]. Over the last 20 years, these schools have evolved from their traditional three years program, where undergraduate and graduate education is integrated, to a diversified and more lucrative offering of MS, MBAs, and executive education. Only a few offer doctorates. On the other hand, there are an equivalent number of University institutes (31), the \"Instituts d'Administration des Entreprises.\" They are better known under their acronym: IAE. These institutes, whilst belonging to larger public universities, enjoy some form of administrative freedom. They have an enrolment of 25,000 students, served by a staff 1,000 professors and part-time adjuncts from the business community. They offer undergraduate and graduate degrees, and are active in executive and doctoral education as well. Apart from their public status and the fact that they are departments of larger universities, their mission is similar to the Grandes Ecoles. In addition to these two large groups, Grandes Ecoles and \"Instituts d'Administration des Entreprises,\" most universities offer management training through their masters and doctoral programs. Some are very large, with several hundred enrolled students in management, such as the University of Paris-Dauphine. Some are a simple specialization of an economics track.In the following lines, I have chosen to concentrate on the 30 or so Grandes Ecoles. I will not deal with the University \"Institutes,\" even though some of my comments are relevant to these institutions and to more specialized University departments as well. I made this choice for the following reasons. The University institutes are a world apart. Organizational governance, personnel management, career advancement, and incentive structures have little flexibility and follow the rules dictated by the Ministry of Education. Furthermore, their research is highly dependent on public funding, which is part of a long tradition of university research. In contrast, the Grandes Ecoles offer a greater diversity of status and locations. For most of them, research is a relatively new concern and has become a major challenge. In addition, the Grandes Ecoles cover a significant part of business education in France with their 60,000 enrolled students, their 1,600 professors and their aggregated budget of EUR650 million.A new generation of scholars\nResearch as a posted priority: Recently, research is a posted priority in most French business schools. It is perceived as being an asset for facilitating the accreditation process that schools attempt to achieve successfully. It is an indicator, rightly or not, of faculty quality and international status. In the same vein, being ranked means more resources from sponsors, students and sometimes career rewards for the promoters. It is also important for ranking purpose. Depending on the results, it can either push not so well-known institutions to the front of the international scene, or discredit others. Convinced or not, the schools have to produce research. If not, attempting internationalization is perceived as being doomed to failure. In addition, research visibility, which is another problem that I will not attempt to discuss here, is a signaling device to prospective students. It is an indicator of the faculty influence and presence in world academic circles. Finally, research is an asset for attracting faculty. And, in an increasingly competitive environment, it is very helpful for recruiting new faculty. A research-orientated school always is in a more advantageous situation.Posted priority and prosaic reality\nPresent and future challenges: In the context that I have described, the question remains as to how research can be a priority with its limited resources. In France, only a handful of institutions can play the \"game\". With faculties becoming a scarce and increasingly expensive resource, a large majority of schools live on expedients. They \"sub-contract\" their research production to affiliated part-time faculties from French and overseas universities-adjunct faculties who do not teach, do not contribute to the school and its programs administration, but who do research, and sign in the name of their hosts.Other schools have made a more radical choice. Instead of covering the entire business field, they have put their all eggs into the one basket. They have opted for specialization and concentrated their force on a limited number of research areas. As long as the choice is right, these schools are on a path to higher visibility and recognition.One alternative that some schools are actively pursuing is the search for a closer association with selected industries and companies. For example, the present trend in French business schools is to create chairs. The chairs are developed in association with companies on a theme of common interest. As compensation, the companies finance the faculty salaries and fund research. This arrangement runs into a risk of \"managerialization.\" What the faculty does is directly linked to the sponsors' interests. In the case of non-compliance, contracts might not be renewed.Public funding, either from the new Agence Nationale pour la Recherche, the French Agency for Research, or from the European Union (EU) is a significant opportunity for supporting research in business schools. However, it seems that it can only be a marginal contribution, due to the bureaucratic overload it creates, and the EU bias away from management education towards the profit of more \"scientific\" disciplines.Finally, the most fungible and flexible source of funds is the schools' internally generated resources through tuition fees and executive education revenue. If research becomes a real and not only a posted priority, the French business school model seems to be at stake. Research, as a real priority, will have to be implemented with rigor. With an increasingly expensive faculty which devotes less time and effort to educationally profitable activities, to the benefit of research, schools in the future will lack the required resources to fulfill their ambitions. It is likely that only a few will be able to maintain and reinforce their research momentum and prevail. And this is the real challenge.\n",
"role": "user"
},
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"content": "Purpose: - The purpose of this paper is to cover the emergence, history, and development of French business schools. It is a reflection on organizational tensions, more particularly within the Grandes Ecoles system, that the challenge of research has created following the schools internationalization of the last 20 years.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - Institutional theory, social dynamics, and history provide the frame of analysis.\nFindings: - Internationalization of the French business schools context has transformed the rules of the game. Ability to produce international quality publications has become a competitive necessity to attract faculty and students. Research is now a priority to gain international credibility, hire new faculty and perform successfully in the accreditation process. The shift from teaching institutions to international and research-orientated business schools has created tensions and new challenges that need to be met.\nOriginality/value: - The paper provides an historical account of the French business schools evolution and of their new research imperative. It stresses the governance and strategic issues this new imperative creates.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
How unequal is the size of middle class in the rural urban areas of Punjab province: Evidence from micro data analysis
|
[
"Public choice",
"Weighted composite index",
"Middle class"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: The term \"middle class\" is universally attractive and frequently used in social sciences due to its socioeconomic insights. Normally, it is defined either with reference to consumption patterns or with income and occupational status (Lopez-Calva and Ortiz-Juarez, 2011). Furthermore, a significant part of the literature devoted to the middle class is well justified by its potential influence on social and economic welfare (Gilbert, 2003). Middle class is considered as the engine of economic growth as it promotes entrepreneurship, changes the magnitude of consumers' need and pushes the policy and institutional changes in an economically favorable direction (Castellani and Parent, 2011).\n2. Theoretical foundations of the middle class: A vast body of literature deals with the concepts, theories and empirical work on the middle class in capitalist societies. Adam Smith and Karl Marx laid the foundation stones of the concept of class. Adam Smith argues that there are three basic social classes: landowners, who live by renting their land; wage earners; and capitalists, who live off the profits they make. Karl Marx describes social classes with their typical relationships to the property ownership and the means of production (Gilbert, 2003). In capitalist societies, laborers sell their labor to capitalists. In the Marx scheme other than the landlord and laborers, intermediary producers are also included, who are typically small manufacturers, shopkeepers, and independent skilled workers (Sridharan, 2004). Both, Adam Smith and Karl Marx consider that the workers produce the value, not the capitalists.\n3. Measuring the middle class in Punjab: Like poverty middle class is also a multidimensional concept. Commonly two methods are used for identification and measurement, i.e. absolute terms and relative measures. Pure economic approach uses monthly income or expenditure boundaries to determine the middle class.\n4. A refined measurement tool to determine the middle class of Punjab: The concept of class has many dimensions such as economic (wealth, income and occupation), political (status and power), cultural (values, beliefs, lifestyle) and educational. As pointed out by Tilkidjiev (1998), it is not sufficient to classify middle class on the basis of wealth. Middle income is purely an economic term and falls mainly in the sociological domain which makes it multidimensional. The middle class has certain intellectual, political and social connotations along with the economic ones that differentiate it from the poor.\n5. Conclusion: It is always a big challenge to define and measure purely a social concept like the middle class. Like poverty, it has various dimensions at different levels of economic development. The existing definitions differ from each other in terms of their rationale and approach which makes the term vague. Mostly middle class is defined as a class between the upper and lower classes but boundaries of the middle class are still an ongoing debate.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: Strengthening the middle class has become a major policy goal in both developed and developing economies due to its social, economic, cultural and political importance. Keeping in view the importance of middle class, the purpose of this paper is to measure the size of the middle class in the province of Punjab (the biggest province of Pakistan by population).\nDesign/methodology/approach: The study calculates a weighted composite index to measure the size of the middle class in the province of Punjab using the microcosmic data set, and the Pakistan Social and Living Standards Measurement 2010-2011 survey data set. The index is composed of five major socioeconomic dimensions, that is, income, occupation, education, lifestyle and housing. The above-mentioned dimensions are weighted through \"principal component analysis\".\nFindings: The results show that 46 percent of the population of Punjab falls in the middle class. Furthermore, the findings explain that middle class is generally an urban phenomenon in Punjab with relatively high level of education and non-manual occupations.\nOriginality/value: Only a limited research is available for measuring the middle class in Pakistan. The current research is an attempt to fill this gap by providing some important insight to the research in this area.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Exploring the venture capitalist - entrepreneur relationship: evidence from India
|
[
"Entrepreneurship",
"Agency theory",
"Developing countries",
"Trust",
"Venture capital",
"Confidence in partner cooperation"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: Entrepreneurship is vital for economic growth as they create wealth by generating employment (Acs et al., 2008; Fairlie and Chatterji, 2013). Promoting entrepreneurship is therefore key to address the myriad socio economic problems faced by such countries (Heap, 2008), specifically for emerging countries like India which needs to create 10-15 million jobs per year for the next ten years in order to create gainful employment for its youth (GOI Planning Commission Report, 2012).\n2. Literature review: India needs to create about 10-15 mn jobs per year. Owing to the important role played by entrepreneurship in creating employment and wealth, it's absolutely important to offer a boost to entrepreneurship in India. Given the reluctance of traditional modes of finance for funding high risk startups (Thampy, 2010), venture capital has emerged as an important source of capital. But, the Indian venture capital industry is relatively new. In 2013, USA accounted for 68 per cent of the global VC activity and Europe for approx. 15 per cent, while India accounted for only 3 per cent (EY Report, 2014). In 2013, the total invested capital by VCs in USA was approx. $33 bn and the number of deals done was close to 3,500. Contrary to this, India saw VC investment close to $1.8 bn and 222 deals (EY Report, 2014). The discrepancy indicates that India is still in the nascent stages of VC activity.\n3. Research approach: 3.1. Research design\n4. Findings: Findings are presented along two categories: early stage relationships and growth stage relationships. Table II summarizes the data analysis.\n5. Cross-case analysis and discussion: This sub section makes a comparative analysis of the dynamics between early stage and growth stage relationships. Table III depicts a summary of the findings.\n6. Conclusion and implications: The primary objective of this study was to investigate the role of control and trust in developing confidence in partner cooperation in VC-Entrepreneur relationship operating in an agency environment. To attain this objective, a qualitative research design was adopted (multiple case studies). The study was based out of India.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: Maintaining cooperation and avoiding opportunism is essential for a healthy venture capitalist (VC) - entrepreneur relationship. Therefore, the purpose of this paper is to explore the role of control and trust for developing a cooperative VC-entrepreneur relationship in an agency environment in the Indian context.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The study adopts a multiple case study approach to investigate ten VC-entrepreneur dyads. It uses data collected from both primary and secondary sources. Content analysis was used as the data treatment technique.\nFindings: The empirical evidence indicates that VC-entrepreneur relationships emerging in the early stages suffer from low agency risks and use more of relational mechanisms to curb opportunism and develop cooperation while relationships at an advanced stage suffer from higher agency risks and employ more of control mechanisms to address it.\nPractical implications: The findings can be utilized to enhance cooperation in VC-entrepreneur relationship by identifying the appropriate context to apply relational or control mechanisms, which would eventually lead to better performance of the venture.\nOriginality/value: This distinction results in the development of a theoretical model which shows how the dual governance mechanisms of control and trust interact with one another to affect confidence in partner cooperation as an entrepreneurial venture raises multiple rounds of venture capital across various stages. The data collected from Indian VC-entrepreneur dyads offers a rich description of the relationship dynamics across the Indian entrepreneurial ecosystem.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
Frontline employees' cognitive appraisals and well-being in the face of customer aggression in an Eastern, collectivist culture
|
[
"Services",
"Frontline employees",
"Cognitive appraisals",
"Collectivist culture",
"Customer aggression",
"Psychological well-being"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Research, in recent times, has focused on employees as responsible for triggering customer dissatisfaction, anger and even rage. Frontline services employees (FLEs) thus are portrayed as perpetrators, with customers as the victims (Bougie et al., 2003; McColl-Kennedy et al., 2009; Surachartkuntonkum et al., 2013). Yet, the very people that a service organisation seeks to serve are increasingly the perpetrators of aggressive, deviant behaviours that lead to employee stress and burnout, especially among FLEs who face customers every day, need to achieve ever-increasing sales and service targets and must reconcile the demands of supervisors and customers (Ben-Zur and Yagil, 2005; Chan and Wan, 2012; Harris and Daunt, 2013). For example, when JetBlue flight attendant Steven Slater responded to an argument with a rude passenger by leaping out the emergency chute, shouting \"That's it. I've had it\" (Leach, 2010), it attracted widespread attention around the world, even prompting an re-creation on YouTube. In Jakarta, Indonesia, passengers frustrated with the service provided by a budget airline went so far as to smash its offices at the Soekarno-Hatta airport (Febrina, 2009). In Australia, the Community and Public Sector Union (CPSU, 2012) is taking customer aggression very seriously, noting that \"official statistics revealed 5,900 reports of aggressive incidents towards Centre link, Medicare and Child Support Agency workers in the 2011-2012 financial year - up 400 on the year before\".\nConceptual development: Customer aggression and FLEs' cognitive appraisal\nMethodology: Participants\nFindings: Consistent with literature on stressful life events, in general, our data analysis revealed various cognitive appraisals adopted by employees and their consequences for well-being in encounters with aggressive customers. More importantly, perhaps, is that our analysis identified several contingency factors (moderators) that either ameliorated or worsened the impact of customer aggression on the psychological well-being of FLEs. Figure 1 depicts a summary of results.\nDiscussion: From a theoretical perspective, the findings in an Eastern collectivist culture context support the generalization of the theory of stress and coping (Lazarus and Folkman, 1984) by showing how FLEs interpret customer aggression as \"threats\" or violations, relevant to their well-being. This is the first paper that uses the stress and coping theory to explain FLEs psychological well-being in the face of customer aggression. The analysis highlights five cognitive appraisal categories - threats to self-esteem, physical well-being, work goals, fairness perceptions and control - that negatively impact FLEs' well-being when confronted with customer aggression. The interview data reveal that following their cognitive appraisal processes, FLEs experience negative psychological well-being, including negative affect, anxiety, depression and stress. Thus, the work demands associated with having to deal with customer aggression on a regular basis is appraised by employees as a threat to fundamental human needs (Schneider and Bowen, 1999), harmful and evocative of some psychological distress.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: This research aims to examine the cognitive appraisals of frontline employees (FLEs) when dealing with aggressive customers and the impact on their well-being, as well as several moderator effects, in a collectivist, Eastern culture.\nDesign/methodology/approach: A critical incident technique reveals the cognitive appraisal of FLEs who had recently experienced customer aggression. Data were collected through qualitative, in-depth interviews with 35 FLEs in customer-facing roles in Thailand.\nFindings: The FLEs perceived threats to self-esteem, physical well-being, goal completion at work, fairness or equity and sense of control when dealing with customer aggression. These cognitive appraisals affected their psychological well-being in the form of negative affectivity, anxiety, depression and stress. Importantly, factors that moderate (exacerbate or weaken) the impact of customer aggression on cognitive appraisal, and cognitive appraisal on psychological well-being were revealed, including \"customer is always right\" philosophy, social status, public versus private context and social support.\nPractical implications: Organisations should pay more attention to FLEs' psychological well-being and how they interpret and deal with customers' misbehaviour and aggression. The research identifies factors that moderate the impact of customer aggression on psychological well-being.\nOriginality/value: This is the first empirical paper that has examined how FLEs cope with customer aggression in a collectivist, south-east Asian context where social norms calibrate FLEs' responses to customer aggression. It is also the first research that adopts a contingency approach to understanding how FLEs cope with customer aggression - i.e. when faced with customer aggression, under what contingency conditions do FLEs cognitive appraisals have a stronger or weaker impact on their psychological well-being?\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
Employees' agency in the formalisation of knowledge-intensive business service processes: A cross-case comparison
|
[
"Agency",
"Formalization",
"Knowledge-intensive business services (KIBS)",
"Value-creation processes"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: Service firms must be able to flexibly support customers' value creation (Brozovic et al., 2016). Often such flexibility depends on employees' agency, that is, employees' ability to exercise individual judgment in value-creation processes (Feldman and Pentland, 2003) in order to match the firm's and the customers' processes and resources in meaningful ways (John et al., 2006). Employees' agency plays a major role in value-creation processes related to knowledge-intensive business services (KIBS) (hereafter KIBS processes), such as sales and delivery processes in software, business-to-business (B2B) consultancy and research and development (R&D) services (Strambach, 2008; Aarikka-Stenroos and Jaakkola, 2012). However, many firms are formalising their KIBS processes to increase efficiency and quality (Jaakkola, 2011; Rahikka et al., 2011; Bettiol et al., 2015). This paper defines formalisation as intentional efforts to make service sales and delivery processes more uniform and replicable by limiting variation and generalising knowledge (e.g. Organ and Greene, 1981; Feldman and Pentland, 2003; Pentland and Feldman, 2008). The study aims to identify and explain how different kinds of KIBS processes can be formalised without excessively limiting employees' agency, and thus flexibility in value creation.\n2. Theoretical framework: 2.1 Employees' agency and flexibility in KIBS processes\n3. Research methods and data: 3.1 Research design\n4. Findings: 4.1 Overview of the aims and outcomes of formalisation projects in the three firms\n5. Discussion: This study reveals how formalisation can be carried out in processes which are generally viewed as requiring high levels of agency and flexibility (Robertson and Swan, 2003; Werr and Stjernberg, 2003; Alvesson, 2004). The study provides empirical evidence regarding ways to formalise a variety of KIBS processes without harmfully limiting employees' agency and thus flexibility in value creation. The findings demonstrate that there is no \"right\" way, but successful formalisation approaches vary between and within firms. These findings reflect the need to analyse service processes based on their distinct characteristics rather than generic sector-specific qualities (Strambach, 2008; Consoli and Elche-Hortelano, 2010; Pina and Tether, 2016). The findings question earlier assumptions that only some KIBS can benefit from formalisation (Consoli and Elche-Hortelano, 2010). By revealing differences in employees' agency in successful formalisation projects, the study indicates that finding a way to support employees' agency at a sufficient level is a key question which deserves more attention.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to identify and explain how different kinds of knowledge-intensive business service processes (KIBS processes) can be formalised without excessively limiting employees' agency, and thus flexibility in value creation. Previous research acknowledges the need to balance flexibility and formalisation but does not investigate how employees achieve this balance in various types of KIBS processes.\nDesign/methodology/approach: This paper employs a qualitative multiple-case study approach to compare employees' agency in six successful formalisation projects targeting different types of KIBS processes in three firms. Through a systematic mapping of employees' agency across the cases, this study reveals alternative patterns of formalisation that enable agency.\nFindings: The findings reveal notable differences in employees' agency in the studied cases. When KIBS processes were scale intensive and/or the culture-favoured conformity, formalisation projects were centrally organised, and employees obeyed codified process templates, even though some agency remained. When KIBS processes were smaller scale and/or the culture-favoured freedom, employees conducted formalisation projects autonomously and retained higher levels of agency in formalised KIBS processes.\nPractical implications: Firms and business units providing KIBS should choose their formalisation approaches locally based on the scalability of the KIBS process, their employees' skill levels, knowledge bases and culture. Choosing the right approach enables flexibility while striving for efficient processes.\nOriginality/value: Previous studies suggest that formalisation benefits only some KIBS, but this comparative approach shows that a variety of KIBS processes benefit from formalisation if the formalisation approach is tailored to the context. Alternative patterns of formalisation are revealed to guide further empirical research on the topic.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
The case for sustained investment in state longitudinal integrated data systems: The value of extended time span coverage
|
[
"Administrative records",
"Career pathway",
"Employment outcome",
"Longitudinal integrated data system",
"Path dependency"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Prospects for future federal investment in state data system integration allowing better tracking of individuals over time will depend upon whether the strength and depth of the case made for doing provide justification to replace popular competing alternatives. This study delivers new evidence of the value of integrated longitudinal state education and workforce data systems, through extended time span coverage, to inform and improve the effectiveness of future high impact education and workforce expenditure policy decisions. It links already-in-place administrative longitudinal educational, labor, and related socio-economic data to demonstrate the value of the extended time coverage (29 years) on better understanding individuals' education and career paths. It is one of the first to demonstrate the value of extended time span coverage in a longitudinal state integrated data system through econometric modeling.\nLiterature review: Longitudinal data in measuring higher education return on investment\nTheoretical framework and hypotheses: The study relies on the path dependency theory originally developed by economists to explain technology adoption processes and industry evolution; it is also applicable to labor markets. The theoretical ideas have had a strong influence on evolutionary economics (Veblen, 1898; Nelson and Winter, 1982). As Sewell (1996) suggests, path dependence means \"that what happened at an earlier point in time will affect the possible outcomes of a sequence of events occurring at a later point in time\" (pp. 262-263). Indeed, history matters. To estimate current and future employment and earnings outcomes of the most recent education credential, previous work experience, job search, and educational history all matter.\nMethodology: The cohort study design and the data\nDescriptive findings: As noted by Stevens and Zhang (2014), the mix of individuals included in a particular reference year's count almost certainly differs from the composition in other annual counts. One way to understand the importance of this from a decision relevance perspective is to show the distribution of the cohort members based on how many years each person appear out of the maximum 29 annual observations. For example, a person may appear in any three years, not necessarily consecutive, and is counted as having appeared in three of the 29 possible annual snapshots. Figure 2 shows that around 4,000, or about 17 percent, of the 23,717 cohort members that appear at any time in this state UI wage record data file appear in each of the 28 years from 1985 through 2012. Note that individuals join the labor force in different years, this distribution could therefore be skewed. As a consequence there are individuals whose maximum number of appearances is limited to less than 28.\nFindings from the econometric modeling: Overall the models have a good model fit with a highly significant log likelihood Wald test statistics. The hierarchical models (mixed-effect logistic regression models and mixed-effect multi-level regression models) appear to be better models than, respectively, regular logistic regression models and linear regression models, according to the highly significant log likelihood ratio tests statistics and random-effect parameters shown at the bottom portion of Table II.\nLimitation of the study and future studies: As one of the first to demonstrate the value of extended time span coverage in a longitudinal state integrated data system through econometric modeling, the study, as a pioneer, has limitations. First, the data cover seven different sources, but college degree information between 1984 and 1993 was not available. This data gap limits the explanation power for those who were awarded degrees very soon after entering community college in 1984 and it limits the study observations for degree holders.\nConclusion: Summary of findings\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to illustrate the value of extended time span coverage of state longitudinal education and workforce data system to inform and improve the effectiveness of future high impact expenditure decisions.\nDesign/methodology/approach: It used an analytical 29-year data file created by the author that links seven already-in-place education and workforce administrative record sources. Relying on the path dependency theory, multi-level mixed-effect logistic and multi-level mixed-effect linear regression models are used to test three hypotheses.\nFindings: The findings are consistent with the hypotheses: inclusion of the multiple steps along a post-secondary education pathway and prior job histories are both critical to understanding workforce outcomes mechanisms; it takes time for the employment outcome effect to be evident and strong following education attainment.\nPractical implications: The study concludes with research limitations and implications for decision makers to call for retaining and investing in administrative records with extended time span coverage, particularly for the already-in-place historical administrative records.\nOriginality/value: The paper is one of the first to demonstrate the value of extended time span coverage in a longitudinal state integrated data system through econometric modeling, using longitudinally integrated data linking seven administrative records covering continuously for 29 years. No matter for prior education or employment pathway, it is only through extended time span coverage that employment outcomes can be well measured and the rich nuances interpreting the mechanisms of education return on investment can be revealed.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Effects of foreign language and task scenario on relevance assessment
|
[
"Information retrieval",
"Languages",
"Reading"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1 Cross-linguality and reading: For people in cultures all around the world, competence in more than one language is quite common. The European cultural area is typical in that respect. Many people, especially those engaged in intellectual activities, are familiar with more than one language and have some acquaintance with several. People are naturally multilingual if given the opportunity to acquire several languages in natural settings.Languages are tools tied to tasks. For any one task, typically people have one language they prefer to use it in. In general, while people may have passing or working knowledge of more than one language, it is not common for people to have equal competence in many: the first language, or the school language, or the workplace language will tend to be stronger for whatever task the language in question typically is employed for. And what language is the preferred tool for what task is not necessarily fixed for an individual - for some tasks the workplace language may be better suited, for some tasks, the individual's first language. In general, it is safe to claim that linguistic competence is not a binary matter: people know a language to some extent, greater or lesser. Most published work on multilingual or cross-lingual information access, however, assumes that users either know a language or they do not. The effects of near-native vs native competence in a language have not been studied for the purposes of information access to any appreciable extent. In the following, we will investigate the difference of relevance assessment in the first language vs doing the same in the second language.\n2 Empirical evaluation of cross-lingual retrieval: Since 1992 the annual Text Retrieval Conference (TREC)[1] organized by the National Institute of Standards and Technology in the USA, the most important forum for evaluating information retrieval system performance, has organized a cross-lingual retrieval evaluation track and an interactive retrieval track which evaluates various aspects of human operation of information retrieval systems; since year 2000 the European Commission in cooperation with TREC has organized the yearly Cross-language Evaluation Forum (CLEF)[2] which has gathered research groups interested in experimenting with European languages and also incorporates an interactive track (i-CLEF)[3]; since year 1998 the Japanese evaluation project NII-NACSIS Test Collection for IR Systems (NTCIR)[4] has semi-annually evaluated task-oriented cross-lingual performance of retrieval systems. All of these evaluation platforms have a common empirical ground, in that they distribute given topics to participants who then submit results based on their system performance for judging by the organizers. In the following experiments we have used test queries, test collections, and relevance assessments established for them in the interactive track of CLEF. The test protocol for that year's interactive experiments are given in detail in an overview paper (Gonzalo and Oard, 2003).\n3 Query construction and assessment environment - towards real-life scenarios: 3.1 Task-based approach to query construction, relevance assessment and evaluation\n4 Relevance assessment in the information access process: While we do know that reading about strange things in strange genres takes more effort (Zwaan, 1993) than reading about them in familiar genres or familiar cultural contexts, and that reading a language we do not know well is hard work, and something we only attempt if we believe it is worth the effort, we do not know how those sensations of expended effort translate to the information access situation.Studies on user-centred relevance assessment have previously shown that users take a very large number of factors into account when judging usefulness of documents (Barry, 1994; Schamber, 1994; Barry and Schamber, 1998) - but the interplay of processing a second language and judging the various factors has not been studied. Relating the various tentative factors expounded on in the literature to cognitive processing will no doubt provide further insight into the relative weight of them; cross-linguistic processing will be a way to tease the factors apart. This present study is a first step in that direction.One of the major tasks for a user of information access systems is to judge or assess the trustworthiness and usefulness of documents in a retrieved set. Information access systems deliver results which on a good day hold up to 40 per cent relevant items (cf. e.g. results from TREC in recent years[5]) as per standard evaluative measures involving topical relevance as originally formally defined by Cleverdon et al. (1966). Relevance has been a debated concept in information retrieval research ever since it was first operationalised, and it can be analysed in various ways (cf., e.g. Mizzaro (1997); Saracevic (1996); Cosijn and Ingwersen (2000) who discuss various components of relevance). In recent experiments, a graded scale of relevance has been adopted by many sites (cf. NTCIR[6]; Kekalainen and Jarvelin, 2002). However relevance is defined, in an information access situation it is up to the reader to refine the retrieved results for the particular task at hand, to winnow out the good stuff from the bad in a selection step of interaction with information (Hearst, 1999; Oard, 2001). This is a reading task of sorts. It involves judging documents by information from document title alone or by a brief glance at the document. We do know that readers in general are efficient and consistent in performing this task and that reading is a multi-faceted task where several different strategies can be employed (Vipond and Hunt, 1984). We know that familiarity and practice with a domain improves reading comprehension and reader confidence in general, but document assessment situations have yet to be studied in detail: we do know some of the features a reader focuses on but not all of them, nor how they are combined to make a relevance judgment. And how this task, as yet fairly unstudied, is influenced by the introduction of several languages or by surrounding context of information need or information seeking task we know even less of.\n5 Experiment methodology and study set-up: 5.1 Experiment overview\n6 Results: 6.1 Assessment effort\n7 Discussion: 7.1 Foreign-language texts took longer to assess and were assessed less well\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: - This paper aims to investigate how readers assess relevance of retrieved documents in a foreign language they know well compared with their native language, and whether work-task scenario descriptions have effect on the assessment process.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - Queries, test collections, and relevance assessments were used from the 2002 Interactive CLEF. Swedish first-language speakers, fluent in English, were given simulated information-seeking scenarios and presented with retrieval results in both languages. Twenty-eight subjects in four groups were asked to rate the retrieved text documents by relevance. A two-level work-task scenario description framework was developed and applied to facilitate the study of context effects on the assessment process.\nFindings: - Relevance assessment takes longer in a foreign language than in the user first language. The quality of assessments by comparison with pre-assessed results is inferior to those made in the users' first language. Work-task scenario descriptions had an effect on the assessment process, both by measured access time and by self-report by subjects. However, effects on results by traditional relevance ranking were detectable. This may be an argument for extending the traditional IR experimental topical relevance measures to cater for context effects.\nOriginality/value: - An extended two-level work-task scenario description framework was developed and applied. Contextual aspects had an effect on the relevance assessment process. English texts took longer to assess than Swedish and were assessed less well, especially for the most difficult queries. The IR research field needs to close this gap and to design information access systems with users' language competence in mind.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Large institutional investors and the pressure to manage earnings surrounding seasoned equity offerings
|
[
"Blockholders",
"Discretionary accruals",
"Ownership",
"Earnings management",
"Large institutional investors",
"Seasoned equity offerings (SEOs)"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: It is a well-known fact that seasoned equity offerings (SEOs) represent a major extra-fund raising source for the publicly listed companies (Andrikopoulos, 2009). In addition to other corporate-event forms, the new equity-issuing activities appear to have a deep effect on the share-liquidity level in the financial market (Myers and Majluf, 1984; Beaupain and Joliet, 2011), which could, in turn, affect the offering firms' stock market prices' volatility (Jones et al., 1994; Huang and Masulis, 2003). In this regard, the large shareholders' equity holdings are liable to undergo certain changes during the entire post-issue period, thus leading to a change in the issuing firms' shareholding structure. In fact, SEOs constitute a real opportunity for the emergence of new institutional investors or the strengthening of some majority institutional shareholders' power. In this respect, Chemmanur et al. (2009) have noted that, in so far as equity offerings are concerned, the importance of institutional investors in financial markets has dramatically increased over the recent years.\n2. Literature review and hypotheses development: Previously undertaken research studies have shown that SEOs are highly associated to earnings management (Teoh et al., 1998; Yoon and Miller, 2002; Klibi, 2006; Cohen and Zarowin, 2010; Guthrie and Sokolowsky, 2010). In fact, the incentive to manage reported earnings turns out to be crucially important around the time of a SEO (Rangan, 1998). Indeed, the issuing firms are more incited to manage earnings upwards during the year preceding a planned issue of seasoned equity stocks for the sake of ensuring the SEO bid success. Through such an advantageous accounting policy, they actually aim to maintain a convenient position in the stock market so as to be able to sell the issued stocks, especially in an economy where the stock-exchange indicators are strongly tied to accounting indicators (Wang, 2014; Boone and White, 2015). What matters most is convincing the actual and potential investors of the opportunity that represents the purchase of a newly issued share.\n3. Data and methodology: 3.1 Data\n4. Main empirical results: 4.1 Descriptive analysis\n5. Conclusion: This paper has been designed to examine the large institutional investors' influence on earnings management within a specific SEO context. The objectives of this work are twofold: in the first place, testing the earnings management hypothesis validity and, in the second place, identifying the monitoring role exerted by large institutional ownership along with their ability to restrict the earnings management practices as conducted during the pre-SEO conclusion year.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to investigate the monitoring role exerted by large institutional investors and their ability to restrict the earnings management practices conducted around seasoned equity offerings (SEOs).\nDesign/methodology/approach: The sample includes 130 French SEOs by non-regulated firms during 2004-2015. The authors used various cross-section, univariate and multivariate tests using several proxies for earnings management. They attempt to highlight that firms issuing SEOs are more able to manage earnings around SEOs owing to the predominance of large speculative institutional investors. Noteworthy, the monitoring role exerted by sophisticated institutional investors turns out to restrict the earnings management opportunities surrounding a SEOs event.\nFindings: The results show that the issuing firms tend to manipulate earnings in an upward trend with respect to the year preceding the SEO offer. Thus, a special attention has been drawn on the fact that the issuing companies strive to prove their ability to manage earnings around SEOs in presence of large speculative institutional investors.\nPractical implications: The results provide useful insights into the role different types of institutional investors play in terms of enhancing both governance and accounting information quality.\nOriginality/value: This paper adds to the literature questioning the evidence that institutional investor activism frequently engage in misleading earnings management around corporate events. The authors provide an alternative explanation for earnings management around SEOs in the French context.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
How guilt affects consumption intention: the role of rumination, emotional support and shame
|
[
"Rumination",
"Feedback",
"Consumption intention",
"Emotional support",
"Guilt",
"Shame"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Although consumption may be fun (Holbrook and Hirschman, 1982) and sometimes even a source of well-being (Sirianni and Lastovicka, 2011), it may also induce negative emotions such as fear, anger, sadness or disgust (Havlena and Holbrook, 1986). Guilt represents such a negative emotion that can derive from consumption. Many consumption episodes such as buying unnecessary or frivolous products (Strahilevitz and Myers, 1998; Kivetz and Keinan, 2006; Mishra and Mishra, 2011), eating tasty food (Wansink and Chandon, 2007; Mohr et al., 2012) or overbuying (Kivetz and Simonson, 2002) can lead people to feel guilt in their everyday lives.\nTheoretical background on guilt, rumination and emotional support: Guilt and rumination\nStudy 1: The first study aims to test H1, H2 and H3 and investigates how guilt feelings and rumination affect the extent to which consumers seek emotional support.\nStudy 2: testing the effects of emotional support: As guilt is considered an aversive emotion, people need to regulate this feeling. Regulating guilt entails a wide range of behaviours and may, for instance, be accomplished by seeking to make amends or rectify the situation in an attempt to repair the damage caused by the guilt-inducing behaviour (Dahl et al., 2005; Tangney and Dearing, 2002). Importantly, one way of regulating guilt could be choosing not to consume the product causing these feelings; guilt regulation may thus involve a reduction of intention to readopt the behaviour that caused guilt feelings. However, remaining unanswered is the question of whether this reduction in intention to readopt guilt-inducing behaviour changes according to what peers think of and say about it. In other words, remaining to be examined is whether the valence of the feedback received when seeking emotional support matters in consumption intentions.\nGeneral discussion: Although consumption can commonly lead consumers to feel the negative emotion of guilt, research on the effect of guilt-inducing consumption is rather scarce. Specifically, aside from Yi and Baumgartner (2004), no study addresses how consumers regulate their guilt. We show here that consumers regulate their guilt by seeking peers to talk to about their feelings and demonstrate that the (positive or negative) valence of the feedback they receive affects their post-feedback guilt, which, in turn, affects their shame and their intentions to consume the guilt-inducing product or service again. Taken together, these results extend previous research in several ways and offer important implications for academics and marketers.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: This paper aims to determine how consumers may regulate their guilt through rumination and emotional support and how such regulation affects their consumption. Compelling research indicates that consumption may sometimes induce guilt. Social-psychological literature suggests that a potential way for consumers to regulate their consumption-related guilt is to seek emotional support.\nDesign/methodology/approach: Two studies, which measure (Study 1) and manipulate (Study 2) guilt, investigate how guilt and rumination affect emotional support and subsequent consumption.\nFindings: The results show that guilt and rumination interact and prompt individuals to seek emotional support. The valence (positive or negative) of feedback they receive affects and interacts with their guilt to affect their intention to consume the guilt-inducing product again. Shame is shown to mediate the effect of post-feedback guilt on consumption intentions.\nResearch limitations/implications: The results extend previous research on guilt by emphasizing emotional support seeking as a specific way of coping in response to guilt feelings and shame as an outcome of guilt. Moreover, the present research shows that guilt can affect behavioural intentions, an effect that surprisingly has not been previously identified in literature.\nPractical implications: For brands and retailers providing guilt-inducing products, the results suggest that providing emotional support - for instance through reinsurance messages - may have positive effects on consumer emotions and intentions.\nOriginality/value: Using two different methods, the research findings offer deeper understanding of how guilt is related to cognitions such as rumination, to emotions such as shame and to behavioural intentions.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Assessing the relationship between patient safety culture and EHR strategy
|
[
"Key performance indicators",
"Information technology",
"Patient safety",
"Improvement models",
"Information management",
"Organizational culture",
"Employee involvement",
"Electronic health record",
"Meaningful use",
"High-reliability organizations"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services' electronic health record (EHR) incentive program, part of the HITECH Act of 2009, is designed to increase hospitals' \"Meaningful Use\" (MU) of information technologies (Blumenthal and Tavenner, 2010; CMS, 2010). The MU program is structured to roll out in stages, financially incentivizing hospitals to accelerate their EHR implementation timelines. In particular, the MU program promotes the implementation of EHR functionalities that are expected to lead to better care quality, reduce medical errors, avoid unnecessary cost, and a promote a patient safety cultural norm among caregivers.\nConceptual framework: Patient safety culture\nMethods: Data sources\nFindings: First-level units were front-line staff delivering patient care, hospital staff whose work impacts patient safety, hospital-employed physicians, and managers. In the final two models assessing perception (patient safety grade) and an objective measure (number of errors reported) of patient safety, there were 79,188 and 79,578 respondents, respectively. The hospitals were the second-level units in the analysis. The same 147 facilities were represented in both of the final models. The minimum number of respondents in both analyses was 20 and the maximums were 3,450 and 3,520. The average number of respondents for the patient safety grade analysis was 538.2 and for the objective, number of errors reported analysis it was 541.3.\nDiscussion and implications: The results did not support H1 that hospitals' EHR adoption would have a positive relationship with their patient safety culture. The results partially support H2 that hospitals that achieve EHR MU earlier than comparable facilities will have a stronger positive relationship to their patient safety culture than other hospitals. For both hypotheses, the results suggest that the adoption of EHR MU and early adoption of these capabilities hold a negative association to hospital's number of patient safety events reported. However, this relationship was not present in providers' perceptions of overall patient safety cultures as measured in patient safety culture grades and suggests that patient safety culture can be impacted through the adoption and use of EHRs. These mixed results suggest that our understanding of the EHR-patient safety culture relationship is still emergent and in need of further research. Furthermore, the best-of-breed approach was associated with fewer patient safety events, suggesting that one single system use is not required. On one hand, it may seem that a single EHR system may work more seamlessly, yet the results indicate that a customized approach achieved through using multiple vendors serves to provide care with fewer errors.\nLimitations: There are several limitations to this study. First, no definitive, causal relationship between the use of EHRs and improved patient safety culture can be made as this is not longitudinal and does not use instrumental variables. Nevertheless, the intention of this study was to identify and clarify the relationship between EHR strategy and patient safety culture, and it did succeed to that extent. Organizational culture is a complex and subjective concept, and measurement is challenging. The provider-level data are self-reported which may also introduce favorable response bias into the results. That the self-reported overall grades tended to be better than the objective counts may be evidence of this phenomenon. One important takeaway is that researchers should gather both types of information and rely on the objective counts as a first preference. Likewise, despite the clear MU criteria of EHRs, variation in the systems used, rates of implementation, and strategy for system adoption may influence the outcomes of interest. Additionally, the potential for survey response bias is present in the EHR adoption variables as well as the possibility of underreporting of errors in hospitals due to fear of punishment. Finally, patient safety culture is a complex construct that is likely impacted by many un-measurable factors.\nConclusion and future directions: Empirically demonstrating the link between increase technological capabilities and cultural phenomenon (patient safety culture) is critical to justify ongoing funding from federal and state programs. As this study is not designed to assess causality, it cannot suggest a temporal relationship between EHR and patient safety culture. Additionally, the employee perception data are self-reported. Future exploration might be able to extend this inquiry by determining whether it is a strong patient safety culture within a hospital that acts to frame the EHR strategies as a mechanism for patient safety or if, alternatively, an EHR system mechanically focuses organizational attention toward specific care routines, therein impacting the overall patient safety culture of the hospital.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to explore the relationship between hospitals' electronic health record (EHR) adoption characteristics and their patient safety cultures. The \"Meaningful Use\" (MU) program is designed to increase hospitals' adoption of EHR, which will lead to better care quality, reduce medical errors, avoid unnecessary cost, and promote a patient safety culture. To reduce medical errors, hospital leaders have been encouraged to promote safety cultures common to high-reliability organizations. Expecting a positive relationship between EHR adoption and improved patient safety cultures appears sound in theory, but it has yet to be empirically demonstrated.\nDesign/methodology/approach: Providers' perceptions of patient safety culture and counts of patient safety incidents are explored in relationship to hospital EHR adoption patterns. Multi-level modeling is employed to data drawn from the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality's surveys on patient safety culture (level 1) and the American Hospital Association's survey and healthcare information technology supplement (level 2).\nFindings: The findings suggest that the early adoption of EHR capabilities hold a negative association to the number of patient safety events reported. However, this relationship was not present in providers' perceptions of overall patient safety cultures. These mixed results suggest that the understanding of the EHR-patient safety culture relationship needs further research.\nOriginality/value: Relating EHR MU and providers' care quality attitudes is an important leading indicator for improved patient safety cultures. For healthcare facility managers and providers, the ability to effectively quantify the impact of new technologies on efforts to change organizational cultures is important for pinpointing clinical areas for process improvements.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Behind the wine glass: values that guide consumption in Minas Gerais - Brazil
|
[
"Wine consumption",
"Brazil",
"Means-end chain",
"Personal values",
"Laddering"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: Wine is a product full of symbolic, cultural and social meanings that can be perceived in different contexts in humanity's history, and individuals who appreciate this drink have a strong consumption relationship. In the context of global viticulture, Banks and Overton (2010) mention the existence of an elucidated dichotomy between the producers and consumers of the Old and New World of viticulture that guides market strategies and have an effect on consumer behavior in the sector.\n2. Theoretical background: Marketing influences people's consumption behavior, in part by creating a psychological relationship between consumers and products or services. Walker and Olson (1991) emphasize that this consumption relationship can be perceived in the individual's motivation and satisfaction when enjoying a benefit, reaching an objective, or satisfying a value that shapes the consumer's attitudes. Thus, the authors emphasize the need for a structure that facilitates capturing, analyzing and interpreting the consumers' motivations and perceived relationships with a given product or service. Considering this context, Reynolds and Rochon (1991) suggest that the means-end chain theory is a likely way to obtain an understanding of consumers' psychological, cognitive and social framework in consumer relationships, with the potential to interconnect utilitarian characteristics of a product or service to levels of abstraction of the individual's personality.\n3. Research methodology: This present study is qualitative descriptive and the study object chosen - wine consumption - has support in the literature, which makes it possible to attain the proposed objective (Fabbrizzi et al., 2017; Yeh, Wu, and Jeng, 2015; Barrena and Sanchez, 2009; Overby, 2008; Fotopoulos et al., 2003), i.e. to identify and describe the personal values that motivate and guide the cognitive structure of the wine consumers in Brazil, from the viewpoint of the means-end chain theory.\n4. Results and discussion: The cognitive structure of the consumers initially shows a linear configuration in the aspects that correspond to the ritual of wine consumption, encompassing the concrete and abstract attributes and the functional consequences. Based on code (17), the functional and psychological consequences occur in distinct sequences, from which the instrumental and terminal values that represent the motivations that guide wine consumption are abstracted, as seen in Figure 1. Thickness of the lines connecting the codes in the hierarchical value map is proportional to the number of relationships that have been established.\n5. Concluding remarks: This study sought to identify and describe the personal values that motivate and guide the cognitive structure of Brazilian consumers of wine from the viewpoint of the means-end chain theory, and in this regard, it was possible to make some statements about this proposition. First, the existence of a sequencing that is a factor common to all of the wine consumers interviewed and that concerns the ritual of wine consumption was taken into consideration. Thus, the relationship between concrete attributes, abstract attributes and functional consequences has a logical sequence that culminates in the experience that guides future purchases of wines, enabling the identification of quality parameters of the drink, to harmonize with dishes or to know how to recommend wines.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper was to identify and describe the personal values that motivate and guide the cognitive structure of Brazilian wine consumers from the viewpoint of the means-end chain theory.\nDesign/methodology/approach: In this qualitative descriptive study, 40 in-depth laddering interviews were conducted in the state of Minas Gerais, Brazil, which were transcribed and codified from the attributes, consequences, and values that emerged in the discourse of the wine consumers. The codes were subsequently graded - in accordance with the level of abstraction - and inserted into the LadderUx(r) software to generate the implication matrix and the hierarchical value map. The interpretation of the cognitive structure of the wine consumers occurred descriptively.\nFindings: Common aspects regarding knowledge of the product linked to the ritual of wine consumption were identified among consumers. The psychological factors basically describe the social aspects that are pertinent to the drink's consumption and to aspects focused on the personal training that leads to consumption satisfaction. Both converge in the search for more knowledge about the world of wine. From this cognitive basis, the existence of the instrumental values of hedonism, benevolence/care, stimulation and achievement could be seen, as well as the terminal values of joy and happiness.\nOriginality/value: This study presents the cognitive structure of the Brazilian consumers of wine. This result allows some insights in an initial perspective for the development of strategies, based on the factors that motivate the purchase of the drink, thus attracting new consumers to this emerging market.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
To buy for whom? The effects of money's pride and surprise tag on spending behaviors
|
[
"Pride",
"Surprise",
"Appraisal tendency framework",
"Emotional accounting",
"Self-spending"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: It is common to receive a sum of money associated with a certain feeling. For instance, students often experience pride when receiving a scholarship, and children feel excited when receiving New Year's money in China, whereas money received in a contentious life insurance settlement could be considered as \"unhappy money\". When a person receives a scholarship in a circumstance that evokes pride (vs surprise), how might he or she spend the money?\nEmotional accounting and consumer behavior: Thaler (1999, p. 87) defines mental accounting as \"the set of cognitive operations used by individuals to organize, evaluate, and keep track of financial activities\". Consumers typically use mental accounting to describe the process through which they code, categorize and evaluate the results of transactions and other financial events in their daily lives. Levav and Mcgraw (2009) propose that money can be labeled and categorized by the feeling it evokes. The valence of the affective tag (the emotional response to the receipt of a sum of money) could have a significant influence on the consumers' spending behaviors. For example, a windfall is often associated with positive feelings, which leads the money to be more readily spent on hedonic options (e.g. concert tickets and extravagant meals), whereas the money received in a contentious life insurance settlement is often associated with negative feelings and is mainly used to purchase utilitarian products.\nThe classification of pride and surprise: Smith and Ellsworth (1985) identified six cognitive dimensions to differentiate emotional experience (cognition-to-emotion), namely, certainty, pleasantness, attentional activity, control, anticipated effort and responsibility. Each feeling can be distinguished by its core appraisal theme among these six dimensions (Lazarus, 1991). A specific feeling arises from specific appraisals that are seen an implicit lens and could be used in interpreting subsequent events (Lerner and Keltner, 2000). Similarly, Han et al. (2007, p. 160) suggest that \"emotions can not only arise from but also can trigger an implicit cognitive predisposition to appraise future events in line with the central appraisal dimensions that characterize the emotion\" (emotion-to-cognition). For example, fear-laden people tend to make pessimistic judgments of future events, whereas anger-laden people make optimistic judgments (Lerner and Keltner, 2000).\nThe contrasting effects of pride-tagged and surprise-tagged money on spending: Pride, as a positive self-conscious emotion, involves increased self-awareness and accompanies action tendencies to direct attention to the self per se (Tracy and Robins, 2004). When receiving a sum of money through one's own constant efforts (e.g. scholarship), people often attribute the money to their efforts. Moreover, as a reward of their success and accomplishment, such money is often felt more earned than other types of money, which promotes the feeling of pride. The resulting pride could drive the attention inward and put focus on the essential roles of the personal self, which, in turn, increases the sense of deservingness based on the personal efforts invested regarding the success-related events.\nThe mediating role of motive of expressing personal achievement in spending behavior: The appraisal tendency framework posits that each feeling carries with its motivational properties, which play a significant role in subsequent decisions (Lerner and Keltner, 2000). In a similar vein, the functional theory of emotions assumes that each emotion is composed of motivational action tendencies (Frijda, 2005). For example, a person who is in love is more motivated to connect, support and be close to his or her lover (Roseman, 2011). Moreover, angry people tend to antagonize others, whereas sad people try to change their situation (Polman and Kim, 2013).\nThe contrasting effects of pride-tagged and surprise-tagged money on product-choosing: Consumers communicate the information about themselves through products (Aaker, 1999). The products not only serve as an external signal to attain or maintain consumers' social status but also serve to establish and confirm their self-concept by allowing them to express their inner state (Belk, 1988; Fournier, 1998). For instance, consumers regard (some of) the products they own as part of their self-concept. Chernev et al. (2011) suggest that some products themselves may contain a certain level of self-relevance for consumers. Stronger preferences for a self-expressive product are likely to be reflected in a greater perceived personal relevance of the product. Consumers could use products to express themselves by focusing on the degree to which they perceive the products to be related to themselves and to which they have close personal relationships (Aaker, 1997; Aaker et al., 2004; Fournier, 1998). In the present research, we define \"self-relevant products\" as products that represent a certain degree of independence and are used and/or consumed by consumers themselves. They serve as a means of self-expression. We define \"other-relevant products\" as products that involve the perceptions of interdependence, and consumers often buy these to share with other people.\nPilot study: distinguishing money types: Pride is associated with the tendency to perceive oneself and their efforts as being responsible for positive events, whereas surprise is associated with the tendency to perceive others as being responsible for the positive events (Lerner and Keltner, 2000). The primary objective of this pilot study is to explore whether consumers with pride-tagged money and those with surprise-tagged money attribute the receipt of money to different factors.\nStudy 1: the pride- and surprise-tagged money and their contrasting effects on self-spending: There are two objectives in Study 1. First, we aim to explore whether people with pride-tagged (vs surprise-tagged) money tend to engage in self-spending (vs other-spending). The second objective is to indicate the mechanism underlying the effects of the pride-tagged money on self-spending.\nStudy 2: the pride- and surprise-tagged money and their contrasting effects on donating: There are two objectives in Study 2. The first objective is to explore the effects of pride-tagged and surprise-tagged money on a type of specific other-spending behavior: money-donating. The second objective is to explore whether there are differences in incidental affect between these two groups.\nPretest of Study 3: product selection: The pretest aims to identify products that are regarded as self- or other-relevant.\nStudy 3: the pride-tagged and surprise-tagged money and their contrasting effects on choosing self-relevant vs other-relevant products: In Study 3, we aim to examine how the two types of money influence the consumers' product-choosing behaviors. We expect that the receipt of pride-tagged (surprise-tagged) money could increase the share of choosing the self-relevant (other-relevant) options across the entertainment and food products. Based on the pretest, both the fitness card and the grocery gift card exemplified the self-relevant option and both the movie ticket and the restaurant set meal exemplified the other-relevant option.\nGeneral discussion: Theoretical implications\n",
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"content": "Purpose: This paper aims to examine the interesting but largely unexamined effects of pride-tagged money and surprise-tagged money on consumers' spending and product-choosing behaviors.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The present research utilizes experimental design and survey methods to collect data and the ANOVA and bootstrap analysis methods to verify the assumed hypotheses.\nFindings: Study 1 shows that people with pride-tagged (vs surprise-tagged) money are more likely to spend the money for themselves (vs others) and the personal achievement-expression motive plays a mediating role between the pride-tagged money and self-spending behavior. Study 2 replicates the findings of Study 1 and suggests that people with pride-tagged money are less likely to spend the money for others (e.g. donating). Study 3 shows that people with pride-tagged (surprise-tagged) money are more likely to purchase a self-relevant (other-relevant) product than those with surprise-tagged (pride-tagged) money.\nPractical implications: The current research has classified products into self-relevant products (e.g. fitness card, supermarket gift card and mobile game equipment) and other-relevant products (e.g. restaurant set meal, pizza, movie ticket and hot pot) on the basis of perceived self-relevance on the products. Therefore, marketers could frame certain conditions that elicit self-relevant versus other-relevant choices and manipulate self-relevant versus other-relevant primes to shift preferences in favor of certain options. For example, around graduation time, graduates often feel proud of their accomplishments. In this case, marketers could take advantage of that feeling with a message like \"treat yourself\", which could prompt them to spend more money for themselves. In addition, the marketers selling other-relevant products (e.g. pizza and hot pot) might develop and promote advertisements that deliver information about \"sharing with your friends\". For example, in 2016, Pizza Hut began to use its new slogan of \"love to share\" to convey the idea of \"double happiness as a result of sharing\".\nOriginality/value: From a theoretical standpoint, first, this research contributes to the emotional accounting research by advancing the notion that money associated with different positive feelings could influence consumers' spending behaviors in different ways. Second, the research distinguishes self-relevant products from other-relevant products. Third, it shows that people with pride-tagged money and those with surprise-tagged money have different preferences for products. Self-relevant products, such as fitness card, supermarket gift card and mobile game equipment, that represent a certain degree of independence are more used and/or consumed by consumers with pride-tagged money, whereas other-relevant products, such as restaurant set meal, pizza, movie ticket and hot pot, that involve the perceptions of interdependence are more bought by consumers with surprise-tagged money to share with others.\n",
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