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Development of a sustainability assessment method for buildings - the OPEN HOUSE case	[ "Buildings", "Sustainability", "Ranking", "Indicators", "Building evaluation", "Assessment method" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: 1.1 Assessment of buildings\n2. Method: 2.1 The general aim\n3. Results and discussion: 3.1 Feedback to the questionnaire\n4. Conclusion: When deciding to perform a sustainability assessment of a building we often face the dilemma, which method to choose, especially if the goal is a more in-depth evaluation. A method may be very complex but refer to specific boundary conditions valid only for a limited (national, climatic etc.) area. Using such a method can thus lead to partial results or demand certain ad hoc modifications and adaptations, which may affect the integrity of the method and credibility of results. The OPEN HOUSE project tackled this problem by determining a widely applicable set of categories and related indicators, based upon an extensive analysis of prominent existing assessment methods, standardisation development, various formal guidelines and strategic international and national frameworks.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: The paper aims to present the core part of the research work done within the FP7 OPEN HOUSE project, aiming to merge existing methodologies for sustainability assessment of buildings towards a common view, applicable as an open access assessment method across European Union (EU). One of the principle tasks was to evaluate the applicability of proposed indicators in EU countries with different legal frameworks, climate conditions, status and condition of the building stock and construction tradition.\nDesign/methodology/approach: To reach the goal, it had to be established first whether the pre-selected indicators suit the purpose in countries different from each other regarding various influential factors. A questionnaire survey based on close-ended quantitative thematic questions was performed to evaluate the acceptability and relevance of each indicator in national contexts, thus defining the path for the final protocol of selection criteria for the OPEN HOUSE method.\nFindings: The responses enabled and justified necessary minor corrections and regrouping to define the full (56 indicators) and core (30 indicators) indicator sets, demonstrating that the system is applicable in EU countries. This task made ground for finalisation of the OPEN HOUSE method: definition of evaluation procedures and sustainability performance levels and testing of the approach on demo cases.\nOriginality/value: This paper shows how the research team tackled the problem of limited use of building sustainability assessment methods due to specific boundary conditions by determining a widely applicable set of categories and related indicators based upon an extensive analysis of existing assessment methods, standardisation development, formal guidelines and strategic (inter)national frameworks.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Improving RFID traceability systems with verifiable quality	[ "Counterfeiting", "Radio frequency identification", "Tracking", "Traceability", "Supply chain management", "Food manufacturing processes", "Cryptography", "Spanish cured ham" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1 Introduction: An increasingly important factor in current global markets characterized by high competitiveness is quality. It is very important to offer not only a quality product, but also one whose quality is objectively measurable and perceived by the consumer. For this reason, in recent years, quality assurance systems (QAS) have been implemented in many production environments. These systems include the use of certification marks by the producers, traceability systems, third-party audits and affidavits from producers (Carriquiry and Babcock, 2007). They are designed to inspect product quality, determine the causes of anomalies, analyze data from the production line and propose problem-solving strategies. The stages of design and implementation of QAS can be listed as acquisition, analysis, action and audit (Lyu et al., 2009).QAS improve the brand image, differentiating it from competitors and enhancing consumer confidence in the product (Karlsen et al., 2010). There are voluntary certification systems for improving the image presented to consumers (e.g. third-party certification) (Albersmeier et al., 2009), but in some sectors the use of a QAS may be mandatory. For example, in Europe, the use of a food traceability system has been a legal requirement since 2002 (European Regulation N 178/2002).There are several types of traceability systems: printing codes on products, record sheets, electronic systems, etc. (Mehrjerdi, 2011). The introduction of electronic traceability systems can overcome the disadvantages associated with manual systems, eliminating errors in the manual transfer of information, reducing intervention work and the required cycle time, increasing speed of production and providing a more accurate inventory (Chryssochoidis et al., 2009).One of the most common electronic traceability methods is based on radio frequency identification (RFID) and involves the digitisation of checked information using RFID-technology (Sarac et al., 2010). RFID is basically a tag that incorporates an integrated circuit, an antenna and a memory that can store information. The tag interacts, using electromagnetic waves, with a reader/writer that is connected to a computer that processes data from the tag and sends the data to the information system of the company (McFarlane et al., 2003).Traceability systems are used to check production but they do not solve another significant problem faced by producers: counterfeiting. Traceability facilitates the management of production, distribution and logistics, but it does not guarantee that the products cannot be counterfeited. It is necessary to add a level of security to traceability systems in order to avoid the problem of counterfeiting. In the food production sector, where traceability systems are mandatory, counterfeiting is not a new phenomenon. A historical perspective on food counterfeiting is provided in Shears (2010), a work that documents counterfeit products from Roman and Greek civilizations (Sumar and Ismail, 1995) to the present day. Although scientific methods for the detection of fakes are constantly being developed, for example: DNA fingerprinting (Huang et al., 2011); the identification of specific compounds (Tedeschi et al., 2011); and other types of analysis (Alanon et al., 2011), a secure traceability process is vital to help prevention and detection.But, what is secure traceability? \"Secure traceability is the ability to trace the lines of products a company releases on the market, while preventing attacks on the tracing system\" (Fayolle et al., 2008). One way to accomplish this is to incorporate the characteristics of each individual product so they can be used to identify it, a technique that is similar to biometric identification systems used with human beings, such as deflectometry (Fayolle et al., 2008). Another possibility is to secure traceability by using data supplied by operators, companies, individuals or machines that carry out product checks at each point in the supply chain.In this work we focus on the second option. There are several methods for guaranteeing the validity of the data that accompanies the product. One of these is the creation of a Circle of Trust (Boursas and Danciu, 2008) in the different parts of the supply chain (He et al., 2008). Our paper suggests an alternative: the identification of the agents involved in the process of traceability through the use of a unique electronic signature that identifies the agents that undertake the control at each point in the chain (Azuara et al., 2010). Furthermore, it is necessary to introduce trust marks, for increasing consumer confidence (Lee et al., 2007). Our solution can be applied to a variety of systems for the detection of counterfeits (Kwok et al., 2010) or as traceability model in the food supply chain (Kelepouris et al., 2007).Section 2 presents our model for secure traceability; Section 3 describes the case study; Section 4 analyses and discusses the system and Section 5 details the most significant conclusions.\n2 Literature review and proposed model: The methodology used to conduct the project was a waterfall model with prototype (Figure 1) (Benington, 1983).The CRDO Company requested a functional prototype and the objective was to develop a secure and cheap traceability system for hamlegs. The waterfall model was considered as ideal for this project as changes to the requirements were unlikely, there was a simple feedback process and later modifications to the prototype could easily be implemented.We developed a secure RFID traceability system based on checkpoints. Our model allows the identification of those agents involved in the traceability process, and both the security level and the required time can be tailored to the needs of the system in which it is implemented.2.1 Security model\n3 Case study: To test reliability and efficiency and to control the timing of the traceability system mentioned in the previous section, a prototype was implemented in an intermediate point in a supply chain. More specifically, the prototype was installed in a slaughterhouse belonging to a ham production company operating under the auspices of the Regulatory Council of the Denomination of Origin (Consejo Regulador de la Denominacion de Origen, CRDO) of Jamon de Teruel (Teruel Ham).When working with a food product, it is necessary to evaluate and analyze a series of parameters that comply with laws and regulations, at both national and European level, on food control. Moreover, when dealing with a Denomination of Origin product, it must also satisfy the quality characteristics imposed by the CRDO in order to be able to mark the final products as belonging to the Denomination of Origin in question.The selection of this product for testing the tracking system allowed us to obtain data that would be impossible with other types of products. This included working with a product with a significant turnover so that the number of collected measurements would be large enough to produce reliable statistics. In this context, it is worth noting that the number of pigs slaughtered in the last year was 494,542, producing 675,276 Denomination of Origin legs of ham (hind legs) and a turnover of about EUR37.39 million (USD 52.35 million). Furthermore, as the work of each checkpoint in the manufacturing chain is limited to a specific time, we were able check if the time constraints of our system for performing the signature and verification were adequate for maintaining the initial speed of the system.3.1 Public health and legislation\n4 Analysis and discussion: This section analyzes the level of security, the time taken by the software for the verification of signatures, the performance of the system, possible threats and counter measures offered by the security model.4.1 Security level\n5 Conclusions and further research: This paper presents a traceability system which adds several features to other conventional systems. The first is the security achieved by using ECC and aggregate signatures. The use of both techniques allows the system to reduce the amount of data needed to be stored in the tag without reducing the security level of the system. Furthermore, RFID technology is used for data storage and communication tasks. This technology allows us to offer more speed to the supply chain, since reading the information of each label is automatic; the tag must only be within the range the reader. It is also worth noting that third party, not involved in the traceability process, can check and verify the RFID tag with nothing more than a RFID reader and a connection to the public key database. This means that access to product data is easier. All the staff involved in the supply chain and the final customers can access and verify product information.Our research brought to light two limitations. The first is that our system uses standard tags that do not prevent tag cloning. This problem would be solved with the use of cryptographic tags, but they are more expensive so might not be feasible. Our system's secure traceability (using protocols that reduce the size of the signature that must accompany the information) allows producers significant savings in the costs of RFID tags since they require less memory and are non-cryptographic. The second limitation is that the prototype was tested in just one link in the supply chain although it is designed to be fully scalable with minimal cost - only the storage capacity of the RFID tag is affected. The system can be easily and quickly exported. This means that if it is necessary to vary the order of the processes that affect the product, or to add new phases or elements at some point in the supply chain, it would not be necessary to change anything in the other elements or checkpoints of the system. All that would be necessary would be to update the database with the public keys of the new actors involved in the process.As a future line of research we will develop cryptographic RFID tags that meet system requirements at minimum cost. With this advanced we would avoid the cloning problem in a feasible way. We will test our system in other supply chains with greater constraints (time requirements, security, stored space, etc.) with the aim of making it adaptable to every type of supply chain.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: - The purpose of this paper is to develop an efficient tool to ensure traceability data entry based on RFID and improve the detection of fakes inside the supply chain.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - First, the authors put forward a secure traceability system with a cryptographic operator that improves efficiency, saves costs and is adaptable to all types of supply chains. Second, the authors implement the system in a food manufacturing company, show the compatibility of the system with the initial production chain and demonstrate its improvement.\nFindings: - The authors have economically and technologically improved the detection of faked goods in the supply chain by means of a cheap and scalable system based on RFID.\nResearch limitations/implications: - The system has been tested in a manufacturing point of the supply chain, not in the supply chain as a whole. As traceability is additive in character, the results can be generalized and applied to each part of the supply chain.\nPractical implications: - A prototype has been built and implemented for a food manufacturing company. It meets all the specifications required for detection of fakes in manufactured products.\nOriginality/value: - Unlike other existing products used to detect fakes through traceability, this system identifies fakes and potential counterfeits, significantly reducing the cost of security management. Another important difference is that verification can be performed by a third party not involved in the system, without loss of security.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Biographical research as a methodology for understanding entrepreneurial marketing	[ "Methodology", "Marketing", "Market creation", "Competencies", "Entrepreneurship", "Biography" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: In response to the call for papers this research develops the case for utilising biographical research to improve understanding of entrepreneurial marketing. It contributes to the rethinking of entrepreneurial marketing epistemology by providing alternative avenues for data collection, analysis and theory construction, given the limited perspectives adopted so far. The biographical approach also addresses ontological concerns since it uncovers a distinct form of knowledge. Its interpretive focus embraces the complexities of subjective worlds and lived experience. The central research question is:\nEntrepreneurship and small business research and the growth of the enterprise discourse: The rethinking of entrepreneurship (Johansson, 2004; Gartner, 2010) has been accompanied by the emergence of an enterprise discourse (Du Gay, 2004). Gartner and Birley, 2002, pp. 387-388, believe that:\nEntrepreneurial marketing: Entrepreneurial marketing recognises the need for situational awareness within a heterogeneous firm environment rather than following prescriptive, generalised advice (O'Donnell, 2004). This is demonstrated through owner/manager experience, knowledge, communication and judgement abilities within a competency spectrum (Carson et al., 1995). Entrepreneurial marketing concerns the proactive identification and exploitation of opportunities in acquiring and retaining profitable customers by adopting innovative approaches to risk management, resource leveraging and value creation (Morris et al., 2002; Additional factors contributing to its practice include owner/manager self-belief, innovative thinking, imagination, vision, judgement, creativity, ambition, intuition and flexibility (Hansen and Hills, 2004). Entrepreneurial marketers make use of both formal and informal ways of carrying out business, including networking (Gilmore et al., 2001) to engage with customers (Jones and Rowley, 2011). It also concerns the creative use of an organisation's resources. Other contributing factors include entrepreneurial effort, energy, commitment and persistence (Hill and McGowan, 1997). A large proportion of entrepreneurial marketing research activity focuses on the pre start-up and start-up stages of the enterprise (Hoy, 2008) but it should also concern the ongoing development of the business over time. This is where insight from biographical research can be particularly valuable. The research methodologies adopted by entrepreneurial marketing researchers transcend both quantitative and qualitative approaches. However, due to the situation specific nature of much entrepreneurial marketing behaviour, a qualitative perspective can result in greater insight and facilitate the development of a closer relationship between the researcher and the researched.\nBiography as a research method: Biographical analysis is a form of qualitative research which constructs stories describing human action in social and other contexts (Roberts, 2002). It considers the lived experience of individuals from a variety of contextualised perspectives (Muller, 1999). The processes involve include thinking, talking and remembering events, constructing meaning and making sense (Weick, 1995). In addition to any themes, sense can be made of the data by identifying key points made via social and cultural processes (Vipond and Hunt, 1984). Biographical research enhances understanding of life, behaviour, motives, personality and other factors relating to the individual such as the people and conditions which impact (Jones, 1998). It also uncovers and interprets longitudinal, historical data, with understanding enhanced when combined with theory. Interview data can also be viewed as a type of biography using the depth or long interview process (McCracken, 1988).\nBiographical research in practice: Biographical research has a number of uses in practice, including its contribution to psychology, education and health (Roberts, 2002; Merrill and West, 2009). The value of biographical research is now being realised within management studies, and more specifically within the entrepreneurship and small business arena (Morrison, 2001; Hjorth and Steyaert, 2004). Examples include a biographical approach to understand SME internationalisation, using owner/manager biographies to understand successful entrepreneurial processes (Bouchikhi, 1993), entrepreneurial learning (Taylor and Thorpe, 2004) and using biographical interviews to appreciate the career journeys of senior managers in small construction firms (Lu and Sexton, 2010).\nUsing biographical research to understand entrepreneurial marketing: There is increasing use of narrative methods in researching entrepreneurship such as analysing written text, oral narratives, ethnographical material and fiction (Gartner, 2007; Larty and Hamilton, 2011). They enhance conceptual, epistemological and methodological reflection (Hjorth and Steyaert, 2004), with entrepreneurial events dynamically \"emplotted\" in the narrative (Ricoeur, 1991). They assist in understanding what motivates individual entrepreneurs and how their businesses operate. Personal biographies are also a useful resource where entrepreneurs write primary character accounts of their lives and actions within a developing plot, enabling relational activities between individuals to be described and brought to life.\nResearch methodology: The biographical methodology aligns with the focus of the Special Issue. Its adoption enhances our understanding of the entrepreneurial marketing domain by providing longitudinal, in-depth storied insight. Researcher judgement and cross-sectional sampling have been utilised here (Spiggle, 1994). A similar approach has been used in related cross-sectional studies of creativity in entrepreneurial marketing and so is deemed appropriate (e.g. Fillis, 2002, 2006a, b; Fillis and Rentschler, 2006). Fillis (2007) noted how entrepreneurial competencies compared favourably across research methods, with understanding enhanced by identifying additional dimensions not considered before. Kerrigan et al. (2011) and Schroeder (2006) have interrogated visual artists from biographical perspectives to reveal insight into branding of the individual. Previous research by the author has positioned the artist as the owner/manager of an enterprise. The artist and the entrepreneurial marketer share many competencies which can be revealed and understood using biographical research techniques. Therefore, the individuals selected here for investigation are deemed suitable data sources. The subjects have also been chosen because of their information-rich status and their ability to provide substantial material from which to draw meaningful assertions (Merrill and West, 2009). They range from the businessman Alan Sugar, artists Andy Warhol and Thomas Kinkade, and two small business practitioners. This approach mirrors that of Smith and Anderson (2004) but it is also balanced by biographical insight from interviews with several less known owner/managers.\nBiographical research findings: Alan sugar\nDiscussion: This biographical research has confirmed a range of entrepreneurial factors and identified and discussed others not previously recognised, strengthening the rationale for further application of the methodology. These include an ability to proactively evaluate market conditions, identify and exploit growth opportunities in order to secure competitive advantage (Morris et al., 2002; Hansen and Hills, 2004). Embedded within this ethos is an ability to utilise a naturalistic sales approach (Hill, 2001). Having the confidence to be a self-promoter and creator of demand is also important (Grinstein, 2008). Market orientation alone does not guarantee profitability in the longer term with innovation, competitive strength and environmental forces also being influential (Augusto and Coelho, 2007). If every organisation continuously followed customer orientation, additional costs would be incurred, with little improved revenue (Gummesson, 2008). An ability to revisualise the core and augmented product is also needed, changing its attributes as the entrepreneurial marketer creates new demand using effectuation logic (Morrish, 2011).\nConclusions: Rather than adhering to the pursuit of a unified construction of a single truth, biographical research results in the development of an alternative perspective. The author believes that this approach helps to move forward our understanding of entrepreneurial and small business marketing. A biographical approach to understanding entrepreneurial marketing helps to address the concerns raised by authors such as Blackburn and Brush (2008) and Welter and Lasch (2008). They note that more needs to be done to open up the research agenda and engage in a wider range of cross-disciplinary methods to help understand more closely how we can improve the quality of insight into small business and entrepreneurship research. Blackburn and Brush's five volume set on small business and entrepreneurship goes some way to redress the imbalance with specific sections on theory and its development and research approaches. Neergaard and Ulhoi (2008) take this a stage further by editing a handbook on qualitative research methods in entrepreneurship, including insight into narrative methods. This equips the researcher with a variety of epistemological tools not available using other research approaches. Blackburn and Kovalainen (2009) evaluate the current state of small firm and entrepreneurship research, noting that more critical evaluation is required in order to contribute meaningfully to ongoing research agendas, methodologies and research methods training. This paper addresses some of these concerns by offering an alternative dynamic to traditional quantitative approaches. Blackburn and Kovalainen (2009) call for more rigour in the research methods being adopted. A qualitative biographical analysis, although not statistically grounded, can certainly be rigorous in progressing beyond describing events, organisations and individuals. Biographical analysis does assist in theory building by enabling researchers to make use of cross-disciplinary textual methods in uncovering similarities and differences between cases. A meta-biographical approach would enable further rigour to be embedded in the approaches being adopted. Biographical analysis can also be systematic if sufficient \"units\" are included. Blackburn and Kovalainen (2009) also identify a quantitative, functionalist paradigm which still dominates the research domain. Again, biographical analysis can assist in widening the methodological spectrum in providing an alternative, reflective lens with which to view and interpret. More specifically, biographical analysis aligns with their appeal for more attention on explanatory mechanisms which underlie social and economic phenomena. It also locates itself within the growing body of narrative studies in small business and entrepreneurship research (e.g. Hjorth and Steyaert, 2006). In addition, biographical analysis captures the longitudinal data which Blackburn and Kovalainen call for and uncovers the human behaviour which scientific methods cannot predict.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to respond to the Special Issue call by developing the case for enhancing understanding of entrepreneurial marketing by utilising biographical research. This builds on the limited existing research in entrepreneurial marketing using this approach.\nDesign/methodology/approach: Five entrepreneurial marketers are assessed using biographical research.\nFindings: The individuals assessed clearly show the connection between the telling of a life story and how a business is run using an entrepreneurial marketing approach. Biographical techniques succeed in addressing the need for situation specific understanding. Entrepreneurial marketing core competencies help establish competitive advantage through their ability to influence behaviour, market creation and growth activities.\nResearch limitations/implications: Biographical research contributes towards the additional theoretical and practical insight which entrepreneurial marketing requires.\nPractical implications: Entrepreneurial marketers can make use of biographical research findings due to their readability and association with their own practices to help shape future strategies.\nOriginality/value: The biographical approach has been underutilised in entrepreneurial marketing research. These research results enhance existing understanding of the foundations of entrepreneurial marketing.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Embedding learning from adverse incidents: a UK case study	[ "Root cause analysis", "Adverse incidents", "Embedding learning", "NHS hospital", "Reporting system", "Soft intelligence" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: The study informing this paper aimed to develop a regional health economy-wide system for embedding lessons learnt from serious incidents and never events into practice. In the UK, adverse incidents, such as wrong-site surgery, are reported by trust/hospital staff (a trust is an English National Health Service (NHS) organisation generally serving either a geographical area or a specialised function) to the National Reporting and Learning System, which is a central patient safety incident database (Alexander et al., 2015). The system adopts an integrated approach to learning from serious incidents by ensuring that lessons learnt by NHS staff are properly fed back to improve service delivery across the whole health service (Department of Health, 2007). However, a big gap exists between recommended and actioned plans (Wallace, 2010). Consequently, we aim to reduce this gap by presenting a study conducted in response to never events and Level 2 serious incidents in three West Midland NHS trusts, serving just under 1.1 million people (Black Country NHS Foundation Trust, 2016).\nStudy objectives: Adverse incidents requiring investigation are consistently underreported (Shaw et al., 2005; Hutchinson et al., 2009; Noble and Pronovost, 2010) and reporting/feedback systems across different NHS hospitals are highly variable (Renshaw et al., 2008; Goldsmith et al., 2015). In response, the National Reporting and Learning System was established in 2003 to achieve a consistent and systematic approach to reporting and learning from adverse incidents (Williams and Osborn, 2006). However, within this system, there is little or no systematic follow-up intended to prevent specific failures reoccurring (Wallace, 2010). Moreover, the system is limited because \"learning\" is merely collected and collated from patient safety incidents (Wallace, 2010), i.e., it does not monitor or support how learning points and systemic recommendations are embedded into practice. Consequently, Centre for Health and Social Care Improvement, Wolverhampton University, England researchers' objectives were to:\nDesign: An advisory group: experienced quality leaders from the region and managers from three participating trusts were convened to serve as an expert reference group to interpret issues from a clinical, patient safety and administrative perspective. All adverse events reported between 1 June 2011 and 30 June 2012 by managers in three Trusts: A - an acute trust; B - an ambulance trust; and C - a mental health trust were analysed. One RCA per adverse incident from each trust was selected, anonymised and sent to the advisory group, together with ToR, to: appraise RCA report quality (as working documents to help embed learning); compare RCA approaches used by the investigating team; and consider action plans as working documents to help monitor impact and drive quality. The RCAs were selected on their frequency (highest), occurrence date (most recent) and the RCA report (comprehensive reports against 24- and 48-hour reports). Advisory group members provided feedback, which was analysed using an inductive thematic approach. Emerging themes generated questions (Appendix) that informed follow-up semi-structured interviews with advisory group members. Seven in-depth semi-structured interviews were conducted to obtain incident details and their accompanying RCAs from clinical governance, patient safety and administrative perspectives. These interviews were analysed by adopting an inductive thematic approach. Coding reliability was addressed by using more than one coder to review coding, which ensured that researchers were coding accurately and consistently.\nFindings and discussion: Incident investigations as tools for quality enhancement\nConclusion: A negative feature identified by staff engaging in our study was that incident investigations did not report when patient notes were secured after the occurrence of an incident. We maintain that it is good practice for patient notes to be secured to prevent altering facts after an incident and advocate that these notes are held immediately after the decision is taken to investigate an incident as a serious event. We also identified that adverse incident investigations by only one investigator was a weakness, which does not allow a multidisciplinary approach that investigations into complex incidents require. Using only one investigator encourages bias, which more than one investigator overcomes. We found that actions implemented in response to adverse incidents needed evaluating. Commissioners, therefore, must ensure that measures are put in place to determine the extent up to which lessons from adverse incidents have been embedded into their respective practices, which ensures that learning internally is standardised, which could serve as a spring board for exporting learning.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: This paper reports on a regionally based UK study uncovering what has worked well in learning from adverse incidents in hospitals. The purpose of this paper is to review the incident investigation methodology used in identifying strengths or weaknesses and explore the use of a database as a tool to embed learning.\nDesign/methodology/approach: Documentary examination was conducted of all adverse incidents reported between 1 June 2011 and 30 June 2012 by three UK National Health Service hospitals. One root cause analysis report per adverse incident for each individual hospital was sent to an advisory group for a review. Using terms of reference supplied, the advisory group feedback was analysed using an inductive thematic approach. The emergent themes led to the generation of questions which informed seven in-depth semi-structured interviews.\nFindings: \"Time\" and \"work pressures\" were identified as barriers to using adverse incident investigations as tools for quality enhancement. Methodologically, a weakness in approach was that no criteria influenced the techniques which were used in investigating adverse incidents. Regarding the sharing of learning, the use of a database as a tool to embed learning across the region was not supported.\nPractical implications: Softer intelligence from adverse incident investigations could be usefully shared between hospitals through a regional forum.\nOriginality/value: The use of a database as a tool to facilitate the sharing of learning from adverse incidents across the health economy is not supported.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Determinants of innovation decision in small and medium-sized family enterprises	[ "Small to medium-sized enterprises", "Innovation decision", "External factors", "Family enterprises", "Internal factors" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: Given today's environment of rapid and unremitting globalisation and technological change, it is widely recognised that the competitiveness of firms depends on their innovative capacity (Estrada Barcenas et al., 2009). According to Tidd and Bessant (2009), innovation is the process through which firms identify new opportunities for change, turn them into reality, and capture value for them. Due to the great contribution of the innovative activities to the firms' competitiveness and success, it is of great interest to identify the factors that influence on the development of innovative activities in firms (Kamalian et al., 2011). The literature that has been focused on the determinants of innovation has identified a number of them related with cost, institutional constraints, human and/or financial resources, organisational culture, flow of information, and government policy (Mohnen and Roller, 2005; Baldwin and Lin, 2002), however surprisingly little is known about the decision-making process of the innovation decision (Du et al., 2007).\n2. Theoretical framework and hypotheses: 2.1. The innovation decision\n3. Methodology: 3.1. Sample and data\n4. Results: Before going on to discuss the testing of the hypotheses formulated above, we will present some information about the underlying variables. Table I summarises the descriptive statistics for the variables used in the study, and shows the matrix of correlations. The condition of non-multicollinearity was verified. First, the matrix of independent variables suggests little collinearity. All correlations are low, the two highest coefficients being the ones between Market and Technology (0.866), and between Financial Support and Funds (0.699).\n5. Discussion: This study advances our knowledge of the innovation decision in family firms by taking an analytic model that considers the joint effect of both internal and external factors. Beginning with internal factors, our study highlights the importance to innovation of long CEO tenure. This may be because innovation is a long-term policy and long tenures give CEOs time to develop their systems and processes, possibly raising a firms' ability to adapt and change, ensuring a high level of internal efficiency for it to be effective and capable of responding to situational requirements through innovation. Our findings also highlight the need of the SMFEs to be opened to change and this could be achieved through the strategic orientation of the firms. More specifically, both prospector and analyser strategies encourage the innovation decision. In the first case, the managers of these firms often create the change and uncertainty to which the competition must respond and are much the same as the innovators described by Moore (1991), and with respect to the analyser managers, they watch their competitors closely for new ideas and rapidly adopt those that appear to be the most promising.\n6. Conclusions: In this paper we investigated the determining factors of the innovation decision of SMFEs. We took what we believe is a novel approach to the analysis of this issue by including external and internal variables within the same analytical model. The proposed model has high explanatory power and provides relevant information about the various factors affecting the innovation decision in SMFEs.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to contribute to the understanding of the factors that influence small to medium-sized family enterprises (SMFEs) innovation decision.\nDesign/methodology/approach: This paper utilises an original data set of 73 SMFEs employing 5-249 people to run binomial logistic regression model which considers the joint effect of both internal and external factors.\nFindings: The results confirm, on the one hand, a significant and positive relationship between the long chief executive officer (CEO) tenure, the prospector and analyser strategic orientation, and the innovation decision in the Spanish family firms. On the other hand, the results confirm a significant and negative relationship between the risk taking, the cost of innovation, the lack of qualified personnel, a customer indifference towards innovation, and the innovation decision in the Spanish SMFEs.\nResearch limitations/implications: The results contribute to the development of theoretical and knowledge bases, as well as offering results that will be of interest to research and policy communities. The results are limited to a small sample size, single survey, using cross-sectional data.\nPractical implications: The findings have a bearing on business innovation strategy for policy makers. The results suggest that policy measures that promote long CEO tenures, and the prospector and analyser strategic orientation may have the greatest impact in terms of helping to facilitate innovation decision.\nOriginality/value: A novel feature of the model is the consideration of the joint effect of both internal and external factors in SMFEs.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Exploring students' satisfaction with universities' portals in developing countries: A cultural perspective	[ "Student satisfaction", "Developing countries", "Educational culture", "University portals", "Services availability", "Information quality", "System quality", "User ability" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: Information and communication technologies, particularly those related to the internet, have changed the way services are delivered in higher education. With the advancement of web applications, students have been exposed to new features that support personalization and interactivity. Among the important advancements in the digital age are portals. Higher education organizations, particularly universities in developed countries, are heavily involved in portals which became an important tool for service delivery and communication between faculty members, administrative staff and most importantly students (Al-Busaidi, 2012; Masrek, 2007). Universities in developing countries followed the steps of their counterparts in developed countries. They introduced their portals to benefit from the opportunities offered by these portals. Understanding what students hope/expect from a university portal should increase their satisfaction and consequently have a positive impact on performance and reputation. Previous studies introduced factors such as system and information quality to be determinant of students' satisfaction with universities' portals. A limited number of studies have looked into universities' portals in developing countries although adoption and satisfaction dynamics could be different due to variations in culture, particularly from an educational perspective (Kim and Arnett, 2012). According to the Hofstede (2001), individuals from different cultures vary in their thinking and perceptions. Culture generally refers to the core beliefs and values that have a high degree of persistence, are passed on from parents to children, and are reinforced by schools, religious organizations, businesses, and government (Kotler and Keller, 2012). This paper examines the factors which influence students' satisfaction with universities' portals in developing countries, focussing on Jordan as a case. Exploring these factors will contribute to the current literature and help universities in developing countries to make the right decisions with regards to portals development.\n2. Theoretical background: The boom of the internet, particularly applications such as web portals, has evoked several research efforts aimed at understanding service satisfaction in the cyberspace. A web portal, hereinafter referred to as portal, generally refers to a single point of access to information located inside and outside an organization (Turban et al., 2012). A portal may look like a normal web site, but it is more because it has a wide range of resources such as search functions, directories, news, blogs and e-mails. A classical categorization of portals was offered by Murray (1999) who suggested four types: expertise portals that allow users to share their experiences, information portals, collaboration portals that connect users, and knowledge portals that provide a combination of all of the above services. Another classification of portals was offered by Rainer et al. (2010) in which portals were categorized into:\n3. University portals in developing countries: the case of Jordan: Jordan is a small developing country with limited natural resources that has a population of around 6.5 million (World Factbook, 2011). In terms of culture, Hofstede's (2001) suggests that Arab countries, Jordan in this case, are classified as having high power distance, high uncertainty avoidance, a collectivist and a masculine culture. With regards to education, Jordan has scored well in a series of international assessments. For example, UNESCO ranked the country 18th out of 94 nations for providing gender equality in education (Global Arab Network, 2009). Higher education in Jordan began with the founding of the University of Jordan, in 1962. Currently, the number of public and private universities has reached 27. In general, the level of higher education in Jordan can be described as relatively advanced in comparison to other developing countries.\n4. Research hypotheses: Based on the literature review and the researchers' experience in the field of universities' portals, in addition to six exploratory interviews with marketing and e-business academics, four factors were selected for investigation in this study as follows:\n5. Methodology: The construct of user satisfaction has been examined in different ways. Some studies have defined user satisfaction on a single-item scale, but this approach leaves many questions as to reliability; thus, the general trend has been to measure user satisfaction on a multiple-item scale (Lee et al., 2009). A questionnaire was developed on the basis of the literature review and the exploratory interviews with academics in the fields of marketing and e-business to take their views on the factors that could shape student's satisfaction with universities portals in Jordan. The questionnaire contained six sections that covered demographic variables (e.g. gender, age, educational level, and faculty), information quality (e.g. usefulness and usability), system quality (e.g. navigation and downtime), services availability (e.g. research databases, and learning management system), user ability (e.g. computer and internet skills), and student satisfaction with university portals.\n6. Results and discussion: Out of the 550 questionnaires distributed, 445 responses were received. Given the likelihood that students in Jordan, especially freshman, might not take the issue of filling up a survey seriously, a screening process was conducted to improve results quality; this included removing incomplete response and those who provided similar answers to the majority of questions, the result was 374 usable responses. Demographic findings showed a good representation of the sample in terms of gender, years of computer and internet usage. With regards to educational level, the overwhelming majority was studying for bachelor degree; details are provided in Table III. With regards to validity, the questionnaire was tested for clarity through discussing the items with three academic experts. As to reliability, Cronbach a test was conducted and the results were above or around the 0.7 cut-off. Details are provided in Table IV.\n7. Conclusions and implications: This research examined the factors that influence students' satisfaction with universities' portals in developing countries. The findings demonstrate that students are mainly concerned with the availability of a variety of services (e-services). In other words, students are highly interested in activities such as obtaining marks using the internet because the availability of such services is convenient and time saving. Therefore, decision makers should pay more attention to introducing new services on a continuous basis if they want students to be happy. Additionally, females students value the ease of use of the university portal so it can suit different levels of computer and internet skills. These results are important because they address satisfaction with university portals from a student perspective. Although faculty and staff are heavily involved in a university portal, students are the main users and beneficiaries of these portals; therefore, their satisfaction is paramount, especially in the case of private universities. The findings of this research, particularly those related to user ability, also confirm that educational culture impacts students' satisfaction with universities' portals.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to investigate the factors affecting students' satisfaction with university portals in developing countries. The factors examined are educational services availability, user ability, system quality and information quality.\nDesign/methodology/approach: A self completion questionnaire was developed and distributed to a sample of 550 students in several universities. Correlation and regression analysis were used to identify relationships and explore which of the factors had the strongest explanatory power.\nFindings: The results showed that educational services availability, system quality and information quality influence students' satisfaction, with service availability being the major determinant. The cultural perspective was employed to explain these results.\nOriginality/value: Understanding what students expect from a university portal should increase their satisfaction and consequently have a positive impact on universities' performance. The results of this study also contribute to the current literature, which is very limited in developing countries. The paper concludes by discussing implications for both research and practitioners.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Urbanized young Indians: are they goal oriented? A scale-validation study of the regulatory focus questionnaire in the Indian context	[ "Urbanized young Indian", "Yulic", "Regulatory focus", "Goal orientation", "Promotion orientation", "Prevention orientation", "Lifestyle consumption", "India", "Consumer behaviour" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1 Introduction: India is emerging as one of the economic superpowers of the world (Vietor, 2007; Wilson and Purushothaman, 2003) with an expected real GDP growth rate of around 9 percent in the year 2011 (Shukla, 2011). India is also one of the youngest nations of the world with half of its population below the age of 24 and two-thirds under the age of 35 (Mishra, 2011). About 30 percent of these young Indians live in urban areas and are responsible for about 45 percent of the total private consumption in the country (Zaveri and Garg, 2005). Further, the urban population of young Indians is increasing at a rate of approximately six-and-a-half percent per annum and is estimated to constitute about 45 percent of the country's population by 2016 (Zaveri and Garg, 2005).Increased exposure to Western lifestyle due to higher penetration of the internet, television and other media has shaped the preferences of the urbanized young Indians or Yulics[1] to form a segment of consumers unique in needs and consumption behavior. These consumers do not have any guilt of consumption and about 45 percent of their income is discretionary (Zaveri and Garg, 2005). They indulge in products mostly from lifestyle categories like leisure, convenience and comfort, and wellness and other aspirational categories that help them to satisfy their aspirational needs. This fact is reflected in the Indian context, which is changing from a needs based market to a wants based one (Gopal and Srinivasan, 2006). As a result of this change, for instance, traditional grocery stores or \"kiranas\" have started losing sales to the organized modern retail stores despite having almost 95 percent share of the market (Goswami and Mishra, 2008). Thus, the pattern of consumption has become more materialistic and has changed towards consumption as a means of maintaining a better lifestyle from merely being an end in itself (Gopal and Srinivasan, 2006; Gupta, 2011; Mishra, 2011). This nature of consumption is goal oriented wherein consumption serves as a means of attaining a better lifestyle which is aspired for Ratneshwar et al. (2000). Consequently, it is imperative that the goal directed consumption behavior of young Indians is well understood. Specifically, measuring their approach and avoidance tendencies (goal orientation) in attaining end states or goals is instrumental in understanding their preferences in various contexts, and across different product categories. Thus, the instrument measuring consumers' chronic goal orientation: the regulatory focused questionnaire (RFQ), developed by Higgins et al. (2001) is validated in the Indian context.Goal directed consumption necessitates, self-regulation to facilitate goal attainment. For instance consumers who aspire to identify themselves with their reference group will direct their consumption behavior in accordance to the characteristic consumption patterns of the reference group, thereby creating their aspired self-concept and personal identity (Englis and Solomon, 1995). Similarly consumers may choose not to consume certain products which may identify them as belonging to a social group of which they do not want to become a member to Englis and Solomon (1995) and Turner (1991). The burgeoning and aspiring middle class segment in India is an example of one such dominant reference group to which consumers want to conform to Zaveri and Garg (2006).Fundamental to this changing consumer behavior in India driven by aspirational referents, is an underlying approach and avoidance strategy in goal directed consumption. In this context measuring consumers' goal orientation or regulatory focus becomes important. Located at the triple interface domain of motivation/emotion and judgement, regulatory focus theory (Higgins, 2000, 2002), explains how approach (promotion) and avoidance (prevention) orientation in self regulation affect the way consumers value their final choice of product or service (Avnet and Higgins, 2006). For instance, an approach strategy of searching from among various product alternatives to find the best product (an avoidance strategy of not choosing a product which will be unsuitable) is consistent with a promotion orientation (prevention orientation). Following a successful search based on the approach strategy, a promotion oriented consumer is observed to ascribe a higher value to their final choice as compared to when the choice is made following a search strategy inconsistent with his or her goal orientation (vigilantly for a promotion orientation and vice versa) (Avnet and Higgins, 2006; Wang and Lee, 2006). The match between the strategy for goal attainment, and consumers' goal orientation constitutes regulatory fit (fit conditions: promotion orientation and approach; prevention orientation and avoidance) which generates a sense of 'feeling right' about how the goal is being achieved. This sense of feeling right may transfer to an object of evaluation due to value confusion and result in the final choice or decision outcome being evaluated more favourably (Higgins et al., 2003).Thus, consumers' goal orientation, which determines their predisposition towards self-regulation (Kruglanski, 2006), is a fundamental construct understanding of which is crucial to successful managerial decision making having tremendous strategic marketing implications. Goal orientation affects their choice as their evaluation of products and brands depend on their goal orientation (Higgins, 2002; Wang and Lee, 2006). For instance promotion oriented consumers evaluated a brand of grape juice more favourably when the product benefits highlighted the gains vs prevention of losses associated with consuming the product (Aaker and Lee, 2001). The reverse was true for prevention oriented consumers (Aaker and Lee, 2001). Further, promotion (prevention) framed messages were observed to be more effective for hedonic vs utilitarian (utilitarian vs hedonic) products (Micu and Chowdhury, 2010). Consequently, products employing a straddle positioning strategy may choose to highlight and suppress certain information in their communication to address consumers differing in their regulatory focus.Given the aspirational goal driven consumption of young Indians and the importance of regulatory focus in understanding consumer psychology, validation of the RFQ is emphasized in the Indian context.\n2 Consumers' goal orientation and its effects on preferences: The rational choice theory posits that consumers have stable and ordered preferences (Sen, 1999; Pindyck and Rubinfeld, 2007). However, in reality consumer preferences are highly unstable and preference reversals occur depending on changes in reference points from which a choice set is evaluated (Tversky and Kahneman, 1991). Being inherently loss averse, consumers stick to their initial point of reference or the product currently in their possession (Tversky and Kahneman, 1991). The choice problem, however, remains the same for both the consumer groups involved in the exchange. Bettman et al. (1998) have attributed this susceptibility to changes in reference points to the constructive nature of consumer preferences. The idea of constructive consumer preferences posits that given a choice problem consumers develop their preferences on the spot rather than retrieve the same from their mind (Bettman et al., 1998). Bettman et al. (1998) also mention that the constructive nature of consumer preferences can also be attributed to the multiple goals that they try to attain through decision making. Goal oriented decision making inherently involves self-regulation or self-control that directs consumer behavior towards attaining the desired goal (Bagozzi and Dholakia, 1999). For instance consumers' self-regulation in goal pursuit affects consideration set formation (Paulssen and Bagozzi, 2005). Thus, consumer preferences depend on the way they approach a decision problem or the self-regulation mechanism that they employ in decision making.Process dependence of consumer preferences has also been highlighted by Avnet and Higgins (2006). The authors highlight that consumers' valuation of a product depends on how the process of goal pursuit matches their current concerns and interests or their goal orientation or their strategy for self-regulation. Higgins (1997, 1998) characterized consumers on two types of goal orientation: promotion orientation and prevention orientation. Promotion oriented consumers adopt an eager strategy in making decisions, focusing on the benefits that buying the product might accrue to them (Avnet and Higgins, 2006). In contrast prevention oriented consumers resort to vigilance in decision making wherein they strive to avoid any losses that might be incurred in buying a product (Avnet and Higgins, 2006). Higgins et al. (2003) found evidence of consumers assigning a price of up to 40 percent higher for the same product when they chose it using a strategy that fit or matched their goal orientation (eagerly for promotion orientation and vigilantly for prevention orientation). Florack and Scarabis (2006) found that fit between consumers' goal orientation and advertising claims affected their preferences and consumers' goal orientation had an impact on category brand associations. Alternatively goal orientation can affect preferences through a process called regulatory relevance (Aaker and Lee, 2001; Bettman and Sujan, 1987; Hong and Zinkhan, 1995; Maheswaran and Sternthal, 1990). Regulatory relevance refers to the relevance of product attribute to consumers' regulatory focus or goal orientation. While products with creativity features are more relevant to promotion oriented consumers, products with reliability features are more relevant to prevention oriented consumers (Aaker and Lee, 2001).Wang and Lee (2006) investigated the role of goal orientation on information search for goal orientation consistent information as mentioned earlier. This approach is consistent with the tenets of motivated reasoning which highlights the role of motivation in determining the process individuals (consumers) choose in arriving at their final conclusion (product evaluation) (Kunda, 1990). However, Wang and Lee (2006) found the effect of fit between consumers' goal orientation and goal orientation consistent information under the condition of low involvement, wherein consumers are not motivated to expend much cognitive resources in decision making. Given that consumers with low involvement spend less effort in trying to identify the source of positive affect or the sense of feeling right about the way a decision is made, the effects of fit is sustained. Highly involved consumers, in turn, are more likely to correctly identify the source of their feeling right and thus this positive affect does not transfer to their evaluation of products (Higgins et al., 2003).Consumers' goal orientation can either be situationally induced or can be chronic in nature (Cesario et al., 2004). Higgins et al. (2001) operationalized consumers' chronic goal orientation as a consumers' subjective history of promotion success and prevention success. The authors argued that subjective history of success will result in anticipatory goal reactions in the form of pride, which will drive consumers to approach a decision task with eagerness. Similarly for prevention oriented consumers having a subjective history of failures, a decision task will elicit a feeling of shame which in turn will drive them to be vigilant and consequently resort to avoidance of failure in decision making (Higgins et al., 2001). Higgins et al. (2001) developed the 11 item RFQ based on the work scale by Harlow et al. (1997) and validated it on undergraduate students from two private urban universities. Lastly the efficacy of Higgins's RFQ was compared to that of other measures of chronic regulatory focus by Haws et al. (2010), based on which they recommended the Higgins et al. (2001) RFQ as the most generally applicable measure of regulatory focus. Hence the RFQ was chosen for our study.Given the goal directed aspirational nature of consumption among the urbanized young Indians, a finer understanding of the goal oriented nature of consumption of these young consumers is re-emphasized keeping in mind the significant implications on consumer preferences and product evaluation. Consequently, the veracity of the Higgin's RFQ is assessed in this study on a sample of urbanized young Indians.In the following section the scale validation study is presented. Implications, limitations and directions for future research are discussed in the final section of this paper.\n3 Method: 3.1 Respondents\n4 Discussion: Marketers appeal to the real or the desired self-image of consumers (Dichter, 1986). In the current context the desired self-image is in terms of a better lifestyle that the Yulics aspire for. Chronic promotion orientation is also a reflection of the degree of congruency between consumers' actual self and their ideal or aspired for self (Avnet and Higgins, 2006). Similarly chronic prevention orientation is a reflection of the degree of congruency between consumers' actual self and their ought self (Avnet and Higgins, 2006). Given the aspirational nature of consumption and the dependence of preferences on consumers' goal orientation, it is essential for managers to look at goal orientation as a means of finer segmentation. For instance the same product may be represented or pitched differently to consumers depending upon their goal orientation. Further managers train sales people to gauge consumers' goal orientation by taking note of their preferred product features or concerns about a product. This follows from the principle of regulatory relevance, as mentioned in Section 2, which indicates that certain product features are relevant, while others are irrelevant to consumers' goal orientation. For instance more concern with warranty which is linked to product reliability may denote prevention orientation or a focus on all possible usage benefits and lifestyle changes as a consequence of product usage may denote a promotion orientation.If consumers experience regulatory fit, the subjective experience of \"feeling right\" which consumers experience as a consequence of fit, may amplify the perceived persuasiveness of a message, for instance, and advertising message (Cesario et al., 2004). Consumers may experience regulatory fit if their way of approaching the goal matches their regulatory focus (Avnet and Higgins, 2006). Further under conditions of low involvement consumers are selectively attentive to information which is relevant to their goal orientation (Wang and Lee, 2006). Advertisers may use these notions to design advertisements conforming to consumers' regulatory focus. Given that promotion and prevention oriented consumers are differentially persuaded by goal relevant messages, goal relevant advertising may serve to segment the consumers based on their regulatory focus. Based on their finding (Chung and Tsai, 2008) suggest that by priming consumers with the appropriate regulatory focus or goal orientation, companies may solicit more word of mouth (WOM) under circumstances when consumers communicate with others from different social ties. Future research should focus on eliciting and testing strategies across consumers' goal orientation in the context of advertisement persuasiveness. Given the apparently small sample size of 152, generalizability of our results may be questioned. However, from the point of view of sampling adequacy, our data meets the necessary requirement (Meyers et al., 2006). Finally our student sample meets the demographic profile of the Yulics and we considered postgraduate students only in their senior years for this research. Finally the nomological validity of the scale is not established in this study. This may be taken up as a future study.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: - The purpose of this paper is to validate the Higgins regulatory focus/goal orientation questionnaire (RFQ) in the Indian context on a sample of urbanized young Indians: one of the most important consumer segments in India.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - Items were validated using exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses, through both parametric and non parametric approaches to estimation.\nFindings: - Scale validity and reliability was established in the Indian context.\nResearch limitations/implications: - A sample of 152 final year students enrolled in professional courses, conforming to the characteristics of urbanized young Indians, was used. Consumers' goal orientation may now be successfully measured in the Indian context.\nPractical implications: - Marketers may use the questionnaire to measure consumers' goal orientation and design products and advertisements catering specifically to promotion and prevention oriented customers. According to Cesario, Grant, and Hissing and Avnet and Higgins, this is important as message persuasiveness and product evaluation is dependent on consumer's goal orientation.\nOriginality/value: - Given the aspirational and goal directed nature of the dominant consumer segment of young Indians in India, it is essential that regulatory focus is measured well. This study establishes the validity of the scale for young Indians whose chronic regulatory focus can now be measured effectively.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Fundamental indexation for bond markets	[ "Bums problem", "Fundamental indexing", "Mean-variance efficiency", "Smart benchmarking", "Classification – G10" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Rethinking market indices: Ever since Charles Dow and Edward Jones launched their Industrial Average Equity Index back in 1896, the use of market indices as investment benchmarks has been on the increase in the asset management industry. It is a practical means to capture the price trend of the market as a whole, whereby the index basket serves as an investable proxy for the market portfolio. It is practical and, with reference to the Capital Asset Pricing Model (see Sharpe [1964]), it is return-to-risk efficient as well. The Market Portfolio defined as the aggregate of all tradable assets is priced such that is clears the markets and is for that matter believed to be in price equilibrium.\n2. Review of the literature and the investment practice: In recent years, three alternative approaches for building market indices have been developed. We revisit them one by one. The simplest is taking an equal weighting scheme: all assets traded on a market are assigned an equal weight. Benartzi and Thaler (2001) describe the merits of this scheme, which they call the one-over-N approach. DeMiguel et al. (2009) show, on equity data, that it beats a large set of indices constructed differently including the classical value-weighted index. However, their results can be ascribed to certain features in their test dataset. Kritzman et al. (2010) show the fallacy of one-over-N when applied on markets with small and illiquid securities.\n3. Research approach: Of the three approaches to index building discussed in the previous section, the fundamental approach seems to us the most adept, in the sense that it directly tackles the problems that have been diagnosed for the standard indices. Taking valuation-indifferent asset weights tackles the noise-in-price problem which was mentioned in the previous section, and at the same time, it is set to resolve the bums problem, as weights no longer depend on debt size. Our tests on corporate bonds build on the work of Arnott et al. (2005, 2010), who were the first to bring these arguments forward and try fundamental indexing on bonds.\n4. Data and index construction: Tests on corporate debt are carried out on the Merrill Lynch Investment Grade Euro Corporate Index over a ten-year period from October 2003 to September 2013. The market data of the index members have been retrieved on a monthly frequency and the sales revenues on an annual frequency, from Bloomberg. The Merrill Lynch economic sector convention defines the sector groups and, within that, the Bloomberg issuer-code convention defines the consolidated firm holding groups in our tests. Certain manual adjustments were necessary to deal with corporate actions in a way that the data are timely yet foresight-free. A few isolated cases of negative revenues have been discarded. The annual revenue figures correspond to fiscal years, which are in Europe for the largest part, for 89 per cent, calendar years, and are made public after the year's close in January or February. Given this situation, we reset the fundamental weights in the index once a year in March on the basis of the last-reported revenues. The small time-lag for the few firms that publish their accounts in other months has been ignored.\n5. Empirical tests: Corporate debt\n6. Conclusion: Fundamental indexation is proving a reasonable alternative for representing bond markets. The philosophy on which it relies is different from that of the longstanding market-weighted indices. Importance is being given to the role bond issuers play in the real economy rather than to their presence on the capital markets. By this more attention is paid to the capacity to take on debt and to eventually reimburse, which is a different appreciation of what the market stands for. The core of the question is to what degree entities participate in the market equilibrium pricing process. Is debt size the determinant factor, or is it the economic activity that is financed by the debt?\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to build alternative indices weighing using a measure of fundamental value rather than debt size. The official bond indices built to reflect general price trends are market weighted, meaning that the bonds are weighted by their debt size. The more indebted, the more weight in the index, which mechanically increments the investment risks that are inherent. Those market indices are shown to be return-to-risk inefficient in recent studies compared to indices with alternative weighting schemes. The authors contribute to this growing literature, which mostly focuses on equities, by testing on bonds.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The authors build alternative indices weighing using a measure of fundamental value rather than debt size. The authors have done this for sovereign bonds using gross domestic product (GDP) figures and for corporates taking sales revenues.\nFindings: The authors find in empirical tests that the fundamental indices build tend to outperform the market-weighted indices.\nOriginality/value: This article builds on two articles by Arnott et al. (2005, 2010), in the Financial Analysts Journal and Journal of Portfolio Management, respectively, and adds value in the sense that - it takes an appreciation-free fundamental measure, - tests on the European as opposed to the US bond markets.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Mediating and non-linear relationships among supply chain integration dimensions	[ "Survey", "Internal integration", "Supply chain integration", "Information integration", "External integration", "Financial integration", "Partial least squares-structural equation modelling (PLS-SEM)", "Physical integration" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Given that a company's success is increasingly dependent upon on the effectiveness and efficiency of its relationships with suppliers and customers (Scheuermann and Leukel, 2014), supply chain management (SCM) is gaining importance as a new battlefield for competitiveness. In this context, it cannot be ignored that integration is one of the keys to successful SCM and performance (Chen et al., 2007). SCM encompasses the planning and management of all activities involved in sourcing and procurement, production, and all logistics management activities, and supply chain integration (SCI) is one of its key components. SCI is concerned with linking major business functions and processes within and across companies in the chain to create a cohesive and high-performing business model (Chen et al., 2009a, b). Verwijmeren (2004) gave as far as to state that SCM cannot begin until integration extends from internal to external co-ordination and includes customers and suppliers in the supply chain. Stevens and Johnson (2016) posited that SCI is the alignment, linkage and co-ordination of people, processes, information, knowledge, and strategies across the supply chain and between all points of contact and influence to facilitate efficient and effective flows of material, money, information and knowledge in response to customer needs, and that the scope of SCI includes governance, organisation structure, systems, relationship management, business strategy, process design and performance management.\nBackground and research hypotheses: Supply chain integration\nMethodology: A literature review-based questionnaire (pretested by five internationally recognised researchers) was designed to gather the required information. The literature recommends selecting a sample of firms located in a relatively homogeneous geographical, cultural, legal and political space to minimise the impact of other variables that cannot be controlled in empirical research (Adler, 1983). Accordingly, information was obtained from a sample of 477 Spanish industrial companies with a minimum of 50 employees, taken from the DUNS 50,000 database (23.4 per cent response rate). A computer aided telephone interviewing system was used for the survey. This data gathering method has previously been successfully used in SCM research (Rojo et al., 2016).\nResults: Measurement model\nDiscussion and conclusions: This paper analyses the relationships between the different dimensions of SCI, a topic which, despite its importance, has not been sufficiently covered when considering the influence that said relationships may have on SCM and its performance. The results observed in Model 1 clearly indicate that internal integration is an antecedent to the three dimensions of external integration. Therefore, SCI integration first requires the integration of internal activities, and only then should external integration be considered. In addition, according to the results of Model 2, information integration can be considered to be an antecedent to the other two dimensions of external integration and points to the possible existence of a logical sequence for activities and flows in the supply chain to be efficiently integrated, i.e., on the one hand, results point to the need to first reinforce internal integration before seeking external integration with supply chain partners, as found by Horn et al. (2014). On the other hand, they indicate that the external integration of information flows seems to be the basis for achieving external integration, in line with the literature on the subject (e.g. Kulp et al., 2004; Devaraj et al., 2007; Zhou and Benton, 2007; Moyano-Fuentes et al., 2016).\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to analyse the relationships between the different dimensions of supply chain integration (SCI). First, the sequence in which these dimensions should be implemented and some possible mediating effects are investigated. Then, relationships are examined more closely to observe whether they present more complex non-linear forms than those usually analysed.\nDesign/methodology/approach: Required information was gathered from a sample of 477 Spanish industrial companies (23.4 per cent response rate). PLS structural equation modelling was applied to capture non-linear relationships between SCI dimensions.\nFindings: The results indicate that internal integration leads to external integration and that within external integration, information flow integration provides the basis for financial flow integration and physical flow integration. Thus, the results suggest the existence of a logical sequence to achieve SCI. In addition, clearly different non-linear relationships are observed between the analysed variables.\nPractical implications: It seems that a sufficient minimum value has to be reached for internal integration to have a positive effect on external information and financial integration. In addition, a higher degree of information integration appears to facilitate financial and physical integration, although a medium degree of information integration results in a lower degree of financial integration. Therefore, managers should not expect that efforts made to increase one integration dimension will always produce the same effect on the other dimensions.\nOriginality/value: An empirical contribution is made to knowledge of the logical SCI sequence. This contribution is not only important for academia, but also for managers seeking to improve supply chain performance through integration.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
When do job demands particularly predict burnout? The moderating role of job resources	[ "Home care", "Stress", "Job analysis", "Demand management", "Resources", "The Netherlands" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n__NO_TITLE__: Research has shown that job demands have a profound influence on burnout and indirectly lead to increased absenteeism (e.g. Bakker et al., 2003a) and impaired organizational performance (e.g. Bakker et al., 2004). This phenomenon is particularly evident in home care settings where the repeated confrontation with demanding patients fosters feelings of exhaustion and cynicism (i.e. burnout; Bakker et al., 2003b; Bussing and Hoge, 2004). Occupational health psychologists have long tried to detect which job resources may diminish the impact of job demands on burnout. The most studied resources that may act as buffers are job control and social support (Van der Doef and Maes, 1999). The present study uses the Job Demands-Resources (JD-R) model (Demerouti et al., 2001) in the context of home care organizations to test the hypothesis that different kinds of job resources buffer the impact of different kinds of job demands on burnout.\nTheoretical background: The importance of the buffer hypothesis was initially emphasized in Karasek's (1979) Demand-Control model and its extension by Johnson and Hall (1988) - the Demand-Control-Support (DCS) model. These researchers propose that control and/or support may offset the negative impact of high job demands (i.e. workload and time pressure) on negative job strain. However, reviews of DCS research provide only modest support for its buffer hypothesis (De Lange et al., 2003; Van der Doef and Maes, 1999). Specifically, Van der Doef and Maes (1999) conclude that the buffer hypothesis has been mainly supported for specific occupational subgroups (in terms of person characteristics or position in the organization) and when a specific (e.g. time pressure) instead of a broader (e.g. quality concern) type of demand interacts with a specific type of control (e.g. authority over pace). Based on the patterns of the significant interactions found, the so-called \"matching hypothesis\" was introduced (De Jonge and Dormann, 2006) according to which buffer effects should occur when similar types of demands (e.g. emotional demands) match with similar types of resources (e.g. emotional support), and produce similar types of outcomes (e.g. emotional exhaustion).De Jonge and Kompier (1997) attribute the limited evidence for the buffer hypothesis of the DCS model to methodological issues, including the calculation of the interaction term. Moreover, they point out that the use of representative samples, although important, may have led to low statistical power in buffer studies because in such samples participants are exposed to average and not extreme levels of job characteristics. Therefore, Kristensen (1996) suggested that one way to avoid Type II errors caused by range restriction is to include sample units that represent large exposure contrasts on the predictor and moderator variables.However, the main criticism against the DCS model, which also explains the modest support for its buffer hypothesis, is that it is too restrictive and therefore unable to capture the complexity of different work environments (e.g. De Jonge and Kompier, 1997; Van der Doef and Maes, 1999). In fact, the model focuses only on quantitative (i.e. work pressure) and not qualitative (e.g. emotional) job demands, and includes only two types of job resources. The study of the processes explaining burnout cannot be restricted to workload, control and support because: each occupational setting is characterized by different types and levels of work characteristics (Bakker and Demerouti, 2007); and many more work-related factors have been identified as predictors of burnout, including emotional demands and lack of feedback (Lee and Ashforth, 1996).Similar kinds of criticism have been formulated against the Effort-Reward-Imbalance (ERI) model (Siegrist, 1996) which proposes that adverse health effects occur when there is an imbalance between (high) efforts and (low) rewards. Critics again emphasize that the ERI model conceptualizes effort (i.e. demands) and rewards (i.e. resources) in a very general way, and argue that the test of specific types of efforts and rewards would be more valuable (Van Vegchel et al., 2005b). Furthermore, the interaction effect between effort and rewards has also received little empirical support (Van Vegchel et al., 2005a). Because of the limitations of the DCS and the ERI models, there is a need for a more comprehensive model that specifies the job demands and resources that characterize the particular occupational group under study. In this context, the JD-R model may be considered a promising alternative framework for testing the buffer hypothesis.\nThe Job Demands-Resources Model: Whereas the JD-R model (Bakker and Demerouti, 2007; Demerouti et al., 2001) fits the tradition of the DCS and the ERI models it satisfies the need for specificity by including various types of job demands and resources depending on the occupational context under study. Thus, the JD-R model encompasses and extends both models and is considerably more flexible and rigorous. For instance, Lewig and Dollard (2003) showed that the JD-R model resulted in stronger findings in comparison with both the DCS and the ERI model, emphasizing the value of such a situation/occupation specific model. The JD-R model proposes that the characteristics of working environments can be classified into two general categories, job demands and job resources, which incorporate different specific demands and different specific resources respectively. Job demands refer to physical, social or organizational job aspects that require sustained physical and/or psychological effort and are associated with certain physiological and/or psychological costs. Job resources refer to physical, psychological, social or organizational job aspects that may: be functional in achieving work-related goals; reduce job demands and the associated physiological and psychological costs; and stimulate personal growth and development (Demerouti et al., 2001, p. 501).The main proposition of the JD-R model is that the risk of burnout is highest in working environments where job demands are high and job resources are low (Demerouti et al., 2001). Complementary to these additive effects, the buffer hypothesis states that high job resources may offset the negative impact of job demands on burnout (Bakker and Demerouti, 2007). Results of a study on the JD-R model in home care settings showed that employees facing high job demands were less exhausted when sufficient job resources were available (Bakker et al., 2003b). However, in this study the way of testing interaction effects (i.e. various job demands and job resources were indicators of a latent demands and a latent resources variable, respectively) did not allow an examination of which concrete job resources moderated which specific job demands.A recent study among employees of an institute for higher education provided stronger support for the buffer hypothesis of the JD-R model (Bakker et al., 2005). Of the interactions in this study 56 per cent was significant, showing that high levels of workload, emotional demands, physical demands and work-home interference did not result in high levels of exhaustion and cynicism if employees experienced adequate levels of autonomy, received feedback and social support, or had a high-quality relationship with their supervisors. However, this study concerned a certain group of employees and did not test specific demands (e.g. patient harassment) that typify the health care occupations, which constitute a classical burnout domain (Bussing and Hoge, 2004).\nThe present study: The central question of our study is whether specific job resources can buffer those job specific demands that are considered burnout inducing for home care employees. Employees in \"caring\" occupations are considered to be highly susceptible to burnout, because they are regularly confronted with demanding patients, who often show no appreciation for the care they receive (Bakker et al., 2000). Empirical support for the buffering role of job resources in this context is crucial both theoretically (i.e. enhance understanding of the mechanisms that lead to burnout) and practically (burnout prevention). That is because such evidence would indicate that the allocation of specific job resources could be profitable for employees who must deal with high job demands (Van der Doef and Maes, 1999).We examined whether four typical home care job resources can offset the effect of four typical home care job demands on burnout. Traditionally, burnout is defined as a syndrome of exhaustion, cynicism towards work and reduced professional efficacy, occurring among individuals in their work environment (Maslach et al., 1996). According to Schaufeli and Taris (2005), exhaustion (i.e. energy depletion) and cynicism (i.e. callous attitudes towards work and clients) are the core dimensions of burnout. Professional efficacy has consistently been found to show a relatively low correlation with exhaustion and cynicism and a different pattern of correlations with other variables (Halbesleben and Buckley, 2004). Additionally, Bakker et al. (2005) found that job resources did not moderate the relationship between job demands and professional efficacy. Due to this ambivalent nature of professional efficacy, we followed Schaufeli and Bakker's (2004) recommendation and examined only the core dimensions of burnout in the present study.Four job demands (emotional demands, patient harassment, workload and physical demands) and four job resources (autonomy, social support, performance feedback and opportunities for professional development) were included in the study. This selection is supported by previous research that recognized the importance of these job characteristics for most employees (Hackman and Oldham, 1980; Lee and Ashforth, 1996) and for home care professionals in particular (Bakker et al., 2003b; Bussing and Hoge, 2004). In home care settings, employees are often isolated from the organization and their colleagues because they work with their patients \"behind closed doors\" (Barling et al., 2001). Thus, additional to typical resources like autonomy or instrumental support, which might be of limited help when employees are alone when facing demanding patients, other resources like feedback or opportunities for professional development might be crucial (Bussing and Hoge, 2004). For example, when home care employees receive information from their work environment regarding the ways they have dealt with difficult situations in the past and how they could have done it better (feedback), or when they participate in workshops (opportunities for development) and learn how to deal with \"difficult\" patients, they may be more prepared to confront such situations. As a result, they may dispose less energy and feel less cynical about their work, because they are more effective in dealing with its demanding aspects.In the context of the JD-R model, job resources by definition act as buffers of job demands on burnout (Demerouti et al., 2001, p. 501). Thus, where job demands equal job resources (in low demands-low resources or high demands-high resources conditions) low levels of burnout will be experienced (Bakker and Demerouti, 2007; Van Vegchel et al., 2005b). The latter combination represents the buffer effect and suggests that although demands are high, high levels of resources prevent the occurrence of burnout. Therefore, the relationship between job demands and burnout will be particularly strong when job resources are low. This reasoning leads to:H1. All four job resources will buffer the positive relationship between each of the four job demands and the two core dimensions of burnout.Furthermore, since emotional demands originating from the interaction with patients and harassment from patients are apparently the most qualitatively important demands in the health care settings (Barling et al., 2001; Bussing and Hoge, 2004; Dollard et al., 2003, 2007) we anticipate that home care employees will mainly use their job resources in order to mitigate the strong effect of these two specific job demands. If home care employees recognize these two job demands as the most crucial threats of their well-being, they will initially try to protect themselves from these demands as a form of coping (Aspinwall and Taylor, 1997). This leads to:H2. Job resources will buffer the relationship between emotional demands/patient harassment and burnout more strongly than the relationship between workload/physical demands and burnout.\nMethod: Procedure and participants\nResults: Descriptive statistics\nDiscussion: The central aim of the present study was to test the buffer hypothesis of the JD-R model (Bakker and Demerouti, 2007; Demerouti et al., 2001) in a sample of home care professionals. Particularly, the study investigated, for the first time, specific interactions between several job demands and several job resources that are crucial for home care employees, and assumed that job resources can buffer the effect of job demands on burnout. Support for the buffer hypothesis contributes to the development of the JD-R model in two ways. First, significant interaction effects between different types of job demands and resources increase our insight in the mechanisms that lead to burnout. Secondly, support for the buffer hypothesis is of practical value, because it suggests that the allocation of job resources may mitigate the role of job demands, thus preventing employees from developing high levels of burnout (Van der Doef and Maes, 1999). This is especially important for home care employees who, due to the unique demands of their job, are expected to be susceptible to burnout (Bakker et al., 2003b; Bussing and Hoge, 2004).Meaning of the interactions\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: - The purpose of this paper is to focus on home care organization employees, and examine how the interaction between job demands (emotional demands, patient harassment, workload, and physical demands) and job resources (autonomy, social support, performance feedback, and opportunities for professional development) affect the core dimensions of burnout (exhaustion and cynicism).\nDesign/methodology/approach: - Hypotheses were tested with a cross-sectional design among 747 Dutch employees from two home care organizations.\nFindings: - Results of moderated structural equation modeling analyses partially supported the hypotheses as 21 out of 32 (66 per cent) possible two-way interactions were significant and in the expected direction. In addition, job resources were stronger buffers of the relationship between emotional demands/patient harassment and burnout, than of the relationship between workload/physical demands and burnout.\nPractical implications: - The conclusions may be particularly useful for occupational settings, including home care organizations, where reducing or redesigning demands is difficult.\nOriginality/value: - The findings confirm the JD-R model by showing that several job resources can buffer the relationship between job demands and burnout.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
A scenario-based parametric analysis of the army personnel-to-assignment matching problem	[ "Assignment problem", "Stable marriage algorithm", "Solution robustness" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: At least twice each year, a group of assignment managers (i.e. human resource specialists) from the U.S. Army's Human Resources Command solve an army personnel-to-assignment matching problem (APAMP), a problem wherein each assignment manager aligned with a career specialty must pair officers with personnel assignments. Each assignment manager may consider the suitability of an officer to fill an assignment, an officer's preference for a given assignment and the alignment of an officer's developmental needs vis-a-vis specialized subsets of the assignments related to career development. Optimizing a weighted aggregation of these measures will yield a high quality solution to APAMP instances.\n2. Background: The APAMP is a matching problem; it matches officers to assignments to maximize some criterion governing the quality of the matching. For readers familiar with mathematical programming, the APAMP might also be viewed as an assignment problem.\n3. Models and general solution methods: This section provides the APAMP formulation under consideration. As an additional complicating factor, the APAMP partitions assignments into \"key and developmental\" (KD) assignments and \"broadening\" (B) assignments. KD assignments are deemed important to the professional development of an officer, and each officer should have at least one KD assignment during their time at each military rank within a professional career. Accordingly, we define the following sets, parameters and decision variables prior to presenting our model formulation:\n4. Testing, results and analysis: The first comparison focuses on the computational effort required by each of the solution approaches considered. Table 3 summarizes the computational effort for each solution method as measured by the elapsed time on an Intel(r) Core(tm) i5-7200U CPU (2 cores) with hyperthreading enabled running Ubuntu 16.10 in an Anaconda 4.2-managed Python 2.7.12 environment. Not surprisingly, the SMA heuristics run the quickest while the SMA with the randomized selections runs the longest. From a practical perspective, all the techniques run sufficiently quickly - in seconds - indicating that we can focus the comparison on the solution quality and solution robustness characteristics.\n5. Summary and conclusions: Personnel assignment processes are often based solely on the needs of the organization. Recent initiatives attempt to provide greater consideration of personal preferences. The organizations' needs are also of importance, and so an appropriate compromise is inform assignments using both the organizations' and the officers' preferences. To this end, the SMA has been proposed as a potential alternative solution method to the assignment process and, in particular, the APAMP considered in this paper. Adoption of the proposed assignment approach does require deeper insight into what the solution approach provides in comparison to current methods. Within this context, this study compares several variants of the traditional linear programming approach and the SMA solution approach with respect to three performance metrics: solution time, solution quality as measured by an objective function value and solution robustness as measured by the number of changes required between a solution to the APAMP and the solution to perturbed variant thereof.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: This study aims to compare linear programming and stable marriage approaches to the personnel assignment problem under conditions of uncertainty. Robust solutions should exhibit reduced variability of solutions in the presence of one or more additional constraints or problem perturbations added to some baseline problems.\nDesign/methodology/approach: Several variations of each approach are compared with respect to solution speed, solution quality as measured by officer-to-assignment preferences and solution robustness as measured by the number of assignment changes required after inducing a set of representative perturbations or constraints to an assignment instance. These side constraints represent the realistic assignment categorical priorities and limitations encountered by army assignment managers who solve this problem semiannually, and thus the synthetic instances considered herein emulate typical problem instances.\nFindings: The results provide insight regarding the trade-offs between traditional optimization and heuristic-based solution approaches.\nOriginality/value: The results indicate the viability of using the stable marriage algorithm for talent management via the talent marketplace currently used by both the U.S. Army and U.S. Air Force for personnel assignments.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Is it the staff or is it the food? How the attire of restaurant employees affects customer judgments of food quality	[ "Visual perception", "Additional order intention", "Appetite", "Attire", "Restaurant attendant" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Nowadays, people are no longer satisfied only with products per se; rather, they are also seeking gratification and happiness in the experience of using these products. In order to stand out among all the competitors in the highly competitive food and drinks market while also being frequented by consumers, businesses in the food and drinks industry should provide both innovative and delicious cuisine to satisfy consumers. In addition, as consumers tend to develop their impressions of a restaurant based on their perceptions of and feelings about the restaurant's attendants, the importance of the image presented by frontline attendants, the staff members who make the most substantial impression on customers, cannot be overstressed. Visual cue is an integral aspect of the service environment that can exert a tremendous influence on consumers (Baker, 1998). Past research has indicated that an attendant's overall style and appearance is significantly related to consumer behavior (Cash et al., 1989; Cox and Glick, 1986; Graham and Jouhar, 1981; Mulhern et al., 2003; Nash et al., 2006; Workman and Johnson, 1991).\nTheoretical background and hypotheses development: S-O-R model and consuming behavior\nMaterial and methods: Research object\nResults: Sample description\nDiscussion and implications: Theoretical implications\nConclusion and originality: This study finds that consumers' appetite is affected by various independent variables, including dress style, dress color and attendant gender, and a dependent variable, i.e., additional order intention. Consumers' appetite, according to results of this study, plays a decisive role in the development of their additional order intention. This study also reveals that dress style and dress color have significant influences on appetite. By collecting relevant empirical data, this study demonstrates that appetite does influence consumer's additional order intention. Specifically, higher level of consumer's appetite significantly enhances consumer's additional order intention. These findings are consistent with previous studies (Nash et al., 2006; Rafae, 1993; Sebastian and Bristow, 2008; Shao et al., 2004, 2005; Yan et al., 2011).\nResearch limitations: Furthermore, instead of seeing attendants at work or watching a movie, the survey respondents who participated in this study only observe photos designed by the researchers and made their judgments. The use of photos for such evaluations enables researchers to have a good control of the intended message to be received by the respondents (Hurworth, 2004; Hurworth et al., 2005). As such, the respondents will not be influenced by variables unrelated to the research, which can prevent the results of the experiment from being misleading. The purpose of this study is to explore the influence of attendant dress styles and dress colors on consumer appetites and additional order intentions. Accordingly, the photo presentation is used in order to prevent the respondents from being influenced by other factors such as the voice, tone, smell and body language of the attendants.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to investigate how the appearances of Chinese restaurant employees, including gender and the style and color of dress, influence the appetites and additional order intentions of customers.\nDesign/methodology/approach: This research implemented questionnaire survey. Consumers in Chinese restaurants of international tourist hotels located in Taipei, Taiwan, were targeted as research objects. After deleting questionnaires with incomplete answers, the researchers obtained 818 valid questionnaires for data analysis.\nFindings: The analysis results indicate that the gender, style of dress and degree of color coordination of a waitperson's clothing can significantly influence consumer perceptions and feelings.\nOriginality/value: The analysis of this study implies that restaurant management should stress professional attendant training. By strengthening training and regulating attendant style, a management team can effectively improve upon their customers' recognition of a business. This research addresses the influence of different dress style and dress color combinations on consumer appetites and additional order intentions.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Theoretical wisdom and practical management: must they be at odds? An exploration of the concept of wisdom and its various definitions	[ "Management skills", "Management training", "Experience" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n__NO_TITLE__: In the words of Aeschylus, one of the three great ancient Greek tragedians, \"wisdom comes along through suffering\". So important was this notion in philosophical thought at the time that the phrase was repeated constantly throughout his trilogy The Oresteia. The simple message is that we have to make mistakes in order to learn from them, an idea that all of us are familiar with. But Michael W. Small of Curtin Business School, Australia, asks whether that really has to be the case, especially within a management situation.\nComment: This is a review of \"Wisdom and now managerial wisdom: do they have a place in management development programs?\" by Michael W. Small of Curtin Business School, Bentley, Australia. By revisiting the Ancient Greek philosophers and quoting from literature, the article explores the concept of wisdom and its various definitions. It then addresses the often-supposed conflict between these theoretical ideas and more pragmatic business practices. Having considered some major business mistakes, Small argues that management development studies should become more closely aligned to traditional teaching on wisdom, where education is about developing the whole person.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: - 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: - Finds that management development studies should become more closely aligned to traditional teaching on wisdom, where education is about developing the whole person.\nOriginality/value: - The briefing saves busy executives and researchers hours of reading time by selecting only the very best, most pertinent information and presenting it in a condensed and easy-to-digest format.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
A roadmap for (un)successful BPM: positivist case studies	[ "Culture", "Capabilities", "Adoption", "Critical success factors", "Organizational structure", "Business process orientation" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: Organisations are increasingly focusing on their operations or business processes, and apply business process management (BPM) to obtain outcomes such as higher performance, compliance of a system, business alignment or innovation (vom Brocke and Rosemann, 2010). However, the way to obtain these BPM outcomes may vary, and is still a point of discussion. In the 1990s, BPM research mainly examined technical methods throughout the process lifecycle (Dumas et al., 2013; Weske, 2010), e.g., for modelling and deploying workflows (Jablonski and Bussler, 1996), software process improvements (Kellner et al., 1999) or process reengineering (Hammer, 1990). As from the 2000s, more authors start advocating a holistic (de Bruin and Rosemann, 2007; vom Brocke et al., 2014; Willaert et al., 2007) or comprehensive (Kohlbacher, 2010) BPM approach, also known as business process orientation (BPO) (McCormack and Johnson, 2001; Van Looy et al., 2011), which supplements the traditional, technology-oriented approach. In particular, BPO claims that organisations must also adopt an organisational culture and structure that support process improvements. Given this relatively recent recognition, little research exists on why such orientations are important and what is more important for the success of process improvements, i.e., culture or structure.\n2. Related work: The literature presents critical success factors due to many unsuccessful BPM initiatives in the past (Trkman, 2010). These critical success factors are called business process capabilities. While the traditional process lifecycle (Dumas et al., 2013; Weske, 2010) focusses on capabilities related to the modelling, deployment, optimisation and management of a business process (i.e. old BPM school), capability frameworks have been proposed that supplement this traditional view with organisational characteristics (i.e. new BPM school). For instance, the framework of de Bruin and Rosemann (2007) supplements capabilities for methods and IT with capabilities for strategic alignment, governance, people and culture. This framework was input for a maturity model that assesses the whole process portfolio of an organisation, but many other maturity models exist with a similar scope (Hammer, 2007; McCormack and Johnson, 2001) or for specific processes (Ahern et al., 2004). Therefore, another framework summarises the process capabilities of 69 maturity models (Van Looy et al., 2014). This framework, shown in Table I, builds upon the traditional process lifecycle with process modelling, deployment, optimisation, and management, and extends it with organisational characteristics of a process-oriented culture and structure.\n3. Research strategy: 3.1 Research design\n4. Results: The results of the pattern-matching exercise are presented in Table VI. As shown in Appendix 1, each organisation was assessed by one or two participants. Since the participants were mainly managers with an average work experience of five to ten years in the case organisation, they were assumed to sufficiently know the company's background and process-related issues.\n5. Discussion: 5.1 Implications for research\n6. Conclusion: This paper has empirically explored and theoretically explained the interrelationship between business processes, a process-oriented culture and structure to direct future research. Besides providing evidence that a process-oriented culture and structure influence business processes, the study suggests that the sequence in which they are realised matters. Particularly, prominent theories proclaim that culture should legitimate or precede structure and business processes. Furthermore, a roadmap with statements or underpinned lessons learned has emerged about which sequence is best suited for which situation. The organisational culture rather than the organisational structure appears to be dominant to realise BPO, whereas workgroup cultures are also and primarily relevant to BPM. The proposed process capability success model and roadmap help organisations reorganise properly. For instance, organisations that invest in a process-oriented structure, but not in a process-oriented culture, are likely to experience more difficulties in realising their process initiatives than vice versa. Similarly, organisations that do not invest in a process-oriented culture or structure are likely to experience more difficulties than organisations that invest in both concepts.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: While much research exists on methods and tools to support business processes, little research exists on the interrelationship with cultural and structural aspects. The purpose of this paper is to explore the chronological sequence in which culture and structure are important, as evidenced in 13 non-profit organisations that are changing towards a process-oriented way of working.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The authors use a positivist case study methodology with pattern-matching to falsify or confirm three theoretical perspectives that claim to explain the phenomena of organisational structure and culture, and their impact on business processes. The competing perspectives are: process lifecycle theories, organisational design theories and cultural and motivational theories.\nFindings: The case studies cover six scenarios based on a recurrent sequence of changes and perceived outcome. The (theoretical and empirical) relationships between business processes, a process-oriented culture and a process-oriented structure are then combined in a process capability success model.\nResearch limitations/implications: Although limited to the non-profit sector, the findings agree that the process lifecycle is insufficient. Cultural and motivational theories prevail over organisational design theories to explain and predict process success.\nPractical implications: From the process capability success model, a roadmap for (un)successful business process management (BPM) is derived with best practices and advice on the sequence of process improvements.\nOriginality/value: While the relevance of culture and structure has been touched in research before, the aspect of chronological sequence and pattern-matching sheds new light on the topic. The case studies performed also help to evidence how important it is to believe in process-oriented developments for organisations that want to apply BPM.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Social network analysis of the Korean disaster-safety industry	[ "Public-private partnership", "Social network analysis", "Republic of Korea", "Disaster and safety industry" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: Both the public and private sectors need to enhance their capacity to design and implement disaster management initiatives. Hari (2016) argued that a lot more attention should be placed on the fields of disaster risk reduction (DRR) and disaster risk management (DRM), along with stronger public and private partnerships (PPPs) aimed at making concerted efforts to create a safer society. The United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction (UNISDR, n.d., 2015a) has been partnering with private sectors to boost investment in DRR. Indeed, private companies can play crucial roles in enhancing disaster resilience at the local level: providing disaster prevention- and safety-related products and services through cooperation with local governments (UNISDR, 2015a); developing and implementing disaster management assistance programmes for business continuity and future investment in DRR; improving the disaster consciousness of the public; and providing accurate risk assessments of critical facilities (Hari, 2016).\n2. Background: 2.1 The role of the private sector in disaster management\n3. Methodology: 3.1 Data collection\n4. Results: From the interview data, 91 responses were analysed. The companies were classified according to their specific sectors in the disaster-safety industry and their objectives and expertise. As a result of the safety sector classification, most companies were found to belong to the industrial/construction safety sector. In total, 21 companies were working in the industrial/construction safety sector, 18 companies were engaged in the traffic safety sector, 17 companies in the natural disaster mitigation sector, 11 in fire safety and the living safety and security sectors had 9 each.\n5. Conclusions: There is ample evidence on the increasing importance and necessity of private sector participation in disaster-safety management. The purpose of this study was to analyse the present market characteristics of the disaster-safety industry in Korea and to suggest future directions for the industry. In this study, the structure of the disaster-safety industry was analysed using social network analysis for each subdivision, and possible future directions were determined.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to identify the present structure of the Korean disaster-safety industry and propose ways to promote it.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The background of the emergence of the disaster and safety industry in Korea is reviewed, and business networks of 91 companies belonging to the disaster and safety industry in Korea are identified and analysed through a network analysis.\nFindings: Korean Government is struggling to nurture the disaster and safety industry as it has been on last few decades. This paper finds that the current industry has an ambiguous market structure, and the industry tends to depend highly on the demand of public institutions.\nPractical implications: The concept of the disaster and safety industry is not well established in other countries except for Korea. If Korea successfully fosters its disaster and safety industry through its proper understanding, it would bring both disaster risk reduction and economic benefits.\nOriginality/value: This paper analyses the market structure of the disaster and safety industry, which is uniquely emerging in Korea and rarely designated as an industry in other countries.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
After 20 years, what has remained of TQM?	[ "TQM", "Brazil", "Multiple case studies", "Methodologies", "Management Excellence Model", "Principles" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: With the liberalization of the Brazilian economy in 1990 a significant number of organizations began to adopt total quality management (TQM) as their management model. Current evidence indicates that this model has been substituted by new approaches or models, such as the Management Excellence Model (MEM; MEG in Portuguese) disseminated by the National Quality Foundation (Fundacao Nacional da Qualidade - FNQ, in Portuguese). In this context, this study aims to examine the aspects of TQM that have endured the period known as the \"quality boom\" in Brazil and the aspects that have been lost, discarded or modified after more than 20 years since it was introduced.\n2. The model for TQM in Brazil: According to Ishikawa (1993), the invention of quality control in production was American but the best results were obtained in Japan. The Japanese revolution in quality, as it has been described since the 1960s, modernized American principles by proposing the adoption of previously unpublished practices, such as extensive training for all functions and all levels and the installation of a process of searching for continuous improvement in the quality of production.\n3. The crisis of the TQM model: The development of this study sought evidence in the literature to substantiate the premise that the model of TQM - the Japanese style - is not being used as a means of improving organizational outcomes. A bibliometric study carried out by Paulista et al. (2013) reveals a peak in publications on the subject between the years 1998 and 2001, followed by a sharp decline in subsequent years. In addition, hypotheses about the possible factors that motivated this decline have been identified in various studies. The formulated hypotheses are based on the analysis undertaken by various authors, such as Porter (1996), Corredor and Goni (2011), Wood Jr (2001), Tolovi (1994), Cordeiro (2004, 2009), Wood and Caldas (1995), Campos (1989), Jesus (2000), Vasconcelos and Teixeira (1997), Asif et al. (2009), Zilbovicius (1999), Pyzdek (2001), Brown (2013), Antony (2013), Mosadeghrad (2013, 2014), Parvadavardini et al. (2015) and Zu et al. (2010).\n4. MEM: The National Quality Foundation is a Brazilian research center that was founded in 1991. Their mission is to \"spread the foundations of excellence in management for increasing competitiveness of the organizations and Brazil\" (FNQ, 2008, p. 9). It disseminates the MEM. MEM is structured using \"foundations of excellence\" and \"standards of excellence\": systems thinking, organizational learning, culture of innovation, leadership and constancy of purpose, guidance and process information, future vision, value generation, importance of people, knowledge about the customer and market development. Partnerships and social responsibility are also considered. MEM also consists of eight criteria of good management, which are referred to by FNQ as \"criteria of excellence\": leadership, strategies and plans, customers, society, information and knowledge, people, processes and results (FNQ, 2008).\n5. Similarities and differences between MEM and TQM: The two approaches (TQM and MEM) have many similarities. They are considered management philosophies instead of specific management techniques. Both approaches adopt \"systems thinking\" and the PDCA cycle, which was renamed in the MEM to PDCL (plan, do, check, learn) cycle. The following similarities are also highlighted: emphasis on \"continuous improvement\" and \"added value for the customer\"; use of benchmarking; focus on customer satisfaction and other stakeholders; process vision; management decisions based on facts and data; advocate policies that value people; emphasis on cooperation, partnership development and supplier development; policies for intensive training of employees and the culture of innovation.\n6. Methodology and analysis model: The issue \"is TQM a management fad?\" is addressed in this research. This issue has been extensively documented in the quality management literature (Sabet et al., 2014, p. 1). Based on Vergara (2010), this study lends itself to exploratory methods, because few studies have explored the transcendence disseminated by TQM aspects in models of current management. This study attempts to confirm the transcendence of aspects of this management model. It also has descriptive purposes to describe the phenomenon, without recommendations.\n7. Analysis and results: This section presents the data collected from the four surveyed organizations and a comparative analysis of the data. Adoption - use or disuse - of the PPTM in the 1990s and in 2013. More detail about how the percentages presenting the use of the PPTM in Companies X, Y, Z and W are detailed in Tables III-VII, Figure 2 and the Appendix.\n8. Comparison of results: In this section, the comparative analysis of the results of the four cases is presented. All surveyed companies showed strong adherence to PPTMs for the consistent implementation of a program of TQM. This finding demonstrates that they all embraced TQM during the 1990s.\n9. Conclusions: Starting in the 1990s, many organizations in Brazil decided to adopt a model of TQM to increase competitiveness within the new context of openness of external commerce. Currently, evidence is accumulating that suggests that this strategy has been deprecated in favor of new approaches or models, such as the MEM. In this context, this study aims to understand which aspects of the TQM were able to transcend the period referred to as the \"boom of quality\" in Brazil and which aspects lost prominence over the years and were eventually eliminated or altered.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: Many Brazilian organizations have adopted total quality management (TQM). However, this model has lost prominence in academic and business environments. The purpose of this paper is to determine which aspects of TQM have endured over 20 years.\nDesign/methodology/approach: With descriptive and exploratory objectives, this study used case studies of four companies that have adopted TQM, using temporal and comparative approaches in Brazil. The analysis explores the transcendence of disseminated aspects of TQM.\nFindings: The results revealed 19 percent disuse of TQM practices, 28 percent disuse of TQM tools and 57 percent disuse of TQM methodologies. However, the principles of TQM showed an average use of 96 percent, i.e. the predominant management philosophy remains part of the organizational environment of the companies. Although many practices, tools and methodologies are not described or named in the same way, their essence remains preserved and other practices, tools and methodologies have been incorporated into the automated systems of the companies.\nResearch limitations/implications: Simple statistical tools are used as we use an exploratory and qualitative approach (with just four samples), making generalizations impossible. For future research the authors suggest a more quantitative approach using more complex statistical tools.\nOriginality/value: The originality is demonstrated by the investigation of the cases of disuse, which contradicts most studies that analyze success stories. This paper aims to contribute to the understanding of how certain aspects of the models or \"fads\" survive or disappear over time.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Boundary objects for institutional work across service ecosystems	[ "Healthcare", "Boundary object", "Institutional arrangement", "Institutional work", "Translation process" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Institutional arrangements have gained increasing attention - within service-dominant logic (SDL) and service science - as being a significant element needed for the realization of resource integration, value co-creation (Edvardsson et al., 2014; Vargo and Lusch, 2016; Koskela-Huotari and Vargo, 2016) and innovation (Vargo et al., 2015) in service ecosystems. The realization of these goals will most likely require actors to engage in the process of changing, creating, maintaining and disrupting institutions, which is referred to as \"institutional work\" (Lawrence and Suddaby, 2006). Institutional work is governed by the dynamic relationship between actors' (embedded) agency (Battilana and D'Aunno, 2009) and the determinism of their institution. These institutions are \"firmly rooted in taken-for-granted rules, norms, and routines\" (Seo and Creed, 2002, p. 222), which create certainty and security for actors to perform their activities, interact and collaborate with others within their ecosystem. When actors - with their \"taken-for-granted\" institutional arrangements - aim to collaborate with actors outside their ecosystem (Scott, 2001), they are forced to face a set of non-harmonious or even conflicting institutional arrangements (cf. Greenwood et al., 2011; Koskela-Huotari and Vargo, 2016). These ostensibly contrasting rules, norms and values (i.e. institutional arrangement) between ecosystems (Greenwood et al., 2011) will likely make actors protect and retract into their own domains (Fligstein, 1985; Holm, 1995). This protective mechanism is likely to create an oppositional stand, which will further underline the lack of consensus between them, and thus, ultimately prevent collaboration between the actors (Carlile, 2002). In order to facilitate collaboration, this cross-boundary work requires something that allows actors' vastly different meaning systems and institutional arrangements (cf. Zietsma and Lawrence, 2010) to find common ground and thus, move closer to each other. For this purpose, this study proposes the concept of boundary objects that can facilitate collaboration without necessitating consensus (Star, 2010). To the researchers' knowledge, this is the first study to explore the processes and mechanisms of boundary objects in facilitating institutional work across ecosystems (cf. Zietsma and Lawrence, 2010). In particular, this study contrasts with previous research by underscoring the relevance of non-human objects (in contrast to actors) in initiating the process of institutional work (cf. Lawrence and Suddaby, 2006). It will examine the case of creating a new institutional arrangement by attempting to change the \"logic\" of the field (Gawer and Phillips, 2013). By drawing on institutional work and boundary objects, this study aims to pinpoint the potential roles and mechanism of a boundary object in undertaking institutional work. Thus, the findings of this study aim to contribute to the further development of SDL by understanding the role of boundary objects as part of institutional work in the realization of resource integration and value creation.\nInstitutional work across different service ecosystems: Institutions provide stability and meaning to social life (Scott, 2001). Institutions are, however, constantly disrupted and new ones are created, which is referred to as institutional work (Lawrence and Suddaby, 2006). Institutional work requires actors to cross institutional boundaries, and interact and collaborate with people who follow institutional principles, logics or arrangements of their own institution (Friedland and Alford, 1991). These principles are woven into the fabric of rules, social norms and mental frameworks, which specify different goals and standards to different actors across institutions as their measure of success (Smets et al., 2015). Thus, to undertake institutional work successfully requires an understanding of the underlying fabric of these rules, norms and frameworks of individual institutions and the relationships between them. This study focuses on institutional change and defines institutions in terms of pillars (cultural-cognitive, normative and regulative) and carriers (symbolic systems, relational systems, routines and artefacts) (Scott, 2001). In particular, the regulative, normative and cognitive institutional pillars represent conformity to rules and laws (regulative), norms and values (normative), and beliefs and reference points (cognitive), respectively. Hence, the three pillars create a continuum from the legally enforced, through normative, social obligations to the taken-for-granted shared understanding. These pillars are conveyed through carriers (media) that are represented in each pillar. These carriers are vehicles that carry messages across institutional arrangements. Symbolic systems are a collection of symbols and ideas (e.g. rules, value and categories); relational systems represent interactions and networks (power systems, authority and identity); routines are a set of habitulized behavior (e.g. protocols, roles and scripts); and, finally, artefacts are objects with certain specification, standards or symbolic value. These pillars and carriers can assist in understanding the ways in which institutions change, including the mechanisms that facilitate the change and highlighting what changes.\nCharacteristics and functions of boundary objects: The concept of boundary objects was developed by Star and Griesemer (1989) in the field of sociology. Since its inception, the concept has sparked significant scholarly interest across various academic disciplines beyond sociology, such as management (e.g. Fenton, 2007), educational research (e.g. Akkerman and Bakker, 2011), information systems (e.g. Doolin and McLeod, 2012) and healthcare (Allen, 2009). The over 20-year history of the concept and the large number of citations of the original Star and Griesemer's (1989) article is likely to be due to its very intuitive nature and the broad-ranging applicability of the concept. In particular, by utilizing a boundary object, Star and Griesemer (1989) showed how the Museum of Vertebrate Zoology of California Berkeley managed to preserve the native fauna of California by aligning the interests of scientific and non-scientific communities. With the proposition of the idea of boundary objects, Star and Griesemer (1989) created a sharp departure from consensus-based collaborations, and began moving toward collaboration without (initial) consensus (Star, 2010). In particular, Star and Griesemer (1989) proposed that boundary objects help facilitate boundary work and establish a shared context between actors from different ecosystems.\nEmploying boundary objects in institutional work: This study aims to explore and map out the mechanism through which boundary objects facilitate institutional work. This study argues that the characteristics (interpretive flexibility, coordinated arrangements and managing tension) of boundary objects can help align institutional arrangements and pillars (see Figure 1). In particular, the translation framework developed in this paper suggests a link between the boundary object's characteristics and its institutional pillars for each stage of the translation process. The interpretive flexibility aspect of boundary objects fosters collaboration by establishing an indirect relationship between actors and their fields through the object. The coordinated arrangements aspect of the object facilitates discussion and translation of individual and joint interests as well as allows actors to reframe their beliefs (Kimble et al., 2010). In particular, this aspect of the boundary object allows actors to uncover, pinpoint and negotiate their conflicts where practices overlap, explore potential combination of their practices governed by diverse institutional arrangements and seek complementarities, similar to \"bridging\" (Greenwood and Suddaby, 2006).\nThe New Zealand healthcare system and case-mix as a boundary object: Governments worldwide are facing the challenges of ageing populations. In Europe, the population of people aged 65 years and over is anticipated to rise from 17 percent in 2008 to 30 percent in 2060 (Eurostat, 2008), which means that one in three Europeans will be aged over 65. New Zealand is no exception and like many other countries there are concerns here about long-term care, and the future demand for care of disabled and older people. Demographic projections indicate that by 2050, the percentage of New Zealanders over 65 will double from 12 percent to 25 percent and over 75 year olds will increase fourfold (Dunstan and Thomson, 2006). The implication is that not only will there be a larger number of older people, but more importantly fewer people to support them, which means that increasing levels of healthcare costs will need to be spread across fewer (working) taxpayers.\nMethodology: This project involved the development of a case-mix system for the provision of HBSS for the clients of a New Zealand DHB. The researchers were involved in a collaborative research project that occurred between March 2010 and October 2013, which is when the first set of interviews were conducted, followed by a set of follow-up interviews in August 2017.\nAnalysis: The analysis section will first discuss the stage before the introduction of the case-mix system, followed by the presentation of the findings regarding the stage after the introduction of the case-mix system. Please note that these two stages were captured at the same time. Finally, the comparative analysis of the after-stage and the follow-up stage will be presented, as explained above.\nSummary of findings: Table VI showcases the phases (mobilize, co-construct, legitimize and identity work) of the translation process facilitated by different characteristics of the boundary object. In the first two phases in the translation process, the idea is referred to as a boundary concept, whereas in the latter two phases, it is referred to as the manifestation (implementation) aspect as the boundary object. It also shows the boundary or practice work that the boundary object has undertaken, the pillars that were affected and the practices that the boundary object leveraged during this process.\nDiscussion and implications: This study has explored the concept of boundary objects, and whether and how they impact institutional arrangements and thus, interactions between actors which ultimately enable and facilitate institutional work across service ecosystems. Boundary objects are considered as tools for translation (cf. Callon, 1986) of the idiosyncratic meanings and practices of multiple communities, and this study has mapped out the process of boundary objects facilitating institutional work across diverse ecosystems. According to the SDL, service ecosystems are self-adjusting systems of resource-integrating actors who are connected by (shared) institutional arrangements (Vargo and Lusch, 2014). Hence, understanding these actor-generated institutional arrangements can assist in unveiling the functioning of service ecosystems (Vargo and Lusch, 2016). This study has provided some preliminary insights regarding the potential capacity of objects to create their own agency through which they can shape actors' cognition, norms, behavior and interactions (institutional arrangements), which is likely to heavily influence the effectiveness of their ecosystem. Thus, through illustrating the role that (boundary) objects - in contrast to actors - play in shaping institutional work this study contributes to the 11th foundational principle and fifth axiom of the SDL logic and service ecosystem perspective in the following ways.\nLimitations and future research: This study is not without limitations. Some of these limitations are related to the data collected and some relate to the scope of this research, which did not focus on all aspects of boundary objects. Regarding the former, the interviews were undertaken only after the case-mix system had been introduced. This means that interviewees' comments might not truly represent the changes from the \"before\" to the \"after\" state. Nevertheless, the interviewees managed to clearly articulate the differences between the before and after states, which further demonstrated the changes that took place.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: Institutional arrangements for collaborative purposes have gained increasing attention within research on service ecosystems. For collaborations to be effective, actors need to undertake institutional work that will result in new institutional arrangements. When institutional work takes place across service ecosystems, actors may be confronted with non-harmonious or conflicting institutional arrangements, which need to be reconciled by translating the incompatible views of diverse ecosystems. Therefore, the purpose of this paper is to introduce the concept of boundary objects as a means of facilitating institutional work across ecosystems, and present their mechanism in undertaking institutional work.\nDesign/methodology/approach: Longitudinal qualitative interviews were conducted with three key actors (funding agency, service provider and clinicians) in providing home-based support services (HBSS). The data were analyzed by undertaking a thematic analysis of the transcripts, which helped to identify the actors' views on the nature of HBSS and its impact as a boundary object within the implementation of the case-mix system, and thus to empirically illustrate the theoretical assumptions.\nFindings: The data assisted in the creation of a conceptualization that maps out the process of boundary objects facilitating (disrupting and creating) institutional work. This study supports that boundary objects disrupt boundaries between actors' ecosystems, which was a sufficient condition to dismantle institutional support for the practices of individual fields. Furthermore, the object has changed the type and extent of interaction between actors in an ecosystem to allow these actors to redefine their identity and role in the new institutional arrangement.\nOriginality/value: This work has developed a novel conceptualization for a boundary object-led translation process in facilitating institutional work. To the researchers' knowledge, this is the first study to explore the processes and mechanisms of boundary objects in facilitating institutional work across ecosystems.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Developing an integrated indoor built environment-quality of life model for the elderly in public and subsidized housing	[ "Architecture", "Elderly", "Quality of life", "Built environment", "Facilities", "Design management", "Questionnaire survey", "International practice", "Public and subsidized housing" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Population aging is vastly becoming a global phenomenon due to increasing life expectancy and declining fertility (Beard et al., 2016; Hui and Yu, 2009). The number of the elderly aged 65 years old and above is expected to rise from 43.1m (13 percent of total population) in 2012 to 72.1m (19 percent) in 2030 in the USA (Jacobsen et al., 2011), from 29.2m (23 percent) in 2010 to 37.2m (31 percent) in 2025 in Japan (Ogawa and Matsukura, 2007) and from 919,300 (13 percent of total population) in 2011 to 2.1m (26 percent) in 2031 in Hong Kong (HK) (Census and Statistics Department, 2012). This rapid growth in the aging population expands the responsibility of governmental housing authorities in providing quality housing to meet the diverse needs of this vulnerable age group.\nPublic and subsidized housing in cities: P&S housing is a mass housing program providing affordable living areas for low-income households of a population (Drews, 1983; Shamsuddin and Vale, 2017). To ensure the low-income residents live in comfortably in their living environment, the United States Department of Housing and Urban Development launched the HOPE VI program in 1992 so as to demolish poor-quality housing units and replace them with lower density developments (Erickson, 2009), the Housing Authority began the development of low-cost housing with improvement in housing design and quality of facilities for HK residents (Hung, 1977), and the Ministry of Construction in Japan set up minimum quality standards for housing units in its fourth five-year plan of 1981 (Ito, 1994). Due to the increasing number of the elderly, the Ministry of Construction in Japan issued a memorandum for providing public housing units for older persons in 1964 (Kobayashi, 2016; Kose, 1997), while hostel-type accommodation and housing for senior citizens were initiated in HK in 1968 and 1994, respectively (Lai-kwok, 2001).\nBuilt environment components in public and subsidized housing estates: The BE refers to the physical environment constructed by human activity, and involves distribution across space of activities and the buildings that house them (Saelens and Handy, 2008). For daily functioning, the facilities in the living room, bedroom, etc., are expected to provide an acceptable level of comfortability for the elderly. Indoor BE components in a residential building should contain three main components, including space management, building services and supporting facilities components (Leung et al., 2012; Leung, Famakin and Olomolaiye, 2017; Leung, Famakin and Kwok, 2017).\nQuality of life of the elderly: QoL is increasingly recognized as a key outcome of care for the elderly despite its complex, subjective nature and the difficulty in measuring it (Chaturvedi and Muliyala, 2016; Murphy et al., 2006). The complexity of measuring QoL is reflected in the diverse measurement scales that have been developed by different researchers in order to measure it (Bradburn, 1969; Hunt et al., 1986, etc.). In response to this complexity, the World Health Organization established a QoL instrument, which encompasses a holistic approach to health and healthcare, and embraces measures of physical health, psychological health, social relationships and living environment (Harper and Power, 1998; WHO, 1996). However, this study focuses on the personal QoL of the elderly, including physical and psychological health, social relationships and overall QoL.\nConceptual model: In accordance with the relationships between the environment (i.e. indoor BE components) and the person (personal QoL) of the elderly (P-E fit theory) (Kahana et al., 2003), a conceptual BE-QoL model for the elderly in P&S housing was developed (see Figure 1). Several hypotheses were established to test and explain the relationships between indoor BE components and personal QoL of the elderly, namely, the physical health of the elderly is significantly affected by their satisfaction with indoor BE components; satisfaction with indoor BE components significantly induces the psychological health of the elderly; social relationships is significantly influenced by the satisfaction of the elderly with indoor BE components; and satisfaction with indoor BE components significantly impacts overall QoL of the elderly.\nResearch method: Measurement and statistical analyses\nResults: Reliability analysis of indoor BE components and QoL domains\nDiscussion: To ensure higher reliability in accordance to within-method triangulation, only the results identified by all statistical analyses (i.e. reliability test, multiple regression and SEM) were used to develop the final model. The congruence of the results reveal the following relationships between indoor BE components and QoL domains in P&S housing: furniture and fixtures (F13) influences all the personal QoL (i.e. physical and psychological health, social relationships and overall QoL) of the elderly; lighting (F3) and color (F10) have a positive effect on the social relationships of the elderly; and distance (F1) and handrails (F11) affects the overall QoL of the elderly (see Figure 3).\nRecommendations: Practical implications\nConclusion: The growth rate of the aging population and the increasing poverty among the elderly induces their dependence on P&S housing. To derive satisfaction from affordable housing units, it is essential that necessary and adequate facilities are provided to our elderly in their homes. The study identified 13 key indoor BE components under three main groups, namely, space management, building services and supporting facilities components. The integrated model shows that some indoor BE components can enhance the QoL of the elderly: furniture and fixtures affect all the personal QoL domains (physical and psychological health, the social relationships and overall QoL); color and lighting influence social relationships; and distance and handrails impact on the overall QoL of the elderly in P&S housing. The implications of the developed integrated indoor BE-QoL model on the elderly have been discussed in details.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: The growth rate of the aging population raises the demand for and challenges of public and subsidized (P&S) housing for the elderly. The decline in elderly ability increases their dependence on the quality of facilities provided by their residential apartment. Hence, the purpose of this paper is to develop an integrated indoor built environment-quality of life model for the elderly in P&S housing estates.\nDesign/methodology/approach: A questionnaire survey, including scales for 4 quality of life (QoL) domains (physical health, psychological health, social relationships and overall QoL), and 13 indoor built environment (BE) components were identified. In total, 365 survey data were collected from the elderly in 18 political districts of Hong Kong, while reliability analysis, multiple regression analysis and structural equation modeling were adopted in the data analysis.\nFindings: Based on the congruence of results of these statistical analyses, it was revealed that: furniture and fixtures predict all the four QoL domains of the elderly; lighting and color induce social relationships; and overall QoL is predicted by distance and handrails.\nOriginality/value: Several recommendations were made in accordance with the research results, such as review minimum spacing requirements to provide walking distance for elderly physical activity, investigate the micro-climate for appropriate building orientation, consider the changing body size of the elderly for supply of furniture, use warm colors with high levels of illumination, and so on.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
The US brewing industry, strategic windows and survival	[ "Capabilities", "USA", "Survival", "Mixed methods", "Strategic windows", "USA brewing industry" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n__NO_TITLE__: Between 1950 and 1980, the USA Brewing Industry suffered one of the most severe and lengthiest shakeouts in history, when the number of brewers declined from 287 firms to 39[1]; a decline of over 94 per cent (Figure 1). This historical event resulted in an increase in the five firm concentration ratio from 23.4 to 96.6 per cent (Kerkvliet et al., 1998). This radical drop begs the question, \"Why did some brewers survive, when other brewers failed?\" History tells us that Fortune 500 organizations that made early investments in particular capabilities were more likely to enjoy longevity (Wren, 2005). So, we explore this question from a resource-based view, which argues that firms with dynamic capabilities are able to change their stocks of resources and operational capabilities as industries consolidate to meet increasing competitive pressures. Conversely, firms that are void of dynamic capabilities are understood to form rigid operational capabilities that don't flex with environmental change, resulting in poor firm performance and ultimately failure. But this theory is relatively young, and has been criticized for over abstraction and a lack of empirical evidence. We integrate Abell's 1978 \"Strategic Window\" theory to provide a clearer conception of the role that time plays in capability development and firm survival. In addition, we develop a methodology for testing this relationship.\nThe US brewing industry lifecycle: Industries tend to evolve through lifecycle patterns marked by fairly distinct stages (Abernathy and Utterback, 1978; Utterback and Abernathy, 1975). During the first stage, there enter the mature phase as industry demand levels off, further intensifying competitive pressures. Firms that are able achieve growth reduce costs through economies of scale and force out smaller firms (Argyres and Bigelow, 2007), triggering industry consolidation. Once consolidation due to economies of scale has largely been exhausted, the nature of competition switches to economies of scope and brand proliferation (Tremblay and Tremblay, 1988). The Brewing Industry's progression through this lifecycle is particularly enlightening because throughout this evolution, the industry was predominately populated by firms that were only in that industry, enabling investigation of capability development and survival without the confounding effects of corporate and business level strategies. A discussion of the brewing industry's progression through these stages follows.\nCapabilities lifecycles and strategic windows: Organizational capabilities are one of the key constructs in strategic management (Eisenhardt and Martin, 2000, Helfat and Peteraf, 2003, Nelson and Winter, 1982, Henderson and Cockburn, 1994, Teece et al., 1997, Zollo and Winter, 2002). Building on the resource-based view of the firm (Barney, 1991, Wemerfelt, 1984) and ideas about organizational routines (Nelson and Winter, 1982), organizational capabilities have become one of the predominant ways of thinking about firm heterogeneity and performance. The fundamental premise of the resource-based view of the firm is that resources and capabilities must be valuable and rare to produce above industry average economic rents or competitive advantage. In this paper, we adopt a general definition of organizational capabilities, defining them as \"the ability of an organization to perform a coordinated set of tasks, utilizing organization resources, for the purpose of achieving a particular end result\" (Helfat and Peteraf, 2003). Following current theory, we conceptually categorize capabilities as either operational or dynamic. Dynamic capabilities are the antecedent organizational and strategic routines that allow firms to flex their operational capabilities to generate customer value in changing environments (Eisenhardt and Martin, 2000, Grant, 1996, Henderson and Cockburn, 1994, Teece et al., 1997).\nMethodology: Phase 1: determining the timing of the strategic window and the level of capabilities\nResults: Distribution capability\nDiscussion: The objective of this study was to examine strategic windows and their effect on survival in the US brewing industry. We did this in two phases. First, we identified the strategic window that corresponded to two of the three capabilities of interest using a sub-sample of firms in the brewing industry. Second, we tested our ideas on a full sample of brewing companies. Our findings motivate discussion in three key areas:\nFuture research and conclusions: While this paper presents an in-depth exploration of the temporal development of capabilities in the US brewing industry, there are still many additional avenues for further research. For example, researchers can explore the source of the capabilities that provided brewers with competitive advantage. Did firm heterogeneity during shakeout have its roots in managerial foresight and wisdom or did some brewers just happen to have control over specialized resources that gave them a jump start in developing capabilities. Consider that some brewers had better access to ice, an important resource for shipping before refrigeration because they were located near lakes that froze in the winter. Other brewers happened to be located outside of Chicago, but still close enough to become primary suppliers after all the local brewers burned down in the great fire of 1871. This makes the brewing industry an ideal context for investigating the role that resources play in determining capability development and in overall competitive advantage.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: This paper aims to investigate how dynamic capabilities enabled survival in a select group of brewers, during one of the lengthiest and most severe industry consolidations in history. In doing so, we advance Abell's (1978) theory of strategic windows through integration with the resource-based view of the firm.\nDesign/methodology/approach: Using a mixed method approach, we first apply case study methods to develop hypotheses around the timing and level of operational capability required for survival. In the second phase, we test these hypothesized estimations on the USA Brewing population.\nFindings: Indicate that brewers which had advanced distribution and manufacturing operational capabilities before the strategic window of opportunity closed had higher survival rates.\nPractical implications: This study reinforces the importance of making timely strategic investments in capabilities.\nOriginality/value: The integration of strategic window and capability theories advances our understanding of the roles that capabilities and time play in determining firm survival.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Understanding information seeking in digital libraries: antecedents and consequences	[ "Digital libraries", "Technology Acceptance Model", "Individual performance", "Flow", "Self-efficacy", "Information seeking" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: Digital libraries deliver information collection and associated services to user communities by utilizing various information and communication technologies (ICT) (Heradio et al., 2012). The number of digital library projects has continued to grow in the past decade (Zhang, 2010) and digital libraries have become one of the most typical ways for users to access many kinds of digitalized information (Frias-Martinez et al., 2006). In China, digital libraries in universities have achieved substantial development since the Ministry of Education initiated the China Academic Library and Information System (CALIS) in 1998. One aim of CALIS is to produce and introduce various domestic and foreign abstract and full-text databases (Zhu, 2003).\n2. Literature review: 2.1. Digital libraries and information seeking\n3. Research model and hypotheses: Building on the theories of TAM, flow experience and self-efficacy, this study explores the antecedents and consequences of information seeking in digital libraries. The research model is presented in Figure 1.\n4. Method and data collection: A survey method was employed to collect empirical data. All constructs and the corresponding items were adapted from extant literature given the consideration of content validity (Straub et al., 2004). Specifically, the items measuring ease of use of digital libraries were adapted from Venkatesh et al. (2003); the items measuring usefulness of digital libraries were adapted from Venkatesh et al. (2003) and Zha et al. (2013); the items measuring flow experience in digital libraries were adapted from Zhou (2013); the items measuring information seeking in digital libraries were adapted from Kankanhalli et al. (2005) and Yan and Davison (2013); the items measuring self-efficacy in getting information were adapted from Pavlou and Fygenson (2006) and Zhou (2012); and the items measuring individual performance were adapted from Teo and Men (2008).\n5. Data analysis and results: 5.1. Validation of measurement model\n6. Discussion and implications: 6.1. Discussion\n7. Conclusion: This study extends the TAM by considering the effect of flow experience so as to understand the antecedents of information seeking in digital libraries. Flow experience not only has a direct and strong effect on information seeking but also fully mediates the effects of ease of use and usefulness on information seeking, showing the importance of user experience in the context of digital libraries. Meanwhile, this study explores the consequences of information seeking in digital libraries, finding that information seeking in digital libraries has significant impacts on self-efficacy in getting information and individual performance. This study contributes to the theoretical development of the structural model exploring information seeking in digital libraries. It highlights the important status of digital libraries as conventional information sources in practice and makes suggestions accordingly. Information seeking in the context of digital libraries is a complicated information behavior, other antecedents and consequences should be further explored so as to complement the study presented here.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to explore the antecedents of information seeking in digital libraries from the perspectives of the Technology Acceptance Model and flow experience, as well as the consequences from the perspectives of self-efficacy in getting information and individual performance.\nDesign/methodology/approach: A research model is developed and tested using questionnaires and, partial least squares structural equation modeling.\nFindings: The effect of flow experience on information seeking in digital libraries is the largest one. Meanwhile, flow experience fully mediates the effects of ease of use and usefulness on information seeking in digital libraries which further leads to self-efficacy in getting information and individual performance.\nPractical implications: Librarians should help users to experience more stable and sustainable flow by providing dependable, prompt, personalized and professional service to them. Librarians should try their best to provide diversified user training so as to guide potential users to seek information in digital libraries.\nOriginality/value: This study contributes to the theoretical development of the structural model exploring information seeking in digital libraries, presenting a new view for digital library research and practice alike.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Measuring engagement: A multi-criteria decision-making method	[ "Engagement", "Performance", "Organization", "Decision-making", "Human resource management", "Employee" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n__NO_TITLE__: Employee engagement is of increasing interest to human resource management. There are many business benefits to increasing employee engagement, including increased performance, customer relationships, and overall financial increase. Several scales have been created to attempt to measure employee engagement, for example: job engagement, work engagement, and organizational engagement. However, these scales provide a variety of choices; there is no agreed-upon single scale for measuring employee engagement.\nWhat is employee engagement?: Previous studies have tried to define employee engagement. Suggestions include job involvement and satisfaction, enthusiasm, energy and dedication to their role and the organization, the degree of absorption and presence in their role, and the degree of commitment to performance. There are also qualities such as psychological presence, and cognitive, behavioral and emotional states which contribute to activities and performance in their job and attitude toward the company.\nInvestigating scales of employee engagement: Khodakarami et al. (2018) attempted to find a single acceptable scale from all the available alternatives. They carried out a literature review of employee engagement, looking at seminal works about job engagement, work engagement, and organizational engagement. From these works, they discovered six predominant scales of engagement:\nMulti-criteria decision-making method: The multi-criteria decision-making method (MCDM) is a method of making the optimal decision from a range of options. It finds the best alternative when there is a range of choices and decision criteria to follow. It is a useful method when the choices or the decision criteria are varied and not concretely determined. It is also useful when there are conflicting choices, criteria, and opinions of the decision-makers. It can be used to find the most useful scale for measuring employee engagement from the options listed earlier.\nConclusion: By using MCDM it can be shown that a single scale can be chosen for measuring employee engagement, without there needing to be an agreed definition of employee engagement. It can provide a ranking of engagement scales and an optimal scale can be chosen from all the decision choices and criteria available. This may be a useful tool for human resource managers - it is a tool which takes into account judgments and weighted preferences and then provides a balanced option taking all decision choices and criteria into account.\nComment: The review is based on \"Employee engagement: Finding a generally accepted measurement scale\" by Khodakarami, N., Dirani, K., and Rezaei, F. published in Industrial and Commercial Training.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: This paper aims to review the latest management developments across the globe and pinpoint practical implications from cutting-edge research and case studies.\nDesign/methodology/approach: This briefing is prepared by an independent writer who adds their own impartial comments and places the articles in context.\nFindings: This paper looks at different scales of measuring employee engagement. There is no previously agreed-upon single scale of measurement. This study uses the multi-criteria decision-making method to evaluate different choices and criteria, taking into account decision-makers' judgments and preferences, to indicate which single scale would be the best to use for measuring employee engagement.\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" } ]
Acquisitions: how should a project be successfully executed?	[ "Value", "Integration", "Acquisitions", "Premium", "Synergy" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1 Introduction: For the owners, increase in value is and in the future will remain the primary purpose of the business. Changing the value of the organisation should therefore be the primary evaluation criterion for the executives. Research shows that managers often choose the path of the external growth as a means of increasing the value. It is viewed as a fast and abrupt form of development of the business they manage. Indeed, merger and acquisition (M&A) processes provide real opportunities for rapid development of organisations and the value increase. World experience shows, however, that the likelihood of value destruction is also very high. In practice, the failure of acquisitions occurs more often than the expected growth. The article is devoted to identifying the fundamental conditions of successful purchases. We have divided these conditions into the necessary, namely the one without which the purchase will always be a failure, and the additional, the fulfillment of which (along with the necessary ones) will facilitate the anticipated success. Inability to meet the necessary condition should always lead to withdrawal from the transaction. Such a decision will allow to avoid value destruction from the perspective of the owners. Our research and experience show that the ability to withdraw from a high-risk project is a key skill which requires courage on the part of managers and in-depth knowledge and expertise in the field of M&A projects. Understanding these relations and, in consequence, their effective implementation in purchase practice, creates an opportunity to radically minimize the risk of failure and value destruction for the owners.\n2 Literature review: 2.1 Attractive acquisition? Theoretical and real synergy effects\n3 Research methodology: Business conduct assessment in acquisition processes was carried out in 132 cases (Table I). We were constantly interested in the perspective of the buyer. We categorized the companies being the subject of the purchase by industries they were operating in: production, building, gas and energy, IT and telecommunications and other services. The dominant branch of the companies' business was the factor by which we made our division. It should be noted, however, that the tested firms did not exhibit too much of a diversified business, thus qualifying them for specific industries was not a problem. Identification of the business results was made during interviews with top management of the purchasing entities (CEO, CFO, COO). It is worth noting that a full analysis of the financial results of transactions, in the form of documentation, was rare. This means that the purchasers do not see the need to assess the actual effects of the acquisition or trust intuition more than the results of calculations performed. It does not change our belief that the evaluations and answers provided by the surveyed managers were very reliable. Most ratings were justified by various examples, which strengthened the argumentation of the respondents. We have personally participated in some purchase processes in both, the buyer company or the purchased company.\n4 Research findings: Our research, as mentioned earlier, does not focus solely on the issue of the success of the transaction from the perspective of the level of the premium paid. During our study and discussions we tried to build a complete, integrated picture of the whole process. There is no doubt that the success of the acquisition project requires a number of conditions to be met in order to make the final outcome occur a success. We divided these conditions into necessary and additional. Failure to meet a necessary condition always leads to the destruction of value for the owners as a result of the acquisition. However, fulfilling this condition does not mean that the success of the transaction is granted. This means, however, that the chances of success are real and that the ultimate success can be obtained after meeting other additional conditions. It also indicates that still more needs to be done to get a practical advantage of the chance that emerged as a result of reaching the necessary condition. If, however, in the acquisition process the necessary condition is not met, the further actions can only limit the size of the loss. In Figure 1, we present the model containing the main conditions that determine the success of the acquisition. Understanding these relationships by managers making purchase decisions is fundamental to help them avoid wrong investment decisions and, consequently, the value destruction of the owners.\n5 Discussion and conclusions: In conclusion, managers making decisions on acquisition must appreciate the fact that people create value and ultimately decide on achieving the synergy. The best deal that financial experts can negotiate and the most rigorous contract lawyers can prepare will not guarantee success if the people in the organization do not unite under the organization's strategic objectives underlying the consolidation. The value of the new organization depends on many factors and is the result of a complex process of investment and implementation. It must be remembered that the acquisition has the characteristic of irreversibility, which means that the return to the initial state is not possible in practice, and the correction of the decision may entail serious financial implications. Before deciding to acquire there should be performed a thorough analysis of the business, technical, financial, legal and taxation issues in order to define the critical aspects of the organization after the purchase. The buyer usually assumes that the object of the purchase will be worth more than before the purchase, due to the projected synergy effects. Given the extensive empirical evidence on the destruction of the acquisitions, we can say that the realization of the expected synergy rarely reflects the expectations. The new organization calls for an integrated approach to process management in order to create a smooth flow of information and decision-making system. The process approach optimizes the company's operations, particularly in the case of processes carried out on the clash of different organizational units. It also eliminates conflicts of jurisdiction, can increase efficiency and thus allows the effective implementation of the strategic objectives of the company. Construction of an organization based on an integrated process management creates an additional value, which is the result of learning and improvement, innovation implementation, result orientation, customer focus, improved productivity and employee engagement. The acquisition process should be seen as a complex process of change management. It should be aimed at creating a coherent organizational identity. This allows customers, suppliers and employees to recognize and understand organizational issues. Well defined and implemented identity provides an advantage in an increasingly faster changing environment. This can be achieved only when it becomes a principle for the entire organization. The construction of the identity is a difficult process, but a success in this regard is the culmination of the efforts of the whole process.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: The purpose of the article is to identify and systematize the terms of successful acquisitions on the enterprise market, along with making their classification into the necessary (which enable reaching synergy) and additional conditions (increasing the level of synergy or optimizing the process of obtaining it).\nDesign/methodology/approach: The methodology is based on direct interviews with the CEO, CFO and COOs. The surveys were carried out between the year 2000 and 2010 in a few tens of companies conducting acquisitions. The aim was to answer the question of whether the individual conditions of successful transactions were carried out and what were the results of acquisitions from the perspective of changes in the expected value (or observed) by the buyer. There has also been used the personal experience of the authors as participants in the acquisition on the sides of both, the buyer and the purchased.\nFindings: The results allowed us to identify key conditions for success at each stage of the transaction process (critical success factors (CSF)). They also made it possible to classify the terms according to the criterion of their significance. The results clearly show that the cost-effective acquisition processes at the same time require fulfilling a number of conditions. The lack of synergetic effects of these conditions may decide not possible to obtain the expected increase in value in the purchasing process.\nResearch limitations/implications: The research was conducted in a wide spectrum of companies, regardless of the ongoing activities in the industry, mainly on the Polish market. This means that the findings and recommendations are universally applicable, provided that some of the proposals may relate in particular to the so-called emerging markets.\nPractical implications: The practical application of recommendations given in the paper will allow to reduce the risk and abridge the scale of failures in the acquisition processes. The attention is drawn to the practical implications of the pitfalls to which the managers who decide on and carry out complex processes of capital investments may be exposed.\nOriginality/value: As a result of literature and empirical research as well as the article's authors' own experience as experts, there has been proposed a comprehensive model of the most important behaviors conditioning the success of the acquisition in the context of building the shareholder value. This very model organizes the past experience of the M&A market, classifies the important factors in the M&A processes according to their effect on the value, and it supplements them with new elements, allowing the construction of a sustainable competitive advantage of the organization.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
BeWell: quality assurance health promotion pilot	[ "Innovation", "Quality assurance", "Service delivery", "Public health service", "Evidence-based practice" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Refugees and torture survivors flee their homelands searching safety and protection from persecution based on race, religion, nationality, social group membership and political opinion (Convention Related to the Status of Refugees, 1951). Among 65.6m, forcibly displaced persons worldwide, 22.5m are refugees (Global Trends, 2016). The Federal Refugee Act (1980) entitled all newly arriving refugees to a comprehensive health assessment performed as soon as possible after arriving in the USA (Massachusetts Refugee Health Assessment Guide, 2013). Refugee guidelines for health providers through the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention aim to promote and improve refugee health, prevent disease and familiarize refugees with the US healthcare system. Once gaining asylum status, asylees are also encouraged to have a domestic medical evaluation (Refugee Health Guidelines, 2013).\nThe BeWell workshop series and clinical setting: The Boston Center for Refugee Health and Human Rights (BCRHHR) at Boston Medical Center is a holistically oriented program. The mission is to provide comprehensive healthcare for refugees and torture and related trauma survivors; coordinate care with legal and social services providers; educate and train staff from other agencies and professionals; advocate for health and human rights in the USA and worldwide; and conduct related research. Staff work with survivors and their families. In 2016, staff treated roughly 400 adults: 76.3 percent came from Africa, 10.2 percent Middle East, 9.9 percent Central America/Caribbean, 4 percent Europe and 1.3 percent Asia. Three-quarters were asylum seekers at intake and approximately one-third were sexual violence victims. A total of 63 percent were Christian and 30.2 percent Muslim. One-quarter were referred from a community/worship place. One-half completed college or a university program and approximately one-quarter secondary or high school. Staff use a multidisciplinary approach to healing that encompasses mental health and social services, women's health (obstetrics and gynecology), family medicine, career development and English classes. Staff link patients with necessities such as food, winter clothing, bedding, transportation cards, phone cards and dictionaries. As a hospital-based program, staff have access to subspecialists. Staff invest in educating the next provider generation, conduct clinical research and engage in advocacy. As the largest safety-net hospital in New England, Boston Medical Center is the leading medical care provider for Boston's low-income individuals and families, with over 70 percent being supported by government or receiving free care. A significant portion struggles to make ends meet, with incomes below the Federal Poverty Level. Approximately 30 percent do not speak English. The interpreter service is among the oldest and most extensive US programs.\nSampling: Staff collected baseline data on the BeWell health promotion program to assess patients' overall knowledge, attitudes, beliefs and values in each BeWell domain. Data were collected and analyzed post-program to qualitatively measure how much improvement was attained by patients. Purposeful, non-probability sampling was conducted among all BeWell health promotion program participants (n = 14). The sample included 14 individuals; all were asylum seekers. They originated from three countries: Uganda, Ethiopia and Sudan. A total of 12 were men, 5 were torture survivors and eight were from families who had other family member who were tortured. Four others did not participate owing to life stressors. Recruitment was conducted by BCRHHR staff and clinicians by identifying patients who were assessed based on acuity, readiness and capacity to participate in a health promotion program. Patents were then contacted by BCRHHR staff and reminder calls were conducted before the program. The cohort sizes were different because clients, after agreeing to participate, dropped out before the sessions began owing to work and home life stressors and responsibilities (Table I).\nQuality assurance phases: A qualitative protocol was implemented to provide responsive, independent assessment and monitoring. The protocol and quality assurance objective were to assess service effectiveness and improve health outcomes during and after the program. This quality assurance protocol was implemented in three phases:\nCurriculum: BeWell is a bio-psychosocio-spiritual health promotion strategy aiming to improve health service quality and to increase patient satisfaction to support positive health outcomes by implementing in-classroom/person modules for patients. This health promotion model leveraged an integrated systems approach to address physical, emotional, cognitive and spiritual challenges while highlighting resilience and strengths. Each module within the intervention reflects the overall objective; i.e., providing meaningful, effective preventive care for refugees and asylum seekers who are torture survivors. The modules incorporate primary, secondary and tertiary preventive approaches. The curriculum begins by introducing the healthcare landscape and how to navigate American healthcare, which builds into several modules about health concepts that are connected to communicable and non-communicable diseases. Patients are exposed to health promotion through interactive, didactic and applied learning experiences. Modules are pedagogically linked to mental health and wellbeing, especially coping and stress relief strategies, social isolation and community building. The intervention concludes with supporting patients integrating faith and spiritual resources and culminates in creating a wellness plan for each patient to support health and wellness strategies toward improving health and preventing disease and illness. The quality assurance process included data to adjust and improve health promotion materials and didactic strategies to improve comprehension, learning and health literacy (Table II).\nResults: Quality assurance data from two BeWell program groups identified six emergent themes after semi-structured in-depth interviews were coded and analyzed: social networks; tools/techniques/skills; wellness planning; spiritualism, health maintenance; and social/group interaction.\nLimitations: Several limitations were encountered when implementing this program. The sampling was a non-probability, non-representative sample. Furthermore, the small sample size and weak heterogeneity among participants limit the ability to generalize or more systematically represent refugee and asylum seeker experiences. Also, despite efforts to recruit equivalent participants, attendance was compromised by life events that often typify this population. Future studies that incorporate a concurrent, mixed methods design would improve generalizability and better represent this diverse population.\nDiscussion: We reflect on the potential impact that integrated health promotion programs have in refugees and asylum seekers' everyday life. Our quality assurance data indicate that it is important to find pathways to braid and integrate experiences and domains among refugee and asylum seekers' everyday life to facilitate health and wellbeing. Emergent themes characterize and suggest how connecting and engaging patient's life domains (physical/biological, emotional, cognitive/intellectual, social and spiritual) support his/her ability to navigate through everyday life, especially in stress, anxiety and fear contexts.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to determine the experience participating in a health promotion program for refugee and asylum seekers and torture survivors in a safety net clinical setting.\nDesign/methodology/approach: Refugee and asylum seeker torture survivors participated in a seven-week health promotion program at a safety-net clinic. Participants interviewed before, during and after the program was designed to improve and maintain health promotion program quality.\nFindings: Six major themes emerged: social networks; tools/techniques/skills; wellness planning; spiritualism; health maintenance; and social/group interaction. Preliminary results suggest that this multi-pronged approach is feasible and acceptable to foreign-born torture survivors.\nResearch limitations/implications: Torture impacts many facets of one's life. A program which addresses health from a multidisciplinary perspective has promise to facilitate healing.\nPractical implications: The impact of torture and human rights violations significantly affects many facets of peoples' lives including emotional, social, physical and spiritual dimensions. Therefore a program which utilizes a multidisciplinary integrated bio-psychosocial and spiritual approach has the potential to simultaneously address many domains facilitating healing.\nOriginality/value: BeWell, a bio-psychosocio-spiritual health promotion strategy aimed at improving health service quality and increasing patient satisfaction to support positive health outcomes by implementing in-classroom/person modules for patients, to the authors' knowledge is unique in its efforts to encompass multiple domains simultaneously and fully integrate an approach to wellbeing.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Collaborative consumption: business model opportunities and barriers for fashion libraries	[ "Business models", "Collaborative consumption", "Sustainability", "Fashion library", "Fashion sharing", "Promote sustainability" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: The idea of collaborative consumption has gained widespread popularity since the Rachel Botsman and Roo Rogers popularized the term in the book What's Mine is Yours (2010). Collaborative consumption is ultimately about people sharing and collaborating to meet certain needs, whether it concerns transportation, accommodation, land, etc. Prominent examples include AirBnB (space sharing) and ZipCar (car sharing) though the term collaborative consumption covers practically all types of products and services where people share excess resources. In 2010, Time listed collaborative consumption as one of \"10 Ideas That Will Change the World\" (Walsh, 2011). Collaborative consumption has also been labeled \"access-based consumption\" (Bardhi and Eckhardt, 2012) and \"participative consumption\" (WEF, 2013). Moreover, subparts of the collaborative consumption phenomenon have been addressed in other streams of literature, e.g. research on product-service systems (Tukker, 2004; Tukker and Tischner, 2006).\nA business model perspective on collaborative consumption: It is becoming increasingly popular to talk about business models. From 1995, more than 1,000 articles in peer-reviewed academic journals have dealt with the topic (Zott et al., 2011). In the beginning, the business model concept was especially used in relation to e-business but has since spread to other fields and is now a popular metaphor for portraying different business architectures (Wustenhagen and Boehnke, 2008). To give a concrete example, Gillette has become the epitome of the \"blades-and-razor\" business model where a company sells a basic product cheaply but makes money on people using it (Johnson et al., 2008; Teece, 2010). Other business models include \"Freemium\" (free standard product and premium for advanced offerings), and the \"Long Tail\" (selling large quantities of multiple niche products) (Osterwalder and Pigneur, 2010).\nMethodology: Limited research on collaborative consumption in the fashion context currently exists, thus the nature of this research was exploratory. This study adopted an interpretive methodological approach to get a deeper understanding of the fashion library concept from the perspective of founders/co-founders and representatives from four Nordic fashion library initiatives (Lincoln and Guba, 1985). The approach provides a good overview of the business model design of the fashion libraries which are all small-scale initiatives dominated by a single or a few key actors. We conducted four one-to-one and a half-hour long semi-structured, in-depth interviews with representatives from fashion libraries in Denmark, Finland, and Sweden. The interviews were semi-structured to allow for emergent themes and participant guided findings. Table I provides a short description of the fashion libraries.\nAnalysis of findings: The customer segment of the clothes libraries is mainly females between 25 and 35 years old and most of the members live relatively close by, i.e. within ten minutes' travel. Members living further away are restricted by travel times and the limited opening hours of clothes libraries. In all cases, men only make up a small segment of clothing library users. According to Lanegarderoben, possible explanations for this might be male challenges with fitting of clothes as well as a tendency to slower identify them with the concept: \"I think the males are slower in hooking on and getting involved in this idea. They say, that they like it, but they are not 100% sort of sure, that this is something for them.\" The motives for becoming a member of the fashion libraries are varied. While for some, frequent use of the library appears to be driven by access to a variety of clothes at a relatively low cost, for others, in cases where library prices are comparatively higher, frequent use pertains to making the most of one's membership. Others appear to be especially driven by unifying their interest in fashion while simultaneously making a change, reducing consumption, and ultimately making a sustainable contribution. According to Helsinki fashion library: \"I think it is more about the style-thing, but also the sustainability is great. I think all members want to act sustainable and shop at the same time.\" Last, some members also seem to buy into the concept of sharing and collaboration. According to Kladoteket:\nDiscussion: Fashion libraries and other initiatives based on the collaborative consumption model are popping up all over the world. Kladoteket, for instance, was recently asked for advice by a group in Mexico considering initiating a similar type of clothes-sharing organization. However, the evidence from this study also indicates that fashion libraries still remain a niche activity, driven by enthusiastic entrepreneurs working on a voluntary basis. Fashion libraries have received widespread media attention, which, so far, seems to exceed the actual impact of these libraries on the fashion landscape. On average, fashion libraries maintain only 100-300 members. It is therefore worth considering potential avenues for turning the fashion library concept into a more mainstream and commercially sustainable business model. Based on the findings from this study, we suggest that fashion libraries have to consider especially two interrelated issues: - customer relationships, and partnership development.\nConclusion: scaling up collaborative fashion consumption?: The purpose of this paper was to examine the new fashion library concept from a business model perspective. By examining four fashion libraries in the Nordic countries, the paper identified some of the barriers and opportunities for developing a business based on the ideas of collaborative consumption. Evidence from the study indicates that a key benefit of fashion libraries seems to be that members get an opportunity to experiment with styles and looks without having to pay full price. Moreover, some members are also interested in exploring alternatives to conventional, ownership-based, fashion consumption. However, limited human, technical, and financial resources imply that fashion libraries are forced to cut down on membership services (limited opening hours) and rewards to staff and owners (who mostly work voluntarily). Today, the survival of most fashion libraries is dependent on the commitment of a few entrepreneurs and the loyalty of a small community of members. These factors, among others, make the current fashion library concept a vulnerable business model. It is therefore important that fashion libraries work on generating new sources of revenue to better serve existing members and attract new ones.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to explore barriers and opportunities for business models based on the ideas of collaborative consumption within the fashion industry.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The analysis is based on a multiple-case study of Scandinavian fashion libraries - a new, clothes-sharing concept that has emerged as a fashion niche within the last decade.\nFindings: It is concluded that fashion libraries offers interesting perspectives, e.g. by allowing people to experiment with styles without having to pay the full cost and becoming a meeting place for young designers and end consumers. However, at present fashion libraries remain a small-scale phenomenon with difficulties reaching the mainstream market, not least due to limited financial and human resources as well as conventional fashion consumption patterns.\nResearch limitations/implications: The study is limited to the new phenomenon of fashion libraries and does not cover other types of collaborative consumption within the fashion industry (Swap-parties, etc.).\nOriginality/value: The paper is one of the first attempts to examine new business models of collaborative consumption in general and the fashion library concept in particular. The study contributes to the discussions of whether and how fashion sharing and collaboration holds promise as a viable business model and as a means to promote sustainability.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Customer advocates with a generous heart	[ "Prosocial motivation", "Brand commitment", "Word of mouth", "Customer participation", "Customer-to-customer interaction" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: The desire to help others, otherwise known as prosocial motivation, has been repeatedly identified as a key driver of word of mouth (WOM) (Dichter, 1966; Hennig-Thurau et al., 2004; Ho and Dempsey, 2010). Whether recommending a brand can benefit others is an important social consideration for customers (Alexandrov et al., 2013). Previous studies, thus far, have examined prosocial motivation as a direct driver of WOM; however, the mechanisms through which prosocial motivation influences WOM are not well understood. How do customers' desire to help others increase their WOM? A deeper understanding of the psychological and behavioral processes that mediate prosocial motivation and WOM would enable marketers to assert greater influence in influencing WOM creation and dissemination.\nTheoretical framework: Prosocial motivation\nMethodology: Context\nDiscussion: Educational HDR services and fitness gym services are some of many examples where relational interactions are actively encouraged to enhance service experience. These service environments are strongly characterized by repeated interactions among customers, and social bonds often eventuate. This provided a unique opportunity for assessing the three types of relational interactions including CP, CCI and brand commitment. Specifically, we investigated the role of these relational interactions in explaining the relationship between prosocial motivation and WOM in different contexts with varying degrees of interaction scope. We revealed that nurturing WOM is a complex process that involves multiple serial mediations in that prosocial motivation positively influences CP and CCI, which in turn influence brand commitment and WOM sequentially.\nLimitations and future research: Could CP have negative effects on WOM? Most previous research has focused on positive benefits of CP. A notable exception is the work of Chan et al. (2010), which found that customers with high collectivist and power distance value orientations perceive less economic value when they engage in CP. This indicates that culture has important implications for examining the effects of CP. Our study examines hypothesized relationships in both the USA and Australia, albeit in different service contexts. Future research may examine same service contexts in different cultures to deepen theoretical and managerial understanding of how the effects of WOM drivers change across different cultures.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: Despite the fact that prosocial motivation is related to word of mouth (WOM), few studies have been conducted to investigate the psychological and behavioral processes that mediate the two constructs. This study aims to explore customers' relational interactions, specifically customer-to-employee interaction (via customer participation), customer-to-customer interaction and customer-to-brand interaction (via brand commitment), as mediators of the prosocial motivation-WOM linkage. Specifically, this paper examines the serial mediation model, in which prosocial motivation increases customer participation and customer-to-customer interaction, which in turn increase brand commitment and WOM sequentially.\nDesign/methodology/approach: This study collected survey data from two different samples, including higher degree research education and fitness gym services (highly interactive, people-processing service contexts), and used partial least square method to analyze the multiple serial mediations.\nFindings: The results of this study show two serial mediating processes through which prosocial motivation influences WOM: 1. prosocial motivation - customer participation - brand commitment - WOM; and 2. prosocial motivation - customer-to-customer interaction - brand commitment - WOM.\nPractical implications: The findings provide managerial insights into how marketers can foster a more interactive service environment to encourage prosocial customers to engage in WOM more effectively.\nOriginality/value: This study contributes to the literature on services WOM by illustrating the behavioral and psychological processes that underlie the effect of prosocial motivation on WOM.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Testing the theory of constraints in UK local food supply chains	[ "Case study", "Supply chain management", "Constraints management" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1 Introduction: During the last half century we have witnessed manifest and striking changes in the ways that food is produced, distributed and consumed in Western, and increasingly eastern, economies. In the UK, with the emergence, consolidation and development of the multiple retailers throughout the last 50 years; Asda, Morrison's, Sainsbury's, Tesco, and to a lesser extent, The Co-op and Waitrose now account for almost 90 per cent of consumer food sales. In conjunction, there has been an attendant move towards industrialised food supply chains, seeking models of homogeneity underpinned by standardisation, repeatability and technology. Inevitably, such models have replaced the contrasting heterogeneous local markets and local food systems, blurring and removing the geographical boundaries that characterised them.\n2 Background literature: localisation and the TOC: At a political level, much effort has been expended on defining and differentiating \"local\" food from \"regional\" food, the former ultimately being recognised as more symbolic of a particular form of supply route and the latter being more related to marketing (Defra, 2003). However, the desire to have an industry-agreed standard definition has received less support (FSA, 2007), which may be understandable for those wanting to gain some market advantage from the very heterogeneous characteristics that \"local\" produce is supposed to offer. Nevertheless, definitions based around the theme of distance between where a product is produced or processed and where it is sold to the end consumer have emerged in farmers markets (FARMA, 2002) and multiple retailers (Waitrose - Defra, 2003).\n3 Methods: Clearly, utilisation of TOC requires interaction and observation of real firm situations, suggesting a case study approach as being appropriate. Case study allows the researcher to undertake an enquiry which provides a contextually relevant exploration of contemporary phenomena (Yin, 2003) which optimises understanding (Stake, 2000). However, in order to be useful to any form of generalisability across a whole sector, the sample of cases studied needs to be big enough to enable representation of that sector as a whole. The food sector is notoriously diverse and complex and as such a wider variety of cases were deemed necessary to provide adequate coverage across different products and different scales of operation. As a consequence, this research involved a total case sample of 23 food businesses to ensure adequate coverage and assessment of relevant constraints.\n4 Findings: 4.1 Constraints due to the nature of the market\n5 Conclusions and an adapted TOC for local food: Whilst the literature records a distinct lack of TOC application in the food sector, the knowledge that it is regularly used in practice in food manufacturing systems and that this still represents the largest manufacturing sector in the UK, reflects Ronen's (2005) suggestion that it is a practitioner-led skill largely separate from academic interest. Nevertheless, the core benefit of TOC is supposed to be in its application and this research has not only enabled an appreciation of a set of businesses using TOC, but has provided an appreciation of TOC itself as an analytical tool and as a means of better understanding how businesses adapt to changing external circumstances. The fact that the case study companies exist and have sustained themselves suggests that there is a market for their products and they have reasonable competence in supply, but this could improve. The external consumer environment and the political demands on the food sector are in constant flux and TOC provides us a means by which we can observe adjustment in food businesses to maintain their competitiveness and efficiency.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: The purpose of the research is to identify the observable operational and supply chain barriers and constraints that occur in local food supply chains, especially with smaller producers, as they seek to increase market penetration across a wider geographic area.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The research adopts a multiple case study approach using mixed methods of data collection where case study companies are interviewed and complete a questionnaire. This process allows us to create a supply chain map and create a narrative which records the burdens and impacts occurring in local food supply chains and smaller producers looking beyond local markets. This evidence is then set against the theory of constraints (TOC) to provide a theoretical underpinning and to examine consistency of the findings.\nFindings: Seven broad categories of constraint type are observed: constraints due to the nature of the market; due to scale and the nature of products; constraints related to employment and skills; institutional constraints; constraints in supply chain relationships; certification, policy and regulatory constraints; and constraints around personal beliefs and anthropomorphism. Each is described as to its origin, its limitation to business and where possible, how it might be remedied. The constraints point to some counter-intuitive results as far as common perceptions of local food are concerned but suggestions for improvement are made through collaborative producer efforts, alternative institutional intervention, supply chain re-engineering and logistics innovation.\nPractical implications: Practical suggestions are made to improve the inclusiveness of distribution networks, to better utilise regional food groups (RFGs), to develop opportunities to set up autonomous supply chain centres, or to broaden the function of farmer co-operatives. The paper also provides an alternative model of the TOC specifically adapted for local food producers, the focus of which plays to their strengths and focuses on building competencies across, up and down the supply chain.\nOriginality/value: The adaptation of the TOC provides an advancement of knowledge in the area of food supply chain analysis and is done in a way that is more practical in use. The paper also provides the opportunity to take a similar approach to examining other niche supply opportunities in the sector, which may be dependent on other geographically defined barriers, such as seasonal or ethnic products.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
The building blocks of coding: a comparison of early childhood coding toys	[ "Early childhood", "Children", "Computer science", "Coding toys", "Loops", "Programming interfaces" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: The recent push to introduce coding at an early age has yielded a number of commercial and research-based toys that are intended to make computational thinking processes more familiar and accessible to children. In many ways, this is an uncharted territory that has emerged because of the increased pervasiveness of touchscreens, tablets, tangibles and sensors. In many respects, coding toy designers are creating new kinds of interactions for children (Horn and Bers, 2019). Many toys and playful coding products appear to be emulating the block-based programming structure that has been popularized by the Scratch programming language (Resnick et al., 2009). In Scratch, novice coders can begin to make functional programs by dragging and dropping blocks onto a workspace. This reduces the need to recall specific commands and syntax requirements. For instance, children are unlikely to spend hours understanding a specific error in code that they have written only to discover that the problem had been that they forgot to include a semicolon or parenthesis at the end of a single line of text-based code. Also, many of these children have not started or are just beginning to read. Thus, it would seem that these toys are advantageous because they rely upon a simpler representational system.\nFramework for describing the toys: Our analysis is driven by a framework we have developed for evaluating computational toys based on the theory of external representations (Palmer, 1978), the theory of affordances (and perceived affordances) (Norman, 1988; Norman, 1999; Gibson, 1986) and contextual features that are specific to toys designed for ages 3-7, for either classroom or home use. We describe it briefly below and then illustrate it later when we discuss loops .\nApproach: As a research team, we have been exploring toys by reading manuals, playing with the toys, observing our own children playing with the toys and bringing them into kindergarten classrooms (Authors, 2018; Authors, 2019). One observation we have made about using toys in classrooms is that not many provide opportunities for children to use loops. Another thing we noticed is that children needed adult guidance or tasks to understand how the toys were meant to be used or to understand what it means to \"code.\" In this paper, we look specifically at three toys that have roots in academic development projects but are also used in classroom settings. While we have analyzed several toys (Authors, 2018; Authors, 2019), these three toys were selected for the comparison in the current article for five reasons: the toys are research-based in origin, widely available for purchase or download and thus are being used in early childhood classrooms, address loops (not all early-childhood toys do), use \"blocks\" to organize portions of code and represent a diverse selection of interfaces with one tangible user interface (TUI), one graphical user interface (GUI), and one combined TUI/GUI. Furthermore, these toys vary in how much physicality they involve. It is important to note that many of the toys we have examined (Authors, 2018) are intended to be high quality educational toys with roots in child development. However, we wanted to specifically address toys that have been researched within the Learning Sciences community and whose design may be discussed in a design course in a Learning Sciences program.\nCompared toys: Since the early days of Logo and Papert's original robot turtle that moved on the floor, researchers have been attempting to make computing more accessible to children by linking it to the physical world (McNerney, 2004; Papert, 1980). The desire to integrate the digital and physical world was operationalized when Ishii and Ullmer coined the term \"tangible user interfaces\" or TUI (Ishii and Ullmer, 1997). Since then, a large body of research on TUI has focused on children and computing (Bers and Horn, 2010; Zaman et al., 2012; Horn and Bers, 2019). The conceptualization of tangible bits and interfaces has evolved into tangible programming and hybrid programming (Horn and Bers, 2019). Thus, we acknowledge that our view of toys extends beyond the purely physical, as the increased pervasiveness of tablets and mixing of digital and physical have led to new forms of play objects that we refer to broadly under the category of \"toys.\" Some may be standalone apps where the embedded playthings are virtual. Here we present brief overviews of the toys that we juxtapose for comparison.\nScratchJr: ScratchJr is a tablet-based app developed collaboratively by the MIT Media Lab and Tufts University and distributed with the support of PBS. It was developed for children of 5-7 years of age and is meant to be a precursor to Scratch. The app is designed around a stage that becomes the context for interactive stories and games (Figure 1). Children can change the background images and add characters that can talk or move. They can also import their own audio or pictures. As it is intended to be an early childhood version of Scratch, it bears similarities beyond the use of block-based programming. It includes, for instance, the iconic Scratch cat and stylistic conventions for color usage and running a program (the green \"start\" flag).\nOsmo Coding Awbie: Osmo Coding Awbie is an extension of the Osmo platform. The Osmo platform consists of an Apple-branded touchscreen device (located in a holder) as well as a reflective device, transforming an everyday surface (e.g. tabletop) into an interactive space where the child can code. The specific Coding Awbie extension is based on work from the TIDAL Lab at Northwestern University (Hu et al., 2015) as an introduction to tangible programming. It was designed for children of 5-12 years of age and requires purchase of separate components from the standard Osmo base system and a separate app to be downloaded. The app contains a series of puzzles and levels that children work through that involve navigating Awbie, a friendly monster character, through a 2-dimensional world filled with strawberries and paths. To control Awbie, children use a specialized set of coding blocks placed in front of the touchscreen device to direct Awbie using a set of prespecified instructions to move or jump in a particular sequence (Figure 2).\nKibo 10 robot kit: Kibo is an educational robotics kit created by the DevTech research group at Tufts University and KinderLab Robotics (Bers, 2018), which was also involved in the development of ScratchJr. Kibo was designed for children ages 4-7 years and had undergone iterative cycles of prototyping and development with children and early childhood educators to reach its current form, which allows for customization of the robot with various accessories. As do robotics kits intended for more mature users, Kibo comes with sensors and actuators that help it to move around and respond to sound and light depending on how it is programmed. Programming is performed through the use of wooden coding blocks (Figure 3).\nComparing the toys: Interfaces and perceived affordances\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: This paper aims to be a think piece that promotes discussion around the design of coding toys for children. In particular, the authors examine three different toys that have some sort of block-based coding interface. The authors juxtapose three different design features and the demands they place on young children learning to code. To examine the toys, the authors apply a framework developed based on Gibson's theory of affordances and Palmer's external representations. The authors look specifically at the toys: interface design, intended play scenario and representational conventions for computational ideas.\nDesign/methodology/approach: As a research team, the authors have been playing with toys, observing their own children play with the toys and using them in kindergarten classrooms. In this paper, the authors reflect specifically on the design of the toys and the demands they place on children.\nFindings: The authors make no claims about whether one toy/design approach is superior to another. However, the differences that the authors articulate should serve as a provocation for researchers and designers to be mindful about what demands and expectations they place on young children as they learn to code and use code to learn in any given system.\nResearch limitations/implications: As mentioned above, the authors want to start a discussion about design of these toys and how they shape children's experience with coding.\nOriginality/value: There is a push to get coding and computational thinking into K-12, but there is not enough research on what this looks like in early childhood. Further, while research is starting to emerge on block-based programming vs text-based for older children and adults, little research has been done on the representational form of code for young children. The authors hope to start a discussion on design of coding toys for children.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Internal and external search strategies of innovative firms: the role of the target market	[ "Search strategies", "Product innovation", "Local markets", "Breadth of search", "Internal search", "International markets" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: Innovation is a complex process where knowledge, ideas and the perceptions of markets by individuals and firms intervene. The value of innovative ideas depends on previously acquired general and domain knowledge (Rietzschel et al., 2007, p. 934). An individual or an organization wishing to innovate combines ideas coming from different sources with her previously acquired knowledge. This paper aims to establish the search strategy that firms use to find ideas useful for innovation in local and international markets. Specifically, the paper concentrates on the firms' breadth of search over internal and two types of external sources of ideas, and how search strategies variate when firms innovate for the world or for the local market. In contrast with previous studies, the paper departs from the reduction of internal search to formal research and development (R&D), and introduces a multiplicity of internal sources of ideas as part of a search strategy. Introducing this conception of internal search allows unveiling fundamental differences between the search strategies of firms focusing on products new to local or to international markets.\n2. The firm's search for ideas in the innovation literature: The traditional Schumpeterian concept of innovation relies on recombination of the firm's technological knowledge (Fleming, 2001; Schumpeter, 1934). Innovative firms search for ideas from different sources. Evidence suggests that firms search for novel technologies mainly in their established technological base (Stuart and Podolny, 1996), where they frequently obtain incremental or less significant innovations (Helfat, 1994). Still, there are organizational strategies and external factors allowing firms to overcome \"local search\" and obtain the greater benefits of innovations (Laursen, 2012). In this context, the firm search for ideas from external sources is a major strategy to overcome the problem of local search.\n3. Hypotheses: A broad search over external sources is a strategy to overcome the so-called \"local search\" problem. It facilitates the firm's access to knowledge it does not hold (Laursen, 2012). Yet, this view breaks with tradition emphasizing the relevance of internal sources (Von Hippel, 1988; Chesbrough, 2003). Theorizing about the role of internal sources in the innovation process is not new. Von Hippel (1988) recognizes that besides consumers and suppliers, manufacturing workers and different departments of the firm play a significant role in innovation. The open innovation paradigm traditionally \"assumes that firms can and should use external ideas as well as internal ideas, and internal and external paths to market, as firms look to advance their technology\" (Chesbrough, 2003, p. 24). Despite this tradition, the search strategies literature does not consider internal sources as part of a wider view of the concept of search strategy. This study hypothesizes that internal and external search for ideas play a role in product innovations, which depends on the market the innovation aims at.\n4. Methods: 4.1 Data\n5. Results: 5.1 Criteria\n6. Discussion and conclusion: For a long time, there has been consensus over the idea that a firm's search over multiple sources of ideas increases the chances of obtaining new products. This paper goes further, showing that search strategies of firms depend on the invention/imitation choice: when aiming at products new to local markets (products based on imitation), firms may rely mainly upon other firms as sources of innovative ideas; but when firms aim at products new to international markets (products based on invention), it has to display a search strategy involving not only external but also a multiplicity of internal sources of ideas for innovation.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: This paper aims to develop the concept of internal search of ideas to show the contrast between search strategies adopted by firms that introduce new products into local and international markets.\nDesign/methodology/approach: Based on data from 2,652 innovative firms, the paper uses factor analysis to explore and confirm appropriate groups of sources of innovative ideas. The analysis differentiates between internal and two types of external sources. Logistic and bivariate regressions reveal different search strategies for innovation in local and international markets.\nFindings: Firms reporting products new to international markets exhibit search strategies combining ideas from internal sources with ideas from other firms. Firms reporting products new to local market reveal a search strategy centered on ideas from other firms.\nPractical implications: Managers and policymakers wishing to promote innovations for international markets should concentrate their resources on developing the organizations' capacity to generate ideas internally while monitoring other firms' ideas. Managers targeting local markets may focus their efforts on intelligence over ideas coming from other firms.\nOriginality/value: Clarifying the relationship between knowledge and ideas, the paper finds that search strategies of firms are more effective for innovation depending on the target market. Firms searching for ideas among other firms generate ideas that might trigger innovation in products new to local markets. Firms searching both for internal and external ideas generate ideas leading to products new to international markets.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Making visible the invisible through the analysis of acknowledgements in the humanities	[ "Humanities", "Reward system of science", "Acknowledgements", "Reward triangle", "Sociology of science", "Super-citations", "Contributorship" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Science can be described as a compound of interconnected elements which include: methods through which knowledge can be verified, a cumulative knowledge that emerges from the application of these methods and a set of cultural values and norms that govern scientific activity (Merton, 1973). These norms and values, which have been described as making up the \"ethos\" of science, are internalised by scientists worldwide. Although the organisational dynamics of research activity may be influenced in each country by local factors, science shows a supra-national character and the norms that govern scientific activity are widely accepted all over the world. Notwithstanding, the behaviour of scientists is not only governed by the normative structure of science, but also by its social structure and the institutionally distinctive reward system. As stated by Merton (1957), the reward system of science was designed to give recognition \"to those who have best fulfilled their roles, to those who have best made genuinely original contributions to the common stock of knowledge\" (p. 639). Accordingly, public contributions to knowledge are rewarded in the form of citations, honorific awards, prizes and academic promotion, all of them conferring prestige and reputation to scientists. In fact, reputation can be assumed as the driving force for building an academic career. In this sense, it can be equalled to the notion of \"symbolic capital\" introduced by Bourdieu (1988), in such a way that the ranking or status in the academic realm is determined by the possession of prestige which leads scientists to choose the most convenient strategy for its accumulation. Reputation increases the likelihood of scientists to get promoted and to have access to funding and resources, which enable further work. Anyway, the dynamics of knowledge creation involve a constant flow of interactions between scientists that are subject to a number of norms, customs and social factors, which may have an influence on how their contributions are rewarded. As an example, the Matthew effect can be mentioned, according to which well-known scientists tend to get more credit and prestige than less known scientists for the same scientific work (Merton, 1968).\nAcknowledgements and the \"reward triangle\": Following an implicit code of professional and normative behaviour, acknowledgements appear in scientific literature as voluntary acts of recognition to people whose assistance in the work merits special attention although it does not qualify for authorship (Kassirer and Angell, 1991). Acknowledgements are expressions of gratitude regarding financial, editorial, technical, conceptual/cognitive, moral and/or personal support (Cronin, 1995). Among the latter, conceptual/cognitive contributions are particularly relevant because they reflect intellectual indebtedness, which may have a significant bearing on the development of the research. In this sense, it can be mentioned that among the criteria that qualify for authorship, most journal guidelines prioritise intellectual and conceptual contributions over instrumental and technical ones (Wager, 2009; Vinkler, 2010). Acknowledgements may refer not only to institutions, research councils or government agencies, but also to co-workers, peers or mentors, and even to family members (Kassirer and Angell, 1991; Cronin, 1995). In other words, they \"offer insights into the persona of the writer, the patterns of engagement that define collaboration and interdependence among scholars, and the practices of expectation and etiquette that are involved\" (Hyland, 2003, p. 244). Thus, naming in the acknowledgement section is not a worthless act; on the contrary, it is a reflection of the cooperative context in which research takes place.\nOutlining research in the humanities: To understand the particular interest of the acknowledgement section in the humanities, some inherent features of the area need to be put forward. As far as the research object, the methodology applied and the structure of scholarly communication is concerned, humanities bear some primary differences compared to other areas of research. While an empirical and objective methodology characterises social, natural and life sciences, an interpretative methodology, which focusses on reflective thinking, is applied in the humanities (Gibbons et al., 1994). Both humanities and social sciences seek to study human condition, but they rely on different methodologies to do so. Although humanities research is a heterogeneous domain on account of the manifold set of disciplines and publication patterns that comprise it (Den Hertog et al., 2014), a number of fundamental common characteristics can be outlined (Hemlin and Gustafsson, 1996; Ochsner et al., 2013). First, research in the humanities is basically focussed on theory, source and text. In domains such as philosophy, literature, linguistics or history research tend to be text-driven, so that it is particularly oriented to use original sources which may range from written records in various formats to musical scores, pictures and audio-visual materials. Second, new approaches and criticism are defining features of humanities research in a way that efforts are more focussed on providing new reflections and explanations rather than finding new discoveries. Therefore, technical know-how and research facilities are usually not as essential as in other areas, although the use of technology varies considerably by discipline (Borgman, 2007). Special mention deserve some disciplines such as archaeology which is closer to hard sciences in both its discovery-oriented nature and the fact that technical know-how is required. As a result of the above-mentioned characteristics, research in the humanities shows a highly individualistic nature, partly due to the fact that generally it does not require such expensive equipment and lab facilities as research in the natural and experimental disciplines (Gibbons et al., 1994). Finally, due to the fact that humanities knowledge has a deeply rooted influence in society and culture, and plays a significant role for building regional identities, its scope is not restricted to the academia but it reaches the whole society (Whitley, 1984). This means that societal impact is as noteworthy as scientific impact.\nAcknowledgements as a source of sub-authorship information: Since a fundamental feature of humanities research is criticism and discussion, references are used \"to evoke a debate or a conversation between lines of thinking\" (Hellqvist, 2010, p. 313). A good example of this is the fact that footnotes prevail as a distinctive type of referencing in the humanities due to their function as a source of criticism (footnotes are text comments on the main text). As noted by the above-mentioned author, citing might be considered to a certain extent as the main method for the humanities on account of the fact that research is mostly text-driven, but also because there are very few fact-making devices compared to natural and life sciences research where figures, graphs or diagrams are used to display empirical findings. In other words, citing can be understood not only as a sign of underlying intellectual influence, but also as a way to build an identity as a researcher where new approaches and theories equate to new empirical findings in the natural and life sciences.\nConclusions: Studying acknowledgements is necessary since they provide valuable information about the interactions, influences and collaborations that take place within the scientific process and that, otherwise, would be neglected. Hidden aspects of the research process would become visible as well as the contribution of acknowledged individuals, which may deserve recognition. Acknowledgements may recognise technical assistance of individuals who have contributed to the research, but also conceptual support or \"PIC\". The latter is the most important type of acknowledgements for identifying intellectual debt to the extent that they have been considered to be at least as valuable as citations (Edge, 1979; Cronin and Weaver, 1995). The notion of acknowledgements as \"super-citations\", originally prompted by Edge (1979), is certainly a suggestive and rational proposal in the humanities that relies on the assumption that acknowledgements reflect intellectual influence that might be greater than that of some referenced authors. Notwithstanding, there is no empirical evidence of the greater value of PIC acknowledgements as compared to citations within a given piece of research. A potential greater value of PIC acknowledgements could be claimed as a result of their location halfway between authorship and citation. Like citations, they report intellectual influence but, at the same time, there is an interaction between the author and the acknowledged individual who may actively participate in the ongoing research. The interactive nature of the influences reported through PIC acknowledgements could make them especially valuable for authors. Further research exploring authors' motives for acknowledging and the relevance attributed by authors to the contributions received from acknowledged individuals would shed light on this issue.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: Science is subject to a normative structure that includes how the contributions and interactions between scientists are rewarded. Authorship and citations have been the key elements within the reward system of science, whereas acknowledgements, despite being a well-established element in scholarly communication, have not received the same attention. The purpose of this paper is to put forward the bearing of acknowledgements in the humanities to bring to the foreground contributions and interactions that, otherwise, would remain invisible through traditional indicators of research performance.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The study provides a comprehensive framework to understanding acknowledgements as part of the reward system with a special focus on their value in the humanities as a reflection of intellectual indebtedness. The distinctive features of research in the humanities are outlined and the role of acknowledgements as a source of contributorship information is reviewed to support these assumptions.\nFindings: \"Peer interactive communication\" is the prevailing support thanked in the acknowledgements of humanities, so the notion of acknowledgements as \"super-citations\" can make special sense in this area. Since single-authored papers still predominate as publishing pattern in this domain, the study of acknowledgements might help to understand social interactions and intellectual influences that lie behind a piece of research and are not visible through authorship.\nOriginality/value: Previous works have proposed and explored the prevailing acknowledgement types by domain. This paper focusses on the humanities to show the role of acknowledgements within the reward system and highlight publication patterns and inherent research features which make acknowledgements particularly interesting in the area as a reflection of the socio-cognitive structure of research.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
What if people's private life constrained their career decisions? Examining the relationship between home-to-career interference and career satisfaction	[ "Career satisfaction", "Career goal self-efficacy", "Home-to-career interference", "Perceived organizational career support" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n__NO_TITLE__: In the past few years, there is an increasing awareness that career experiences and home experiences are inextricably intertwined (e.g. Greenhaus and Kossek, 2014; Poelmans, 2005), especially for dual-earner employees (Greenhaus and Powell, 2012). Due to trends like the growing female labor market participation, the rise in dual-earner households, and the increased importance of work-home balance as a life value and societal norm (Greenhaus and Kossek, 2014), the number of men and women who combine work with other roles and responsibilities has increased significantly. One important way for them to facilitate their multiple role management is to take into account home issues when making career decisions (Greenhaus and Powell, 2012; Masterson and Hoobler, 2015). Greenhaus and Powell (2012) introduced the term \"family-related work decision\" to refer to career decisions which are strongly guided by family reasons, such as deciding to work part-time for the care of children or declining a promotion because it may complicate work-family management (Greenhaus and Powell, 2012). Two years later, Greenhaus and Kossek (2014) argued for the use of a slightly broader work-home perspective on careers, which recognizes the interdependencies between individuals' careers and their broader home context, including both people's family and their other non-work roles and settings, such as their friendships, community and leisure roles (Greenhaus and Kossek, 2014).\nTheoretical background: Home-to-career interference\nMethod: Procedure and sample\nResults: Descriptives\nDiscussion: The goal of this study was to clarify the processes by which the experience of home-to-career interference relates to employees' career satisfaction. In doing so, we answered Greenhaus and Kossek's (2014) call for more research on career consequences of career-home interdependencies. Previous research suggests that there are career penalties associated with certain family-related career decisions, but the processes which may lead to such career outcomes remain overlooked. The present study addresses this issue and posits that experiencing home-to-career interference negatively relates to career satisfaction both through career goal self-efficacy and organizational career support.\nConclusion: Although career decisions are often affected by home factors, it remains unclear how such home-career interdependencies impact employees' career satisfaction. This study introduced the concept of \"home-to-career interference\" to investigate this relation for negatively appraised home-related career decisions and found a negative association with employees' career satisfaction. Our results show that employees who experience home-to-career interference may lose confidence in their own ability to undertake future career goals and may perceive less career support from their organization which in turn can lower their career satisfaction. This study underlines that it is important to take into account employees' experience of home-to-career interference as it may relate to negative career consequences.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: Previous research suggests that employees often make family-related career decisions (Greenhaus and Powell, 2012). The authors extend this idea and explore the concept of \"home-to-career interference,\" defined as the extent to which people perceive that their private life has constrained their career decisions to date. The authors expect that home-to-career interference has a negative impact on employees' later career satisfaction via career goal self-efficacy and perceived organizational career support. The paper aims to discuss these issues.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The authors collected quantitative data at three points in time, each six months apart in a Belgian telecommunications organization. Using the full information maximum likelihood path analysis approach, the authors performed analyses on a sample of dual-earner employees.\nFindings: The results showed that employees' home-to-career interference related negatively to their career goal self-efficacy and perceived organizational career support, which were, in turn, positively related to their career satisfaction.\nOriginality/value: This study contributes to the work-family literature by introducing the concept of home-to-career interference, by clarifying the mechanisms through which home-to-career interference relates to career satisfaction and by testing these relationships using a three-wave longitudinal design.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
The changing nature of workplace culture	[ "Information technology", "Culture", "Employee attitudes", "Workplace", "Knowledge workers", "Teleworking" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: We live at a time where we enjoy and expect greater choices and freedoms permitted by an unprecedented communications capability. While this is evident in almost every human endeavour, how, what and where knowledge-based work is conducted is being radically transformed. Knowledge-based work is understood as that concerned with the production and exchange of knowledge and information and which is \"a more creative way of working and, as such, it requires a more flexible design approach to facilities\" (Greene and Myerson, 2011, p. 19). In this new context, decentralized networks replace vertically integrated hierarchies, and time and space are celebrated, rather than neutralized. (Thackara, 2001) In Canada, for example, the knowledge-based work force almost doubled from 14 per cent in 1971 to 25 per cent in 2001, most of these in business services, finance and insurance (Statistics Canada, 2003). Similarly, the 2011 American Community Service data reveal that three million US employees (not counting those self-employed or volunteers) work from home (Global Workplace Analytics, 2012). Global Workplace Analytics (2012) estimate that between 20 and 30 million Americans work from home at least one day of the week; the home being the most common location for telework.\n2. Workplace culture: Although the notions of workplace culture, organizational culture and corporate culture are often used interchangeably to characterize \"a company's prevailing values, attitudes, beliefs, artifacts and behaviors that contribute to its sense of order, continuity and commitment\" (Haworth, 2006); for consistency, this paper uses the term \"workplace culture\" throughout. Here, the three essential components to workplace culture are understood as:\n3. Blurring of work and leisure: \"Work\" is often defined in terms of \"obligated time, whether paid or unpaid\" (Lewis, 2010, p. 344), and \"leisure\" is often \"constructed as the antithesis of work, that is non-obligated time, activities which are perceived as freely chosen, intrinsically motivated\" (Iso-Ahola, 1997 in Lewis, 2010, p. 345). Ubiquitous ICTs are transforming spatial boundaries and blurring traditional notions of work and leisure, e.g. the workplace has become increasingly domesticized and the home increasingly \"officized\". The key proposition of this paper is that this blurring is creating different expectations of the office workplace and its culture, with both positive and negative consequences for organizations, their employees and facility managers.\n4. Workplace culture and green buildings: The previous sections of this paper have outlined the changing nature of the workplace, the growth of teleworking and their consequences for the employee. But what consequences does teleworking have on the traditional office building? And how, for instance, does teleworking advance the green building agenda?\n5. A global context: Clearly, the proliferation of ICTs has consequences at multiple scales and presents a complex network within which both work and leisure now coexist. The complex and dynamic nature of work as a process combines blurred boundaries both locally and globally with unique characteristics pertinent to the specific cultural contexts. Moreover, many companies now operate globally creating a complex set of conditions and relationships wherein their buildings and organizational cultures and practices operate within qualitatively different cultural contexts and where migrating workers similarly operate within foreign institutional and workplace cultures. In a similar manner, building environmental assessment methods are increasing imported and exported to cultural context dissimilar from that in which they were created, and their developers are wrestling with these differences.\n6. Implications: This paper has examined the ways that ICTs, changing organizational hierarchies and increased mobility are blurring the traditional distinctions between work and leisure. The work has a variety of consequences for knowledge-based workers and their employers and hence of direct interest for facilities managers.\n7. Conclusions: This paper has outlined how the shift in the workplace to include alternative modes of working has consequences for the traditional office building, and by consequence, on its inhabitants - employees, employers and facilities managers - and, in particular, how these trends may shape facilities management in the future. The paper has suggested that facilities management is shifting with the changing nature of the workplace and will likely continue to evolve. The literature and ideas presented in the paper relate primarily to knowledge-intensive work practices in North America, Europe and some major Asian and Australian cities, where the described trends are more evident and, as such, Table I should be understood as only being valid in these and similar contexts.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to determine how the unprecedented developments in information and communications technologies now permit a variety of forms of remote working and the subsequent shifting of spatial and temporal boundaries between home, office and city. It examines the changing context within which knowledge-based work is conducted with the specific objective of understanding how the blurring of the distinction between the domains of \"work\" and \"leisure\" is influencing the notion of workplace culture. It offers a framework that organizes the key issues in a legible form.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The paper draws on concepts, theories and ideas in workplace, information and communications technology and green building literature and restructures them to formulate an emerging set of key issues, trends and relationships.\nFindings: The paper identifies possible implications for both the changing nature of the workplace in current green building practice and understanding the notion of workplace within different national cultural contexts. It outlines implications for employees, employers and facilities managers.\nResearch limitations/implications: The work represents an initial attempt to bridge across issues not immediately evident in several bodies of literature. While several other issues may also have bearing on the work, the findings with regards to the blurring of work and leisure have significant theoretical and practical implications.\nPractical implications: As the \"workplace\" now embraces a wide range of possibilities that extend beyond the domain of the \"office\" to the home and to a host of \"hot-spots\" in public venues available within the city, the broader framing has significant consequence for comfort provisioning and other services in the office buildings and facilities management.\nOriginality/value: The paper's originality derives from emphasizing the potential positive and negative consequences for employers, employees and facilities managers associated with the blurring of work and leisure.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Committed to help: the effects of frequency of corporate donations on luxury brand evaluations	[ "Luxury", "Corporate donation", "Brand evaluation", "Skepticism" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: While the role of corporate social responsibility (CSR) in driving favorable corporate and brand evaluations is recognized by brands across the world (Roosens and Dens, 2019), consumers have become more aware of how brands act with regard to corporate donations and why the brands engage in such behaviors (Mantovani et al., 2017; Pomering and Dolnicar, 2009; Tian et al., 2011). In particular, luxury brands have increased their willingness to donate to social causes and \"wicked problem\" (Duffy et al., 2017) because of rising concern among consumers regarding the ethical behaviors of luxury manufacturers (Achabou and Dekhili, 2013; Davies et al., 2012). At the same time, watchdog groups and activists have shown an increasing propensity to seek out and identify unethical behavior by luxury brands (Kapferer and Michaut-Denizeau, 2014).Part of the problem is a fundamental mismatch between the concept of luxury and CSR, in general (Janssen et al., 2014; Kapferer and Michaut-Denizeau, 2014; Torelli et al., 2011). For example, the concept of luxury is typically associated with elitism and status (De Barnier et al., 2012). In contrast, the concept of CSR is typically linked with altruism and ethics (Kapferer and Michaut-Denizeau, 2014). This issue is particularly important because this \"incompatibility\" then makes consumers skeptical about luxury brands engaging in CSR activities (Skarmeas and Leonidou, 2013).Past research demonstrates that when a brand engages in corporate donations or collaborates with a charitable organization, consumers will assess the brand's motives, leading to differential influences on attitudes and evaluations of the brand (Fatma et al., 2018; Habel et al., 2016; Hagtvedt and Patrick, 2016; Oberseder et al.,2013). For instance, when consumers are aware of a brand's commitment to CSR, they will take that effort and commitment into consideration, leading to increased purchase intentions (Oberseder et al., 2013). Prior research also shows that with strategic CSR activities (e.g. knowledge acquisition), managers could improve the performance of service innovation of the firm because consumers tend to support a firm that is perceived to be innovative (Li et al., 2019). Building on these findings, we predict that if luxury brands can show their commitment via their CSR activities, consumers should be less skeptical, leading to more favorable brand evaluations.The current research aims to address this gap in the literature by examining how luxury brands might engage in different corporate donation strategies. When looked at from a managerial perspective, marketers not only need to decide the amount of corporate donations (i.e. how much) but also the frequency of such donations (i.e. how often). As an example, consider two donation strategies for a firm with an annual budget of $10 million. In the first instance, a firm can make a one-time donation of $10 million (an amount-focused strategy). Alternately, the firm can make ten donations, each of $1 million (a frequency-focused strategy). Prior research suggests that consumers may differentially perceive a brand engaging in such strategies (Jin and He, 2018; Zhu et al., 2017). Specifically, a frequency-focused strategy, which highlights repetition of an action (Neal et al., 2006), can signal to consumers the commitment and effort from a brand in helping a cause or charitable organization (Jin and He, 2018; Zhu et al., 2017). Consumers are also more likely to believe that this brand has sincere and benevolent motives for engaging in CSR activities (Alhouti et al., 2016; Vlachos et al., 2009). Consequently, we argue this perception should mitigate consumer skepticism toward a luxury brand engaging in corporate donations, leading to more positive brand evaluations.In the following section, we review relevant literature in building our arguments. We then present two studies designed to test our hypotheses and offer general discussion of the findings and their theoretical contributions and managerial implications. Last, we conclude with the limitations of this research and directions for future research.\nTheoretical background: CSR activity of luxury brands\nStudy 1: Methods\nStudy 2: Methods\nGeneral discussion: This research examines the influence of different corporate donation strategies on consumer skepticism and luxury brand evaluations. The findings across two experimental studies show when luxury companies give donations regularly (a frequency-focused strategy), as opposed to providing a huge one-off donation (an amount-focused strategy); consumers are more likely to perceive the brand as more committed to helping, leading to reduced consumer skepticism, which in turn increases positive luxury brand evaluations.Our research offers several theoretical contributions and managerial implications. First, it contributes to the literature on CSR activities involving luxury brands. Previous studies have typically suggested consumers experience a \"disconnect\" between the core concepts of CSR activities (e.g. sustainability, altruism) and the core concepts of luxury brands (e.g. exclusiveness, prestige) (Achabou and Dekhili, 2013; Kapferer, 2010; Kapferer and Michaut-Denizeau, 2014). Because of this disconnect, CSR activities conducted by luxury brands can elicit consumer ambivalence and objection, leading to less favorable evaluations (Han et al., 2017). Thus, it is challenging for luxury brands to gain consumer legitimacy and acceptance of their CSR activities (Han et al., 2017; Joy et al., 2012). However, the current study has shown this may not always be the case. In this respect, the findings from this paper demonstrate when a luxury brand uses a frequency-focused strategy, consumers will report more favorable brand evaluations. Thus, the key purpose of this paper is to assist luxury brands' managers in developing effective CSR. Specifically, luxury brands should strengthen their favorable image by consistently implementing CSR strategies that will be perceived as a long-term commitment.Second, we have established the underlying process driving the effects. Specifically, our findings show consumers do not perceive corporate donations similarly. A frequency-focused (vs. amount-focused) strategy signals the commitment of a brand, leading to reduced consumer skepticism. This is consistent with prior research suggesting a frequency-focused donation strategy indicates a brand's persistent, long-term effort (Jin and He, 2018; Zhu et al., 2017). More importantly, we demonstrate that this is especially crucial to reduce consumer skepticism and drive favorable consumer evaluations of luxury (vs. non-luxury) brands. Until now, past research has demonstrated the potential issue of consumer skepticism and the conditions under which such skepticism may occur (Kim and Lee, 2009; Skarmeas and Leonidou, 2013; Vlachos et al., 2016). However, it has been less clear how managers can tackle and reduce such skepticism. The current research addresses this issue and contributes to both theory and practice in a meaningful way. Specifically, this research has identified the frequency-focused donation strategy as the most effective CSR donation strategy for luxury brands.Finally, this article also contributes to the understanding of corporate philanthropy and its implications. Previous research in this area has suggested donation size has a significant impact on consumer evaluations of a corporate donation. In particular, consumers show favorable evaluations of brands that donate a large amount of money (Folse et al., 2010; Fry et al., 1982; Muller et al., 2014). This is because a donation strategy focusing on amount can signal a brand's positive capability (Jin and He, 2018). While non-luxury brands can benefit from this strategy to enhance their \"competent\" image among their customers, it may be less effective for luxury brands because luxury brands are already perceived to have such financial capabilities. In fact, disclosing substantial corporate donations is less likely to impress the public and may even lead to consumer skepticism and public suspicion (Franklin, 2008; Zhu et al., 2017). Our findings contribute to understanding how consumers can have different perceptions of distinct types of corporate donation strategies and the condition under which one strategy (e.g. a frequency-focused donation) is more effective (e.g. for luxury brands). As a consequence, depending on available philanthropic budget, managers should strategically allocate their donation budgets and communicate the brand's donation efforts.The present research has several limitations but also offers several exciting future research avenues. First, our findings suggest that different donation strategies have distinct signaling purposes. That is, while a frequency-focused strategy signals commitment, an amount-focused strategy signals ability. We have focused on the frequency-focused strategy in the context of luxury brands. However, future research could use other advertising cues such as emotions (e.g. emotional appeal; Septianto et al., 2018) to explore which emotional appeals can be effectively combined with specific donation strategies. Furthermore, we collected our samples of the US consumers, and it would thus be of interest to explore whether there are cultural differences in how consumers in other countries perceive different donation strategies. For example, does there need to be a degree of homophily (Van Esch et al., 2018) between the brand and consumer? This is particularly important because individual differences have been found between consumers in different countries across Asia (Ngo et al., 2016), Africa and Middle East. In effect, these distinct psychological and behavioral differences might influence how consumers perceive CSR activities. In conclusion, the present research has shown when and how distinct corporate donation strategies can be effective in reducing consumer skepticism toward luxury brands, leading to favorable brand evaluations.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: While luxury brands have increasingly pursued CSR activities such as corporate donations, this strategy may not be effective because there is an inherent mismatch between the concepts of \"luxury\" and CSR. The present research examines the effects of different types of donation strategies (frequency-focused vs. amount-focused).\nDesign/methodology/approach: Two experimental studies were conducted. Study 1 provides initial evidence to our prediction that a frequency-focused strategy is beneficial for luxury (vs. non-luxury) brands to leverage their positive brand evaluations. Study 2 further replicates this using a different brand and establishes the underlying mechanism.\nFindings: Findings show that a frequency-focused strategy is beneficial for luxury (vs. non-luxury) brands to leverage their positive brand evaluations. This is because a frequency-focused strategy makes consumers perceive the luxury brand's commitment to help, which in turn reduces consumers' skepticism toward their CSR activities.\nOriginality/value: The study illustrates a novel mechanism that shows when and how different corporate donations influence luxury brand evaluations.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Key account teams: success factors for implementing strategy	[ "Strategy implementation", "Qualitative method", "Depth interviews", "Communication", "Content analysis", "Key account team" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n__NO_TITLE__: A focus on key accounts offers a common strategic approach both in business-to-business marketing and for consumer products companies that sell through powerful channel partners. Whether designated as key account management teams or strategic account management teams, these customer-serving groups are critical elements in strategy implementation, prompting considerable interest in what might contribute to their success or failure. The study described here focuses on communication as a factor for teams that handle a small number of significant customers characterized by large purchases and highly customized needs.\nCommunication issues for key account teams: We used in-depth interviews to study the communication of KAMs and their teams indirectly to surface feelings, positive and negative, that survey research is not designed to measure. We expected communication issues to influence the implementation of strategy that depends on such teams. For example, research by Reid et al. (2002) supported the idea that getting, giving and using information - three different communication behaviors - differed in their effect on persuasion, depending on the type of purchase situation.\nResearch method: In our interviews, we used a semi-structured questioning technique. That method allowed for probing with additional questions based on the answers from each individual interviewed. Those individuals were from four key account teams in one company providing technical service in the energy industry. The interviewed teams consisting of 15 people: 4 KAMs and 11 members, including sales engineers, sales executives and technical supports. Their work experience averaged 18 years.\nResults: Table I summarizes the positive/negative terms used to evaluate communication. Looking first at within-team communication, team members see conflict; KAMs do not. Both, however, see difficulties and problems; communication is from the perspective of team members \"tough\", but only rarely unpleasant or uncomfortable. These negative comments reflect the challenging tasks of making a team effective and successful, rather than human relations issues.\nConclusions for managers: For this study, as is true generally for studies using qualitative data, results cannot be projected beyond the individuals interviewed. Its results are not primarily intended to show similarities or differences as applicable to a population; they are intended to demonstrate how such data might be useful. Nevertheless, the results show how managers can use the kinds of information developed to improve communication issues in key account teams. We see the results as useful in the two areas of strategic significance - team leadership and sales results. We will discuss each in turn.\nTeam leadership: From Table I, team members see within-team communication as \"difficult\" and \"tough\". These negative comments reflect that the challenge of the task itself weighs more heavily than do human relations issues in within-team communication. Possibly, negative perceptions of communication arise because the leader lacks authority over the team members and, therefore, must rely on \"soft power\" (Nye, 1990). A key account team is likely to include technical specialists who report to managers within their own specialty, quite possibly located away from their own worksite. Consequently, communication within a key account team is not the kind of \"top down\" team management that might be possible given a different organizational structure.\nSales results: One important practical implication of this study is to compare an analysis of team and leader communication with sales outcomes. We found the negative comments of KAMs about the communication with the client associated with failure to sell their account, but of course conducting a study in one's own organization may unearth other associations.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to explore a contributing factor - communication - within a team as well as with a client. Organizations that rely on key account teams for strategy implementation may find their \"best laid plans\" thwarted by communication problems associated with such teams.\nDesign/methodology/approach: This paper is based on depth interviews and content analysis. The authors analyze what team members and team leaders say and count positive/negative terms about communication within teams and with clients. These counts of such terms as a proportion of interview length are compared to the actual team success.\nFindings: Negative comments about communication within the team focus on difficulty and positive comments focus on support. Interestingly, however, the best indicator of whether a team has succeeded in selling its key account is the extent of negative expressions about communication from key account managers. Presumably, the structure of key account teams gives them an extra leadership burden, and the authors' see a relationship between their perception of communication shortcomings and success or failure.\nResearch limitations/implications: The authors recommend investigating communication issues when strategy implementation depends on key account teams, but because this study is conducted using a qualitative method with one company, its results cannot be projected. The authors simply demonstrate what a company could learn from conducting its own study and comparing results to its sales success.\nOriginality/value: Little research has examined communication in key account teams or linked it to sales success.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Changes in health-related quality of life scores in patients with depression in the Thai health care delivery system	[ "Health-related quality of life", "Depression", "Health care delivery", "Thailand" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Health-related quality of life (HRQOL) is now a significant target outcome for patients with depression. HRQOL generally focuses on the definition of quality of life and primarily emphasizes the effects of both the health complaint and its treatment on the life of the patients [1, 2]. Therefore, HRQOL has been applied to evaluate the totality of the effects of medical treatment on the patient from the point of view of the recipients. Improvements in quality of life and a return to \"normal\" levels of functioning are important depression treatment goals [3-6]. A previous study on HRQOL has shown that depression is generally associated with at least three specific domains of health including physical, psychological and social domains [5]. Moreover, the World Mental Health Day organized by the World Health Organization [WHO] focuses on depression, since this is a condition that can strike any individual and is increasingly common [7]. It can arise along with other medical complaints and can occur in mild, moderate or severe forms, all of which can have a significant influence that lowers the quality of life that patients experience.Full recovery from depression can be achieved with an adequate and continual treatment program. There are reports suggesting that one out of three patients respond to antidepressant drugs within four weeks (p < 0.000) and continue to be in remission for at least another eight weeks [8, 9]. Taking antidepressant drugs at the beginning of the treatment course promotes recovery. Approximately 58% of the patients gained full recovery when continuously taking antidepressant drugs for six months. However, 46% of those who gained full recovery would experience a relapse within the following year [10]. The relapses could, in some measure, be explained, because, following recovery, patients often lose contact with their mental health service providers, leading to inadequate treatment to control the depressive conditions [11]. However, several studies have found that the HRQOL of patients with depression is better during follow-up visits after the first three months compared to the first visit [12, 13]. Nevertheless, to improve the effectiveness of antidepressant drugs, other treatment methods should be included. A study by Vitriol and colleagues [14] reported that remission ranged between 36.7% at 3 months and 53.9% at 12 months.There are an increasing number of patients who access mental health services every year. Mental health services are concerned with the assessment, diagnosis, monitoring system and treatment of people who have a mental illness or disorder characterized by a clinically significant disturbance of thought, mood, perception, memory and/or behavior. Health capability integrates health outcomes and health agencies [15]. In one study, it was reported that among those patients who had already gained access to a health service system, their quality of life scores increased significantly (p < 0.05). Specifically, in the third month of the treatment program, 66% of those patients fully recovered from depression [12]. Similar to studies undertaken in developed countries, such as the USA [16, 17], there is an improvement in the quality of life of patients with depressive disorders in the health service system. However, The Ministry of Public Health in Thailand classifies health care based on the complexity of services provided [18], according to types and levels of health care as follows: primary, secondary, tertiary and quaternary hospitals. It should be noted that the preparedness of the mental health services operating systems may still have some limitations.As cited above, there is not a lot of evidence available regarding the resources used for the delivery of depression care between the different types of care units. Therefore, the factors that can explain the effectiveness of these services need to be evaluated. The results of the present study are expected to be useful in improving the quality of depression care. Additionally, the information gained would be introduced to promote collaboration between nurses and other health care providers in the health system to ensure a more efficient and effective mental health service provision.\nMethodology: Study design and sample\nResults: The descriptions of the number of professionals and the number of patients who received care at outpatient psychiatric clinics in the last year stratified by the type of hospital are presented in Table 1. The total number of participants from the four types of hospitals was 120, with 30 patients per hospital, and the results are presented in Table 2. The mean age of the participants was 43.7 +- 12.9 years old, with more than half of the participants (53.3%) being older than 45 years old. Regarding the male-female balance, almost two-thirds (65%) were female. In addition, 54.2% were married, 40% completed elementary education and 68.3% were unemployed.Table 3 shows the change in HRQOL scores for patients with depression at different hospitals. The HRQOL score was utilized to evaluate the HRQOL of patients with depression at the first visit and at the 6th and 12th weeks after their first visit. In summary, the HRQOL of patients at each type of hospital increased over time when comparing the scores obtained at the first visit, the visit after the 6th week and the visit after the 12th week, as shown in Figure 1.This section describes the data analysis procedures. The changes in the HRQOL score in the patients with depression at the four different hospitals were analyzed though a repeated measures approach, as demonstrated in Table 3.Table 4 presents the best appropriate model with the smallest scale parameter (144.2075). The two factors with repeated measures of the generalized estimating equations (GEE) model can be rewritten as follows:Y^=71.467+7.7(regional hospital)+867(general hospital)-10.167(community hospital)+7.233(6th week after first visit)+15.333(12th week after first visit)-1.233(regional hospital x 6th week)-1.433(regional hospital x 12th week)+3.233(general hospital x 6th week)-4(general hospital x 12th week)+8.767(community hospital x 6th week)+12.367(community hospital x 12th week)+corr(exchangeable).The interpretation of the GEE model with this result is as follows:For the psychiatric hospital, the mean HRQOL score for the patients with depression increased by 7.233 and 15.333 points in the 6th and 12th weeks after the first visit, respectively, after controlling for other predictors (p < 0.001). The GEE model for the psychiatric hospitals can be rewritten as follows:Y^=71.467 +7.233(6th week after the first visit)+15.333(12th week after the first visit)+corr(exchangeable).For the regional hospital, the mean HRQOL score for the patients with depression increased by 6 and 13.9 points in the 6th and 12th weeks after the first visit, after controlling for other predictors. The GEE model for the regional hospitals can be rewritten as follows:Y^=79.167+6(6th week after first visit)+13.9(12th week after first visit)+corr(exchangeable).For the general hospital, the mean HRQOL score for the patients with depression increased by 10.467 and 14.933 points in the 6th and 12th weeks after the first visit, respectively, after controlling for other predictors. The GEE models for the general hospital can be rewritten as follows:Y^=72.333+10.467(6th week after first visit)+134.933(12th week after first visit)+corr(exchangeable).For the community hospital, the mean HRQOL score for the patients with depression increased by 16 and 27.7 points in the 6th and 12th weeks after the first visit, respectively, after controlling for other predictors (p < 0.001). The GEE model for the community hospitals can be rewritten as follows:Y^=61.3+16(6th week after first visit)+27.7(12th week after first visit)+corr(exchangeable).\nDiscussion: The HRQOL of patients with depression at all four types of hospitals significantly increased at both the 6th and 12th weeks after the first visit. These findings reflect the notion that once patients started the treatment for depression and were treated for some period of time, their quality of life improved. This finding corresponded with another study that reported that the quality of life scores of patients who had already accessed the health service system significantly increased (p < 0.05) [12, 20, 21]. Such findings also provided support to studies carried out in developed countries such as the USA [16, 17]. In addition, the evaluation of the quality of life in patients who had been receiving the treatment for at least six weeks showed a significant increase in quality of life scores. Such findings were also consistent with the study of Thase [9], which suggested that one out of three patients would respond to antidepressant drugs within four weeks (p < 0.000) and remain in remission for eight weeks.However, it is worth noting that the findings of this study reflected differences in terms of the available resources in the different types of hospitals. The data showed that the lower-level hospitals had a smaller workforce and capacity compared to the tertiary hospitals. Moreover, the numbers of patients across settings were vastly different. The majority of the patients who received treatment for depression could be found in specialized hospitals and tertiary settings. In fact, most of the depression patients received treatments from high-level capacity hospitals. Many studies in the USA, Canada and other developed countries have confirmed that it is very important for societies to manage depression via primary health care services [22, 23]. In addition, HRQOL score changes in the first six weeks observed at the general hospital reflected a greater change than those observed at tertiary hospitals. This difference could have been due to related factors, including the number of hospital patients, the size of the full-time equivalent (FTE) professional workforce and demographic and clinical characteristics of the patients, all of which could have affected their responses to the treatment of depression.\nConclusion: The HRQOL scores were found to increase in all types of hospitals in the 6th week and 12th week after the first visit when they were compared to the scores obtained at the first visit. Although the hospitals with high capability have a larger number of personnel than lower-level hospitals, the number of patients to whom they provide services is larger as well. Therefore, there should be a clear evaluation process to effectively refer patients to primary care settings in the community to ensure patients' ease of access to care and convenience to maximize treatment outcomes.Recommendations\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: Although health-related quality of life (HRQOL) has become an important outcome, specifically in regard to the impact of illness and treatment in patients with depression, few studies have explored the HRQOL of patients from different types of hospitals. This study aimed at examining a change in HRQOL of patients from various types of hospitals\nDesign/methodology/approach: A repeated measure was used in this study. Thirty participants in psychiatric outpatient units per center from the different types of hospitals, including a psychiatric hospital, regional hospital, general hospital and community hospital, were assessed with the Thai version of the World Health Organization Quality of Life Brief (WHOQOL-BREF-THAI) questionnaire at the first visit, and after the 6th and 12th weeks of the treatment course.\nFindings: The HRQOL scores for the participants were increased in each type of hospital from their first visit to the 6th week and 12th week (p < 0.001; except for the 6th week in the regional hospital, p < 0.01).\nOriginality/value: The findings reflected HRQOL in patients with depression in terms of the resources available in different types of hospitals that could be used as baseline data for the development of Thai mental health service systems.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Differences in outsourcing strategies between firms in emerging and in developed markets	[ "Operations strategy", "Outsourcing", "Globalization", "Survey research", "Emerging markets" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1 Introduction: In recent decades, production systems have become increasingly complex because of profound changes in the structure of industry. Thus, firms have begun to fulfil specialized and complementary roles in production networks. The specific aspect of this change process that is particularly important in this paper relates to outsourcing decisions. These are based on several objectives usually related to cost, capacity flexibility, or capability and knowledge seeking (Hatonen and Eriksson, 2009). However, it is unclear whether manufacturing firms from emerging markets differ from firms in developed markets regarding from where they outsource and the objectives they pursue in outsourcing. Manufacturing firms in developed and emerging markets are embedded in different types of environment and position themselves differently; further, it is reasonable to assume they operate with different levels of maturity.There is growing interest in operations and supply chain management issues related to practices in emerging-market economies. This is because, until recently, most empirical studies in this literature have been based on surveys or case studies drawn from companies in developed markets (Iyer et al., 2008). The term \"emerging markets\" is now widely used to describe countries that have reached a minimum level of economic development (usually measured in terms of GDP) and that are in the growth phases of their economic cycles. The so-called BRIC countries (Brazil, Russia, India, and China) are frequently considered the most significant emerging markets, due to their size and assumed potential for market growth. However, the study of operations and supply chain management in other emerging markets in Asia, Eastern Europe, Latin America, and (to a lesser degree) Africa is increasingly relevant for companies worldwide.To date, much of the academic literature dealing with emerging markets originates in the fields of international and strategic management or of general economics. Main themes have been:* broader issues of globalization as such, primarily enabled by information and communications technologies;* strategic moves in search of growth and new resources in alternative markets; and* the perceived need to achieve lower costs, usually by means of offshoring practices.In contrast, most studies in the field of operations and supply chain management have been of a qualitative, descriptive, or purely conceptual nature (Mefford and Bruun, 1998).The purpose of this paper is to investigate differences between outsourcing strategies of manufacturing firms from emerging markets and from developed markets. We conceptualize outsourcing strategy as being composed of two sets of decisions: the main objectives for outsourcing and the geographic region where it is allocated. The study is based on analyses conducted on data drawn from a large-scale global survey on manufacturing strategy and practices. More specifically, the study addresses:* the differences between developed- and emerging-market firms in terms of their objectives to outsource;* the differences between developed- and emerging-market firms in terms of the decision to outsource within the firm's country of operation, i.e. domestically, or outside the firm's country of operation, i.e. internationally;* how this decision is moderated by the business strategy firms adopt and by other contingencies; and* the influence of different ownership structures on the outsourcing strategy pursued.The paper is structured as follows. The next section reviews the literature on outsourcing objectives of manufacturing firms, as well as the influence of specific economic environments on outsourcing decisions. It also deals with the role of business strategy and other contingencies in outsourcing decisions. Based on this literature, we put forth propositions concerning the differences between firms in emerging and developed markets in terms of their outsourcing strategy. In Section 3, we present the methods used for data collection, the characteristics of the sample, and the operationalization of the variables, as well as the statistical analyses conducted to test the propositions. Sections 4 and 5, respectively, present the results of the analyses and their discussion. The paper concludes in Section 6 with an overview of the research and practical implications to be drawn from the study and the proposition of issues for further research.\n2 Conceptual background: Much literature exists on outsourcing (the organizational dimension) and related decisions on global sourcing and offshoring (the geographical dimension); this includes special issues in international business journals (Kotabe and Mudambi, 2009; Contractor et al., 2010) and even a dedicated journal (Busi and McIvor, 2008). However, little attention has been given to differences between outsourcing decisions made by manufacturing firms in developed and emerging markets.Outsourcing in developed economies\n3 Methodology: The IMSS project\n4 Findings: Table II presents an ANOVA analysis of the differences found in the variables. EEs source significantly more domestically, 68.1 per cent of their sourcing activity, than both EDs (47.5 per cent) and Ds (54.5 per cent). There are no significant differences in the amount of domestic sourcing between EDs and Ds.The highest amount of international sourcing is found among EDs (35.5 per cent), significantly more than EEs (17.8 per cent) and Ds (16 per cent). No significant differences were found in international sourcing between EEs and Ds. The findings do not indicate significant differences in the motives (competencies, capacity, or cost) for outsourcing of firms in the three different markets.The EDs and EEs in the IMSS IV sample are significantly larger than the Ds in the sample. A reason for this might be that production in developing countries often is more labour intensive; it might also indicate that such companies manufacture products that are not as sophisticated as those manufactured in developed countries. However, the absence of significant differences between EDs and EEs indicates that size does not contribute to explain the difference in domestic/international outsourcing in the two groups of firms in emerging markets.EDs seem to operate in more rapidly changing markets than firms in developed markets. There are two potential interpretations for this between which it is impossible to decide right now: it indicates either that emerging-country markets are more dynamic (turbulent) than developed-country markets (and then it would be the same for EEs) or that EDs are linked to more dynamic (global) value chains than both EEs and Ds.Regarding strategy, EDs seem to have a significantly higher focus on quality in their business strategy than companies in developed markets. In addition, both EDs and EEs place higher emphasis on delivery in their strategy than Ds. Finally, EDs focus more on innovation in their strategy than do Ds. However, it is important to observe that all these differences, although significant, are relatively small.No significant differences were found in the position of firms in the supply chain in the three groups of firms. This finding indicates that firms in all three groups are similarly positioned in relation to end-users; firms participate in different value chains, but their role is similar.The discussion in the remainder of this paper refers to Table III, which presents the statistical results and summarizes our findings in relation to the propositions formulated above. In this table, we operationalize the level of internationalization in sourcing using a continuous variable based on the difference between percentage sourced internationally and percentage sourced domestically (see Appendix for full details). Positive b-coefficients mean that high scores for the independent and control variables indicate a high amount of international sourcing in the responding companies; negative b-coefficients mean that high scores for the independent and control variables go together with a high degree of domestic sourcing. For instance, firms in developed markets that indicate cost reasons for their outsourcing activities have a high extent of international sourcing (b=0.237, p<0.01). In the same market, firms source largely domestically when they outsource for capacity reasons (b=-0.193, p<0.01). Note that some of the results presented in Table III are only weakly significant (p<0.1). In particular for the findings for ED companies, the most probable reason is the lower number of respondents in this group (n=58) relative to those in the two other groups (EE: n=158, D: n=351). This should be borne in mind when conclusions are drawn from the analyses involving ED firms. However, the \"statistical\" significance should in this case be considered in parallel with the \"scientific\" significance of the findings (see, for example, Ginsberg and Venkatraman (1985) for a discussion of the importance of statistical and scientific significance in strategic management research).\n5 Discussion: This section summarizes and discusses the findings from the statistical analyses. It starts with an overview of results in relation to the propositions. This is followed by a discussion of major differences resulting from the intra- and intergroup analyses of outsourcing objectives, geographical scope of sourcing, and contingencies.Findings in relation to propositions\n6 Implications and research agenda: Research implications and limitations\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: - The vast majority of literature relating to operations management originates from studies in developed markets. Emerging markets are increasingly important in global business. With this in mind, the purpose of this paper is to analyze differences in outsourcing strategies between manufacturing firms from emerging markets and from developed markets.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - The paper is based on statistical analyses of a large data set of manufacturing firms obtained from the International Manufacturing Strategy Survey (IMSS).\nFindings: - The findings suggest that companies that outsource internationally focus on achieving cost benefits, while companies that outsource domestically focus on achieving capacity flexibility. In addition, the reasons to outsource were found to be independent of the location of firms in both emerging and developed markets. However, within the group of firms from emerging markets, strategies seem to differ according to whether firms are domestically owned or are subsidiaries of companies from developed markets.\nPractical implications: - The decisions of firms to outsource do not differ much whether the firms are located in developed- or in emerging-market economies. Firms outsource domestically when they want to increase their capacity flexibility; they outsource internationally when looking for cost advantages.\nOriginality/value: - The value of the paper is that it illuminates an important contemporary phenomenon based on analyses on data from a large-scale international survey encompassing firms both in developed and in emerging markets.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Antecedents of continued usage intentions of web-based learning management system in Tanzania	[ "E-Learning", "Africa", "University", "Tanzania", "UTAUT", "Learning management system", "Technology acceptance", "Higher learning institutions", "Web-based learning management system" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: The rapid developments of information and communications technologies (ICTs) have improved access to and efficiency of learning processes in tertiary education institutions. e-Learning is defined as education and training provided through ICTs to support individual learning (Maldonado et al., 2011). Web-based learning management systems (LMS) are considered as important tools in enhancing e-learning in the higher education institutions. Such systems enable students to access course materials without being limited with time or location, and use communication features in their learning activities, which in turn boost their academic performance and productivity (Fidani and Idrizi, 2012). However, e-learning systems alone cannot guarantee that students will be motivated to use the system. It is important to determine factors that motivate students to adopt and continue using the e-learning system in order to enhance usage of the system (Ma and Yuen, 2011).\nConceptual model and research hypotheses development: Technology acceptance theories are commonly used in many studies that investigate determinants of the adoption of e-learning technologies. Several theories have been developed to explain users' intention to use technology. This study used the UTAUT (Venkatesh et al., 2003) over other models and theories to better explain the acceptance and usage of the e-learning system at MU. UTAUT was chosen among other theories because of its comprehensiveness and higher explanatory power than other similar theories and models in technology acceptance (Venkatesh et al., 2003). Further, UTAUT has rarely been applied in the continued usage intentions of e-learning in higher learning institutions, especially in a developing country environment like Tanzania. UTAUT, therefore, seemed an applicable theory to examine factors contributing to the continued usage intentions of e-learning among undergraduate students at MU.\nMethodology: The case study research methodology was used in this study. This study was conducted at the School of Business of MU because most of the academic staff use the LMS to deliver e-courses, assignments, and announcements. The questionnaires were physically distributed to all third year undergraduate students (n=300) during the end of second semester, 2012/2013 at the School of Business of MU. The rate of response was 77 per cent. The major aim of the survey was to establish the undergraduate students' intention to continue using e-learning system at MU. The study developed survey questions based on existing, tested and verified instruments. The scales included the following: performance expectancy was measured with four items and adapted from Tselios et al. (2011) and Venkatesh et al. (2003). Effort expectancy was assessed with five items, which were taken from several scholars (Tselios et al., 2011; Venkatesh et al., 2003; Wang and Shih, 2009). Four items were used to measure facilitating conditions, and they were taken from the works of Venkatesh et al. (2003). Social influence was measured with four items which came from Wang and Shih (2009) and Venkatesh et al. (2003). Six items were used to assess self-efficacy, and they were adapted from several studies (Jan et al., 2011; Venkatesh et al., 2003). Actual use was measured with two items and adapted from Ifinedo (2006) and Wang and Shih (2009), while continued intention was measured with six items, and adapted from the literature (Lin and Wang, 2012; Masrom and Teknologi, 2007; Venkatesh et al., 2003). The questionnaire consisted of the following three sections: demographic data including gender, age, and study programme; level of e-learning use; and factors affecting actual use and continued usage intentions of e-learning.\nResults: The characteristics of the respondents and actual usage of web-based LMS are shown in Tables II and III. Among the 231 students, 50.2 per cent (n=116) were female and 49.8 per cent (n=115) were male. The average age was 24 years old. Almost half the students used the e-learning system slightly frequent (46 per cent, n=103). Over half of the respondents (56 per cent, n=127) were frequent users of the e-learning system, using the e-learning system between a few times a week to several times a day.\nDiscussion of study findings: The results suggest that variables from UTAUT are important in explaining student's continued usage intention of e-learning systems. Overall, UTAUT was partially supported, whereby six out of 11 hypotheses in the research model were supported. All study factors were important in determining continued usage intention of e-learning system with the exception of facilitating conditions. Among other variables, self-efficacy was a strong determinant of actual usage of LMS in the study. Self-efficacy also predicted continued usage intention of e-learning system. This finding suggests that students who believed they had the ability to operate the e-learning system intended to re-use it in future, as it was revealed in other studies (Cho et al., 2009; Padumadasa, 2012; Zhang, 2012).\nPractical and theory implications and limitations: The study provides useful findings that e-learning managers and universities can use to develop strategies to encourage continuous usage of e-learning systems for future studies or lifelong learning among final year students and lecturers in higher learning institutions. First, the findings showed that students' perception of the performance expectancy is crucial in fostering intention to continue using e-learning system. Some ways of improving performance expectancy would be to create awareness and provide proper training to students and lecturers on the benefits of using the e-learning technologies. Awareness among university students can be created through printed leaflets, posters, university web site, social media, and library catalogues.\nConclusions and future research: Based on UTAUT, the present study empirically tested a theory that explains students' continued participation in web-based learning environment. The results show that actual usage was determined by self-efficacy, while continued usage intentions of web-based learning system was predicted by performance expectancy, effort expectancy, social influence, self-efficacy, and actual usage. Overall, UTAUT theory was partially supported in continued usage intentions of e-learning technology. The findings show the importance of UTAUT in the context of higher learning institutions which specify factors that can motivate students to continue using in e-learning for their future studies or lifelong learning. By using UTAUT in the context of continued usage intentions and integrating an additional construct (\"self-efficacy\"), the extended UTAUT model fits very well in the web-based learning systems in Tanzania, in particular, where such studies are scant. The findings can be used by other studies with similar conditions in the continued usage intentions of e-learning systems. In addition, this study seems to indicate that there is a slow rate of adoption of e-learning by university lecturers. The use of e-learning in MU has not been fully embedded into the University's teaching culture and practice. For example, only 25 per cent (n=5) lecturers, assessed students assignments by using online discussion forum. Furthermore, 55 per cent (n=11) lecturers indicated that they have moderate experience in using e-learning systems. Challenges for using web-based LMS were related to ICT infrastructure barrier, LMS user interface was not user friendly, weak ICT policies, management and technical support, and limited skills, lack of awareness, resistance to change, and lack of time to prepare e-content and use the e-learning system. The study findings are useful to e-learning managers and university management to identify important factors and develop appropriate policies and strategies to encourage long-term usage of e-learning systems in higher learning institutions.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to examine factors that predict students' continued usage intention of web-based learning management systems (LMS) in Tanzania, with a specific focus on the School of Business of Mzumbe University. Specifically, the study investigated major predictors of actual usage and continued usage intentions of e-learning system, and challenges of using the e-learning system.\nDesign/methodology/approach: Data were collected through a questionnaire survey of 300 third year undergraduate students, with a rate of return of 77 per cent. A total of 20 faculty members were also interviewed. The unified theory of acceptance and use of technology (UTAUT) was utilized in the study.\nFindings: The results show that actual usage was determined by self-efficacy, while continued usage intentions of web-based learning system was predicted by performance expectancy, effort expectancy, social influence, self-efficacy, and actual usage. Challenges for using web-based LMS were related to information and communications technology (ICT) infrastructure barrier, LMS user interface was not user friendly, weak ICT policies, management and technical support, limited skills, lack of awareness, resistance to change, and lack of time to prepare e-content and use the e-learning system.\nPractical implications: The study findings are useful to e-learning managers and university management to identify important factors and develop appropriate policies and strategies to encourage long-term usage of e-learning systems for future studies and lifelong learning.\nOriginality/value: By using UTAUT in the context of continued usage intentions and the integration of an additional construct (\"self-efficacy\"), the extended UTAUT model fits very well in the web-based learning systems in Tanzania, in particular where such studies are scant. The findings can be used in other institutions with similar conditions in investigating the continued usage intentions of e-learning systems.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
The relationship between organizational justice and organizational citizenship: the mediating effect of organizational commitment and the moderating role of power distance	[ "Organizational justice", "Organizational citizenship", "Organizational commitment", "Power distance", "Pakistan" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n__NO_TITLE__: In recent years there has been a move away from considering human resources as a cost to be minimized and toward viewing employees as strategically significant, their knowledge, skills and abilities being essential to the success of the organization. The way in which an employee views the workplace can affect performance, commitment and job retention therefore examining factors which affect these perceptions is crucial to keep the organization competitive. Organizational justice and power distance are two such factors.\nOrganizational justice: Organizational justice refers to the employees perceptions of fairness within an organization which can increase or decrease commitment, productivity, efficiency and quality of work therefore it is used as a tool by human resource (HR) managers to motivate and retain staff. Three types of justice have been identified: distributive where the worker considers the fairness of received outcomes compared to estimated contributions in relation to resource allocation, procedural which is the perceived fairness of organizational policies and procedures and interactional, the fairness of interpersonal communication. Most research has focused on the negative effects of perceived organizational justice but some has shown that perception of fairness motivates pro-social behavior increasing productivity and enhancing performance. In this study organizational justice is considered have an impact on organizational commitment and OCB.\nOrganizational commitment and OCB: Organizational commitment can be seen as the psychological bond between the individual and the organization, which can lead to positive outcomes relating to organizational goals and increasing employee retention. Three dimensions of organizational commitment have been proposed: affective commitment which refers to an emotional attachment to the organization, continuance commitment where the employee's dedication is due to the troublesomeness of switching employers and normative commitment where benefits to the employee such as payment of tuition fees and training programs engender loyalty and positive responses.\nPower distance: Power distance is the extent to which individuals recognize and are comfortable with the distance between themselves and managers and this varies between cultures with banking in Pakistan being considered as having high power distance. Workers can experience abusive behaviors in cultures with high power distance and this can have a negative effect on their morale and their willingness to perform voluntary behaviors. Consideration of power distance as a moderating factor between organizational justice and organizational commitment highlights the perceived powerlessness of employees within the organizational hierarchy. Previous research has shown that discretionary behaviors such as OCB are dependent on their role perception and the value of their relationships with other workers rather than the quality of their relationships with management.\nPractical implications: The study's findings provide insight for banking organizations and policy makers as ensuring fair and transparent processes within an organization increases the confidence an employee has in the organizational systems and processes.\nCommentary: The review is based on \"The mediating role of organizational commitment between organizational justice and organizational citizenship behavior: Power distance as moderator,\" by Jehanzeb and Mohanty (2019), published in Personnel Review. The purpose of this study is to examine the relationship between organizational justice and organizational citizenship behavior (OCB) and the mediating effect of organizational commitment with power distance as a moderator. The study finds no positive relationship between organizational justice and OCB, a positive relationship between organizational justice and organizational commitment, that organizational commitment mediates the relationship between organizational justice and OCB and that power distance moderates the relationship between organizational justice and organizational commitment. Therefore managers and policy makers should ensure fair and transparent processes within an organization to increase the confidence an employee has in the organizational systems and processes. This paper has an original approach as it examines the moderating impact of power distance between organizational justice and organizational commitment in the context of a developing country, Pakistan.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: The purpose of this study is to examine the relationship between organizational justice and organizational citizenship behavior (OCB) and the mediating effect of organizational commitment with power distance as a moderator.\nDesign/methodology/approach: Data was gathered from responses to a structured questionnaire by 379 employees based in ten banks from five metropolitan cities in Pakistan\nFindings: The study finds no positive relationship between organizational justice and OCB, a positive relationship between organizational justice and organizational commitment, that organizational commitment mediates the relationship between organizational justice and OCB and that power distance moderates the relationship between organizational justice and organizational commitment.\nPractical implications: Managers and policy makers should ensure fair and transparent processes within an organization to increase the confidence an employee has in the organizational systems and processes.\nOriginality/value: This paper has an original approach as it examines the moderating impact of power distance between organizational justice and organizational commitment in the context of a developing country, Pakistan.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
A new holistic conceptual framework for layout performance assessment	[ "Performance measurement", "Fuzzy logic", "Facility layout" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: In recent years, the most important manufacturing issue is the efficient use of scarce resources. Within this context, the design of the facility, which may be defined as the physical arrangement of a facility, is strongly associated with this perspective. The tangible fixed assets (building, machines, etc.) are organized in such a manner that the efficient use of resources is improved (Ashayeri et al., 2005).\n2. Literature review: There are very few models or frameworks regarding the performance assessment of layout designs. The criteria or indexes, which are identified in previous research, are as follows.\n3. Proposed framework: Most of the research was organized around building a layout, rather than evaluating the performance of it. However, the evaluation of the performance of the layout is also a very important process. Within this perspective, the need arises for a holistic framework that can incorporate and integrate tangible and intangible criteria related with cost, flow, flexibility, surrounding environment, environment quality, time and characteristics. This study is, therefore, unique in that, it investigates layout performance employing multiple levels as criteria, sub-criteria and measures. Table II presents the general layout performance assessment framework including the criteria and sub-criteria.\n4. Methodology: 4.1 Fuzzy set theory\n5. Application: This paper focuses on the application, which was conducted in an elevator and escalator-manufacturing firm located in Izmir. Fuzzy DEMATEL technique is employed to identify the causal relationships.\n6. Implications: In this study, fuzzy DEMATEL method was hired to analyze and assess the relationships between the sub-criteria in terms of layout performance assessment. In total, 19 sub-criteria were evaluated using pairwise comparisons, and some implications were obtained in order to determine the key sub-criteria.\n7. Conclusion and discussion: The FLP was one of the main research topics in industrial engineering and operations management areas. It is the organization of efficient arrangement of interrelated facilities (departments, machines) on a manufacturing floor in order to satisfy the objectives of the firm (Aiello et al., 2013). An unfavorable layout, without regard to other factors, refers to inefficiency (Abdinnour-Helm and Hadley, 2000). Therefore, the most interacted facilities (departments, machines) are positioned next to each other.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: Performance assessment of layouts requires a systematic approach because of its multi-objective nature. The purpose of this paper is to propose a framework to the performance assessment of layout designs.\nDesign/methodology/approach: A layout performance assessment framework is proposed, grounded on a literature review. Then, the causal relationships and prioritization of the sub-criteria are analyzed by fuzzy Decision Making Trial and Evaluation Laboratory technique in an elevator and escalator-manufacturing firm.\nFindings: An integrated holistic performance assessment framework, specifically, the 7 criteria, 19 sub-criteria and 112 measures, are studied in this model which represents causal relationships and prioritization of sub-criteria.\nResearch limitations/implications: The proposed framework can be generalized, because an integrative framework can be used in future empirical studies to analyze performance of layout design. However, the causal relationships and prioritization among sub-criteria are analyzed based on the needs and capabilities of the individual company; therefore, the results of the causal relationships are company specific.\nPractical implications: With this framework, the companies may assess their current layout's performance, may analyze causal relationships and prioritization of sub-criteria.\nOriginality/value: There are very few models or frameworks regarding the performance assessment of layout designs. In this paper, a new conceptual holistic framework was proposed as three-dimensional hierarchy, which includes the main criteria, sub-criteria and the measures, respectively. Cost, flow, flexibility, surrounding environment, environment quality, time and characteristics are identified as the main criteria for the layout design performance assessment. In addition, cause-effect relationships, which will be the base for improvement of the performance, are found.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Toward the sustainable adaptation of existing facilities	[ "Sustainable development", "Buildings", "Facilities", "Australia" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Adaptation to climate change is emerging as one of the main requirements for existing buildings in satisfying the environmental performance requirements of sustainability. Climate change will not be constant and the variable and extreme weather conditions it produces will have a major impact on buildings and infrastructure. To cope with this change the Department for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform (2007) feel it requires innovation to future-proof and adapt built assets. CSIRO (2006) has analysed climate change projections from nine climate models and by the year 2030, expect most of Australia to become 0.4 to 2.0degC warmer on average. Climate change will also lead to 15-20 per cent less rainfall in the south, east and southwest of the continent by 2030. With likely increases in evaporation the drier conditions will create impacts on buildings due to reduced water supply and greater water demand (Hennessy, 2004).Australia's vulnerability to climate change is intensified by already being a generally dry continent that experiences high natural climate variability from year to year (Australian Greenhouse Office, 2003). Strategies to adapt to climate change impacts will include water demand management, water restrictions and recycling and heat-smart buildings (Hennessy, 2004). The levels of comfort expected by building occupants are constantly changing and accommodating them is complicated by the uncertainty about climate impacts. Increasing amounts of energy are used to heat and cool buildings in response to the impacts and are a major contributor to emissions and energy consumption (Ellison and Sayce, 2007). There is a general view that some form of adaptation of buildings may enable them to deal with the impacts created by climate change (Camilleri et al., 2001; Hertin et al., 2003; Larsson, 2003; Liso et al., 2003; Steemers, 2003; Lowe, 2004; Rousseau, 2004; Langston et al., 2007; IPCC, 2001).Adaptation is also considered to be an effective strategy to improve the sustainability of existing facilities (Brand, 1994; Pickard, 1996; Ball, 1999; Kohler, 1999; Latham, 2000; Cooper, 2001; Kohler and Hassler, 2002; Douglas, 2002; Gregory, 2004; Langston et al., 2007). According to Rovers (2004) existing building stock has the greatest potential to lower the environmental load significantly within the next 20 years. However, impacts from emerging from climate change also require changes to construction of new facilities (Sanders and Phillipson, 2003; Langston et al., 2007), but this is less challenging than retrofit of existing facilities. In fact, adaptation of existing facilities is seen to represent a major challenge, particularly in assessing a structures vulnerability to climate change (UKCIP, 2001).In recognising this, the Australian assessment system National Australian Built Environment Rating System (NABERS) for environmentally assessing facilities during their operation is described and the feedback provided from 39 stakeholders and nine office buildings trialing the system are presented. In particular, the effectiveness of NABERS for assessing the environmental performance of existing buildings and particularly impacts related to climate change are examined. NABERS rates buildings based on actual performance over a 12-month period and differentiates between the specific requirements of building owners and tenants. The majority of rating systems outside of Australia do not adopt this approach and for this reason it was decided inappropriate to compare NABERS with different international systems. It is suggested that there needs to be paradigm shift by industry clients and designers from simply constructing new facilities toward considering the adaptation of existing facilities for future needs, particularly in Western Australia.\nAdaptation: Adaptation refers to any adjustment that can respond to anticipated or actual consequences associated with climate change. Significant challenges exist in developing adaptation strategies because of the associated uncertainties in climate change science (Lowe, 2001a, b; Sanders and Phillipson, 2003; Langston et al., 2007) and difficulties in ascertaining necessary timeframes for adaptation, and institutional barriers (Australian Greenhouse Office, 1999; Fry, 2004). According to O'Donnell (2004), for example, owners of older buildings often see no benefit in adapting buildings to green standards. In some quarters, in fact, green buildings are often considered to be a luxury (Sanders and Phillipson, 2003). Contrary to this there are others who consider older facilities to be more adaptable and resilient and through the process of adaptation can become more environmentally effective (Brand, 1994; Pickard, 1996; Ball, 1999; Latham, 2000; Douglas, 2002; Gregory, 2004; Langston et al., 2007).Despite this, there are problems in developing strategies for older buildings that revolve around producing assessment systems that can identify the necessary changes. Over the next decade the commercial building sector will need to recognise and address particular greenhouse concerns. This expanding sector with fast-growing emissions can significantly contribute to meeting Australia's greenhouse gas reduction target and simultaneously improve the comfort and health of all Australians in their built environments. The Australian Greenhouse Office (1999) believes that all members of the building industry will play an active role in meeting the challenge to slow global warming. The growth of commercial buildings has also created an increase in the amount of vacant commercial buildings in the Perth Central Business Distract. As this trend appears to show little sign of changing it may force building owners to contemplate adaptation of their buildings for alternative uses (Property Council of Australia, 2004).According to Ashworth (1996) almost half the output of the construction industry around the world is work associated with existing facilities. This is a result of a switch from new facilities to adaptation and rehabilitation of existing structures. Latham (2000) views adaptation as a process that reaps the benefit of the embodied energy and quality of the original building in a dynamic and sustainable manner. It is in fact viewed as a much more complex process involving economic, social and environmental change (Larsson, 2003).Kohler (1999) maintains that industrialized economies should eschew constructing additional new facilities and ameliorate existing stock instead. Older facilities comprise of materials that possess life cycles potentially much greater than those actually realized during their initial occupancy. On this basis it could be argued that they are therefore durable, particularly the structural elements, often capable of delivering their design performance for several lifetimes.The importance of this trend is that adaptation effectively extends the useful life of existing buildings by making them more durable (Douglas, 2002; Lowe, 2004; Larsson, 2004). In making facilities more durable, adaptation enables them to perform over time and react to varying conditions created by internal and external agencies including climate change. In principle, adaptation achieves this by applying minor or major works to a facility to enable it to suit new conditions including new requirements brought about by climate change (Steemers, 2003; Larsson, 2004). An integrated approach to extending the useful life of existing facilities should use adaptation strategies that combine durability and climate change initiatives. Integrating innovative measures with the requirements of climate change adaptation is seen as an immediate task for built environment research (Steemers, 2003; Lowe, 2004).Designing buildings for adaptive re-use incorporates the dimension of time into the equation of sustainability. Though, existing and most new buildings are generally only built to deal with \"present\" climatic conditions (Fry, 2004). For a building to be \"truly\" sustaining it needs to endure and adapt to climate change incrementally over time (Steemers, 2003). A \"pressure state response model\" of the impacts of climate change on existing facilities and a range of likely responses to combat them are identified in Table I.It is apparent that many of the responses to combat climate change serve mitigation as well as adaptation requirements (Lowe, 2001a, b; Camilleri et al., 2001; Mills, 2003; Langston et al., 2007). Strategies for adaptation in response to climate change can also be used to adapt buildings for a change of use or refurbishment (Larsson, 2003). Yet, measures taken at the design and build stage are cheaper and easier to incorporate than during subsequent adaptation schemes. The long lifespan of the existing building stock means the majority of it will still be in use between 50 and 100 years time. It is crucial therefore to develop policies and strategies that encourage early adaptation of existing buildings (Camilleri et al., 2001). Steemers (2003) indicates that unless the rate of building replacement or sustainable refurbishment is implemented, building design and construction will have little role to play in tackling global warming.Invariably there is a big difference between \"what is built\" and \"what the user wanted\" or \"intended\" (Zimmerman and Martin, 2001; Cohen et al., 2001). This gap between theory and application relating to the specific questions of occupancy ideal and that built and operated needs to be identified. The gap is partly created by lack of feedback where in-use performance is evaluated in terms of performance objectives (Steemers, 2003). A key objective therefore is to address the building occupant both directly through user needs surveys and indirectly through the assumptions made about their current and future needs. Most existing rating systems in Australia are intended for use at the design and development phase. Whilst design is clearly of crucial importance, it is no guarantee of sound environmental performance during operation. It makes sense therefore to develop a rating system that is specifically designed for existing buildings that measures impacts including those of the occupiers during the operational phase of a facility.\nAustralian climate change impacts: In Western Australia the strongest influences on climate are believed to be in the Indian and Southern Oceans. The dynamics of the Southern Ocean are unique and are recognized as a key driver in the global climate system (Kemp, 2003). A model of how climate systems interact across Australia and its surrounding oceans would be a powerful predictive tool for long-term weather forecasting with implications beyond Western Australia. Potentially it will lead to better climate prediction across Australia and possibly the whole Southern Hemisphere (Bates, 2003). The Western Australian state government Indian Ocean Climate Initiative is aiming for greater understanding of Western Australia's climate across seasons, years and decades. Improved national climate and drought predictability will also come from growing knowledge of major Southern Hemisphere weather patterns (Bates, 2003).Heating, ventilation and air-conditioning and lighting are seen as the three major impacts from climate change on existing and new buildings in Western Australia. They account for 84 per cent of commercial building greenhouse emissions, which is made up of cooling 28 per cent, air handling 22 per cent, lighting 21 per cent and heating 13 per cent (Australian Greenhouse Office, 1999). Building shell performance has a large impact on the heating, cooling and lighting efficiency of commercial facilities. Therefore, improvements in the thermal, daylighting and natural ventilation performance will reduce emissions, lower energy consumption and lower cooling requirements (Australian Greenhouse Office, 1999). Lighting has been identified as the area with the most potential for emission reduction with up to 70 per cent of the total being reduced.Assessing climate change impacts\nConclusion: Western Australia is experiencing significant impacts from climate change and commercial office facilities are a significant contributor to the change. It has also shown that despite the variability, climate change and the degree to which it will affect the sustainability of existing buildings can be predicted with a reasonable level of confidence. Strategies such as adaptation can enable buildings to be more sustainable inasmuch as they meet changing conditions over an extended lifecycle. The use of adaptation however, requires clients and designers to shift their thinking from that focusing on \"rationalistic consumption\" to \"environmental protection\". Construction of new facilities without considering the adaptation of existing facilities is simply wasteful and irresponsible!Assessment of the environment performance of existing facilities is needed to improve their energy efficiency. These findings need to be given serious thought when considering an adaptation strategy or the construction of a new facility. From a sustainability perspective it will almost always be a more viable option to use an adaptive re-use strategy. The use of adaptation will require clients and designers to re-examine how their facilities are to be used and require them to embrace whole-life costing and the use of innovative materials and technologies.The assessment of performance of existing buildings poses some challenging problems. Current assessment systems do not provide a full profile of sustainability because they tend to exclude input from building occupants. The NABERS assessment system includes occupant surveys as part of the assessment process and therefore goes some way to addressing this issue. To ensure long-term viability the management of the system should include realistic performance targets for market uptake of a voluntary program. The voluntary nature of NABERS means it may only appeal to those already committed to environmental practices therefore its use should be encouraged using an incentives program.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: - Much of the existing commercial building stock in Western Australia has the ability to adapt to varying conditions such as climate change, which provides some potential for reusability and sustainability. Current sustainability assessment systems tend to be relevant only for new construction. The purpose of this paper is to examine the use of the National Australian Built Environment Rating System (NABERS) to address this gap by considering the influence of occupant behaviour on performance.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - Feedback provided from 39 stakeholders during a public review of NABERS and a subsequent trial of NABERS on nine office buildings in Sydney and Victoria are examined. The data are obtained from the Department of Environment and Heritage and NSW Department of Energy, Utilities and Sustainability (now the Department of Environment and Climate Change).\nFindings: - Assessment of the environment performance of existing facilities is needed to improve their energy efficiency. These findings need to be given serious thought when considering an adaptation strategy or the construction of a new facility. From a sustainability perspective, it will almost always be a more viable option to use an adaptive re-use strategy. The use of adaptation will require clients and designers to re-examine how their facilities are to be used and require them to embrace whole-life costing and the use of innovative materials and technologies.\nOriginality/value: - Adaptive re-use has received limited attention in Australia, as there has been a tendency to demolish or construct new buildings in response to client demands. However, adaptation is proving to be an effective strategy in ensuring a sustainable built environment. This research provides the impetus and foundations for exploring the invaluable role of adaptation and energy efficiency of existing facilities.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Competencies for interdisciplinarity in higher education	[ "Sustainability", "Higher education", "Competences", "Sustainable development" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1 Introduction: [We need a] \" [...] specification of the competencies necessary for an individual researcher to move from accomplishment in his/her original discipline to successful participation in interdisciplinary work. Focus on needed competencies can then drive team development within established interdisciplinary centres and training programmes for the next generation of interdisciplinary scholars\" (Aboelela et al., 2007, p. 7).This paper will review some key issues in interdisciplinarity (ID), focusing on the definition and achievement of competencies in interdisciplinary teaching, learning and research (IDR) in the context of sustainable development (SD). As the quote above suggests, these competencies are not envisaged as in opposition to disciplinary achievement, but as based upon and additional to it. However, preparing the ground for ID as increasingly mainstream practice should alter some of the ways in which we present disciplinary knowledge in the first place. The author begins with a summary outlining the need for interdisciplinarity for sustainable development (ISD), raising some initial questions. A necessarily condensed and partial critical overview of some of the literature on competencies for ID from across a number of fields, including medicine and care, is then provided. This is followed by an analysis of some key themes arising from the literature and an initial formulation of action competencies for ISD supported by generic knowledge literacy.This paper cannot address serious issues of structural impediments to ID in higher education (HE; Glied et al., 2007; Griffin et al., 2006) and elsewhere. Further, there is not space here to elaborate on suggestions and examples of pedagogies that can help to achieve the competencies proposed, although some examples of practice will be mentioned to illustrate the argument. Neither is there space to describe assessment strategies for these competencies in detail, although attention to what we want to assess often helps to clarify what it is that we need to teach. Education for sustainable development (ESD) is, at least partly, about determining and providing arguments for the development of skills, competencies, knowledge and values for SD. In identifying problems and indicating some routes forward, this paper aims to contribute to the setting of a research agenda and to recommend this as a priority to the ESD and SD communities in HE and elsewhere.1.1 Setting the terms of the debate in this paper\n2 Why ID for sustainability?: he sustainability research programme is, at least partly, driven by our knowledge of our current un-sustainability that represents, in part, a \"knowledge crisis\". Our un-sustainability is partly an outcome of systems that produce fragmented knowledge, frequently disastrous when applied in a joined-up world. Holistic analysis is not required because of an arcane commitment to a holistic ideology or metaphysics. It is required because, time and again, in sustainability we see the disastrous results of forgetting to include vital factors in the analysis (Hoyer, 2010; Naess, 2010). A philosophical and methodological commitment to holism can help to warn us of some of the worst unintended consequences from our interventions into the complex world that we inhabit and provide support for the precautionary principle (Parker, 2002). Although much remains to be done to document un-sustainability, our assessment of positive ways forward and strategies for adaptation, mitigation and restoration of life systems (including human social systems) must be based on more joined-up forms of knowledge. Hence, though ID may be difficult, finding ways to deal with it productively could be considered to be one of the main intellectual tasks of the SD research programme and HE should be at the forefront of this effort.Ecology, economy, society and culture have all been identified as key intertwined aspects of sustainability. One set of definitions of these different areas - aspects of sustainability (TeacherNet, 2006) - is presented as follows:Culture. An understanding of the values we cherish, including the role of world faiths and philosophies, the ways in which we perceive our relationship with others and with the natural world, and the creative means that we use to express these values and relationships.Society. An understanding of social institutions and their role in change and development, as well as the democratic and participatory systems which give opportunity for the expression of opinion, the selection of governments, the forging of consensus and the resolution of differences.Environment. An awareness of the resources and fragility of the physical environment and the affects on it of human activity and decisions, with a commitment to factoring environmental concerns into social and economic policy development.Economy. Skills to earn a living as well as a sensitivity to the limits and potential of economic growth and its impact on society and on the environment, with a commitment to assess personal and societal levels of consumption out of concern for the environment and for social justice.Models of earth system governance, degrees of participation and the roles of expert and lay knowledge will partly determine how decisions about trade-offs between different areas of sustainability will be made - and by whom (IHDP, 2010). This consideration also highlights the fact that in promoting ID we are also promoting the need for inter-agency, inter-professional collaboration and partnerships as well as raising questions of the learning processes in these contexts:At the last World Summit on Sustainable Development in 2002 there was a strong multinational plea for partnerships that would allow communities, professionals and governments to jointly take action [...]. However, a lot of learning needs to be done to make these partnerships work. Imagine a community that is concerned about the steady decline of its inshore fishery. Catch and income have dropped and people are leaving the town. An international non-governmental organisation (NGO) offers assistance, as does the local government fisheries office, the marine studies department at the local university, the state urban planning department and the neighbouring community. Who's going to learn what from whom? Are they learning about fish, marine ecosystems, social systems, property rights, economic incentives or some combination of these? What learning processes will be used to share ideas effectively and plan for action? (Keen et al., 2006, p. 2).This quote highlights the fact that, in sustainability, the systems that we are trying to change range from the ecological, through the social, to the cultural (Johnston, 1991). How can we gain the understanding to take effective action across these different systems and what kinds of complementary elements might we need in each of these systems in order to generate a positive cycle of change for sustainability? The list above mixes aspects of reality and recommended knowledge of those aspects, and does not consider their relationships, in particular relationships of dependency. The author will assume here that any sustainability initiative must recognise human dependence upon functioning bio-physical life support systems (Cornell, 2010). Rational choices for society would dictate that these, and other, dependency relations should partly determine hard choices/trade-offs to be made between desirable goals in each of these aspects. These dependencies should be a key consideration in the identification and development of ID competencies for SD.\n3 Literature in ID competencies: some critical considerations: This section does not claim to be in any way comprehensive, but does attempt to isolate some key issues to address arising from an analysis of the cited literature.3.1 Action competencies for sustainable livelihoods?\n4 Critical summary: \"Making our students do our interdisciplinarity for us\"?: Overall, one striking feature of the approach taken in the literature reviewed in the \"Section 3\" is the concentration on student-led learning and processes. There is a broad level of agreement in the literature of the advantages of student-directed and collaborative enquiry with increased degrees of student responsibility for determining the directions and contents of their studies. Research has concentrated on the character traits and dispositions that are conducive to ID, leaving interdisciplinary competencies (IDCs) as largely unarticulated, but desirable elements - in fact, a \"black box\" in need of unpacking. Whilst agreeing that dispositions are important, we should also ask where do these intellectual virtues originate and can they be developed and encouraged? In summary, the question is what are our academic responsibilities in terms of providing the tools, materials and frameworks to help students in these key intellectual challenges?The title of this section is a quotation from a concerned academic in a recent ID workshop. In the author's experience with postgraduate students engaging in IDR, is that they are quite clear about their needs for methodological support. We cannot begin to really engage with these questions without engaging with the philosophical, sociological, cultural and learning challenges of ID - thus recognising that knowledge literacy for ID will itself rightly be an ID effort.4.1 The absence of the holistic object of study\n5 Conclusions: a research agenda: The literature at present is still implicitly based on ID as an accepted but always marginalized and relatively minor part of academic life. In this context it might be acceptable to simply rely on \"dispositions\" and character traits of a few academics, and leave interdisciplinary study to a small minority of committed and able students. However, if we are dedicated to the need for widespread understanding of our joined-up world, this perspective is woefully inadequate. We have to work in interdisciplinary ways in order to adequately address SD and a deeper understanding of ID should also enable us to improve the quality control essential to ensure that precious ISD research funds are well spent. How can we develop this understanding in all our students and what can conceptually support their development of ID competencies? Part of our role as educators, curriculum and capacity developers is to provide coherent guidance on the substantive features and requirements of any field (Young, 2007). As a research community we have to say, of course, that any guiding outline will be revisable, there will be extensive negotiation, interpretation and uncertainty about exactly how specific areas of knowledge can be related. In order to do this effectively, and to fulfill the aims of Chapter 36 of Agenda 21 (UNCED, 1992) to transform HE, the author has argued that we have to move the development of ID competencies to centre stage.The author has argued that a priority consideration must be devising teaching strategies to develop a more generalized awareness of issues - or knowledge literacy for ID. This has been presented this as a diverse project that itself requires an ID approach to disciplinarity. It has been further argued that more attention to generic aspects of ID can help speed up the learning and research processes for SD that are so urgently required. The following questions begin to outline a research agenda:RQ1. What kinds of frameworks can help us to assess \"action competence for ID\"? What generic assessment criteria could be formulated to help to embed this kind of practice across the curriculum in HE?RQ2. What kind of interdisciplinary understanding of disciplinarity do we need to deploy in pursuit of knowledge literacy for ID?RQ3. How might we transform or supplement the IB module Theory of Knowledge to act as a basis for ISD?RQ4. What kinds of generic transferable skills could be developed by, for example, working in ID teams and in contexts calling for joined-up approaches?RQ5. What are the general issues of ID that learners/researchers need to be able to identify and what kinds of strategies do learners/researchers need to be able to deploy to deal with these issues?RQ6. What range of models exists for describing the holistic object of study of SD? Which models might be useful for which purposes?RQ7. What kinds of competencies do we want learners/researchers to develop with regard to managing big picture or holistic analysis and focussed research and learning?RQ8. What do learners/researchers need to know about the politics of knowledge and governance, including the possibility of attacks on unpopular knowledge, and working with local, indigenous and other stakeholder knowledge bases?RQ9. Which elements of knowledge literacy are most important for different ID areas, including SD? What kind of different levels of understanding of these key elements would be needed at different levels of study from undergraduate to building the capacity of senior researchers?The time is ripe for an international effort on these questions. Can we develop some international networks and research strategies to organise and deepen our development of this essential literacy?\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: - The overall purpose of this paper is to clarify the current state of the debate with regard to competencies for interdisciplinarity (ID) for sustainable development (SD) in higher education, to provide further analysis, and to make suggestions for next steps on this basis.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - The paper employs a critical literature review to identify key themes and gaps in the debate and considers how competencies for ID might be further supported.\nFindings: - The literature review demonstrates developments towards action competencies in ID for sustainability but with an over-reliance on students guiding their own practice and reflection. Findings highlight potential elements of a more widely informed knowledge literacy, including philosophical, sociological and cultural aspects, that is needed to support the development of these competencies.\nResearch limitations/implications: - The paper is limited to discussion of foundational aspects and does not cover possible pedagogical strategies, nor does it cover ways of assessing the attainment of competencies. The literature review is also limited by reasons of space.\nPractical implications: - There is a need for a concerted research effort in order to develop coherent sets of competencies to equip students for ID for SD and other-related fields.\nSocial implications: - These competencies are at the heart of the new forms of inter-agency and inter-professional working that is increasingly recognised as essential to deliver care and sustainability in a joined-up world.\nOriginality/value: - The originality is high as very little in the sustainability literature to date specifically analyses competencies and supporting knowledge for ID in an accessible manner.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Starbucks puts a degree on the menu for 135,000 employees: College achievement plan seeks to repair the fractured American dream	[ "Higher education", "Universities", "Employee development", "Employee benefits" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n__NO_TITLE__: Coffeehouse chain Starbucks has teamed up with Arizona State University (ASU) to offer a big discount on online undergraduate education for 135,000 employees.\nNew university model: \"ASU is pioneering a new university model focused on inclusivity and degree completion, and Starbucks is establishing a precedent for the responsibility and role of a public company that leads through the lens of humanity and supports its partners' life goals with access to education\", said the ASU president, Dr Michael M. Crow. \"We are very pleased to collaborate with Starbucks, which has impressed us with its strong commitment to its employees by providing this opportunity for a first-class college education. ASU has the vision, programs and scale to deliver it to Starbucks employees in every part of the country.\"\nTop-notch education: \"Our investment in high-quality education will attract and retain passionate partners who will move our company and our economy forward\", Howard Schultz said. \"ASU's commitment to provide any talented student from any family background and any income level with a top-notch education makes it the singular partner for Starbucks.\"\nSuccess in the global digital economy: The alliance between Starbucks and ASU was inspired by participation in the Markle Economic Future Initiative, co-chaired by Howard Schultz and Markle president Zoe Baird, with Michael Crow as one of its members. The initiative is committed to expanding opportunities that help Americans to succeed in the global digital economy and reignite faith that the American dream is achievable.\nNote: David Pollitt, Human Resource Management International Digest, Editor, wrote this article.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: This paper aims to describe how coffeehouse chain Starbucks has teamed up with Arizona State University (ASU) to offer a big discount on online undergraduate education for 135,000 employees.\nDesign/methodology/approach: It outlines the origins of the Starbucks college achievement plan, the form it takes and the aims it seeks to achieve.\nFindings: It explains that employees admitted to ASU as a junior or senior earn full tuition reimbursement for each semester of full-time coursework they complete toward a bachelor's degree. Students already in their first or second years of study are eligible for a partial tuition scholarship and need-based financial help for two years of full-time study. Employees do not have to carry on working at Starbucks after graduation.\nPractical implications: It reveals that the Starbucks investment is designed to support the nearly 50 per cent of college students in the USA today who fail to complete their degrees because of a mounting debt, a tenuous work-life balance and a lack of support.\nSocial implications: It claims that the scheme can help to repair the fractured American dream.\nOriginality/value: It demonstrates how the Starbucks college achievement plan will provide an academic foundation along with the flexibility, financing and support that working students need to complete their degree.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
The benchmarking of the use of toolkit for mass customization in the automobile industry	[ "Decision support systems", "Industrial performance", "Product design" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: To better meet the increasing expectations of customer needs, many companies have adopted a strategy of increasing their product portfolio (Pine, 1993). However, the application of this strategy usually results in a reduction in the company's operating performance, because an increase in the number of products results in higher manufacturing costs, indirect costs, inventory levels, and production time (Salvador and Forza, 2004).\n2. Literature review: Integrating customers through the process of product design and production is a promising strategy in the markets in which there is a growing individualization of demand (Franke and Piller, 2003). Aligned with this purpose, customization incorporates this trend (Pine, 1993) and studies the best manner to engage these customers in order to understand their individual needs and turns these needs into specifications of the customized products (Piller, 2004). In the context of customization, customers are integrated into the process, adding value to the product, whether by defining, configuring, choosing, designing or even modifying their previous solutions for the product (Piller, 2004). Most of these interactions occur during the customized product design; the terms co-design (Franke and Piller, 2003), co-creation (Toytari, 2015; Chathoth et al., 2016), and consumer involvement (Jeppesen, 2005) are used to name such interactions. Participation of customers allow to express their needs and develop a product based on the mapping of their requirements, turning it into the physical parts of the product (Franke and Piller, 2003; Randall et al., 2007). The result of this process is a customized product with specifications that meet individual customer needs and customers who, in turn, will be willing to pay more for it (Pine, 1993; Lietchy et al., 2001; Randall et al., 2007; Franke et al., 2009, 2010).\n3. Methodological procedures: 3.1 Data collection\n4. Results: The results are presented and discussed according to the hypotheses of this study. First, the relationship between the commercial variables of companies with the use of customization strategy with the toolkit. Second, the relationship between the commercial variables with toolkit's combination of features:\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to examine the relation between the utilization of the customization strategy and the availability of the online toolkit and its features with the commercial variables of businesses.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The sample used in this paper consists of 134 cases of corporate brands in the automobile industry; their sales correspond to 49.12 percent of vehicles produced in 2012. The logistic regression analysis was then applied to the sample.\nFindings: This paper confirmed the relationship between the use of toolkits for customization and business variables, like vehicle sales.\nOriginality/value: The generated model allows the prediction of market conditions which recommended to provide the toolkit for customization, and if implemented, what combination of features it must have.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Academic production and technological emergence in finance: Bibliometric study on FinTechs	[ "FinTechs", "Financial technologies", "Innovation", "Bibliometry", "Grey literature" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: FinTechs are an example of technological innovations competing with the traditional system of service provision, in this case, the provision of financial services. The different software and applications developed require study, not only for the use of new technologies to offer traditional services, but also for the competition and complementarity of these with the agents of the traditional financial system.\n2. Literature review: The FinTechs-related publications demand the conceptualization of innovation, disruptive innovation theory and FinTechs. These innovations can be characterized as incremental and/or disruptive innovation and the activities can be complementary to traditional financial agents or they can be characterized as threats to business.\n3. Method: This article follows an exploratory quali-quantitative approach because of the initial ignorance of the important variables to be examined (Creswell, 2010). This lack of knowledge does not derive from the reduced scope of research, but from the fact that it is a new theme, without association with established theories and still little explored by the academic literature.\n4. Discussion: This chapter shows three analysis approaches (divided into topics), resulting from the reading of the 43 articles originating from the final selection, performed from the bibliometric data located and identified in Figure 1. These approaches are related to the types of articles, concentration of articles and interest lines of publications and treatment of the subject by selected articles.\n5. Concluding remarks: The academic production on FinTechs, as shown in Table II, started in 2014 and, as well as its object of study, can be considered recent. The research in the works not belonging to peer-reviewed publications (gray literature), 55 per cent of the 20 most cited articles in the databases analyzed, was justified because of the emergence of the theme and the concern in not disregarding recent and relevant works in the area, as justified by (Schueffel, 2016).\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: This paper aims to study the FinTech enterprises and the management theories related to this subject in a scientific way.\nDesign/methodology/approach: This study is a bibliometric study on FinTech enterprises. Its origin is a survey of 1,749 papers in 6 traditional peer-reviewed academic databases (e.g. Science Direct and Scopus) and in the \"gray\" literature, published by other agents and not subject to double-blind peer review. In this analysis we use three approaches: academic paper or not; journal main interest, and main purpose of the paper.\nFindings: The first approach shows 45% of papers without blind review. The second approach shows no concentration on any journal. It represents no concentration on any kind of specific journal. And the third approach shows four kinds of contents in all researched papers: FinTech categorizations; FinTech related to theory of disruptive innovation; FinTech and theories of administration or economy; and finally, FinTech and regulatory and legislative aspects.\nOriginality/value: The findings identified the emergence of new research strands, precedence of studies of \"gray\" literature to explain the phenomenon, distribution of studies in different fields of knowledge (e.g. information technology, business and law) and lack of consensus in theories to explain the matter.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Building capability in construction projects: a relationship-based approach	[ "Human capital", "Procurement", "Construction industry", "Strategic alliances", "Australia" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Much has been written about the theory of the firm from both resource-based (Barney, 1991) and dynamic capabilities views (Teece et al. 1997; Eisenhardt and Martin, 2000) suggesting that organisations develop a competitive advantage based on what they can offer clients and customers in terms of their competencies and resources. The dynamic capabilities view focuses on organisations gaining a competitive advantage identified by Porter (1985). These advantages are:* customer focus;* product/service differentiation; and* having a cost advantage.These three advantages can be achieved by virtue of being smarter than competitors and therefore having superior market intelligence, generating less waste and re-work costs, and being both more effective and efficient. A dynamic capability requires superior agility in product/service delivery as well as better explicit or tacit knowledge of what is really desirable.Artto and Wikstrom (2005, p. 349) analyse firms from a collaboration view and suggest projects are strategic to maintaining a firm's competitiveness. This introduces the notion that chains of collaborators deliver projects through shared business interests (Artto and Wikstrom, 2005, p. 351).Many organisations try to maximise their dynamic capabilities through leveraging employees' stock of knowledge and expertise to work with collaborating organisations and smoothly deliver value to their clients. Thus, a crucial ingredient to an organisation is its ability to tap into a rich form of collaborative advantage and optimise its wider supply chain's stock of human capital (Nahapiet and Ghoshal, 1998). Walker (2003) refers to this more broadly as a people infrastructure knowledge advantage (K-Adv), with human capital providing potential combined with processes to enhance deployment (Walker, 2005, pp. 19-20).Following this, various forms of alliances and relationship-based project supply chain networks can develop human capital in project delivery. This then becomes a PM procurement issue. Designing procurement systems that develops human capital potentially provides real strategic and competitive advantage to those involved.This paper offers theoretical underpinnings of social capital and supply chain management. Two questions are explored:1. How can human capital be built from delivering projects using a relationship-based approach?2. How can the development of human capital be measured in this context?The first question is answered by arguing that collaboration prompts projects team formation creating effective learning alliances. Effective supply chain management contributes to this effort and is advanced through communities of practice (COP) working together to deliver superior project delivery. Second a capability maturity model (CMM) framework is developed. The framework measures social (human) capital development and is tested using two recent Australian alliance projects. Insights are offered to help construction project managers.\nConcepts underpinning the capability maturity model (CMM): To allow the capability maturity model (CMM) used in this paper to make sense, two relevant concepts need to be defined. First social capital is explained, followed by relationship development (RD).Social capital\nFramework for measuring social capital in relationship-based procurement: CMMs provide ways of describing and assessing progress along a series of defined steps that map a journey from low to high levels of maturity. CMMs were first used over two decades ago for measuring the capability of organisations in information technology (IT) development (Paulk et al. 1993). More recently, CMM tools have been used by Walker et al. (2004) and Walker (2005) to measure organisational maturity and social capital (Manu and Walker, 2006). The approach involves identifying steps (usually five) that can be identified from observation and evidence collected from a case study or audit. The observations or data are then related to processes within a matrix.One skill required in using this approach is to construct a credible set of descriptors that are representative of the levels of maturity identified. A second skill is to gather sufficiently credible evidence about the case study to be able to match observations with a particular maturity level. A third skill required is to be able to actually use these data and resulting conclusions. The classical CMMs cited use the model to prepare a current position and to solicit an \"intended future\" position. Then, by knowing the time frame for changing from a lower to higher maturity level and by identifying the scale of change required, the CMM users can then scope and plan a change management project.\nResearch approach: To examine the applicability of the CMM to relationship contracting in construction an exploratory approach was adopted. In total, 49 in-depth interviews were conducted over a six-month period with a variety of industry practitioners (clients, contractors, design consultants, construction lawyers, and alliance facilitators) who had extensive experience with working in an alliance contracts as illustrated in Table III.Interviews were used as the mechanism to determine the themes identified in Table II. Interviews were chosen as the primary data collection mechanism because they are an effective tool for learning about matters that cannot be observed and for gaining an insight to people's experiences (Taylor and Bogdan, 1984).Industry practitioners were purposefully sampled from various Australian states and interviewed at their offices. Interviews were digitally recorded and transcribed verbatim to allow for the nuances in the interview to be apparent in the text. The format of the interviews was kept as consistent as possible following the themes associated with a conceptual model. The open nature of the questions allowed for avenues of interest to be pursued as they arose without introducing bias in the response.Data analysis\nProject alliances: Project alliances provide an insight into one form of relationship-based procurement. The Australian examples are drawn from contemporary construction literature and observation and demonstrate a combination of relationship development together with social capital knowledge. Briefly, project alliances are a particular kind of procurement system that rely on virtual organisations generating new knowledge that enabling teams to solve interrelated problems in a complex time constrained environment.Project 1 particulars\nDiscussion: There are three key potential weaknesses or limitations with the approach that need to be acknowledged. First, assessment of organisations to \"slot\" them into the relevant matrix cell is subjective by the person(s) rating the level of maturity. Care should be taken to ensure that bias is minimised and evidence is comprehensive for the purpose it serves. It may be necessary to undertake 360-degree appraisals to obtain a balanced view. Similar caveats should be applied as is the case with qualitative research that uses coding from discussions to measure behaviours (Strauss and Corbin, 1998). Second, there may be bias involved in both selection and coding evidence to discern themes and assessments. Therefore, triangulation of evidence should be developed to ensure the assessment is reasonably accurate. Third, if this approach is adopted, then evidence gathering and assessment protocols need to be developed. Finally, it must be stressed that this tool should be used to trigger behaviour changes. Outcomes of the process (establishing an \"as is\" and \"preferred future\" maturity level) can be used by organisations to strategically design a change management plan - the outcome actions of that plan trigger change and not just the production of the CMM model.In summary, the two case studies provide evidence that despite similarity of procurement choices made, individuals within projects may dictate alternative mapping on a CMM matrix. It may be seen that the characteristics and behaviours of personnel in the two projects illustrating this approach provide a real indication of CMM that may be mapped and assessed over time to the benefit of all concerned.\nConclusion: A CMM approach is offered that can be used to measure the degree to which social capital may be generated across projects, within an organisation or a supply chain. Using the two vignettes it is asserted that this approach holds much promise in actually measuring an important element of project alliancing. It also holds further promise for strategic planning and management of the way that alliances and their supporting value chain may be managed.The paper illustrates how social capital can be built through delivering a project using a relationship-based approach and how this may be achieved using the suggested CMM template and protocols.It has been argued that relationship based procurement systems are based upon the development of effective use of social capital. Supply chain management provides a useful framework for applying relationship-based procurement systems in practice with collaboration and cooperation being a core feature, again reliant upon social capital. It is also indicated how relationship-based procurement is dependent upon and is reinforced by joint learning from joint problem-solving activities.Evidence from two examples of relationship-based procurement project case studies illustrate how relationship based procurement can deliver game-breaking outcomes for project participants throughout the project supply chain. It is proposed that the three vignettes validate the arguments and provide a framework for understanding the underlying process that lead to project success using a relationship based procurement approach. Clearly, social capital and its positive impact upon supply chain management did influence the outcome of the projects and our argument that this lies at the core of understanding how this may occur has value to consider how this success may be replicated on other projects.The implications for practice are that while social capital building is illustrated here, it is just one of a number of project characteristics that can be measured and managed in a similar way.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: - The aim of this paper is to propose a way that the development of human social relationship capital can be identified and measured in a construction project environment.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - Theory on the creation of social capital and consequent intellectual capital between parties to collaborative project procurement is explored. This is an exploratory study using grounded theory.\nFindings: - A proposed capability maturity model (CMM) is posited that can be used to measure improvement in developing human social capital, and assisting in project strategy formulation. Two recent Australian alliance projects are analysed using the model to gain insights into how the quality of relationships within project alliances can be assessed.\nPractical implications: - The model described in this paper may be used to measure performance or as an initial step towards strategising a change management plan based upon identifying a \"current\" situation.\nOriginality/value: - Each alliance is unique and so its goals with regard to social capital will vary. Accordingly the results should be viewed accordingly. Work in this area using a CMM approach is relatively rare, and so this paper provides a novel way of measuring a complex concept such as social capital.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Exploratory study of personal health information management using health literacy model	[ "Personal health records", "Health literacy model", "Health literacy skills framework", "MTurk survey", "Partial-least squares structural equation modeling", "Personal health information management" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: The vision to improve and develop patient-engaged care plans or tools that facilitate active engagement has emerged and gained great popularity. Sharing healthcare documents with patients is suggested as a key enabler of patient engagement in the current care continuum. In addition to care documents, numerous sources of health information are readily available to health consumers via diverse channels, such as health professionals, hospitals, health departments, health web portals, mass media, and family and friends, to name a few. As such development of the patient-centered healthcare evolves, \"the vision for informed, self-managing patients as active partners in healthcare represents a major cultural shift\" (Greenhalgh et al., 2010). However, the reality of the current healthcare community and practice in this vision comes with a price in terms of technological support and human endeavors to utilize the developed tools.\nBackground: Our model development was based on a notion that an individual's prior information is an important component of HL skills development. Factors that are associated with individual characteristics, such as demographics, resources, and knowledge, are thought to be linked to developing HL skills. External factors such as information stimulants (motivating factors) or external limitations (time) are also considered to be critical in HL skills development. Whether there are internal or external factors influencing HL skills development, our hypothesis assumes that understanding acquired knowledge leads to effective health outcomes. Individual measures consisting of our study variables collected from an online survey are used based on the following literature review. The HL skills framework that we tested was adopted from RTI International's HL skills framework (Squiers et al., 2012) and was applied to an individual's information management setting. Our model development is explained in the following section starting with individual factors to external factors to comprehension to final health outcomes used.\nHypotheses development: Based on our extensive literature review, we tested the following seven constructs using our survey data:\nMethods: In order to test the model and hypotheses, an online survey was employed. Subjects were recruited from Amazon's Mechanical Turk (mTurk) service, a crowdsourcing internet service where individuals participate in various small tasks from transcribing to marketing surveys with a relatively low incentive. Our study population is limited to US residents and English-speaking respondents due to the limited scope of our study. The mTurk is useful because there are human subjects readily available for tasks, which makes the recruiting process fast and easy. However, the population in mTurk tends to be young and internet savvy, which may provide skewed responses on certain topics. Despite this mTurk limitation, many researchers note that mTurk introduces practical advantages, including a supportive structure, subject anonymity or identifiability, prescreening, longitudinal studies, and cultural diversity (Paolacci et al., 2010), and behaviors of subjects on mTurk are comparable to those of laboratory subjects (Horton et al., 2011; Mason and Suri, 2012; Mims, 2010; Rand, 2012; Snow et al., 2008). We administered the survey under certain restrictions: participants were US residents (based on ownership of a US bank account) and had at least a 95 percent task approval rating from their previous assignments. Duplicate IP addresses were denied access to the survey.\nResults: Descriptive statistics\nDiscussion: This study designed and tested the conceptual HL skills framework in the PHIM setting. Eight constructs were analyzed: resources, capabilities, prior knowledge, PHIM stimuli, external factors, HL skills, comprehension of the stimuli, and health-related outcomes. Using a self-reported survey from 578 respondents, our model focused on what determined development of HL skills and whether causal pathways between HL and health-related outcomes occur. In using the PHIM setting, we simplified the constructs and causal pathways by eliminating the insignificant factors and directions from our analysis.\nConclusions: This study provides an early examination of a PHIM HL model using empirical survey data. People are frustrated by their inability to manage their own health documents because the documents are placed at multiple locations in diverse formats (photocopies, e-mail attachments, PDF files, image files, etc.). Moreover, high volumes and complex health records are overloaded in PHR systems yet efficient management, which is highly associated with individual's HL skills, has not been empirically investigated. Additional studies on diverse empirical settings will be useful for investigating strong determinants of competent literacy and direct influences on clinical care outcomes. Understanding what determines a patient's level of literacy and how it relates to clinical outcomes will advance HL research by providing reliable measurements and a theoretical framework. From this point of view, our model offers an important perspective on PHIM and its causal pathway for use, not only by patient educators and healthcare providers, but also information providers, and PHR system developers and users. Ultimately, efficient management of PHRs will lead us to achieve an ultimate health goal by making patients better informed, self-managed, and active in their healthcare decision making.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to empirically test whether individuals' internal factors (prior knowledge, resources, and capability) and environmental factors (stimuli, limitation) have any influence on the development of personal health information management (PHIM) literacy skills and which constructs are statistically associated with general health-related outcomes.\nDesign/methodology/approach: Survey responses were collected from Amazon's Mechanical Turk (mTurk), a crowdsourcing internet service, in December 2013. A total of 578 responses were analyzed using partial-least squares structural equation modeling technique.\nFindings: The model as a whole exhibited 62.8 percent of variance in health-related outcomes. The findings suggest that prior knowledge has a direct effect on health literacy (HL) skills (H3: b=0.212, p<0.001). The PHIM stimuli (H4: b=0.475, p<0.001) have a direct impact on HL skills, and they have an indirect effect on the comprehension of stimuli (H6: b=0.526, p<0.001) through the mediator of stimuli and the knowledge variable.\nResearch limitations/implications: One possible limitation of this study is that the study may include a highly technology literate group, as survey respondents were recruited from the online service mTurk.\nPractical implications: The study poses implications for further research and practice. This research was an exploratory work for further model development so future studies should investigate deeper into real personal health record (PHR) user groups (e.g. patients and caregivers). For example, studies by White and Horvitz (2009a, b) conducted real-time user studies that the authors could apply to the authors' future PHR studies. Since the findings cannot be generalizable to these specific groups, similar research may be conducted. Using caregiver groups of PHR users in comparison to patient groups could determine the similarities and differences of their PHIM activities and related outcomes for optimal design of self-care management.\nSocial implications: Further, it is suggested to conduct large scale, real-time-based studies using a PHR transaction log analysis to achieve conclusiveness and generalizability. Additionally, future studies should address not only diverse real-time user groups, but also various PHR data sources and their presentation issues.\nOriginality/value: This study model offers an important perspective on PHIM and its causal pathway for use not only by patient educators and healthcare providers but also information providers, personal health record (PHR) system developers, and PHR users.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Transformational leadership and turnover: Mediating effects of employee engagement, employer branding, and psychological attachment	[ "Transformational leadership", "Employee engagement", "India", "Employer branding", "Intention to leave", "Psychological attachment" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: The evolution of leadership theory and practice has attracted researchers on a quest to explain the influence of leadership by developing models. A review of developments in the field of leadership published in the Annual Review of Psychology (Avolio et al., 2009) raises the need to determine causal mechanisms that link leadership to various organizational interim and ultimate outcomes, and highlights the importance of a strategy-driven leadership. It points toward further research to examine the role of mediators, in order to explain the significance of leadership for organizational outcomes.\nConceptual framework: Turnover\nHypothesis development: Transformational leader and intention to leave\nMethods: A quantitative survey was conducted on middle management level employees from 12 multinational IT organizations, located in four different cities in India, each having more than 500 employees. The responses were collected via online and pen and paper methods as per the respondent's convenience.\nResults: Descriptive statistics and correlation test\nDiscussion: The purpose of this study was to investigate the influence of transformational leadership, employer engagement, employer branding, and psychological attachment on employee intention to leave the organization. The first hypothesis, that employee engagement mediates a relationship between respondents' perception of transformational leadership of their supervisor and intention to leave, was not supported. Rather, it was observed that employee engagement mediated positively between transformational leader and employer branding. This finding may be due to the inclusion of employer branding and psychological attachment in the nomological network. There are other outcomes influenced by engagement, such as job satisfaction and organizational commitment (Saks, 2006). Though, it was found that transformational leadership positively influenced employee engagement significantly (Bhatnagar, 2007; Ghadi et al., 2013; Tims et al., 2011; Salanova et al., 2011), the role of employee engagement as a mediator between transformational leadership and employer branding expanded the understanding of transformational leaders' brand building behavior through better engagement of employees.\nImplications: From a theoretical standpoint, we contributed to the understanding of the influence of transformational leadership, employee engagement, employer branding, and psychological attachment on intention to leave. While the three hypotheses were not supported empirically, their role in the nomological network makes a significant contribution to the leadership and psychological attachment literature. Moreover, this combination of variables and its potential in exploring the process of attachment and intention to leave has not been previously explored by scholars.\nLimitations and recommendations for future research: This study does have some limitations. First, it is based on self-reported surveys to generate responses from IT employees. There is the chance that the responses may suffer from bias, by responding to socially desirable options (Crowne and Marlowe, 1964) and leniency bias, especially in case of leadership theories (Schriesheim et al., 1979). Future research may reduce the probability of socially desirable bias by including response from the parties, the team leader, and team members.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to report the findings of a study which examines the relationship between transformational leadership and intention to leave through the mediating role of employee engagement, employer branding, and psychological attachment.\nDesign/methodology/approach: Transformational leadership, employee engagement, employer branding, and psychological attachment were assessed in an empirical study based on a sample of 405 full-time employees working in information technology (IT) organizations in India. The data which were obtained using Google doc and a printed questionnaire was analyzed through structural and measurement model.\nFindings: The results reveal that transformational leadership style directly influences employee intention to leave. Transformational leadership and employer branding is mediated by employee engagement. The leadership relation with psychological attachment is mediated by employer branding.\nPractical implications: The implications of the study are of utmost importance for Indian IT industries facing high voluntary turnover in recent times. Transformational leaders in teams contribute to develop employee engagement, employer branding, and psychological attachment. Imparting transformational leadership training to team leaders can help in generating psychological attachment with the employees which would go a long way.\nOriginality/value: This study explores the relationship among transformational leadership style, employee engagement, employer branding, and psychological attachment which has not been explored theoretically and tested empirically in an Indian context.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Creating an interface: Aiding entrepreneurial success via critical pedagogy and insights from African-American management history	[ "Management history", "C.C. Spaulding", "Critical pedagogy" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: A study conducted by Kollinger and Minniti (2006) found that African-Americans were more likely to try starting a business than whites. It also found that blacks possessed above-average levels of confidence and optimism (as compared to other groups) which are associated with higher rates of early-stage entrepreneurship. However, what was troubling was that their results showed that African-Americans are significantly less likely than white Americans to own an established business that survives in the market beyond the initial start-up process. Their findings suggested that black entrepreneurs are more likely to fail than whites in the early stages of the entrepreneurial process (Kollinger and Minniti, 2006).\nCharles Clinton Spaulding: C.C. Spaulding was born 1 of 14 children in Columbus County, NC, in 1874, 10 years after the emancipation of slaves (Spaulding, 1948). Spaulding grew up on his father's farm in a puritanical environment of early risers who took pride in the crops and land. In 1898, he became the manager of a cooperative black grocery store (Weare, 1973). His work ethic and enthusiasm for his job so impressed Mr John Merrick and Dr Aaron M. Moore (founders of the NC Mutual) that they turned to the 26-year-old Spaulding to reorganise the NC Mutual, and with that, the Merrick-Moore-Spaulding triumvirate was born (Weare, 1973).\nThe Impact of Charles Clinton Spaulding: C.C Spaulding is recognized by the Harvard Business School as a great American business leader (Harvard Business School, 2017). This recognition by the world's pre-eminent business school speaks volumes about the influence of this pioneering American businessperson. It is unfortunate that his accomplishments have largely been forgotten, but thankfully, mainstream management textbooks such as MGMT by Chuck Williams and Essentials of Management by Andrew DuBrin are now including the thought leadership of Spaulding in newer editions, and are thus playing a role in sharing his work with a new generation of university students who are not familiar with the contributions of this unsung business icon and countless other black business pioneers in the early twentieth century.\nSpaulding's administration of big business: In an earlier paper, Prieto and Phipps (2016) examined Spaulding's eight fundamental necessities of management in great detail, but for the purpose of this article, a more concise synopsis has been outlined as follows.\nSpaulding's four cardinal points of entrepreneurship: In his 1937 article entitled \"Business in Negro Durham\", which was published in the Southern Workman, Spaulding stated that there were four cardinal points that are essential in running any business. These cardinal points included:\nCritical pedagogy: Paulo Freire, the Brazilian educator and influential scholar in the area of critical pedagogy, inspired educators throughout the world. He influenced scholars and practitioners alike through many of his works such as Pedagogy of the Oppressed, and his theory of education (Prieto et al., 2012). The work of Freire has continually been associated with the themes of liberation and oppression, and his critical pedagogy is visionary in its attempt to bring about social transformation (Freire, 1993; Jackson, 2007).\nImplications and future inquiry: Critical pedagogy supports more comprehensive, analytical reflection, as well as transformative action. These elements are useful in business in general, and management and entrepreneurship in particular, because such domains require sound and often creative decision-making and problem-solving that would lead to positive organisational and societal outcomes. However, despite the benefits of critical pedagogy, the latter does have its criticisms. Ellsworth (1989) castigated critical pedagogy for definitions which operate at a high level of abstraction, and alluded that it results in some diversities being silenced in the name of \"liberatory\" pedagogy, noting that some individuals find it difficult to have a united voice with other marginalised individuals when it means the relegation or demotion of their particular repression.\nConclusion: Something must be done to address the high failure rates of black businesses, and Cummings and Bridgman's (2016) call for greater diversity in management education and the rethinking of how management history is relayed holds much merit as one means of addressing the problem. Creating an interface that integrates black entrepreneurship and management history into the curriculum at HBCU's and PWIs can play a role in increasing the entrepreneurial knowledge, self-efficacy and motivation of the students if critical pedagogy is also used. Students can benefit from learning about the principles and practices of successful black business pioneers such as C.C. Spaulding, who saw the problems facing the black community and decided to focus on turning them into opportunities to make a profit and a positive difference, despite the seemingly unsurmountable challenges faced. The business philosophies of Spaulding are still relevant today, and the merits of critical pedagogy warrant its application to facilitate student empowerment through a more comprehensive and diverse learning experience that enables them to engage in creative and critical thinking as well as analytical reflection that promotes problem solving, innovation, entrepreneurial success as well as positive social transformation.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: This paper, via the use of management and entrepreneurial philosophies from Charles Clinton Spaulding, aims to advocate the integration of African-American Entrepreneurship and Management History into the business curriculum at historically black colleges and universities (HBCUs) as well as predominantly white institutions (PWIs). Along with this curriculum update, the use of critical pedagogy as a form of critical thinking is also recommended to complement the learning process.\nDesign/methodology/approach: Articles from early and recent newspapers, magazines, journals and books were examined and synthesised to clarify how curriculum modification and critical pedagogy could aid in increased entrepreneurial success.\nFindings: The paper concludes with a framework that demonstrates the curriculum interface, including Spaulding's insights and critical pedagogy, to connect black students to entrepreneurial success.\nOriginality/value: Although African-Americans surpass Caucasian-Americans in entrepreneurial attempts, blacks lag behind whites in entrepreneurial success. A reason for their higher failure rate is a lack of exposure to positive images who are also black. Integrating African-American Entrepreneurship and Management History into the business curriculum will help ensure that these positive images are sufficiently introduced and explored as a source of learning. Critical pedagogy is also endorsed as a complementary strategy to aid learning, as it is associated with processes that deviate from traditional instruction that often ignores student diversity, to facilitate the expansion of the mind as well as social transformation.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Indigenous perspectives on work-life enrichment and conflict in Canada	[ "Work-life conflict", "Supervisor support", "Indigenous peoples", "Marginalized peoples", "Work-life enrichment" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: The field of work-life conflict has grown into an established body of peer-reviewed literature over the past four decades. Work-life conflict can be defined as an incompatibility between someone's work and non-work (i.e. life) responsibilities such that participation in one domain makes completing responsibilities in the other domain more difficult (Greenhaus and Beutell, 1985). Scholars have examined the negative impact of work-life conflict on both employees and the employer. High levels of work-life conflict have been associated with high levels of stress, heart disease, substance abuse, depression, absenteeism, turnover and anxiety as well as lower levels of marital and family functioning and life satisfaction (e.g. Duxbury and Higgins, 2003; Julien et al., 2011; Sav et al., 2013). While the paradigm of work-life conflict has dominated the literature in this field, many scholars have begun to examine the positive interactions between work and family (i.e. work-life enrichment). Greenhaus and Powell (2006) define work-life enrichment as \"the extent to which experiences in one role improve the quality of life in the other role,\" (p. 73) noting that these experiences can be bi-directional such that a positive experience at work can influence home life and vice versa. Work-life enrichment has also been called positive spillover (e.g. Kirchmeyer, 1995). Greenhaus and Powell (2006) note that work-life enrichment can happen either via an instrumental path or an affective path. The instrumental path involves transferring skills or abilities from one domain (e.g. work) to another domain (e.g. home). The affective path involves moods transferring from one domain to another. The work-life enrichment literature (e.g. Allen, 2001; Julien et al., 2011) has reported that those respondents who perceived that they had the flexibility to juggle work and family responsibilities, had supportive families, and supportive supervisors had lower levels of work-life conflict.\nResearch questions: Based on our review of the literature, we realized there was a unique opportunity to build on the work-life conflict and balance literature by focusing on a marginalized group that had rarely been consulted on their perspective on juggling work and family and their ensuing struggles and success strategies. Thus, the following research questions were developed:\nMethodology: This qualitative study utilized the researchers' contacts in various organizations as well as social media to recruit Indigenous interviewees. We announced the research project on three different LinkedIn groups and invited Indigenous peoples to participate through an interview. We also gave our contact information to existing participants and asked them to forward this information to other Indigenous peoples who may wish to participate in our study (snowball sampling) (Julien et al., 2010). In addition, we contacted over 50 Canadian organizations with introductory letters inviting them to participate in this study and several accepted our invitation. They invited Aboriginal employees to contact us if they wished to participate in our study. Participation was voluntary. The decision to use interviews is consistent with the research objectives of this study and a deliberate choice on the part of the authors. As noted by Brayboy (2005) and Bergerson (2003), counter-stories are a wonderful way for marginalized people to offer a different narrative than the narratives found in mainstream society. We chose to provide our respondents with an opportunity to tell their counter-stories through interviews. Thus, a structured set of interview questions was developed based on the research questions for this exploratory study (see Appendix for the interview questions).\nResults: RQ1. How do Indigenous peoples perceive work-life conflict?\nDiscussion and practical implications: This paper highlights a key gap in the work-life balance literature: the perspective of Indigenous peoples. Through the use of Brayboy's (2005) Tribal CRT, we are able to illustrate the mainstream values of many workplaces that place work before family and quantity of life (money) over quality of life. We contrast this to the perspective of our Indigenous respondents who value family before work, focusing on their relationships and cultural obligations. The struggle to adapt to mainstream organizations has resulted in having to subsume key aspect of Indigenous peoples' core social identity characteristics and in many cases resulted in either assimilation or exiting the organization. Historically, the mainstream narrative has been the predominant archetype for many employees struggling to balance work and family. The lack of flexibility and lack of organizational and supervisor support has resulted in many negative health and well-being outcomes as noted in the introduction. By using counter-stories to share the struggles and successes of Indigenous workers, we offer an insight to the ways in which organizations can work to improve the flexibility toward Indigenous peoples especially with respect to bereavement leave and other cultural practices.\nContributions, limitations and conclusion: As noted in Chang et al. (2010), Indigenous peoples are under-represented in the work-life enrichment and conflict literature thus our study contributes to this gap while aligning with the TRC's Calls to Action by providing Indigenous perspectives. Furthermore, previous studies examining Indigenous work enrichment/conflict perspectives (i.e. Brougham et al., 2015; Clark, 2002; Haar et al., 2012) used a quantitative research design while our study provides a unique contribution by using a qualitative research design. The decision to use a qualitative research design was two fold: first, we were influenced by Indigenous scholars (e.g. Brayboy, 2005) who note the important role of story-telling in Indigenous cultures. Thus, we chose a culturally appropriate research method. Second, so little scholarship has been published on Indigenous perspectives on work-life balance and work-life conflict that we felt an exploratory qualitative approach would help us avoid making a priori assumptions about our respondents' work and family experiences.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to examine Indigenous perspectives of work-life enrichment and conflict and provides insights to better support Indigenous employees.\nDesign/methodology/approach: Interviews were conducted with 56 Indigenous people from six Canadian provinces. In total, 33 of the respondents were female and 23 were male. The interview responses were transcribed and entered in NVivo10. Thematic analysis was used.\nFindings: The authors' respondents struggled with feeling marginalized and felt frustrated that they could not engage in their cultural and family practices. The respondents spoke of putting family needs ahead of work and that many respondents paid a price for doing so.\nResearch limitations/implications: The results are not generalizable to all Indigenous peoples, however these results do fill a void in the literature.\nPractical implications: Employers must consider revising policies including providing more supervisor support in the form of educating supervisors on various Indigenous cultural practices and examine ways of providing more flexibility with respect to cultural and family practices.\nSocial implications: Indigenous peoples have been marginalized since the advent of colonialism. This research addresses a gap in the literature by presenting how a group of Indigenous respondents frames work-life enrichment and conflict.\nOriginality/value: Very few studies have examined Indigenous perspectives on work-life enrichment and conflict using a qualitative research design. It also aligns with one of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada's calls to action.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
NIE-based SME brand building in foreign markets: an exploratory study	[ "SME", "Case study", "Branding strategy", "Foreign markets", "NIE" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) face heightened competition due to increasing trends in globalization (Spence and Essoussi, 2010). Branding adds value by helping consumers identify and differentiate a firm's products from those of its competitors, often by developing favorable brand images and cultivating brand loyalty (Lee et al., 2015; Pratihari and Uzma, 2018). Particularly for consumer-goods SMEs, strong branding has increasingly become an essential means to secure new growth opportunities in foreign markets because of the larger buyer pools and more complicated distribution infrastructure compared to that of industrial-goods firms (Gabrielsson, 2005; Spence and Essoussi, 2010). However, SMEs that lack human and financial resources often have limited understanding of foreign markets and marketing investments, which can make brand development in foreign markets challenging (Gabrielsson, 2005; Spence and Essoussi, 2010).\nLiterature review: SME branding strategies\nResearch methods: Because of the scarcity of knowledge about brand-building strategies used by NIE SMEs, this study adopted the case study approach as \"inductive theory building\" (Welch et al., 2011). Eisenhardt (1989), the most representative scholar of this approach, views case studies as a starting point for theory development because they allow for new theoretical understanding (De Massis and Kotler, 2014; Welch et al., 2011). Following this approach, this study attempted to develop propositions on NIE SME brand building in foreign markets, on which large-scale quantitative analyses can be based (Eisenhardt, 1989; Welch et al., 2011).\nResults: Characteristics of firms interviewed\nDiscussion: Brand-building approach\nConclusion: Current research on SME branding strategies in foreign markets has largely focused on SMEs from developed western countries. This paper seeks to expand this knowledge by examining the international branding strategies used by consumer goods SMEs in NIEs that possess less favorable home-country images and less rigorous quality standards than those from DE SMEs. Ten Korean SMEs that had exported in-house brands to either developed or developing markets for more than five years were analyzed. Their branding strategies were examined based on three perspectives: the brand-building approach, type and number of brands and degree of standardization. The strategies used by SMEs entering developed and developing markets were compared along with factors influencing their choice of branding strategies.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: The purpose of this study is to examine the branding strategies of SMEs from NIEs, juxtaposing the different strategies used to specifically target developed and developing countries with regard to brand-building approach, type and number of brands and degree of standardization.\nDesign/methodology/approach: A case-study approach is used. In-depth interviews are conducted with 10 Korean consumer-goods SMEs exporting their own in-house brands.\nFindings: Clear differences emerge between the strategies of SMEs entering developed countries and those entering developing countries, particularly regarding brand identity development, use of foreign sales subsidiaries and number and types of brands used. The authors find an interaction effect between product characteristics and host market levels of economic development, both of which influenced the degree of product standardization.\nOriginality/value: This study is the first attempt to uncover the branding strategies of NIE consumer-goods SMEs. The findings contribute to the field by extending our understanding of branding strategies used by consumer-goods SMEs from NIEs, thereby providing useful insight for other NIE enterprises when establishing branding strategies aimed at foreign markets.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
The relationship between distributed leadership and teachers' academic optimism	[ "Distributive control", "Leadership", "Teachers", "Trust", "Individual behaviour" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Current interest in distributed sources of leadership is pervasive among both researchers and practicing leaders (e.g., Harris, in press; Hammersley-Fletcher and Brundrett, 2005; Storey, 2004). Nevertheless, systematic evidence is modest, at best, about the factors that influence the nature and extent of distributed leadership in schools, as well as the consequences of distributed patterns of leadership for schools and students. The study reported in this paper examined the relationships between four patterns of distributed leadership and teachers' academic optimism.Much current leadership research aims to demonstrate the impact of leaders on schools and students (Leithwood et al., 2004; Silins and Mulford, 2002). But the direct effects of leadership on student achievement, the most defensible of the possible outcomes of interest, are weak (Hallinger and Heck, 1996). So the challenge is to identify the indirect path through which leadership influences students; this is a challenge to identify variables that leaders influence and which also influence students (Hallinger and Heck, 1996; Leithwood and Jantzi, 2000; Wahlstrom, and Louis, in press). Among the wide range of possible variables mediating leaders influence on students, considerable research has focused on teachers' beliefs and emotional states (Leithwood, 2006; Wahlstrom and Louis, in press). Work by Hoy and his colleagues (e.g., Hoy and Tarter, 1992; Hoy et al., 2006; Tschannen-Moran et al., 1998) has made an important contribution to the research on teachers' emotional states and their effects on and student achievement. The degree to which leadership is successful in improving the learning of students would appear to reflect, in part, the amount of influence leadership has on teachers' motivations and related beliefs and feeling.Efforts to better understand how leadership influences schools and students is now being extended from leadership as it is exercised by individuals (such as principals) to distributed and collective leadership enactments. Most contemporary research on distributed leadership has focused on the work that leaders do, the practices which are distributed, and who takes on which practices. Recent efforts by Spillane et al. (2007) and Firestone and Martinez (2007) provide some insights into the sources of leadership in a distributed approach, and the practices of such leaders. This study, along with several other recent efforts (e.g., Mayrowetz et al., 2007), moves the agenda forward a step by asking about the causes and consequences of distributed leadership.\nFramework: The framework for this study consists of the four different patterns of leadership distribution identified in the first phase of our work and an especially promising set of teacher beliefs, treated as an aggregate variable, labeled \"academic optimism\".Patterns of leadership distribution\nMethods: Context\nResults: Overview of results\nConclusion: This study explored the relationship between four different patterns of distributed leadership and a set of teacher beliefs, which prior evidence has suggested are demonstrably consequential for student learning (trust, efficacy and organizational citizenship behavior). These three sets of beliefs were treated as an aggregate variable labeled teachers' \"academic optimism\", a concept adapted from Hoy et al. (2006). The four patterns of distributed leadership varied along two dimensions - the planfulness of leadership distribution and the alignment of leadership with the purposes of the school organization.This conception of leadership distribution patterns reflects theory and evidence suggesting that more coordinated forms of leadership distribution make more productive contributions to organizational outcomes. We hypothesized that teachers' academic optimism would be most strongly and positively associated with the pattern of leadership distribution giving greatest weight to the coordination of leadership efforts (\"planful alignment\"). Evidence from the survey responses of 1,640 elementary and secondary teachers in one large district provided the evidence used to test this hypothesis.The most significant limitation of the study is the survey response rate of about 19 percent. While there were clearly identified reasons for this low response rate that had nothing to do with the survey itself, we cannot know how well our evidence represents the population of teachers in the study district - not to mention the much broader populations of teachers whose beliefs we aspire to understand. Nonetheless, the sample is relatively large and the primary limitation concerns the degree to which it is normally distributed in comparison with the population of teachers in the district.A second limitation worth mention at this point arises from our distribution of items measuring some of our variables across two forms of the survey. While this was done to reduce the demands on respondents, it prevented us from calculating the reliability of some of the scales and eliminated the possibility of testing the factor structure of our measures.With these limitations in mind, results provide quite unambiguous support for our initial hypotheses. Higher levels of teachers' academic optimism were positively and significantly associated with planfully aligned forms of leadership distribution. Among the components of academic optimism, this positive and significant relationship appeared strongest with respect to trust in leaders. The three remaining patterns of leadership distribution were negatively related to academic optimism.The practical implications of these results depend in part on some speculations about the nature of the distributed leadership - academic optimism relationship. We have not claimed that academic optimism is either an antecedent or an outcome of planfully-aligned forms of distributed leadership, although we were initially drawn to academic optimism as a potential consequence of distributed leadership. If that is actually the case, our results offer reasonably compelling support for efforts to ensure that leadership is distributed in schools in planful ways. Spontaneous patterns seem to have negative effects and our data also suggest that this may have something to do with trust in leaders. Planful forms of distribution make leaders decisions more transparent and less open to suspicion or concern, whereas spontaneous forms of distribution leave the motivations and decisions of leaders implicit. Academic optimism, however, may be an influence on the development of different leadership distribution patterns, an antecedent variable. When teachers hold high levels of such optimism, they may be much more disposed to engage intentionally with their colleagues in efforts to improve their schools. Such intentionality would foster planfulness.As these speculations about the directionality of the distributed leadership - academic optimism relationship suggest, further research aimed at clarifying the relationship would be very useful. That some set of teacher beliefs would have an influence on the nature of the distributed leadership which emerges in schools seems almost certain. But which beliefs? Is academic optimism and all of its components one of them? Some teacher beliefs are no doubt influenced by or a consequence of experiencing different forms of distributed leadership. Is academic optimism one of them? What other consequences flow from both coordinated or planful and uncoordinated or spontaneous patterns? Is improved student learning a likely consequence of planfully-aligned patterns of distributed leadership.Assuming further support for the value to organizations of planful alignment in subsequent work, it will also be important to know in much more detail what this pattern of leadership distribution looks like in practice. As yet our description of this pattern is best characterized as \"thin\". Recent work by Spillane et al. (2007) examines the quite different ways in which principals and their colleagues co-perform leading activities, and how the sources of such leadership varies from activity to activity. This will be a productive area to explore in future work, as well. Normative approaches to leadership distribution will need to find a \"third way\" in which formal leaders and teachers work together to share leadership in a planned and aligned way, supporting each other in a trustful, collaborative and confident manner. Such an approach may lead to improving schools, and ultimately, to student success.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: - The goal of this study was to examine the relationship between four patterns of distributed leadership and a modified version of a variable Hoy et al. have labeled \"teachers' academic optimism.\" The distributed leadership patterns reflect the extent to which the performance of leadership functions is consciously aligned across the sources of leadership, and the degree to which the approach is either planned or spontaneous.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - Data for the study were the responses of 1,640 elementary and secondary teachers in one Ontario school district to two forms of an online survey, xx items in form 1 and yy items in form 2. Two forms were used to reduce the response time required for completion and each form measured both overlapping and separate variables.\nFindings: - The paper finds that high levels of academic optimism were positively and significantly associated with planned approaches to leadership distribution, and conversely, low levels of academic optimism were negatively and significantly associated with unplanned and unaligned approaches to leadership distribution.\nOriginality/value: - This study provides as-yet rare empirical evidence about the relationship between distributed leadership and other important school characteristics. It also adds support to arguments for the value of more coordinated forms of leadership distribution.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
User-initiated resource sharing in Hong Kong universities: planning to reality with HKALL	[ "Document delivery", "Hong Kong", "University libraries" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: why we embarked on the experiment: In 2004, three of the eight government-funded universities in the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of China (HKSAR) embarked on an experiment in user-initiated interlibrary book lending. Over a period of nine months, data were gathered and user reactions were gauged. The reasons for undertaking this test were many.Changes in the higher education sector in Hong Kong\nBackground to the project: In early 2002 a taskforce from all eight Hong Kong universities investigated the feasibility of a user-initiated book borrowing service among the eight universities. In many ways this taskforce was created from the previous experience of the then new librarian at the University of Hong Kong, Dr Tony Ferguson. Having recently arrived in Hong Kong from North America, Ferguson brought with him positive experiences of deeper resource sharing opportunities. The group was specifically charged to explore:* the experience of other consortia employing user initiated document delivery (allowing users to place online requests for materials from other libraries) including the pros and cons of its use;* the use of software/utilities/systems which could be used by the JULAC Libraries to facilitate user initiated document delivery;* the value/non value of using net borrower agreements by consortia with particular reference to consortia employing user initiated document delivery systems; and* the resource implications (e.g. reduce ILL-based borrowing and lending but will likely see a significant increase in circulation, etc.).Following an interim report that produced positive findings, the group investigated and recommended the best software for enabling a user initiated interlibrary loan service in Hong Kong.The chosen software\nIssues that confronted us: Behind HKALL there is a union catalogue and a circulation interface supported by INN-Reach. Issues facing the Working Group were thus naturally related to the building up of the union catalogue and also the setting up of various circulation rules and policies within the HKALL consortium.Building the HKALL union catalogue\nLessons learned: quantitative analysis: As the HKALL pilot service was intended to answer the questions posed above, the collection of data was essential to determining the value of the service in order to encourage the other five universities to participate. Data on the transactions of HKALL from February to September 2004 were collected and analysed for statistical purposes. Selected findings are presented in the following sections.General statistics\nLessons learned: qualitative analysis: In addition to the extensive quantitative data collected, a rigorous qualitative assessment project was also conducted.User survey and focus group meetings\nFull implementation phase: The results of the focus group surveys on users' satisfaction of HKALL echo the findings from other libraries. (Chmelir, 2005) With 95 per cent of requests during the pilot project phase met within two working days, users found the turnaround time of HKALL faster and the mechanism of sending requests more user-friendly than traditional ILL. In general, the satisfaction level was very high. Users also voiced the desire to have more participants and more items, including non-prints and non-returnables, available through HKALL.The expectations from HKALL users confirm what has already been described in the existing literature of interlibrary loan and document delivery. (Jackson, 2004) In order to meet these rising expectations, the prime goal of the three participating libraries in the trial period is to lobby for the extension of HKALL to the other five libraries. In November 2004, a meeting was organised to share the experiences of the three participating libraries with the five non-participants. While, the JULAC directors were impressed with the trial group's findings, they faced the major obstacle of funding the extension. An attempt to build an in-house system proved unsuccessful.Consequently, the eight universities jointly applied for funding from the major higher education funding body in Hong Kong, the University Grants Committee (UGC) to expand the project to include all eight institutions. In April 2005 a presentation to the UGC panel was made by JULAC directors. The potential for deep collaboration resulting from the project was obvious and is consistent with the strategy of the UGC. The joint application was successful thus enabling the additional five Hong Kong universities to participate in HKALL. These universities (the Chinese University of Hong Kong (CUHK), Hong Kong Baptist University (HKBU), the Hong Kong Institute of Education (HKIEd), the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (HKUST), and the Polytechnic University of Hong Kong (PolyU)) joined with members from the existing three universities to form a HKALL Steering Group and were charged to oversee the implementation of the first fully extensive collaborative project in the history of interlending services in Hong Kong.The first HKALL Steering Group meeting including all eight university libraries was held in July 2005. It discussed the issues related to the rebuilding of the union catalogue[3] involving matching and merging of CJK records of libraries with differing cataloguing practices, the matter of priority records, loan policies, load balancing and user base all required further discussion among the eight. Through discussions, these conflicting issues were resolved; meeting schedules, timelines for implementation and training and a soft launch date of the service were also determined. Further issues concerning network security, system setup and bibliographic records loading were clarified between Innovative Interfaces Inc. and the HKALL Steering Group. A timetable of data loading was decided and in August all bibliographic records from all eight universities were loaded to the central union catalog. The rejuvenated HKALL service including all eight universities was launched in September 2005 enabling us to provide its services to the prospective 100,000 plus eligible users.Further quantitative analysis\nConclusion: The government funding of HK$10 million provides testament to the obvious value that an initiative such as HKALL provides. HKALL's potential to maximise usage of available resources, its use of technology in an innovative manner and its demonstrative ability to foster deeper collaboration among the eight university libraries, all serve to foster further scholarship in Hong Kong, thus contributing to the Hong Kong Government's vision for a knowledge-based society.While the success of the pilot phase and the extended service is inspiring to us, our librarians are already thinking about what should be our next phase. What can we do to further improve on this already tremendous service? The obvious answer for us, and indeed for our patrons, is to have the service extended to include non-returnables. While there may be some ad hoc methods of providing this, the true solution must be for a single, fully integrated system that can manage both returnables and non-returnables, but this requires Innovative to enhance their system. We are told that a module enhancement to include non-returnables is imminent.Without doubt, the pilot HKALL project was a great success. During the nine months of the pilot, inter-library loans quadrupled among the three participating libraries; it was demonstrated that using HKALL was much cheaper than using the traditional ILL system where titles are 42 per cent cheaper to lend and 45 per cent cheaper to borrow; the system provides a much faster service than the traditional ILL system with 95 per cent of the requests of the pilot project met within two working days, compared with only 9 per cent of traditional ILL requests; 80 per cent of library users surveyed regarded the mode of service provided by the pilot test as an excellent or a very good source of obtaining materials not available from their host library. It is hoped, indeed envisaged, that similar results will be seen following a substantial period of the extended service. Preliminary results for the first four months seem to indicate this to be the case. With full institutional participation, academic library users in Hong Kong now have access to a total collection of almost nine million volumes through HKALL, thus providing a richer environment for their study and research needs.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: - To describe the introduction of a collaborative, user-initiated, unmediated, interlibrary loan service for returnables between initially three and then all eight universities in Hong Kong.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - Historical narrative combined with user and staff evaluation.\nFindings: - The introduction of the service has been a great success.\nOriginality/value: - This article describes in detail the introduction of a service that will be of interest and relevance to many other libraries facing declining budgets and the need to share resources in an efficient and effective way.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Understanding the emergence of entrepreneurial passion: The influence of perceived emotional support and competences	[ "Competences", "Entrepreneurship", "Socialization", "Entrepreneurial passion", "Perceived emotional support" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Entrepreneurial passion is increasingly becoming acknowledged as an important factor in understanding how entrepreneurial intentions are built (Biraglia and Kadile, 2017), how persistent and committed entrepreneurs are during their start-up attempts (e.g. Breugst et al., 2012; Cardon and Kirk, 2015; Fisher et al., 2018; Murnieks et al., 2014), how invention and radical innovation happens (Strese et al., 2018) and how they grow their businesses (Drnovsek et al., 2016) and improve performance (Ho and Pollack, 2014). Entrepreneurial passion is defined as \"intense positive feelings experienced by engagement in entrepreneurial activities\" (Cardon et al., 2009, p. 517).\nTheoretical background and hypothesis development: Passion as an important human behaviour driver (Vallerand et al., 2003) is studied widely in many domains (e.g. Ho et al., 2011; Lavigne et al., 2012), including entrepreneurship. Passion has been defined in different ways, but these definitions share themes, such as \"strong inclination\" (Vallerand et al., 2003), \"strong desire\" (Philippe et al., 2010) and \"intense positive feelings\" (Cardon et al., 2009) related to a certain activity or objective. The emphasis on a specific focus and affection for a certain activity is what separates passion from motivation (Murnieks et al., 2014). Following Cardon et al. (2009, p. 517) definition of entrepreneurial passion as \"intense positive feelings experienced by engagement in entrepreneurial activities\", we emphasise individuals' subjectivity of those feelings as an entrepreneurial behaviour driver.\nSocial networks in supporting entrepreneurial passion: It is well established that entrepreneurs obtain valuable resources and support from their social networks (Jonsson, 2015), which helps them perform as entrepreneurs. The various support types that they obtain from the social environment range from financial support (Shane and Cable, 2002), advice (Greve and Salaff, 2003) and assistance (Davidsson and Honig, 2003; Kim et al., 2013) to emotional support (e.g. Bruderl and Preisendorfer, 1998; Toegel et al., 2013; Van Auken and Werbel, 2006). Most previous studies, however, have investigated different support or resource types in isolation, without considering potential spill overs between them, or without considering their co-existence. This is also the case in studies that look at public policy inventions' instrumental value (e.g. Baumgartner and Caliendo, 2007), including financial support (Tokila, 2009).\nCompetences in supporting entrepreneurial passion: In addition to the socialisation of entrepreneurial passion, we argue that another aspect associated with the emergence of entrepreneurial passion is the alignment of entrepreneurial experience with the entrepreneurial career path.\nMethodology: Data\nVariables: Dependent variable\nResults: Confirmatory factor analysis\nDiscussion: With unique data on Finnish entrepreneurs who have received a public start-up grant, we were able to identify two important aspects which are associated with entrepreneurial passion. Our results show how the perceived emotional support attached to receiving a government-based grant is associated with a socialising process that is related to entrepreneurial passion. Moreover, we show how entrepreneurial passion is associated with the entrepreneurial endeavour's alignment with entrepreneurs' competences. Finally, we showed a complementary synergy between perceived emotional support and task-related competences, which emphasises how they are contingent on each other. More specifically, task-related competences in the form of entrepreneurial experience positively moderate the relation between perceived emotional support and entrepreneurial passion.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: Recent research acknowledges entrepreneurial passion's outcomes, but far less is known about how entrepreneurial passion comes about. In this study, the authors are interested in the emergence of entrepreneurial passion, and how competences and social network are associated with entrepreneurial passion. The paper aims to discuss these issues.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The authors investigate whether entrepreneurial passion emerges out of socialisation, entrepreneurial experience or various combinations thereof. The authors tested the hypotheses on a data set of entrepreneurs who started their businesses with government financial support (n=1150).\nFindings: The findings show that within a social environment, perceived emotional support is positively associated with entrepreneurial passion. Moreover, entrepreneurs' task-related competence moderates this relationship positively. By investigating the emergence of entrepreneurial passion, the authors contribute to prior passion literature, which has mainly focused on its consequences.\nOriginality/value: The findings demonstrate both how entrepreneurial passion is associated with and how perceived emotional support can stem from unexpected sources, such as from a government-based start-up grant. For entrepreneurs, an increased awareness of passion's emergence could better encourage them in their entrepreneurial endeavours. To people who are engaged in promoting entrepreneurship, our findings emphasise the symbolic and emotional aspects of instruments intended to support entrepreneurship.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Effect of shopper attributes on retail format choice behaviour for food and grocery retailing in India	[ "Consumer behaviour", "Demographics", "Psychographics", "Retailing", "India" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: The macro-environmental forces profoundly affect the fortunes of food and grocery retail sector in India. The paradigm shift in consumers' socio-economic, demographic and geographical proportions are driving what was once a traditional small-scale retail outlets into an organised retail formats aimed at catering to the evolving needs and tastes of discerning consumers. But the ever changing consumers' psychographic variables like values, activities, interests, opinions, motives and lifestyles have contributed immensely to the growth of store format typologies such as convenience stores, discount stores, super markets and hypermarkets (Prasad and Reddy, 2007). Studies on shoppers in India have largely been limited to their time and money spending pattern, demographic profile for a particular format (Sinha, 2003). Furthermore, the espousal of \"value for money\" and \"value for time\" have unconditionally altered the consumers' shopping orientations and buying behaviour towards choice of food and grocery store formats.Though most of the previous retail research studies have focused on store image and importance of store attributes in understanding the concept of store choice and patronage behaviour (Woodside and Trappey, 1992; Medina and Ward, 1999; Outi, 2001; Sinha and Banerjee, 2004, Sinha et al., 2005; Sinha and Uniyal, 2005; Carpenter and Moore, 2006), yet a few research studies have revealed a connection among demographic, psychographic characteristics and store format choice suggesting that individual characteristics of consumers influence their shopping behaviour (Fotheringham and Trew, 1993; Stone, 1995; Arnold, 1997; East, 1997; McGoldrick and Andre, 1997; Medina and Ward, 1999; Fox et al., 2004; Carpenter and Moore, 2006, Baltas and Argouslidis, 2007).Since organised retailing is a recent phenomenon in Indian context, not much insight is available till date. It is also observed that food and grocery retailing is the most promising area to set up retail business for domestic as well foreign companies in India. This fact is vindicated by the entry of domestic giants and foreign companies. This is an unchartered and unexplored research area in an Indian context where few empirical studies examined and contributed to the existing knowledge. Towards this end, this study and its outcome is a significant contribution to the field of store choice behaviour literature in Indian retailing context. Hence, this study assumed significance aiming to examine the association between shoppers' characteristics and store format choice decisions in food and grocery retailing in India.The purpose of the study is to understand the much needed domain of the consumer behaviour which enables the segmentation of food and grocery retail consumers towards the emergence of retail formats in India. The geographical scope of the study is confined to the twin cities of Secunderabad and Hyderabad (population is more than 56 lakhs) in Andhra Pradesh in India. The conceptual scope is limited to shoppers' demographic and psychographic attributes which are pivotal in understanding the store format choice behaviour in the fastest growing largest consumer market.\nLiterature review: The behaviour of retail shoppers is a subject of study across the world (Sinha and Banerjee, 2004). The behaviour of shoppers differs according to the place where they are shopping and their involvement level with the act of shopping (Berman and Evans, 2005). There is a growing need to evaluate the true drivers of shopping behaviour in the Indian retailing context (Sinha and Banerjee, 2004, p. 483). For many years, marketing researchers have considered issues related to consumers' store choice across various purchasing situations (Carpenter and Moore, 2006). From early studies that examine traditional retail format choice (Williams and Dadris, 1972) to recent inquiry into the non-traditional internet format choice, the marketing literature has identified several factors that are consumer related and situational factors that impact store choice.Shoppers' socio-economic, demographic and geographic factors\nResearch questions: The following research questions have therefore been developed to assess whether shopper attributes have any influence on retail format choice decisions in food and grocery retailing:RQ1. Do shopper's socio-economic, demographic and geographic attributes have significant association with store format choice decisions?RQ2. Do shoppers' psychographic variables including AIO's and shopping discriminate food and grocery retail customers in terms of format choice?\nMethodology: This study is descriptive in nature (cross-sectional study). The population frame (75 million) would be the retail customers of food and grocery in the state of Andhra Pradesh in India. The sampling frame for the present research would be comprised of adult retail customers of food and grocery formats in the twin cities of Hyderabad and Secunderabad. These conjoint metropolitan cities with a population of six million are economically and commercially more vibrant. The Hyderabad is also happened to be the capital city of Andhra Pradesh state in India. These conjoint cities are well known for flourishing organised retail business as the Reliance Retail, Pantaloon Retail, A.G. Metro, Aditya Birla Retail, Fresh @ and Spencers have chosen twin cities to set up their food and grocery formats like convenience store, discount stores, supermarkets, hypermarkets, Cash and Carry, etc.Considering the complexity of the survey, time and funding budget, a mall intercept survey was used (Dabholkar et al., 1996; Sinha and Banerjee, 2004) to collect the data from 1,040 respondents. The data were collected at 60 different food and grocery retail stores coming under four retail formats such as neighbourhood kirana stores, convenience stores, supermarkets and hypermarkets. Most of the retailers are domestic retail giants running chain stores in India. The data were collected form 15 neighbourhood kirana stores, ten convenience stores (such as Spencers' Daily, KBs Fair price, True Mart, Spinach, In & Out, DHL service point, Subhiksha, Fresh @ and 24/7), 25 supermarkets (such as Foodworld, Food Bazaar, Reliance Fresh, Fresh @, Subhiksha, Spencer, More, Usha and Vijetha) and ten hypermarkets (Big Bazaar, Hypercity, Magna, Vijetha hyper,and Choupal Sagar). These are the prominent retail companies running multiple store formats across the chosen sampling frame work. The data were collected at 60 different food and grocery retail stores by administering a structured and non-disguised questionnaire with the list of questions in a prearranged order. Sample subjects were carefully chosen by administering an initial screen question that \"Do you purchase food and grocery products at any other store format than your primary store format?\" so as to ensure they are involved in patronizing at least two or more store formats.The survey instrument consists of two parts: part-A and part-B. The part-A consists of 13 questions connected to respondent's socio-economic, demographic, geographic and store choice behaviour measuring format choice, purchase pattern and volume of purchase. The responses are measured using nominal and interval scales. The second part-B consists of three questions relating to consumer's psychographic factors covering list of values (LOV, nine statements), 45 statements concerning lifestyle factors such as activities (16 statements), interests (17 statements) and opinions (12 statements) and shopping motives (38 statements). All items are measured on 5-point Likert scale (5=\"strongly agree\" to 1=\"strongly disagree\"). All the measurement items were adapted from the existing scales to measure the constructs proposed in the model. For measuring psychographic variables, values related items are adopted form Kahle (1983), interest and opinion statements were adopted from VALSTM Survey, Gonzalez-Fernandez and Bello (2002), Wu (2003) and Kelly (2004). Shopping motives related items were adopted from Sinha (2003). Store choice related items were adopted from Sinha and Banerjee (2004) and Carpenter and Moore (2006). The internal consistency of the instrument was tested through reliability analysis using Cronbach's alpha. Reliability estimates for the construct variables are, vales (0.71), lifestyles (0.80), shopping motives (0.78) and store choice behaviour (0.75) revealing a high degree of reliability. All reliability results exceeded 0.70 limit of the acceptability. The subjective nature of the face validity of an instrument was systematically evaluated by four eminent academicians in marketing research to examine whether the scale items adequately cover the entire domain of the construct being measured. The common-sense interpretation of the scale scores was also assessed with ten consumers in nearby store format. Necessary changes were incorporated in the final survey instrument. Since the present cross-sectional study was not posited on any sound theory underlining the shopper behaviour, the construct validity was assessed through discriminant validity examining the extent to which a measure does not correlate with other constructs. Here, the significance of the correlation, i.e. p<=0.5, is taken into consideration, rather than the absolute value of the correlation. Given the condition of significance, absolute values of +-0.25 would be considered as high correlations (Feick and Price, 1987).Methods of analysis\nResults: Profile of respondents\nConclusions: The present findings contribute to the understanding of consumer store choice behaviour in food and grocery retailing in India, an area that has received scant attention within the academic literature. The overall results of this study show that Indian food and grocery consumers have cross-shopping behaviour in nature exhibiting sheer patronage of multiple store formats. No single retail format seems to be prime in meeting consumer needs/wants. Consumers first choose a store format, and then move into a particular store within the format where they can save time, money and effort. Hence, retaining customer allegiance to a particular retail format is posed as a major task. It is also found that consumers giving due concern to value for money, and see-touch-feel-select concept. Results also emphasize the need for a customized approach to retail marketing.The study reveals that in the Indian retailing context, demographic factors of consumers do influence store format choice behaviour in food and grocery retailing. It is also observed that store format choice is a hierarchical process which depends on demographic attributes and current needs of a consumer. Findings from kh2 statistic also revealed that shopping trip pattern as well as purchase volume have significant relationship with store formats choice decisions. The consumer psychographic dimensions like values, lifestyles and shopping orientations significantly affected store format choice behaviour. The emerged five psychographic segments have exhibited different shopping orientations. Time consciousness and local shopper orientations are the significant predictors for choice of kirana store format. Time consciousness and information seeking are the significant predictors for convenience store format choice decisions. Variety seeking, brand conscious, time conscious, local shopper, and price conscious shopping orientations are significant predictors for supermarket store format choice decisions. Variety seeking, recreational oriented, brand conscious, price conscious, and experience seeking related orientations are the significant predictors for hypermarket format choice decisions. It is suggested that retailers would take note of the emerged food and grocery retail segments while developing retail format strategies.Limitations and directions for future study\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: - Retailing in India is an unchartered territory. Food and grocery is the most promising area for setting up retail business in India. An understanding of shopper retail format choice behaviour will enable retailers to segment their market and target specific consumer groups with strategies premeditated to meet their retail needs. The purpose of this paper is to make a detailed study on the effect of shoppers' demographic, geographic and psychographic dimensions in terms of format choice behaviour in the fast growing Indian food and grocery retailing.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - Descriptive research design is adopted applying mall intercept survey method using structured questionnaire for data collection. Both descriptive (mean and standard deviation) and inferential statistical tools like kh2, factor analysis and multivariate analysis are used to analyse the data collected from 1,040 food and grocery retail customers from upgraded neighbourhood kirana stores, convenience stores, supermarkets and hypermarkets in conjoint cities of Secunderabad and Hyderabad in Andhra Pradesh in India.\nFindings: - The findings suggest that shoppers' age, gender, occupation, education, monthly household income, family size and distance travelled to store have significant association with retail format choice decisions. The choice decisions are also varied among shoppers' demographic attributes. The findings from shoppers' psychographic dimensions like values, lifestyle factors and shopping orientations resulted in segmentation of food and grocery retail consumers into hedonic, utilitarian, autonomous, conventional and socialization type.\nPractical implications: - The study has practical implications for food and grocery retailers for better understanding the shopper behaviour in the context of changing consumer demographic and psychographic characteristics in an emerging Indian retail market. The findings may help the retailers to segment and target the food and grocery retail consumers and, as a consequence, to undertake more effective retail marketing strategies for competitive advantage.\nOriginality/value: - Given the absence of published academic literature and empirical findings relating to store format choice behaviour in food and grocery retailing in India, this study may serve as a departure point for future studies in this area of concern. The research is also relevant to retail marketers in terms of format development and reorientation of marketing strategies in the fastest growing Indian retail market.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Building design for people with dementia: a case study of a UK care home	[ "Case study", "Quality of life", "Building design", "Care home", "Design guidance", "People with dementia", "Dementia building design" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Dementia is not a natural part of ageing but is caused by diseases of the brain such as Alzheimer's or Parkinson's diseases (Hanagasi et al., 2017). There were 850,000 people living with dementia in the UK in 2014, and by 2050, the number is expected to rise to more than two million (Alzheimer's Society, 2014). Guidance is available to assist people and families affected by dementia to improve their quality of life, for example, the UK Government published white paper entitled \"Living Well with Dementia: A National Dementia Strategy\" (Department of Health, 2015). Through the Prime Minister's challenge on Dementia, the UK Government will focus upon three key areas for improvement, one of which is: \"to create dementia friendly communities that understand how to help\" (Department of Health, 2015). Mitchell (2012) suggests that there is growing interest in establishing dementia-friendly communities, yet Wiersma and Pedlar (2008) report that care home residents often experience a restrictive and confining built environment. A dementia-friendly built environment should not only compensate for any disability but also take into consideration the specific personal needs of a person with dementia and their experience within the habitable environment - cumulatively, these considerations can improve an individual's quality of life (Davis et al., 2009).\nDementia design guidance for care homes: Various researchers have developed different sets of design principles and assessment tools that evaluate the impact of the built environment upon people with dementia, with a view to ultimately improving their lives. These tools include the Design for Dementia Audit Tool developed by the University of Stirling (Cunningham et al., 2008; Cunningham, 2009) based upon criteria identified by Marshall (2001) for residential facilities; the Environmental Audit Tool developed by Department of Health (Australia), which comprises 72 items thematically grouped within ten principles (Fleming, 2011); and the Enhancing the Healing Environment Environmental Assessment Tool developed in 2013 by the King's Fund, which provides seven design principles to promote well-being and independence rather than detailed room by room design. Low et al. (2004) argue that there is no single \"one-size-fits-all\" environment suited to every dementia resident; some require more security, others need freedom to move about - some prefer single rooms while others prefer shared rooms. Joseph (2006) suggests that enhancing quality of life by design can improve sleep, support orientation and reduce aggressive and disruptive behaviour. The provision of quiet environments, implementation of distinguishing colours for labelling rooms and spaces, use of large signs and adoption of simple building configuration can aid with a resident's wayfinding around the built environment (Joseph, 2006). In contrast, Hodges et al. (2006) provide a matrix of variables that seek to create an optimum environment for people with dementia. They (Hodges et al., 2006) report upon nine design principles crucial for a dementia care environment. However, these principles are qualitative, open to interpretation and are difficult to implement or use as part of a design audit.\nResearch approach: An inductive methodological approach (Saunders et al., 2007) was adopted to generate new theories regarding dementia design by using the perceptions of people with dementia and the carers who support them. Specifically, a care home in Salisbury, UK, provided a case study setting and an opportunity sampling frame. The lead researcher works as a development project surveyor for a property development company specialising in the construction of care homes, in particular those providing care for older residents who often have dementia. Participant action research (PAR) was implemented using practice-based skills, knowledge and competence accrued during the lead researcher's six-year employment in this role. Parn and Edwards (2017) suggest that although PAR has many progenitors, it can be broadly classed as collective self-experimentation amongst participants that is augmented by evidential reasoning (participation), fact-finding (action) and learning (research).\nAnalysis and results: Table III presents a frequency tabulation to report upon which themes emerged most frequently during interview. Notably, the most prevalent themes were to: promote a safe environment, provide access to nature and the outdoors and support wayfinding, orientation and navigation. From a population of 56 residents, 10 residents (an almost 18 per cent response rate) were deemed fit enough to make a valid contribution to the case study. Five staff also contributed to the study.\nDiscussion: Three prevalent themes emerged from the analysis: promoting a safe environment, supporting wayfinding, orientation and navigation and providing access to nature and the outdoors. Access to the outdoor environment was highly valued by residents for the exercise and emotional benefits it provides. Conversely, residents referred to the negative effects on emotional well-being of restricted access to the gardens and balconies and described their feelings of isolation. Outdoor space and easy access to this space have been stressed in associated literature (Chalfont, 2008; Duggan et al., 2008) and identified as key areas where improvements in accessibility should be made (Brimelow and Lyons, 2009). The results also identified that the higher-dependency residents required greater encouragement and staff intervention to facilitate access to the outdoors. However, this was considered challenging because of insufficient staff working on the premises. In line with recent previous research (Hoe et al., 2006), this current research illustrates that people with dementia can often provide information about their needs and what they consider to be met and unmet. Even when a resident cannot express their needs verbally, staff should look out for nonverbal cues (e.g. physical discomfort or behavioural traits such as frustration, boredom and/or anxiety).\nConclusion: This research demonstrates that a care home's design features can either improve or reduce residents' quality of life. However, the quality of building design alone will not lead to improved quality of life per se unless appropriate staff intervention and a therapeutic and domestic-looking environment is provided. When designing a building for people with dementia, a complex array of features must be considered to provide a safe and habitable living space for residents and family members who visit but one that is also suitably utilitarian and provides a workable environment for staff. An optimised balance between these two competing requirements must be attained, and often, a tailor-made solution is required that fits the individual's level of dementia. Importantly, a \"one-size-fits-all\" approach to building design must not be adopted. Three prominent areas that study participants expressed a desire for were to provide:\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: This paper aims to investigate the impact that building design has upon the quality of life for residents of a care home who have dementia. To present a balanced perspective, carers within the care home also participate in the research.\nDesign/methodology/approach: A case study methodological approach was adopted using one care home, ten residents and five staff as a sample frame. During interviews conducted, participants were asked semi-structured questions on how building design features impact upon the quality of life of residents. Questions posed focussed upon key design principles that emerged from a detailed review of extant literature.\nFindings: Building design for people with dementia must consider a complex array of features to provide a safe and habitable living space for residents and family members who visit. This living space must also be suitably utilitarian and provide a workable environment for staff. Hence, an appropriate balance between these two competing requirements must be attained, and often a tailor-made solution is required that fits the individual's level of dementia. Three prominent areas that study participants expressed a desire for were a safe environment; support for wayfinding, orientation and navigation; and access to nature and the outdoors.\nOriginality/value: The work reports upon the rarely discussed issue of building design for people with dementia and could be used by policymakers and construction firms to enhance their knowledge capabilities in this area. The research concludes with direction for future research which should seek to provide more evidence-based research vis-a-vis perception enquiry and extend this seminal work to a larger sample of care homes or people with dementia living at home.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Medical negligence in Bangladesh: criminal, civil and constitutional remedies	[ "Negligence", "Civil Law remedy", "Constitutional Law remedy", "Criminal Law remedy", "Medical negligence" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Though medical negligence is directly connected to right to life and medical care, it occurs as a day-to-day phenomenon in Bangladesh. There are a number of medical negligence instances against which no legal actions are brought. Unaccountability of medical professionals leads to the dissatisfaction of the general people with the health-care sector in Bangladesh; citizens, therefore, turn to foreign countries in the hopes of availing better treatment. Apart from flaws in the existing laws, the main reasons for unaccountability of medical practitioners include the unwillingness of people to initiate action against medical practitioners and the lack of legal knowledge about the remedies for medical negligence instances. However, it is a demand of the time to check medical negligence instances and build awareness among the citizens of Bangladesh.\nNegligence and medical negligence: To deal with medical negligence, it is necessary to deal with two questions:\nRemedies for medical negligence: It is not ignorable that the state-of-the-art facilities have been introduced in some health-care-providing institutions in Bangladesh. But it remains out of reach of a large population because of poverty. Apart from this, a portion of the total population does not rely on the services of the national health-care providers because of the publicly known (owing to print and electronic media) negligent practices of medical practitioners. The main focus of this paper is the remedy or solution available to a person who is treated by national health-care providers and suffers their negligent practices. In this regard, the person may approach the court seeking remedy under the Criminal Law, Civil Law and Constitutional Law.\nConclusion: Medical negligence is a regular phenomenon in Bangladesh; negligence usually occurs because of lack of accountability. It is our strong belief that doctors or medical professionals are obligated under moral duty and oath to serve their best to protect the lives and health of the people. The people in the country are aware and are willing to initiate legal actions for medical negligence instances that result in death and/or damage to the them. Although there are some loopholes in the existing legal system, the Government of the People's Republic of Bangladesh is undertaking initiatives to mitigate or reduce such instances. Medical professionals are expected to be aware about the legal consequences of their medically negligent practices, and they should indulge in ethical practices so as to avoid getting embroiled in controversial situations and litigations. They are expected as always to maintain their professional dignity.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: The aim of this paper is to determine the available remedies for medical negligence instances in Bangladesh.\nDesign/methodology/approach: This research work is qualitative in nature. Books, journal articles, case law and statutory laws have been reviewed to formulate this work.\nFindings: A victim of medical negligence in Bangladesh can approach the court seeking remedy under the Criminal Law, Civil Law and Constitutional Law. Moreover, medical professionals are expected to be aware about the legal consequences of their medically negligent practices, and they should indulge in ethical practices so as to avoid getting embroiled in controversial situations and litigations.\nOriginality/value: The main reasons for unaccountability of medical practitioners include the unwillingness of people to initiate action against medical practitioners and the lack of legal knowledge about the remedies for medical negligence instances. This paper will assist in gather the required legal knowledge.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Parental influence on female vocational intentions in the Arabian Gulf	[ "Employment", "Human resource management", "National cultures", "Women", "Labour market", "Arabian Gulf labour markets", "Career choice intentions", "Female labour force participation", "Parental career-related behaviour", "Vocational behaviour" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: The Arabian Gulf is marked by its low levels of female labor force participation (FLFP) which are more pronounced still among the national cohort (Forstenlechner and Rutledge, 2010). However, due to the region's over-dependence on non-national labor, pyramid-style national demographic profile and now \"saturated\" public sectors, policymakers are seeking to encourage more female nationals to take up productive employment as opposed to the longstanding default: a government job of a bureaucratic nature (e.g. Rutledge and Al-Shamsi, 2015). Yet, despite the political rhetoric encouraging this cohort to utilize their tertiary-level qualifications and \"marketable skills\", it is said that only a minority \"intend\" to use their acquired knowledge by pursuing \"an active career\" (Ashencaen Crabtree, 2007, p. 577). The usage of \"intend\" may not be an entirely accurate portrayal as various sectors of society still question the need for this cohort to participate in any but the narrowest range of occupational roles (e.g. Marmenout and Lirio, 2013). Indeed male support for a female family member's higher education, does not necessarily translate to subsequent support for their labor market entry (e.g. Farrell, 2008; Williams et al., 2013).\n2. Background context: While FLFP the world over is partially contingent on economic conditions, market perceived \"employability\" and seeking an amicable family/work life balance, within the Arabian Gulf an additional factor is that many occupational roles are not considered \"appropriate\" for national women to pursue, especially if they are in the private sector (e.g. Farrell, 2008; Harry, 2007; Williams et al., 2013). This then provides some context for why, at this juncture, the gender equality gap - particularly in terms of economic participation and opportunity - in the Middle East and North Africa remains pronounced (e.g. Marmenout and Lirio, 2013; Moghadam, 2006). Indeed, eight of the ten countries with the lowest FLFP rates globally are located within this region (Hausmann et al., 2012, p. 25). As Abdulla (2006, p. 10) points out, it is still considered haraam (\"sinful\") in some quarters for national females to interact with men other than their close relatives and, as Harry (2007, p. 138) observes, less aib (\"shame\") is attributed to those of this cohort working in the public sector as compared to those in the private sector.\n3. Literature review: While neither the form of female personality traits, nor the terms of reference for their labor are constant, gendered notions of appropriate occupational roles are considered to be formed at an early stage of childhood and be reinforced through into adolescence (e.g. Astin, 1984; Weisner and Wilson-Mitchell, 1990). Consciously or not, parental influence with respect to adolescent career decision-making is often said to be gendered (e.g. Gutek and Larwood, 1987) as is advice on subject choice prior to starting tertiary education (e.g. Creamer and Laughlin, 2005). Moreover, parental influence in this regard is said to be more pronounced in \"conservative\" (read \"patriarchal\") societies where the role and status of women is subjugated (e.g. Cohen, 2006; Hijab, 1998) and also in contexts where gender segregation occurs (e.g. Chang, 2004; Khasawneh, 2010). More generally, parental influence on career decision-making is usually said to carry more weight than either that of career counselors or educators (e.g. Creamer and Laughlin, 2005; Mortimer et al., 2002). It follows then that \"agency,\" in this context the actions that create or advance educational and vocational development and \"self-efficiency,\" the subjective confidence in being able to fulfill tasks or \"intentions\" (planned behaviors), are two constructs regularly applied when investigating the career decision-making process. In terms of parenting style, there are a range of taxonomies but that most frequently cited in the theory underpinning Dietrich and Kracke's (2009) PCB construct are the authoritarian (hostile and controlling) vs authoritative (warm and controlling) modes. Authoritarian parents expect strict obedience from their children while authoritative parents exhibit clear, stable and flexible behavior; the latter of which is said to have a positive effect on adolescent self-esteem. With regard to the warmth-hostility and controlling-uncontrolling clines, PCB \"support\" can be seen as controlling and warm; \"interference\" as controlling and hostile; \"lack of engagement\" as uncontrolling and possibly either disinterested or unable to offer vocationally related advice.\n4. Methods: Participants\n5. Results: In terms of H1, Figure 2 depicts that the job being interesting, the provision of maternity leave and the presence of female role models all had significant positive effects on the likelihood of labor market entry. Thus only these three non-parent specific factors acted to increase the likelihood of labor market entry in support of the hypothesis. In addition, the sample members were asked to rank a number of factors related to workforce participation (see Table I). Unlike would be the case with a series of Likert-style items where sample members could attribute high importance values to each, ranking necessitated selecting which variables were of most and least relative importance. It is noteworthy that from the sample's perspective, whether or not the given workplace was gender segregated was of relatively low importance. The job being interesting was ranked as the most important and this was subsequently found to significantly increase the likelihood of labor market entry (b=0.216). However, while salary level does not significantly correlate (see Table II), it is ranked as being of second highest importance.\n6. Discussion: This study makes a number of clear contributions to the literature by providing an initial quantitative contribution to the discourse that focuses on \"national\" FLFP within the Arabian Gulf and second it adds a gendered perspective to the nascent Arab Middle East Human Resource Management model (see, Marmenout and Lirio, 2013, p. 166). This study's observations are also of policy relevance in light of the region's unambiguous attempts to convert hydrocarbon resources into value-added domestically manufactured products and foster hi-tech, knowledge-based industries (Forstenlechner and Rutledge, 2010). For longer-term viability, quasi-private sector entities within such sectors will need to attract and retain national employees. Nevertheless, it is evident that presently national females themselves have limited agency with respect to career decision-making; the gist of the \"patriarchal bargain\" thesis set out by Williams et al. (2013) is that, for many the only realistic option is the conventional public sector (see also: Rutledge and Al-Shamsi, 2015). Indeed, as this study finds, almost four fifths of those surveyed intended to seek public sector employment.\n7. Conclusions: While extant gendered sociocultural norms tend to push adolescent females toward the public sector this study does finds that parental career-related behavior has a number of consequences in relation to the likelihood of labor market entry. High levels of PCB-style \"support\" act to significantly reduce the sociocultural barriers and, those who receive this, are both more likely to seek employment and be relatively more willing to consider \"atypical\" occupations (i.e. occupations other than the longstanding default bureaucratic-style government job). The socioeconomic status of parents with regard to education and their relationship with the labor market was also found to be important. Having a more educated father or having a parent working in the private sector will make labor market entry more likely as employment opportunities in government-backed enterprises look set to increasingly become the default gateway to workforce participation: those who had a parent or close family member working in the private sector are far less averse to this sector - those with more highly educated fathers are less affected by sociocultural barriers which tend to place the private sector off limits. On the other hand, PCB-style \"interference\", by significantly amplifying sociocultural barriers and public sector preferences, will make securing employment less likely: the conventional public sector is now \"saturated\" and largely nationalized.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to examine parental career-related behavior (PCB) in relation to the vocational intentions of female nationals enrolled at higher education institutions in the United Arab Emirates.\nDesign/methodology/approach: A conceptual framework was constructed to examine the interplay between the PCB factors of support, interference and lack of engagement, against context-relevant dimensions of gendered sociocultural barriers, public sector preferences and the likelihood itself of labor market entry. Survey data from face-to-face encounters (n=335) was collected.\nFindings: Parental support was found to significantly reduce the perceived sociocultural barriers to workforce participation. Parental interference amplified these barriers and also increased public sector preferences. Those with educated fathers were more likely to seek labor market entry and consider atypical career paths, while those with a parent working in the private sector were more willing to consider this sector.\nResearch limitations/implications: One limitation was a sample comprising only female students, nonetheless it implies PCB has an impact on \"national\" female labor force participation (FLFP). Therefore, seeking to engage parents as more active stakeholders in vocationally related HEI interventions would benefit from greater policy attention.\nOriginality/value: This paper is the first to consider parental influence on FLFP using the PCB construct. Its value is in the framework model presented and its contribution to the discourse on the Arabian Gulf's labor market dynamics.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Can accreditation help a leopard change its spots? Social accountability and stakeholder engagement in business schools	[ "Ethics", "Sustainability", "Accreditation", "Stakeholder engagement", "Responsibility", "Neo-institutional theory" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: There is considerable debate about the sustainability of industrialisation, population growth, malnutrition and the depletion of natural resources that can be traced back to Rachel Carson's (2000)\nOrganisational change, accreditation and theory: First, this section considers literature that has specifically considered accreditation as a driver for change. Then it considers theoretical insights into organisational change primarily from neo-institutional theory. Within neo-institutional theory accreditation has been identified as a key normative mechanism to initiate change (Scott, 1995), but more recent writings provide a broader framework through which to consider drivers of organisational change.\nResearch methods: Three main research methods were used in this inquiry. First, we undertook an evaluation of the accrediting bodies and their standards. The accrediting bodies considered are AMBA, EQUIS and AACSB. We consider the accrediting bodies' significance in terms of their global and UK membership. In addition, all of the criteria and standards employed by each of these bodies were evaluated with the aim of identifying aspects relating to stakeholder engagement and the key issues of ethics, social responsibility and sustainability. The main concern here was to understand how these had been articulated within the accrediting bodies' values and standards and what related requirements were placed on business schools seeking accreditation. In addition to these three accrediting bodies we similarly evaluate the UN's Principles of Responsible Management Education (PRME) initiative, as this has become the key international body specifically promoting the integration of ethics, responsibility and sustainability into all areas of business and management schools activity. This part of our study was informed by data collected from the web sites and standards from the different accrediting bodies and the UN PRME initiative.\nThe influence of business school accreditations: To our knowledge AACSB, AMBA and EQUIS are the three accrediting bodies that are of most relevance in the UK business school sector. While not an accreditation body in the same way, the UN backed PRME initiative is also gathering support as more and more business schools and universities sign up to its principles and both AACSB and EFMD (EQUIS) were co convenors in establishing PRME in 2007/8. AMBA became a signatory and supporter of PRME in 2009 As of 2012, each of these bodies count business schools from many (AACSB: 43; EQUIS: 38; AMBA: more than 70; and UN PRME: 80) countries including the UK among its membership. Table I summarises the size of the UK and total membership of each of these bodies (as detailed on the respective bodies' web sites).\nThe Aston case: This case study explores the role that accreditation bodies and other key stakeholders played in the development of Aston Business School and importantly the way in which they influenced the stakeholder engagement and the more recent shift in the Aston agenda towards ethics, social responsibility and sustainability.\nDiscussion and conclusion: This paper examines the role that accreditation processes can play in fostering organisational change towards stakeholder engagement and engagement with issues of ethics, social responsibility and sustainability in higher education. We draw on neo-institutional theory and the concepts of institutional contradictions and human praxis (Seo and Creed, 2002); and the exogenous and endogenous dynamics that engender change (Greenwood and Hinings, 1996). In particular we draw on interest dissatisfaction, power dependencies and capacities for action as endogenous dynamics to inform our study. Our evaluation of the accrediting bodies and the UN PRME initiative suggests that they have a significant presence in the UK and globally. The number of organisations accredited by these bodies is growing and so the influence that their standards and principles have will also increase. Moreover, to varying degrees, these bodies require their members to engage with stakeholders and with the issues of ethics, social responsibility and sustainability. As such accreditation may raise institutional contradictions if a member does not engage with its stakeholders or with the issues of ethics, social responsibility and sustainability.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: Neo-institutional theory suggests that organisations change occurs when institutional contradictions, caused by exogenous and endogenous dynamics, increase over time to the point where change can no longer be resisted. Human praxis will result, but only when sufficiently powerful interests are motivated to act. This paper aims to examine the role that the accreditation of business schools can play in increasing institutional contradictions and hence fostering organisational change towards stakeholder engagement and engagement with social responsibility and sustainability issues. Numerous accreditations are promulgated within the higher education and business school contexts and a number of these relate to, or have aspects that relate to, ethics, social responsibility and sustainability.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The paper first analyses the take up of accreditations across UK business schools and then uses a case study to illustrate and explore stakeholder engagement and changes related to ethics, social responsibility and sustainability linked to accreditation processes.\nFindings: Accreditations are found to be an increasingly common interest for UK business schools. Further, a number of these accreditations have evolved to incorporate issues related to ethics, social responsibility and sustainability that may cause institutional contradictions and may, therefore, have the potential to foster organisational change. Accreditation alone, however, is not sufficient and the authors find that sufficiently powerful interests need to be motivated to act and enable human praxis to affect change.\nResearch limitations/implications: This paper draws on previous research that considers the role of accreditation in fostering change that has also been carried out in healthcare organisations, public and professional bodies. Its findings stem from an individual case study and as such further research is required to explore whether these findings can be extended and apply more generally in business schools and universities in different contexts.\nPractical implications: This paper concludes by recommending that the newly established UK & Ireland Chapter of PRME encourages and supports signatory schools to further embed ethics, social responsibility and sustainability into all aspects of university life in the UK. This also provides an opportunity to engage with the accrediting bodies in order to further support the inclusion of stakeholder engagement and issues related to this agenda in their processes.\nOriginality/value: This paper contributes by introducing accreditation as an institutional pressure that may lead indirectly to organisational change and supports this with new evidence from an illustrative case study. Further, it draws on the role of institutional contradictions and human praxis that engender organisational change.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Restaurant and foodservice research: A critical reflection behind and an optimistic look ahead	[ "Hospitality management", "Restaurants", "Food and beverage", "Foodservice research" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: The research in restaurant management and foodservice has been devoted to a variety of subjects from the operations of the business, to restaurant design, to menu development, to the strategic management of foodservice operations, all the way to the human resource factors related to foodservice management. In the field of foodservice management, the context and variety of types of establishments can vary from fine dining restaurants, to foodservice operations within lodging operations, institutional dining venues and to the current trend of the use of food trucks, mobile food carts and even pop-up restaurants. The foodservice industry is inherent in all of the hospitality and tourism environments and therefore knowledge about the operations of foodservice is critical to building the knowledge related to the entire hospitality and tourism fields.\nEvolution of research in foodservice and restaurant management: Foodservice research has become more prevalent over the past 30 years in both the hospitality literature as well as the business academic literature. During the most recent decade, the primary focus of this literature review, the research in foodservice and restaurant management has been in the primary areas of restaurant segments, operations, service quality, restaurant finance, foodservice marketing, innovation and food safety and healthfulness. There are some emerging topics that relate to corporate social responsibility (CSR), sustainability, menu labeling and food trucks, mobile carts and pop-up restaurants that have started to be researched as well. The areas of hospitality human resources, finances and strategic management research trends over the previous decade are reviewed in other papers in a great deal of depth (Harrington et al., 2014; Jang and Park, 2011; Tracey, 2014).\nTopics in foodservice/restaurant research: Restaurant segments\nDiscussion: Key themes\nConclusions: In conclusion, it is evident that there has been a steady interest in the foodservice industry as it changes and evolves, but there are also areas where there are opportunities to add value to the industry through filling gaps with further research. Through the integration of technology and improved service techniques, along with more robust statistical analysis that can be done to provide interesting and informative data analysis, the industry is able to benefit from the continued questions and potential answers that research provides. The restaurant industry is going to continue to be a driving force in the hospitality industry and through attention to quality research will add value to the industry and academics alike.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to present a review of the foodservice and restaurant literature that has been published over the past 10 years in the top hospitality and tourism journals. This information will be used to identify the key trends and topics studied over the past decade, and help to identify the gaps that appear in the research to identify opportunities for advancing future research in the area of foodservice and restaurant management.\nDesign/methodology/approach: This paper takes the form of a critical review of the extant literature that has been done in the foodservice and restaurant industries. Literature from the past 10 years will be qualitatively assessed to determine trends and gaps in the research to help guide the direction for future research.\nFindings: The findings show that the past 10 years have seen an increase in the number of and the quality of foodservice and restaurant management research articles. The topics have been diverse and the findings have explored the changing and evolving segments of the foodservice industry, restaurant operations, service quality in foodservice, restaurant finance, foodservice marketing, food safety and healthfulness and the increased role of technology in the industry.\nResearch limitations/implications: Given the number of research papers done over the past 10 years in the area of foodservice, it is possible that some research has been missed and that some specific topics within the breadth and depth of the foodservice industry could have lacked sufficient coverage in this one paper. The implications from this paper are that it can be used to inform academics and practitioners where there is room for more research, it could provide ideas for more in-depth discussion of a specific topic and it is a detailed start into assessing the research done of late.\nOriginality/value: This paper helps foodservice researchers in determining where past research has gone and gives future direction for meaningful research to be done in the foodservice area moving forward to inform academicians and practitioners in the industry.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
The theory of constraints thinking processes: retrospect and prospect	[ "Continuous improvement", "Problem solving", "Production management" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1 Introduction: The theory of constraints (TOC), conceptualized as a philosophy of continuous improvement, has evolved and expanded its methodological base over time. Originally developed by Dr Eliyahu Goldratt, TOC encompassed a systematic approach to organizational problem solving in the form of \"5 focusing steps,\" first providing a means of identifying the constraining factors preventing a company from achieving its goal through to \"breaking\" the constraints and repeating the process of improvement. The TOC methodology now comprises three main streams that can be considered as operations strategy tools, performance measurement systems, and thinking process (TP) tools (Cox and Spencer, 1998).In much the same way as the \"5 focusing steps\" focus on identifying and managing the constraints on improving performance, the TPs also focus on factors that are currently preventing a system from achieving its goals. As explained later in the paper, the original suite of TPs comprises five logic diagrams (four trees and a \"cloud\"): current reality tree (CRT), evaporating cloud (EC), future reality tree (FRT), prerequisite tree (PRT), transition tree (TT) and a set of logic rules, the Categories of Legitimate Reservation (CLR). The TPs first identify problematic symptoms which provide evidence that the system is not performing as well as desired. These various TP tools are then used to deduce the causes of those symptoms, what needs to be done to correct those causes, and how such corrective actions could be implemented. Thus, it is claimed, TP tools, using the rigour of cause-and-effect thinking following strict logic rules, could be applied to any kind of problem situation if combined with the intuition and knowledge of the persons owning, or intimately involved with the problem (Mabin and Balderstone, 2000). Therefore, decision makers, if they have knowledge of the TPs, could tackle complex problems with efficiency and effectiveness.Despite an increasing interest in the TP tools amongst academics and practitioners, there has been no review of the TOC literature that relates to work published since 2000. Even though Rahman (1998) and Mabin and Balderstone (2000, 2003) have already provided reviews of the broader TOC literature, their work was limited to the papers published before 2000. In addition, the recent development of variant TP tools (such as the \"three-cloud\" approach and the \"EC-CRB-FRB\" method, defined later) has created a need for clarity about the nature and use of such tools amongst academics and practitioners, and particularly newcomers. Therefore, given that over 70 peer-reviewed papers on the TPs have been published since 2000, an extended review of the literature would be informative as well as timely. Thus, this paper aims to:* provide a comprehensive review of the TPs literature to identify, categorize and summarize key research issues that have been studied so far;* identify relevant taxonomies and develop multiple ways of categorizing the literature that relate to the nature of the TP tools, methodological development, and application areas; and* suggest fruitful areas for future research on the TPs.The remainder of the paper is organized as follows. In Section 2, some basic descriptive statistics relating to TP publications are presented, before explaining the categorization process and providing summary statistics for those categories. Then, in Section 3, we will present an overview of the literature based on the TP tools employed. In Section 4, the literature related to TP theoretical and methodological issues is discussed. In Section 5, the literature focused on the application of the TPs to functional domains is reviewed. Finally, we provide a general discussion about TPs and present some concluding remarks.\n2 Literature review classifications: 2.1 Descriptive statistics for the literature\n3 A literature review based on TP tools: TP logic tools were developed to facilitate beneficial change, which in most circumstances requires, or relates to, overcoming resistance to change. By using the TP tools, individually or in concert, an organization can successfully develop and implement change solutions. Figure 2 shows a timeline of TP tool development and appearance in the TP literature.In this section, the subsequent development of TP tools is explained by exploring the literature to assess the nature of the TP tools employed.3.1 Current reality tree: traditional approach vs three cloud approach\n4 A literature review focused on epistemology in TOC TPs: In Section 2, we classified the literature based on an assessment of their theoretical/methodological orientation. Table I shows that 57 papers of a theoretical/methodological nature were identified and could be classified into three sub-areas relating to concept development, methodological comparison, and enhancement/multi-methodology. Having already discussed concept development in dealing with the literature review on TP tools, the next sections will explore broader TP methodological matters surfacing in the literature review and comment on the use of the methodologies.4.1 Methodological comparisons\n5 A literature review based on applications: Many applications of the TPs have been published since Goldratt's first exposition in 1994. As shown in Table I, there have been 57 application papers which can be clustered in three areas: TP applications to the whole business system, TP applications in functional areas, and in the service sector. Work in each of these categories is discussed in this section.5.1 TP applications to the whole business system\n6 Conclusions: This paper was founded on a desire to characterize the development of TP concepts and tools since the TP tools and methods were first applied in the POM and OR/MS domains over a decade ago. It presents a comprehensive review of the TP literature, as published in refereed journals and conference proceedings, over a 12-year period from 1994 to mid-2006.While the review has revealed specific publications and research gaps in each of the defined categories described in Sections 3-5, some common future research topics and approaches have also been identified. Firstly, no work has been published that relates to CSFs or necessary conditions underpinning the effective implementation of the TPs. Given the importance of measuring and comparing the rate of success/failure with other business improvement approaches, such as ERP, lean, six-sigma, it is a little surprising that the publication of research on this topic has attracted minimal attention amongst TP academics. Further, investigation of CSFs, and/or common problems in the application of the TPs is definitely required.Secondly, in order to provide practitioners and academics with a critical evaluation of TP tools-in-use, the lack of published empirical work on the effectiveness of TP application must be addressed. Further, empirical studies of both cross-sectional and longitudinal nature would be appropriate, because they would promote the testing of research hypotheses, and would strengthen the TPs knowledge base. In particular, this research could be directed towards identifying and measuring performance before and after TOC implementation.Thirdly, the literature reveals an on-going discussion and critique regarding the philosophical underpinnings of TOC as a methodology. One apparent limitation with use of the TPs is that such use appears to be problem driven, that is to be applied only when there is a \"problem\" (Tanner and Honeycutt, 1996; Antunes et al., 2004). The review suggests that there is an unmet need for studies exploring how TOC methods can be applied not just in problem situations, but in situations which are problematic in a positive rather than negative sense. This approach reflects a paradigm shift that has been termed \"blue ocean\" strategy. Kim and Mauborgne (2005) argue that most companies need to create blue oceans, instead of making the mistake of battling for success in a bloody \"red ocean\" of rivals fighting over a shrinking profit pool. They show how a company can create a blue ocean by changing its strategic thinking and using a systems approach. As such, consideration should be given to how the TPs could be applied in situations where \"stretch\" strategic goals are set, not just in response to an existing need to eliminate or ameliorate problems.Finally, it is suggested that it may be worthwhile to identify whether the conventional sequenced use of TP tools should be followed \"blindly.\" TOC provides managers with a suite of TP tools that can be used to improve performance in a variety of problem situations. The review of TP tools-in-use has found that a combination of tools is often applied pragmatically according to the problem situation. Furthermore, there is scope for building on the considerable work that uses the non-TPs part of TOC, to test the impact of using the TPs in addition to, or as an alternative to, the non-TP tools. Many non-TP examples were documented in Mabin and Balderstone (2000), while a recent example, Pirasteh and Farah (2006) documents a study combining TOC's five focusing steps with lean and six sigma, with remarkable results. One wonders whether the results would be significantly different if the TPs were used. Thus, further investigation relating to the methodological appropriateness of different combinations, or sequenced use, of TP tools in specific situations is desirable.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: - This paper seeks to provide a timely review of developments to the theory of constraints (TOC) body of knowledge, particularly the TOC thinking processes as reported in the public domain peer-reviewed literature, and to present an analysis of the nature of the thinking processes (TPs), and their methodological and applicatory evolution.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - Research reported in the public domain from 1994 to early 2006, as peer-reviewed journal articles or as papers published in refereed conference proceedings, was reviewed to summarize key research issues that have been studied and to suggest future research. The literature is categorized along several dimensions and according to several emergent and self-defined clusters that relate to application area, methodology and epistemology.\nFindings: - This paper presents a comprehensive review of the TP literature, identifies specific publication and research gaps as they relate to the defined classification and also provides some future research topics.\nResearch limitations/implications: - The review addresses only the peer-reviewed literature spanning a limited period from 1994 to the time of the current work in early 2006 - that is the period since the publication of Goldratt's It's Not Luck. In doing so, the review complements the work of others for the period to 2000, extends previous reviews beyond 2000, whilst providing an additional focus on the TPs.\nPractical implications: - This paper provides useful insights about the development of the TOC body of knowledge, especially as it relates to the development and reported use of the TPs as stand-alone tools or in tandem with other tools or methods. It provides a valuable summary, for academics and practitioners, of the developing TOC body of knowledge that has been reported in the peer-reviewed literature.\nOriginality/value: - The development of the TOC body of knowledge has been largely practice-led, manifested not only in the diverse nature of application areas and in the diverse use of TOC tools, but also in the broader evolution of TOC methodology, methods and tools. Earlier reviews of the literature in this journal preceded many of the developments documented here. This paper will help position the many TOC methods and tools in relation to one another, as well as capturing developments in multi-methodological usage across several domains.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Constructing an information science resource ontology based on the Chinese Social Science Citation Index	[ "Information science", "Chinese Social Science Citation Index", "Ontology construction", "Resource ontology", "Semantic similarity" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Ontology is a concept originally studied in philosophy that has also been explored in artificial intelligence and other computer science fields (Li, 2005). Gruber considered ontology to be the explicit specification of concepts. His definition has been widely applied to information systems and knowledge management. Contemporary scholarship divides the concept of ontology into domain ontology, top-ontology (also called general ontology), Applied ontology, and representation ontology (Dong, 2008). In this study, semantic theory is used as a basis, with additional information imported to expand semantic theory to construct resource ontology. a resource ontology (RO) is an explicit specification of a library resource sharing concept model combined with concept relationships. RO is based on five principles:\nRelated work: Gruber proposed five objective criteria for ontologies: clarity, coherence, extendibility, minimal encoding bias, and minimal ontological commitment (Gruber, 1995). Unfortunately, it is difficult to simultaneously satisfy all five criteria when constructing ontologies. Extendibility does not conflict with minimal encoding bias, nor does clarity conflict with minimal ontological commitment. However, optimising clarity and minimising ontological commitment risks a lower extensibility and a greater encoding bias.\nResource ontology construction based on CSSCI: A general ontology is constructed by covering domain terms (concepts), defining classes and class hierarchies, creating class properties, initialising slot values, and then generating instances (Noy and McGuinness, 2001). We seek to construct a Chinese information science RO that inherits the features of a general ontology, but in a unique way (see Figure 1). In this study, the CSSCI-based RO is constructed by Determining ontology category and hierarchy, Defining classes' properties, Adding instances, and Defining instance properties. Determining ontology category and hierarchy and Adding instances are both concept extraction procedures that rely on indexing fields of the CSSCI. Therefore, categories and instances are explicit and non-repeated. The other two steps are parts of the procedure for semantic relation extraction. Category relations rely on informetric relations while instances relations exhibit deep relations.\nConstruction of the Chinese information science resource ontology: Determine a field\nConclusions and future work: In this study, information science articles from 2001 to 2010, indexed in CSSCI, were retrieved and analysed to construct a Chinese information science RO using a partially automated ontology construction method. This approach provides a baseline for partially automated ontology construction.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: The purpose of this study is to construct a Chinese information science resource ontology and to explore a new method for semiautomatic ontology construction.\nDesign/methodology/approach: More than 8,290 articles indexed in the Chinese Social Science Citation Index (CSSCI), covering the years 2001 to 2010, were included in this study. Statistical analysis, co-occurrence analysis, and semantic similarity methods were applied to the selected articles. The ontology was built using existing construction principles and methods, as well as categories and hierarchy definitions based on CSSCI indexing fields.\nFindings: Seven categories were found to be relevant for the Chinese information science resource ontology, which, in this study, consists of a three-tier architecture, 78,291 instances, and 182,109 pairs of semantic relations. These results indicate the following: further improvements are required in ontology construction methods; resource ontology is a breakthrough concept in ontology studies; the combination of semantic similarities and co-occurrence analysis can quantitatively describe relationships between concepts.\nOriginality/value: This study pioneers the resource ontology concept. It is one of the first to combine informetric methods with semantic similarity to reveal deep relationships in textual data.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
E-atmosphere, emotional, cognitive, and behavioral responses	[ "Risk management", "Internet", "Shopping", "Clothing" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Apparel is the most popular product category in online shopping, overtaking even computers and will continue to grow over the next five years (Corcoran, 2007). As online apparel shopping increases, online apparel retailers have made efforts to enhance their website technologies to improve consumers' shopping experiences. In fact, technologies such as zooming in on website images and swapping different colors on clothing have led to a jump in apparel sales (Internet Retailer, 2007). The apparel consumption experience is directly related to body-related information, such as touch and fit (Rosa et al., 2006). Owing to the inability to try on products, shopping for apparel online has been associated with high risk, compared to online purchases of other consumer products (Ernst & Young, 2001). However, there are some strategies apparel websites can use to lessen the risk. For example, websites could use human models to show how garments should fit, or employ technological devices such as color swapping on clothing and enlargement of product images to give shoppers a better idea of how garments will look. Such strategies may facilitate consumers' imagery process related to product consumption, provide enjoyable shopping experiences, and minimize the perception of risk in online apparel shopping.The present study examined the effect of using a human model, color swapping on clothing, and enlargement on consumers' emotional responses, such as pleasure and arousal, which may, in turn, influence their cognitive and behavioral responses. Although some researchers assume that emotion is a synonym for mood and use the concepts interchangeably (Sherman et al., 1997), some have distinguished mood from emotion. Mood is \"a phenomenological property of an individual's subjectively perceived affective state,\" which is transient, (Gardner, 1985, p. 282). An individual's mood can affect behavior without interfering with other cognitive processes (Clark and Isen, 1982). On the other hand, emotions are more intense, attention-getting, related to a specifiable behavior (Clark and Isen, 1982), and more encompassing (Babin et al., 1992) and affect consumers' behavioral responses within the environment (Mehrabian and Russell, 1974). However, the role of emotions (pleasure and arousal) has less frequently been investigated in marketing literature compared to that of mood or affect (Sherman et al., 1997; Wulf et al., 2006).\nTheoretical background: The Mehrabian and Russell (1974) (M-R) Model is based on the Stimulus-Organism-Response (S-O-R) paradigm, suggesting that stimuli in the environment influence internal states (emotional reactions), which in turn evoke approach/avoidance behaviors. The model suggests that in any environment, including retail stores, three basic emotional states, known as PAD (Pleasure-Displeasure (P), Arousal-Nonarousal (A), and Dominance-Submissiveness (D)) meditate approach-avoidance behaviors. However, in later research, researchers found that dominance was not significantly related to approach-avoidance responses and the two dimensions of pleasure and arousal sufficiently explained individuals' emotional responses to the environment (Donovan and Rossiter, 1982; Russell and Pratt, 1980). The PAD typology has been criticized for the narrow scope of its internal states (Eroglu et al., 2001; Richins, 1997). Eroglu et al. (2001) suggests that cognitive internal states also should be considered in addition to emotional internal states. Cognitive states refer to \"everything that goes in the consumers' minds concerning the acquisition, processing, retention, and retrieval of information\" (Eroglu et al., 2001, p. 181) and include attitudes, beliefs, comprehension, and knowledge. Thus, Eroglu et al. (2003) expanded the M-R Model to include cognitive states (attitude) as part of the organism. The purpose of this experiment was to test the Mehrabian and Russell (1974) model in the context of the online apparel shopping environment. The website atmosphere manipulation represents the stimuli in the S-O-R model. The organism part is represented by affective states (pleasure and arousal) and cognitive processes (perceptions of amount of information and risk). The response part is represented by purchase intention.E-atmosphere and emotional states\nMethod: Experimental design\nAnalysis and results: All multi-item variables were subjected to principal component analysis with varimax rotation and reliability (Cronbach's alpha) analysis. Items with the factor loadings above 0.50 were included in each factor (Kline, 1998). As a result of principal component analysis of perceived risk items, three reliable factors (Product quality/online transaction risk; Consequential risk; Social and psychological risk) were generated. Pleasure, arousal, perceived amount of information, and purchase intention were unidimensional.Hypothesis testing: structural equation modeling\nDiscussions and implications: This study found an effect for the use of enlargement on pleasure, supporting the previous environmental psychology studies that used the S-O-R paradigm (Donovan and Rossiter, 1982; Eroglu and Machleit, 1990; Eroglu et al., 2003). A recent report shows that rich, enhanced imaging increases apparel sales online (Corcoran, 2007). Enlargement may be one of the most important elements for rich imaging and an essential function for online product examination; consumers can examine products more closely in terms of the fabric structure and qualities, and other details in apparel online shopping. This finding provides online apparel retailers valuable information that the ability to closely examine products using an enlargement device (i.e. larger images) influences shoppers' pleasurable shopping experience. Thus, online apparel retailers should be aware of the significance of investing in technological devices (e.g., different product views in larger images) that help shoppers more closely inspect product details. In this study, the use of color swapping had no effect on emotions. The possible reason might be that the experiment was highly controlled, which is different from a real-life situation. For instance, the choice of the colors of the garments was limited to three colors and the experimental condition might have affected participants' degree of pleasure and arousal experienced from the website reducing the reality of the shopping situation. It was also found that the use of model had no effect on emotions. In this study, even in the treatment conditions where a model was used, the model's face and lower body were excluded from the picture because the facial attractiveness of the model might influence participants' degree of pleasure and arousal. Therefore, the participants viewed only the upper body of the model showing the sweater styles. Although the sweater style was displayed on the human model, it is possible that the effect of using a model might be reduced because of the absence of model's face and lower body, which might influence participants' imagery-process as well as emotional responses in the shopping situation.This study found that people who felt more pleasure from the website were likely to perceive more information. Research has found that consumers' mood may be considered a source of internal information, in that when people retrieve the memory related to the use of a specific product, they also are reminded of the hedonic or emotional values of the product called consumption emotion (Chaudhuri, 1997). An individual is aware of his or her emotions and the effects, and emotional states affect ongoing behaviors (Simon, 1967). On the other hand, an individual may or may not be aware of his or her mood and its effects, and mood rarely interrupts ongoing behavior (Clark and Isen, 1982). Therefore, in online shopping, pleasure and arousal, rather than mood, may have a more direct and immediate effect on customers' responses, such as perceived amount of information, perceived risk, and purchase intention. In addition, because consumers may be limited in the amount of external information due to their inability to try on the product or gain tactile information while shopping for apparel online, they may rely more on their emotional states, such as pleasure for internal information. Accordingly, a positive emotional state (pleasure) evoked from the website may bias shoppers' estimate of amount of information available from the website. This finding indicates that by providing pleasant shopping environments using multiple images and entertaining technological devices to examine products online apparel retailers can actually increase consumers' perceived amount of information.Consumers' perceived amount of information negatively affected product quality and online transaction risk and consequential risk. Consumers who perceive more information tend to feel less perceived risk concerning product quality and online transaction (i.e. construction, durability, function, and overall quality of the product) and consequences associated with the transaction (i.e. exchange and return). Thus, by helping shoppers perceive a greater amount of information from their website, online apparel retailers may decrease customers' perceived risk and uncertainty related to the online apparel shopping process. Only one of the perceived risk factors, product quality and online transaction risk, negatively influenced purchase intention, supporting the findings of Forsythe and Shi (2003) who found significant relationships between product performance and financial risks and frequency of purchasing online. This finding indicates that product quality and transaction related risk is the most critical concern when consumers make a purchase decision in online apparel shopping. In this study, consequential and social psychological risks did not affect purchase intention. The findings regarding the relationship between perceived risk and purchase intention have been inconsistent. While some studies (Forsythe and Shi, 2003; Park et al., 2005) revealed a significant relationship, some recent studies found an insignificant relationship between the variables (Kim and Lennon, 2006). Because consumers become more familiar with online shopping as well as online apparel shopping processes, they may take the risk factors less seriously as making a purchase decision. In fact, researchers found that consumers who have purchased online may feel confident making transactions online and perceive online shopping less risky, compared to consumers who have not purchased online (Johnson et al., 2003; Park and Stoel, 2005). Particularly, college students are aware that online retailers provide them safe transactions based on their online shopping experiences (Njite and Parsa, 2005). In this study, participants, combining online purchasers and online apparel purchasers, had a fair amount of experience with online and online apparel shopping, which might have alleviated their perceived risk, resulting in insignificant relationships between consequential and social psychological risks and purchase intention.As the results of the post hoc test show, pleasure and arousal negatively affected product quality and online transaction risk. These findings support those of previous research that found that under increasing environmental stimulation (a higher degree of arousal) an individual's attention capacity available for a task is distracted (Cohen, 1978) and as a result, he/she tends to less carefully deliberate the decision task (Mano, 1992). In addition, this study found that not only mood is associated with perceived risk (Park et al., 2005) but also pleasure influences consumers' perceived risk in online apparel shopping. In addition, pleasure and arousal induced from the website were found to be related to purchase intention, supporting the findings of previous studies (Baker et al., 1992; Donovan and Rossiter, 1982; Fiore, 2002; Sherman et al., 1997). Therefore, by creating pleasant and enjoyable environments, online apparel retailers may help shoppers not only to perceive a greater amount of information and improve the understandability of the information, but also to encourage shoppers to purchase within the website. The post hoc test also revealed that perceived amount of information positively affected purchase intention, supporting previous findings (Kim and Lennon, 2000). However, as the additional paths were added, the significance of the relationship between product quality and online transaction risk and purchase intention changed. This finding implies the possibility that emotion (pleasure and arousal) or perceived amount of information might be a better predictor of purchase intention than perceived risk in online apparel shopping.Limitations and future research suggestions\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: - This research is designed to investigate the effects of the apparel online shopping environment on emotions and cognitive and behavioral responses based on Mehrabian and Russell's model, which utilizes the stimulus-organism-response (S-O-R) paradigm.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - A total of 230 female undergraduate students participated in an experiment after browsing a stimulus website. The effects of the use of a model, color swapping on clothing, and enlargement (2 x 2 x 2 between-subjects factorial design) on emotions and the relationships among pleasure, arousal, perceived amount of information, perceived risk, and purchase intention were tested using SEM.\nFindings: - The results showed an effect of enlargement on pleasure (H1c), a positive relationship between pleasure and perceived amount of information (H2a), and negative relationships between perceived amount of information and product quality and online transaction risk (H3a) and consequential risk (H3b), and between product quality and online transaction risk and purchase intention (H4a). The post hoc test revealed the negative relationships between pleasure/arousal and product quality and online transaction risk, positive relationships between pleasure/arousal and purchase intention, and positive relationship between perceived amount of information and purchase intention.\nResearch limitations/implications: - The study used a sample of female undergraduate students at a Midwest university, which limits generalizability to other consumer groups. The experiment was conducted online and the different computer conditions might have influenced respondents' online shopping experiences.\nOriginality/value: - The study enhances understanding of online shopping environment and relationships among the emotional (pleasure and arousal), cognitive, and behavioral response mechanisms.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Arab teachers' perception of parent involvement (PI): components and differences	[ "Israel", "Teachers", "Parental involvement", "Arab education", "Management team" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: A growing body of evidence points to the importance of parental involvement in education (Duch, 2005; Fisher and Kostelitz, 2015; Friedman, 2011; Horvatin, 2011; Shearer, 2006). Parental involvement has been described as an important aspect of the relationship between schools and children's families, due to its effects on enhancing children's academic success, assisting schools organizationally and pedagogically, and increasing school outcomes (Abdullah et al., 2011; Davis-Kean, 2005; Jeynes, 2003). Additionally, PI may mediate the effects of poverty, parents' educational attainment, and race/ethnicity on achievement (Arar et al., 2016; De Civita et al., 2004; Eamon, 2002; Manz et al., 2014; Schreiber, 2002).\nTheoretical overview: Parental involvement in the educational domain\nMethodology: Participants\nResults: Descriptive statistics\nDiscussion and conclusions: The purpose of this study was to examine Arab teachers' perceptions of parental involvement, its components, patterns, and the effects of teachers' socio-demographics on these perceptions. The results indicate that the teachers expressed moderate-high perception of the pedagogy and resources components, compared to moderate perception of the control component. Arab teachers perceive PI as related more to pedagogy and resources issues than to control. This suggests that change has occurred in the perception of PI in the Arab education system, from being a source of resources mobilization (Arar et al., 2014) to active participants in pedagogical issues. This change is part of general changing occurred in the world due to the recent changes in general in societies (Epstein et al., 2002; Zedan, 2012). In the past, aspects of PI mainly included what children do at home outside school and what schools formally told their students' parents to do in periodic meetings at school. Around the world, particularly in western democracies as well as in Israel, schools no longer see their students' parents as an external community as in the past and seek collaboration with parents to create a working-learning environment with them (Dor, 2013; Fisher et al., 2015). Thus, it seems that Arab teachers in Israel have an advanced perception regarding their role as teachers like in western democracies as well as Jewish Israeli teachers (Dor, 2013; Fisher and Kostelitz, 2015). It seems that in spite of the reservations toward PI characteristic of a traditional and collectivist culture such as the Arab culture (Arar and Oplatka 2011), the teachers, educated in higher education institutes in Israel (many of them in ethnically mixed higher education institutes because of the shortage of Arab - only higher education institutions), represent a very advanced sector of the Arab population (Arar and Abu-Asbah, 2013; Zedan, 2012). Yet, Arab teachers were found to be more reserved with the PI phenomenon, specifically PI in pedagogical issues (Arar et al., 2014). However, the study findings indicate that Arab teachers continue to hold traditional perceptions related to the ability of parents to take part in administrative aspects (the control component). These perceptions show that the changes in Arab society in general and in the Arab education system in particular are still at the outset. That sort of perception change requires time, especially if the school staff and the parents still perceive the school principal as fully responsible for administrative issues.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to examine the perceptions of parental involvement among 317 teachers in the Arab education system in Israel.\nDesign/methodology/approach: A questionnaire measured teachers' attitudes regarding parents' involvement in the school relating to pedagogy, resources, and control.\nFindings: The findings show that Arab teachers perceive parents' involvement as related to pedagogy and resources rather than control. In addition, the research results revealed that young teachers in terms of age, and seniority of teaching, and teachers who are not members of the management team demonstrated a stronger perception of the pedagogy and control components than did older and senior teachers and teachers who are members of the management team. However, older and senior teachers and teachers who are members of the management team had a stronger perception that parental involvement related to resources than did young teachers and teachers who are not members of the management team.\nSocial implications: Implications and directions for future research are discussed.\nOriginality/value: The paper contributes to our understandings of the different components that affect parental involvement in developing and minority societies.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Characterisation of air permeability of common ceiling linings and penetrations	[ "Air permeability", "Ceilings", "Leakage function" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: Residential buildings in New Zealand have become increasingly airtight over the last decades (McNeil et al., 2012). The reason for this lies in more modern building materials and components as well as improved construction techniques. An increased level of airtightness has the obvious energy benefit of making it easier to heat the building, as warm air cannot readily escape through gaps and openings in the envelope. However, the tendency to build more airtight also means fewer natural exchanges of the indoor air. This trend has not been reflected in the New Zealand building code in terms of ventilation provisions for increasingly airtight buildings. If the building is not adequately ventilated, however, moisture and pollutants can build up over time to a level where problems might occur. Evidence of this has been found in a tracer gas study (McNeil et al., 2012), suggesting that occupants might not provide enough ventilation by opening windows. A high level of indoor moisture has been found as a consequence of a lack of air exchanges in relatively new, well insulated and warmer buildings (Plagmann, 2016).\n2. Experimental: 2.1 Ceiling test facility\n3. Results and discussion: 3.1 Pressure across a ceiling\n4. Summary: Air permeability measurements for a range of common ceiling linings and ceiling penetrations have been presented. The primary purpose for these data sets is to fill some gaps in numerical simulations. In a case study, the methodology of characterising the in-situ airtightness of the roof envelope and the ceiling is demonstrated and the results compared to what one would estimate from the laboratory figures. While the estimated air leakage rate is in the right order of magnitude, it is approximately 25 per cent lower than the measured rate. Further improvements of this accuracy are likely with a greater data set including the characterisation of more ceilings and ceiling penetrations. More data will be published in the form of BRANZ fact sheets (BRANZ, 2018) over time. Statistical indoor climate data for residential properties is given for four regions throughout New Zealand, which can be used for simulations. A simple mass-balance equation is introduced to establish a fact-based benchmark for sizing of roof ventilation openings. In the absence of more elaborate simulations, this can be used as guidance.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: Air permeability of ceiling linings is an important element in understanding air and moisture flux from living spaces into the roof cavity. Ideally, these two spaces are decoupled to avoid transportation of moist indoor air into the attic space, where it can lead to condensation on the cold roof cladding. The purpose of this paper is to experimentally characterise the air permeability of a variety of common ceiling types. The results are given as leakage functions. Characteristic leakage data are also given for several ceiling penetrations. A case study illustrates the relevance of these data.\nDesign/methodology/approach: A specially designed test facility allows the installation of different ceiling types of up to 38 m2 in area. Laminar flow elements are used to measure the volumetric flow across the ceiling while recording the pressure difference. The experimental data are fitted to the leakage function equation Q =c (DP)n. Ceiling penetrations are characterised in a similar way. For the case studies estimating the transport of moisture into the roof cavity, indoor climate data have been obtained using humidity and temperature sensors.\nFindings: Air leakage functions are given for a number of common ceiling linings and ceiling penetrations. These data can be used in simulations aimed at modelling moisture flux into the roof cavities. In the case study, the authors also give indoor climate data of residential dwellings in New Zealand.\nOriginality/value: This paper addresses the need for robust ceiling air permeability data in whole-house temperature and moisture transport simulations.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Leader-follower crossover: exhaustion predicts somatic complaints via StaffCare behavior	[ "Leaders", "Employee well-being", "Crossover", "Health behaviour" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n__NO_TITLE__: Employees' health and well-being play important roles in an organization's effectiveness. In line with the happy-worker-productive-worker hypothesis, employees who experience large amounts of happiness and well-being have been found to perform better than others (Wright and Cropanzano, 2000, 2007).\nTheoretical framework: Effects of leaders' exhaustion on followers' somatic complaints\nMethods: Procedure and sample\nResults: Preliminary analyses\nDiscussion: The aim of this study was to investigate the direct and indirect crossover of strain from leaders to their followers with a two-wave research design. Specifically, the study investigated how leaders' feelings of exhaustion at Time 1 affected followers' somatic complaints at Time 2. Leaders who were more exhausted were hypothesized to have followers who would report more somatic complaints (H1). The study further looked at why this effect may occur. Leaders' exhaustion was expected to lead to reduced StaffCare behavior (H2), which in turn was expected to increase followers' somatic complaints (H3). Based on this reasoning, StaffCare behavior was examined as a mediator and possible behavioral mechanism in the crossover of strain from leaders to followers (H4).\nConclusion: Healthy employees perform better than others (e.g. Wright and Cropanzano, 2000; Wright and Cropanzano, 2007). But employee health also depends on how leaders feel at work (Skakon et al., 2010). This study investigated the direct and indirect crossover processes of strain from leaders to followers in a two-wave study using multiple sources. Leaders' exhaustion was expected to predict followers' somatic complaints three months later. Further, we hypothesized that leaders' StaffCare behavior would mediate this relation.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to examine the direct and indirect crossover effects of leaders' exhaustion on followers' somatic complaints by testing leaders' health-oriented behavior toward employees as a possible underlying mechanism.\nDesign/methodology/approach: A two-wave online study using data from different sources was conducted. In a sample of 106 leaders and followers, leaders were paired with one or two followers. Leaders rated their level of exhaustion at Time 1, and followers rated their leaders' health-oriented leadership behavior (i.e. StaffCare behavior) and their own level of somatic complaints three months later (Time 2).\nFindings: Results provided evidence of an indirect crossover effect from leaders' exhaustion to followers' somatic complaints through StaffCare behavior. There was no direct crossover effect.\nPractical implications: Findings suggest that organizations should attend to leaders' health as a means to allow for StaffCare behavior and thus protect employee health.\nOriginality/value: StaffCare behavior represents a new concept that focuses on health-related aspects of leadership. This is the first study to take an in-depth look at the question of how this leadership behavior is tied to crossover from leader exhaustion to follower health.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Planning robust policing futures: modelling using multimethodology	[ "System dynamics", "Police", "Scenario planning", "Causal map", "Group model building", "Multimethodology" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: Systems thinking is concerned with the interrelationship between constituent parts and a functioning whole (Trochim et al., 2006). System science as a discipline has both breadth and depth, but specifically within this, systems modelling can be used to increase understanding of complex systems through the exploration of cause-effect and decision making, often where feedbacks exist. Scenario thinking can be used to identify the key driving forces for change which assist model builders in determining the system scope to be modelled.\n2. Multimethodology modelling: In many instances, one modelling method can be sufficient to address real-world issues. A wide range of softer, qualitative operational research methods have been developed over the last 50 years to compliment initial approaches that are based solely on quantitative mathematics. As the number of modelling methods, both hard and soft, has grown, so has the opportunity to combine more than one method together. Where the issue is characterised by higher levels of complexity, it may be necessary to mix several modelling approaches to address it. Combining whole or part methods together for resolving a particular issue is known as multimethodology (Mingers and Brocklesby, 1997; Munro and Mingers, 2002). Multimethodology has been developed over several decades with a large number of publications produced (see review by Howick and Ackermann, 2011). It has been typically based on combining softer problem structuring techniques (Mingers, 2000), but more recently there has been an increased mix of approaches where softer methods have been applied alongside more traditional, harder operational research techniques such as mathematical analysis (Ferreira, 2012) and data mining (Brown et al., 2006). An earlier survey conducted by Munro and Mingers (2002) of operational research specialists identifies this emerging pattern. The study was primarily conducted in the UK to assess the use of multimethodology amongst academics and operational research practitioners. It established that two or three methods employed in combination is common practice. It revealed that equal combinations of hard, soft and mixed approaches are used within multimethodology, with certain techniques often applied in combination. For instance, Delphi and scenario planning for exploring futures; rich picture development emerging from Viable Systems Model and Soft System Methodology; plus using cognitive mapping as a front-end structuring method for the development of system dynamics models.\n3. GMB: The concept of facilitated modelling has been applied to different hard and soft operational research techniques (Franco and Montibeller, 2010) with examples including GMB methodology for system dynamics modelling. All such model building facilitation methods encourage problem owners to take part in model development and subsequently adopt future outcomes predicted by the model through clear and transparent (white-box) construction processes (Andersen and Richardson, 1997). This is in direct contrast to earlier model building approaches where often the focus has been on the construction of grey-box models[3] where the client has some limited understanding of the link between model structure and behaviour.\n4. Policing case study: Devon and Cornwall are two counties in southwest England served by a single police service, Devon and Cornwall Police (DCP). Its response patrol-officer (RPO) function supports the majority of urgent requests for public assistance. DCP had decided to increase the overall police officer headcount from 3,200 to 3,500 in response to growing demands on their services. As the entry point into DCP, the RPO function was having to accommodate an increased number of recruits, while still losing a high number of experiences officers to tenured[4] posts. This had dynamic implications for retention of experience within the RPO function requiring evaluation of different policy responses to this issue.\n5. Case study discussion and implications: This DCP case study demonstrated how system dynamics models can be developed through expert group participation using a modelling multimethodology to help understand complex policy issues for policing services. Applying the multimethodology has generated valuable perspectives into the development of a policy-orientated simulation model with potential adaption and application to other managerial problems.\n6. Conclusion of the case study application: The viable futures negotiated by the group (Phase 1) and associated simulation boundaries informed the search for current barriers in the system (Phase 2) within which existing system constraints would be tested. It also enabled system dynamics structure to be assembled (Phase 3) in a way that accommodated the complex system interactions under consideration.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: The resourcing of policing activity is characterised by a level of complexity, particularly where evaluating alternative policy options is concerned. In this paper, a case study using multimethodological modelling to compare alterative policy choice in a group context is outlined with respect to response-patrol officer (RPO) deployment within a UK police force. The paper aims to discuss these issues.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The application of a three phase modelling process is illustrated where scenario planning is used to generate the scope of the system elements to be modelled. This is followed by causal mapping to identify the barriers to improving officer resourcing, and system dynamics modelling is used to simulate the impacts of a range of policy options within this policing function. A group model building approach was applied throughout the modelling phases with an expert group to negotiate a shared view of the structure and dynamics of the resourcing policy challenges.\nFindings: A fully validated system dynamics model emerged from the multi-phase modelling process which allowed a series of alternative future policy scenarios to be explored and evaluated. Useful policy insights were generated by the system dynamics simulation model which suggested more efficient rules for resource allocation in the police force's RPO function.\nOriginality/value: The insights from this case study demonstrates that multi-phase modelling has potential application in policy exploration across a range of emergency service providers whose actions are governed by both variable demand and constrained supply of resource.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Spatial distribution of touristic flows in a gravity model in South America	[ "International tourism", "Augmented gravity approach", "Dynamic panel GMM", "Regional bloc", "F10", "L83" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Tourism is one of the components of services in international trade that is becoming increasingly important in the global economy. It is a common knowledge that tourism is a source of economic growth and an instrument to create employment and reduce poverty (Ghali, 1976; Williams and Shaw, 1991; Samimi et al., 2011; Schubert et al., 2011; Ardahaey, 2011), mainly in developing economies (Kim et al., 2006; Fayissa et al., 2008; Lee and Chang, 2008; Schubert et al., 2011). South American countries are not the exception, although they have yet a long way to consolidate international tourism as a non-traditional export on which countries could rely for their future prosperity. In this context, knowing and analyzing the particular determinants and factors related to the evolution and characteristics of tourism in the region are key elements that will give guidelines and fundamentals to policymakers.\nLiterature review: Since the 1980s, several studies have focused on modeling and explaining international tourism demand (Lim, 1999; Song and Li, 2008) and on the characterization of international tourism demand from a group of countries to another one (Sinclair and Stabler, 1995). Many methods have been applied (Peng et al., 2014a, 2014b). However, the use of gravity models to analyze tourism flows begins in the decade of 2000.\nInternational tourism in South America: Since the past decades, international tourism has played a crucial role in economic growth around the world and in South American countries in particular. While global tourism industry generated US$7.6 tn (10 per cent of global GDP and 6 per cent of total exports) and 277 million jobs (1 in 11 jobs) in 2014, America was the third most visited region and concentrate 16 per cent of total international arrivals and 22 per cent of total international receipts of the world. During the same year, South America was the second most popular regional destination there, representing 15.7 per cent of inbound arrivals in the region (9.5 per cent of international receipts), after North America with 66 per cent of regional inbound arrivals (76.9 per cent of international receipts). The interesting fact is that in the past decade, international tourism in South America has grown, on average, steadily (except in 2009 due to the global financial crisis), with an annual average growth of 7.2 per cent in arrivals and 11.2 per cent in receipts, and above world average (which was 4.1 and 7.1 per cent, respectively) (World Tourism Organization, 2015; World Bank, 2015).\nMethods and data: The model\nResults: Table III presents gravity equation results using system GMM for the three models: general, intra-bloc and extra-bloc.\nConclusions: Tourism is a sector with particular characteristics. It is a set of goods and services that are summarized in a non-traditional export. Trade in tourism involves the consumption of goods and services in a territory, which needs the physical displacement of the people who make tourism. In the analysis of the determinants of tourism, the traditional variables that affect trade in goods and services come into play, but in addition, there are many other factors that influence the decision of the tourist: the endowment of touristic attractions of a country, the climate, social and political security conditions and availability of free time for holidays, among others.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: This paper aims to investigate the determinants of international bilateral tourism demand in countries of Southern Common Market (specifically, Argentina, Brazil and Uruguay) and Chile.\nDesign/methodology/approach: In this study, an augmented gravity model is used to investigate the determinants of international bilateral tourism demand in countries of Southern Common Market. The novel aspect of the analysis is that three models of tourism are defined, depending on the spatial distribution of tourist arrivals and departures. An intra-regional model, an extra-regional model and a general model are estimated using a dynamic panel data model.\nFindings: The results indicate that traditional gravity variables are significant in explaining bilateral inbound arrivals, but the characteristics and the behavior of the demand of tourism vary on whether the country belongs to the sub-regional bloc.\nResearch limitations/implications: The differences found in this paper might have some impacts on the desired design and direction of the touristic policies of each country.\nOriginality/value: This study analyzes the determinants of international tourism demand through different bilateral relationships, differentiating between intra- and extra-block tourisms.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Integrating risk management in the innovation project	[ "Management", "Innovation", "Risk", "Integration", "Project" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: Companies have to innovate in order to survive (Taplin and Schymyck, 2005) and in economic recessions innovation can help convert a crisis into an opportunity (Mahroum, 2008; Lazzaron, 2010). However, in such turbulent times add further risk to that inherent in innovation (Zhao, 2005; Wang et al., 2010) and product innovation is recognised as an especially high-risk business activity (Stevens and Burley, 1997). Greater competition, rapidly changing technology and customer expectations tend to make innovation more complex with less predictable outcomes (Keizer et al., 2005), increasing the innovator's exposure to risk (Berglund, 2007). While companies should not pursue a strategy of risk avoidance, better project risk diagnosis and management might help adjust the balance between success and failure. More extensive use of explicit risk management might reduce expenditure on failed innovations and also accelerate projects (Mu et al., 2009; Johnson, 2010). But too much or inappropriate risk management could discourage and stifle innovation (Taplin and Schymyck, 2005): a balance is needed. Many organisations recognise the need for a risk management system integrated within project management in general (Williams, 1995; Emblemsvag and Kjolstad, 2006) but this practice is rarely explicit in innovation management.\n2. The need for risk management in innovation: Innovation is the use of newly acquired knowledge in developing a new product or service (Afuah, 2003). Novelty is central to innovation but this inevitably implies risk. Risk is found in all projects but it is especially important in innovation and a high failure rate is common (Simon, 2009): 35 per cent of innovation projects fail commercially, accounting for 45 per cent of new product expenditure (Halman and Keizer, 1994). In some industrialised countries the success rate of new products is 15 per cent and among developing countries, such as Hong Kong, it is just 2 per cent (Ozer, 2006). Efficient innovation management should identify the unacceptable risks as early as possible but often they only become apparent in the later stages, at great expense. However, a fear of failure would be detrimental to innovation; indeed accepting the possibility of failure as an everyday reality is one of the defining characteristics of the innovation project. Any model of the innovation process needs to incorporate failure as a likely outcome. In many other projects abandoning the venture is a theoretical but remote option whereas in the innovation project it is integral to good management. Risk management can help managers make the critical decision to abandon a project, providing an effective filter of the good and poor prospects and helping direct the continuing research that is fundamental in innovation projects. Risk is central to innovation but it is often not managed explicitly. This is in contrast to some other areas of project management where risk has become a major theme (e.g. see: Smith and Merritt, 2002; Smith et al., 2006; Aloini et al., 2007; Lam et al., 2007).\n3. Innovation process models: There are many models of the innovation process capturing the various stages from the generation of the new ideas through to full scale implementation (e.g. see: Goffin and Pfeiffer, 1999; Narvekar and Jain, 2006; Chandra and Neelankavil, 2008). These models were typically developed to manage the innovation of new manufactured products but the same concepts are relevant in process and service innovation (Gobeli and Brown, 1993). The use of more formal management processes has helped improve innovation performance in a range of industries (Griffin, 1997; Tatikonda and Rosenthal, 2000). These formal processes distinguish the classic aspects of innovation management: creativity and ideas management; selection and portfolio management; implementation (Oke, 2007). Many companies adopt a stage-gate approach, considering the process as a series of stages with intermediate decision points. This provides an operational structure taking new products from idea to launch and beyond (Cooper, 2008). However, one criticism of the stage-gate approach is that it focuses on process factors potentially ignoring organisational factors that can have a major impact on innovation performance. The Pentathlon framework (Goffin and Pfeiffer, 1999) offers a more general model including a wider range of soft organisational issues.\n4. Integrating project risk and innovation management models: Each of the stages of the innovation process can be viewed as an information gathering activity. This may involve a variety of specific actions including trials of prototypes, laboratory safety tests, computer modelling, market research, investigations of potential raw materials and assessment of skills' availability. The information is reviewed at the subsequent decision point considering appropriate criteria. The specific criteria may vary between organisations reflecting the local context but will be consistent with those generally judged to be critical to success in product innovation (Keizer et al., 2002). Each decision involves determining the prospects for the innovation and the merits of progressing to the next stage, or abandoning the project. This cycle of information gathering, analysis and management action is itself a form of risk management. However, project risk management makes this process more explicit, formalising the information collection and analysis while acknowledging that many of the data are uncertain. The risk analysis involves estimating the probability of the innovation achieving the desired objectives and also identifying the remaining uncertainties that need to be addressed in the subsequent stages of the innovation process. Figure 1 illustrates this model combining the concepts of the stage-gate innovation process with project risk management. Such graphical models can help communicate practice and stimulate debate (Smith and Merritt, 2002). While decisions may result in abandoning innovation projects that are assessed to be high risk, the outcomes do not always have to be a binary \"progress\" or \"abandon\". Sometimes the outcome may be a recommendation that the decision to proceed is postponed until additional data are provided resulting in a more iterative innovation cycle rather than a simple linear progression, as noted in some variations of the standard stage-gate model (Cooper, 1994). Project risk management encompasses a wide range of technical, financial and market risks and also a range of potentially critical soft organisational issues, as recognised in the Pentathlon model (Goffin and Pfeiffer, 1999; Oke 2007).\n5. Customising project risk concepts: Project risk management has evolved in a range of industries and a set of general concepts has been developed (e.g. see: Smith and Merritt, 2002; Smith et al., 2006; Aloini et al., 2007; Lam et al., 2007). Although the detailed implementation has to be customised to suit the particular context, the core risk management activities can be summarised as identification, analysis, action, and monitoring and controlling risk, as incorporated in the framework of Figure 1.\n6. Methods: The main objective of this study was to determine whether project risk management can offer an explicit contribution to the innovation process. The first explanatory phase involved exploring the literature form the two management disciplines led to the development of the combined framework. This framework appears to provide a consistent model to help appreciate the inter-relationships between project risk and innovation management theory. The second phase of the study used this idealised model in an exploratory manner. It provided a clear structure for examining practice and then identifying the potential for enhanced risk management in innovation. As in other studies, the case study strategy contributes to both theory-testing and theory-building (Eisenhardt and Graebner, 2007).\n7. Current innovation risk management practice: 7.1 Response to the integrated model\n8. The potential for enhancing risk management practice in innovation projects: Comparing the combined risk and innovation management model of Figure 1 with the experiences from the empirical cases study suggests some potential for enhancing practice. The companies used a variety of risk analysis and management techniques, even though they may not always have described them as \"risk management\". However, these techniques were not deployed in a systematic manner. Using the combined model the staff readily discussed gaps in their current management systems and how they might be resolved. Such discussions emphasised the need to deploy risk management with care. In particular innovation is dependent on creativity and there were fears that this could be discouraged by excessive risk management at an early stage. However, simple qualitative risk analysis and management could be valuable as part of the process of filtering the innovations, rejecting more bad ideas while retaining the good. More stringent risk management may be more useful in the later stages as the costs and commitment start to increase.\n9. Conclusion: Innovation projects are distinguished by the high rate of failure and the need to encourage creativity: a dramatic attrition is expected with a large number of ideas resulting in just a few successful products. The possibility of abandoning a project is ever present and inherent in the management of the innovation process. Risk is a major feature in innovation projects but the focus is resolving technical problems rather than considering project risk management in a systematic manner. There appears to be significant scope for more use of project risk analysis and management, with a greater emphasis on learning from previous projects. However, risk management has to be deployed selectively. In particular there is concern that excessive risk management in the early stages could stifle the creativity that is critical to innovation. The combined innovation and risk management model provided a framework that diverse companies can appreciate. It offers a practical basis for designing the most appropriate form of risk management in different innovation-based industries and it also highlights the possibilities for better integration of the theories of innovation and project risk management. In particular the decision points of the stage-gate model provide an effective interface for incorporating project risk concepts. The general concepts appear most relevant to innovation management though it is useful to customise them to emphasise the particular characteristics of innovation projects.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: While innovation has many similarities to other forms of projects it is characterised by a high failure rate and the need to stimulate creativity. More explicit risk management could help in achieving success in innovation projects. However, too much or inappropriate risk management might stifle the creativity that is core to innovation. So, what project risk management should be applied and where in the innovation project?\nDesign/methodology/approach: A theoretical framework is proposed which combines the generic innovation process with project risk management. The framework was used to analyse the current attitudes to managing innovation risk in a series of companies.\nFindings: The decision points of the stage-gate innovation process model provide an effective interface for incorporating project risk concepts. The general concepts appear most relevant to innovation management though it is useful to customise them to emphasise the particular characteristics of innovation projects. The experience of using the resultant combined model in a number of diverse case studies indicates the relevance of the model in understanding attitudes towards risk management in innovation. The analysis of the case study companies suggested that risk management needs to be applied in differential manner: simple, unobtrusive techniques early in the innovation life cycle with more substantial, quantitative methods being considered for later stages.\nResearch limitations/implications: It would be useful to extend this research by examining more case studies from other countries and industries.\nPractical implications: The combined innovation and risk management model provides a framework that diverse companies can appreciate. The framework offers a basis for discussing the most appropriate form of risk management in different innovation-based industries.\nOriginality/value: Although there are many separate models for innovation and project risk management described in the literature, there is very little discussion about explicitly combining these theories. This paper aims to help fill this gap in the knowledge.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Obtaining global certification: Analysis of ownership structures and TQM commitment in emerging markets by adapting the theory of planned behavior	[ "Operations strategy", "Theory of planned behaviour", "Global operations management", "TQM", "Quality management", "Emerging markets", "Ownership structure", "Global certification" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Certification is \"a process in which a central institutional actor with authority or status formally acknowledges that a venture meets a particular standard\" (Sine et al., 2007, p. 578). Because certification requires an organization to subject itself to \"independent and public audit\" (King et al., 2005, p. 1,092), certification by a third-party actor enhances global supplier relationships, as well as its ability to secure resources and survive (Wiley and Zald, 1968). A growing number of studies have examined the drivers and implications of global certifications (e.g. Castka and Corbett, 2016; Corbett et al., 2005; Lo et al., 2013; Naveh and Marcus, 2005; Singh et al., 2011; Terlaak and King, 2006). In particular, there has been a large body of literature that has examined the role, implementation and consequences of ISO 9000 in a variety of settings (Castka and Corbett, 2015; Du et al., 2016; Prajogo, 2011; Prajogo and Castka, 2015; Riillo, 2013). Certified management standards, such as those that encapsulate ISO 9000, could represent \"private decentralized institutions\" because compliance is not required by law, rather it is an action under volitional control or commitment (King et al., 2005, p. 1091).\nTheory and hypotheses: Theory of planned behavior - certification\nMethods: Data\nResults: We report the summary statistics in Table I. We conducted a variance inflation factor (VIF) test that revealed the highest individual VIF was 2.89, which is well below the generally accepted threshold of 10. Models 1-4 of Table II present the probit model results for the total sample. Model 1 includes control variables. Model 2 includes the main effects. The coefficients for SOE, POE and TVE are negative and significant as expected. Model 3 introduces the three interactions with TQM commitment. The coefficients for POExTQM commitment and TVExTQM commitment are significant at only the 10 percent level, while the coefficient for SOExTQM commitment is not significant as predicted. The change in log pseudo likelihood is significant at the 10 percent level. Though not hypothesized, we added the interaction for stock ownership organizationxTQM commitment in model 4. Its coefficient is not significant and the hypothesized results remain unchanged.\nDiscussion: The present study leveraged the theory of planned behavior in order to develop a framework to explain ISO 9000 certification in emerging markets. Our empirical results show strong support for our application of planned behavior theory at the organizational level, with one key distinction - firms that lack intention don't obtain global certification, as such a refined sample was warranted. By adapting the theory of planned behavior to the organization level, we considered an organization's ownership structure - which captures the organizational culture (as a proxy for perceived behavioral control) - as a predictor of ISO 9000 certification (a proxy for a goal-directed behavior), and its TQM commitment (as a proxy for attitude toward a behavior) as a moderator. An important aspect of our study is the selective moderating role of TQM commitment, which had been overlooked in prior ISO 9000 certification studies.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to examine predictors of obtaining global certification (ISO 9000) in an emerging market by focusing on ownership structure and total quality management (TQM) commitment.\nDesign/methodology/approach: This paper adapts the theory of planned behavior to explain organizations that obtain global certification in an emerging market (China). Using 269 service firms at different stages of ISO 9000 certification (a proxy for goal-directed behavior/excellence by organizations), the study examines the influence of ownership structures (a proxy for perceived behavioral control) and TQM commitment (a proxy for attitude toward a behavior), using a probit model.\nFindings: The results showed that ownership structures that were state-owned enterprises, privately owned enterprises and township-village enterprises (TVEs) had a lower probability of obtaining global certification. However, TQM commitment moderates the relationship between ownership structure and obtaining ISO 9000 certification for POEs and TVEs. The study found stronger results for a subsample of organizations that intended to obtain ISO 9000 certification. Among organizations without ISO 9000 certification, we examined organizations that began the learning process for ISO 9000 and those that had not, and found differences based on competitive pressures, ownership structures, and the moderating effect of TQM commitment.\nResearch limitations/implications: Future research may consider manufacturing organizations and other countries to further validate the findings of our study.\nPractical implications: Creating strong TQM commitment can be an effective means for POEs and TVEs to obtain ISO 9000 certification.\nOriginality/value: This study is the first to adapt the theory of planned behavior for an organization-level analysis of ISO 9000 certification, especially in the service operations setting. The study found that TQM commitment selectively moderates ownership structures in explaining the probability that an organization obtained ISO 9000 certification.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Greening of business schools: a systemic view	[ "Sustainable development", "Brazil", "Business schools", "Environmental management" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1 Introduction: Organizations such as companies or universities are usually responsible for the severe environmental degradation we have witnessed (Haden et al., 2009; Hoffman and Woody, 2008; Alshuwaikhat and Abubakar, 2008). Changes in this scenario require a management behavior which takes in account the environmental implications of each of the numerous decisions that managers take over their careers. Environmentally aware managers tend to make decisions that engender lower environmental impacts compared to the environmental impacts caused by managers who ignore or have limited knowledge in environmental management (Kruglianskas, 1993; Goncalves-Dias et al., 2009). The relevance of environmental issue for business schools is evident with the theme of Academy of Management (AOM) Annual Meeting, Chicago, 2009: \"Green Management Matters\" (AOM, 2009).This argument has deep implications for business schools (Kruglianskas, 1993; Holt, 2003). The first one concerns about the significant effect environmental education or education in environmental management (Leal Filho, 1997) disseminated by these schools can cause in the way in which organizations consider the environment and the way the managers include environmental variables in their decision process. The second implication is tied to the fundamental role of a business or management school in the generation of scientific knowledge about environmental management, a knowledge which promotes oxygenation, new ideas and practices which lead to a business management with environmental excellence. The third, but not less important implication concerns the internalization in the business schools of best practices in organizational environment management; otherwise, it refers to environmental management which occurs in the core of these schools.The literature on the subject can be considered meager (Thompson, 1985; Stubbs and Cocklin, 2008; Rusinko, 2005; Rohweder, 2004) and when existing tends to report experiences and challenges faced by business schools on the inclusion of environmental issues in their teaching activities, research, extension community, and university management, considering these activities almost always as watertight. For example, there are works that:analyze that business schools are not forming managers with suitable environmental knowledge (Hoffman, 1999);which develop new teaching-learning methods in order to promote business environmental management teaching (Rusinko, 2005);which analyze the incorporation of environmental subjects in management curriculum (Smith et al., 1994; Rohweder, 2004; Holt, 2003); andwhich demonstrate how universities take the challenge of adopting environmental management practices (Carpenter and Meehan, 2002; Sharp, 2002).The interest in this research object is growing and shown, for example, by the special publication of the Journal of Management Education on \"Teaching about the natural environmental management in education\" (Egri and Rogers, 2003).However, one issue is not adequately discussed in the literature: in the context of a holistic approach, how can the business schools' contributions for the creation, diffusion and adoption of knowledge in environmental management be analyzed? This paper aims to deal with this concern, since they propose a model for analyzing the contributions of these schools for the creation, diffusion, and adoption of knowledge in environmental management; this model encompasses the fundamental purposes of academic activities, be them teaching, research, extension community, and university management. In addition to this model, examples and empirical evidence on the manner by which some business schools have contributed with knowledge on business environmental management are considered.The structure of this paper is as follows: in section 2 there is a conceptual reflection on the relationship between higher education institutions and, in particular the business schools, and the environment; in section 3 the model for analyzing the contributions of the business schools for environmental management knowledge is presented, which is explained in sub-sections 3.1, 3.2, and 3.3; in section 4 discussions on an evolutionary scale for analysis of the business schools contributions on environmental management knowledge are presented, the conclusions are finally presented in section 5.Some conceptual and methodological challenges turn around this search. The first of them concerns the limits of \"business schools\", since many of them are within broader units of education such as a Faculty of Economics, Business Management and Accounting. Therefore, in this paper, \"business schools\" refer the reader to the teaching, research, and extension community activities which occur in undergraduate and graduate programs devoted to administrative science, regardless of whether the studied educational institution has other courses within the same school (e.g. economics and accounting courses). Note, however, that when the paper refers to the activities of the university administration, it will generally be based on the entire apparatus of the environmental management of the educational institution, once the adoption of an environmental management practice in a school that includes a course in business management has effects over all involved courses and education departments.The second point worth to be mentioned concerns the choice of universities and business schools mentioned in Section 3. Preferably organizations were cited for outstanding academic excellence, especially those listed in the rankings of best universities ((The) Times Higher Education, 2008).\n2 Higher education institutions, business schools, and environment: At present, higher education institutions can generate significant environmental impacts. Many of them, due to their large size, expressive movement of people and vehicles, high consumption of materials, and strong development of complex activities, may be considered as \"small towns\" (Alshuwaikhat and Abubakar, 2008).Although some measures to reduce environmental impacts can be seen in some universities such as Yale University and Harvard University, a more wide understanding of how main academic activities such as teaching, research, extension community, and university administration can contribute to a campus become more sustainable is still lacking (Alshuwaikhat and Abubakar, 2008). Leal Filho (2000) made a survey to discuss this aspect, showing that although there is a high level of acceptance on the importance of pursuing sustainability - with its economic, social and environmental dimensions - there is a significant misunderstanding regarding the meaning this term, and a considerable portion of this terminological confusion is generated in university field (Leal Filho, 2000). After conducting this research with 40 participants from European universities, through in-depth interviews with deans and vice-deans, Leal Filho (2000) systematized the main barriers to the creation, diffusion, and adoption of sustainability principles in universities:Sustainability is in itself an extremely abstract concept, lacking relationship with the academic routine.The university does not have sustainability skilled staff and experts to suitably deal with the issue.The university has no financial resources to invest in sustainability issues.Sustainability is an issue for environmentalists, with no scientific value as already consolidated and classical areas of expertise.In view of the difficulties to address in a single search the subject of university sustainability, which would involve economic, social, and environmental discussions in the context of higher education institutions, this paper mainly, focuses the business schools, relating them to the \"environmental\" aspect of sustainability. Therefore, the issue moves to the following doubt: would business schools preparing future managers to think about environmental issues with which they will inevitably deal? Unfortunately the answer tends to be predominantly \"no\" (Hoffman, 1999). Considering that environmental issues are part of routine in any organization, it would be praiseworthy to include such issues in courses offered by business schools. Although some research propose schemes for assessing the universities sustainability (Alshuwaikhat and Abubakar, 2008), such schemes tend to wideness, generalization, and limited scope when you look at special educational institutions such as the business schools.\n3 Business schools and knowledge on environmental management: A significant portion of environmental impacts generated daily on the environment are attributed to organizations, such as the potentially disastrous climate changes that are forthcoming (Boiral, 2006). But when we keep in mind that organizations are social constructions, influenced by the decisions of individuals who work there (Hall, 2004), we are aware that many organizational decision makers tend to disregard the environmental issue in their processes of reflection. Would the managers of past, present and future have an amount of useful knowledge to the environmentally suitable decision-making process? Any of the possible answers to this question, positive, negative or intermediate, generates clear implications for business schools, typical organization of organizational manager formation.This question is not a new one. In the 1980s, Thompson (1985) had already indicated the inevitability of the environmental movement being a concern for business schools. The same issue led Hoffman (1999) to conclude that the business schools in the USA were not incorporating environmental awareness into their core activities. Moreover, according to this author, environmental management knowledge taught to students is often viewed as secondary when compared to other classical management disciplines. In fact, this position does not reflect the current progress of available knowledge on the positive impacts of the environmental management activities on organizations' competitiveness (Molina-Azorin et al., 2009; Lopez-Fernandez and Serrano-Bedia, 2007; Bansal and Gao, 2006).To reflect the current organizational reality, business schools must make clear to students that they can be good managers while considering environmental aspects in their decision-making processes and daily activities (Hoffman, 1999). Environmental management objectives are consistent with business objectives and other performance indicators of organizations mainly because environmental management strategies can generate opportunities such as \"win-win\" type, in which environmental and business indicators in a specific organization are improved.Despite the results of research efforts of some business schools in becoming environmentally suitable, it is evident that many of these initiatives tend to evaluate this object from a restricted point of view, focusing on teaching activities, research, extension community, and university management individually and in a stuck way. The literature is meager, therefore, in an integrating model for these activities in order to better assess the contributions of business schools for generation of environmental knowledge. Consequently, it is suggested to use the model shown in Figure 1 for this purpose, in which teaching activities, research, extension community, and university management are articulated in three bases of analysis: creation, diffusion, and adoption of environmental management knowledge. Each of these analytical axes, added to some relevant empirical evidence, is described as follows.3.1 Creation of environmental knowledge in business schools\n4 Greening the business schools: evolutionary stages: Stakeholders (Jones, 1996) require methodologies to help to assess the contributions of business schools for creation, diffusion, and adoption of knowledge on environmental. Among those interested, we can highlight the following categories:Current school students, in order to identify opportunities for research in environmental area as well as to propose suggestions for improving the suitability of environmental knowledge and practices of environmental management.Prospective students, in order to examine, more completely, the schools that most contribute for environmental management knowledge and which may be fit to their objectives on education and research.Professors, employees, and students, in order to assess the business school strengths and weaknesses on environmental management.Thus, an evolutionary scale may be useful to assess the dimensions of creation, diffusion, and adoption of environmental management knowledge by business schools. In this paper, the proposed evolutionary scale for school classification considers the following criteria:Formalization. There are of teaching, research, extension community activities, and university management which contribute to the knowledge in environmental management on a formal and institutionalized way, with support of school's top management. For example, schools where the discipline of environmental management is elective may become subject to fluctuations in environmental knowledge level, as teachers of environmental area may migrate to the teaching of compulsory subjects.*Effectiveness. It analyzes if contributions of business schools to the environmental knowledge are, in fact, effective, generating research activities, education, extension community, and university management focusing environmental aspects. Examine, therefore, the school's capacity to transform reality, being nationally and internationally recognized.The combination of these two dimensions allows the design of a scale to rate the contribution degree of a particular business school environmental management knowledge (Table I). As this proposal, schools could be divided into four possible stages:1. Counterproductive stage of environmental knowledge due to not considering environmental issue in their core activities.2. Fragile contributor stage, with respect to schools that have significant result in terms of inclusion of environmental issues in their activities but do so on a little formal and generally too dependent on a few professionals.3. Potential contributor stage, which includes schools that, despite institutionalize the inclusion of environment aspects in their activities, do it not effectively, or because they are being structured, or the difficulty in mobilizing human resources for this purpose.4. Effective contributor stage to the schools that have the approach of environmental issues so institutionalized on the of teaching, research, extension community, and university management being nationally and internationally recognized for its contributions to environmental management.It is recognized, however, that between the extremes \"weak formalization\" and \"strong formalization\" and between \"low efficiency\" and \"high efficiency\", there may be several intermediate positions in which some business schools can be placed.\n5 Conclusions: The conclusions of this paper will be exposed to the reader through discussions about the scope of the previously proposed objective, the comparison with other studies regarding practical implications and limitations, and opportunities for future research.5.1 About the proposed goal\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: - The purpose of this paper is to present a model for the analysis of business schools as creators, disseminators, and adopters of knowledge on environmental management.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - A review of the importance of higher education institutions for sustainability, and more specifically, about their relevance for the creation, diffusion, and adoption of knowledge on environmental management is performed. Guided by this reflection, a model for analyzing the contributions of business schools for expertise in environmental management is proposed. This model considers that activities such as teaching, research, extension community, and university management are elementary for these schools. For each addressed topic, empirical evidence on how some business schools and universities are addressing the environmental dimension in its activities is presented.\nFindings: - The paper's discussions lead the reader to a draft of the evolutionary stages of business schools' contribution for environmental management knowledge, which can be useful for many stakeholders linked to a business school. Finally, the opportunity for a continuation of this research line and the limitations inherent in this proposal are highlighted.\nOriginality/value: - The literature on the subject can be considered meager and when existing tends to report experiences and challenges faced by business schools on the inclusion of environmental issues in their teaching activities, research, extension community, and university management, considering these activities almost always as watertight.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Social media as a resource in SMEs' sales process	[ "SMEs", "Networks", "Social media", "Relationships", "Resources", "Sales management" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n__NO_TITLE__: Social media as a resource in SMEs' sales process\n1. Introduction: Small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) are facing new challenges in the current competitive scenario, characterized by increasing variety and uncertainty in market demand and stronger competition brought by globalization processes (OECD, 2009; European Commission, 2014). On the one hand, SMEs suffer long-standing weaknesses in terms of financial, human and organizational resources, which make them highly vulnerable in their markets (Gilmore et al., 2001; Merrilees et al., 2011). On the other hand, there is also evidence of an increasing attitude by SMEs to exploit more effectively their networking ability to overcome size-related limitations, pursuing access to external resources - not directly controlled - to develop innovations in products, technologies and to expand in new markets (O'Donnell, 2011; Jamsa et al., 2011). This capacity to mobilize resources through relationships and networks seems to be supported by effective adoption of information and communication technologies, which allow some SMEs to maintain or reinforce their competitive position by strengthening customer relationships with positive impact on sales performance (Boeck et al., 2009; Harrigan et al., 2012; Nguyen and Waring, 2013; Abebe, 2014; Roman and Rodriguez, 2015; Bocconcelli et al., 2016).\n2. Background literature: 2.1 Social media and sales process\n3. Research methodology: This paper adopts a single longitudinal case study methodology (Yin, 2003; Dubois and Gadde, 2002), because of the exploratory nature of the research questions. Single-case studies allow to uncover and illustrate the main features of processes, relationships and networks emerging within complex phenomena, which are still under-researched (Halinen and Tornroos, 2005; Vissak, 2010). They help in addressing \"how\" and \"why\" research questions (Yin, 2003). The longitudinal perspective (Medlin, 2004) allows for depicting change processes over time due to the nature and complexity of the topic under examination. This approach is deemed as useful to explore both the intra (Huber and Van de Ven, 1995) and inter-organizational dimensions (Medlin, 2004) and to highlight emerging learning processes (Martens et al., 2012). In this respect, we argue that using a longitudinal case study approach allows for exploring resource combination and interaction patterns within SM adoption processes. Moreover, the choice of a single-case study methodology is in line with previous IMP-based studies aiming to uncover processes concerning resource mobilization and development (Cantu et al., 2012; Ciabuschi et al., 2012; Chou, 2016) and, specifically, IT adoption and use (Baraldi and Waluszewski, 2005). The choice of this methodology is in line with previous calls on case study research by Jones (2010) and Guesalaga (2016, p. 78), who argue that future studies on the use of SM in sales - based on an interactional approach - should include the time dynamics, \"which is more likely to be accomplished by analyzing the phenomenon in one company, as opposed to studying the behavior of many companies\".\n4. Gamma case study: 4.1 Gamma's market changes and the adoption of social media\n5. Discussion of results: The case analysis in the previous section provides useful evidence and insights to address the two research questions. A synthesis of research results is presented below:\n6. Conclusions: This study contributes to the emerging stream of research on SM adoption in SMEs' sales activities showing - through an in-depth single-case study, as called upon by various authors (Jones, 2010; Guesalaga, 2016) - that this process could be understood more in depth by conceiving SM as a resource whose introduction and use is shaped by its dynamic interconnection and combinations with other resources within the firm and within the network of relationships where the firm is involved. The IMP perspective on resources has provided an effective conceptual framework able to explore more in depth both the \"resource\" and \"networking\" dimensions of SMEs, which are highly debated in the small firm management literature (O'Donnell, 2011) and to shed new light on emerging \"distributed leadership\" configurations within SMEs (Cope et al., 2011).\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to explore the impact of social media (SM) adoption in upgrading and innovating selling processes by small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) facing complex and rapidly changing market scenarios.\nDesign/methodology/approach: To achieve this goal, the paper undertakes an exploratory case study of Gamma, a mechanical company, by actively using SM to start and open a new market. The case-study is analyzed through the industrial marketing and purchasing (IMP) approach, which emphasizes the role of interaction and the interdependencies of resources.\nFindings: The adoption of SM resources helped Gamma to tap into new markets and thus survive and face the downturn of its original market. SM displayed its effects in combination with other resources: a simple and not expensive machinery, capable human resources, effective production and logistical resources. SM represented a strategic resource to implement an effective business networking effort.\nOriginality/value: This paper provides novel empirical evidence and conceptual development over the role of SM as a resource in SMEs' sales processes, using the IMP perspective on combination and development of resources.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
The relationship between face to face social networks and knowledge sharing: an exploratory study of manufacturing firms	[ "Knowledge management", "Face to face social networks", "Knowledge sharing" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: The primary goal of this research is to explore the nature of the relationship between face-to-face social networks and the sharing of knowledge. Knowledge is recognised to be the only resource that increases in value, so it is worth putting great effort into managing it (Probst et al., 2000). All organisations make strategic decisions, but smart decision-making lies at the heart of organisational knowledge and its management (Chien, 2006). Aside from its role in decision-making, knowledge management can add value in terms of innovation. Innovation is becoming an important driving force for individual companies, as well as the entire economy, and can play a significant role in the success of organisations (Gonzalez-Padron et al., 2010; He and Abdous, 2013). Another valuable outcome of knowledge management is that it has given many organisations a sustainable competitive advantage (Davenport and Prusak, 2000; Gonzalez-Padron et al., 2010; Liu and Lai, 2011), giving them a high ranking position in their markets.\n2. Literature review: 2.1 Social networks\n3. Research methodology: To explore the nature of the relationship between face-to-face social networks and knowledge sharing, a qualitative methodology was adopted. A semi-structured interview guide was prepared and was used in the data collection from 25 interviews across five manufacturing companies. The five interviewee participants in each company included top and middle managers, along with frontline employees. This distribution allowed the researchers to compare and contrast employees' roles in their companies with behaviour related to knowledge sharing. Interviews were conducted following ethical approval and were audio-recorded and transcribed. Due to the qualitative nature of the research question, grounded theory was used to guide the data collection and to analyse the interview data. The data analysis process was supported by the NVivo coding software.\n4. Findings: This section presents, examines and interprets the data and patterns obtained from the interviews. In all, 513 incidents emerged from the 25 interview transcripts (sources), including six main concept groupings, which are set out in Table I.\n5. Discussion: This section summarises the factors influencing face-to-face social networks and knowledge sharing in the studied companies and outlines the originality of the study and the findings. These factors comprise using multiple communication strategies, brainstorming and problem-solving, learning and teaching, training, consultations and employee rotation. These factors are illustrated in Figure 4 and further discussed in the following sections. The sign \"+\" means that each of the previous factors influences face-to-face social networks and knowledge sharing positively.\n6. Conclusions and implications: The findings of this research revealed six factors that influence face-to-face social networks and knowledge sharing. These factors are using multiple communication strategies, brainstorming and problem-solving, learning and teaching, training, consultations and employee rotation. These factors impact knowledge sharing positively.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: This paper aims to explore the relationship between face-to-face social networks and knowledge sharing.\nDesign/methodology/approach: Qualitative data gathered through 25 semi-structured interviews in five manufacturing firms were collected and analysed. A grounded theory approach was used to analyse the data, which was supported through NVivo qualitative data analysis software.\nFindings: The results reveal that face-to-face social networks facilitate knowledge sharing in diverse ways. These include the use of multiple communication styles, brainstorming and problem-solving, learning and teaching, training, consultations and employee rotation.\nPractical implications: The findings of this research are expected to help practitioners to comprehend the big picture and scope of the steps they take to facilitate knowledge sharing in organisations. Viewing knowledge sharing from a holistic perspective can help practitioners comprehend how face-to-face knowledge sharing fits with and complements other knowledge-sharing channels, such as electronic social media and document repositories. In addition, through face-to-face social networks, practitioners can leverage work groups to increase knowledge sharing, meaning that potential cost savings and improved work practices can be achieved.\nOriginality/value: For researchers, three new models are developed which provide new insights into the nature of the relationship between face-to-face social networks and knowledge sharing. The first model relates to brainstorming and problem-solving, the second to knowledge levels and the direction of learning and teaching and the third to factors influencing social networks and knowledge sharing.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Effect of composite flour fortification to wheat flour on the quality characteristics of unleavened bread	[ "India", "Rice", "Nutrition", "Proteins", "Wheat", "Food products" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Food legumes are good sources of protein and constitute an important part of the diet of majority of population in India and other developing countries. Soybean (Glycine max) is one of the most important sources of legumes having about 40 per cent protein and 20 per cent oil. It has great potential for solving the problems of protein and calorie malnutrition. However, the consumption of soybean in India is relatively limited. One of the promising ways of improving its utilization is through incorporation to the staple diet of people. Diets of the major population in semiarid tropics comprises of chapatis. Traditionally, chapati is prepared from whole wheat flour dough which is prepared by mixing wheat flour with water The dough is rolled thin and cooked on a hot surface or baked in a mud oven (Kent, 1975) to produce a puffed ball. They may also be prepared on flat iron plates i.e. tawa over an open flame.Since wheat is limiting in essential amino acid lysine, its supplementation with flours of other cereals comprising of soy, sorghum, rice, maize, pearl millet and soybean will not only help to enhance its protein content but will also improve its nutritional quality which in turn will help in combating malnutrition. Such a chapati prepared from composite flour is expected to have balanced amount of various nutrients without having any adverse effect on the acceptability.The major problem in consumption of soybean is its typical beany flavour and prolonged cooking time. In the present study, 4 salt treatments namely sodium carbonate, sodium bicarbonate, sodium tripolyphosphate and sodium chloride were given to soy dhal for different time periods (Khetarpaul et al., 2005) which led to elimination of its beany flavour. This salt treated soy dhal flour was used along with other cereals to develop composite flour, which was further used to prepare chapati.Previous workers (Ebeler and Walker, 1983; Lindell and Walker, 1984) had earlier reported that incorporation of defatted soy flour to wheat flour has been found to balance the amino acid pattern of chapati without affecting its acceptability characteristics. Steinke and Hopkin (1983) have found that specific combinations of vegetable and legume products optimize the amino acid balance of the blended product. However, information on the quality characteristics of chapati made from wheat, composite flour blend is limited. So, the present study was planned to prepare chapati from composite flour and study the acceptability and nutritional quality of chapati, which is a staple food in North India.\nMaterials and methods: Materials\nResults and discussion: Sensory evaluation\nConclusion: The results of the present study thus, reveal that chapati prepared using composite flour was organoleptically acceptable and nutritionally superior over unprocessed composite flour and wheat flour chapati in terms of significant increase in moisture, protein content. The phytic acid and polyphenols contents of the developed chapati were reduced significantly as a result to which developed chapati had improved in vitro protein and starch digestibility over the unprocessed composite flour. Overall chapatis prepared from a combination of flour of different cereals and millets is nutritionally superior over the chapatis made from one cereals flour in terms of amino acid balance, protein quality, minerals, fiber content etc. Thus, it may be concluded that incorporation of soy, sorghum, maize, rice and pearl millet flour to wheat flour would enhance the nutrient content of chapatis. Since, chapatis comprise a major portion of diets of Indian, this would serve as an ideal medium for improving the quality of Indian diets.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: - The unleavened bread called chapatis in vernacular language is the staple food of the majority of North Indians, which is generally prepared from wheat flour. However, wheat flour contains 8-12 per cent protein and is limited in essential amino acid, so supplementation of partially defatted soy dhal, sorghum, rice, maize and pearl millet will help to improve the nutritional value of chapatis. This paper seeks to address this issue.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - Wheat flour was supplemented with salt-treated partially defatted soy dhal, sorghum, rice, maize and pearl millet (50:10:10:10:10:10). Different salt treatments were given to soy dhal so as to remove its typical beany flavour. Different flours were mixed with water to form dough followed by preparation of chapati on flat iron plates. These were further evaluated organoleptically by the panel of judges. On the basis of organoleptic evaluation the best combination was used for nutritional evaluation.\nFindings: - Organoleptic evaluation of developed chapatis indicated that they were acceptable in terms of various sensory parameters. Nutritional evaluation of unprocessed composite flour, wheat flour chapatis and composite flour chapatis revealed a significant increase in moisture and protein content and non-significant difference in ash and crude fibre contents of composite flour chapatis when compared with unprocessed composite flour and wheat flour chapatis. Various processing methods, namely dough making and roasting involved in chapati making, significantly (p<0.05) reduced the phytic (11 per cent) and polyphenol (64 per cent) content of the developed chapati compared with unprocessed composite flour. As a result the protein and starch digestibility of the developed chapati was improved over the unprocessed composite flour.\nResearch limitations/implications: - Further research is needed regarding the amino acid profile of the developed chapati.\nPractical implications: - Wheat flour should be supplemented with different cereals so as to improve the nutritional value.\nOriginality/value: - The paper has significance in terms of improving the nutritional quality of the chapati without any extra input of time and energy.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
The impact of organizational citizenship behavior on enterprise resource planning success: The mediator role of TQM	[ "TQM", "ERP system", "Isfahan steel melting Co", "Organizational citizenship behavior" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: The organizational citizenship behavior (OCB) concept is one of the most important issues in organizational behavior that has a great role in performance improvement, customer satisfaction, customer loyalty, and job satisfaction. Organ (1988), as well as other early researchers of this field, considered this type of behavior to be an \"extra-role\" behavior - individual contributions in the workplace that go beyond the specified role requirements and are not directly or explicitly recognized by the formal reward system.\nLiterature review: OCB\nResearch methodology: Isfahan steel melting Co. is one the leading companies in Iran which implemented ERP system successfully so we have chosen this company as sample.\nResults: Pearson correlation test was used for testing the accuracy of the hypothesis. Means, standard deviation and correlation of variables is reported in Table I.\nMeasurable model: To make sure whether there are causal relationships between variables and to test the fitting of the data with the proposed model, we tested the hypothesis with the structural equations model. In structural equations model, we tested the goodness of fit of the model with the data and positive relationship between variables.\nDiscussion and conclusions: Although the research on OCBs has increased dramatically during the past decade, still much remains unexplored about possible consequences of OCBs (Yoon and Suh, 2003). Notably, little is known of the effects of OCBs in the information system field. This study has begun to seek out the consequences of OCBs in the field of information systems. In order to achieve the purpose of this study, the research model, based on the OCBs constructs proposed by Organ (1988), consisting of the five dimensions of altruism, conscientiousness, courtesy, civic virtue, and sportsmanship, and including the hypothesis in which OCBs constructs have an impact on information quality, benefit, and use dimensions as ERP system variables was established and empirically tested and we tested the mediating role of TQM in this model.\nLimitations and further research issues: Although our findings provide meaningful implications for the successful operation of ERP systems, our study has some limitations.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: Although the research on organizational citizenship behaviors (OCBs) has increased dramatically in diverse fields during the past decade, little is known about the OCBs in the information systems area. The purpose of this study was to explore whether total quality management (TQM) mediates between OCB and enterprise resource planning (ERP) system success.\nDesign/methodology/approach: Data were collected with a questionnaire from subordinates of leaders in steel melting industry in Iran and were used to test the model introduced.\nFindings: The authors discovered the relationship between OCB and ERP success and the mediating role of TQM in this model.\nResearch limitations/implications: Based on the findings of this study, managers who try for the success of ERP systems can revise their assessment systems through TQM to identify and reward employees who have positive impact in the field of OCB.\nOriginality/value: Limited knowledge is available on the mediating role of TQM between OCB and ERP success in the managing field. The authors prepare a model and test this model in that company.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Merger deal breakers: when operational due diligence exposes risk	[ "Acquisitions and mergers", "Due diligence" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n__NO_TITLE__: Chrysler's new owner, private-equity firm Cerberus Capital Management, LP, probably knew exactly what it was buying before it bought the struggling automaker, judging by the job cuts announced in late 2007. Cerberus is moving decisively and quickly to trim costs as step one toward realizing a profit on its investment.\nWalking the due diligence walk: Given these three benefit areas, how do private equity and corporate buyers start practicing enhanced due diligence?1. First, they get seasoned functional experts involved. The new due diligence team might include manufacturing quality control managers (to compare underlying philosophies of quality assurance, for instance), logistics experts, environmental experts, IT experts or customer service professionals. Data rooms and management presentations are of limited help because they are designed to present information in the most positive light. But experts can spot disconnects that may affect the cash flow of the standalone valuations and the sustainability of cash flow and they can usually do so with limited access to the target company. The exact composition of the expert team will depend on the nature of the deal, of course, but the starting assumption should be that deep, specific expertise is better.2. Second, acquirers need to bring their operations experts aboard early in the due diligence process. This is especially true for supply chain and IT personnel, who are often tasked with \"getting things to work\" after the deal is done.Logistics, business processes and supply chain issues can be difficult to identify in due diligence checklists, so the earlier they can be explored the sooner good data can emerge. It is much the same story with IT: bringing IT systems together requires long lead times and significant investment, factors that need to be accounted for pre-deal from a risk and financial perspective. After the deal, investment in IT precedes savings. It takes time to properly understand viable applications and technology alternatives for the to-be state, to renegotiate contracts and procure equipment, and to move data, build interfaces, and retrain IT staff and business users on the new systems.Just one example: It may sound simple to consolidate warehouses and move all customers and vendors to a single set of systems. But that's far from true. There are plenty of operational challenges in managing and moving inventory and in managing personnel transitions. From an IT perspective, there are item master issues (such as product numbering) and customer master issues that need to be resolved from both a business perspective and a technology perspective. The idea is to make sure that all transitional items are identified and planned for and that customers are tended to and inventory is not lost - none of which happens overnight.Managers also have to anticipate disruption to even the most carefully planned processes. For instance, when one company was consolidating its distribution facilities and processes following a merger, its largest customer demanded a critical change in labels that required significant effort from IT and the distribution teams. In order to keep to the timeline and satisfy the customer, the implementation team had to minimize any nonessential changes during the transition.Transitions can also mean additional investments in capacity. For example, if the consolidation of data centers into one facility at a lower-cost location is expected to have a big impact on the success of the merger, it will almost certainly take time and money to find a new location or increase capacity at the old premises.3. Third, the experts should help to build truly realistic versions of the future-state operating models and future cash flows. Their calculations will incorporate major operating risks such as bringing capacity on line to support growth over the required timeframes. They need to identify investments required to complete migrations from IT-shared services model to a new sourcing models, for example.\nCisco's rules for due diligence: Cisco Systems knows where merger integration can go wrong and how effective due diligence can help acquirers avoid most integration glitches. Cisco's IT teams are particularly alert to the challenges of integrating networks and other IT elements, which is why the company has developed a standard set of principles and processes to help accomplish these integrations rapidly, consistently, and with minor disruption.The first two integration process steps concern discovery and due diligence. They are completed before the pending merger or acquisition deal is publicly announced. A Cisco integration team begins to gather essential information, prioritize tasks, and plan communications and schedules. A scope definition process uses checklists and questionnaires to identify:* the integration goals and business drivers;* the new company's sites and special facility needs; business applications and systems; and security requirements;* customer commitments, regulatory issues, and legal considerations;* contracts for original equipment manufacturer (OEM) products, services, and outsourced functions;* the new company's IT team expectations, employee assignments, governance practices, relationships, and policies;* determination of whether a \"shadow\" IT presence or separate IT control will be necessary on a temporary or permanent basis;* evaluation of short-term procurement decisions and interim processes; and* key stakeholder interviews - often held at the new company's site - also identify integration concerns and company cultural issues.The due diligence processes lead naturally into the planning of actual integration activity. This planning starts just before the deal is announced and continues until the day when the deal closes (Cisco, n.d.).\nProfile of an operational due diligence team: The best operational due diligence teams are typically top-heavy, with a high concentration of seasoned expertise. These \"been there, done that\" individuals bring the experience and judgment to make good assumptions and to quickly develop hypotheses that help them gauge the size of projected investments, the potential savings, the likely future operating model, and the risks. A typical team might consist of:\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: - The purpose of this of this paper is to show that judging by the number of mergers that still go sour, there is plenty of room to intensify the kind of operational due diligence that can uncover deal-breaking factors before they destroy shareholder value. The paper focuses on specifically supply chain and IT as the two operations areas that deserve special attention because they still get short shrift.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - The paper was written based on survey findings, publicly sourced information, case study work and Accenture's point of view based on work at over 400 M&A client engagements, three quarters with companies in the Global 1000. The two surveys cited are: 2006 Accenture study of supply chain managers; and Third Annual Due Diligence Symposium 2007 Survey.\nFindings: - The paper finds that when senior, experienced operations experts are involved in due diligence and pre-merger planning, the major risks and potential deal breakers are exposed quickly - before deal momentum pushes things to the point where participants are reluctant to walk away. Also, with this input, deal makers can accurately assess the true investments needed as well as the \"to be\" operating costs of the joined companies. Those numbers can be used to adjust post-merger cash flow projections, which are often extrapolated based on percentage estimates and projected top-down rather than bottom-up based on major projects under way or on operating model complexity. The operations experts allow new potential sources of value to be identified and considered as part of the valuation of the target company. The purchase price may then be adjusted up or down.\nOriginality/value: - Dealmakers have significantly improved their understanding of, and skills in conducting, many elements of mergers and acquisitions, especially valuation and merger integration. Yet in example after example, due diligence processes have proven to be an Achilles heel. Dealmakers today must use every tool at their disposal to improve their odds of a successful deal while at the same time avoiding bad acquisitions. That means placing the same importance on operational due diligence as on valuation, traditional due diligence and merger integration. It also calls for using operational due diligence to pinpoint initiatives that protect and create value after an acquisition. The shift to this next level of due diligence will require enhancing rather than replacing traditional due diligence activities. The due diligence lists will be longer, yes, but importantly, they will be forward-looking, gauging current observations against future operating needs.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Performance relevance of environmental and social disclosures: The role of foreign ownership	[ "Performance", "Sustainability", "Environmental disclosure score", "Foreign ownership", "Social disclosure score", "Static and dynamic panel data" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: Linking firm's value relevance performance with financial performance remains a niche area of research among academicians, research scholars and policy makers. The theoretical argument in favour and against the hypothesis \"Does it matter by going value relevant\", highlighted in the studies, ranging from the early studies of Carroll (1979), Sethi (1979), Porter (1991), Jaggi and Freedman (1992) to the studies of Orlitzky et al. (2003), Albertini (2013), and more recently to the studies of Misani and Pogutz (2015), Fazzini and Dal Maso (2016), Li et al. (2018), is critically examined. The term value relevance highlights the solution architecture by creating an intersection between environmental-societal performance and corporate performance (Hawken et al., 2002; Marcuccio and Steccolini, 2005).\n2. Theoretical framework and literature review: The voluntary disclosure of environmental and social items is based on two prominent theories: the legitimacy theory and the stakeholders' theory. Legitimacy theory, emerging as dominant socio-political explanation theory (Campbell, 2000; De Villiers and Van Staden, 2010; Gray et al., 1995; Parker, 2005), examines societal values to disclose environmental and social disclosure in the system where a firm operates. Legitimacy theory is influenced and regulated by the societal goals in order to get reward and to escape from penalised actions of community. In simple words, firm disclosure is the outcome of societal values, and good models of legitimacy theory must consider the stakeholders' value while considering any decision (Tilling and Tilt, 2010). Hence, the stakeholders' values of legitimacy theory lead to stakeholders' theory wherein the stakeholders of the company satisfy their interest by environment and social disclosure score. The non-financial disclosures land up companies with high image in eyes of stakeholders and may also endanger the companies' existence by withdrawing the economic and social investments from the community (Freeman, 1984; Mahadeo et al., 2011). Stakeholders have direct influence on financial performance because companies with higher environment and societal disclosure score have an edge over their counterparts for informing investors and customers about their proactive strategies towards voluntary disclosure, which, in turn, reduces the firm-level risk for long-term visibility and detrimental actions of the stakeholders (Jaggi and Freedman, 1992). Stakeholders used to reward good ESG-managed firms through investment, consumption and high productivity, which, in turn, built the mutual trust and cooperation by reducing implicit and explicit costs and pushed managers to look for long-term orientation and vision of the firm. The origin of ESG notion is based in the field of Socially Responsible Investing (SRI). SRI strategies are not only taking into account economic aspects, but also ESG factors. ESG aspects are alternatively called the three pillars of sustainability by accommodating three dimensions of sustainability, namely environmental, social and economic (Staub-Bisang, 2012).\n3. Research design: The study aims to analyse the linkage of environmental and social disclosure with CFP. We tried to fill the existing research linking CSR to CFP, as well as studies on corporate governance and its impact on firm value and performance in presence of foreign ownership as a moderator. The framework adopted for the study is multidimensional (Figure 1), which evaluates value relevance concept with financial performance of corporates. The broad framework of this methodology has been dealt with panel data estimations. In financial modelling framework, the situation arises where we have to deal with cross-sectional and time series element. Panel data model represents such a situation wherein the data are about several sets of individual entities over the different time periods. This set of empirical research offers multiple advantages over the traditional time series and longitudinal models (Hsiao, 2007). Panel data modelling permits to control heterogeneity, which makes the results unbiased unlike the series or cross-section studies that might have the risk of getting biased results. Also, in panel data estimation, the information on both intertemporal dynamics and individual entities allows control for omitted variable biasness; hence, it is considered most efficient due to greater variability and mitigation of multicollinearity problems that arise in cross-section and time series data (Griliches and Hausman, 1986).\n4. Statistical process and empirical results: To evaluate the effect of corporate value relevance performance (E-S disclosure) on financial performance, two different regression models were estimated utilising both accounting-based and market-based measures of financial performance. The first model used an accounting-based metric - ROCE, ROA - to estimate the relationship between corporate value relevance performance and financial performance, whereas the second model used Tobin's Q and MTB majorly, a market-based metric to model this relationship.\n5. Theoretical and managerial implications of research: The research is extremely useful in context with SBD globally. It is evident to publish environmental and social sustainability in most developing countries in which propensity to assure sustainability report depends on legal system of county, Simnett et al. (2009). However, decrease in such practices leads to lowering creditability and further inclines the need for such assurance practices. Apart from this, the disclosure scores must be comprehensive, accurate and reliable, and should be extracted from external professional verification source (Beets and Souther, 1999) to get the actual benefit of sustainability. The dynamics of institutional policies are different in different countries and firms operating globally in different countries may not succeed by following a uniform policy of disclosure. Some disclosures may be voluntary in one country and they might be mandatory in other country. So, before entering in any sort of business, the firm must value the ethical and social aspects of the environment wherein the firm is operating. In our results, we found that both environmental and social disclosures are significantly contributing to financial performance of the firm, and our research provides insights to the managers so that they could increase the value of firm by constructing the various policies on value disclosure system accordingly. Our study may also prove to be a tool for small-sized and medium-sized struggling firms to get their rapport in market and ameliorate their profitability by altering their disclosure scores to suit market environment. The other half of the paper tries to study the influence of profitability due to voluntary disclosure in presence of foreign ownership. The research in the context of mandatory disclosure and foreign ownership was presented in Korea by Min and Smyth (2014), and in India by Saini and Singhania (2018), but the voluntary disclosure in the presence of foreign ownership has not been studied yet. As foreign capital inflows are moving to developing countries like India, and present study fails to show any significant positive impact of interaction term (foreign ownership x Disclosure index) on financial performance, the policy makers must encourage quick policies for attracting green investments with updated technology. There is requirement of a benchmark practice that needs to be adopted as green supply chain management by domestic and foreign-owned funds for sustainable technology in developing countries.\n6. Summary and conclusion of the study: In this paper, we investigate whether high value relevance disclosure adds value to performance indicators of firm or not. The data sets are extracted from Bloomberg database, over the period of eight years, considering 648 firm-level observations listed in BSE. We consider the composite ESG score with ROA and further diffuse ESG scores into individual disclosure scores, namely environment and social disclosure from the composite index (ESG). Using static (FE and RE) and dynamic (GMM) panel data analysis, we find environmental and social scores to be positively associated with operating performance and firm value through accumulative competitive edge in market (Varadarajan and Menon, 1988; Porter and Kramer, 2006, 2011), and also encourage risk reduction by disseminating voluntary information (Koehler and Hespenheide, 2012). We also incorporate the moderating effect of foreign ownership in empirical model, to analyse whether the foreign ownership significantly moderates the relationship between value relevance and firm performance.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to establish the relationship between environmental-social disclosure scores and corporate financial performance. The authors tried to investigate the relevance of assurance practice (whether or not companies' assessment policies are subject to individual assessment for the given period) and value relevance in foreign-owned firms.\nDesign/methodology/approach: This research is based on accounting-based valuation model proposed by Berthelot et al. (2003), considering the market value of equity as the function of book value and other financial indicators including Return of Assets and Return on Capital Employed. Environmental and social disclosure scores are extracted from Bloomberg database as the measure of company's transparency in reporting value relevance information and sustainable development. The study considers the sample period of 8 years (2008-15) and uses static (fixed effects and random effects) and dynamic (generalised methods of moments (GMM)) panel data estimations for analysing and concluding results.\nFindings: The results support the evidence of environmental disclosure score as performance relevance indicator. Environmental disclosure score highlights the positive and significant relationship with different performance indicators. The interaction between foreign ownership and environmental disclosure represents a negative association, implying that foreign ownership is incubating more on profit making rather than environmental protection initiatives. However, in the context of the social disclosure score, a positive association with economic performance is found. But interaction term between foreign ownership and social disclosure represented a negative coefficient.\nOriginality/value: Value relevance disclosures are investigated with performance indicators that create an incentive for stakeholders. Also, the effect of foreign ownership and value relevance interaction term on firm's financial performance is determined. To the best of authors' understanding, previous literature is silent about this dimension. The authors also tried to incorporate the solution to the endogeneity issue by using GMM.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
"Bouncing back" after the Deepwater Horizon oil spill	[ "Psychological", "Disaster resilience", "Risk perception", "Deepwater Horizon oil spill", "Disaster mental health", "Oil spill" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: On April 20, 2010 the Deepwater Horizon drilling rig exploded off of the coast of Louisiana, resulting in 11 fatalities and the largest oil spill in US history. Nearly five million barrels of crude oil spilled into the Gulf of Mexico, reaching >600 miles of shoreline in Florida, Alabama, Louisiana, Mississippi, and Texas (Devi, 2010; McCauley, 2010; Schmidt, 2010). The oil spill disrupted fishing and tourism industries, damaged renewable natural resources, and caused significant mortality of fish and wildlife. The immediate or short-term health implications for coastal residents were largely psychological and have been well documented. For example, mental health and domestic violence hotlines reported a significant increase in calls, and clinically significant levels of behavioral symptoms such as post-traumatic stress disorder, anxiety, and depression, were reported in 28-50 percent of people surveyed across the Gulf region (Mong et al., 2012; Goldstein et al., 2011; Grattan et al., 2011).\nMethods: Participants and procedures\nResults: Demographic and background information for study participants may be found in Table I. Individuals ranged in age from 18 to over 60 years with a fairly even distribution. The majority of participants, 70 percent, had a high school education or less, and over 90 percent were Caucasian. Half of the participants were in the fishing industry, and there were more men than women in the study (kh2=6.323, p=0.01). In addition, the number of persons with income loss was greater than those with stable (or improved) incomes (kh2=6.323, p=0.01).\nDiscussion: Overall, one year after the Deepwater Horizon oil spill, environmental risk perception, particularly environmental worry, significantly increased one year post-oil spill. In multivariate analyses, better mental health outcomes one year post-spill were associated with income stability, lower levels of environmental risk perception, time, and higher resilience scores. The hypothesis that mental health problems and environmental risk perception would decline over the first year was not supported. The hypothesis that income stability, lower levels of environmental risk perception, and higher resilience would be associated with better mental health outcomes was supported.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: The psychological and behavioral consequences of the Deepwater Horizon oil spill disaster were among the most widespread, long term, and costly of all oil spill-related disasters. However, many people were resilient, and understanding the factors associated with resilience in the immediate aftermath of this disaster are needed to guide early interventions. The paper aims to discuss this issue.\nDesign/methodology/approach: In total, 133 adults from the Northeast Gulf Coast participated in a study of mental health outcomes during the oil spill and one year later. Participants completed a battery of measures that assessed their basic demographics, income status, perceived environmental risk (i.e. characteristic way people think about and interpret environmental risks), self-reported resilience (i.e. ability to \"bounce back\" after a disaster), and mental health status.\nFindings: Results of univariate analyses indicated similar, elevated levels of mental health problems at both time points; however, environmental risk perception was higher one year post-spill than during the spill. In multivariate analyses, income stability, increased time, higher self-reported resilience, and lower environmental risk perception were associated with better mental health outcomes while age and gender had no association.\nOriginality/value: Oil spills are protracted disasters, and better mental health outcomes are linked to financial stability, as well as a belief in environmental restoration and one's own capacity for resilience. Since resilience and environmental worry are potentially modifiable processes, they might be targeted in prevention and early intervention efforts in order to create more robust, prepared individuals in the face of an oil spill disaster.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Towards a comprehensive measurement of the information rich and poor: Based on the conceptualization of individuals as information agents	[ "Information society", "Information agent", "Information inequality", "Information poor", "Information rich", "Informational measurement" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: Starting from the 1970s, concepts such as \"information poor,\" \"information rich,\" \"information inequality\" and \"information divide\" have become an integrated part of the information society discourse. Together, these concepts attest to the belief that as information becomes a strategic resource of society, so people's information-related characteristics become a defining factor of their social status, to complement existing defining factors such as income, education and occupation.\n2. Existing measurements of the information rich and poor: a review of related literature: The concepts of information poor and rich began to gain popularity during the 1970s, coinciding with the new epoch denoting concepts such as \"information society\" and \"post-industrial society.\" However, until now, the concepts are seldom explicitly defined. Examination of the early usage of \"information poor\" reveals four categories of literature, each implying a different referent for the term. The first category uses \"information poor\" to refer to an unspecified socio economically disadvantaged section of society. This category is exemplified by LeDonne (1977), Trezza (1978) and Soedjatmoko (1979). Trezza (1978), for instance, sees the National Commission on Libraries and Information Science planned library services in the 1970s' US as model services for information poor people, but does not specify who these people are. The second category uses the term to denote specified socio economically disadvantaged groups. This category is exemplified by Childers and Post (1975), where they identify Mexican-Americans, Puerto Ricans, other Spanish-speaking people, American-Indians and Eskimos, poor black and white Americans, Appalachians, poor farmers, migrant workers, aging adults, prisoners and the blind or deaf as American's information poor. The third category uses the term to refer to an unspecified informationally disadvantaged section of society. This category is exemplified by Katzman (1974). Katzman raises the concern that with the advancement of information technologies, the gap between people who already have high levels of information and ability (the information rich) and people with lower initial levels (the information poor) will be widened, but does not explain what \"information and ability\" means. The fourth category uses the term to mean a specified informationally disadvantaged section of society. This is exemplified by Parker (cited in Swartz, 1975) and Sweetland (1993). These authors see the information poor as people who do not have the chance or motivation to use traditional information sources such as libraries and the emerging information technologies.\n3. The individual as an information agent and his/her information world as his/her characterization: conceptual basis: When we refer to an individual as an economic agent, social agent, political agent, moral agent and so on, we are actually talking about his/her multiple roles and his/her ability to take actions in each of these roles. Each has associated with it certain choices, decisions, actions, and certain arenas in which these choices, decisions and actions are usually made. A political agent, for instance, typically conducts such actions as participating in political organizations, elections, lobbying activities and policy debates in arenas like parliament, town halls, organizations, meeting venues, public spaces and the media. An economic agent, on the other hand, typically conducts such actions as making investments, producing products or services, consuming products or services and engaging in personal financial management in arenas like factories, banks, shops and companies. The same is true with the information agent. In science and technology literature, the term \"information agent\" is often used to refer to software which can perform certain tasks for its users intelligently and autonomously. Here we use it to refer to an individual's role that generates information-related activities, choices, decision making and preferences. Typical arenas in which the role of information agent is played include offices, libraries, museums, lecture halls and meeting venues. Intuitively, we know it is possible to distinguish a strong or active agent (e.g. a political activist) from a weak or inactive one by looking at their actions, choices, and the type of arenas they regularly attend.\n4. Development procedure of the measurement for an individual's information world: Based on the above conceptualization of an individual's information world, this study develops a questionnaire-based, index-deriving instrument for measuring individuals by their information worlds. The development procedure consists of the following four steps. First, the theoretical constructs as explicated in Section 3 are operationalized into eight variables which are in turn measured by a number of observable variables (items). Second, drafts of the resulting questionnaire underwent five rounds of testing and revision, each with a small group of different people (five to ten). This process ended when people participating in the test stopped raising questions while filling in the questionnaire. Third, items included in the questionnaire were weighed according to their importance in the context of the variable they intended to measure (e.g. importance as sources of information in general), through a process of consultation with a group of LIS scholars. A weight for each item - to be used for calculating the score of each variable - was obtained by averaging the rating of these scholars (see section 5.2 \"Weights of variable items\" for details). Fourth, a formal pilot study was conducted to test the validity and reliability of the measurement. For validity, the measurement was tested by its ability to predict the difference between two groups of people who are known to be informationally different; for reliability, it was tested by its ability to gather consistent answers from the same group of people at two different times, one week apart.\n5. The resulting measurement: 5.1. Variables\n6. Limitations: Initial application of the measurement to surveying information inequality in China has also revealed a number of limitations in the current version of the measurement and its instrument (the questionnaire). One of the major limitations of the measurement lies in fact in its intended advantage for information inequality research. In trying to offer a comprehensive criterion for identifying society's information rich and poor, the measurement, hence the questionnaire instrument, has incorporated a large variety of variables. Most observational items in these variables need to go through a weighing process to compute the variable scores. This has inevitably made the instrument rather complex to use. To make it even more complicated, the questionnaire begins with the dynamics variable and proceeds to the substance variables and then to the boundary variables, in line with the respondents' preference but not with the logical relationship between the theoretical constructs of an individual's information world. The second major limitation lies in the fact that a number of items (libraries, museums and bookshops) are used both as sources of information and as spaces. Although these are used to serve different purposes, their repeated appearance in the questionnaire does seem to have produced a degree of clumsiness and redundancy. The third limitation lies in the fact that while the measurement is meant to be based on the conceptualization of individuals as information agents, the operational variables has little to do with information production. In addition, the weighing of the informational items by a panel of LIS scholars may also be questioned by those who believe that only users judge significance of informational items. However, for this last limitation, there may not be a way out. The information inequality concept assumes inherently the comparability between individuals in informational terms, and consequently, assumes the possibility of a general value assessment of information sources and resources.\n7. Conclusion: The purpose of this study is to explore whether it is possible to develop a multi-dimensional informational measurement to distinguish society's information poor and rich. It does so by developing and testing a measurement based on the conceptualization of individuals as information agents and the operationalization of an individual's information world concept. The resulting measurement simultaneously takes access, behavioral and cognitive dimensions of the information agent into account. With regard to the access dimension, it takes into account four levels of access: information availability (an individual's physical proximity to sources of information); information accessibility (an individual's opportunities, abilities, interest and willingness to access sources of information); \"information resource base\" (a person's eligibility to claim usership over certain categories of information); and information assets (a person's actual use of information and acquisition of knowledge). With regard to the behavioral and cognitive dimensions, it considers three categories for each: intentional, conscious and involuntary information practices for the behavioral dimension; literacy, information search and information analysis for the cognitive dimension. In this way, it provides a relatively comprehensive measurement of individuals as information agents.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: Following the assumption that studies of information inequality need to be based on precise discrimination between society's information rich and poor and against the context that a mechanism for such discrimination is still lacking, the purpose of this paper is to explore the possibility of establishing a holistic informational measurement.\nDesign/methodology/approach: It does so by developing a measurement based on the conceptualization of the individual as an information agent and his/her information world as his/her characterization. The development procedure consists of four steps: operationalization of the theoretical constructs and the initial drafting of the questionnaire instrument; revisions of the questionnaire based on pilot tests with small groups of people; weighing of the questionnaire items for the purpose of calculating index-type variable scores; formal test of validity and reliability.\nFindings: The resulting measurement consists of eight variables corresponding to eight theoretical constructs of an individual's information world, each being measured by a group of questionnaire-based items which, in turn, generate an index-type score as the variable's value. Validity and reliability tests show that the measurement is, on the whole, able to distinguish the information poor from the information rich and to measure individuals consistently.\nOriginality/value: The study demonstrates that it is possible to distinguish the information rich and poor by informational measurement in the same way as to distinguish economic groups by income, ethnic groups by race and intelligence groups by IQ; and that such a measurement has arguably multifaceted value for information inequality research.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Quality of leadership and public service motivation: A social exchange perspective on employee engagement	[ "Public service motivation", "Employee engagement", "Employee attitudes", "Quality of leadership" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Employee engagement in public sector organizations goes to the core of the organization-leader-employee workplace relationship, and reveals the potentialities for better performance and transforming employees' working conditions (MacLeod and Clarke, 2009). The consequences of employee engagement have been examined in different organizations, both private and public, and engaged employees are believed to be more productive, more profitable, safer, healthier, less likely to resign, less likely to be absent, and more willing to engage in discretionary efforts (Shuck and Wollard, 2010). Further, employee engagement is viewed as a dominating source of competitive advantage that helps organizations cope with challenges, such as increasing workplace performance and productivity amid widespread economic decline (Macey and Schneider, 2008); it is also a medium for the broader effects of individual and organizational factors on job performance (Xu and Thomas, 2011). Engaging employees provides significant organizational advantages such as higher levels of productivity, organizational citizenship behavior, and overall performance (Shuck et al., 2011).\nLiterature review: Employee engagement\nMethods: Data and instrumentation\nResults: Descriptive statistics\nDiscussion and conclusion: The demand for management reform encompasses expectations for effective and efficient public sector organizational performance, and enhancing confidence in leaders by promoting shared values that develop trust, competence, concern for the greater good, and responding to people's concerns. Van Wart (2003) emphasized the importance of monitoring public sector performance, and several studies focused on the direct relationship between public sector leadership and engagement (Alimo-Metcalfe et al., 2008). Premised on social exchange theory, this study used a sample of 13,051 federal US employees and analyzed the relationship between the quality of political and administrative leadership and employee engagement and PSM, and the indirect effects of the quality of leadership on employee engagement through PSM. An SEM was developed that follows an antecedent-mediator-outcome model of quality of leadership, PSM, and employee engagement.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to examine salient mechanism by which the quality of political and administrative leadership might influence employee engagement in public sector organizations through public service motivation (PSM). Specifically, the purpose of the paper is twofold. First, the psychological outcomes of quality of leadership perceptions among public employees are identified. Second, how PSM mediates the influence of leadership quality perceptions on employee engagement is examined.\nDesign/methodology/approach: This study uses the US Merit System and Protection Board's (MSPB) 2010 Merit Principles Survey. To establish the distinctive validity of the constructs, the authors performed exploratory factor analysis and confirmatory factor analysis for latent variables, and subsequently conducted validity and reliability analyses. The authors performed a structural equation model to determine relationship between quality of political and administrative leadership, PSM, and employee engagement.\nFindings: The results reveal that the quality of political and administrative leadership is positively related to PSM and employee engagement. This study also confirmed the mediating role of PSM on the relationship between the quality of political and administrative leadership.\nOriginality/value: The paper expands the literature through studies that may discover critical mechanisms that are of significance in enhancing employee engagement such as quality of leadership depicted in political and administrative leaders and PSM. While previous studies have extensively explored several antecedents of employee engagement, research focusing on the role of quality in public sector leadership and PSM remains limited.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Open innovation in universities: What motivates researchers to engage in knowledge transfer exchanges?	[ "Spain", "Universities", "Knowledge management", "Information technology", "Researchers", "Open innovation", "Knowledge technology exchange" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: The open innovation (OI) (Chesbrough, 2003a) model, as this paper will show, constitutes a new paradigm, and is used increasingly to explain the development of innovation across organizations. Additionally, there is a growing interest in research in OI, aimed not only at explaining it theoretically, but also at finding the best strategies for businesses to implement. In this context, universities are undergoing a process of change toward the entrepreneurial university (Etzkowitz et al., 2000; Etzkowitz, 2003, 2004), and they face the challenge of evolving from ivory tower to knowledge broker (Gassmann et al., 2010). They therefore need to review the types of relationships they have with society in general and businesses in particular.In the context of OI, universities may play a crucial role since they are institutions that cooperate and share knowledge with other organizations in knowledge transfer exchanges (KTE) processes. As individuals working at universities, the researchers are involved in the entire KTE process, and therefore may be of key relevance. There have been several studies on the institutional and organizational level of KTE (Bercovitz and Feldmann, 2006; Debackere and Veugelers, 2005; Decter et al., 2007; Etzkowitz, 2003; Fabrizio, 2006, among others). Furthermore, there are also various studies showing the individual level as an area of research (Chesbrough, 2006; West et al., 2006; Perkmann and Walsh, 2007; Du Chatenier et al., 2010; Gassmann et al., 2010; Hoye and Pries, 2009). However, the factors that affect researcher engagement in KTE processes have not yet been fully analyzed in the literature (Jacobson et al., 2004). Moreover, as will be explained in more detail later, these factors are worthy of further study, since researchers are the only agents that could be involved in the entire KTE process (scientific discovery, securing intellectual property, marketing intellectual property and obtaining profit). Thus, it is important to understand what factors influence researchers' engagement in KTE in a context of OI, where several interactions take place among all parts (research and development (R&D) centers, companies, etc.), in order to share knowledge and collaboratively innovate.This paper aims to fill that research gap by providing an integrated framework which includes the main factors affecting researcher engagement. The study centers on the current debate concerning the role of the individual in OI. More specifically it relates to social networks and other factors which are relevant to the special case of an individual engaged in OI, such as researchers at universities who are taking part in KTE processes. In short, the main research question of this paper is: what are the main factors that affect the engagement of researchers in KTE processes? This research question is answered in this paper with a review of the literature, a conceptual research framework and an empirical study centered on researchers from a region of southern Spain. The paper is structured as follows: after reviewing the existing literature on OI, KTE and the factors affecting the researcher engagement in this process, some empirical evidence and a statistical analysis concerning those factors are described. After discussing the results, the paper includes some conclusions, limitations and future lines of research.\n2. The OI model: 2.1 OI\n3. Conceptual framework: 3.1 KTE\n4. Methodology: An empirical study was conducted at ten universities located in a region of southern Spain. The situation in Spain regarding KTE processes in a university context is that since the 1980s all Spanish universities have had a UTTO. Indeed, Spanish law recognizes the possibility of the university scientists/researchers signing a transfer contract with private companies/public institutions. Out of the three main possibilities (exploiting a patent, formal contract, starting a spin-off), the formal contract is the one most used in KTE, and is always managed by UTTOs. The importance of university KTE in Spain has increased in recent years (28 percent increase in 2008) (Universidades-CRUE, 2008).The specific methodology of the empirical study was the following: based on the abovementioned literature review, a list of the items appearing in the literature (see Table II), was drawn up which could be used to test the hypothesis. A web-based questionnaire was then designed using this list. Four researchers with varying prior experience in KTE conducted a pre-test in order to improve the structure and clarity of the questionnaire, and this resulted in several questions being changed. Finally, an in-depth interview with the director of a UTTO was conducted. This process led to a debugging of the initial list and a selection of the items considered most suitable for the measuring and subsequent contrasting of the hypothesis. In an exploratory study of this nature, using these processes ensures the validity of the questionnaire. A total of 26 items were finally considered.The questionnaire was aimed at the heads of research groups, that is, the respondents were researchers who managed a research team composed of at least three PhD holders and five graduates (this being the minimum size/composition of a research group according to government regulations). These research groups are usually attached to universities, which carry out the majority of research in the region. The number of valid questionnaires properly completed and collected was 382. The answer rate to questionnaires sent was 24.13 percent of all filtered e-mail addresses. This answer rate is higher than the usual 10 percent when sending e-mails. The sample size (382 valid questionnaires) had a reliability of 95.5 for the 1,823 heads of research groups officially registered. With this sample and population, the maximum sampling error was 4.55 percent.In order to verify that the sample obtained was indeed representative of the population, the nonresponse bias was analyzed. The extrapolation method was used which assumes that the subjects responding at the end of the data collection process are representative of the nonrespondents (Amstrong and Overton, 1977). Thus, the data obtained from researchers responding at the beginning were compared with those responding at the end. Following this, a Mann-Whitney U-test was carried out in order to test the difference of means in all the questionnaire variables. No significant differences exist in the different analyzed variables between the two groups of respondents. Thus, the conclusion is that nonresponse bias does not affect the data in this study. The demographics of the respondents were similar to the demographics of the usual heads of research teams in a university system context, which further guarantees the quality of the data obtained.Regarding the statistical methods, a statistical analysis was conducted in two stages to test the four abovementioned hypothesis. First, a correlation analysis (Spearman coefficient) was conducted based on the pre-selected items. Second, a regression analysis was developed in order to identify the particular items that could, in a causal way, explain researcher engagement in KTE processes more satisfactorily.\n5. Results: 5.1 Descriptive results\n6. Discussion and conclusions: 6.1 Discussion of the results\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: - The purpose of this paper is to investigate the main factors affecting researcher engagement in knowledge transfer exchanges (KTE) in an Open Innovation (OI) context, devoting special attention to specific factors such as personal and professional profile, institutional variables, social networks and recognition.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - An extensive literature review was conducted, focusing on current studies concerning the OI concept and research lines, OI and universities, KTE, and the factors affecting researcher engagement in university KTE. Based on this review a conceptual framework was proposed, including four main factors that affect KTE researcher engagement (personal and professional, institutional, social networks and recognition). The assumptions of this framework were explored in an empirical study involving 382 senior researchers, acting as leaders of different research groups, at Spanish universities. This was followed by univariate, bivariate and multivariate statistical analysis.\nFindings: - Results show that, apart from recognition, most of the proposed factors affect researcher engagement in KTE processes. The social network factors appear to be the most important, as all items were significant in affecting the engagement of researchers in these processes.\nResearch limitations/implications: - Both the study and the statistical analysis are exploratory, therefore results should be treated with caution. Moreover, the data were collected from only one country, hence, in order to improve validity, additional data would be needed.\nPractical implications: - Social networks (between researchers, businesses, university administrators, University Technology Transfer Office directors, etc.) should be promoted in order to improve researcher involvement in university KTE in an OI context.\nOriginality/value: - There is a lack of research literature discussing factors affecting researcher engagement in KTE processes. Moreover, researcher involvement is a key factor in contributing to the success of KTE. This paper provides a thorough discussion of these factors and proposes a conceptual framework with which they may be studied in the context of OI.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Taking a feminist approach to information systems research and using the "thinking tools" provided by the sociologist Pierre Bourdieu	[ "Research", "Feminism", "Call centres", "Communication technologies", "Gender" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n__NO_TITLE__: I arrived at the academy later than most. I was in my early forties with two pre-school children when I started out as an Information Systems (IS) lecturer at the University of Salford, UK in 1998. Graduating in Politics and Economic History in 1979, I had worked in various social and community jobs, returning to take further qualifications now and again. After studying for a Master's in Women's Studies on a part-time basis whilst simultaneously earning my keep by hooking people up to haemodialysis machines, I subsequently co-ordinated a research and training unit in a Management Science Department promoting positive action for women at work. Then I trained as a teacher and worked with 16-19 year olds aspiring to be social care professionals. As the only non-technophobe it fell to me to start teaching IT skills when government policy dictated that all students should develop this \"key skill\" and so I decided to retrain and took a Master's in Computation, returning to teach social care and business IT students. Then I moved into the university sector and at last could spend many hours doing what I had largely been deprived of for years, namely reading, writing and research.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: - This paper aims to contribute a personal account of doing critical research that uses the social theory of Pierre Bourdieu and also that takes a feminist approach to research. It aims to reflect on what this might mean in order to understand information systems and their uses at work and in everyday life.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - The approach is confessional and describes the way in which critical qualitative research was undertaken in specific areas - that of call centres in Northwest England, gender and the UK ICT labour market and PhD research into issues of gender and home e-shopping.\nFindings: - The findings as such suggest that social theory and critical approaches to research can contribute to understanding of IS at work and in everyday life. The account discusses the complexity of applying social theories and how difficult theoretical tomes are to understand, especially for the novice researcher.\nPractical implications: - The paper highlights the importance of hearing the silent or silenced voices and letting stories be told. A theme throughout is how theory is linked to practice.\nOriginality/value: - The paper contributes to the special issue call for reflexive essays written in simple terms with details about how and why particular social theories or approaches were adopted. This will be of value to PhD and IS researchers whose work is informed by social theory.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Public reporting of HAI rates: What we (mostly don't) know	[ "CLABSI", "Health‐care reporting", "Infection rates", "Performance measurement", "Health care" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: Of 39 million annual hospital admissions in the USA, roughly 1.7 million result in HAIs and 100,000 HAIs result in death (Klevens et al., 2007). The direct healthcare costs of HAIs are estimated at $45 billion (Scott, 2009). Total annual costs, including the value of lives lost, likely exceed $150 billion. Publicity about HAIs has led 18 states to issue public reports disclosing hospital infection rates; other states have adopted reporting laws, and Medicare will require public reporting for central-line associated bloodstream infections (CLABSI) in late 2011, and selected surgical site infections (SSI) in 2012[1]. However there is limited evidence on whether reporting actually affects infection rates, or by how much.I review here what little is known about this question and why measuring any impact presents substantial challenges. I discuss the important questions on which no evidence at all exists, including the causal pathways for any impact of reporting on infection rates, how to design an effective reporting plan, and the cost effectiveness of reporting.I argue that national reporting is premature, both because so little is known and because it will preempt state diversity of reporting schemes, from which we might learn what works and what does not. We should also insist on a controlled experiment, or at least a credible \"natural experiment\" based on state initiatives, before adopting national mandates. If reporting were a drug, the FDA would deny approval, for failure to prove effectiveness.What little we know comes in significant part from a case study of Pennsylvania (Kim and Black, 2011). During 2004-2008, Pennsylvania \"inpatient\" CLABSI rates (derived from billing records) dropped by 23 per cent, relative to control states. The drop is concentrated in hospitals in the highest third of reported rates. However, reported CLABSI rates fell far faster, by 40 per cent, from 2005 to 2007. The difference between inpatient rates and reported rates suggests gaming of the reports. To measure how reporting affects actual infections, we need time-consistent measures.A number of similar studies of reporting mandates in different states, ideally by different researchers who make different methodology decisions, could provide a solid basis for HAI reporting. We are likely several years away from having that level of evidence.\n2. Does HAI reporting affect infection rates: empirical challenges: 2.1 Measuring infection rates\n3. The Kim and Black Case Study of CLABSI reporting in Pennsylvania: Kim and Black (2011) used billing data to conduct a case study of CLABSI reporting in Pennsylvania, one of the first states to require HAI reporting. This is the only study available in full working paper form, and the only one with a DiD research design. They also compare \"inpatient rates,\" estimated from billing data, to reported rates, to assess whether gaming appears to be important. Pennsylvania required hospitals to report infection rates to a state health agency beginning in 2004, with public reporting beginning in 2005. In 2008, Pennsylvania changed its reporting scheme. This means, unfortunately, that consistent data on reported rates is available only for 2005-2007. I discuss here the key findings from this study[5].3.1 Impact of reporting on inpatient rates\n4. Toward firmer knowledge: The Kim and Black study provides initial evidence that public HAI reporting induces high-rate hospitals to reduce their CLABSI rates. But as any one study must, it leaves many questions unanswered. The open research questions include:1. Will these results generalize to other states?2. Will these results generalize to other HAIs?3. How can hospitals with lower HAI rates, which do not respond strongly to reporting, be induced to reduce their infections?4. How do the details of a public reporting scheme affect its impact, including:whether the reports provide infection counts, rates, risk-adjusted rates, standardized infection ratios, or only whether the hospital's rate is average, above average, or below average;whether CLABSI reports cover the entire hospital or only ICUs;whether the reports are accessed through a downloadable online dataset, through hospital specific online data, or only through a written report;the user-friendliness of the state web site, and how well it is publicized;whether historical or only current data is readily available; andthe impact of state auditing of hospitals to ensure more accurate reporting.1. Through what causal pathways does any impact of reporting on HAI rates take place?In light of these many unanswered questions, rapid movement toward national HAI reporting can only be deplored. We are regulating without yet knowing whether the regulations will be effective at all, let alone how to make them more effective. State-level reporting can make sense, because we learn from state experiments. But the federal government should let these experiments unfold. Federal reporting will largely preempt state experimentation, and deprive researchers of the \"natural experiments\" which might let us answer these questions.Moreover, the usability of the US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) web sites, including the Hospital Compare site which now includes CLABSI rates, is limited. Two anecdotes: First, historical Hospital Compare data is all but unfindable. I once searched for it for months. No one, including researchers who use Hospital Compare and senior officials within HHS, could tell me if the data were available, or where. A web search found nothing. I finally found the data, largely by accident. A web search for \"Hospital Compare archive\" can find it today, but I still know of no link from the Hospital Compare site to the archive, and the archive is quite user unfriendly. Second, suppose you want to compare ten hospitals using Hospital Compare. You cannot, at least not easily. You can compare only three at a time. Why three is not clear. The limit used to be 12. HHS has also made the unfortunate decision to report only standardized CLABSI infection ratios, not actual infection rates[6].\n5. Conclusion: Public reporting of HAI rates is potentially an important policy tool, but convincing evidence that reporting affects HAI rates is scarce. The only credible study to date is Kim and Black (2011), who find that public reporting by Pennsylvania hospitals of CLABSI rates induces high-rate hospitals to reduce infection rates, and estimate a 23 per cent statewide drop in \"inpatient\" CLABSI rates, relative to control hospitals. However, they also find evidence of gaming: reported rates drop much faster than inpatient rates. This offers reason to be skeptical of results that rely solely on reported measures. Much more research is needed before we can have confidence that public reporting affects HAI rates (and for which HAIs), or know how best to design a reporting scheme. National HAI reporting is premature.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: - Health-care associated infections (HAIs) kill about 100,000 people annually; many are preventable. In response, 18 states currently require hospitals to publicly report their infection rates and national reporting is planned. Yet there is limited evidence on the effects of public reporting on HAI rates, and none on what elements of a reporting plan affect its impact on HAI rates. The author aims to review here what little we know, emphasizing his own case study of Pennsylvania.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - The paper contains a narrative description of empirical challenges in attributing changes in infection rates to the introduction of public reporting, and the author's own research findings from a case study of Pennsylvania using both infection rates estimated from administrative (billing) data (\"inpatient rates\") and public reported rates.\nFindings: - Hospitals, faced with public HAI reporting, may respond both by reducing infection rates and through time-inconsistent reporting (\"gaming\"). Both effects are likely to be stronger at hospitals with high reported rates, relative to peers. From 2003-2008, Pennsylvania inpatient CLABSI rates dropped by 14 per cent, versus a 9 per cent increase in control states. The overall drop comes primarily from hospitals in the highest third of reported rates. Reported CLABSI rates fell much faster, by 40 per cent, from 2005 to 2007. This difference suggests time-inconsistent reporting.\nPractical implications: - Much more research is needed before we can have confidence that public reporting affects HAI rates (and for which HAIs), or know how to design an effective reporting scheme. HAI reporting cannot yet be considered to be \"evidence based.\" National reporting mandates will foreclose the state experiments needed to address these questions.\nOriginality/value: - What little we know about impact of public reporting on HAI rates comes in significant part from the case study of Pennsylvania described in this article.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
The impact of changing risk characteristics in the A-REIT sector	[ "Property", "Risk management", "Real estate", "Investments", "Australia" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nI. Introduction: The Australian real estate investment trust (A-REIT) sector has become one of the most sophisticated and mature listed real estate investment markets in the world since its establishment in 1971. The sector, as measured by the S&P/ASX300 Property Accumulation Index, reached its peak in June 2008 with a market capitalisation of approximately A$124 billion (comprised of 36 individual trusts); representing 10 per cent of the overall benchmark S&P/ASX200 equity market index.Figure 1 shows the number of indexed listed trusts and their combined market capitalisation since 1986 to December 2008 for the S&P/ASX300 Property Accumulation index. The initial public offering (IPO) boom that began around the early 1990s reflected greater investor demand for liquidity following the 1980/1990 property market correction where a number of unlisted (and illiquid) property investment vehicles struggled with rising redemption requestions. This was also a time of growing capital inflows into the sector from the Federal Government's compulsory superannuation saving scheme. Notably, after the IPO boom of the early and mid-1990s, the sector went through a consolidation phase towards the late 1990s through to 2004 with a series of REIT takeovers reducing the number of trusts within the sector. Despite this, the sector continued to grow through new capital raisings and price appreciation. More recently, the sector has contracted significantly with the onset of the global financial crisis (GFC), which has seen its market capitalisation fall by around 60 per cent since its peak to December 2008.However, the A-REIT sector has undergone tremendous change over the past ten years. As noted by CFS Research (2008a, 2003) and Newell (2006), the primary changes include: rising gearing ratios; increased exposure to offshore property markets; the rise of stapled securities; and increasing market concentration. A fundamental issue relates to what these changes had on the risk profile of A-REITs.Originally, the A-REIT sector aimed to provide investors with a passive investment strategy, characterised by a quality property/lease-backed income stream, which was considered a defensive stock (i.e., it provided a relatively large income component within its total return). However, a majority of the sector has moved away from its traditional asset exposure. As such, the risk characteristics of the sector have also changed. Specifically, it is proposed that the return profile of the sector now attracts a higher level of risk. This is illustrated with the risk-reward diagram in Figure 2. The perceived evolution of the sector can be characterised as a movement from position A to B - with the sector preserving its risk-adjusted return profile. However, the increasing risk profile in the sector was not accurately understood or priced by the broader market. Nevertheless, as discussed in CFS Research (2008b), the onset of the GFC sparked a reassessment of risk across investment markets, and highlighted the mis-match between the ex-post and ex-ante risk profiles.With reference to Figure 2, the sector's risk exposure was actually at position C whereas position B reflected the market's perceived risk position. Notably, position C suggests not only that the sector's actual level of risk was significantly higher, but that it also faced a deterioration in its risk-adjusted return profile as it had an embedded commensurately higher level of risk relative to return. As such, the current de-leveraging process can be viewed as a de-risking period for the sector.The aim of this paper is threefold. First, to outline key (structural) changes that have occurred in the A-REIT sector which have consequently impacted its risk profile. Second, we attempt to gauge the sector's changing risk profile using formal statistical methods: time varying Beta and news impact curves (NICs). Both methods suggest that the A-REIT sector was characterised by higher risk profile since early 2000s. Finally, we discuss various ramifications for this changing risk in terms of investment strategies going forward in terms of asset pricing, growth initiatives and product repositioning.The paper is structured as follows: Section II considers risk in the context of key changes that have occurred in the A-REIT sector. Section III outlines the modelling methodology for our proposed measures of risk. Section IV presents an empirical analysis of what these changes have done to the risk characteristics of A-REITs using two measures of risk: time-varying Betas and NICs. Section V briefly discusses the implications for investment strategies while concluding remarks are presented in Section VI. Formal mathematical expressions are provided in the Appendix.\nII. The changing risk profile: The following section outlines some features that highlight major structural changes that have taken place in the A-REIT sector over the past ten years. These changes have contributed not only to the growth strategies (i.e. enhanced return) of the sector, but to the risk profile as well.Increased gearing\nIII. Modelling risk: Having outlined a variety of factors which has contributed to an increased risk profile in the A-REIT sector, we move to outline a formal framework for measuring risk using two alternative methods: time-varying Beta and news impact curves (NICs).There exists a range of measures in relation to risk; one such method is calculating the standard deviation of a security's return. However, such a measure does not relate an individual sector or stock's risk to the general market. Relative measures are much more informative; the relative measure we use in this paper is \"Beta\" from the classical Capital Asset Pricing Model (CAPM) modelling framework.Time-varying Beta\nIV. Data and empirical results: An empirical analysis was undertaken using weekly closing nominal accumulated index data for the period 18 August 1995 to 28 December 2007 (646 observations). Given that the focus of this study is to analyse the changing risk profile of A-REITs, the sample period omits observations in 2008 in an attempt to isolate the impact of the GFC.The S&P/ASX200 composite index (listed equities) was used as a proxy for the market portfolio and we used the S&P/ASX200 All Property composite index (A-REITs) as a measure for the A-REIT sector. Furthermore, given the availability of data, we also consider the following A-REIT sub-sectors: commercial, industrial, retail, and \"diversified\" when constructing NICs. Summary statistics for the two series are presented in Table I.We can see that the data displays evidence of non-normality as represented by the Jarque-Bera statistic, while the Ljung-Box test statistics on the returns and squared returns data suggests that there is strong evidence of serial correlation in both. Additionally, a static estimate of Beta obtained from OLS estimation of equation (1) is also provided. This value is 0.47, supporting the view that A-REITs are considered a defensive investment. Tests were carried out to see if the asymmetric term in the model was insignificant and they were rejected[3], which indicates that the variability of returns for listed equities and A-REITs respond differently to positive or negative shocks.Figure 11 displays the time-varying Beta for the A-REIT sector over the time span considered which results from our estimated equation (2). Notably, the time-varying Beta estimate is more informative as it traces out the cyclical nature of Beta. Beta was on a downward trend until around the end of 2001. It then started to increase, and near the end of the time series, has also shown much more variability.This observed behaviour in the estimated Beta tends to coincide to the time when the four main changes highlighted in Section II started to become more paramount. As such, it lends weight to the idea that A-REITs have become a relatively more risky sector relative to the market.To examine if the nature of the risk profile for A-REITs has changed using NICs; we divided the whole sample period up into the following two sub-samples: Sample A, 18 August 1995 to 28 December 2001 (333 observations) and Sample B, 4 January 2002 to 28 December 2007 (313 observations). The break period corresponds with the observed rise in the time varying Beta. We then constructed NICs based on models estimated over the two sub-samples and these are illustrated in Figure 12. The dotted lines correspond to Sample A, while the solid lines refer to Sample B.We can make the following points from viewing Figure 12:* A-REITs appear to have become significantly more responsive to both good and bad news compared to the equity market in the second sub-sample. This suggests that the sector has become more risky in sample B relative to Sample A.* A-REITs display little asymmetry in their response to either good or bad news compared to the equity market in both sub-samples. In other words, the direction of a shock is not as important - just the size of the shock.Using data on the four A-REIT sub-sectors, we then estimated a series of models based on equation (2) over the two sub-samples and constructed NICs for each sub-sector together with the listed equities and A-REITs sector over the two time periods. These are illustrated in Figure 13 for sub-sample A and Figure 14 for sub-sample B.We can see that all NICs constructed for the A-REIT sub-sectors have become much more convex in more recent times - signifying a greater responsiveness to both good and bad news. Of note is the change seen in the retail and industrial sectors. These have both undergone considerable change during the period measured by sub-sample B. The retail sector saw a number of trusts expand overseas, while the industrial sector underwent a round of consolidation. Additionally, both sectors expanded their gearing levels. These changes, we have argued, increases risk. Hence, this increased responsiveness to good or bad news is to be expected.\nV. Investment considerations: The impact from the changing risk profile of A-REITs coupled with the onslaught of the GFC that has triggered a downturn in the listed equity market warrants a review of investment strategies. Such strategies should focus on asset pricing, growth initiatives and product repositioning.In terms of asset pricing, a key area of review is the identification and assessment of risk factors at the asset, portfolio and fund level. The current market sentiment suggests that investors have become more risk adverse, and as such, will refocus on A-REITs that cater for defensive style investments. The significant market downturn that occurred across the A-REIT sector over the end of 2007 and over 2008 can be argued to reflect an upward re-rating of embedded risk across the asset quality spectrum. Accordingly, investors will look favourably on investments with low to moderate gearing levels; hold quality property assets in their portfolio, possess limited off-shore exposure, and employ sound management practices.In terms of growth initiatives, strategies will need to review the investment style, asset exposure and buying opportunities. The present climate warrants a review of investment styles, in particular investments with a growth style bias that may be carrying a high level of embedded risk. On way to gauge this growth bias is to review the trend in spreads between property yields and market interest rates. As shown in Figure 15, the growth bias is highlighted over the past two years ending 2007 where the yield spread had turned negative. Consequently, this has shifted the pricing strategy for many REITs from an income yield focus to a total return focus. However, the recent change in market conditions and investor focus on risk is seeing investors focus on defensive trusts with premium core asset exposure with quality income streams and unpolluted with aggressive growth strategies. In other words, the focus will be on quality core investments which deliver transparent income yields rather than leveraged Beta - a tactic that only amplifies market returns; both on the upside and the downside. Furthermore, short-term buying opportunities will present themselves with the \"overshoot\" in property asset price declines from longer term fair values currently underway and the expected rationalisation of the sector.Product reposition requires a refocus on the value proposition of A-REITs and changing market conditions. Generally, the value proposition for REITs is based on the delivery of a relatively high and stable income component to total returns, as well as the potential to deliver portfolio benefits, via diversification. Changing market conditions has elevated the need to liquidity and highlighted the need to mitigate market volatility. Products that attempt to trade-off liquidity and volatility are hybrid products which blend listed property exposure with exposure to direct property investment. Such a product would give investors exposure to both listed and unlisted property investments with the task of allocating across these two sectors done by a prudent fund manager. More sophisticated models might exploit the asymmetric nature of risk and accommodate for downside risk.\nVI. Concluding remarks: The A-REIT sector has undergone major changes over the past decade which has moved them from their original passive investment strategy to a more active one which we argue brings greater risk to the sector.Our empirical analysis shows that the risk profile for the A-REIT sector has increased. The risk profile for A-REITs has become much more responsive to the magnitude of good or bad news as seen from the constructed NICs. Additionally, estimated time varying Beta for the A-REIT sector show greater variability and a general upwards trend that coincides with the time when most of these changes began to become significant for the sector.The current state of the market warrants a rethink of investment strategies; in particular, growth style products that may be carrying a high level of embedded risk. Market sentiment suggests that investors have become more risk adverse and could divert their attention towards A-REITs that cater for defensive style investments. Such investments will have low to moderate leverage, possess quality property assets in their portfolio, have little off-shore exposure, and focus on quality managers with proven track records. The dramatic sell-off that occurred in the A-REIT sector over the end of 2007 can be viewed as an upward re-rating of additional risk the A-REIT sector as taken on. Opportunities present themselves for investment products that provide partial exposure to direct property investment as a way to mitigate equity market volatility.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: - The Australian REIT (A-REIT) market has undergone significant change over the past ten years with a shift from passive investment strategies to more active investment strategies in an attempt to deliver higher return performance. However, this has dramatically changed the risk characteristics of A-REITs. Essentially, the sector has become more risky. Factors contributing to the increasing risk profile include: rising gearing levels; greater offshore exposure; evolving management structure towards stapled trusts, and growing market concentration. This paper aims to address these issues.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - In an attempt to gauge the impact of the changing risk characteristics over time the paper employs two formal risk measures: time-varying beta and news impact curves. Both measures indicate that the sector has become more risky. Indeed, it could be argued that the pronounced fall in A-REIT prices during late 2007 reflects a re-rating of risk on the upside. The post credit crisis financial climate warrants a review of investment strategies; in particular, growth style investments that may be carrying a high level of embedded risk and opaque income streams.\nFindings: - Current market sentiment suggests that investors have become more risk averse, and as such, will refocus on A-REITs that cater for defensive style investments. Such vehicles will have low to moderate gearing levels, hold quality property assets in their portfolio, limited off-shore exposure, and employ sound management practices.\nOriginality/value: - The heightened risk-averse environment presents opportunities for new investment products that provide partial exposure to direct property investment as a way to mitigate excessive equity market volatility.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
An approach for evaluating preventive maintenance scheduling cost	[ "Maintenance costs", "Cost reduction", "Customers" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: In recent years, many businesses have focused on three priorities - cost, quality, and cycle time - in order to become world-class companies (Sriskandarajah et al., 1998; Percy et al., 1997). It is strongly believed that these three priorities would make their businesses more competitive at the international market, thus, leading to improved profit generation. In order to achieve these key priorities, organizations are adopting various business improvement methodologies such as cost reduction, business process re-engineering, total quality management, etc. These have forced many business organizations to look within on how to improve business efficiency and effectiveness. For large organizations, the focus is usually on improving the maintenance activities such that minimum amounts of funds are expended (Anily et al., 1999; Alfares, 1999; Burke and Smith, 1999a, b).The high cost of breakdown maintenance could be unbearable such that the need for preventive maintenance becomes obvious. The safety of equipment and employee is improved by preventive maintenance services. This has significant impact on the production process. Reaching maximum plant availability through minimal delays and breakdowns and optimal equipment working condition reduces or eliminates the need for subcontracting some aspects of the job (Chen and Liao, 2005; Cheung et al., 2005). This has a reducing effect on the usually large maintenance budget of many organizations. Maintenance scheduling is usually based on preventive maintenance activities (Oke, 2004). In an organization where a large number of equipment are operated, preventive maintenance scheduling offers a means of achieving continuous industrial operations without which system sustenance would be extremely difficult. Since the cost of implementing preventive maintenance scheduling is more economical than that of replacing broken down equipment, in the long term, it is more economical to implement this maintenance option.Sound maintenance scheduling is indispensable for high maintenance performance, which in turn facilitates the production process to yield maximum output. This is attained when preventive maintenance supports continuous improvement programmes. Effective maintenance scheduling requires specific time and labour allocation, knowledge of equipment history, spares availability, knowledge of work and facility priority rating, job specification, etc.Maintenance scheduling promotes effective utilization of both maintenance and production team, notably through minimizing idle time, breakdowns and delays (Zhou et al., 2004; Gharbi and Kenne, 2005; Kim et al., 2005). For many years, extensive scientific documentation has been made on scheduling both maintenance and operational activities for profit (Yamayee et al., 1998). Recently, the focus of researchers has shifted from near optimal solution to the development of optimal solution approaches. Thus, the recent work of Charles-Owaba (2002) is important in this respect. The problem solved is the simultaneous scheduling of resource-constrained operations and maintenance (see also Oke and Charles-Owaba, 2005, 2006a, b). The current study is an extension of the novel work of Charles-Owaba (2002).The remaining part of the paper is organized as follows: the next section discusses the model formulation. Under this section, the notations used in the model are discussed. In addition, the model assumptions relevant to sea vessel maintenance and operational activities are explained. In this section, the algorithm governing the original model developed by Charles-Owaba (2002) is presented with detailed steps explained for its practical application. Still in this section, the model framework is presented with mathematical equations supporting the original structure presented by Charles-Owaba with some extension of the ideas. These steps are presented in a logical manner persuasive enough for the reader to follow. In particular, the three-dimensional wave equation methodology is adopted. Section three discusses the case study of a shipping company. This section considers aspects, which include the case description, some variables affecting cost of ship maintenance and their mathematical representations, and in application of the extended Charles-Owaba's model to the shipping industry example.In section four, an important extension to the current model is considered. This is a situation in which dual cells are treated as a single activity instead of the traditional approach of single treatment. In this section, four cases are considered. Case one presents formulation when the ship is maintained at both periods, case two formulates the cost model when the ship is maintained at period \"j\" and its in operation at period \"r\". In case three, the ship is maintained at period \"r\" and at period \"j\", it is in operation. Case four considers a situation when the ship is in operation at the two periods. The paper then concludes with some insights on what is gained.\n2. Model formulation: 2.1 Notations for the model\n3. The case study of a shipping company: 3.1 The case description\n4. Multiple period consideration for operations and maintenance cost calculation: Consider the transportation tableau shown below which represents the scheduling of a ship for maintenance or operational activities (Figure 3).For a normal situation, ship \"i\" is scheduled at period \"j\" for maintenance for operational activities. However, some specific cases may occur in which the scheduling of ships for maintenance activities would have to be done in blocked form where two or more cells having the same activity category (i.e. maintenance) are treated as a single case. It would therefore be understood that ship \"i\" could be scheduled for maintenance or operation at periods \"j\" and \"r\" (see Figure 1). From a previous research (Charles-Owaba, 2002), it has been established that the cost of maintaining the ship at period \"j\" is given as: Equation 63 Obviously, the cost of maintaining the same ship at period \"r\" is given as: Equation 64 It should be noted that r=j+n, where n=1, 2, 3, ... Let the cost of putting the ship into operation at period \"j\" be defined as Ci,jp. This is the summation of all the consumption cost that occurs when the ship is in operation. If inflation-factor, t is introduced with the understanding that there are changes in either operation or maintenance cost relative to a base period, then we could mathematically define Ci,jp to incorporate the inflation factor. This is stated in equation (39): Equation 65 If we are to transform this cost to the \"r\" period, then: Equation 66 Now, let us consider the various cases that could occur with the transportation tableau defined in Figure 1. A first case could occur where the ship is maintained at both periods indicated in Figure 1. We call this case 1. The case 2 scenario is a situation where the ship is maintained at period \"j\" while it is in operation at period \"r\". Case 3 is such that the ship is maintained at period \"r\" and it is operation at period \"j\". For case 4, the ship is in operation at the two periods (i.e. period \"j\" and \"r\"). Our interest here is to find the total cost for each consideration. What follows is a mathematical analysis to compute the various total cost.Case 1: When the ship is maintained at both periods\n5. Management implications and the managerial perspective of maintenance scheduling research: In the shipping industry, the development of a mathematical approach for evaluating preventive maintenance scheduling cost has serious implications in planning, controlling, budgeting, and manpower-related issues. For planning purposes, the traditional intuitive management approach would be replaced by a scientific approach presented in the model. Thus, long before activities are carried out, a good forecast of outcomes may be made. For example, the cost of spare parts used for shipping repair activities could be determined in advance with the aid of the model. The cost of power usage, contracted jobs, purchases or upgrading of maintenance tools, etc. could be determined during the budgeting period when an efficient preventive maintenance scheduling programme is in place.The implementation of the model in the shipping industry would encourage actions on practical steps to prevent, reduce or eliminate plant equipment or facility failure in the most economic manner. Thus, the maintenance management stands to benefit on how the inter-play of technical and financial factors would yield profit to the organization. Maintenance activities must be such that significant contributions towards the profit margin of the organization are made through enhanced production flow. In essence, an uninterrupted flow in equipment functions would lead to optimal production and maximum return on investment. Obviously, the model presented in this work aims at achieving an optimal level of machine up-keep through effective and efficient maintenance scheduling, which is structured to prevent interruptions in the production process.An important advantage of implementing the model described in this work is its ability to serve as a control measure for the resources of the maintenance department. Since time must be invested in the scheduling operations, proper monitoring and control of time utilization by the maintenance crew is made with the use of the model. This is obvious since operators would be allocated to specific ship repairs and maintenance activities. Absenteeism or lateness of the operators would be clearly revealed since the job would not be done or delayed beyond the targeted completion time. With these, appropriate penalties could be given to staff not complying with the company's rules.\n6. Conclusions: In recent times effective management of maintenance operations have been of paramount importance to decision makers in the industry. It is realized that several thousands of money in local currency could be saved in the development and implementation of techniques and models for efficient maintenance scheduling operations. In this work, an answer is provided through the development of a framework that redefines the cost elements in a comprehensive and holistic manner that reflects the totality of operations. Given the fact that the readers of this article may struggle with a number of questions, four of these questions are addressed here to justify the current work:1. What are we going to learn from the article that we do not know?2. Why is it worth knowing?3. How will we know that all conclusions are valid?4. From the current study, what are the likely extensions to current body of knowledge that could be gained?From the introductory part to the recent section of this paper, we have shown a new approach in the quantification of maintenance cost based on the Gantt charting solution approach to problem solving in optimal preventive maintenance scheduling. The approach presented is new and may suggest a unique solution methodology to Gantt charting problem.The newness of the approach lies in the application of three-dimensional wave equation principles to the simultaneous scheduling of resource constrained maintenance and operations. The principles and techniques shown in this paper have many benefits to the research community as well as practitioners in many ways. One of the strongest needs of this work is tied to the savings in money that it may account for. Therefore, it has an economic justification. Decision makers will be able to make more accurate decisions, thus, heading to improved efficiency at work, particularly during project planning activities. Sometimes the cost of making serious errors in decision making due to imprecise results as inputs may be costly. This is avoided with the use of the present model in decision-making. From the evidence presented in the model and the analytical part of this work, the conclusions made are validated. It is obvious that the work is feasible in the case demonstrated. Thus, it is possible to extend the same approach to similar environments with good results obtained from such studies.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: - This paper aims to revisit the preventive maintenance scheduling literature. The problem to be solved is the simultaneous scheduling of resource-constrained preventive maintenance and operations. In particular, the expression that defines the period-dependent cost function for a preventive maintenance scheduling activity is redefined. A case study is presented from the shipping industry.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - In this paper a mathematical theory of differential calculus known as three-dimensional wave equation is applied. The methodology involves transforming the preventive maintenance cost function that is expressed in terms of several variables into a more precise framework. The motivation for the work is the need to measure the total preventive maintenance scheduling cost more precisely than with the use of the existing linear cost structure.\nFindings: - In this paper the findings from the analysis carried out found evidence that validates the claim of the feasibility of analyzing preventive maintenance cost using the approach proposed.\nResearch limitations/implications: - The paper shows that, in practice, maintenance managers strive to reduce the cost of preventive maintenance activities in order to achieve low cost production of goods. This would encourage a high patronage of customers and prevent decisions being made on wrong data. The approach presented here aims at correcting this weakness by revealing a more precise and reliable method of preventive maintenance scheduling cost computation. This is a scientific tool that should be of immense benefit to maintenance planners, particularly those actively engaged in scheduling functions.\nOriginality/value: - The work in this paper is new, since a novel framework is presented in a way that has not been documented earlier.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
VocaLink wins gold for outstanding people practices: Employee engagement smoothes the way for organizational change	[ "Employee engagement", "Organizational change", "Recruitment", "Retention", "Financial services", "Awards" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n__NO_TITLE__: A company that fully engaged its workforce throughout a period of organizational change has won Investors in People (IiP) gold accreditation which places it among the top 2 per cent of IiP-certified UK companies.\nMaking the right decisions: To achieve IiP gold, the company exceeded the benchmark for a number of assessment categories including business and people strategies, leadership and management strategies and effectiveness, involvement and empowerment, reward strategies, performance measurement and continuous improvement.\nExtensive communication program: VocaLink has a clear vision and a set of values and objectives that the executive team shares in staff briefings and updates throughout the year. For the past few years, it has run an annual company event, which Debbie Lombard describes as \"a combination of a conference and a party\" to support and encourage a one-tier ethos.\nCross-team collaboration: VocaLink monitors staff satisfaction closely, looking at what is positive and where development is needed. In the areas requiring attention, human resource (HR) works in partnership with the managers to develop and implement improvement plans. The recent changes made to the organizational structure during the company's transformation program were a good example of how feedback from the staff-satisfaction survey fed into the decisions that were made to improve departmental structures and roles in support of greater cross-team collaboration.\nAttracting, supporting and enabling a diverse workforce: Central to VocaLink's recruitment process is engaging with the teams for which it is recruiting. \"We use team-panel interviewing and all of our interviewers are accredited\", said Debbie Lombard.\nRetaining the best staff: \"We have introduced a remuneration program that attracts and retains the best staff, while at the same time driving performance\", Debbie Lombard continued: \"We focus on what employees are going to achieve during the year to support the requirements of their role and that of their department. Individuals are asked to complete personal-development plans which HR then assesses. From our analysis, we work out what courses we need to run the following year to support team and business objectives.\"\nSupport for personal development: \"Our offices provide a nice working environment, with subsidized restaurants, on-site gyms and good parking arrangements at most sites. In addition we support personal-development activities, including the provision of language classes, life coaching, neuro-linguistic programing and yoga.\"\nNote: David Pollitt, Human Resource Management International Digest Editor, wrote this article.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: This paper aims to observe that strong policies on employee engagement helped the UK and international payment-systems provider VocaLink to introduce organizational change smoothly and win Investors in People (IiP) gold for its human resource (HR) practices.\nDesign/methodology/approach: This paper describes the company's HR policies and the advantages they bring.\nFindings: The authors explain that to achieve Investors in People gold, the company should exceed the benchmark for a number of assessment categories including: business and people strategies, leadership and management strategies and effectiveness, involvement and empowerment, reward strategies, performance measurement and continuous improvement.\nPractical implications: It is revealed that the company has strong induction programs, listens to feedback and puts a lot of energy into ensuring that leadership across the business is organized in a way that both deliver the corporate message and develop teams.\nSocial implications: This paper contends that by offering a great place to work where people can grow and develop, VocaLink can recruit and retain great staff.\nOriginality/value: This paper describes an organization where people are enthusiastic about the potential of the business and the opportunity it offers to further improve processes and relationships.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Adopting self-service technology to do more with less	[ "Self-service technology", "Service-dominant logic", "Co-production", "Co-creation operant resources", "Resource integration", "Self-service", "Customer services quality" ]	[ { "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: As businesses emerge from the global recession there is much talk about the need for organizations (in both the public and private sectors) to \"do more with less\". Many might say that organizations adopt self-service technology (SST) precisely to achieve more with less as customers interact with machines, undertaking tasks previously performed by service employees and transforming the customer role from essentially passive to active. However, the service-dominant logic lens reveals a potential danger. Organizations might embrace SST as an efficient mechanism to co-create value with customers when in fact they are merely shifting responsibility for service production to their customers. We define SST as technologies, provided by an organization, specifically to enable customers to engage in self-service behaviors. In many cases this will involve customers performing tasks that were previously undertaken by the employees of the organization.\nService-dominant logic and self-service: Three key themes of S-D logic provide the framework for this discussion:\nMethod: We report findings from 24 qualitative interviews that took place in England during 2010. Four researchers participated in the study to ensure maximum coverage of the target respondent groups. Table I provides a template of the age and socio-economic groups covered. Fourteen females and ten males were interviewed in relatively equal numbers across the four age groupings. However, the researchers found it difficult to reach respondents within the lowest socio-economic grouping (DE).\nFindings: The key findings related to value, operant and operand resources of both parties and the resource integration process are reported below.\nDiscussion of management challenges: Adopting SST might be attractive to organizations seeking to do more with less, but it may reduce customer perceived value and increase organizational costs. SST effectively moves service production from the organization to the customer, increasing the customer co-production role. Thus the operant resource moves from that which the organization directly manages (employees) to that which it does not (customers). While customers may appear to be a cheaper resource than employees, they are also harder to train and manage, and they can become ad hoc advisers to other customers. As partial employees, customers are unable to draw upon the same level of expertise and tacit knowledge that employees do when producing the service. In any event, customers are not all equally willing or able to take on tasks formerly performed by service employees. Meanwhile, employees must take on new service roles to train and support customers especially when the technology fails. In this section we draw attention to the management challenges associated with managing value, the SST interface and the operant resources of customers as well as employees.\nFuture research directions: Although the study considered consumer usage of self-service technology across a broad range of consumer services, it was confined to the consumer perspective. As such, future research within organizations and among employees who support consumers using SST would be a useful extension. That research might consider the strategic imperatives that drive SST adoption, design and implementation. It could also consider the changing role of the service employee and, particularly, the move from service delivery into self-service failure recovery. Equally, research within the B2B context, where SST adoption is also increasing at a rapid rate, would add to knowledge of SST usage.\nConclusions: Doing more with less suggests a goal of greater productivity and efficiency of operations. Self-service technology has the potential to increase revenue/profit while reducing staff and/or operating sites or to dramatically increase service provision without the commensurate additional expense of staff and operating sites. However, there is a need to ensure that neither customer nor employee perspectives are overlooked as service organizations and academics fall over themselves to \"apply scientific understanding to advance our ability to design, improve, and scale service systems\" (Maglio and Spohrer, 2008, p. 20).\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: Employees have traditionally played a major role in the customer\nDesign/methodology/approach: The paper presents findings from 24 semi-structured interviews that focus on the everyday experiences of consumers in using SST. Both genders and all socio-economic categories within all adult age groups from 18 to 65+ were included.\nFindings: There is a danger that organizations embrace SST as an economic and efficient mechanism to \"co-create\" value with consumers when they are merely shifting responsibility for service production. The paper identifies risks when customers become partial employees and concludes that customers should perceive the value they gain from using SST to be at least commensurate with their co-production role.\nResearch limitations/implications: The qualitative study was confined to the consumer perspective. Future research within organizations and among employees who support consumers using SST would extend understanding, as would research within the business-to-business (B2B) context. Quantitative studies could measure the frequency and extent of the phenomena the authors report and assist with market segmentation strategies.\nPractical implications: The application of service-dominant logic highlights potential risks and managerial challenges as self-service, and consequent value co-creation, relies on the operant resources of customers, who lack the tacit knowledge of employees and are less easy to manage. There is also the need to manage a new employee role: \"self-service education, support and recovery\".\nOriginality/value: The paper draws attention to managerial challenges for organizations to ensure that SST adoption enhances and does not destroy value. Additionally, it highlights the importance of distinguishing between co-production and co-creation.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Exploring antecedents and consequences of young consumers' perceived global brand equity	[ "Global branding", "SEM (Structural equation modelling)", "Brand equity (Consumer)" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n__NO_TITLE__: The process of globalization has increased competition and led to the diffusion of brands across national borders and cultures. The resulting \"Global Brands\" can be defined as brands that are available in most countries, have a uniform positioning and image worldwide and are perceived by consumers as \"global\" (Douglas and Craig, 2012). The success of these global brands however hinges upon the consumers' favorable attitudes and positive behavioral responses. Many companies who have attempted to expand their markets internationally have encountered challenges in effectively building their brand equity in foreign markets. An emerging body of research suggests that, in the increasingly competitive global marketplace, the development of strong brand equity is necessary for a firm's financial success (Keller, 1993, 2004). Identifying these factors which influence consumers' perceived brand equity will aid marketers and brand managers to better understand how to target their brands effectively in the global marketplace.\nLiterature review and hypothesis development: Global brands and their importance\nMethodology: Participants and data collection procedure\nResults: Exploratory factor analysis\nDiscussion and conclusions: This study is one of the first to explore the ability of Cleveland and Laroche (2007) AGCC concept to predict young consumers' attitudes and behavioral responses toward global brands. Results show that young American consumers provide an interesting and formidable market segment for global apparel firms. This is supported by previous research (Cleveland et al., 2009) that demonstrate COS and IDT dimensions of AGCC was positively associated with brand awareness and brand image. COS consumers have been shown to demonstrate higher desire for cultural capital through the consumption of products high in COS-oriented images and tastes (Saran and Kalliny, 2012). The findings of this current study reinforce Saran and Kalliny who recently argued that the COS construct may serve as an adequate indicator for predicting a consumers' propensity toward consumption of products and brands with strong global image appeal. In this way, the COS dimension can be seen as an affinity toward membership with a globally conscious group where consumption is the means used to demonstrate membership (Ozsomer, 2012).\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: With the expansion of globalization, the increased competitive environment has led to the diffusion of brands across borders and cultures. Furthermore, young consumers represent an optimal segment for the proliferation of global consumer culture (GCC). This paper aims to examine the relationship between acculturation to global consumer culture (AGCC), perceived brand equity, attitudes toward the brand and brand resonance in the global sportswear brands context among young consumers in the USA.\nDesign/methodology/approach: A total of 394 undergraduate student participants ranging in age from 18 years to 24 years completed a multisectional structured survey. Model construct validity was tested using a confirmatory factor analysis. A structure equation model was used to test hypotheses and relationships.\nFindings: Results showed that while cosmopolitan and self-identification with GCC dimensions of ACGG had a positive association with perceived brand equity, exposure to marketing activities of MNCs and global mass media exposure dimensions of AGCC had a negative association with perceived brand equity. Perceived brand equity also revealed a positive association with attitudes toward the brand, which in turn, affected brand resonance.\nResearch limitations/implications: The research used a sample of 18-24-year-old youth consumers. Future research could be extended to include younger (15-17-year old) sample to provide a broader sample of the youth market. In addition, future replication of findings should seek through cross-cultural investigation of multiple youth segments.\nPractical implications: Findings suggest support multiple dimensions of the AGCC scale as holding significant influence on young consumers' brand equity consisting of brand image and brand awareness. Managerially, the findings provide support on the youth consumer's affinity toward self-identification with a GCC and cosmopolitan openness to foreign cultures as being positively related to the adoptions and retention of apparel brands.\nSocial implications: Theoretically, the results provide empirical evidence for the debate on the interrelationship between brand equity and attitudes toward brands. The theoretical model guiding the current study reflects the notion of an emerging acculturation process among a segment of the world's population to a set of global consumer preferences and ideals that are increasingly being embodied in global brands.\nOriginality/value: This is among one of the first studies attempting to explore the applicability of Cleveland and Laroche's (2007) AGCC concepts in predicting young consumers' attitudes and behavioral responses toward global brands.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Significance of scientific evidence in organizing care processes	[ "Change management", "Evidence-based practice", "Elderly care", "Change process" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nBackground: The development of evidence-based practice (EBP) has suggested to contribute to more effective and safe patient care. EBP deals primarily with the use of current best research evidence in making decisions about care processes (Sackett et al., 1996). The integration of research evidence with clinical expertise and patient preferences is emphasized (Sackett et al., 1996). EBP is seen as a client-focussed decision-making process in which policy-makers, managers or practitioners make decisions based on critical analysis of scientific and practical knowledge (Gray et al., 2014). However, major difficulties in transferring research into clinical practice have arisen (Cummings et al., 2007; Estabrooks et al., 2008; Wallin, 2009; Mullen et al., 2008), and a conclusion from the efforts over the past two decades is that research results are not being used in sufficient quantity or quality to impact health and social services (Fixsen et al., 2009; Morago, 2006).\nMethods: The present study was part of a larger multidisciplinary project, entitled Continuum of Care for Frail Elderly People (Hasson, 2010; Hasson et al., 2012; Wilhelmson et al., 2011). Thus, the respondents were involved in a randomized controlled study (RCT) conducted in a medium-sized municipality and at a university hospital in Sweden. Sweden is regarded as a universal welfare state, in terms of its system of benefits and services linked to the lifetime needs of its citizens. The formal goals of the Swedish welfare system comprise universalism and extensive coverage. Municipalities in Sweden are responsible for the delivery of social care services and older people care. All hospital care is provided by local regions (county councils) (Esping-Andersen, 2013).\nResults: Initial perceptions of scientific evidence and motives for participating in the project\nDiscussion: The findings illustrate how health and social care differed in how they valued scientific knowledge in relation to other knowledge sources such as staff and patient perceptions. Scientific knowledge seemed to have a clearer function in the health care setting when organizing care practices, while its function in the social care concerned more the legitimacy and status of the organization. Thus, these organizations also differed in how evidence was taken into consideration when organizing care processes. In addition, managers and staff, especially in the health care setting, differed in their views on the degree to which evidence-based methods can be adapted to local context, which also illustrated the different functions evidence had in practical decision making. These results are discussed below.\nConclusions: There was a lack of reflective, systematic analysis of different types of knowledge in both the health and social care organizations. The social care organization tended to rely on ad hoc practice-based information and political decisions when organizing care, while the health care organization relied to some extent, in a similar unreflected manner, on scientific knowledge. The study illustrates the several difficulties that might arise when managers and staff try to consider scientific evidence when making complicated decisions about care processes.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to analyze how staff and managers in health and social care organizations use scientific evidence when making decisions about the organization of care practices.\nDesign/methodology/approach: Document analysis and repeated interviews (2008-2010) with staff (n=39) and managers (n=26) in health and social care organizations. The respondents were involved in a randomized controlled study about testing a continuum of care model for older people.\nFindings: Scientific evidence had no practical function in the social care organization, while it was a prioritized source of information in the health care organization. This meant that the decision making regarding care practices was different in these organizations. Social care tended to rely on ad hoc practice-based information and political decisions when organizing care, while health care to some extent also relied in an unreflected manner on the scientific knowledge.\nOriginality/value: The study illustrates several difficulties that might occur when managers and staff try to consider scientific evidence when making complicated decisions about care practices.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
New instruments for water management in Brazil	[ "Scarcity", "Economic instruments", "Markets for use rights", "Water resources policy" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Water is a scarce resource, and scarcity events have become increasingly more frequent in Brazil (ANA, 2017). Recent extreme weather events that affected Brazil's water resources sector[1] signal how important it is to promote tools and conduct deeper analyses that aim to bring greater resilience and responsiveness to this sector.\nLiterature review: Economic instruments and water resources\nMethods: Public policies, uncertainties and the Delphi method\nResults: Rounds of questionnaires\nDiscussion and final remarks: This article investigated if other economic instruments, particularly markets for water use rights, could play a role within Brazil's water management policies. Such an exercise is more productive if we recognize two inherent limitations to any good research based on economic theory. First, economic propositions are essentially conditional (if A, then B) (Rodrik, 2013); thus, answers to a given problem depend, at least partially, on the context that surrounds it and are not necessarily applicable to other situations.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: This paper aims to explore the possible uses of economic instruments, other than water tariffs, to assist water management policy in Brazil. In particular, the paper focuses attention toward markets for use rights.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The research is based on water resources specialists' opinions and perceptions, collected through surveys (Delphi method) and a focus group, to understand if such an instrument is desirable and which roles could it play within Brazilian water basins.\nFindings: Results suggest there is room and utility for markets for water use rights, although mostly on a temporary basis, localized, predominantly dealing with scarcity events and in conjunction with the other instruments under Brazil's National Water Policy.\nOriginality/value: Given the persistence of scarcity events in the country, the research represents a first step to understand if new instruments for water management are politically feasible and contribute to better delineate future investigations applied to specific water basins and their local conditions.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Preoperative cross functional teams improve OR performance	[ "Performance", "The Netherlands", "Teamwork", "OR", "Self-managing teams" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Hospitals are continuously exploring ways to simultaneously improve patient safety, quality of care and efficiency. Hospitals need to improve their productivity and efficiency in response to higher societal demands and rapidly escalating costs. In Dutch hospitals most of the growth in costs is being driven by increased health care consumption, partly as a result of medical advances that lead to more diseases at an earlier age so patients can be treated earlier and longer (Kuenen et al., 2011). Efficient use of OR capacity is crucial since it is considered a high-cost environment continuously challenging the limited hospital resources (Marjamaa et al., 2008). To respond to these challenges, the Radboud University Nijmegen Medical Centre (RUNMC) in the Netherlands opted for a redesign consisting of a cross-functional team (CFT)-based organization in the operative process.\nBackground theory self-organizing teams: The roots for the developing theories about CFTs can be found in the socio-technical systems theory (Argyris, 1976; de Sitter et al., 1997). Starting point is that organizations have to cope with growing uncertainty and variety. The internal complexity of hospital organizations architecture, caused by traditional functional specialization, is an amplifier for external complexity and a source for interference, errors, variance and accidents. These are difficult to handle due to defects in effective collaboration of autonomous individual professionals. Organizational redesign will revitalize the organization (Achterbergh and Vriens, 2009; de Sitter et al., 1997). Decreasing organizational complexity by reducing the functional concentration and increasing local control is necessary to create optimal conditions for cross-functional teamwork. CFTs with a high level of self-organizing capabilities and mandate can handle variety, interference and upcoming errors (Achterbergh and Vriens, 2009; Bitter et al., 2013). Integration of tasks by a cross-functional team-based organization is supposed to reduce the sources of interference, like X-ray equipment not being available or inadequately consulted schedule deviation. Furthermore, cross-functional teams with full mandate are equipped to regulate interference, errors and learn to improve planning under circumstances of scarce resources and large variety.\nThe baseline: Prior to redesign, the OR schedule was prepared and controlled by the surgeon in charge. The anesthesiologist approved the schedule the day before. Cancellations regularly occurred due to missing data and other causes, e.g. lack of OR time due to over-utilization at the end of the day. To live up to appointments made with patients, doctor's commitment also needed improvement. To optimize these pitfalls in the planning and scheduling process, CFTs were formed in 2004. These CFTs were called \"cross-functional OR scheduling teams\" and every surgical Department (i.e. orthopedics department, cardiothoracic surgery department, etc.) using OR facilities, implemented such a team. The team was supervised by a dedicated anesthesiologist and further consisted of a surgeon, a scheduler, an OR nurse, an anesthesia nurse, a recovery room nurse and a nurse from the ward.\nMethods: Data was prospectively collected from 2005 until 2012 and analyzed retrospectively for the purpose of this study. All data were registered electronically by the OR nursing staff in the Hospital Information System and validated by the surgeon and anesthesiologist in charge. Data used in this longitudinal study involved repeated and continuous measurement of the same performance indicators over a long period of time; in this study raw utilization was focussed on. The performance of one OR day, which is generally equal to eight hours of block time (usually from 8:00 h until 16:00 h) allocated to a specific surgical department, is commonly evaluated by this indicator. It is a measure for efficiency and relates to whether staffed operating rooms are under - or overutilized. An OR is considered underutilized when OR time is staffed but not used for surgery, setup or clean up, which can occur if cases finish earlier than scheduled, there are prolonged delays between cases or a case is cancelled unexpectedly. An OR is regarded overutilized when it is staffed at overtime wages (Macario, 2007).\nResults: Data were available for a total of seven consecutive years from 2005 until 2012. After excluding day care surgery and non-elective surgical cases, the collected data consisted of 4,046 OR days for surgical Department A and 1,154 OR days for surgical Department B on which, respectively 8,419 and 5,295 surgical cases were performed. Outliers (mean +-3 SD) were excluded, based on the SPSS output \"Casewise Diagnostics\". This left 4,009 OR days for surgical Department Aand 1,127 OR days for surgical Department B, for statistical analysis.\nSurgical Department A: Figure 1 shows that raw utilization of surgical Department A demonstrated an increase since 2006. Most of this increase was effectuated in the lower quartile (Q\nSurgical Department B: Figure 1 shows that raw utilization of surgical Department B demonstrated an increase since 2005. The main part of this increase was effectuated in the lower quartile (Q\nDiscussion: The purpose of this study was to identify the relationship between the implementation of cross-functional teams and OR performance. This study shows a long-term perspective and a gradual improvement in OR utilization. Our data are insufficient to prove not that this is a direct result of introduction of the CFTs, however, since this was the only major change in the OR organization in the time period of the study, it is highly likely that the improvement can, to a great extent, be ascribed to the systematic work of the two teams. The effects of single loop and double loop learning, as well as focussing on OR scheduling are well-documented helpsin the process of organizational learning that we have gone through (Argyris, 1976; Bitter et al., 2013).\nGlossary: CFT Cross-Functional Team(s)\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to present the effect of the introduction of cross-functional team (CFT)-based organization, rather than, on planning and performance of OR teams.\nDesign/methodology/approach: In total, two surgical departments of the Radboud University Nijmegen Medical Center (RUNMC) in the Netherlands were selected to illustrate the effect on performance. Data were available for a total of seven consecutive years from 2005 until 2012 and consisted of 4,046 OR days for surgical Department A and 1,154 OR days for surgical Department B on which, respectively 8,419 and 5,295 surgical cases were performed. The performance indicator \"raw utilization\" of the two surgical Departments was presented as box-and-whisker plots per year (2005-2011). The relationship between raw utilization (y) and years (x) was analyzed with linear regression analysis, to observe if performance changed over time.\nFindings: Based on the linear regression analysis, raw utilization of surgical Department A showed a statistically significant increase since 2006. The variation in raw utilization reduced from IQR 33 percent in 2005 to IQR 8 percent in 2011. Surgical Department B showed that raw utilization increased since 2005. The variation in raw utilization reduced from IQR 21 percent in 2005 to IQR 8 percent in 2011.\nSocial implications: Hospitals need to improve their productivity and efficiency in response to higher societal demands and rapidly escalating costs. The RUNMC increased their OR performance significantly by introduction of CFT-based organization in the operative process and abandoning the so called functional silos.\nOriginality/value: The stepwise reduction of variation - a decrease of IQR during the years - indicates an organizational learning effect. This study demonstrates that introducing CFTs improve OR performance by working together as a team.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Communities of co-commenting in the Russian LiveJournal and their topical coherence	[ "Social network analysis", "Blogs", "Communities of co-commenting", "Russian blogosphere", "Topic modelling", "Online discussion" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Blogs and later social networks have proven to be vitally important in the social and political life of contemporary societies. Abundant existing evidence proves their effects on policy (see overview in Drezner and Farrell, 2008), electoral preferences (Koltsova and Shcherbak, 2015) or electoral results (DiGrazia et al., 2013), and broader political views and behavior (Parmelee and Bichard, 2012). Sometimes they even have been crucial for political regime changes (Howard et al., 2011; Lotan et al., 2011). In certain situations, individual bloggers or blogs play key roles in the political process (Enikolopov et al., 2016), but inherently the blogosphere is a collective phenomenon, a locus of shared content co-production and dissemination embedded in a complex relational structure of mutual reposts, comments, followings, friendships, and other types of links. To understand social and political processes evolving in the blogosphere, and to forecast their potential effects on the \"offline world,\" it is not enough to know the agendas and generally blog content; a profound knowledge of the entire structure is needed. In other words, it is important to know not only what is being talked about, but also who talks to whom, why and whether some talking groups are larger and potentially more influential or more attractive for influence than others.\nRelated work: Most SNA on the web, including community detection, has been devoted to links of a different nature than commenting. Earlier studies of web-based social networks usually tried to characterize general patterns in the web graph based on in-text hyperlinks between webpages (Albert et al., 1999); some of them addressed the issues of densely connected components (Broder et al., 2000) or communities, and have had a modest sociological component. Studies coming from social or political sciences have often been using visualization algorithms to detect hyperlink communities \"by eye.\" Sometimes this approach has been successful; for instance, Adamic and Glance (2005) demonstrated with this approach the polarized character of the US political blog space, while the Berkman Center at Harvard launched a series of studies mapping Iranian, Arabic, and Russian blogospheres and identifying different political groups in them (Kelly and Etling, 2008; Etling et al., 2009, 2010). Later a new type of studies evolved that employed community detection algorithms for sociological studies of web data (Ackland and O'Neil, 2011).\nData and methods: The dataset was retrieved from the Russian-language LJ website via its API into an MS SQL database with the Koltran BlogMiner downloading software developed by the authors. At the time of data collection, Russian LJ maintained a publicly available list of Russian-language accounts rated by three different methodologies. We used LJ's so-called \"social capital\" rating list which, although it is not explicitly stated by its developers, uses the general idea of Pierre Bourdieu as well as the general idea behind PageRank. Its methodology is not fully available and represents a commercial secret but in general it counts people who have befriended a given blogger favoring those who really read it on a permanent basis. It also uses a number of penalizing coefficients whose purpose is to fight various methods for artificial boosting of the social capital (since social capital can be monetized, various forms of blog optimization similar to search engine optimization for websites have arisen). As a result, the top of the rating list contains accounts that are highly active, read, and commented, and bots rarely can get to the top. Our downloading experiments have shown that the number of posts per blogger and especially the number of comments per post drop very fast as we move down the rating list: there were about two million accounts in the Russian-language LJ in total by the time of the research, but already at the level of places around 50,000 in the rating list comments are too few to construct a network, and bots are quite apparent. The first 2,000 bloggers (approx. 0.1 percent of all accounts) usually attract 20 times more comments than they write posts: this is quite sufficient for a meaningful graph, although the threshold is, to some extent, arbitrary.\nResults: Community detection has revealed a moderately manifested but clearly evident community structure with modularity Q=0.38 and a highly skewed distribution of community sizes, the largest community comprising more than half of the vertices (9,976 out of 17,386) (Figure 1). This matches the findings of Gomez et al. (2008) and Leskovec et al. (2008) addressed above. A large number of small communities (85) are isolated pairs and triads of little interest; this is the result of the highly skewed distribution of comments per post and especially per commenter. This latter effect might be explained with preferential attachment of new comments to already well-commented posts, as described in an early work of Barabasi and Albert (1999). Around one-third of commenters have left only one comment, thus not participating in the comment-based network at all, while most of it has been formed by less than a thousand commenters who generated from a hundred to more than a thousand comments each and two-thirds of all comments together. However, about 70 middle-size communities are potentially interesting. Analysis of dependence of posts' belonging to a community on their authorship has revealed a strong positive correlation (Table I). We thus found that clusters of dense co-commenting are uneven in size and manifestly centered around posts of certain authors.\nDiscussion and practical implications: Our research contributes to the knowledge about the structure of commenting in blogs. It develops earlier research that investigated the properties of friendship communities in LJ (Zakharov, 2007) by studying co-commenting communities and their features at this blogging platform. It is the first study that reveals to what degree posts written by popular bloggers may cluster into groups that generate their own actively commenting audiences, and what unites these posts into groups - their content or their authorship.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: The paper addresses the problem of what drives the formation of latent discussion communities, if any, in the blogosphere: topical composition of posts or their authorship? The purpose of this paper is to contribute to the knowledge about structure of co-commenting.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The research is based on a dataset of 17,386 full text posts written by top 2,000 LiveJournal bloggers and over 520,000 comments that result in about 4.5 million edges in the network of co-commenting, where posts are vertices. The Louvain algorithm is used to detect communities of co-commenting. Cosine similarity and topic modeling based on latent Dirichlet allocation are applied to study topical coherence within these communities.\nFindings: Bloggers unite into moderately manifest communities by commenting roughly the same sets of posts. The graph of co-commenting is sparse and connected by a minority of active non-top commenters. Communities are centered mainly around blog authors as opinion leaders and, to a lesser extent, around a shared topic or topics.\nResearch limitations/implications: The research has to be replicated on other datasets with more thorough hand coding to ensure the reliability of results and to reveal average proportions of topic-centered communities.\nPractical implications: Knowledge about factors around which co-commenting communities emerge, in particular clustered opinion leaders that often attract such communities, can be used by policy makers in marketing and/or political campaigning when individual leadership is not enough or not applicable.\nOriginality/value: The research contributes to the social studies of online communities. It is the first study of communities based on co-commenting that combines examination of the content of commented posts and their topics.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Technology forecasting (TF) and technology assessment (TA) methodologies: a conceptual review	[ "Benchmarking", "Literature review", "Technological forecasting", "Technology assessment", "TF and TA methodologies", "Techniques of technology forecasting" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: Business organisations have been implementing modern technologies to encounter present challenges towards new/better products, processes/activities, services and practices for delivering higher efficiency and effectiveness (Kumar et al., 2015). Analysis of the implications of new or emerging technologies has become a necessity for the economies, organisations and societies. This analysis does not only help in cost-effective solutions, but is also vital for identifying the best suitable alternative ranging from individual level to the global level. These analyses are the methodologies of technological forecasting (TF) and technology assessment (TA) that help in making a well-informed decision and setting priorities for research and development (R&D). TF and TA also help in exploiting the available knowledge and understanding, as well as managing the risk of emerging technologies and innovations. As the business environment is extremely competitive in public as well as private sector, TF and TA are used to satisfy the rising needs of the innovation (Huang et al., 2014). Generally, a country's economy depends upon the innovations to keep up and enhance living standards. In today's global world, countries are interconnected for the advancement of the economy (Bijker, 1992). Along these lines, TF and TA are more imperative and hard to target for investigations to help decision maker (Ely et al., 2014). Technological forecasting and evaluation will generally rely on the perspectives of the overall population and their constituent agents about financial competition, technological advancement and the technological improvement (Jun, 2011; Compagna and Kohlbacher, 2015).\n2. The evolution of TF and TA: The evolution of both (TF and TA) has been divided into two parts, i.e., first, before and, second, after the Second World War. Before the Second World War, the essential authority record of an exploratory point of view towards the long running of innovation and advancement of science which happened in 1935. National Resources Committee (1937) report suggested fundamentally about the outcomes of technological changes (Schnaars, 1989).\n3. TF methods: Settling on vital choices for TF method is a standout amongst the most troublesome difficulties for the R&D staff. As Ralph Lenz, US aviation-based armed forces innovation forecasting pioneer once said, \"TF may be characterised as the prediction of the development, qualities, measurements, or execution of a machine serving some valuable need\" (Slocum and Lundberg, 2001; Martino, 2003). Mishra et al. (2002) said that \"Emphasis on TF method\" and \"Development of methodology to select an appropriate technique for TF is vital requirement of sustainable development\".\n4. Relationships among TF methods: In this segment of paper, we endeavour to evaluate the relationship between exploratory and normative methods that are given in the past literature and try to recognise the linkages among the methodologies. Some TF strategies are firmly utilising both exploratory and normative methods to anticipate the technological development or changes. Moreover, the choice of fitting TF methods relies upon the nature of the technologies (Mishra et al., 2002). Along these lines, it obliges experience and skill in different TF procedures to choose the suitable estimating models. In fact, this section classifies TF procedures as indicated by exploratory and normative methodologies. Table III demonstrates a lattice of TF methods by sorting strategies and technological characteristics inside every cell, and TF methods are recorded in the decreasing order of their utilisation frequency.\n5. Technology assessment: The TA concept is more than a quarter century old, and the plethora of research articles is already available in this subject area. However, it is still not clear in the mind of researchers other than its experts. TA is neither simple forecast nor prediction research, or neither social effect analysis nor absolutely system analysis (Finsterbusch, 1980). It deals with the entire system that analyses the effects and the causes (i.e. immediate or after-effects, sometimes communicated as first-, second- and higher order effects). It finds out whether the effects have been arranged or proposed in true circumstances that are portrayed into technological improvement; furthermore, it explains the advantages or unfavourable nature of the consequences and typically forces investments on a few sections of society that are beneficial.\n6. Discussion of findings: It is a fact that the pertinence of TF and TA in today's world is more noteworthy than it was in the past. A lot of assets are piped into innovation systems landed by utilising TFA. In this way, TF and TA impressively have been turn out to be more result-oriented, effective and successful in the present scenarios. The technological change and innovation are both drivers that help in the setting financial, social and political prosperity. Envisioning and comprehending the course of innovative change is problematic for decision makers in both businesses and government organisations. Some techniques are being utilised for TF and TA. Minimal orderly emphasis has been given to the calculated improvement of the TF and TA field overall. With a specific end goal to make TF and TA more powerful, one of the issues that should be tended to is a legitimate choice of the method while accounting its constraints. A conceptual model of TF and TA has been presented in Figure 2, after consulting the experts and reviewing the research text available in various research journals of national and international repute.\n7. Conclusion: We should refrain from considering forecasting and assessment as a solitary action with \"one size fits all\" philosophy. This study concludes that the quest for a single strategy for doing forecast and assessment is a misconception because this neglects to perceive that forecast and assessment oblige a suitable blend of strategies and methods drawn from a variety of fields. The proper blend of techniques to be utilised, the variables to be chosen, the units of estimation to be utilised and the grouping of analysis must remain a function of the problem in hand and the experience and inventive, creative ability of the investigator(s).\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: Technology forecasting (TF) and assessment (TA), all in all, apply to any intentional and deliberate endeavours to forecast and view the potential heading, rate, attributes and impacts of technological change, especially for development, advancement, selection and utilisation of resources, which ultimately helps in the benchmarking. A vast variety of methods are available for TF and TA. Till now, practically, no exertion has been made to choose proper, satisfactory innovation methods or technology. The paper aims to discuss this issue.\nDesign/methodology/approach: In this paper, there is an endeavour to summarise the vast field of TF and TA, through its evolution, functions, applications and techniques. This paper provides the in-depth review of the utilisation of TF and TA methodologies and its improvement, which helps the users in selecting the appropriate method of TF and TA for a specific situation.\nFindings: This study concludes that the quest for a single strategy for doing forecast and assessment is a misconception. This neglects to perceive that forecast and assessment oblige a suitable blend of strategies and methods drawn from a variety of fields. Researchers and practitioners must be innovative, imperative and specialised in choosing TF and TA methodologies, and cannot be programmed.\nPractical implications: The technology seems to be the most significant driver of the present day global developments. Some technologies have far-reaching implications, and the authors need to understand these issues regarding its' forecasting and its assessment.\nOriginality/value: The decision of proper worthy procedure amid a circumstance may have an impact on the exactness and reliability of the forecast and assessment. Significant observations regarding learning, action/s, actor/s and expected outcomes are discussed.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Defining a knowledge management conceptual model by using MADM	[ "Knowledge management", "Modelling", "Analytical hierarchy process", "Critical success factors" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: Some authors address the question of defining knowledge by distinguishing among knowledge, information, and data. A commonly held view with sundry minor variants is that data are raw numbers and facts, information is processed data, and knowledge is authenticated information (Alavi and Leidner, 2001). They posit that information is converted to knowledge once it is processed in the mind of individuals and knowledge becomes information once it is articulated and presented in the form of text, graphics, words, or other symbolic forms (Alavi and Leidner, 2001). Davenport and Prusak (1998) point out that knowledge is a fluid mix of framed experience, values, contextual information, and expert insights that provides a framework for evaluating and incorporating new experiences and information (Chen and Hsiang, 2007). Knowledge is now considered to be a major driving force for organizational change. (Savvas and Bassiliades, 2009).The recent interest in organizational knowledge has prompted the issue of managing the knowledge to the organization's benefit. Defining knowledge management (KM) is not easy because it can refer to several different activities in an industrial firm, such as data collection, data analysis, data storage, data dissemination, and data utilization (Lancioni and Chandran, 2009). KM is to discover, develop, utilize, deliver, and absorb knowledge inside and outside the organization through an appropriate management process to meet current and future needs (Quintas et al., 1997). KM is the process through which organizations extract value from their intellectual assets.To survive in the harsh environment, high-level management needs business intelligent information to efficiently manage corporate operations and support their decision making (Cheng et al., 2009). KM has been recognized as one of the most critical factors for obtaining organizational competitive advantage (Mudambi and Swift, 2009; Yang and Farn, 2009; Chen et al., 2009; Joo and Lee, 2009; Paswan and Wittmann, 2009). The major goal of KM implementation is frequently to accrue maximum benefit and achieve competitiveness (Wang and Chang, 2007). KM has benefited several industries. One of the successful applications of KM is explored by Kamp (1999). He describes four introductory projects of knowledge-based systems (KBS) and also analyzes their critical success factors and pitfalls on the farm. The current theory of successful innovations puts the farmer in a much more central position (initiating, steering, controlling): a mix between top-down and bottom-up in comparison with the traditional knowledge chain (top-down). Kamp concludes that decision support systems (DSS) on an operational level are more successful than those working on the tactical level. Furthermore, those systems bring clear financial benefits which are of course a good potential in agricultural industry (Kamp, 1999).KM makes enterprises integrate traditional resources and capabilities in a unique innovative way, and provides more customer value than competitors (Chen and Lin, 2009).A variety of factors determines significant success ingredients for successful implementing KM in organization. There are many pervious researchers to identify critical success factors (CSFs). CSFs are described as \"being in necessary and sufficient for success: each factor is necessary and the set of factors are sufficient\" (Williams and Ramaprasad, 1996). Many researchers have attempted to develop a comprehensive list of CSFs for KM implementation (see Table I). However, the list differs considerably from one research to another one because of the multidisciplinary nature of KM.Davenport et al. (1998) identify that the key success factors of implementing KM in organizations are a knowledge-oriented culture, technical and organizational infrastructure, senior management support, a link to economics or industry value, clarifying of purpose and language, nontrivial motivational aids, knowledge structure and multiple channels for knowledge transfer.Chang and Wang (2009), use the fuzzy multi criteria decision-making approach to measure the possibility of successful KM. They consider seven major factors, including employee traits, strategy, superintendent traits, audit and assessment, organizational culture, operation procedure, information technology and 31 influential factors. The empirical results demonstrate that direct participation and trust relationships among all staff, establishing a specific team to take charge of KM implementation, participation and support from senior administrators, motivation to share knowledge, auditing index and system for KM are the five main influential factors of the success of KM project.The primary challenge in KM initiation is how to integrate the above factors with organizational and personnel constraints and capabilities. The main objectives of KM implementation are frequently to maximize benefit, improve customer service, shorten product-manufacturing cycle and achieve competitiveness; KM thus acts as a stimulus forcing an organization to change its practices (Chang and Wang, 2009).Khorasan Science and Technology Park (KSTP) was established on September 2002 and started its operation, relying on experiences gained over 22 years of research activities on the fields of creation and development of national technology. KSTP has provided the small and medium enterprises with a suitable environment for their professional presence, R&D sectors of industry and research organizations to facilitate interactive and mutual constructive technology-based activities with other academic centers. Currently, two incubators are operative in KSTP, the comprehensive technology incubator and ICT incubator, to support SMEs to proceed towards technology-based lasting job opportunities. At present, there are over 30 technology-based and technology-core firms residing in the KSTP. KSTP is established on an area about 400,000 square meters. First and second phases are utilized on a surface of 13,000 square meters, and the expansion phase has already been completed. Also, KSTP has erected three small pilot plants on food-industry, chemical and mechanical workshops summing up to an area of 1,750 square meters. KSTP also welcomes the presence of Khorasan Research Center for Technology Development (KRCTD), a governmental research center with services of some 25 experienced technologists, members of academic staff, who work on applied research projects towards technology development as well as providing technical and technological consultations to the tenants in the park. KSTP has established KM system and designs, implements to KM projects.Since KM implementation is extremely costly in terms of money and time, it requires considerable advance planning. The CEO of KSTP has considered about identification, evaluation and prioritizing of the KM factors. The framework of the priority approach thus is introduced to the CEO who is interested in the priority framework. The CEO asked the general manager to help us organize a committee. after some meeting sessions, with general manager, the authors made sure they understood meaning of the model.The next section discusses the concept of multi criteria decision making (MCDM) or analytic hierarchy process (AHP) and group analytic hierarchy process (GAHP). The research methodology is in section 3. In section 4, identification of critical success factors and discussions are presented. Finally, and conclusions is given in sections 5.\n2. Concept of AHP: AHP method is used to face a complex decision making problem which is one of the most widely used technique for multi attributes decision making (MADM). Multiple criteria decision making (MCDM) is concerned with theory and methodology that can treat complex problems which are characterized by incommensurate and conflicting criteria or objectives. The AHP is an effective tool in structuring and modeling multi-criteria problem and has been successfully used in a variety of construction management application (Hasenaman et al., 2004).Cakir and Canbolat (2008), mention several areas of AHP applications such as supplier selection, performance evaluation, project management, inventory management, resource allocation, financial planning and credit scoring, portfolio management, budgeting decisions, technology management, distribution channel management, promotion and recruitment decisions, socio-economic planning, energy resources planning, conflict resolution and common vote prediction.However, the basic steps in using AHP remain the same in all the applications and consist of:1. Description of complex decision problem as a hierarchy.2. The use of pair-wise comparisons to estimate the relative weight (importance) of the various elements on each level of the hierarchy.3. The integration of these weights to develop an overall evaluation of decision alternatives4. Estimation of the consistency ratio (CR): Equation 1 where RI is the random index and CI is the consistency index. The formula for CI is: Equation 2 l max is the maximum value of the consistency vector.The consistency ratio indicates the degree of consistency with answers. A higher number means less consistency, while a lower number means that data collected are consistent. In general, if the consistency ratio is 0.10 or less the decision maker's answers are relatively consistent. For a consistency ratio that is greater than 0.10, the decision maker should seriously consider reevaluating his or her responses during the pairwise comparisons (Render and Stair, 1991).2.1. GAHP\n3. Research methodology and data collection: Research methodology used in this study is based on a combination of other methodologies, including action research, group discussion, documentary study and questionnaire research. For this purpose a group of experienced managers were selected and discussion sessions were held to set up objectives and road map the study.The group consisted of eight members. Using the GAHP method in analyzing the questionnaires led to the elimination of two of them because their CRs counted above 0.10.\n4. Prioritizing critical success factors of KM implementation using GAHP approach: This section deals with the construction of analytical model for prioritizing success factors of a KM project using the multicriteria decisionmaking approach. This section comprises four subsections: investigating the factors affecting KM success; determining the importance weights of influential factors; obtaining portion percentage of each influential factor; and finally defining the conceptual model of KM.The notations that the authors used in this paper are as follows:Ci: The ith main aspect.Cij: The jth influence factor of ith aspect.4.1. What factors affecting KM success implementation?\n5. Conclusion: Knowledge is now a major driving force for organizational changes and wealth creation, and effective KM is an increasingly important source of competitive advantage and a key to the success of modern organizations (Savvas and Bassiliades, 2009). Implementing KM effectively requires challenging recognition, which holds back KM from performing well as well as criteria exploration, which affects KM implementation, then keeping approaches and defining strategies based on them.Berends et al. (2007) express KM that is profitable in technology-based new business development (NBD) if different approach is adopted which is exploration instead of the exploitation of knowledge by externalization, collecting, and disseminating knowledge. In simpler term, an exploration approach to KM in order to support NBD should focus on experimenting (by providing time and resources for experimenting with new technologies, creating loose structures, tolerating uncertainty and ambiguity and actively probing markets), monitoring (keeping others up-to-date on internal developments) and integrating (by enhancing loose connections and boundary spanning activities). However, there is also a supportive role for exploitation in radical innovation. Without knowledgeable researchers, engineers, project managers and marketeers radical innovation is impossible.According to O'Leary (1999), the principle functions of a KM system are to facilitate: conversion of data and text into knowledge; conversion of individual and group's knowledge into accessible knowledge; connection of people and knowledge to other people and other knowledge; communication of information between different groups; creation of new knowledge that would be useful to the organization (Fernandez-Breis and Martinez-Bejar, 2000). Since KM implementation is a long-term continuum with an impact that is not immediate, defining main aspects and influential factors and prioritizing them in KM implementation is required to establish KM system and implement KM projects successfully. This study proposes a framework based on the multi-criteria decision making approach for prioritizing critical factors affecting KM implementation. Furthermore, the authors utilized opinion of KSTP's experts to prioritize CSFs.Consequently, organizations or enterprises can apply the proposed prioritizing model to improve their decision making and implement appropriate actions to avoid pitfalls (waste of time and resource) before initiating KM project.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: - To survive high-level management needs business intelligent information to efficiently manage corporate operations and support its decision making. Knowledge management (KM) is recognized as one of the most critical factors for obtaining organizational competitive advantage. A variety of factors determines significant success ingredients for successful implementation of KM in any organization. The primary challenge in KM initiation is how to integrate the above factors with organizational and personnel constraints and capabilities. This paper aims to develop a priority framework based on multi-criteria decision making (MCDM) to help organizations build awareness of the critical influential factors affecting successful implementation of KM.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - To identify critical influential factors, the authors studied and reviewed relevant literature from numerous fields of study associated with the essential issues of KM projects implementation. These cover the factors that affect a KM implementation based on comprehensive analysis of KM literature from numerous research studies. Research methodology used in this study is based on a combination of other methodologies such as action research, group discussion, documentary study and questionnaire research. For this purpose a group of experienced managers were selected and discussion sessions were held to set objectives and road map the study. Finally group analysis hierarchy process (GAHP) was used to analyse questionnaires and prioritize influential factors.\nFindings: - The conceptual framework presents a roadmap for success of KM programs in the organizations. The paper identifies eight major aspects, 44 influential factors and a conceptual framework to assisting managers to design and implement a KM system in their organizations. The results show top management, executive management and culture have great impact on success of KM implementation among main aspects. The conceptual framework presents guidelines for success of KM implementation in organizations.\nPractical implications: - The result of this study not only validates theory with reality, but it also provides a reference for the academic as well as the business world. It is hoped that the factors proposed in this study help organizations to manage knowledge activities effectively and implement knowledge projects smoothly in order to maximize benefits from KM projects and returns from knowledge assets.\nOriginality/value: - This study is the first to provide an integrated perspective of critical success factors in KM implementation in Khorasan Science and Technology Park (KSTP). It gives valuable guidelines for top managers and leaders to accomplish KM projects effectively.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Have international trade agreements been good for your health?	[ "Health care", "Health policy", "Public health", "Governance structures", "Dispute resolution", "International trade agreements" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n__NO_TITLE__: Government, often referred to as \"the state\", holds certain powers as defined by the founding charter that allocates rights and responsibilities for citizens and their government. Universally, one of those powers of the state is policing - the right of the state to create and enforce laws that regulate persons and property within its jurisdiction. In turn, public health as an agency of the state derives its authority from this policing power. Historically, this enables public health to take a precautionary principle approach in efforts to protect the health of citizens. Beyond national borders, international agreements define rules of conduct and processes to facilitate international trade, among other topics, while protecting reasonable national safety standards.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to review the literature concerning impact on public health of the dispute resolution system in international trade agreements. Its purpose is to alert readers about controversial aspects of ISDS in these international agreements, aspects that are well-documented in publications likely unfamiliar to most public health professionals.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The paper takes the form of a narrative review.\nFindings: While trade agreements offer potential economic benefits overall, the history thus far regarding impact on public health is worrisome. It is not difficult to find examples that deter public health from achieving important health protection regulation.\nPractical implications: There are over 3,000 existing international trade agreements with more on the horizon. New proposed agreements like the Trans-Pacific Partnership increase the number of countries involved; inconsistencies and lack of adequate transparency puts much at stake.\nOriginality/value: It is doubtful that the global public health communities, including both public health agencies and academic public health institutions, have sufficiently been involved as stakeholders in past and pending trade agreements.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Simultaneous effects of functional involvement and improvement programs on manufacturing and financial performance in Chinese firms	[ "Strategic manufacturing", "Production improvement", "China" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1 Introduction: The growing importance of manufacturing as a strategic function has generated a great deal of interest in academia and practice (Swink and Way, 1995; Narasimhan and Jayaram, 1998; Rytter et al., 2007). According to Adam and Swamidass (1989) and Leong et al. (1990), manufacturing strategy comprises two elements: content that deals with the choices, plans, and actions that make up a strategic direction and process that refers to the formulation and implementation of strategy and plans.Typical content studies have dealt with the intent of manufacturing in terms of its emphasis on various competitive priorities and the alignment of these priorities with business strategy (Swamidass and Newell, 1987; Ward et al., 1995; Ward and Duray, 2000). These studies also investigated the relationship between manufacturing strategy and manufacturing performance.The process of manufacturing strategy includes strategy formulation and justification, and the implementation of strategic decisions (Swink and Way, 1995). To achieve good performance, organizations must develop clear strategies and plans, and implement them effectively. The operations management literature has more research on manufacturing strategy content than manufacturing-strategy process. Dangayach and Deshmukh (2001) found only 23 papers addressing strategy process out of 260 manufacturing strategy papers from refereed journals and proceedings.A number of studies in the operations strategy literature have examined the manufacturing-strategy process (Platts et al., 1996; Swamidass et al., 2001a; Rytter et al., 2007). Swamidass et al. (2001a) described four forms of manufacturing-strategy development process. These include a top down manufacturing-strategy process, coherent pattern of actions, manufacturing improvement programs and the pursuit of core manufacturing capabilities. Another dimension of the strategy process is strategy implementation. Without effective implementation, no business strategy can succeed (Hrebiniak, 2006). Through a longitudinal case study, Rytter et al. (2007) validated the benefits of efficient manufacturing-strategy formulation and implementation.Although the literature suggests that the process of strategy formulation and implementation is important, there is very little empirical evidence to show how the strategy formulation process influences manufacturing and financial performance (Leong et al., 1990; Ho, 1996). Our study aims to investigate the effects of two important strategy process variables on manufacturing and financial performance.The first process variable is the degree of involvement of functional managers in the strategy formulation process. Participation by functional managers has been established as a key variable in strategy formulation in both strategic management research (Hart, 1992; Badal, 2005) and operations strategy research (Platts et al., 1996; Minarro-Viseras et al., 2005). The second variable pertains to manufacturing improvement programs. This process variable has been cited as an important aspect of manufacturing strategy in several studies (Leong and Ward, 1995; Swamidass et al., 2001a; Minarro-Viseras et al., 2005). Swink and Way (1995) argued that adoption and implementation of manufacturing programs are part of the strategic planning process. Rytter et al. (2007) and Acur et al. (2003) provided empirical evidence about the significant relationship between manufacturing improvement programs and performance. Manufacturing improvement programs enable organizations to enhance their performance, and are important variables of strategy implementation (Narasimhan and Jayaram, 1998). While research (Hayes and Wheelwright, 1984; Leong et al., 1990) has argued that organizations need to invest in both structural (e.g. process or information technology - IT) and infra-structural enablers (e.g. people and management) to boost their manufacturing capabilities, empirical studies that describe the relationship between enablers of manufacturing performance and performance are rare (Narasimhan and Jayaram, 1998). Thus, examination of the simultaneous effects of functional involvement in strategy formulation and manufacturing improvement programs on performance is both timely and appropriate.With exceptions such as Zhao et al. (2006b), Robb et al. (2008), Robb and Xie (2001) and Ward et al. (1995), most of the empirical studies on manufacturing strategy are based on data from developed countries such as the USA and the UK. In this study, we tested our hypotheses and conceptual model using data collected from Chinese manufacturing firms. China has emerged as a major economic powerhouse and is exerting an increasing influence on the world economy. A growing number of Fortune 500 companies are moving their manufacturing operations to China to tap into the enormous pool of labour and material resources. Given the fast pace of development in China and lack of literature on the Chinese manufacturing landscape, it is timely to investigate how Chinese firms formulate and implement their manufacturing strategies and test the applicability of theories and frameworks developed from western data on the Chinese environment (Zhao et al., 2006a, 2007).The objectives of this study are to:* investigate the simultaneous effects of multi-functional involvement in strategy formulation and manufacturing improvement programs (as enablers of manufacturing performance) on manufacturing performance in Chinese manufacturing firms; and* examine the relationship between manufacturing performance and financial performance in Chinese manufacturing firms.Our conceptual model is shown in Figure 1. Our study contributes to the operations management literature by examining simultaneously the effects of two strategy process variables (i.e. multi-functional involvement and manufacturing improvements programs) on performance. Our findings will provide a greater understanding on how these two process variables work in concert to affect manufacturing performance. The findings also provide empirical evidence on the impact of strategy process on performance. Our study is the first to examine the strategy process in China, and offers new insights into the Chinese manufacturing environment.\n2 Theoretical background and research hypotheses: A \"strategy maker may formulate a strategy through a conscious process before he makes decisions, or a strategy may form gradually, perhaps unintentionally, as he makes his decisions one by one\" (Mintzberg, 1978, p. 934). Through a series of in-depth case studies of business and government organizations, Mintzberg identified three types of strategies: deliberate strategies, unrealized strategies, and emergent strategies. His study laid the foundation for studies on business strategy formulation processes and how these processes influence performance (Segev, 1987).Hart (1992) proposed an integrative framework for strategy-making processes. He categorized the strategy-making process into five types according to the roles of top management and other organizational members. The five types are command, symbolic, rational, transactive, and generative. He proposed that higher levels of involvement of organizational members will enhance organizational performance. Badal (2005) and Hrebiniak (2006) also suggested that the degree of involvement of organizational members is an important factor in the strategy-making process.Mills et al. (1995) described a framework for the design of the manufacturing-strategy process. They classified the manufacturing-strategy formulation process into four steps: point of entry, participation, procedure, and project and process management. They highlighted three dimensions of participation: width across different functional units; depth within the manufacturing functions and the participation of others from outside the business units. Mills et al. (1995) and Platts et al. (1996) highlighted the importance of multi-functional involvement in formulating strategy.Swamidass et al. (2001a) described four forms of manufacturing-strategy development, one of which is the adoption of improvement programs. They found that firms often use a combination of these forms of strategy development.Thus, manufacturing strategy can be a result of deliberate planning as part of the corporate strategic planning process or it can be \"built up\" by the adoption of manufacturing improvement programs. Such programs can be considered as the means to implement strategy (Swink and Way, 1995; Swamidass et al., 2001a). In the planning process, involvement or participation by major organizational stakeholders is an important factor that influences the success of strategy (Badal, 2005; Hrebiniak, 2006; Platts et al., 1996).2.1 Functional involvement in strategy formulation\n3 Research methodology: 3.1 Data collection\n4 Analysis and results: In this study, structural equation modeling (Lisrel 8.54) was used to estimate the parameters in our hypothesized model. The final structural model is shown in Figure 2. Table VIII shows the coefficients of determination (R2) of each regression function. The goodness-of-fit indices for our model are kh2(658)=1,173.93, CFI=0.96, TLI=0.95, RMSEA=0.059, and standardized RMR=0.066 (Figure 2). These indices are better than the threshold values suggested in Hu and Bentler (1998). Therefore, our model was deemed to be acceptable.4.1 Effects of functional involvement and improvement programs on manufacturing performance\n5 Discussion and conclusions: This study empirically examines the simultaneous effects of two important manufacturing process variables on manufacturing and financial performance. The two process variables are functional involvement in strategy formulation and manufacturing improvement programs. Research has highlighted the importance of these two variables, and this study is the first to empirically investigate these process variables in the context of an important emerging market - China.Our results show that the two process variables are significant in achieving better manufacturing and financial performance. Our analysis reveals some interesting relationships between the process variables, manufacturing and financial performances. Our study contributes to the literature by increasing the understanding of manufacturing-strategy processes and performance in an Asian context.The following summarizes our major findings and their managerial implications:* Emerging functions such as HR, IS, R&D and public relations have a relatively greater positive impact on manufacturing performance compared to traditional functions. This suggests the growing potential of emerging functional involvement in strategy formulation as a means to achieve competitive advantage. This may be due to the unique institutional environment in China. The emerging functions are instrumental in developing new competitive elements such as the establishment of relationships with external parties, recruitment of talent and acquisition of innovative capabilities. The managerial implication is that top management should make efforts to establish these emerging functions and provide resources and opportunities for functional managers in these areas to participate in strategy formulation.* Different manufacturing improvement programs have different effects on manufacturing performance. Thus, it is imperative for managers to evaluate the programs against their operational objectives. Our results show that quality and training programs improve flexibility, quality and delivery whereas technology and systems are more effective for improving delivery and flexibility. However, capacity and cost-cutting programs appeared to be ineffective in improving manufacturing performance. While quality and training programs are associated with higher performance in flexibility, quality and delivery, these programs have no impact on cost. This suggests that Chinese firms are possibly facing a pronounced trade-off effect between enhancing quality through the adoption of quality programs and the cost incurred from implementation efforts. We also found that capacity and cost-cutting programs have a negative effect on delivery, which suggests that Chinese firms need to be careful in the evaluation of outsourcing and downsizing as improvement initiatives.* Our results reinforce the literature that manufacturing performance, in general, has a positive effect on financial performance. Quality and flexibility have the strongest impact on financial performance, and should be emphasized in the firm's manufacturing strategy. Despite the widespread belief that Chinese manufacturers are competing on low cost, our results suggest that cost performance has a smaller impact on financial performance compared to quality and flexibility. In the context of our sample, delivery was not found to have a significant impact on financial performance, and this could be due to the poor logistical and transportation infrastructure of China. Our result for the relationship between delivery and financial performances suggests that proper location of firms can be crucial to compete in the Chinese marketplace.This study has some limitations that could present as opportunities for future research. First, we examined only two variables of manufacturing-strategy process: adoption of improvement programs, and functional involvement in strategy formulation. Other forms of manufacturing-strategy development such as the pattern of incremental actions and core competency development (Swamidass et al., 2001a) can be examined in future research. Investigation of alternative forms of manufacturing-strategy development can enrich our understanding of manufacturing strategies. Second, while we studied functional involvement in strategy formulation, we did not examine the role of top management. Top management is a key variable in strategy studies, and its role viz-a-viz functional managers in the strategy-making process and in affecting performance could be an interesting research topic (Hart, 1992). Other important process variables, such as worker participation, manufacturing planning activities, environmental interaction, and operation strategy intervention (Ho, 1996; Rytter et al., 2007) can also be examined in future research.Another future research idea is to explore the moderating effects of contingency factors on the relationships between alternative forms of manufacturing-strategy development and performance. Such factors include competitive environment, ownership, industry, culture and stage of development of the firm. For example, the ownership structure and culture of the organization may influence how strategies are developed and implemented. Comparative studies can also be conducted to validate our findings across countries and contexts. A limitation in our study is that our sample comprises primarily small and medium firms. Future studies may select samples to include more large firms in order to increase generalizability.Our data were collected from 2001 to 2002. While the data are not very recent, nonetheless, this study provides a useful and insightful snapshot of China's manufacturing landscape. Our findings not only enrich the manufacturing-strategy literature but also provide a historical \"milestone\" reference for future comparative studies on China. Therefore, one future research direction is to replicate our study to track the Chinese manufacturing environment. Finally, our study used cross-sectional data, but longitudinal studies may reveal interesting evolutionary patterns of alternative forms of manufacturing-strategy development and their effects on manufacturing and financial performance (Rytter et al., 2007).\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: - The purpose of this paper is to examine the simultaneous effects of two process variables: functional involvement in strategy formulation, and manufacturing improvement programs, on manufacturing performance and financial performance of manufacturing firms in China.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - Rigorous empirical research methods are used to ensure proper data collection process, and reliability and validity of constructs. Structural equation modeling is used to examine the relationships between functional involvement, improvement programs, manufacturing performance and financial performance.\nFindings: - It was found that involvement of marketing, finance and operations in strategy formulation have an effect on cost and quality whereas the involvement of emerging functions such as human resources, public relations, research and development and information technology have an effect on all aspects of manufacturing performance.\nOriginality/value: - Studies of manufacturing strategy have primarily focused on choices and plans that denote strategic intent, rather than on the process of formulating and realizing strategy. Typical studies have used data from developed countries, such as Europe and North America. Insufficient attention has been paid to the process variables of manufacturing strategy and their effects on manufacturing performance. The study addresses these gaps in the literature using data collected from Chinese firms.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Persuasiveness of organic agricultural products: Argument strength, health consciousness, self-reference, health risk, and perceived fear	[ "Organic agricultural products", "Argument strength", "Self-reference", "Fear appeals", "Health consciousness" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: \"Green consumerism\" is changing consumers' consumption behavior. Many consumers have gradually adopted \"green products\" as a result of their environmental concerns and ethics (Kumar and Bhat, 2008). Green products benefit the environment because they reduce the use of toxic substance and promote environmental friendliness (Azevedo et al., 2011). Organic food can be considered as a type of green product that contains fewer harmful additives than traditional foods (Hsu and Chen, 2014). Some consumers believe that organic foods are less harmful to the environment (Mondelaers et al., 2009) and generate less chemical residue (Smith-Spangler et al., 2012).Some consumers choose organic food due to health consideration. Consumers are persuaded that they will receive health benefit from consuming organic food. It is an important task for advertisers to persuade consumers the benefit of the product since consumers have limited ability to process the messages that they receive. Thus, persuasive messages must connect with consumers and attract their attention (Lien and Chen, 2013). The efficiency of persuasive messages increases if consumers are willing to allocate the majority of their cognitive resources to process the messages.Argument strength of advertising messages appears to be an important feature for persuasion effect (Zhao et al., 2011), which is related to the message content or structure. Argument strength is high when the description of message content is detailed and logical, such as content with evidence support; an argument is weak when it is illogical and lacks details (O'keefe, 2002), such as a personal opinion without evidence.To explore the persuasion effect of advertising, this study cannot ignore the influence of psychological factors. Self-reference is one psychological factor that can be using to influence consumers' decision making (Dunlop et al., 2010) by resonating with consumers' previous experiences and memories. Fear of health risks is another significant driver to motivate health-promoting behaviors that will trigger purchase intention and, ultimately, the decision to purchase low- or no-risk products (Keller and Block, 1996; Peters et al., 2013).This study considered the influence on organic food persuasion effect of persuasive messages' argument strength and individuals' psychological factors. The current study contributes to the organic agricultural product research by explaining the persuasiveness of organic agricultural products from the internal and external aspects. In terms of internal aspect, this study considered customers' health consciousness as motivation. For the external aspect, this study uses the elaboration likelihood model (ELM) (Petty et al., 1983) to explain the persuasiveness of organic agricultural products. The argument strength is considered a determinant factor to the persuasion effect.\n2. Literature review: 2.1 Argument strength\n3. Materials and methods: 3.1 Measurement\n4. Results: The study used the SEM analytical tool to test hypotheses. The empirical results showed that all hypotheses are supported (see Figure 1). Consumers' self-reference was positively influenced by argument strength (b = 0.76, t = 16.03). Thus, H1 is supported. Health consciousness positively influenced the perceived health risk of non-organic agricultural products (b = 0.35, t = 7.00). Thus, H2 is supported. The perceived health risk of non-organic agricultural products (b = 0.56, t = 12.11) and consumers' self-reference (b = 0.53, t = 11.70) positively influenced perceived fear of pesticide residue in non-organic agricultural products. Thus, H3 and H4 are supported. Consumers' self-reference (b = 0.51, t = 10.14) and perceived fear of pesticide residue in non-organic agricultural products (b = 0.26, t = 5.27) positively influenced the intention to purchase organic agricultural products. Hence, H5 and H6 are supported.\n5. Conclusions and recommendations: This study aims to elucidate the effects of argument strength and self-reference on consumers' intention to purchase organic agricultural products to ascertain whether health consciousness and perceived health risk elicit perceived fear and subsequently influence organic product purchase intention. The results of this study provide comprehensive insights into organic agricultural product persuasion. 5.1 Argument strength increases consumer self-reference\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: The study discusses organic agricultural product persuasion using an empirical survey. This study argued that strong argument persuasive advertising message would trigger individuals' self-reference to the harm of pesticide residue in non-organic agricultural product, which would raise their purchase intention of organic agricultural product.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The present study conducted an empirical investigation in Taiwan by recruiting 527 Taiwanese participants using the convenience sampling procedure. The current research performed structural equation modeling analysis and used LISREL software to report the analytical results.\nFindings: Individuals with health consciousness may perceive a high-level risk of non-organic agricultural product, which would raise individuals' fear perception to the harm of pesticide residue. Fear perception will increase individual's purchase intention of organic agricultural product. Results can help industry practitioners benefit from the results by enabling them to develop their advertising strategy for organic food.\nOriginality/value: Results can help industry practitioners benefit from the results by enabling them to develop their advertising strategy for organic food.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Brand equity in B2B services and consequences for the trade show industry	[ "Service brands", "Service brand equity", "Purchasing value", "Trade show", "Trade fairs", "Brand equity", "Strategic evaluation", "Value analysis", "Business‐to‐business marketing" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n__NO_TITLE__: When deciding which trade show to participate in, rarely does the term trade show \"brand\" come up. However, the image and reputation of the trade show - based on the history of previous events - plays a major role in the perception of the trade show brand. For instance, if one of the primary benefits of one high tech trade show is the quality of networking opportunities, while another is known for its emphasis on new product introductions, then these two perceptions contribute to the branding of each trade show.\nThe trade show industry: Trade shows, also known as trade fairs, are periodic events that bring manufacturers, suppliers, and distributors from a particular industry or related industries to a single location to exhibit products and services as well as provide information for both visitors and exhibitors (AMA, 2011). Existing literature recognizes trade fairs as an effective way to enhance a company's sales efforts (Kerin and Cron, 1987; O'Hara, 1993; Tanner and Chonko, 1995). Further, trade fairs are important platforms from which sellers can meet existing customers, identify new customers, evaluate new channel partners, enhance their corporate image, and carry out market research (Blythe, 2002; Kerin and Cron, 1987; Shipley and Wong, 1993; Munuera and Ruiz, 1999). Attendees benefit from trade shows by meeting with suppliers, forming alliances with potential business partners, and by gathering information that predicts new trends, new products, and new services on the horizon. As markets and business relationships become more global, trade fairs have become vital to initiating and developing international business relationships, monitoring international competitors and facilitating international market entry (Rice, 1992; Smith et al., 2003).In business-to-business markets, trade fairs and exhibitions are an important means of communication between sellers and buyers. Employing a transactional view, existing literature has identified attraction and contact effectiveness as core measures of trade-show effectiveness (Dekimpe et al., 1997). From a relational perspective, however, trade fairs are crucial to the development of relationships between buyers and sellers; this further supports the notion of ascribing a specific brand for the trade show. When trade show branding is effective, both the buyer and seller will develop more realistic expectations with regards to outcomes of trade show attendance. This is in part due to a higher degree of information exchange, intensifying an ongoing dialogue in a trade fair environment as compared to other communication venues. This ultimately results in better knowledge of expectations between the parties (Gopalakrishna and Lilien, 1995). In addition, trade fairs enhance opportunities for sellers to strengthen relations with current customers by increasing dialogue that enhances mutual adaptation and relationship value. Trade fair activities include a combination of communication instruments, ranging from advertising and public relations to direct selling. Exhibitors use these forms of communication to attract visitors to the booth and to generate high-quality leads. Moreover, starting with a one-way communication, trade fairs enhance interaction processes engendering a two-way communication that, in turn, merges into a relationship dialogue (Gronroos, 2000).Trade shows offer complex business services with only limited opportunities for customers to assess its quality in advance. Consequently, creating and maintaining a trade show service brand could have far-reaching benefits. As for instance, when potential customers understand the service product and purchase the service even though the value derived from it may only be quantified after the service has been consumed.Despite the economic impact of trade fairs, research on business-to-business trade fair issues is still in its infancy (Geigenmuller, 2008). The literature provides numerous studies about exhibitors' motivations and selection criteria (e.g. Kerin and Cron, 1987; Herbig et al., 1997; Godar and O'Connor, 2001) and visitors' motivations and behaviors (Munuera and Ruiz, 1999; Berne and Garcia-Uceda, 2007). Several papers have attempted to define performance measures (O'Hara, 1993; Gopalakrishna et al., 1995; Dekimpe et al., 1997), although most have relied on observational measures and lack a theoretical basis (Hansen, 2004). An exception is the development of a conceptual model that assesses the return on trade show information (RTSI), an extension of the Kohli et al. (1993) market orientation framework (Bettis-Outland et al., 2010). RTSI is determined by querying trade show attendees after the trade fair event to determine the value of information acquired at the trade fair. Nonetheless, instead of a structured framework, research on trade fairs paints a confusing picture that obstructs the perceived value of trade shows in contemporary marketing research.Trade fair organizations worldwide face tremendous competition for exhibitors and visitors (Kirchgeorg et al., 2010). The attractiveness of a particular trade show event affects not only the number of attendees, but also the financial consequences, both short-term and long-term, of these attendees. Offering superior trade shows and related services helps a trade show organization differentiate itself from competitors. Developing a distinctive position in the market, in turn, is an essential prerequisite to enhance the organization's financial performance.Selecting a trade show often involves complex decisions considering benefits (such as meeting with current customers, acquiring information regarding industry trends, visibility, leads) and sacrifices (expenditures for airfare, accommodations, booth placement, and personnel) (Berne and Garcia-Uceda, 2007; Blythe, 2000; Browning and Adams, 1988; Herbig et al., 1997; Tanner, 2002). To facilitate this decision process, the trade show brand serves as a cue signaling important attributes to trade show attendees. By purchasing a booth at the trade fair, participants trust that trade show organizers will fulfill its obligation to ensure that the needs of the participants are addressed (Munuera and Ruiz, 1999) That is, the service product provided by the trade show organization promises to enhance its customers' economic and relational goals. Although the service involves tangible elements, such as halls, booths, materials etc, the service itself is intangible. Thus, employing a service brand that identifies a specific trade show can support a trade show organization's aim to attract attendees and, hence, to boost its market performance. For exhibitors, a well-known and reputable trade show brand may signal trade show effectiveness in terms of audience activity and quality, contact opportunities with the target audience, promotional activities, and lead generation (Gopalakrishna et al., 1995). Similarly, for visitors a strong trade show brand may indicate the degree to which visitors' objectives, such as screening new products and developments, obtaining product and technical information, meeting and comparing suppliers or monitoring competitors (Munuera and Ruiz, 1999) are fulfilled. In both cases, a trade show brand would significantly affect attendees' beliefs attitudes, and future attendance intentions (Smith et al., 2003).\nConceptual background: Service brands as quality cues\nConceptual model and hypotheses: This paper presents a conceptual model that links trade show service provider competence to:* service customer purchasing value;* service customer satisfaction; and* service brand equity (see Figure 1).Drawing on existing literature, four research propositions are developed that suggest causal relationships among these constructs. Following, each construct is defined along with the proposed model and hypotheses.Service provider competence\nDiscussion: This paper aims to contribute a better understanding of service brands in professional business-to-business services. The point of departure from previous research is the emphasis of branding issues in services. Basic characteristics of services - intangibility, inseparability, variability, and perishability - pose special challenges to service providers in creating strong and reliable signals of service quality to their customers. Consequently, service brands reflect promises of future need fulfillment and satisfaction.Whereas branding issues in consumer markets are the primary focus of branding research, examination of service brand relevance in business markets is in its infancy. Several studies demonstrate that product brand equity can foster a firm's competitive advantage with price premiums, customer loyalty and positive word-of-mouth. For services, however, findings are scarce.With this background, a conceptual model is developed to explain how service brand equity is derived specifically in a trade show context. The paper employs the perspective of the trade show industry for two main reasons. First, trade show organizations are typical business service providers that offer intangible and complex services. Second, facing fierce competition for exhibitors and visitors, a positive trade show brand can be instrumental in building a loyal customer base.The conceptual model comprises four main constructs, namely service provider competence, service customer purchasing value, service customer satisfaction, and service brand equity. Drawing on prior research, four research propositions are derived which link these constructs. Therefore, the paper provides a conceptual framework that might be fruitful for further investigations, especially empirical investigations, in order to deepen our understanding of service brand equity in business services.\nManagerial implications: Pending empirical validation, the model offers several implications for managers in service businesses. First, it demonstrates the relevance of investing in a service brand. Since many service industries are characterized by intense competition, service brands are valuable instruments to differentiate from competitors. Strong brands that involve a credible promise of future satisfaction help to raise barriers against new market participants as well as defending one's market position against long-term competitors.To benefit from a strong brand, service businesses should invest in its service brand equity. The paper identifies service provider competence as an important driver of service brand equity. A service provider's ability to meet the needs of its customers by managing the service concept, service processes and the service system in an efficient and effective way is of utmost importance. The better service providers adjust their concepts, processes and resources to customer needs, the more value they create for the customer. Perceptions of value, in turn, are important drivers of customer satisfaction and favorable attitudes toward the service brand.With regard to the trade show industry, several implications arise. Trade shows are important platforms to gain information about customers and competitors, to capture trends and developments, to make sales and to engage in customer relationships. In fact, trade show effectiveness does not only involve the number of customer contacts or leads; trade shows are also an important instrument in relationship marketing.Consequently, the value of trade show attendance involves not only company-related benefits such as sales or leads, but also customer- and competitor-related benefits. The value attendees derive from using trade show services is strongly related to the support they receive in establishing and nurturing customer relationships or by engaging in market and competitor analysis. Considering service brand equity, trade show organizations should therefore develop innovative concepts for trade shows that accommodate exhibitor and visitor needs. Further, trade show organizations should provide an appropriate physical environment to accomplish a pleasant trade show experience. This includes determining the right place for running a trade show, which offers accessibility and convenience. It also involves offering a favorable infrastructure of halls, booth areas, waiting zones etc. Finally, it refers to all processes related to prepare and run a firm's participation in a trade show. These processes include the processing of individual data, preparation of halls and booths as well as transport and logistics facilities that help exhibitors set up their presentations.Finally, tangible and intangible resources are important. As in many services, human resources have a significant impact on the perception of a service provider. The more capable and motivated contact employees are, the more likely that there will be smooth interactions between the trade show organization, exhibitors and visitors. Interactions with service employees may therefore contribute substantially to value perceptions of customers.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: - This paper's aim is to provide a conceptual framework explaining drivers of service brand equity. It refers to the trade show industry as an example for an international, highly competitive environment, where service providers face the challenge to differentiate themselves from competing brands. Based on a comprehensive literature review, the paper develops a conceptual model of service brand equity. The paper concludes with directions for further research and managerial implications.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - The paper is a conceptual work, which derives research propositions from an extended literature review.\nFindings: - It is proposed that a service provider's competence relates positively to a service customer's purchasing value which, in turn, leads to customer service satisfaction and service brand equity. The paper further posits that the provider's service concept, service processes, and service system are constituents of service competence, thus representing crucial determinants of service brand equity.\nResearch limitations/implications: - The research has limitations that are due to the exploratory nature of the work. The paper suggests opportunities for further research, particularly an empirical test of the model in various B2B service industries.\nPractical implications: - The paper suggests that the value attendees derive from using trade show services is strongly related to the support they receive in establishing and nurturing customer relationships or in engaging in market and competitor analysis. Considering service brand equity, trade show organizations should therefore develop innovative concepts for trade shows that accommodate their clients' needs, including an appropriate physical environment, customer-oriented service processes, and high-quality interactions between service employees and customers.\nOriginality/value: - The paper sheds light on a phenomenon that, despite its increasing acceptance among practitioners, remains unexplored by marketing research. By providing a better understanding of B2B service brand equity in a trade show context, the paper enriches research on trade fair issues.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Facilitating new knowledge creation and obtaining KM maturity	[ "Knowledge management", "Case studies", "Modelling" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: Despite the importance of knowledge as an asset, few organizations truly understand how to manage knowledge to achieve their goals (Yu, 2005). To actualize knowledge management, firms frequently turn to technology-based information systems such as knowledge repositories and expert databases (Durcikova and Gray, 2009). These information systems, developed to support and enhance organizational knowledge processes, are referred to as knowledge management systems (KMSs) (Alavi and Leidner, 2001). Much of the literature on KMSs has focused on the process of capturing and disseminating knowledge. However to gain a competitive advantage from knowledge, firms must accomplish more than the redistribution of existing knowledge, they must generate new knowledge (Alavi and Leidner, 2001). The process of creating new knowledge has been referred to as double-loop learning (Argyris, 1977) or generative learning (Senge, 1990).Generative learning is challenging to achieve in organizations because it requires more than the application of existing knowledge to new situations. Generative learning focuses on the reframing and re-visioning what is currently known, in order to create what is currently unknown (Senge, 1990). Senge (1990) distinguishes generative learning by comparing it to adaptive learning. Adaptive learning focuses on solving problems using an existing framework and making small, incremental changes. Generative learning questions the existing framework of problem solving to create new options and new knowledge. This type of learning requires an understanding of systems and relationships that link key issues and events (Slater and Narver, 1995).The KM literature is replete with examples of innovative approaches to capturing and sharing knowledge. People-finder systems, knowledge databases, search capabilities and blogs, are a few examples of how KMSs have made existing knowledge more widely available. However, what is less frequently discussed is how KMSs are facilitating generative learning and the extent to which new knowledge is being created. While prior work has provided high level frameworks for knowledge management, few studies have offered prescriptive advice on what features of KMSs facilitate knowledge creation. In order to improve future KMS implementations, the authors wanted to know \"What are the features of KMSs that foster the creation of new knowledge?\"This article describes a framework that can be used to assess the capacity of a KMS to foster generative learning. To test the framework the authors conducted a longitudinal case study in a single company, Pratt Whitney Rocketdyne (PWR). The article describes how PWR moved from a KM environment that focused primarily on capturing and storing data to an environment that facilitated new knowledge creation. The article also presents a model, called the KM Maturity model, which illustrates how firms develop knowledge management competencies that lead to on-going new knowledge generation. Both the framework and the model can serve as tools for organizations seeking to generate new knowledge for competitive advantage.To the authors' knowledge, this article is among the few to present a set of specific characteristics that can be incorporated into knowledge management systems in order to facilitate new knowledge creation. Together, the framework presented and case study highlight knowledge creation activities that are often found in in-person knowledge initiatives, but can be easily be missed in technology-based initiatives. By combining Nonaka's knowledge creation theory with Wittrock's generative learning activities, the framework highlights the why and how of new knowledge creation, in a way that can be applied to KM technological initiatives.\n2. Background: 2.1 What is new knowledge?\n3. Research method: The framework was tested through a single longitudinal case study. Case studies are appropriate when the unit of analysis is a system of action rather than individuals or groups, and the viewpoint of multiple respondents is desired (Yin, 2002). The authors focused on understanding the KM initiatives of one company, Pratt Whitney Rocketdyne, and how those initiatives facilitated new knowledge creation. The longitudinal analysis aided in providing a rich understanding and evaluation of continuity and change in the KM initiatives. In particular, it enabled the authors to examine the phenomenon in a natural setting and to explore new theoretical ideas where there has been relatively little prior research and theory formulation (Miles and Huberman, 1994; Yin, 2002). PWR was selected for study because they were in the process of implementing multiple KM initiatives.3.1 Data collection\n4. Case study: PWR focuses on the development and manufacturing of rocket propulsion and space exploration engines for the defense industry. In total, there are over 4,000 engineers at PWR that comprise the key group of employees who are responsible for creating and developing leading defense-industry knowledge. Engineers were hired into process groups and were then assigned to one of the six program-groups. The duration of typical program assignments was anywhere between six months to five years, depending on the nature and portion of the program for which they were assigned. Throughout their careers at PWR, engineers were encouraged to switch process and program groups in order to diversify their skills. Limited project budgets encouraged a competitive environment at PWR. This caused engineers to generally not want to share their expertise with other engineers, so that they may be deemed more valuable to the firm. The motivation to help others through knowledge sharing was constrained and generative learning was stifled.PWR was under constant pressure from their customers to develop products faster and more cheaply. However, individualized KM in the groups continued to plague effective KM in the organization as a whole, because engineers rarely shared their knowledge with others outside their group. Methodologies for managing knowledge were typically documented within process groups and program groups and existing knowledge was stored at the desks of the engineers. Knowledge that was created within process and program groups often remained in the minds of the seasoned engineers, or was documented on notepads and stored in personal filing cabinets and computer hard drives. This made the creation of new knowledge challenging across the organization since existing knowledge was rarely exploited or refined by others. Existing knowledge was seldom experimented with in new contexts and knowledge generation was not promoted.As a first step in improving knowledge management at PWR, Kiho Sohn was hired into the newly created chief knowledge officer (CKO) position and was tasked with rejuvenating the firm's KM efforts. Within a month of investigating the current state of the firm's KM environment, Kiho and the KM team found there were two key issues that plagued the firm's ability to leverage existing knowledge and create new knowledge. First, engineers did not leverage existing knowledge because they were not aware that other knowledge sources existed within the firm. The team recommended that the IS infrastructure be improved to support and maintain knowledge so that new knowledge could be generated. Second, the KM team acknowledged that the culture of the firm typically did not support leveraging of existing knowledge, as engineers hoarded knowledge to make themselves more valuable to the firm. As a result, engineers were prevented from learning of their colleagues' work and using it to generate new knowledge.4.1 Early KM initiatives\n5. Discussion: The new knowledge creation framework shown in Table I proved to be a useful tool for better understanding PWR's KM initiatives. The framework provided the impetus to analyze the initiatives post-implementation and to determine how the initiatives contributed to knowledge creation at a detailed level. Applying the framework also sparked ideas of how new initiatives could be designed so that they could support new knowledge creation. Two key findings emerged from the analysis. First, the authors suggest that new knowledge creation is best supported through mature KM systems that include all four modes of knowledge creation: combination, externalization, socialization and internalization. Second, the authors suggest that KM systems and environments as a whole reach maturity by progressing through the stages of the KM maturity model. In the next sections the findings are discussed in detail.5.1 The need for mature KM systems\n6. Contributions, limitations and conclusions: Creating a mature, knowledge generating KM environment does not happen overnight or without planning. While prior work has provided high-level frameworks describing KM processes, there is a need to understand what specific aspects of KM initiatives aid new knowledge creation. A major contribution of this work is the integration of the work of Nonaka and Wittrock, in a framework that helps explain both the why and the how of new knowledge creation. Together the framework and the KM maturity model can serve as tools for firms seeking to generate new knowledge for competitive advantage.The value of the tacit/explicit knowledge distinction is, in part, its ability to help distinguish between knowledge assets that are immediately visible and knowledge assets that require interpretation to be understood (Nonaka and von Krogh, 2009). The framework here adds additional value to the tacit/explicit distinction by facilitating a better understanding of KMS attributes that support both immediately visible and perhaps somewhat hidden, interpreted knowledge. The framework provides a quick and easy rubric against which both old and new KM initiatives can be assessed. Finally, the maturity model provides a template against which organizations can map their progress towards attaining an integrated and knowledge generating KM environment.One of the limitations of this study is the generalizability of the findings, which may be limited by the single case study method used. The study used a theoretically-based approach to propose why the assessment framework and maturity model would be appropriate for other KM environments. However, knowledge processes are composed of requirements that are complex and distributed across different actors whose knowledge base is uncertain (Markus and Majchrzak, 2002). While the application of the framework at PWR led to useful insights, the findings may not be directly translatable to other organizations. More studies are necessary to assess the validity and reliability of the framework and maturity model in the context of multiple organizations.With a growing understanding of their KM environment, and what it takes to facilitate new knowledge generation, PWR continues to develop initiatives to help them progress further along the KM maturity scale. In particular, they are in dialogue with other aerospace and defense firms to benchmark their KM initiatives. There are two primary benefits for their efforts. First, they want to be able to share their best-known methods and learn from the best known initiatives of other firms. Second, they want to help facilitate an open dialogue with other firms in their industries. Together the firms can collaborate, brainstorm, and discuss the common KM initiatives that may work for the entire aerospace and defense industry, as well as any firm's KM environment.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: - The purpose of this paper is to describe a framework designed to assess the capacity of a knowledge management (KM) system to facilitate new knowledge creation.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - A longitudinal case study methodology, in a single company, Pratt Whitney Rocketdyne (PWR), was used to test the framework.\nFindings: - New knowledge creation is best supported through mature KM systems that include all four modes of knowledge creation: combination, externalization, socialization, and internalization. KM systems and environments as a whole reach maturity by progressing through stages, which is presented as a KM maturity model.\nResearch limitations/implications: - By combining Nonaka's knowledge creation theory with Wittrock's generative learning activities, the paper illuminates both the why and how of new knowledge creation, in a way that can be applied to KM technological initiatives. One of the limitations of this study is the generalizability of the findings, which may be limited by the single case study method used.\nPractical implications: - The framework provides a rubric against which both old and new KM initiatives can be assessed to determine whether they are capable of generating new knowledge. The maturity model provides a template against which organizations can map their progress towards a mature KM environment.\nOriginality/value: - Much of the literature on KM systems has focused on capturing knowledge and disseminating it. Few studies have provided practical, theoretically based advice on how to create new knowledge and what aspects of information systems can facilitate that creation. The framework and maturity model can serve as guides in that process.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Game on! Exploring reactions to game-based selection assessments	[ "Employment", "Innovation", "Selection", "Organizational justice", "Fairness" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n__NO_TITLE__: The use of the internet (e.g. unproctored Internet testing) as a medium for recruitment and selection allows organizations to cast a wider net to recruit and select top talent. Job seekers can also pursue more jobs in a shorter timeframe. This increased application volume has led organizations to invest substantially in cutting edge assessment methods. One issue, however, pertains to negative reactions to psychometric assessments. Hausknecht et al. (2004) found that while job interviews are well accepted among applicants, psychological assessments are less accepted, which is concerning because psychological assessments tend to more strongly predict job performance (Schmidt and Hunter, 1998).\nBackground: Game-based assessments\nCurrent study: Research surrounding fairness perceptions to selection systems is well established, but has limited application to GBAs. As gamified assessments were developed to create engaging experiences, perceptions and reactions to gamified assessments should be positive. Indeed, individuals taking part in gamified assessments report enhanced experiences (Montefiori, 2016); yet, others have found negative reactions and outcomes to gaming in selection contexts (Armstrong et al., 2016; Landers and Armstrong, 2015). Existing theories of applicant reactions should be tested using newer assessment methods (i.e. GBAs) to improve design and implementation and resolve mixed findings.Research questions\nMethod: This study examined reactions to a gamified cognitive ability assessment battery, along with factors that might affect these reactions. Participants with incomplete assessment data were screened out of the final sample, resulting in 374 participants (58.8% male; 63.5% Caucasian; 64.2% United States; 60.2% with 5+ years of work experience; 35.6% with 2+ years of management experience; M age = 35.68 years, SD age = 9.64) recruited from Amazon Mechanical Turk.Participants chose the device type used to take the assessments, reflecting a real testing scenario for selection contexts. Participants were first provided background information on the importance of online assessments for selecting high quality applicants. Participants were asked to act as applicants completing online assessments for a desirable job. Participants then completed an online cognitive assessment battery consisting of four GBAs measuring different cognitive abilities. Lastly, participants responded to items regarding their reactions to the battery and additional background information (e.g. comfort with technology, gaming experience).All four assessments were developed using mobile first design principles and based on existing, psychometrically valid tests. Each assessment was enhanced with game-style elements to increase engagement, including game levels, dynamic visualizations, and progress badges.Measures\nResults: Assessment performance\nDiscussion: This study aimed to examine reactions to GBAs under the lens of procedural justice (Gilliland, 1993). Results of the current study support the tenants of Gilliland's (1993) model in a GBA context. Fairness mediated all examined procedural justice rules and one examined outcome, willingness to recommend the company to others. Perceptions of fairness also significantly mediated the relationship between all but one of the examined procedural justice rules (e.g. opportunity to perform) and task enjoyment. These results suggest that this model still holds true, even in novel assessment contexts such as GBAs.Regarding individual differences and procedural justice, no significant relationships were observed between age and justice perceptions. Furthermore, while older age was associated with lower technology self-efficacy, age was not significantly related to performance on any assessments. However, one interesting finding that came from exploratory analyses was that comfort with gaming was significantly and positively related to job-relatedness (r = 0.32), opportunity to perform (r = 0.35), and enjoyment (r = 0.35), and negatively related to age (r = -0.17). This suggests that selection processes using GBAs may appear particularly attractive and legitimate to individuals more comfortable with gaming, but that there could be a potentially moderating effect of age. This finding speaks to the need for more age-related GBA research. Gender differences were observed for two procedural justice factors and overall perceptions of fairness, where males had significantly higher perceptions than females. These differences suggest that the addition of gamified elements to assessments may either negatively impact perceptions of fairness among women or have an especially positive effect on these perceptions among men. This finding supports the idea that females may be less likely to enjoy game-based content or that gender-stereotypes could impact these perceptions (Hartmann and Klimmt, 2006; Albuquerque et al., 2017) . However, the effect sizes for gender differences were relatively small, and both males and females reported positive reactions (i.e. all means were above the midpoint). Given that males and females differed in types of games they tend to play, gender differences might be reduced by designing assessments in a way that either (1) utilizes elements from game genres that are preferred by both genders, or (2) omits game elements that align with genres favored by a given group.Finally, the results suggested that technology self-efficacy is significantly related to consistency of administration and overall task enjoyment, but not other procedural justice rules or fairness perceptions. These mixed findings align with several studies that have identified self-efficacy as a significant determinant of applicant reactions (e.g. Bhatia, 2018), and others where technology self-efficacy did not significantly relate to assessment reactions (King et al., 2015). While research generally supports the link between self-efficacy and performance (Stajkovic and Luthans, 1998), individuals may not accurately assess their own self-efficacy on technologically advanced assessments. This could hold true for those who have no experience with GBAs.In an era where candidates can quickly go online and share their experiences to vast amounts of people, organizations want to maximize candidate experiences so that applicants recommend them to others. Based on our findings, job-relatedness, perceptions of consistency, provision of selection information, and the opportunity to perform remain important factors in how candidates form perceptions of fairness and reactions to GBAs.Organizations need to understand how the design and implementation of GBAs impact perceptions of procedural justice. For example, while a GBA may be strongly predictive of performance, it may not be well received by applicants who are uncertain of the job-relatedness of the assessment. Organizations must explain what is being assessed and how that construct is linked to performance to alleviate this uncertainty.Limitations and future research\nConclusion: This study reviewed the applicant reactions literature and explored reactions to GBAs. We explored whether the assumptions of procedural justice were supported with the use of GBAs and how individual differences impact procedural justice perceptions. Findings support the use of Gilliland's (1993) model to understand applicant reactions to technologically advanced assessments. Given that 46% of candidates rate their experience applying for jobs as poor or very poor and 64% say that they share information about their experiences on social media (iCIMs, 2014), organizations must do all they can to ensure a positive experience for all applicants. Considering that some aspects of GBAs could detract from candidate perceptions of procedural justice, organizations must carefully consider the design and implementation of GBAs into their selection batteries. Job-relatedness and opportunity to perform demonstrated the strongest relationships with perceptions of fairness and the two reaction outcomes in the current study. As such, organizations should consider using GBAs that reflect job-related content and provide candidates the opportunity to demonstrate these skills through the assessment. Further, because constructs often measured by GBAs are not perceived as job-related from a candidate perspective (Pulakos, 2005), organizations may also consider providing additional background information about the assessment and why it is used in the selection battery. By proactively considering the applicant perspective, organizations can feel more confident in staying ahead of the game and pursuing the use of cutting edge assessments such as GBAs.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: The use of game-based assessments (GBAs) is growing in selection contexts, yet test-takers have varying reactions to such assessments, which have important implications for applicant behavior. This paper reviews the literature on applicant reactions and explores classic assessment models in the context of GBAs, identifying best practice recommendations and pitfalls for enhancing the candidate experience.\nDesign/methodology/approach: A sample of 374 participants from MTurk completed cognitive GBAs and questionnaires regarding test-taker reactions (job-relatedness, perceived opportunity to perform, provision of selection information, face validity, task engagement, task motivation and willingness to refer others to the company), technology self-efficacy, and game/technology experience.\nFindings: Fairness mediated the relationship between procedural justice rules and willingness to recommend the company to others. Technology self-efficacy was significantly related to fairness perceptions and procedural justice perceptions. Males had significantly higher procedural justice perceptions of GBAs than females.\nResearch limitations/implications: The study underscores the importance of considering fairness perceptions and individual differences in reactions to GBAs. Future research should study participants within high-stakes hiring situations and examine other individual difference factors such as ethnicity.\nPractical implications: GBAs are a viable assessment method for personnel selection, yet organizations must recognize that individuals are more likely to respond positively to GBAs if they perceive such assessments as fair and job-related, and perceive themselves as capable of performing well on the assessment.\nOriginality/value: This study tests a classic model of procedural fairness in a novel and timely assessment context.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Reflections on 50 years of Education+Training	[ "Education", "Workplace learning", "Skills", "Careers" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n__NO_TITLE__: Fifty years ago, I was still at school, a somewhat academic institution where the emphasis was on getting your \"O\" and \"A\" levels, which must have counted for something, despite the fact that only a very few of my peers went on to university. Careers advice was pretty much non-existent and the only options for a female, if you did not go to university, were to do a secretarial course, go into nursing or even the armed forces. After all, it was only going to be a few years before one got married and settled down to have a family in much the same way as my parents' generation had. As for issues such as \"work experience\" and \"employability\", they did not really exist; as I recall it, my secretarial course provided me with the shorthand and typing skills (although it was not put quite like that) which equipped me for any secretarial job I might apply for. It was then up to my future employer to train me in such things as how to write a memo in house style, answer the telephone in a businesslike manner and provide any additional training required to be competent in the workplace. Any further training needed in aspects of the particular business was provided but generally the view was to \"just get on with it\" and pick things up as you go along. My actual education was not really taken into account, but perhaps that was a given. The emphasis in the workplace was to be able to \"do\". Looking back, there were plenty of jobs available but expectations were not high and in general competitiveness was not a major issue.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: - This paper aims to offer a personal view of the changes that have occurred regarding the transition from education into the world of work during the past 50 years.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - The approach taken is that of contrasting how this transition was made in the 1950s to how things happen now in a much more competitive world.\nFindings: - The transition from any level of education into the world of work is becoming increasingly important in a competitive world and needs to be taken much more seriously.\nOriginality/value: - This paper is one of a series commissioned by the journal on its 50th anniversary. Its originality stems from the personal view of the author.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Indian consumers' purchase behavior toward US versus local brands	[ "India", "Consumer behaviour", "Clothing", "Brand awareness", "Country of origin" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n__NO_TITLE__: Consumers in emerging countries such as India, China, and Russia (Deloitte, 2005) are increasingly presented with brands imported from western or developed countries. In this competitive environment, retailers must understand how and why consumers in emerging countries make their choice between foreign brands and local brands. Consumers' choices about specific brands should be seen as more than a series of single and independent decisions; these choices involve relationships among person, product, and brand (Hogg and Michell, 1996).\nThe Indian consumer market: India is expected to become a major global economic power in the near future (Yahoo, 2005). A recent increase in the number of middle class families with higher household income has led to a rise in disposable income (Business India Intelligence, 2005). The rapidly expanding middle class consumers of India, with their increasing purchasing power, constitute the primary market for branded foreign goods (Bharadwaj et al., 2005). The increase in consumer spending is evidenced by the current growth of the Indian retail industry, in addition to the expected growth to a $500 billion industry by the year 2010 (Field, 2005). India's $3.5 billion clothing market represents the second-largest industry for India and it presents opportunities for both domestic and foreign retailers (Fernandes et al., 2000). Though the economy holds a lot of promise, India is the second largest untapped retail market behind China (Field, 2005).In India, foreign brands were considered expensive and available only to the rich and the upper income consumers because of government policies that limited the entry of foreign goods in India (Batra et al., 2000). In the past few years, the Indian Government has opened its domestic market to international companies. As a result, western clothes are becoming increasingly popular in India, creating intense competitions between local products and foreign products (Field, 2005). Western clothes were adopted first by Indian men and later by Indian women as more women are joining the workforce (Wilkinson-Weber, 2005). In spite of the popularity of western clothing among Indians, there is no empirical research on understanding consumer perceptions toward foreign clothing brands and more specifically US clothing brands.Many US retail companies and brands are expanding their businesses into India, making their products and brands easily available to the typical Indian consumer. Some of the US clothing brands available in India are Levi's, Calvin Klein, Nike, Dockers, and Wrangler. Indian consumers are purchasing these brands in modern shopping formats such as malls and department stores, similar to those in the USA and Europe. Foreign brands are expected to become more popular in India as western clothes such as jeans, T-shirts and skirts are becoming the norm for college students and working women (The Statesman, 2007).Although retailing in India seems to provide countless opportunities to both foreign and local retailers, it has been the subject of relatively little research. More empirical research should be conducted to determine factors that explain Indian consumers' brand choice between local brands and US brands sold in India.\nHypotheses development: Self-concept, an individual's perception about himself/herself, is a fundamental determinant of all human behavior. Perceptions about self motivate behavior, giving control and direction to the wants and goals of the individual (Malhotra, 1988). A review of the literature reveals that a person's self-concept is reflected in his or her consumption behavior (Lau and Phau, 2007; Solomon and Schopler, 1982). In other words, the products and/or brands that individuals purchase serve as symbols that generate desired responses from other individuals (Belch and Landon, 1977; Cocanougher and Bruce, 1971; Grubb and Stern, 1971; Landon, 1974). These findings suggest that consumers' self-concept can be reflected by their product and brand choice and, at the same time, reinforced through their consumption behavior related to the product and brand (Goldsmith et al., 1999; Lau and Phau, 2007).In India, where higher income disparities and status mobility exist, consumers seek to emulate western practices by purchasing foreign brands (Batra et al., 2000; Kinra, 2006). They may use US clothing brands to enhance their self concept, to project a unique identity, or to exhibit their social standing. Thus, Indian consumers' perception and purchase of specific clothing brands may reflect congruence between their self-concept and consumption behavior such as need for uniqueness (NFU) and interest in clothing. Assessing whether these postulations apply to both US and local clothing brands requires testing of hypotheses.In this paper, Indian consumers' self-concept and consumption behavior are postulated to be linked to brand perceptions, which are postulated to influence purchase intention. Brand perceptions can be viewed as utilitarian (e.g. quality and price) as well as non-utilitarian (e.g. display of status, wealth and prestige) (Batra et al., 2000). Indian consumers' brand perception may be influenced by their self-concept, NFU, and by the level of clothing interest. This study is designed to determine the factors influencing Indian consumers' purchase intention toward a US versus local clothing brand. Purchase intention is explained with several variables: self-concept, consumer's NFU, clothing interest, perceived quality, and emotional value. The relationships among these variables are explained by the hypotheses in the following sections.Self concept-need for uniqueness\nMethods: This study identified factors that are significant in determining the purchase intention of a US clothing brand versus a local clothing brand in India.Brand selection\nResults: The proposed model consisted of one exogenous variable (self-concept) and five endogenous variables (NFU, clothing interest, perceived quality, emotional value, and purchase intention). Structural equation modeling with AMOS graphics version 5.0 was used to analyze the data and parameters were estimated using the maximum likelihood method. Following confirmatory factor analyses (CFA), the structural models were tested for Levi's and the local clothing brand.Measurement model\nDiscussions: This study demonstrates that Indian consumers' self-concept, NFU, clothing interest, and emotional value are direct and indirect antecedents of purchase intention toward local and US clothing brands. The insignificant relationship between self-concept and NFU implies that Indian consumers with high self-concept neither wish to be different from others nor wish to fit in with others. The positive relationship between self-concept and clothing interest suggests that Indian consumers may consider their clothing a way to convey and enhance their self-concept. The positive relationship between NFU and clothing interest suggests that Indian consumers use clothing as a means to express their individuality.The positive relationship that clothing interest had with perceived quality and emotional value for Levi's brand supports previous findings that products from developed countries were positively evaluated in terms of product quality and emotional benefits (Han and Terpstra, 1988; Iyer and Kalita, 1997; Shen et al., 2002). However, this positive relationship did not exist for a local brand. This may be explained by the fact that consumers from developing countries prefer foreign brands over brands from their own country because foreign brands are associated with status symbols and quality while local brands are not (Kinra, 2006; Shen et al., 2002).The negative effect of perceived quality on purchase intention of Levi's can be explained in several ways. First, although consumers may consider foreign brands to have high quality, certain external factors may strongly influence their purchase intention. In Han and Terpstra's (1988) study, patriotism and product serviceability were important determinants for choosing some domestic products such as televisions and automobiles. Second, Indian consumers who perceived Levi's to have superior quality may also have perceived its price to be high due to the price-quality relationship (Gabor and Granger, 1966; McConnell, 1968a). This may have lowered the intention to buy Levi's because quality is less important than price to Indian consumers (Bullis, 1997). This may be particularly true for college students who are typically sensitive to price. Third, due to the greater availability of inexpensive local brands compared to more expensive US brands, the likelihood of Indian consumers' buying US brands may be lower. On the other hand, a positive relationship was found between the emotional value of Levi's brand and purchase intention. This suggests that Indian consumers' perception of US clothing brands as providing superior emotional value is likely to enhance their purchase intention.In case of the local brand, emotional value significantly influenced purchase intention, while perceived quality did not. This supports Sinha's (2003) finding that Indian consumers are more oriented toward emotional value rather than functional value for shopping. The present study clearly demonstrates that emotional value plays a critical role in Indian consumers' intention to purchase US and local clothing brands. The direct positive relationship between clothing interest and purchase intention for both Levi's brand and the local brand suggests that Indian consumers who are interested in clothing will buy US brands and local brands, regardless of how they perceive the brand.\nConclusions and implications: This study identified factors influencing of purchase intention toward a US versus local clothing brand based on self-concept, NFU, clothing interest, brand perception, and purchase intention. In both models (i.e. US and local brands), self-concept and NFU directly influenced clothing interest and indirectly influenced purchase intention. Clothing interest and emotional value were other important variables that directly influenced purchase intention.This study provides valuable implications for both existing Indian clothing retailers and US clothing retailers who plan to enter the Indian market. US retailers entering India could focus on uniqueness and emotional aspects of US clothing brands in order to appeal to Indian consumers, especially those who exhibit higher interest in clothing. Although the direct effect of self-concept on purchase intention was not tested, indirect effects via clothing interest and emotional value were found. It has been reported that self-concept is of central importance to individuals and thus individuals will direct their behavior to maintain and enhance their individual self-concept (Goldsmith et al., 1999; Grubb and Grathwohl, 1967). Therefore, advertising campaigns could impart emotionally-appealing messages stressing the uniqueness of wearing a US clothing brand, while projecting the product's features that satisfy or improve self-concept of these consumers. In India, retailers are in an advantageous market condition in which the emotional aspects (e.g. entertainment and fun) rather than functional aspects (e.g. quality and expected performance) of a brand may be appealing and far-reaching due to the fact that the numerous Indian languages and dialects make it difficult to disseminate cognitive product information (Maxwell, 2001).Indian retailers must note the insignificant relationship between clothing interest and brand perception (i.e. perceived quality and emotional value) of local brands. Positive perceptions of quality and emotional value are important for the long-term success of a brand (Yoo et al., 2000). Therefore, it is recommended that Indian retailers employ aggressive strategies to improve consumer perception of their brands in terms of quality and emotional appeal among those who have higher interest in clothing. One strategy is to hire Indian celebrities to endorse their brands in advertisements in order to form positive consumer attitudes toward the brand (Bhushan, 2004). Other possible strategies to improve Indian consumers' perception toward local brands include strategic alliances, licensing agreements, or joint ventures in order to sell under US brand names associated with higher status and quality (SanFilippo, 2004). Such partnerships may enable local brands' weaknesses to be balanced by US brands' strengths.The use of a student sample may be a limitation to generalizabilty of this study's findings and future research should be conducted with a sample that is more representative of the entire Indian consumer population. This study utilizes only one US brand (Levi's) and determines Indian consumers' purchase behavior based on that brand. Future research should identify several US brands that are available in India and extend this study toward those brands. Further, no single local brand is identified as respondents were asked to pick a local brand that came to their mind. This may lead to a bias as each respondent would have different perceptions about the local brand that they chose. In order to compare US consumers and foreign consumers in their attitudes and perceptions toward global brands, cross cultural studies are recommended. This study used a clothing brand that is usually associated with symbolic and hedonic attributes, which may have resulted in a greater influence of emotional value on purchase intention. Future studies can be extended to other consumer products.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: - The purpose of this paper is to examine the direct and indirect effects of individuals' self-concept, product-oriented variables (i.e. consumer's need for uniqueness (NFU), and clothing interest), and brand-specific variables (i.e. perceived quality and emotional value) on purchase intention toward a US retail brand versus a local brand that are available in the Indian market.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - Data obtained from 405 college students in India were analyzed using structural equation modeling.\nFindings: - This study found that Indian consumers' self-concept and NFU had indirect effects on purchase intention of the US brand and the local brand. Both self-concept and NFU positively influenced clothing interest. Clothing interest positively influenced perceived quality and emotional value for the US brand, but not for the local brand. Emotional value was found to be an important factor influencing purchase intention toward the US brand and the local brand as well. However, perceived quality did not affect Indian consumers' purchase intention of the US and local brand. Implications for both US and Indian retailers are provided.\nOriginality/value: - As India is witnessing multitude of US retailers in its market, this paper aids in the better understanding of the Indian consumers and their perceptions toward US and local clothing brands.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]

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